Diane Arbus photographer

Helen Levitt photographer

Cybertimes Navigator-research links

If you are doing some research, here is a good place to start.

nytimes cybertimes navigator link

"For more than 10 years, the Newsroom Navigator has been used by New York Times reporters and editors as the starting point for their forays onto the Web. Its primary intent is to give the news staff a solid starting point for a wide range of journalistic functions without forcing all of them to spend time wandering around to find a useful set of links of their own. The list is by its nature highly selective and constantly changing. "

18 Tricks to Teach Your Body. Or Not.

Clear your stuffed nose!

Forget Sudafed. An easier, quicker, and cheaper way to relieve sinus pressure is by alternately thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you'll feel your sinuses start to drain."

Let's get small

Tiny is better!
Are you tired of sending long web addresses in email only to have them break apart when delivered?
This neat free solution compresses huge web address into small ones.
Go to http://tinyurl.com/ and follow the instructions.

"Turn this URL:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&mqma
p.x=300&mqmap.y=75&mapdata=%252bKZmeiIh6N%252bI
gpXRP3bylMaN0O4z8OOUkZWYe7NRH6ldDN96YFTIUmSH3Q6
OzE5XVqcuc5zb%252fY5wy1MZwTnT2pu%252bNMjOjsHjvN
lygTRMzqazPStrN%252f1YzA0oWEWLwkHdhVHeG9sG6cMrf
XNJKHY6fML4o6Nb0SeQm75ET9jAjKelrmqBCNta%252bsKC
9n8jslz%252fo188N4g3BvAJYuzx8J8r%252f1fPFWkPYg%
252bT9Su5KoQ9YpNSj%252bmo0h0aEK%252bofj3f6vCP

into this tinyURL:

http://tinyurl.com/6

Which one would you rather cut and paste into your browser? That's the power of TinyURL!"

All the news that's fit to print

Once a year, the news is full of stories of a catastrophe in Bangladesh. The monsoon has temporarily pushed thousands of people out of their homes. This is certainly bad for the flood victims; it is not news. Perhaps one should call it "olds." The real news would be if the monsoon didn't arrive.

So like Sherlock Holmes, look for the dog that didn't bark.

idea from Ralph Wanger

Geek Gorgeous Calendar -Women in Technology

"Why should the ditsy girls have all the fun? Smart is sexy in the Geek Gorgeous 2006 Wall Calendar. The calendar showcases young ladies who are not only beautiful and stylish, but can also fix your computer, normalize your databases, discuss the advantages of polymorphism, and beat you at Doom."
get the calendar

I can't make this stuff up!

Image of the week from my art gallery

link to art gallery

Vintage Mexican Postcard

Jewish postcard

Vintage Eastern European postcard

Capitalism, Crime amd dating?

Online daters sue matchmaking Web sites for fraud
By Martha Graybow

link to reuters news story

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - It's not easy finding love in cyberspace, and now some frustrated online daters say they were victims of fraud by two top Internet matchmaking services and have taken their complaints to court.

Match.com is accused in a federal lawsuit of goading members into renewing their subscriptions through bogus romantic e-mails sent out by company employees. In some instances, the suit contends, people on the Match payroll even went on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy.

'This is a grossly fraudulent practice that Match.com is engaged in,' said H. Scott Leviant, a lawyer, which brought the suit. Match 'promotes the policies of integrity to protect members, and yet they themselves, we allege, are misleading their entire customer base,' he said.

The company said it does not comment on pending litigation. But Match spokeswoman Kristin Kelly said the company 'absolutely does not' employ people to go on dates with subscribers or to send members misleading e-mails professing romantic interest. The company has about 15 million members worldwide and 250 employees, she said.

In a separate suit, Yahoo Inc.'s personals service is accused of posting profiles of fictitious potential dating partners on its Web site to make it look as though many more singles subscribe to the service than actually do.

Yahoo did respond to requests for comment.

The suits, which both seek class-action status, came as growth in the online dating industry has slowed, although Web matchmaking still remains a big business."

Noise has no reason why.

Every day a woman walks her dog through the park. Each day, she enters through the same south entrance and lets the dog loose on a long leash. The dog runs back and forth, frantically exploring and enjoying the world of smells. The woman keeps walking at a measured pace. As she approaches the north exit, she calls the dog, shortens the leash and they leave through the north exit.

Following the motion of the excited dog is hard and pointless, like watching stock prices all day. Finding where the woman enters and exits is easier, like following long term trends.
credit Ralph Wanger

New Sand Key Photo Gallery

Click to go to new beach photos

Lemur Named After John Cleese -minister of silly walks

on Yahoo! News:

Fri Nov 11, 9:42 AM ET

Most people know him as the Minister for Silly Walks on 'Monty Python' or as Q in James Bond films. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs.

Researchers from the University of Zurich have named a newly discovered species of lemur — one of the most primitive and endangered primates in the world — after the British comedian in honor of his work with the animal.

The avahi cleesei, which weights less than two pounds and eats leaves, was discovered in Western Madagascar in 1990 by a team led by anthropologist Urs Thalmann and his colleague Thomas Geissman of Zurich University.

The name is a tribute to Cleese's promotion of the plight of lemurs in the movie 'Fierce Creatures' and documentary 'Operation Lemur with John Cleese,' the university said in a statement. A lemur even appears next to Cleese on his Web site.

The lemur's long legs are the only physical attribute it shares with Cleese, Thalmann told New Scientist magazine. 'Woolly lemurs can't really walk — but they do enjoy silly jumps,' he said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.thejohncleese.com"

Animal preferences

A squirrel is an interesting animal. It's not the strongest or smartest animal in the forest, but it is a very successful animal. There are squirrels in every country because they are adaptable and opportunistic.
...
Tigers are brave and beautiful, but they're nearly extinct. And bulls are strong and powerful, but they wind up as a beef patty between slices of bread. But squirrels are all over the place.
Ralph Wanger

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you.
This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
Mark Twain

Anti-cancer compound in beer | Science Blog

link to article : A compound found only in hops and the main product they are used in - beer - has rapidly gained interest as a micronutrient that might help prevent many types of cancer.

'Xanthohumol is one of the more significant compounds for cancer chemoprevention that we have studied,' said Fred Stevens, a researcher with OSU's Linus Pauling Institute and an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy.

'We can't say that drinking beer will help prevent cancer,' Stevens said. 'Most beer has low levels of this compound, and its absorption in the body is also limited. But if ways can be developed to significantly increase the levels of xanthohumol or use it as a nutritional supplement - that might be different. It clearly has some interesting cancer chemopreventive properties, and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption"

Mom was right - again

Why bundling up may prevent colds:

CBC News
Mothers who advise wrapping up on cold days are supported by medical researchers who have found people with cold toes are more likely to get runny noses.
In the experiment, 90 students were paid to sit with their bare feet in cold water for 20 minutes. Another 90 students kept their feet in an empty bowl.
Eccles's team thinks if less blood goes to the nose, fewer white blood cells are available to fight infection.
According to the researchers, many people are mildly infected during cold season but don't show any symptoms.
When people get chilled and the number of white blood cells in the nose drops, cold viruses have a chance to get stronger and a cold takes hold.

. . . forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Napoleon-
“I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get.”

Edward O. Wilson-
“[E]very major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.”

Rev. Donald Morgan-
“Jesus' last words on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ hardly seem like the words of a man who planned it that way. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure there is something wrong here.”

Bertrand Russell-
“The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts.”

Image of the week from my art gallery

link to art gallery

Ulysses S. Grant horse trading story

Chapter I. Grant, Ulysses S. 1885–86. Personal Memoirs: "There was a Mr. Ralston living within a few miles of the village, who owned a colt which I very much wanted. My father had offered twenty dollars for it, but Ralston wanted twenty-five. I was so anxious to have the colt, that after the owner left, I begged to be allowed to take him at the price demanded. My father yielded, but said twenty dollars was all the horse was worth, and told me to offer that price; if it was not accepted I was to offer twenty-two and a half, and if that would not get him, to give the twenty-five. I at once mounted a horse and went for the colt. When I got to Mr. Ralston’s house, I said to him: “ Papa says I may offer you twenty dollars for the colt, but if you won’t take that, I am to offer twenty-two and a half, and if you won’t take that, to give you twenty-five.” It would not require a Connecticut man to guess the price finally agreed upon. This story is nearly true. "

Benjamin Franklin on being human

"I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion consider'd, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had,
or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter.
All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great
lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it
smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between principle
and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened,
I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I,
"If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I
din'd upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind
to do."

I've got all the money I'll ever need, if I die by four o'clock.

Babyboomer with no savings?
"You really don't need to begin saving for retirement before you reach 60. At that point, simply save 250% of your income each year and you'll be able to retire comfortably at 70. "

The metaphor too far

Robert burns writes," My love is like a red, red rose." Your love may be beautiful, but probably you don't mean that she is short, thorny and lives in a garden. The U.S.A. may be a world power similar in some ways to the Rome Empire in its day. But . . .

-credit idea to R. Wanger

Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

by William Shakespeare

One Perfect Rose

One Perfect Rose

A single flower he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet--
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
"My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose."
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

Dorothy Parker

Jabberwocky - Queen Victoria's Favorite

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll, lives on the border between sense and nonsense.

As Alice put it:
It seems very pretty, but it's rather hard to understand!...Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas--only I don't exactly know what they are!. . .



Jabberwocky
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."

Radio for Pets?

nytimes link
By D. SMITH

'Remember, be kind to your mailman,' said Jane Harris, a disc jockey. Then she softened her voice until it was a little insinuating: 'He only wants to deliver the mail.'

It is a message that many of her listeners need to hear. Ms. Harris is a D.J. on DogCatRadio.com, a new Internet radio station for pets. Now dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots can keep the anxiety, the loneliness, the restlessness at bay while their owners are out. It is radio just for them, live 17 hours a day, 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time, and podcast for the rest of the 24 hours."

Biology: Ultrasonic Songs of Male Mice

Previously it was shown that male mice, when they encounter female mice or their pheromones, emit ultrasonic vocalizations with frequencies ranging over 30–110 kHz. Here, we show that these vocalizations have the characteristics of song, consisting of several different syllable types, whose temporal sequencing includes the utterance of repeated phrases. Individual males produce songs with characteristic syllabic and temporal structure. This study provides a quantitative initial description of male mouse songs, and opens the possibility of studying song production and perception in an established genetic model organism."