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Lost in translation

An Art Form Lost: from a circa 1960 Honda motorcycle owner's manual: 'At the rise of the hand by policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him by or otherwise disrespect him.' It goes on to say, 'When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet melodiously at first. If he still obstacles your passage, tootel him with vigor and express by word of mouth, warning, Hi! Hi!' And even more importantly, 'Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in roadway. Avoid entanglement of dog with wheel spokes.'

And finally it states, 'Your safety is our main concern. Ride right and be safe. Instructables can be confusable."

Cute Overload! ;)

The Internet grew out of a Defense Department Cold War project DARPA . Now it provides pictures of cute baby animals to those who feel the need to say, "Awwwwwwwwwwwwww."

Cute Overload! ;) site has photos of kittens, pups, pandas, hedgehogs, horses and ducks.

Do you remember Crazy Eddie?

Crazy Eddie was a chain of electronics stores that flourished in the New York area in the 1970's and 1980's. The signature TV ads were New York City manic. In the 1990's the stores closed and the owner was investigated by the S.E.C. for creative accounting.

Insanity quotes:

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.-- Albert Einstein

Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. -- William Shakespeare


quotes link:

Dorothy Parker Quotes

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

The two most beautiful words in the English language are `check enclosed.'


quotes link:

You're putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound

Los Angeles Times:
Merced, once the state's hottest housing market, is headed back to being, well, Merced again.
By David Streitfeld

Where did everyone go? Real estate agent Mark R. Gregory is holding an open house to sell a nearly new three-bedroom on a corner lot, and it's as if the Earth had been emptied.
.........................................
The market shifted in two weeks," said Gregory, the agent. "All of a sudden, nothing." Two doors down from Gregory's open house, which he has been trying to unload since September, a second home is on the market. Three more doors and across the street is another. Around the corner is a fourth. A fifth home directly across the street from Gregory's just sold after the owners slashed the price.
............................................................................
Mortgage broker David Alan Love bought a list of 2,000 people who are late on their mortgage payments by at least 30 days, and he is sending them all a letter. "Home values are coming down," it says. "Call me NOW!!" And they do. A widow whose house is worth $225,000 called. She owes $98,000 on it, is two months behind and has no income other than Social Security. That makes a standard refinance impossible. Love's advice was to sell the house, but she didn't want to do that. He got her a cash loan of $25,000, a direct investment from a private lender. For a while, she has money to pay the mortgage, but of course she's more in debt than ever.
"You're putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound," Love said he told her.

Where in the world?

Can you identify this location?

Combined Pet Leash and Umbrella

Patently Silly :
Combined Pet Leash and Umbrella
patent#: US 6871616

Logical Fallacy of the Day: Anonymous Authorities

From second paragraph of article on CBS news site:

"Hansen is arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming. He's the head of NASA's top institute studying the climate. But this imminent scientist tells correspondent Scott Pelley that the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science."

"Arguably the world's leading researcher" is the offending phrase. Because we have no idea of who is arguing or what their expertise is in climate change, we have no way to evaluate the reliability of the information. The misuse of the word imminent (the correct word is eminent) further discredits the authority of the article.


link to full CBS article

Fallacies link:

Are you common?

Most Common Female First Names in the United States:

1990 Census - Number and Rank

MARY		3,991,060	1
PATRICIA		1,628,911	2
LINDA		1,571,224	3
BARBARA		1,487,729	4
ELIZABETH		1,422,451	5
JENNIFER		1,414,861	6
MARIA		1,256,979	7
SUSAN		1,205,364	8
MARGARET		1,165,894	9
DOROTHY		1,103,652	10

Uncommon?

Female names US 1990 census - rank 3001 through 3010

Name			Rank
ARACELIS			3001
APRYL			3002
ANNETT			3003
ALISHIA			3004
VEOLA			3005
USHA			3006
TOSHIKO			3007
THEOLA			3008
TASHIA			3009
TALITHA			3010

Please back up your data

"Hard drives aren't as hearty as their names might imply. They operate essentially like little record players: Disk platters encased in the drive shell spin around at about 150 miles per hour, while delicate read/write heads run back and forth over the surface, held aloft by a cushion of air. A speck of dust or grain of sand on the surface can break the arm's cushion, causing the head to "crash" into the platter, scratching the surface and ruining the data. Drive motor bearings can also give out over time, turning that happy whir of an operating hard drive into a grinding squeal.

Most hard drives are rated for hundreds of thousands of hours of trouble-free operation, but there are obvious exceptions. Hard drive failures abound and grow more likely the longer the drives are in use. Hard drives in mobile computers and take-along gadgets like music and game players, because of their very portability, have an even greater likelihood of taking a drive-destroying tumble.

Fixing hardware problems is usually beyond the abilities of the average home user – especially after a drive has sustained physical damage. To save what remains of computer data after a real hardware disaster, you may need to turn to professional help.

Fortunately, there are many data recovery services that specialize in salvaging information from damaged hard drives and pride themselves on their ability to rescue data from computers that have been shot at, swamped and otherwise rendered useless.

Companies like Ontrack Data Recovery, DriveSavers and Data Recovery Group can carefully clean, read and reconstruct information from damaged drives' remains, often making them readable again for a fee of as much as $2,000 for an entire drive's worth of data."

Or you can buy an external hard drive with backup software for $100.00.

The Logical Fallacy of the Day

argumentum ad misercordiam (Latin for Mother's guilt trip)

Definition: The reader is told to agree to the proposition because of the pitiful state of the author.

Examples:
1. "You must accept that 1+1=46, after all I'm dying."
2. "I hope you'll like this meal. I've spent the last three months working on it."

Analysis: Identify the proposition and the appeal to pity and argue that the pitiful state of the arguer has nothing to do with the truth of the proposition.

A Lab Puppy and A Dog's Tale

A Lab puppy:



Opening of a short story by Mark Twain:

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself.

Read the rest of the story:
http://classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.252/

Ian's Shoelace Site - more than you need to know

How To Tie Your Shoes

Most people only know the one shoelace knot that they learned as a child, having been taught by either a parent, a sibling, a relative, a teacher or even another child. Many are surprised to learn that there's more than one method, let alone sixteen!

Lake City, Florida

The AAA guide book recommended the historic Desoto Drugstore for lunch. It's a restored old fashioned drugstore with a soda fountain, marble counters and electric mixers. They make milk shakes, banana splits and ice-cream sodas. Also, Lake City is a timber harvesting hub and a manufacturing center for pre-built homes. So if you ever wake up at three in the morning and need an ice-cream soda, a pre-built home, or a large dead tree, now you know where to go.

Actually, Lake City is worth seeing. It's off Route 85, near the Georgia state line.

Do you have a teenager who won't .....

Top Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks: "
The Sonic Alarm will wake pretty well anything up. Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic “fire in the hole” and lob the grenade into the sleeper’s room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm. That’s not all however, what makes this especially great is that to stop the alarm the sleeper has to find you so you can put the pin back in. Price:$16"

Site for Curmudgeons

link to site - isolatr beta

A social worker finally snaps

craigslist:

"After years of idealism, I have finally decided that I am sick and fucking tired of helping the disenfranchised and oppressed. I have a master's degree in social work, and I've worked in a number of different settings. I've been a social worker for Children's Protective Services, a therapist on a psych ward, and I've worked as a case manager for a non-profit that shall remain nameless. I've had a number of clients over the years that I would now like to thank for helping me come to the realization that certain people are beyond help. "

It's not easy being white

Overheard in New York: The Voice of the City:

Girl #1: We need to think of a nationality for me.
Girl #2: Why?
Girl #1: Because at parties people always ask me what I am and I feel so boring saying 'white'.
Girl #2: Say you're Australian.
Girl #1: And Argentinian. I'm gonna be Australian and Argentinian.

--1 train

Making the simple complex

link: "People suffer from 'physics envy.' They want their subject to be treated as profoundly difficult, even when it isn't. Physics genuinely is difficult, so there's a great industry for taking the difficult ideas of physics and making them simpler for people to understand; but, conversely, there's another industry for taking subjects that really have no substance at all and pretending they do -- dressing them up in a language that's incomprehensible for the very sake of incomprehensibility, in order to make them seem profound."

What is Physics Envy?

"The reason that economics has gotten to its current state is because we economists, myself included, suffer from a peculiar psychological disorder known as “physics envy”.
.........
.........
We would love to have three laws that explain 99 percent of economic behavior; instead, we have about 99 laws that explain maybe 3 percent of economic behavior!"

The Trouble with Democracy

Newspaper clipping from 1962

This clipping fell from a book,
a present from my first stock
broker, Chris Tsakos.

Chris loved to fish and read,
but discovered that neither
provided a comfortable living.
He worked on Wall Street and
always had a twinkle in his eye.
When he retired, he planned on
touring the world,
fishing in Siberia, Cancun, and Kona.
Poor health ended his plans.

Anybody have a good title for this photo?

Evolutionary Art from My Gallery

link to art gallery

What's wrong with this picture?

How to Practice Nudity

"Do you cringe at the thought of someone [e.g.- family member, parent, child, close friend] seeing you nude? If so, the chances are that you were brought up in a very restrictive home. Do you want your children to have the same negative, shameful feelings about themselves? It takes a bit of work for the affected parent, but you can get over this and help your children to avoid the same awful feelings of embarrassment."

link to full 'how to' article

Christian nudist colony, Natura, near Tampa Florida

"Nudists, like this biker, are planning to form a Christian nudist colony, Natura, near Tampa, Florida. Founder Bill Martin, a Quaker, says, "Christ was nude when he washed the disciples' feet." Natura will have 500 homes and a hotel. Children of the nudists will attend religious programs and play sports while naked." (Photo: Newsweek, Jan. 26, 2004)

Water dog

"You say that I'm supposed to love this stuff called water."

Nice spot to hang out.

"I wonder why this spot is always empty. It so nice and cool and quiet here. Maybe I'll take a nap, now that the sky has turned gray."

From George Orwell

"I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time - and then shut up."

"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent . . ."

"Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

"One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, '‘Nature Cure'’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England."

"Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is possible that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never had much temptation to be human beings."

"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."

How to catch a man.

Word Cloud T-shirts

A unique way to look at, wear and share the authors you love. Word cloud t-shirts from artists like Shakespeare, Melville and Austen. Or a blog.

buy or browse at snapshirts

What's a word cloud?
Our word clouds display some of the most-frequently-used words from a famous book or author, the more frequently a word is used, the larger it appears. Here is a word cloud from this blog.






You can see some nice examples of word clouds in action at flickr and technorati.

Evolutionary Art from my gallery

link to gallery

Basil is Back

I just got new pictures of Basil in the snow.
Basil is a Great Pyrenees who lives in North Carolina.
Although he still looks like a puppy, he is well over 100lbs.

Big Boy.

Jackson Pollock's Plumber

My cousin mentioned Jackson Pollock in an e-mail. It reminded me of a story.

While I was walking along the beach in Montauk on Long Island, I struck up a conversation with a man named George. He told me that he was a divorced plumber from Brooklyn, taking his yearly beach vacation. He casually mentioned his aunt was the late Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's wife. George didn't remember meeting Jackson Pollock; Pollock had died when George was still a kid.

When his aunt Lee Krasner died, the relatives descended on the Krasner - Pollock studios and took drawings and small works - anything that would fit under a raincoat. After the main heirs found out about it, the culprits received stern letters from lawyers suggesting they returned the art or else.
Almost everything was returned.

Wal-mart Protests

Excerpt from story:
No one is forced to work or to shop at Wal-Mart. The employees of Wal-Mart vote in favor of the company with their feet when they show up for work. The customers of Wal-Mart vote in favor of the company with their wallet when they do their shopping.
Whatever your reason, if you don't like Wal-Mart, then don't shop there and don't work there. And if it makes you feel better, don't live in any town that has a Wal-Mart store. Just don't expect us to do likewise.



Laurence M. Vance full story