February 29, 2004
Change Ringing
My friend Alex went to a wedding party last night and met a man who told him about his hobby - Change Ringing. It turns out that there are loads of people who love to go to churches with real-bell belltowers, stand in a circle one person to one bell and ring in various patterns.
The patterns are based on centuries old songs, math, and probably some sort of Masonic ritualism or something. Looking at a 'score' for a 6 bell Bristol Surprise Maximus you would see this:
23456 M W H
42356 1
52364 s s
43265 1 4
63254 s s
23456 s 4*
4 = s--s; 4* = --s-.
I'm not going to explain that to you - go look for yourselves. The thing that amazes me is the number of resources for it on the internet. I know, I shouldn't really be surprised but look at how many people are into this! Pretty interesting stuff really. Some of the sites have audio samples and the bell ringing is really beautiful.
February 28, 2004
Mena-Quintero
As jfleck and shaunm have done I thought I should mention this one note. I have never heard of Esperanza Mena Quintero of Panama but I know she represents taxi drivers concerns better than anyone before her. But no one carries the Mena-Quintero name like Federico Mena-Quintero.
February 27, 2004
February 26, 2004
The Flags
Those signs I referred to in the last post... here they are.
You should also visit their homepage.... ahhh Little Rock.
Wake the neighbors
In Little Rock there is some dude who has a huge light sign (I mean something like 50 feet high - 100 feet wide) of an American flag with "We support President Bush" or something like that.
I've been thinking about this a little and come up with my own sign to mount on top of my roof. I don't think the neighbors will mind. I have made a mockup of it to send to the neon people. Enjoy.
February 25, 2004
Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky
Oh man - one of these days I am going to have to buy ol' Super Drooper. Tra la la, la la la la, la la la la la la la!
Run Ralph Run
Run Ralph Run. Its your right to run. It is exactly what this country is supposed to be about. Some of your critics are pissed because they actually agree with you and can't face up to the lack of their own convictions. Some of your other critics are desperate to keep the two party system firmly in place. You aren't going to win. In fact, you probably will do so badly that you won't be on even half the States ballots - but it is your right to run.
Shame on those who spend so much time bitching about someone exercising their right to run.
February 24, 2004
The ASSociation
It seems that working for the good of the people in an Association is perhaps more good for those at the top of said organization. Here is a choice sampling from the highest paid officers at Organizations. For vain purposes I have included a small list of my reactions to each.
| Top Officer | Organization | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Robert R. Glauber | National Association of Securities Dealers | $9,430,647 |
| Raymond D. Fowler | American Psychological Association | $2,218,914 |
| Thomas Wheeler | Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association | $2,147,919 |
| Hilary Rosen | Recording Inustry Association of America | $1,411,871 |
| E. Edward Kavanaugh | Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance Association | $1,411,064 |
| Craig Fuller | National Association of Chain Drug Stores | $1,388,310 |
- OK Securities. We know those dudes get too much money. At least this guy makes loads less than the former chair of the NYSE.
- Psychological Association? its way up there in the list... so why is it that health insurance still barely recognizes mental health? What is this dude doing exactly?
- CTIA - I knew this would be on there... and we still don't have GSM.. its coming though!! hmmm
- Ahhh Hilary.. no wonder she works so hard!
- Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrances?? WTF!?!
- The Chain Drug Store... your prescription will be ready in about... oh three days.. just wait over there
February 23, 2004
February 22, 2004
Colors
The Benneton company puts a great deal of money towards documentary photography. The best known example of this is their magazine Colors. I have been a long-time fan of the magazine and decided to pick up a copy at the bookstore yesterday. The current issue is on Energy.
The photos are top-shelf and the writing follows its usual quirky manner with hard-edged quotes, funny scenarios, and interesting facts.
Here are some choice quotes:
The Hydroelectric Teams of The Military Police are building the Three Gorges Dam for the happiness of the people.After 250,000 workers, 28 million cubic feet of concrete, displacing 1.3 million people, and US$22 billion the Dam will supply only 3.6 percent of China's electrical needs by 2010.
The amount of oil annually leaked from cars and aircraft is three times more than the amount spilled by tankersThey aren't even counting those dirty-ass jet-skis.
In 1971 when we discovered the first barrel of oil we had a party. We hoped it would change everything. Now I'm not dancing for the oil money. Look at Nigeria - before oil they had agriculture, now they don't. An in Gabon with all the oil they have they can't feed themselves.
- Abdoulaye Djonouma, former oil minister of Chad.
The great part of this sad story is that Exxon is making a killing in Chad!
The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States
- Dick Cheney speaking in 1998; at the time he was CEO of Halliburton.
February 21, 2004
New blog (tm)
Its true. For those few of you that have actually followed my blog from domain to domain I am sorry, and thanks for following once again. I liked livejournal for the most part, but I have recently had trouble with the servers not responding. Besides, I am very fond of my new domain name. I am still getting used to Movable Type - it will probably be a while before I am happy with the setup so excuse the changes as they happen.