Words adapated from a traditional song by Rabbie Burns (1759-96)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine,
And we'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine,
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine,
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne

You may be wondering what this Scottish gibberish means:

Meanings
auld lang syne - times gone by
be - pay for
braes - hills
braid - broad
burn - stream
dine - dinner time
fiere - friend
fit - foot
gowans - daisies
guid-willie waught - goodwill drink
monie - many
morning sun - noon
paidl't - paddled
pint-stowp - pint tankard
pou'd - pulled
twa - two

Source: Hogamany.net

You can see an Auld Lang Syne karaoke here.

Posted at 06:27 PM in Current Affairs, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How funny is this? 

My New Year's resolution was to be less aggressive on the highways;

Now I may have to rethink that... 

Source:
Road Rage flip cards
http://www.roadrage.com/

Posted at 08:46 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Most outrageous statements of 2005

Here are the most outrageous statements Media Matters for America has documented this year. From attacks on women, Muslims, and African-Americans to a call for the assassination of a foreign leader to an open invitation for Al Qaeda to "blow up" San Francisco to a claim that gay marriage would lead to unions between "a man and his donkey," these statements acutely represent the extreme conservative speech we found in the news media in 2005. (We tried to limit the comments to a Top 10 list, but it was simply impossible.)

• Former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett:      "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime      rate would go down." [Salem Radio      Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America,      9/28/05]

• Pat Robertson: "If [Venezuelan      President Hugo Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think      that we really ought to go ahead and do it." [Christian Broadcasting      Network's The 700 Club,      8/22/05]

• Bill O'Reilly to San        Francisco: "[I]f Al      Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about      it. ... You want to blow up the Coit       Tower? Go      ahead." [Westwood One's The      Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 12/8/05]

• Bill O'Reilly, agreeing with caller that illegal immigrants are      "biological weapon[s]":      "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that      more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon      the 11 million illegals who are here." [Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly,      4/15/05]

• Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism was established      so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of      society." [The Rush Limbaugh Show,      8/12/05]

• Rush Limbaugh on the kidnapping of peace activists in Iraq:      "I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this."      [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/29/05]

• Ann Coulter: Bill Clinton "was a very      good rapist"; "I'm getting a little fed up with hearing about,      oh, civilian casualties";      "I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the      rest of the world a warning." [New York Observer, 1/10/05]

• Ann Coulter: "Isn't it great to see      Muslims celebrating something other than the slaughter of Americans?"      [Syndicated column, 2/3/05]

• Radio host Glenn Beck: "[Y]ou know it took me      about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims' families? Took me about a      year." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 9/9/05]

• Tucker Carlson: "Canada is a sweet country. It      is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him      on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's      Canada."      [MSNBC's The Situation with      Tucker Carlson, 12/15/05]

• American Family Association president Tim Wildmon:      Liberals "don't have the kind of family responsibilities most people      have, and certainly not church responsibilities." [American Family      Radio's Today's Issues,      5/11/05]

• David Horowitz on Cindy Sheehan: "It's      very hard to have respect for a woman who exploits the death of her own      son and doesn't respect her own son's life. ... She portrays him as an      idiot." [MSNBC's Connected:      Coast to Coast, 8/16/05]

• Radio host Neal Boortz on the      execution of Stanley      "Tookie" Williams: "[T]here will be riots      in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere. ... The rioting, of course,      will lead to wide scale looting. There are a lot of aspiring rappers and      NBA superstars who could really use a nice flat-screen television right      now." [Boortz.com, 12/12/05]

• Pat Buchanan: "Our guys" in Iraq "have got every right to have      good news put into the media and get to the people of Iraq, even if it's got to be      planted or bought." [MSNBC's Hardball      with Chris Matthews, 12/1/05]

• National Review editor Rich Lowry: Given      EPA-mandated "small-flush" toilets, "[h]ow is it possible      to flush a Quran down the toilet?" [Young America's Foundation      speech, 8/5/05]

• Neal Boortz, suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina housed in      an Atlanta hotel consider prostitution:      "I dare say she could walk out of that hotel and walk 100 yards in      either direction on Fulton        Industrial Boulevard here in Atlanta and have a job.      What's that? Well, no, no, no. ... Well, you know what? [laughing] Now      that you mention it ... [i]f that's the only way she can take care of      herself, it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the taxpayers."      [Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal      Boortz Show, 10/24/05]

• Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson:      Same-sex marriage would lead to "marriage between daddies and little      girls ... between a man and his donkey." [Focus on the Family radio program, 10/6/05]
• Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid:      "Have you noticed that many news organizations, in honor of former      ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have embarked on a quit smoking      campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign advising people to quit      engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle? ... It      appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as smoking."      [Accuracy in Media column, 12/14/05]

Source:
Most outrageous statements of 2005
Media Matters for America
Fri, Dec 23, 2005 3:56pm EST
http://mediamatters.org/items/200512230006

Posted at 07:22 AM in Humor, Media, Philosophy, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here's a novel Real Estate idea: Sell your house like any other product to a willing buyer . . . Have them pay for their purchase, and then cart it away!

click for larger photos

This Glen Head house is about 2 miles from me . . .

Posted at 08:14 AM in Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

via email  (no source)

Posted at 06:31 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tom Toles via Yahoo!

Posted at 07:01 AM in Humor, Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

QUOTE OF THE YEAR:

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

-George W. Bush, 43rd President, United States

Bush on the Constitution
By DOUG THOMPSON
Dec 9, 2005, 07:53
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

Posted at 12:01 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Didn't get any good presents yesterday? Want to know why?

Its this pilot's fault:

Posted at 07:53 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 09:11 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A parody of the War on Christmas nonsense:

"What's this empire coming to?  Now they want us to stop greeting  people with "Io, Saturnalia"! "We have all these different cultures  in Rome", they tell us.  "We shouldn't offend anyone", they tell us. "We should be inclusive."

"We've got the barbarians from the north with their tree decorations and their fire rituals.  And the weirdos from Gaul, cutting mistletoe with a golden sickle.  And the Mithraists, the Zoroastrians, the Isis cults, and, of course, those characters who hang out in the catacombs.  "Hail, Winter!" we're supposed to say.  I ask you, what next: we lose the feast?  We stop the Solstice parties?  No more honoring Ops, goddess of abundance?

"I was buying some candles and greenery down by the Forum the other day, and there's old Macrobius with some Visigoth chick, and she goes, "Gut Jule".  So I go, "Hey!  In this country, we say, "Io, Saturnalia!  Maybe you should go back to where you came from."  Then Macrobius goes, "She can't, she's a slave".

Source:
Have a PC Holiday, Ancient Rome-Style
Diane Roberts
National Public Radio,  Weekend Edition - Sunday, December 18, 2005
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5060356

Posted at 06:04 AM in Humor, Media, Politics, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This is Paul.

Paul needs a ride home.

Paul calls people on his cell phone -- LOUDLY -- to beg for a ride.

Paul tries calling Chris to give him a lift.

Chris won't answer Paul's call.  Paul's brilliant solution: Talk even louder.

We don't blame Chris one single bit ; We wouldn't answer Paul's calls either.

We admit it: We are jealous of Chris . . .

Posted at 09:38 AM in LIRR Commuter From Hell | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How funny is this guy's self described persona:  The hopeful cynic?

Posted at 01:50 PM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There's a vendor in Bryant Park (they are there just for holiday shopping) who makes sculpture out of car and motorcycle parts. My favorite piece of his is the creature from Alien, which is sculpted about  7 foot tall.

It was a small and crowded booth, but I managed to get a few snaps off:

Alien
click for larger photo

Here's the Hand:
click for larger photo

Posted at 10:39 AM in Art & Design, Film | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Here's some snaps I took with the digital camera during my strike mangled commute on 12/20/05 (click to enlarge any of 'em); The morning commute turned out to be better than the evening one -- it took 45 minutes to get into Penn Station last night, but only a 20 minutes to get out in the morning.

The LIRR corridor facing North, towards 34th Street. Normally, it would take you 60 seconds to traverse it. Tuesday Morning: 20 minutes as the crowd inched towards the escalators: 

As we got closer to the escalator, you get a better sense of the mass of people:

Half way up the escalator, looking back down:

Free of the crowd, I make my way thru Bryant Part to 42nd Street. Ahh, there's my building, with the sun glinting off the south face of it. 

Makes the whole commute worthwhile!

Posted at 06:02 AM in NYC | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Tom Toles via Yahoo!

Posted at 10:31 PM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I noted earlier this year that "Bling" had jumped the Shark.

So it really shouldn't have been any big surprise while picking up some groceries and holiday presents in Target that I saw THIS sign:

click for larger photo

Now that "Bling" the word has become a marketing phrase for chain discounters like Target, can we please retire it? 

Posted at 01:28 PM in Shopping | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Here's a WSJ reporter's description of a Bugatti Veyron test drive:

>

" Settling into the tight interior required a few minutes of seat adjusting, mirror fiddling, slow breathing and throat clearing as the awesome power of the machine became apparent. The car's 1,001 horsepower engine made a low but powerful "VVvvvvvvv" sound -- not scary, but enough to announce its presence at a stoplight. A young man parked on the road outside the factory snapped my picture as I eased out from behind the factory gate and onto a public street.

With the official Bugatti test driver in the passenger seat, I swung into traffic. We blew past a tractor trailer that was edging into my lane. One tap of the accelerator and it was in the rear-view mirror. I began to experience a curious feeling of superiority.

When the speedometer hit 112 miles per hour, this reporter declined to go faster. But the professional test driver, when he took the wheel, showed less restraint. A former race-car driver, he took off. My eyes darted back and forth between the speedometer -- climbing higher and higher, like my blood pressure -- and the test driver's vacant expression. There nothing like traveling 170 mph, in the rain, on a one-lane road. Except when your driver slams the brakes to illustrate their stopping force.

Time and space came to a halt. The asphalt on the road ahead looked like it was about to spill into my lap. I unpeeled the back of my head from the seat. The last time I felt something this powerful at my back, there was a woman in a blue-and-gold Lufthansa uniform serving me a drink, and a voice overhead reminding me to turn off all portable electronic devices.

Since the car has a top speed of nearly 253 mph, it's natural to question how responsible most Veyron buyers will be behind the wheel. Surprisingly, for all the time and money invested in this car's development, Bugatti officials say most customers show little interest in driving it at top speed. But after only a half hour with the Veyron, I understand why. I'm worried enough about getting a scratch on this work of art."

The specs of the BV:
The Bugatti Veyron boasts a massive, rear-mounted 16-cylinder engine with 1,001 horsepower -- roughly the equivalent of a couple of Porsche 911s combined -- and a rear spoiler that helps keep the car from spinning out of control at high speeds. It needs just 2.5 seconds to accelerate from zero to 62 miles per hour, and burns rubber so quickly that its makers had to hire France's Michelin SCA to develop a special compound for its tires. Its top speed: 252.9 mph.

The official Bugatti website is here
http://www.bugatti-cars.de/

Along with these fine pics
(click for larger image):

Sources:
Million-Dollar Baby: World's Most Expensive Car
 STEPHEN POWER
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, December 14, 2005; Page D1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113451536827021669.html

The Million-Dollar Test Drive
STEPHEN POWER
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, December 14, 2005; Page D13
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113452660362621958.html

Posted at 03:21 PM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Normally, when a commuter is loud, obnoxious and rude on the train, someone will eventually say something. The exception is when a person is so offensively heinous that the crowd is stunned into dumbfounded silence.

That's what happened with this fowl creature: She was wearing too much make up, too much jewelry -- too much everything!  She yammered on the phone for most of the trip from Roslyn to Jamaica, where she thankfully got off the train to go haunt someother group of people.

We were all stunned by the sheer horror that was her horrendous nonstop voice. Once she got off the train, the spell was broken. Everyone around her broke into conversation about  how awful she was.

What made this such a miserable experience was the combination of her voice -- I only wished it was as mildly irritating as fingernails on a chalkboard -- and the language she spoke. Another passenger who knew her said it was Farsi.

Her voice goes a long way towards explaining the tensions in the Middle East. If I had to listen to this 24/7 I would not only get an automatic weapon, I'd use it constantly. Here's a source of the tensions in the Middle East, transposed to our little neck of the woods:

click for a closer view of what Hell is actually populated with

heaven help the people ont his train . . .

Posted at 09:57 AM in LIRR Commuter From Hell | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bob Lefsetz explains why the Music was better in the 70s:

1. A&M and Island Records

Yes, in the early seventies Steve Ross consolidated Warner, Atlantic and Elektra into one company.

But not every label with hits was owned by a corporate behemoth.

Pound for pound, A&M and Island had the best records.  After all, Island delivered Bob Marley to the masses.  What has that boasting prick who runs J Records ever added to the culture in the last twenty five years?

Chris Blackwell and Jerry Moss were mavericks.  Who believed first and foremost in music.  Can you say the same about Andy Lack?

As for Warner...  Steve Ross was famous for leaving his label heads alone.  Whereas all we hear about today is all the corporate pressure the labels' employees are under, to deliver short term results.

2. Independent Concert Promoters

Things are different when your livelihood directly correlates with your batting average.  It was about RELATIONSHIPS!  Investing in new bands knowing the agent would be loyal in the future.  And delivering a good experience for the customer.  Meanwhile, Michael Rapino is busy managing debt.

3. Radio

Lament Lee Abrams' Superstars format, but in contrast to what we have today, Superstars was a GODSEND!

Then again, compared to what came before, Superstars was the beginning of the end.  As Superstars took hold, we got corporate rock.  And then disco.  And then the whole thing imploded.

But before that.  Before consultants ruled.  When FM radio stations were religion more than profit centers, listeners were devoted and bands were broken.

You trusted the radio the way today's evangelicals trust Jesus.  You tuned into the radio to find out about not only the new music, but the news that applied to you.  The deejay was your friend.  He played what HE wanted to, what HE thought was good.  It was a skilled position.  And, you could reach him and request tracks.  Not only stuff on a tight playlist.

The way it is on Lee Abram's XM today, in fact.  When XM reaches twenty million subscribers maybe the early seventies will return, because it's based on the same principles.  NOT Mel Karmazin's principles.  Not Steve Blatter's principles.  But, the principle of choosing the best man for the job and letting him DO IT!

4. Vinyl

Why bother to make a warm-sounding acoustic record, it's just going to sound like shit when transferred to CD.

Forget the religion.  Of placing the needle in the groove.  If anybody reading thinks CDs sound as good as vinyl, they just haven't heard the latter.  You know the only thing that sounds good on CD?  Hip-hop.  Maybe that's why it dominates the airwaves.

5. Prices

David Krebs told me that Aerosmith's accusation that he stole from them in the seventies was false.  That they didn't remember that ticket prices were under ten dollars thirty years ago.  Sometimes WAY under ten dollars.  Even hit bands weren't canvassing the country and making the kind of money the Stones do today.  Hell, the STONES didn't make that kind of money.  Which may be why they're still touring today.  And there were no ticket fees.  No facility fees.  The price was the price, and you knew it.  And the cost was equivalent to two first run movies.  You didn't have to pick and choose the gigs you wanted to go to as much as just decide to ATTEND!  You didn't only go to see your favorites.  You took chances on new acts in clubs.  Music was a pastime, not an EVENT that only comes once a year, like a birthday.

And you could AFFORD multiple albums...

6. Clubs

Sure, the record companies kept them in business.  But seeing someone with HUNDREDS of people instead of thousands cemented the bond.

And there was a culture of opening acts.  You WANTED to see the new bands.  You still believed they would be good.  You weren't pissed you'd have to sit through some lame act appearing as a favor.

7. Live music

Yup, no tapes.  Not until ELO in the latter seventies.  You revered Yes because they could PLAY!

8. Attitude

Sure, bands still have attitude today.  It's just a different kind of attitude.  It's PRESS attitude.  An image for a magazine, or TV.  Bands back then WEREN'T ON TV, not most of them.  And there was no fawning celebrity press.  You could BELIEVE in the acts.  You can't believe in the acts today.

9.  The Acts

They wanted to be musicians.  Today's acts want to be stars.

Oh, of course there are exceptions.  It's just that these exceptions, who won't play along, don't get major label deals, aren't on the radio, never mind TV.  And this is good for their careers, but in the seventies second level bands got more than a modicum of exposure.

10. The Culture

Video games?  The secret society?  The addiction?  The revenue?  That's the way it used to be in music, until the fat cats mainstreamed the acts, sold them out to mainstream culture.

11. Infrastructure

We were making it up as we went along.  The music more important than anything.  Today, music is a job.  With a fat paycheck you use to purchase the perks.  Used to be you were PRIVILEGED to work in the business.  Today you're privileged to work at Apple Computer.  In the seventies the most desirable gig was one at a record store.  Just go to Tower or Best Buy today.  These are the high school dropouts who can't sell electronics.

12. No Hit Mentality

All that mattered was good.  It wasn't about the single, but the whole body of work.  Some of the best records of all time didn't have a track released as a 45, and were never played on AM radio.  Ever heard "Free Bird" on AM radio?

13. Competition

Today the goal is to sell MORE  COPIES than the next guy.  Back then it was to make better RECORDS!

14. Diversity

Music was presented as a whole.  You could like Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Carole King AND Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers and nobody would bat an eyelash.  After all, wasn't it all MUSIC?

15. No MTV

Overexposure kills acts.  Consider this one of the Ten Commandments.  Break it at your peril.

If things are as good today, how come other than the Dave Matthews Band, no new act can sell out a stadium?  Sure, there are great acts.  But they must be nurtured by people who CARE, about the MUSIC, not the MONEY!  And they must be developed slowly.  Is anybody interested in the trainwreck or police pursuit all over TV the following WEEK, never mind YEAR?  Think about it...

Posted at 09:05 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Posted at 06:56 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sky.com is rather enamored with the breasts of Scarlett Johansson. Their 35 page homage is rather revealing of their "breasticle obsession."

click for more photos

Source:
Who Owns The Cleavage?
Sky Showbiz, 10:04 UK, Monday December 12, 2005
http://www.sky.com/showbiz/article/0,,50001-1205772,00.html

Posted at 06:51 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I have to think about this for a while to see if I agree with the basic premise:

click for larger toon

Tom Toles, via Yahoo!

Posted at 04:29 PM in Finance, Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Pat Oliphant via Yahoo!

Posted at 05:01 PM in Humor, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How whack is this?  via collision detection, we learn of the latest threat from the briny deep -- the fearsome echizen kurage:

"These jellyfish are six feet wide, they weigh up to 450 pounds, they're covered in poison tentacles, and they're totally b0rking the food supply of Asia. For reasons that no scientist can figure out, they have in recent months been massing at levels 100 times larger than normal off the coasts of China Japan and North Korea. They're getting caught in fisherman's nets and ruining their hauls, such that incomes in some fisherman regions are down 80 percent. In a delightfully Godzilla-class move, the three governments are convening a joint "jellyfish summit" this month to figure how to fight this gelatinous menace."

Its only natural enemy is the giant Peanut Butter Squid . . .

Source:
How do you tackle an invasion of giant jellyfish? Try making sushi
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
World News
The Times of London, December 07, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1910322,00.html

Posted at 07:08 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

via Gaping Void

Posted at 07:44 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

lThe Boss is back. The music on Bruce Springsteen's "Devils & Dust" is a stripped-down affair, built mostly around the New Jersey native's gruff voice and acoustic guitar. And though his 13th studio album went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, first-week sales -- 222,000 in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan - couldn't compete with the muscular debut of 2002's "The Rising," which tallied 525,000 copies its first week in U.S. stores.

But "Devils & Dust" is noteworthy for another reason: It marks the first No. 1 launch for a title released on DualDisc, the nascent CD-DVD format the music industry hopes will offer a leg up against illegal downloading. The DualDisc plays like a standard music CD on one side. But the flip side functions as a DVD, with up to 28 minutes of video, as well as a surround-sound mix of the album. The "Devils & Dust" DVD contains footage of Springsteen playing five songs from the disc, and telling anecdotes that would be familiar to anyone who has caught his current solo tour. -- 5/12/05

Posted at 05:07 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How weird is this:

Someone with a razor cut out CNN Business anchor Lou Dobb's head from a LIRR poster ad, and then affixed it to the outside of a commuter railroad car:

I'm in Jamaica, watiing for my connection -- its dark -- and there goes Lou's disembodied head floating down the platform.

Funny, but more than a bit bizarre and a little creepy . . .

Posted at 09:16 AM in Humor, Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NYT:

The [Sundance] festival has become so famous it is practically synonymous with independent film, but until now, the process by which films are selected has remained a mystery within the industry. In a rare discussion of the festival's inner workings, the programmers said they were suffering not only from the sheer volume of images cascading into their heads, but the pressure of discriminating among them. Added to that are the expectations of the media, the public and the independent film industry, a field that has both influenced what mainstream Hollywood makes and in some ways supplanted it.

Here's the NYT graphic that explains the Sundance process:



Click for larger Graphic:

courtesy of NYT

Source:
The Soul of Sundance's Machine
JOHN CLARK
NYT, December 4, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/movies/MoviesFeatures/04clar.html

Posted at 02:54 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Interesting NYT article on the increasing girth of pleasure craft in Europe:

"Are boats tending to get bigger? "The answer is yes," he said. Of course, the builders of what have come to be called giga-yachts - even bigger boats of 400 feet to 500 feet - prefer the Monaco boat show, which just preceded Genoa. Still, the best-known builders below that category were all here.

The high price of oil, which yachts burn as fuel, did not seem to worry anyone. Fulvio Dodich, chief executive of Ferretti Yachts, a unit of the Ferretti Group of Italy, described his customers as "middle-tier millionaires," adding that 17 percent of them had liquid financial assets of more than $100 million. "Fuel consumption is not that important," he said.

But the health of the American market affects how European boat builders fare. Ferretti, Italy's biggest yacht builder, does about 20 percent of its business in the United States.

European yacht builders have made their deepest mark in the American market for sailboats, but they are running to catch up with powerboats as well.

To do so, yacht builders from Italy, France, Germany and elsewhere have increasingly transformed the business into a high-end branch of the luxury goods arena by creating yachts that are to sailing what Ferraris or Porsches are to driving."

click for larger photo

photo courtesy of NYT

<spacer>

Source:
In Europe, Big Boats for 'Middle-Tier Millionaires' and Hang the Fuel Expense
JOHN TAGLIABUE
NYT, October 25, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/worldbusiness/25boats.html

Posted at 07:33 AM in Design, Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

This NASA handout satellite image obtained shows the minimum concentration of Arctic sea ice that occurred in September 2005, when the sea ice extent dropped to 2.05 million sq. miles. Global warming is melting the Arctic ice so fast that a new sea route is opening up between the Atlantic and the Pacific and with it the risk of a territorial dispute between Canada and the United States.(AFP/NASA/File)

via Yahoo!

Posted at 06:58 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Be sure to check out "How to Build a Bat House" at the bottom of the jump:

Interesting Bat Facts

• In general, bats are not dangerous. Like any other mammal, they can carry rabies, although less than 1 percent of all bats are infected with the virus. More people die annually from dog attacks, bee stings, lightning and household accidents than from bat-transmitted rabies.
• Bats do not get caught in people’s hair. Bats that swoop near people are usually after insects such as mosquitoes.
• Bats are primarily insect eaters. A single little brown bat can eat 1200 mosquitoes in an hour.
• Bats are the only major predators of night-flying insects, making them beneficial to man in several ways. They consume many agricultural pests such as cutworm and corn borer moths, potato beetles and grasshoppers.
• There are almost 1,000 different species of bats in the world, but only 8 are found in Connecticut.
• Only 3 species of bats feed on animal blood. These vampire bats prefer to drink cattle blood and are only found in Latin America.
• The smallest bat is the size of a small mouse; the largest, a fruit eater, has a 6-foot wingspan.
• Bats have varied diets: 70 percent eat insects; many tropical species eat fruit or drink flower nectar; some bats even catch frogs and fish.
• Bats are mostly nocturnal and almost always feed "on the wing."

For more information on bats, contact:            

Source:
Connecticut Bats
WILDLIFE IN CONNECTICUT INFORMATIONAL SERIES
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
http://www.dep.state.ct.us/burnatr/wildlife/factshts/bats.htm

Posted at 08:24 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

If money is no object, then  you may want to consider this list of 
the "absolute best gear money can buy for home theater and beyond."

Lots of big ticket items from the absolute cutting edge of AV technology.

As the editors note, "Make no mistake - to get on the list at all is one heck of a feat considering how many products are released each year."

Some of my favorites from the list:

• Mark Levinson No. 40 AV Preamp

• B&W 802D Loudspeakers

• Sony Qualia 004 SXRD Projector

• D-Box Quest Integrated Motion Simulation Seating

• Paradigm Studio 100 v.3 Home Theater Loudspeaker System   

• Meridian G68 Digital Surround Controller   
   

• MartinLogan Montage Loudspeaker

• Meridian 800CD/DVD/DVD-Audio Player

• Gallo Acoustics Due, MPS Speaker System

Other notable mentions:

• Transparent Reference Audio-Video Cables
• Samsung PPM63H3 63 Inch Plasma Monitor

Posted at 06:52 AM in Design, Film, Music, Shopping, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I used to love the short animated spurts of Aeon Flux on MTV -- the anarchist female assasin who died nearly every episode.

There's a terrific comic history of Aeon at this link -- one that is not particularly encouraging for the coming live action Charlize Theron flik;

I still have my fingers crossed that the movie won't suck, but I am less than hopeful . . .

Posted at 06:45 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

O.K., technically, this guy isn't really a commuter from Hell. He's just another Lawyer, doing work on his laptop, minding his own business.

Just because that business happened to be the bankruptcy application for a client -- the names of which, claimants, bankrupt party (In Re: XXXXX), circumstances, all of which I could clearly read on his screen --  doesn't TRULY make him a commuter from hell. 

It just makes him a lawyer from hell . . .

Posted at 06:09 AM in LIRR Commuter From Hell | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack