How to Bathe a Cat

"Everyone knows that cats hate getting wet. But, nonetheless, it's actually a good idea to bathe your cat once in a while. Although cats generally keep themselves clean, they sometimes get especially dirty, or get bombarded by fleas or ticks, in which case they need to be cleaned with a good cat shampoo. Here's how to get your feline fresh and lovely as painlesly as possible."

link to Bathe-a-Cat

Opening line of what book?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Link to Chapter 1

Opening line of what book?

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

link

Opening line of what book?

"When the course of civilisation takes an unexpected turn, when instead of the continuous progress which we have come to expect, we find ourselves threatened by evils associated by us with past ages of barbarism, we blame naturally anything but ourselves."

link

Where in the world: the foothills of the Hindu Kush, northern Afghanistan

I would wait a few years before traveling to this spot. In the meantime,
read A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, a funny, definitely British travel tale.

Customer Review from Amazon:

Good travel narrative should begin with self awareness and, one would hope, a sharp wit on behalf of the writer. That's the entertainment half. It should end in a new appreciation of place and culture for the reader, the edifying part. A Short Walk In the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby delivers on all accounts. Though the "short" walk of the title took place circa 1956 and the book was published in 1958, it has special pertinence for the contemporary reader. The name of the mountain range translates as the "Killer of the Hindus," straddling Afghanistan and Nuristan, the wild vortex where cultures and powers have collided in attempts to bridge east and west for thousands of years. Most recently, of course, the region has figured in the war on terrorism. In fact, I have a much better grasp of the multicultural nature of the land and its political history from Newby's careful notes than from contemporary media.

Zip files and compression

If you have thirty or more files you need to send to someone, it's inconvenient to attach each file to an email. Solution: zip archive.

The idea is to compress 30 files to one file and the attach it to an email. Most zip programs allow you to create a self extracting zip archive. All the recipient does is double click the self extracting zip archive. Presto, the files reappear!

I have been using Zipgenius with good results.

Be sure to send the file to an account like google which allows messages up to 10 megabytes (MB) in size. Some email accounts will bounce large attachments. There are several free zip compression utilities from download.com.

free downloads
zipgenius

Review of LogMeIn free remote access

Do you need to get information from your home PC when you are traveling or working across town? A free basic solution is LogMeIn. I installed it on my portable and home PC. It took 15 minutes. I didn't need to read any manuals or even consult the help files.

Then I went to a local free wifi coffee shop, turned on my laptop and logged into LogMeIn and my home desktop. I could see the screen of my desktop on my portable and operate the home PC as if I was right there. I looked up some information on my home PC. Then sent an email on my home PC. The LogMeIn software has a magnification tool, so you can see and enter text on a small portable screen. You can turn off the LogMeIn software from individual computers, for an extra amount of security

Of course, the company wants you to upgrade to the pay version, which has file transfer, file synch and even local printing of remote documents. The free version is so smooth, hey, I might even do it. But if you need basic remote control service for free, try it.

zdnet review 8 out of 10 rating excellent
free download
Review - O'Reilly Databases

Evolutionary Art from my gallery

link to gallery

You must not fool yourself - Feynman

Cargo Cult Science

In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head to headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas -- he's the controller -- and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect...... But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential ....
.... I'll tell you what they're missing. .... It's ... scientific integrity, a principle....a kind of utter honesty -- a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid -- not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked -- to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.
............................
In summary, the idea is to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgement in one particular direction or another...... contrast it... with advertising. Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest; .... The fact that should be added to that advertising statement is that no oils soak through food, if operated at a certain temperature. If operated at another temperature, they all will -- including Wesson oil. So it's the implication which has been conveyed, not the fact, which is true, and the difference is what we have to deal with.

Basic Truths of Investing, Money and the Other Stuff

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
----Euripides (485 BC - 406 BC)

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
----Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

If you're old enough to have sex, you're old enough save for your retirement.
----Ben Stein (alive)

The first rule of investing is not to lose money, and the second rule is to remember the first rule.
----Warren Buffett (alive)

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless. Knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
----Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.
----Ben Stein(alive)

California House from 747 Parts

Woman builds house from scrap 747 article link:
By Lester Haines

California woman who owns a 55-acre property in Malibu and was looking to build a 'curvilinear/feminine' property from which to enjoy the views, has decided to knock the whole thing up from bits of an old Boeing 747.

That's the bold plan of her architects Syndesis, Inc ...who proposed acquiring an entire Jumbo and using every component of it, 'like the Native American Indians used every part of the buffalo'.

Conversational Ebonics ... In Japanese.

Conversational Ebonics - Becky's T*Blog:

'OFF THE HOOK', a Dictionary of African American Slang.



Just picture a Japanese tourist walking into a black neighborhood clutching this book.

By Elinor Wylie

Wild Peaches

When the world turns completely upside down

You say we'll emigrate to the Eastern Shore

Aboard a river-boat from Baltimore;

We'll live among wild peach trees, miles from town,

You'll wear a coonskin cap, and I a gown

Homespun, dyed butternut's dark gold colour.

Lost, like your lotus-eating ancestor,

We'll swim in milk and honey till we drown.


-------------------------------------------
for the rest of the poem, click here.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Time and Again

TIme and again, however well we know the landscape of love,
and the little church-yard with lamenting names,
and the frightfully silent ravine wherein all the others
end: time and again we go out two together,
under the old trees, lie down again and again
between the flowers, face to face with the sky.


Rainer Maria Rilke

A Statue of Eros

Who carved Love

          and placed him by

this fountain,

          thinking

he could control

          such fire

with water?


Zenodotus

Poem by Elinor Wylie

Pretty Words

Poets make pets of pretty, docile words:
I love smooth words, like gold-enamelled fish
Which circle slowly with a silken swish,
And tender ones, like downy-feathred birds:
Words shy and dappled, deep-eyed deer in herds,
Come to my hand, and playful if I wish,
Or purring softly at a silver dish,
Blue Persian kittens fed on cream and curds.

I love bright words, words up and singing early;
Words that are luminous in the dark, and sing;
Warm lazy words, white cattle under trees;
I love words opalescent, cool, and pearly,
Like midsummer moths, and honied words like bees,
Gilded and sticky, with a little sting.
Elinor Wylie

Paul Eluard

She is standing on my lids
And her hair is in my hair
She has the color of my eye
She has the body of my hand
In my shade she is engulfed
As a stone against the sky . . .

When You are Old

William Butler Yeats



WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

What I like about Asheville

I like the wildflowers by the highways and the fog that you can almost touch. I like the small towns with four churches and a Coca Cola sign and  the kids with green hair writing Holden Caulfield thoughts in their purple journals. And the bumper sticker that says, "My boss is a Jewish carpenter."

Who said it? No googling allowed!

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war . . ."

Starter home?

You never know . . .

Link to: How to Milk a Goat by Hand

Have you ever wanted to milk a goat? Well, it's not as easy as it looks, and it's not the same as milking a cow. But with patience, perseverance, and a willing and lactating participant, you can become the expert goat milker you've always wanted to be!

Tamarlane

In the 14th century, Timur (Tamarlane) and his Mongol-Turkic army swept out of Central Asia. He conquered much of the Middle East, sacked Delhi, humbled the Ottoman Turks and was preparing to invade China when he died suddenly in 1405.

Under his patronage, a large number of artists and craftsmen created excellent art, crafts and architecture.



Infrared satellite view of Samarqand



Samarqand buildings




Book Stand




Calligraphy

Images from the book- Timur and the Princely Vision

Nothing New Under the Sun

About forty years ago, my 9th grade science teacher, Mr. White, taught us about optics and images with arrows and diagrams. The next day he reviewed the same material, only he taught it backwards, completely wrong. No one in the class said anything. Then five minutes before the bell, he told us what he had done. He said, "Don't blindly accept what a teacher says as true."

Recently, I read Fooled By Randomness by N. Taleb. One chapter mentions Carneades, an ancient Greek philosopher and orator. He had come to Rome to plead a case for a political favor for Greece. He gave a brilliant speech to the senate in praise of justice. The Roman audience was spellbound by his eloquence, charisma and energy. The next day he convincingly contradicted everything he had settled the day before. Cato the Elder, a no-nonsense type, had the Senate throw Carneades out of town.

Matchbook Collection on the Web

lileks matchbooks

Postcards : Motels of Florida

Three stars or Four?





LILEKS : Postcards : Motels

Nice Hat - Postcard

Old NYC Postcard

reflections

hyper cube

Satellite Picture of My Place

Google Earth is a new free program that is scary and fun. You type in a location and it zooms in like CIA spy satellite in a Tom Clancy spy movie.

Here is a photo of my apartment on the beach. I added the red arrow. The detail is limited now, but they working to increase the resolution.

link to google earth download