IBM has come out with a fabulous interface for navigating the works of Philip Glass. All his works are organized along a number of dimensions, including date, “joy”, and “intensity”. You slide the mouse along any of these to view the works meeting those criteria, and when you stop the music in question plays for you.
In Laura Bush’s recent on-line chat, reported on the White House website, Lauren, from Porterville, CA wrote in to ask: “Who is your favorite president besides your husband?”
Mrs. Bush replied:
“That’s easy, my father-in-law President George H. W. Bush and of course my favorite First Lady is my mother-in-law Barbara Bush.”
Our 11th grade English teacher, Betsy Hutchinson, was having us doing blogging way back in 1968. Of course, the technology was pen on paper. And we called them “Observations”.
Maybe some day I’ll post some of those old blog entries here. Then again, last time I looked at them they seemed pretty shallow.
a sentence or phrase (as “nothing is good enough for you”) susceptible of more than one interpretation.
From Middle English amphibologie, from Late Latin amphibologia, alteration of Latin amphibolia, from Greek amphibolos.
Also, amphiboly.
In Shizuoka, Sakiko and I saw an amazing natural phenomenon—the “mori-aogaeru”, or forest green treefrog.
These frogs climb up into the trees in late spring and have orgies involving one male and up to half-a-dozen females (look closely at the picture), the results of their labors taking the form of foam-like whitish-yellow egg sacks they leave attached to the tree. When the eggs hatch, the polliwogs fall into the pond below the tree where they commence their lives. Yes, that’s right—it’s very important for the parents to choose a tree not only that is above the water now, but one that will be above water in a month or so when the eggs hatch.
Apparently these frogs live only in Japan. Ko claims to have seen some around his nursery school near Hase Kannon. We asked about other locations near Shizuoka and were told that most were in private gardens. The ones we saw were at Seiganji, a temple near Shizuoka.
of never-ending duration; eternal. From Latin sempiternus, where semper means always, via Late Latin sempiternalis and Middle English
Customer relations email from Bob Myers (rtm at gol dot com):
Date traveled: July 5, 2003
Flight number: 890 From Narita to Los Angeles
I have two comments about this flight.
1. […]
2. I was sleeping blissfully, as it were, when suddenly I was rudely awoken by a large, soft object whapping my side (even though I was not hanging out into the aisle, particularly). Imagine my surprise when I looked up and found the object in question was the rear end of one of your flight attendants—a very large rear end, large enough to literally reach out and thwack me as she maneuvered her bulk down the aisle (you see, she really didn’t fit if she went down the aisle straight, so she was walking sideways).
My question is: I know you employ many shapes and types, and I applaud you for it. But even beyond the question of your flight attendants hitting people with overgrown body parts, I would question this particular woman’s ability to react quickly in an emergency. What are your rules on this topic?
3. Oh, and finally, as a UA stockholder (I really am), congratulations on the visible progress you are making in cutting food costs in economy. It makes it easier for me to make the right decision anyway, which is just to skip the meals.
Here’s an excerpt from what I got back from United two weeks later:
Thank you also for your comments regarding our flight attendants. I apologize for the situation that you report occurred to you. However, we maintain a strong corporate commitment to a simple value to recognize, respect, and support our customers and our employees. Let me quote from our Equal Opportunity Policy:
United Airlines is committed to equality of opportunity. Decisions concerning employment, placement, compensation, advancement, training, and other related conditions of employment are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, handicap, veteran status, or sexual orientation except when a bona fide occupational qualification exists. In the selection and placement of persons in jobs within the company, we seek to select the person best qualified for each job vacancy.
Please be assured that safety is our primary concern, and the fair and equal treatment of our employees and customers is our guiding principle.
You can find my reviews on amazon.com (three of them, 51 helpful votes) here.
Pertaining to T. S. Eliot.
With no writing system, the Incas used “quipu” to record information—a system of knotted braids. Quipus were apparently a kind of accounting system, used, for instance, to keep inventories of the Emperor’s llama herds, and the population of the empire. Some people think that they were also used as a kind of mnemonic device to help people recall epic stories. The quipus were knotted and deciphered by a class of scribes called “quipu-camayo”.
Unfortunately, made of yarn, quipus have all decayed. And many were burnt by the Spaniards. There are only a handful remaining.
Now Gary Urton, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, has developed a new theory which is that quipus used a kind of 7-bit binary system. I can’t wait for his new book to come out!