Working 9 to 5

This, apparently, is a real help-wanted ad. I kid you not. 

Scrapbooks: An American History

From today's The Morning News, a good read by all means.

For Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press), graphic designer Jessica Helfand, who as it happens collects these meticulously bound oddities, has anthologized a broad array of samplings from over 200 scrapbooks, reaching back to the early 19th century and hurtling toward the present. The 400 images in this thoughtfully designed book are selected from private individuals as well as some well-known Americans: Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman, Anne Sexton, Hilda Doolittle, and Carl Van Vechten.

Auditorium

Very, very nice game.

Via kottke.org

Photographs of the President

A great interview Opinion piece from the NY Times (25 January 2009). Errol Morris questions the head photo editors of the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Thomson Reuters about photographs of the 43rd President of the United States. 

Well worth the time.

MST3K Live Performance - Jan. 28, 9pm EST

I kid you not. The MST3K guys will spoof a film before your very computer eyes. Catch it here as they slaughter the 1950 film Overcoming Fear.

I hope Josh isn't working the night shift.

Leave it to Microsoft

The first time I saw this product I just shrugged; now that I hear about it seemingly every 10 minutes I thought I'd investigate a bit more and found this horror:

Egads this one's bad. But, wait; there's more misery to be shared:

Make it stop, please!

Surprise 60th

We threw a surprise 60th birthday event for my mother in Baltimore last night. As of 10:30am, today, most of the dishes are done. Boy, am I tired.

Eric Holder's AG Confirmation Hearing. . .

. . .can be followed by the 'live blogging' of the NY Times. This is an intersting confirmation as Eric Holder served as Assistant Attorney General under President Clinton and was part of the very interesting 11th hour pardon of Marc Rich, the commodities trader. (Ah, the Guliani years.)

Finally, someone realizes $150/ticket isn't right

"The Tommy Tune of basketball"; not bad.

Before and almost after

The Bush years as depicted by a before and almost after image from The Atlantic magazine.

Shorting Stock

Towards the end of last year, through interesting manipulations in stock ownership and purchasing, Volkswagen briefly became the 'richest' company in the world based on its market capitalization. Lots of articles have been written to explain how/why/who but this explanation is quite easy to understand and, while frightening, is worth the read.

Bushims: A List

Ah, there are some things we will miss and here's a list of the 'Top 25 Bushims' as proclaimed by Slate magazine. My personal favorite is 18.

18. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

Tilt-Shift Heaven

I recently found a site that allows me to apply a tilt-shift technique to any of my existing photos. Here's one I took in Hawaii back in 2006. What a great way to waste time. (The tilt-shift site, that is.)

An Interview with the President-Elect

From today's NY Times, the transcript of an interview conducted with the President-Elect concerning his fiscal stimulus package and, towards the end, an interesting conversation about how he's not going to let go of his BlackBerry. 

(You can also listen to the interview, here; please note it's 28 1/2 minutes long.)

The Best (and Most Expensive) Software Ever?

From Fast Company, December 1996, an article on the software that enables NASA's Space Shuttle craft to do, well, pretty much everything.

But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

The entire article, here.

Bread for Josh

This is what you get.

Recipe:

3C flour

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 C water

Place first three ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix until dough is shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 4 hrs in 70° F location. After first rise, punch down and let rest for 20 mins. Preheat oven to 450° F. Oil large bowl (must have a corresponding lid) and allow to heat in oven for 15 mins. Place dough in bowl, cover with lid, and bake for 30 mins. Remove lid and bake an additional 15-20 mins until top is browned. You may add sweet or savory items to the dough as you like.

Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

From this morning's NY Times, an article on dog cloning.

Living Together - Beloved Pets Everlasting?