Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 207 entries, all of them here in full.
November 24, 2011 · 99 words
Where’s Leonardo?
Off crowdsourcing in Milan, of course. Via boingboing, it’s an actual translated to-do list from Leonardo da Vinci. It’s interesting that six of the ten items involving asking other people how to do stuff. Leonardo was interested in inventions, not re-inventions. If someone else had the answer, he went to that person.
Read entry →November 24, 2011 · 285 words
Internal Monologue
The fifth visit from a Comcast tech has failed to solve the problem, though so far as I can tell Internet connectivity did increase somewhat. So the trend, at least, is positive. Meanwhile, here’s an idea of what it’s like to have been in my head the last ten days: Oh look the cable light […]
Read entry →November 22, 2011 · 104 words
A Little Less Vacation Now, Please . . .
Despite at least four visits by Comcast’s highly-trained technicians, the Internet connection remains mostly down. I can get email (over time), and respond to it (over time), but anything more serious than that is pretty much impossible. I’m growing a little bored with my vacation. This afternoon I went to the local li
Read entry →November 20, 2011 · 924 words
A Week Without the Internet
Well, not literally a week. About five days without, and another three with a spotty connection that seems to work fine until I actually try to send some data back and forth, at which point it usually crashes in a fairly comprehensive manner. Comcast has, I’m surprised to report, been quite good re customer support. [&
Read entry →November 15, 2011 · 54 words
The Big Silence
Internet connections very spotty now . . . haven’t been able get online all day. Replaced the cable modem but that wasn’t the problem. I am promised an actual cable guy sometime wednesday. My only option is to use my phone, as I am now. Kindly have patience while I smash furniture in frustration.
Read entry →November 11, 2011 · 303 words
Weed Zapper
As I mentioned in an recent post, European scientists are about to use huge megalasers to create a rip in spacetime. The U.S. Air Force has something a little more modest in mind. They’ve just published a wish list of technologies they’d like to see developed, and one of them is a “Directed Energy Weed […]
Read entry →November 10, 2011 · 323 words
Apocalypse by Aerostar
Okay, I’m kinda speechless now, ever since I found out that the Pakistanis have taken to shuttling its hundred or so nuclear weapons around in ordinary cargo vans, in ordinary Pakistani traffic, without an escort. These are, by the way, “mated” nuclear weapons, containing both the casing and the core, which are suppose
Read entry →November 9, 2011 · 114 words
Over to the Group Mind
Can anyone recommend a good .pdf to .doc and/or .rtf translator? I’ve tried a number of them, and they all load the resulting file with massive amounts of formatting clutter, which make it (among other things) impossible to produce a decent result while working in e-formats. Friend of the blog TJIC managed to fix Hardw
Read entry →November 7, 2011 · 86 words
Didn’t It Rain
Friend of the blog Dave Bishop, in response to my early post about Big Joe Turner, posted a reminiscence about seeing Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing a concert on a rainy railway platform in Manchester, U.K. Another friend of the blog, Patricia Rogers, found online the video of that very concert! Here it is. Maybe we’ll
Read entry →November 7, 2011 · 298 words
Marigolds
The weekend featured Albuquerque’s annual Day of the Dead Parade— though, since it took place several days after the actual Day of the Dead, it was called the Marigold Parade (marigolds, for those of you not into the worship of Mictecacihuatl, are believed to attract spirits). The local community center was full
Read entry →November 5, 2011 · 576 words
Come Naked
The following are alleged to be actual answers found on the official Australian tourist web site. Even if that’s not true, they’re still pretty amusing. Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ). A: We import all plants […]
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