The Ithaca Times (Dec 22nd issue), in its Arts & Entertainment section, has a listing of New Year’s Eve events at ‘local hot spots’. In total ten (yes, 10) different venues/events are listed. One of those is in Groton and another is in Cortland, a 25 mile drive from Ithaca. And one event was held last night (at The Haunt). So that narrows the ‘real’ selection to seven (yes, 7).
(more…)

Apologies for the lack of posts here over the past week or so due to a lack of words to say.

When a disaster such as last week’s ferocious tidal wave happens, taking so many lives in a matter of moments, how do you respond? For me it is nearly all-consuming - I feel helpless and that my personal issues are insignificant (which is sometimes a good thing anyway).
(more…)

Have a little fun with Google’s word algorithms! Inspired by Boing Boing’s Adwords (Sponsored Links) results from the search word ‘dead’ I wanted to see what I would come up with. The results were nothing short of miraculous considering you can, apparently, pick up a new set of bowels on ebay - at a discount!

Say you aren’t in the mood for physical improvement and instead have a desire to take a turn for the worse… perhaps then you might be interested in purchasing a disease!

More fun ‘Sponsored Links’ screenshots (and my tasteless humour) follow:
(more…)

Everybody hates fruitcake, right? Especially when it looks like this:

Well, I made a quick and delicious fruitcake the other night, but with tasty, organic ingredients found at GreenStar market. This recipe was modified from the California Fruitcake recipe in the Joy of Cooking, and the result is so good it must be shared! It even looks pretty:

(more…)

When I checked the mail today there was a box marked ‘fragile’ sitting beside the mailbox. I was surprised to see it was from FTD. I had no idea they shipped living plants and flowers in sealed boxes through USPS!

In the past I’ve ordered (and received) from FTD online to send flowers to another city, but they have been delivered from a local florist by car…

Here it is:

That’s the shipping shrapnel on the table, and I assume the long sticks prevented the plant from rolling over in the box. The pot was wrapped in bubble wrap, and the soil is quite damp.

It’s very cute, isn’t it? And I’m sure those lost flowers will grow back soon.

(PS: Thanks M, T & M!)

Here’s a tremendous example of how clearly, and in an engaging way, scientific models could be explained to a non-scientific audience.

From Mathematicians crochet chaos - BBC News:

Mathematicians have made a crochet model of chaos - and are challenging anyone else to repeat the effort. Dr Hinke Osinga and Professor Bernd Krauskopf, of Bristol University’s engineering mathematics department, used 25,511 crochet stitches to represent the Lorenz equations. The equations describe the nature of chaotic systems - such as the weather or a turbulent river.

The academics are offering a bottle of champagne to anyone who cares to follow the pattern published in the journal Mathematics Intelligencer.

The idea for the “Lorenz manifold” model came to the couple during the Christmas break two years ago. Dr Osinga, who learnt to crochet when she was seven, was relaxing by crocheting some hexagonal lace motifs.

Prof Krauskopf asked her: “Why don’t you crochet something useful?”

Eighty-five hours of work and some supporting steel wire later, they had something almost a metre across which looks not unlike a big Christmas decoration - which is what they are using it as.

I’ve tried convincing Matt that he might enjoy learning to crochet (or knit, for that matter), since it’s a mathematical process and relaxing to do. He didn’t buy it. He’s seen me rip out many projects and he knows he couldn’t stand it if he had to do the same.

But this is a worthwhile challenge. Here’s a link to the pattern, if you’re brave enough to even entertain the thought of recreating the Lorenz manifold crochet. I would be interested in doing it if it weren’t a meter wide! What would you do with it in a small apartment? Eventually it would swallow you whole. Perhaps if the pattern could be modified to a foot across I would try it. Any takers?

For those of you using feedreaders and who may have tried adding this blog recently without success, feed functionality has been rejuvenated. Awhile back I thought it wasn’t ‘necessary’ to have feed functionality (even though it’s included and automatic with a Movable Type installation) so I deleted the templates. Now I realize more and more people live by their RSS & XML feeds alone.

For those who have never heard of a feedreader, it is either a light software program or browser-based management system to organize and easily read blogs or websites you are interested in. For example, instead of returning regularly to your bookmarked favorite sites, you could subscribe to several of the sites through a single viewer that displays updated content from all of them at once, without having to actually visiting them. The blogs & sites supply the code files (called RSS, Atom or XML, etc.) that distributes their content to the feedreaders.

Confused yet?

For more info here are two examples of feedreaders: Bloglines (accessed through your internet browser) or Feedreader (software you install).

I registered for Bloglines about a year ago, but haven’t really used it up until now. The more websites you read on a regular basis, the more useful it becomes. One major benefit is you get to bypass all the advertising some sites bombard you with.

- Your recycling box has snow in it
- The first thing you do after waking up is turn on the heat
- Your monthly NYSEG bill has jumped from $80 to $140 in one month
- Your hands are frozen, even though you’re wearing gloves
- Your teeth are cold
- You pour salt on the front steps to avoid slipping & chipping your cold teeth
- Your clothes are cold when you put them on
- You wear a hat to bed

No wonder parents were so freaked out by these guys:

We had an incredible time in NYC on the weekend, and now suffer from stiff muscles to prove it!

Saturday we arrived at 11:30am and checked into our hotel. We were given the choice between room 1D or 5B. After taking a look at both (they just give you the keys), we decided on 1D, decorated by Sheila Lawson. The room was cozy with no special amenities but its art, which consisted of large mounted B&W images, passages from the Bible and various personal to-do lists scribbled in permanent marker on the walls. Fine place.

Floor ‘B’ hallway entrance at the Carlton Arms.
(more…)