Archive for category Uncategorized
Regina Spektor
Posted by Dewey Davis-Thompson in Soapbox Saturday, Thirsty Thursday, Uncategorized, Wild Friday on February 26th, 2009
Wake up DJ because stepping right onto the black and white checkered floor of success comes the anti-folk, anti-alternative antidote to antipathy: Regina Spektor
Born in Russia, Spektor’s playful use of language, music and video is like Lori Anderson with occasional odd sounds and intentional grating feelings but mixed in with a sweet ranging vocal essence that is compared to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple and the lyrical work of Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco and Bjork. But comparisons are better made in one’s own head, so cruise on over to reginaspektor.com and enjoy a few minutes of respite from the crazy world – in the crazy offworld of Regina.
Right away you will become enshrined with her – “they made a statue of us, our noses have begun to rust. They’ll name a city after us, and later say it’s all our fault. Then they’ll give us a talking to!” Rummaging for answers in the pages, Spektor warns we are “living in a den of theives and it’s contageous!”
Wikipedia reports “Spektor learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrof upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine, during the period of Perestroika,
“Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs for fun, for fun”
Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole. Surely “Poor Little Rich Boy” goes along with “Better” but the latter sounds fit for a post-party dance floor and the former fitter for a rap-poetry open mike.
Her features favor the camera as well. Heavily drooping eyelushes, naked of shadow surmount full lips that shape “lovesongs just to break my fall.”
See the spektacle for yourself at ReginaSpektor.com
Posted by Editor in Uncategorized on February 25th, 2009
CRUISES – THE GREATEST WAY TO TRAVEL
By Geri Southern
Unpack once, and your cabin remains with you throughout your trip. As on land, there are many places to eat on board ship from the main dining room to a pizza parlor, relaxed buffets to ice cream stands. Most meals are included in your cruise fare, however some ships now have what they call a la carte restaurants which have a surcharge and may require reservations. On some European ships they charge for room service, but remember how nice it is to have breakfast in your cabin…just let your cabin steward know the night before.
I’ve heard people complain that they may be “bored” on a ship. Come on, join the early birds for a walk around the deck, jog yourself silly in the gym, swim (weather permitting) ‘tho some ships now have indoor pools, and perhaps you’ll be on the ship that has a “Zen area” with soothing music, a pool, hot tubs and a bar plus a water slide and teen disco. There are computer rooms to keep you connected, gambling, movies, cabaret and Vegas style shows, lectures on ports of call, seminars on everything from art to investments, dancing at night, show and tell on napkin folding and crafts, even lessons on what wine to serve with what dish. Yes, you’re allowed to “chill out” and sleep late or relax in the sun.
Sightseeing tours are available at ports of call. Some can be purchased ahead of time, or on board. They vary in length and price by the inclusions in the tour. If you pull right into a port like Cozumel or Nassau, you can go off on your own. Be sure to return before the ship sails. Most cruise ships in Europe have an onboard currency based on the Euro.
Pamper yourself with a visit to the spa, and the ladies should make an appointment with the beauty salon for the night of the Captain’s dinner. There are shopping arcades on board ship, so if you forget something, don’t worry.
In China there are Yangtze River cruises. The Victoria Line is the only American managed cruise line on the Yangtze. They have HBO and CNN in all cabins.
To maintain business most cruise lines are now offering special savings. Regent Seven Seas Cruises are offering up to 2-for-1 savings, free air plus free unlimited shore excursions. Offer expires March 31, 2009. They sail to Europe, the Baltic, Mediterranean, Africa, Alaska, Antarctica, Asia Pacific, Tahiti and the Tropics.
As someone once said, “I like river cruises because we’re never out of sight of land.” AMA Waterway (148 passengers) cruises the Danube, and some of their ships carry bicycles for use in port cities. Avalon Waterways is debuting two ships with all cabins outside. Peter Deilmann has classical music themed cruises, while Tauck Tours introduces the Swiss Jewel, an intimate 59 cabin vessel with 12-24 day European cruises.
Cruise companies are conscious of “going green”, and the new Celebrity Solstice is the first cruise ship to use solar power, taking advantage of the latest technology to produce environment friendly ships.
The fastest growing trend in travel is “cocooning” – family and friends travelling together. If you form a large enough group, there can be an extra discount!
There’s a cruise out there for everyone. Many people are concerned that they may not like cruising, so they take the shortest one available, usually 3 days. On their return they admit it was over too soon, and book a longer cruise the next time. Bon Voyage!
TRIP TO MARS…WHY NOT? by Mary Allan Mill
Posted by Editor in Uncategorized on February 20th, 2009
Charlie, my son, drew my attention to the website www.marsnext.com. Yes, I’m a sci-fi fan from ‘way back – Saturday children’s matinee at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. My father loved Westerns. I’d sleep through Tex Ritter or whomever, and wake up for Buck Rogers.
My son’s father (an aeronautical and electrical engineer for former WW2 Flying Tiger) was brought to St. Louis by McDonnell Douglas to work on the Apollo and Gemini space projects. In an atmosphere of science fact and not fiction, I learned so much and could tell no one.
When British Airways’ Concorde came out, I hopped aboard headed for London. I sat staring out small windows into a black world, watching the Mach-O-Meter go from 1 to 2 to 3. Now, the Concorde’s gone and my only recourse is Sir Richard Bronson (Virgin Atlantic) who is working on outer space flights for the future. However, the Mar’s website is keeping me going. It offers 1, 2 or 3 bedroom condos along with “Virtual Deeds” for units…the ultimate gift for someone. There’s also a bi-monthly newsletter for “citizens” (need to have a condo deed to participate).
What’s life like on Mars? One featured story told of the Parks Department’s deep concern about “a rash of boating accidents” in the Canal Basins. Seems citizens with the new model 252 aquapods are exceeding safe speed limits following a visit to Kronton’s Night Club after hours, and crashing. Life’s tough all over…
Did You Really Not Know DNS Problems Are Bad?
Posted by Editor in Uncategorized on August 9th, 2008
Up until Matasano mistakenly let the cat out of the bag about the DNS forgery attack that Dan Kaminsky found, lots of experts were downplaying the problem as old and known. Once the details were released, those same folks agreed, that yes, the problem Kaminsky found was that bad. Since Kaminsky gave his presentation about the DNS vulnerability (along with two blog posts explaining Why So Serious and a Summary), a lot of noise is being made about the impacts.
Can I take a moment to say, “well, duh!” Alright, got that out of my system. The short story is just about everything relies on DNS. Web surfing, e-mail, anti-spam, SSL, content delivery, and so on. It’s not just that those services rely on DNS, those services can be made party to the attack. Kaminsky has no less than 17 detailed slides on why attacking DNS is fruitful. Kaminsky then dives into why SSL is not a silver bullet. Every network device, connected to the Internet or not, relies on DNS for name resolution.
DNS is more than simple name resolution. Just look at everything else DNS stores. The IETF DNS extensions working group has been adding new resources records such as storing the location of services in the SRV resource record (RFC 2782), the distribution of phone numbers and services (ENUM) in the NAPTR resource record (RFC 3403), or digital certificates and certificate revocation lists in the CERT resource record (RFC 4398). DNS is a distributed data base. Address records are just one type of record.
Kaminsky’s slide deck is great stuff. I bet the presentation was useful (now wish I had gone to Vegas), but his slides give enough detail to pick up the points. For more details and a more accessible explanation, check out Steve Friedl’s “An Illustrated Guide to the Kaminsky DNS Vulnerability.”
Eugenics Connection
Posted by Dewey Davis-Thompson in Uncategorized on June 27th, 2008
|
Population Control: The Eugenics Connection, a documentary from Old-Thinker News asks the following questions. Has eugenics faded away with time, or has the pseudo science morphed and cloaked itself under new auspices? Were some of the original founders of population control efforts themselves eugenicists? How and when did eugenicists shift from Galton era ideals to Malthusian population control?
Watch part one here, and catch the link to see all three parts of this conspiracy video.
