Today a worker in Wal-Mart was killed in a shopping stampede. About 2,000 shoppers, consumed with the spirit of giving, were pressing the doors of the still locked (not yet open for business) Wal-Mart when the doors broke off their hinges from the forces and the holiday mob stampeded into the store, trampling a worker in the New York store to death.
Hive Logic and Smart Mobs sound sickeningly senseless about now.
Where will it all go? This is astounding. Google Street View is within 5 blocks of where I live! In other words, you can walk down the street, looking all around, within 5 blocks of home! I am actually disappointed you can't walk by the house! But, all in good time I'm sure.
Not too many blocks from the house is The Kettle, where I enjoy their banana nut pancakes for breakfast. You can check it out at this link or in the first interactive frame below. If you rotate the frame to the west, you can see down Manhattan Beach Boulevard toward the Pacific Ocean. The Google camera car drove down to the ocean before it turned north. You can get a good view of the Manhattan Beach pier, in the bottom frame, just before the camera car turned.
Go ahead. Click on each of the images below, and take a drive! Use the ring around the circle to rotate the map in the direction you want to go. You can click and drag the map in the direction you want to see, even up and down. Then click on one of the arrows that appears on the line (the line only appears over the image when your mouse is over the picture) in the direction you want to travel to start driving! Each click on an arrow on the line moves you further down the street in that direction. You can also zoom in and out by clicking on the magnification tools under the large ring in the top left or by double clicking an area of the image without an overlay.
If you click on the "View Larger Map" link, you get a new window with a larger interactive street view picture at the top and Google Earth Maps at the bottom showing you where you are standing on the map at the bottom of the new window. Don't forget to enable Satellite view to get a bird's eye view of what you are seeing in the street view above it. You can also interact with the Google Earth Map by dragging yourself to a new location, which updates the street view above. As you drag yourself, the streets down which the camera car traveled are outlined in blue. You can only go down those streets. Conversely, as you travel around in the street view frame in the top part of that window, you can see yourself moving down the street on the map in the bottom part of that window. Amazing!
And, finally, below is a view of The Strand, a nice sidewalk along the Pacific, down which I try to walk as often as possible (to the right in the interactive street view below). The bike path, down which I try to ride as much as possible, is on the left side. (You can see a couple of bicyclists riding on it in the larger view.) The ocean is to the far left, in the distance, as we are more or less facing north. If you rotate the image to the west, you will be standing in the middle of the street facing the ocean, right at the entrance of the Manhattan Beach Pier.
Click on "View Larger Map" and go for a ride! Totally Coogle!
For a short, easy-to-follow (no pun intended) video demonstration by Google of how this all works, watch the YouTube video below.
Here's a great "How To" for you non-linear editors out there. From time to time I receive this error message when editing video in Final Cut Pro. I have never understood exactly why, or how to solve the issue without doing this unbelievable hideous workaround I wrangled up, until I saw this wonderful explanation from the good people at DVcreators.net! Now I get it!
Setting Up the Problem
Two clips are side by side in the time line. You try to add a transition, such as cross dissolve, between them so one clip fades naturally into the other.
The Error Message
Instead of the transition adding itself in between the two clips, which you believe are certainly long enough to accommodate the transition, you get an error message from FCP that says, "Insufficient content for edit” and scratch your head. You believe you have sufficient footage in both clips to accommodate the transition. But... You don't! The footage you need, that isn't present, would be "hidden" on the timeline in pre- and/or post-roll if it were there! What does that mean?!
The Actual Issue
The problem is this: Either the first clip lacks sufficient footage that can extend beyond what you want the viewers to actually see before the transition starts, and/or, the beginning of the second clip lacks sufficient pre-roll footage to provide source material for the transition as it begins while the previous clip is beginning to fade through the transition. You can click and hold the mouse on each clip to see the bounding box appear indicating how much footage lives at the beginning and end of each clip beyond the actual visual portion of the clip you are directly using (and typically see) in the timeline. One or both of the "hidden" portion of the clip(s) do(es) not extend far enough to match the duration of the transition's length.
The Solution
You can use the slip tool to slide the offending clip(s) in the timeline and thereby add content into the transition area of the timeline. This does not impact the duration either clip is completely visible in the timeline before or after the transition. Or, you can use the ripple tool to push the end of the first clip back in time and/or push the beginning of the second clip forward in the timeline to provide enough "hidden" footage overlap for the transition to work with. Using the ripple tool actually changes the duration of the clip(s) to which it is applied and therefore affects what the duration of the clips the viewer will see in the finished project.
AskMen.com and Yahoo Shine's Great Female Survey conducted a survey of over 75,000 men and women. The survey contains an extensive number of questions divided into these categories:
These are just a few of the interesting results from the men's survey:
There are many, many more survey results (which are also more detailed) at this link. The results of a similar, but apparently smaller survey for women may be found at this link.
The president-elect is obviously out of touch with America! This article is funny while at the same an utterly tragic commentary on the tools Dubyuh uses to frame his complex thinking: words, phrases, sentences. As verbal linguistic tools empower human understanding of complex problems and are the foundation for developing critical thinking and problem solving skills, we now understand why our nation is in the mess in which we find ourselves. The buffoon (King George, not President-elect Obama) can't talk. His inane, mono-syllabic, two or three word verbal splats are indicative of what is going on inside of brain: Nothing!
Thank God we will have a president who can think, consider, reflect, ponder, articulate problems, and design complex strategy to address the problems to achieve a respected outcome.
Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy: Stunning Break with Last Eight YearsIn the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.
According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a president who speaks English as if it were his first language.
"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."
The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing off."
The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.
[Source: Andy Borowitz: Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy]
After reading this article, who could ever trust a government and a justice system that allowed this from corporate America? This is worse than evil beyond belief!
These guys were most gracious!
But had some distant, far removed knowledge of what happened. Reflecting back on this now, 30 years later, I am made somber: the loss of reason, the grave consequences of wicked religious ideology, the sickness of delusional thinking ...
The PBS documentary below is sensitive and informative yet deeply disturbing. Will we learn?
Nov 18, 1977 [sic]
To Whomever Finds this Note,Collect all of the tapes, all the writing, all the history. The story of this movement, this action, must be examined over and over. We did not want this kind of endin'. We wanted to live, to shine, to bring light to a world that is dying for a little bit of love. There's quiet as we leave this world. The sky is gray. People file by us slowly and take the somewhat bitter drink. Many more must drink. A teeny kitten sits next to me watchin'. A dog barks. The birds gather on the telelphone wires. Let all of the story this People's Temple be told. If nobody understands, it matters not. I'm ready to die now. Darkness settles over Jonestown on its last day on earth.
And, from Charles A. Krause's article in today's Washington Post: (Charles was one of the journalists who survived the Nov. 18, 1978 trip to Jonestown with Congressman Ryan)
Many Jonestown survivors and their families believe that the lessons of Jonestown are to remember and guard against demagogues who use religion as a cover for fraud, deception and imposing their own sometimes dangerous social and political beliefs on their naive and unsuspecting followers.
... It was that theme that dominated Tuesday's memorial service at the mass grave in Oakland. In an emotional and highly charged address, the Rev. Amos Brown, bishop at San Francisco's Third Baptist Church and president of the San Francisco NAACP, warned the mourners to beware of religious leaders who claim to have all the answers and insinuate themselves into politics, as Jones did so effectively in San Francisco.
"Good religion elevates folk, it teaches people to think for themselves. Good religion isn't authoritarian. Good religion isn't bigoted," he said. "Open up your eyes, America. America isn't a theocracy, it's a democracy. . . . And that is the lesson we must learn from Jonestown."
This little iPhone application, Ocarina, is incredibly clever! The creator turns the iPhone into a wind instrument. You blow into the mic while fingering the phone to create hauntingly beautiful tone. But, it gets even better than that. You can even listen to other people playing their Ocarina, the name of his iPhone-based instrument, around the world! The notes just gently float off of the earth in real time as they are played.
The website for Smule, the creators of Ocarina, is at this link.
This just blows me away. Enjoy this little ensemble below.
Watch the video, and then check out the next video of Matt talking about how they did this.
Brilliant! Joyous!!
In the video below, Matt talks about the project.
The lyrics, which are adapted from a Rabindranath Tagore poem, are also very significant in understanding the full scope of Harding's vision. The poet describes an epiphany in which he sees all of existence, from the natural world around him to the entire history of humanity, dancing with the same blood - the same stream of life. Thus in Harding's video we are all tied by this unseen energy, personified in dance, and illuminated by the joy that surrounds us as we watch. In many ways Facebook, YouTube and the rest of the Internet have improved our access to the stream, but it is up to us to follow Harding and continue to make art that ties humanity together.
[From Obtusity: The Life-Throb of Ages: Garry Schyman "Praan"]
I love this quotation. Our greedy capitalist extremists need to be reminded of the greater good!
“Businesses exist to serve the general welfare. Profit is the means, not the end. It is the reward a business receives for serving the general welfare. When a business fails to serve the general welfare, it forfeits its right to exist.” - Adam Smith
[Source: Capitalism . . . Again | IAmJoshBrown]
Living here in California, every day brings more news related to the passage of Proposition 8, which took away the right of same sex couples to marry in this state, ending marriage equality. Seeing this unfold over the past several weeks has been fascinating. I've come to a few conclusions.
I'm certain this issue will not go quietly into the night. People on both sides have very emotionally held beliefs. Civil rights has become a centerpiece in our national conscience as a result of the election of an amazing black man to the highest office in the land. I suspect the majority can not long persecute any minority. Time will tell.
I lived in North Carolina for a few years in the early 80's. As part of the "deep South," racism was still rather alive and well back then. It probably still is in some areas. In fact, I think most would agree that the late Senator Jessie Helms was indeed about as racist a politician from North Carolina as one would find. He was fanatically conservative, wanting to hang on to the Old South with its tobacco fields, a place that loved god, guns, and guts: all of which, in that narrow way of thinking, favored the white male. All of which have, until this election, favored the Republican Party.
Well, even North Carolina voted to get rid of Senator Dole, Jessie's replacement, for a Democrat and to hire as president, a black man, Obama!
As one friend recently said, "If we could only harness the power from Jessie Helms turning over and over in his grave as a renewable energy source..."
The results are in: America can't stand George. He now has the lowest ratings in the history of our nation!
Why am I not surprised?!
But who are the 2 people in the nation that think George is wonderful?!
of the president-elect at this link.
I see hope for the future! I am elated that we now have President-elect Obama! I just wish Bush would walk off the job now. But this time is needed as our future president prepares to tackle horrendous problems, the worst problems our nation has ever faced in my life time, problems that were needlessly caused by the incompetence of the failed Bush administration.
As a parting gift the the wretched legacy of this arrogant buffoon, I have begun drafting a post detailing the horror that is his despicable legacy damaging our nation beyond compare. I will post this near the end of his "reign" as I'm confident the Republican Revisionist History Machine will slowly work itself up to a feverish pitch when he leaves office and people's memory and attention begins to fade and forgive the unforgivable.
In the meantime, I'm still dancing!
Well, I'm glad the election will be over tomorrow–I hope! I am so tired of this mess. I just hope Americans send a clear message to Washington by firing those engaged in the rabid corruption and those who have made a career out of lying, and mangling the soul of this country, of blending church into state, of selling out the middle class American. I hope the Democrats win by a landslide.
I hope the Republicans don't fix ballots, loose ballots, and play the evil games their little minions play. Just let America speak.
It's time for a HUGE change!
It's a shame news has become noise, but the Republican Noise Machine by makes a really compelling case for just this fact. However, this election cycle, the noise, thank god, was dampened by Media Matters.
Ripping a page from an old Republican Party playbook, Media Matters has given the Democrats a weapon they have not had in previous campaigns: a rapid-fire, technologically sophisticated means to call out what it considers “conservative misinformation” on air or in print, then feed it to a Rolodex of reporters, cable channels and bloggers hungry for grist.
Producers for both “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central take calls from the organization. James Carville, the Democratic strategist and CNN commentator, has read from its items on the air, not least, he says, because they “just irritate the right to no end.”
“It was always kind of a dream, that we needed something like that,” Mr. Carville said. “I wouldn’t say they’ve become as effective as the entire conservative media backlash thing, but they’re probably more effective than any single entity.”
Yes, this is the kind of mean, hateful, narrow mindedness I am voting against on Tuesday, the kind of singular, know-it-all arrogance that has all but flushed my nation down the toilet.
What was she thinking?! Oh, I forgot, the narrow minded don't!
I'm sitting on The Strand by the Pacific. We had a significant rain during the night and early this morning. The weather has cooled nicely, and the Ocean is all roiled up. Many of the waves by the pier crash sending spray up on to the pier itself. And then a guy is sitting near me playing some great jazz and classical guitar on a nylon stringed guitar. He's amazingly good! It's really nice out today!
Joe the Plumber is just a pipe dream. His name isn't Joe. He isn't a plumber. He doesn't make enough money to purchase a business. He owes the federal government a significant amount in back taxes. I suspect the whole thing is a fraud propagated by the Republican party.
I usually see pictures like this one with people who are framed holding the sun or the moon with their fingers or similar interesting photographic framing. But this collection goes beyond that.
I have been overcome by the Republican Party out-and-out lying in their campaign ads this year: not semi-truths, not half-truths, all out lies. I wish that any candidate, any party, any organization that slanders another with completely false statements (as in 180º the opposite of the widely accepted truth) would be sued for slander. But that's not what this post is about.
At any rate, this post is really about the truth, by comic strip satirist Garry Trudeau, and was published on October 12th:
Hey, folks! Have you been wondering why Republicans have suddenly stopped talking about "Family Values"?
Could it be because a divorced John McCain Chose as his running mate a stay-at-work mom who hid her last, unplanned pregnancy...
And who has a pregnant, unwed teenager with a self-described "******* redneck" of a boyfriend who "Doesn't want kids"...
And an ex-brother-in-law who tasered her nephew, and a husband who loves his country so much he joined a secessionist party?
All of which leaves the GOP clinging to one remaining family value–the shotgun wedding! All previous values are null and void because "Life happens!"
Next up– a rebuttal from my gay, Republican ex-husband!
---Hey! My private life is off-limits!
Last night was Halloween. I've commented before about the large number of children in the neighborhood. Well last night was a classic example: certainly over a hundred children came to the door and confiscated 5 large bags of halloween candy.
Why is this a blast from the past? Not since I was a child trekking the streets for Halloween have I seen so many children out on Halloween night! But, Halloween isn't what it was when I was a child. After leaving the front door, the kids were on the cell phones reporting where all the "good candy" was to be found!
Blast Two
My grandmother loved her Avon products. She used an off white Avon cold cream ever night. It had a very distinctive, soft, pleasant smell that I always associated with my grandmother. I purchased and used a cleaning product in the house yesterday that has that exact same smell.
Certainly, smells are very powerful ways to bring back memories. And this smell brought back the delightful memories of one of the most loving people I ever have known!
I believe we need to return government to "of the people, by the people, and for the people"—not a radically new idea, really.
I invite you to explore Larry Lessig's Change Congress initiative.
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