Wednesday, August 31, 2005

A sliver of news of the Marigny/Bywater

Metroblogging New Orleans: Flooding Predictions Overblown
In an update from a more general post about flood predictions from just this morning a sliver of news of the Marigny/Bywater area, where most of our New Orleans friends live:

Update: Just heard from a stalwart who rode it out in his Bywater house, on Dauphine St. between Clouet & Louisa. There is NO water on Dauphine right now.
You never can tell with blogs, but there's hope.

Here's a forum specifically for the Marigny/Bywater from nola.com where there is similar post, though it may really be the same poster.

And, since Rod and Greg's car is at the airport:
KENNER (AP) - The New Orleans International Airport has reopened to allow humanitarian flights in and out, officials said Wednesday.

The flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport will take place only during daylight hours. The airport gave no indication of when commercial flights might resume.

Officials said the airport has no significant airfield damage and had
no standing water in aircraft movement areas. The airport sustained damage to its roofs, hangars and fencing, officials said.
hard to say how that relates to parking, but it's something.

Local Volunteering for Red Cross

2theadvocate.com: News
For those in the Baton Rouge area, the Red Cross needs volunteers. Their phone lines are swamped, so just go to the headquarters at 10201 Mayfair Drive. They are running their orientation pretty much constantly. You have to show some id, give them some basic information, and get a brief orientation. The orientation is basically, treat everyone equally, here's a number to call if you get emotionally overwhelmed, take care of yourself (take breaks, eat, etc.) so you can help others, and some stuff about talking to the media. Then they'll send you out to do something. It really helped our personal mental states, and obviously helped others as well.

American Red Cross - Preparing for and Responding to Hurricane Katrina

American Red Cross - Preparing for and Responding to Hurricane Katrina
Since there actually are a few people who read Experiment 33, but are not yet personal friends, I wanted to let you know how things are for us in Baton Rouge in the aftermath of Katrina. As you might have already seen, I posted a couple of mid storm pics. If you follow the links to flickr, you can also find a few post-storm pics. We fared very well. Baton Rouge was on the western side of the storm and that is the weaker side. There are a lot of downed trees and power lines, but we were personally lucky and only lost power for about half a day on Monday.

I am back to work today, though it feels very wrong. Yesterday Janet and I began to volunteer for the Red Cross. I urge any of you who can, to folow the above link and donate whatever you can. The need is indescribable. The following tries to describe what our volunteer experience was like last night:

We reported to the main Red Cross office to get briefed, then headed into the field. It was really nice to find several friends showed up to help at the same time, so we became a team.

The shelters were located in public schools throughout the city, but the schools reopened today, so our first job was to help transport food and equipment from the schools to the River Center (big downtown arena) which was becoming the main shelter. The Red Cross is almost entirely volunteer, and it was really an interesting study of organic leadership (when I have time to
reflect anyway, at the time it was a little chaotic and unnerving). I ended up driving a big moving van full of food, and the rest of the team followed in cars. I was the first of the vans to arrive and noone was expecting me yet (we were supposed to pack the van
at the school, but someone had already taken care of that). We eventually manuvered into the loading dock area only to find that the big truck door was locked and there was no key. Shortly after, other trucks started to arrive, so we unloaded them.

The River Center is being completely generous. With so much food and other items arriving all at once, they just opened up everything to us and we just had to make our own decisions about where to put things. When a group dropped off 6 oxygen tanks, Janet took it upon herself to move them off the dock to a secure area since she's been trained on how to safely move the explosive tanks. She then went and found the medical volunteers to let them know where the tanks were. There were so many people helping, it was amazing to see how smoothly we all worked together.

While we were doing this, thousands of people were coming into the shelter. We worked for several hours unloading, then took a break to rejuvenate ourselves. At that point, I ran into a couple of teenage volunteers who got separated from their original team
and they were sort of stranded at the River Center. I offered to take them back to the main Red Cross building and luckily we found their parents there waiting. Janet was working more on the floor. She helped organize the food lines, and then wound up carrying food out to people who couldn't get in lines themselves.

On my way back to the River Center I confirmed that I did indeed have to come back to work today. I also recognized my exhaustion as I sat down for the first time in while. So when I got back, I found Janet and she was ready to go as well. We'll be back tonight and for many nights to come.

Topographical Map of New Orleans

GR2005083000875.gif (GIF Image, 228x324 pixels)

This will also help somewhat get an idea of what might be going on with the flooding. The neighborhoods we are most personally concerned about are just to the right of the french quarter in green and yellow/green areas, so we'll take that for what it's worth.

Boing Boing: Using Google Earth to process Katrina flood damage data

Boing Boing: Using Google Earth to process Katrina flood damage data

I'll post something more substantive later, but I wanted to put this out before it got pushed off boingboing's frontpage. If you haven't seen Google Earth, it's a really cool free download with zooming arial shots of the earth. It's open source, so people can add to it. So, get Google Earth, then download these flood damage overlays. It works very smoothly. Some overlays are better done than others. Use the places sidebar to turn the overlays on and off to be able to see before and after things. So far, no overlays for the Marigny/Bywater areas where most of our friends live.

Monday, August 29, 2005

One more picture

Just wanted to post one more picture of the tennis courts across the street.

All's well in Baton Rouge at the moment

Banana Tree Winds
Banana Tree Winds,
originally uploaded by Experiment 33.
It's windy, and rainy, but we've got electricity. We're on the safer side of things. I'll try to post again after the worst has passed.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Friday Cocktail - Royal Martini

Bars.com


From a nice new cocktail site, their Hot Cocktail of the Month:

  • 1 oz. Crown Royal
  • 1 oz. cranberry juice
  • ½ oz. peach schnapps
Shake ingredients with ice, strain into a martini glass and garnish with an orchid or lemon twist.

Also check out the Bar Tricks and Jokes sections.

Cheers

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

OneLook Reverse Dictionary
Ever get that tip of the tounge phenomenon when you almost but can't quite remember the word you want. You know the meaning, but you just can't spit out that word. Try OneLook Reverse Dictionary. You can also use it to cheat at crossword puzzles, even telling it letters that you have.

Clublife

Clublife
Interesting, well written, and funny blog about being a bouncer in NYC.

Via Eyebeam reBlog

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster - Open Letter to Kansas School Board

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster - Open Letter to Kansas School Board
In case you haven't yet encountered this meme that has been blowing up all over the internets lately. Here's the original open letter th the Kansas school board in response to their debate about teaching intelligent design along with evolution in the schools. It implores the board to also consider teaching the theory that the world was created by a flying spaghetti monster. Much tongue in cheeky goodness. As I said, this thing has really blown up, with lots of stickers, t-shirts, songs, hollidays etc. Here's a rendering of the FSM in action:

and another

and here's a recent link from boingboing that pulls a lot of the recent offshoots together.

Latrinalia

Latrinalia

The study of bathroom grafiti, with many galleries.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

cradle to cradle c2c home competition winner - sustainable house of the future

cradle to cradle c2c home competition winner - sustainable house of the future
Spinach powered home that generates more electricity than it can use. Also features a living garden with rooftop water filtration, soy-foam wall panels, and ventilation based cooling. Looks good too:

via FutureFeeder

Movie's and Music on the Lawn: films of Georges Melies this Saturday

Georges Melies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melies is well known as an innovator in early film techniques. "He accidentally discovered the stop trick, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films." Saturday night will feature "“A Trip to the Moon", "The Kingdom of the Fairies"”, "“Jupiter'’s Thunderbolts"”, "“The Mermaid" and the "The Magic Lantern", as well as another episode of "The Power God". The film "A Trip to the Moon" was paid tribute by the Smashing Pumkins in their award winning video for "Tonight Tonight", which you can watch here.

As usual, the cost is $5, or free for gallery members, and there is free popcorn. Starts at 8pm, or after dark. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs if you like. Hope to see you there.

ARTCARBR.COM

ARTCARBR.COM
A reminder that Saturday is the deadline to enter. The site says there are currently 31 cars intending to be in the parade. Remember, there's no entry fee, and any artistic wheeled conveyance is welcome (e.g. all you roller derby wannabes could wear costumes and skate). The car/whatever doesn't have to be complete until the day before. The parade rolls on Oct. 1.

Go to the artcarbr.com website and click on "The Parade" for pictures of some of the confirmed cars such as:
R U Game

The Roachster

S.S. Poseidon


And here's a conceptualization of the projectREgeneration car we're working on

The pheonix will be made of a steel rod frame, with stretched canvas. It is meant to symbolize the regeneration of Historic South Baton Rouge, the neighborhood where we've been volunteering. Speaking of, there's plenty of room for help, if any of you want to join.

Tiki Trailer on Ebay

eBay Motors: Teardrop trailer vintage tiki style woody (item 4569992955 end time Aug-26-05 21:24:01 PDT)


Another BoingBoing repost, but I really couldn't pass it up. Boing Boing's really on fire this morning with other posts I considered reposting:

Zoo tortoise gets a fiberglass shell-patch after surgery

and

Alleged subway wanker caught on cameraphone, Flickr

Bender Computer Case

mini-itx.com - projects - bender case

I love futurama, so even though this link comes via Boing Boing. I had to share. There's more pics of the process of building him at the above link and more of the completed project with video of the computer ejecting a cd from the mouth and saying "bite my shiny metal ass" at this link.

Real or Hoax part II

real_or_hoax1.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Looks like the link was lost somehow. This should do the trick.

Here's a bonus test since I had to search to refind the missing link.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Real or Hoax?

10 photos, some real, some photoshopped, all having circulated the web at different times. Quiz yourself. Be forwarned, there is one really disturbing picture of something medical being done to an eye. I couldn't look at it long enough to even see the correct answer.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Patently Absurd Archive

Patently Absurd Archive

A listing of absurd patents that were actually granted, with illustrations and descriptions. Pictured here, the Heat Chic, sunglasses with a built in fan and music player. Lots more, equally amusing inventions await.

Via Eyebeam reBlog

Think Progress >> Bush: Less Popular Than Nixon During Watergate

Think Progress >> Bush: Less Popular Than Nixon During Watergate

an American Research Group poll released today shows that George Bush has dropped to staggering new lows:

George W. Bush’s overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush’s handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.

For a little perspective, recall that Richard Nixon’s approval rating in the summer of 1973 (when the Watergate scandal was in full swing) was 39%.

Via Alfie's Blog

we make money not art: Living in a bubble


I first saw a Zorb in an episode of the Amazing Race, where the racer got into this big inflatable ball and rolled down a hill in New Zealand. Looks like a total blast. Now, we make money not art points us to a viral marketing campaign for Super Monkey Ball Deluxe video game, that shows some really funny video of The adventures of Chad, the guy who was so much into Super Monkey Ball Deluxe that he decided to live in a ball. I love the swim meet.

Also from we make money not art today, a photogallery of human cannonballs. This is also linked to TAR, because I'm currently watching the season with a team of 2 clowns, one of whom is a human cannonball.

Monday, August 22, 2005

2theadvocate.com: News - Group spruces up south BR neighborhood 08/21/05

2theadvocate.com: News - Group spruces up south BR neighborhood 08/21/05
Nice article on the group we're volunteering with.

The Great Queers of History

So I click this link titled: Song Meanings at Songfacts figuring it might make a good follow-up to last weeks song lyrics database. Instead, this page listing "Great Queers of History" which makes a good follow-up to last week's post about the qfilmfest. I have no idea how accurate this site is. As for the filmfest, I think it was great. We volunteered cleaning overgrown lots in Old South Baton Rouge Saturday morning and the heat wiped us out. We made it to the fest just in time for the start of the final film "Adam and Steve". Ran into Jaime who was working his butt off, then headed into the theatre. It was our first time inside the Manship theatre and it's beautiful and intimate. It's also surprisingly small. So small that there were no seats to be had. We found a section in the balcony without seats against the rail and were able to sit on the floor and comfortably see. We asked an usher who said it would be fine and we were not blocking access to the seats. After about 30 hillarious minutes of the film, we were asked to leave by another usher. Apparently this happened to lots of people. So, it looks like the event was a success, even if it didn't go so well for us. We'll definitely rent "Adam and Steve" when it comes out.

Friday, August 19, 2005

FORBIDDEN ZONE The Movie

FORBIDDEN ZONE

Put this in your netflix cue immediately. David dropped this by our place last night because he thought we would like it and he was absolutely correct. We'll probably have to buy it. If the above picture doesn't sell you, maybe this one will:

Yes, that's Herve Villechaize as King Fausto. Truly bizarre fun.

The Friday Cocktail - Back to School Professor Edition

Professor Cocktails
Focusing on Back to School this afternoon. Had lunch at Chelsea's with Janet and ran into the ceramics grad students on a break from pre-semester clean-up day. The link goes to Droogle search for professor. The top two results look pretty good:

Nutty Professor

  • 1/2oz Bailey's
  • 1/2oz Grand Marnier
  • 1/2oz Frangelico
Shake with ice, strain into a shot glass.

Polish Professor (My main heritage is Russian, but on the border)
  • 1 jigger Vodka
  • 4oz Pineapple Juice
  • 7-Up
Fill highball glass, stir.


Cheers

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to see a water balloon pop in space?

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to see a water balloon pop in space?

"Experimenters burst water balloons in the low-gravity environment produced aboard a NASA Glenn DC-9 aircraft." Watch the videos.

Via Future Feeder

Also Via Future Feeder, The complete 3 hour NOVA special on String Theory is available in bite sized chunks from PBS.

Do They Know It's Halloween?


Indie rock satire of Do They Know It's Christmas with proceeds going to UNICEF of course. Featuring Beck, Peaches, The Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Postal Service, David Cross, Elvira and others. Website has full artist list and lyrics. A little early, but I'd probably forget if I left it until the release date in October.

Via Waxy

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Q Film Fest :: The Baton Rouge Gay & Lesbian Film Festival This Saturday

Q Film Fest :: The Baton Rouge Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Noon to 10pm in the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center. And it's free! Film synopses and times are available at the website so you can plan your day accordingly. There's also a closing reception on the 4th floor and an afterparty at Splash.

It was too good to be true

Don't Fear the Reaper, Vote for Him
"no intention of running"

lyrics to Pavement songs

I always sing along to Pavement songs, but I rarely have a clue what I'm saying or why. Not all songs are available, but it looks like a place where people take it upon themselves to figure out the lyrics, then post them for others.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

How to Fold a Shirt - Stopfornothing.com Funny Stuff

How to Fold a Shirt - Stopfornothing.com Funny Stuff

Casey demonstrated this a few months ago, but he didn't tell me where to find it on the web. I've finally stumbled across it and can share it with you. It could revolutionize laundry folding as you know it. The video is much more impressive than that stop animation gif above.

BTW, I'm pretty busy at work right now, and I'm working on Janet's website, my fantasy football leagues, and setting up a new course syllabus in my spare time. So, the blogging might be pretty slow for another week or so.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Walken 2008 - Official Website

Walken 2008 - Official Website

Can't say if this is legit or not at this point. I thought it was obviously a joke, but the site is so earnest and not funny. I've signed up for email updates, so I'll let you know when/if anything becomes clear. What is certain, is that the country has a fever and the only perscription is more cowbell.

Monday, August 15, 2005

gizmag Article: Bionic Dolphin set for production

gizmag Article: Bionic Dolphin set for production

As if that wasn't enough, check out the left column of Top 50 most popular articles in On the Water, featuring:

Universal Hovercrafts

Custom Designed Mermaid Suit

and

Sumo, the world's first wearable towable.

Thanks Jennifer

Friday, August 12, 2005

The Friday Cocktail - Maker's saves the Puppy Edition

As many of you know, I am a Maker's Mark Ambassador. This just means that I went to their website, gave them a little personal info, and in return I have received a few trinkets (glasses and stirs) and occasional email. This week, I got this lovely story sent to me:

Last Wednesday evening I had guests for dinner where a 'fair' amount of Maker's was consumed. I did not take the time to clean up the bar area before retiring for the night. At 7:00am my Golden Retriever decided it was time to deliver her puppies. All went well for the first four puppies. However the next one took 3 hours to be born and wasn't in the best shape after such an ordeal. Needless to say I thought I had lost this pup but was not wiling to let her go without a try. I suctioned her, swung her, but nothing seemed to work. I was just about to call it quits when I saw my bottle of Maker's on the counter. I poured a small amount into the cap, put my finger in it and then on the lips of the pup. She let out a loud puppy squeak and started to breathe. Cheers! My fellow Maker's Mark Ambassadors have named her Maker's!!
and here's a picture

So, even though I've already shared plenty of bourbon based cocktails, I've gotta submit one more.

The Kentucky Lemonaid

  • 1 1/2 shots of Makers
  • 1/2 shot of triple sec
  • 2 oz of sour mix or 4 oz of lemonaid
  • 2 oz 7-up
Shake and pour over crushed ice!

Cheers!

OK Go

OK Go
Check out the choreography, not quite Fatboy Slim, but excellent nonetheless. Catchy tune as well.

Sorta Via Signal Vs. Noise, but not really

MyOpenBar

MyOpenBar
Listing of Open Bars in NYC. LA, Chicago, and Miami coming soon. Don't think they'll ever list Baton Rouge, but maybe New Orleans.

Ligers Make a "Dynamite" Leap Into the Limelight

Ligers Make a "Dynamite" Leap Into the Limelight
They're real!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Wired News: Furniture Causes FedEx Fits

Wired News: Furniture Causes FedEx Fits
In a follow-up to my post of June 27. FedEx is trying to take down the FedexFurniture.com site. The fedexfurniture site is loading slow, probably due to the wired traffic.

The Art Newspaper -- Travel vandals: the Grand Tour has gone sour

The Art Newspaper -- News

Interesting piece on the impact of mass amounts of tourists on the attractions they go to see. For example, each visitor to the tombs of Ramses II, Seti I, and Tutankhamun damages the wall paintings by breathing out about 1/3 cup of moisture while visiting. The article also, touches on the impact of increased access to sites, like the changes in flooding in Venice caused by the new deep water route and influx of cruise ships. Some innovative solutions are suggested such as charging a premium for the most crowded sites or areas within a site (e.g. charging extra for the Mona Lisa in the Louvre), and ecotourism based solutions.

New Scientist Breaking News - Your top 10 names for the tenth planet

New Scientist Breaking News - Your top 10 names for the tenth planet
I missed the news from July 30, that a new 10th plant had been discovered. But, now we're playing the name game. New Scientist asked their readers to name it and provide some explanation and they've published their top 10 responses, most serious (Peace, Galileo), but several odd, or seemingly odd choices make the top 10 (Rupert, Bob, Xena). See the brief descriptions for more.

5. Rupert - It might seem like an unlikely name for a planet, and it probably would be. But in the fourth book of the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy"” - Mostly Harmless - author Douglas Adams describes a tenth planet around the Sun: "“The planet was named Persephone, but rapidly nicknamed Rupert after some astronomer's parrot - there was some tediously heart-warming story attached to this - and that was all very wonderful and lovely."

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

BILLYHARVEY.COM

BILLYHARVEY.COM
Fantastic website for this Austin (I think) based musician. Music from his latest album plays as you bop around the site with it's great look and interesting navigation. A few hidden and not so hidden prizes lurk if you hover around. Dope Wings is probably my favorite tune. It's got a little bit of a Beck feel. The other songs are a little more acoustic indie pop, but not boring. I bought the cd through the store just because I like the website so much. I think the music will grow on me.

Via Wooster Collective

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Bush has new energy bill to sign; includes expanded daylight-saving time - Yahoo! News

Bush has new energy bill to sign; includes expanded daylight-saving time - Yahoo! News
I'm not going to get into the energy bill, but I love extending daylight savings time. I always hate how short the days get after the fall change, so more is better. The change goes into effect in 2007 and makes daylight savings start 3 weeks earlier in the Spring and last 1 week later in the Fall.

library humour - a photoset on Flickr

library humour - a photoset on Flickr
Since I'm certain at least 2 regular readers are librarians, and most enjoy libraries.

NASA - The 2005 Perseid Meteor Shower

NASA - The 2005 Perseid Meteor Shower
Comes around once a year, and this Friday, August 12th between 2am and dawn will be the best viewing. I'm betting it should still be pretty good the next day (when I won't have work to worry about) and maybe I'll check it out depending on what Friday night does to me.

Money Origami

Money Origami
The title pretty much says it all. Pictures and instructions for how to make 14 different origami creations from money. Here are a few of my faves:

Boots

Pinky Ring

Spider

Monday, August 08, 2005

what we want - zefrank.com

what we want - zefrank.com

Flash application that cuts and pastes sections of personal adds and sections of personal ad pictures creating some sort of dating frankenstein. Hovering over the description or a part of the composit picture will set it in motion. Click to stop. Maybe you can find your perfect combo of people.

"Energetic, adventurous, single Asian opera buff. 4ft 11in, 30 year old retail clerk. Fetishes include knitting, NYC, and playing guitar. Can't live without a thin, hot, homeless man who enjoys starting a family and surfing. Must have a car."

Via Eye of the Goof

Threadbared: In The Wild.

Threadbared: In The Wild.
Just a reminder that Threadbared is hillarious.

Friday, August 05, 2005

PAINT BY NUMBERS

PAINT BY NUMBERS

Interesting history of the rise, fall, and rise of paint by numbers in the U.S. from the 1950s to today. The rise is generally attributed to the development of mass produced culture and increase in leisure time available to people in the 50s. There is discussion of the artistic merits and debated over these paintings. The modern discussion focuses on Warhol and pop art's use of paint by numbers and Komar and Melamid's evolution of the idea into survey based artworks "by the numbers". Overall, a truly interesting blend of pop-culture, economics, and art theory.

Cocktail of the Week - Hurricane

Hurricane Cocktail
Thinking about our coming trip to New Orleans led me back to the well of New Orleans cocktails for this week's libation. Many of the drinks passing themselves off as hurricanes are nothing more than red sugary punch and rum, possibly blended with ice. This is a terrible injustice to a fantastic fruity cocktail. Here's an excellent recipe:


  • 1.5 ounces light rum
  • 1.5 ounces dark rum
  • 1 ounce orange juice
  • 1 ounce fresh lime juice (NOT Rose's or RealLime)
  • 1/4 cup passion fruit juice, or 1 tablespoon passion fruit syrup
  • 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
  • 1 teaspoon grenadine
  • Cherries with stems, and orange slice to garnish
  • Ice cubes

"In a cocktail shaker, mix the rum, passion fruit juice or syrup, the other juices and the sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add the grenadine, and stir to combine, then add ice and shake. Half-fill a hurricane glass with ice, then strain drink into glass; add ice to fill. Garnish with orange slice and cherries."

A cocktail made with this recipe will look a lot more like this:

than this:

Cheers!

The Museum of the American Cocktail

The Museum of the American Cocktail
Another strong possibility for a visit this weekend.

Casa Susanna

Casa Susanna

"Some time ago, while at a New York flea market, inveterate collectors Michel Hurst and Robert Swope discovered a large body of snapshots: album after aged album of well-preserved images, taken roughly between the mid-50s and mid-60s, depicting a group of cross-dressers united around a place called Casa Susanna, a rather large and charmingly banal Victorian-style house in small-town New Jersey. The inhabitants, visitors, guests, and hosts used it as a weekend headquarters for a regular 'girl's life.' Someone-—probably '“Susanna'” or the matriarch-—nailed a wonder board on a tree proclaiming it 'Casa Susanna,' and thus a Queendom was born."

Follow the link to Look Inside for a few of the pictures, like these:

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Pentagon's New Goal: Put Science Into Scripts - New York Times

Pentagon's New Goal: Put Science Into Scripts - New York Times
Why would they do this at a cost of $25,000? They think if scientists write scripts that portray scientists in a more favorable light, they can increase the number of American students preparing for scientific careers. Yea, yea, that's the ticket.

American Muscle @ Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

Current Exhibition | Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

Fun show right now, that I might have a chance to see when we head to New Orleans this weekend. We will not be going to white linen night, as we will be seeing the fabulous Running with Scissors production of "Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys: The Wax Museum Mystery" Besides, the last time we went to white linen night it was way too crowded to see any art and I won't even start on the heat.

Back to the American Muscle show, no sense in my writing about it before I've seen it, so here's their blurb and an image:

"'American Muscle' features 20 artists from around the country, each lending their unique talents to the idea of Kustom Kulture: an all-encompassing term used to describe the artwork, the vehicles, and the fashions of those who drove and built custom cars and motorcycles in the United States from the 1950s through today."


"Baghdad International Dragway" by Dr. Wheelie