May 29, 2004
Animal, mineral, vegetable
Last week, she chose a paint colour (‘pastel sage’) based on the name on the can, with results she described as 'horribly awry'. The week before, she lamented that she and her SO had moved a couple of blocks east of the Boston lettuce zone on the Danforth, and entered ‘a lifestyle that was very different from the one to which we were accustomed’. (‘I imagine her neighbours reading this column, grabbing the Frankenstein pitchforks and torches and chasing her snotty St. Lawrence ass right back from whence it came,’ wrote blogger Ryan Bigge.)
This week, the Globe’s inimitable Michelle Osborne tackles the garden:
Being early in the season, there were not many blooms on the plants, and it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between the weeds and the plants.
In fairness, this can be confusing, in that there are often blooms not only on plants, but also on weeds, which, perplexingly, are also plants themselves. Flora: a whole new world.
Now we were faced with a front and backyard filled with plants with names we couldn't even pronounce, and a lawn in need of some serious maintenance.
Um: Michelle, if you don’t know the names of your plants (or weeds, for that matter), how do you know whether or not you could pronounce them?
La luta continua:
Two hours later, I had pulled up dozens of dandelions in the backyard, leaving patches of bare ground in my wake.
So: assuming, say, two dozen uprooted dandelions, that would come to a rate of one every five minutes. A useful tool called a trowel might have sped things up. Or perhaps just a spirited attention to the task at hand.
May 28, 2004
Want some brimstone with that?
The anti-ethical fund. I thought this was a dinner-party joke, but apparently it really exists.
Top Industry Breakdown as of 4/30/04:
29.38% - Gaming
23.43% - Defense
22.50% - Alcohol
14.97% - Tobacco
9.72% - Other
You do have to wonder about 'Other'. Finder's points to ROB Magazine.
Site here.
May 15, 2004
Dark Age Ahead
Various early reviews of Jane Jacobs’ new book: a sympathetic one in The San Francisco Chronicle, and a bitchily dismissive one by Francis Fukuyama in Wired.
I’ve found Fukuyama impossible to take seriously since The End of History. (End of history? Tell Osama.)
Update: More reviews Saturday:
Unfortunately, Toronto relates far too closely with Jacobs' list of five decaying pillars, stabilizing forces designed to bolster our civilization and withstand the forces that constantly threaten to plunge successful cultures into a "downward drift" that can end in a dark age.
Dark Age Coming contains a number of arresting factual parables ... and Jacobs is very good at telling them: no wasted words, no obscure jargon, and a refreshing scorn for the experts.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
A professor at Bard who teaches the history of photography raises a disturbing point on the New York Times op-ed page:
The pictures from Abu Ghraib are trophy shots. The American soldiers included in them look exactly as if they were standing next to a gutted buck or a 10-foot marlin. That incongruity is not the least striking aspect of the pictures. The first shot I saw, of Specialist Charles A. Graner and Pfc. Lynndie R. England flashing thumbs up behind a pile of their naked victims, was so jarring that for a few seconds I took it for a montage. When I registered what I was seeing, I was reminded of something. There was something familiar about that jaunty insouciance, that unabashed triumph at having inflicted misery upon other humans. And then I remembered: the last time I had seen that conjunction of elements was in photographs of lynchings.
In photographs that were taken and often printed as postcards in the American heartland in the first four decades of the 20th century, black men are shown hanging from trees or light fixtures or maybe being burned alive, while below them white people are laughing and pointing for the benefit of the camera. There are some pictures of whites being lynched, too, but these tend not to feature the holiday crowd. Often the spectators at lynchings of African-Americans are so effusive in their mugging that they all seem to be vying for credit. Before seeing such pictures you might expect the faces in them to express some kind of collective rage; instead the mood is giddy, often verging on hysterical, with a distinct sexual undercurrent.
Full article here
May 14, 2004
We need a play
I think the horrible truth is that Paul Martin really doesn’t have a clear idea of why he wanted to be prime minister; he isn’t showing any evidence of it. (Paul Wells recently had fun with a speech in which Martin used the word ‘idea’ 16 times without really coming up with any.)
Shakespeare should have written a tragedy in which the first three and a half acts or so are taken up with a bitter struggle between the cynical old king and the scarcely less old usurper, once an outwardly loyal courtier. Finally, after many struggles, the usurper kills the king, who gives a long dying speech flaying all of the usurper’s character flaws, and the usurper is crowned.
Then it becomes slowly obvious that the usurper was really just in it for the game, and has no idea what it supposed to happen next. He equivocates, can’t make decisions, lets crises pass. Then – oh. I don’t know, the realm is conquered by somebody else, or something.
May 13, 2004
Cyclist killed at Dupont and Dundas West
What seems to have happened is that the cyclist lost control on the steep ramp leading down from the Dundas West access road, went through the stop sign, (or the other way round, which makes less sense to me) and ended up under a truck headed east on Dupont. Jay Martino is talking about early plans for a memorial ride next Wednesday.
2004-05-13
The following News Release has been posted:
Traffic Fatality #17-2004
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/release.php?id=5537
Corporate Communications
416-
On Wednesday May 12th, 2004 at approximately 17:30 hours the victim, a 29 year old male was riding his bicycle on the Dundas St. W. service road northbound towards Dupont St., in the City of Toronto. At this time the victim failed to stop at a stop sign controlling access to Dupont St. from the Dundas St. W. service road. He then started to lose control of his bicycle and came into the path of the second driver in the curb lane. The cyclist then struck the side of the truck and subsequently fell under the rear dual set of wheels and was run over. The cyclist was treated at the scene by Toronto Ambulance paramedics. The victim succumbed to his injuries at the scene. Investigation continuing by Traffic Services. Sgt. W. Tough (7019) P.C. Moed (5126) for: Sgt. W. Tough (7019)
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/release.php?id=5537
This release will expire on: 2004-05-20
May 12, 2004
Ralph Klein tells us what he really thinks:
The following was set off by a debate on public auto insurance, of all things:
It sounds like (former president Salvador) Allende in Chile, you know, when he took over all the coppermines and said the Americans are out, the government now owns all the coppermines, all the minerals, all the resources, all the mining ...
Pinochet came in, Mr. Speaker, and I'm not saying that Pinochet was any better, but because of the only elected communist in Chile, Allende, and the socialist reforms he put in, Pinochet was forced, I would say, to mount a coup.
Hat tip to POGGE.
May 06, 2004
In related news:
Somebody hooked up a Webcam to their Roomba, to see life from its point of view: Movie here
Oh, great. It’s a cult -
from Wired -
Just as owners of robot pets like Sony's Aibo develop emotional attachments to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings for their robot vacuum cleaners.
The two leading robovac manufacturers -- iRobot and Electrolux -- report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat like pets.
More than half the owners of iRobot's Roomba name their device, claims the Burlington, Massachussetts, company. Owners often talk to their machines, and many treat them as though they were alive, or semi-sentient, anyway. Some even take them on holiday, unwilling to leave them at home alone.
... Likewise, Electrolux, which sells the Trilobite robovac in Europe, reports that owners regard their device like a household pet, product manager Jonas Carlsson says. Most name their Trilobite, and the Sweden-based company often receives congratulatory phone calls, letters, poems and pictures from owners, especially children.
When one customer needed repairs for her Trilobite, which she named Matilda, she insisted that her machine, and not a replacement, be returned.
... Another Roomba owner, Linda Rust, said she talks to her device, which she calls Zoomer.
"I do talk to Zoomer," she said. "I talk back to him when he's beeping.”
full article here
May 04, 2004
Anyone tried one of these things?
Robot vacuum cleaner. On the plus side, it’s a good fantasy: you set the thing free, go off to work, and come home to a clean floor. On the minus side, it’s about the size and shape of an anti-tank mine.
On the other minus side, the cat would hate it. Having said that, I can’t keep track of all my cat’s grievances anyway (neither can she, I suspect), so I’m sure one or two more added to the pile won’t make all that much difference. Much as she will try to convince me otherwise.
On still another minus side, the FAQ gives one pause:
Can Roomba's music or sound be changed or disabled?
No, Roomba's music and sound effects cannot be modified or disconnected.
More proof here of the uses of early adopters. Thanks again, early adopters!