6/30/2005
60 - Personally overpersonalized
First I tried out the Yahoo!Search My Web 2.0 Beta version, then Google's personalized search - which was slightly confusing and leaves me wondering how much time more this adding and contacting and tagging and deciding what my preferences are (and aren't they always changing?) will consume. But then, who would expect searching to be .. erm.. uncomplex?
6/29/2005
59 - European Illusions ?
"The constitution is dead, long live the constitution! Did European elites simply oversell a modest document? Is there a real crisis of legitimacy?" These and other items are discussed in "Europe without illusions" a cover-story by Prospect-magazine.
6/28/2005
58 - Down to Google Earth
Chris Sherman reviews Google’s new search tool, Google Earth, still in the beta stage, with search mode only for the U.S., U.K., and Canada - but you get a glimpse what might be possible (once you’ve managed the download).
6/27/2005
57 - Un Pulse
"UN Pulse alerts you to selected just-released UN online information, major reports, publications and documents. Created and maintained by a team of reference librarians at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York, UN Pulse is updated as new information is published and received".Read more..
6/23/2005
56 - Grokker
Here you can try out Yahoo's visual search machine Grokker. I tried it out with a few items, and the results were o.k. Good results with "blog". I like the transparent circles.
6/20/2005
55 - Finding Fiction
The OCLC - the Online Computer Library Center is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 53,548 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials." One of the services is the Fiction Finder which allows you to search by place (New Orleans, for example); by character and more.
6/19/2005
54 - Cornfield
During the weekend we wandered through cornfields (containing wheat), fields with barley, and fields with rye.
Ambrose Bierce commented "wheat" in his ways:
"WHEAT, n. A cereal from which a tolerably good whisky can with some difficulty be made, and which is used also for bread. The French are said to eat more bread - per capita - of population than any other people, which is natural, for only they know how to make the stuff palatable."
Ambrose Bierce commented "wheat" in his ways:
"WHEAT, n. A cereal from which a tolerably good whisky can with some difficulty be made, and which is used also for bread. The French are said to eat more bread - per capita - of population than any other people, which is natural, for only they know how to make the stuff palatable."
6/17/2005
53 - Congratulations - Freedom Blog Awards
Reporters Without Borders announced the results of the competition for best blog defending freedom of expression. The seven winners: Screenshot, Shared Pains, Al Jinane, ICT lex, Press Think (see Blogroll here on this page), Mojtaba Saninejad, Netzpolitik (a German blog). Congratulations on your impressive blogs! Keep at it!
52 - What Austria's got to do with BLOOMSDAY
Today is Bloomsday - the day on which James Joyce's "Ulysses - one of the most outstanding works of literature - takes place (in 1904). Joyce choose the 16 June as a reminder of his first walk with his later wife Nora Barnacle. Ulysses was first published in Paris in 1922, but it took until the 30's till its publication in America and England - for reasons of "obscenity".
The structure follows very losely the episodes of Homer's Odyssey. Stephen Dedalus represents Telemach, Leopold Bloom is Ulysses, Molly Bloom is Penelope, his wife. These characters find their away around Dublin and explore sites, places and relationships.
James Joyce wrote to a friend: "I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."
So what is the Austrian connection? When James Joyce wanted to go from Trieste to Zurich during World War I, in 1915,he was suspected by the Austrian authorities to be a spy - because of his British passport - and had to wait for his visa in the little border town of Feldkirch for quite some time. He spent many hours in the railway station,listening to the many different languages and dialects of the passengers (some of it you'll find in "Finnegans Wake").
"Over on those tracks there", he said on a later visit in 1932 to Eugene Jolas, "the fate of Ulysses was decided in 1915." Fortunately he could get out of the country finally and he wrote a great part of Ulysses in Zurich, between 1915 and 1922. More of this in German by Andreas Weigel.
The structure follows very losely the episodes of Homer's Odyssey. Stephen Dedalus represents Telemach, Leopold Bloom is Ulysses, Molly Bloom is Penelope, his wife. These characters find their away around Dublin and explore sites, places and relationships.
James Joyce wrote to a friend: "I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."
So what is the Austrian connection? When James Joyce wanted to go from Trieste to Zurich during World War I, in 1915,he was suspected by the Austrian authorities to be a spy - because of his British passport - and had to wait for his visa in the little border town of Feldkirch for quite some time. He spent many hours in the railway station,listening to the many different languages and dialects of the passengers (some of it you'll find in "Finnegans Wake").
"Over on those tracks there", he said on a later visit in 1932 to Eugene Jolas, "the fate of Ulysses was decided in 1915." Fortunately he could get out of the country finally and he wrote a great part of Ulysses in Zurich, between 1915 and 1922. More of this in German by Andreas Weigel.
6/15/2005
51 - Looking for places
Whenever and wherever I'm searching for locations - Mapquest is successful in finding them! Even tiny islands, and you can zoom everything in, so that you are able to see the street in which you're going to live at this tiny island during your vacation ...
6/14/2005
50 - Music Discovery Engine
Musicplasma/Liveplasma is a (beta)search and discovery engine for music and movies. It has a visual display and finds artists who fit the musical taste of your favourites (bands, actors, and the like). Something to play around with ....
6/13/2005
49 - Spoonerisms and Oxymorons
On "Fun With Words" you find all kinds of peculiarities of the English language: palindromes, oxymorons, tomswifties, tongue twisters, palindromes, nym-words, etymologies and much more.
Seriously funny!
Seriously funny!
6/12/2005
48 - European Points of View
Sign and Sight is the English version of a German cultural online magazine. It was designed to "provide a lively and informative view of cultural and intellectual life in Germany".
Every day, at 11 a.m. highlights of the cultural pages of the major German newspapers are summarized, often linked (in the "Feuilleton" section). "Features" offers selections of interesting articles, for example an European Constitution Special. There are also "round-ups" from political magazines all over Europe.
Every day, at 11 a.m. highlights of the cultural pages of the major German newspapers are summarized, often linked (in the "Feuilleton" section). "Features" offers selections of interesting articles, for example an European Constitution Special. There are also "round-ups" from political magazines all over Europe.
6/10/2005
47 - Très Belle
Belle and Sebastian's Double-CD, a compilation of several EPs from the last year came out in May - finally - and it's fabulous! And the quality, as the Matador puts it, is "almost inhuman".
There's a review by the Matador in English, and for German speaking people by
Stevie (on Amazon.de) who regrets it that only 5 stars can be assigned.
There's a review by the Matador in English, and for German speaking people by
Stevie (on Amazon.de) who regrets it that only 5 stars can be assigned.
6/09/2005
46 - Hunting for words
The BBC needs your help!
250 years after Samuel Johnson (see also post 23/May 13 of this blog) wrote his dictionary of the English language the BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary want to solve some of the most intriguing recent word mysteries in the language.They seek to find the earliest verifiable usage of every single word in the English language—currently 600,000 in the OED and counting—and of every separate meaning of every word.
There's a Wordhunt Appeal List, containing 50 words, such as "moony" "minger" "ska" "nit nurse" "codswallop" - all of them with a date that corresponds to the earliest evidence of that word in the dictionary. Should you be able to trump that - the BBC is eagerly waiting for you! Also, if you have convincing theories about the origin of words.
250 years after Samuel Johnson (see also post 23/May 13 of this blog) wrote his dictionary of the English language the BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary want to solve some of the most intriguing recent word mysteries in the language.They seek to find the earliest verifiable usage of every single word in the English language—currently 600,000 in the OED and counting—and of every separate meaning of every word.
There's a Wordhunt Appeal List, containing 50 words, such as "moony" "minger" "ska" "nit nurse" "codswallop" - all of them with a date that corresponds to the earliest evidence of that word in the dictionary. Should you be able to trump that - the BBC is eagerly waiting for you! Also, if you have convincing theories about the origin of words.
6/08/2005
45 - Illusions
It's incredible, how many kinds of illusions we succumb to. Michael Bach has collected a lot of the optical kind here, and nicely arranged and explained, too. What was it, Oscar Wilde said? Illusion is the first of all pleasures. And he said also: The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
6/07/2005
44 - In pursuit of words
Sifting through words like an archeologist through sand - this is one of the intentions of Word Count, an artistic experiment. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. The ranking tells a good deal about our culture and the sequence of the rankings makes one pondering and leaves one sometimes wondering. I typed in "knowledge" and got the sequence: despite june knowledge moved news. Or the word "Austria": austria respected sanctions repeatedly. No joke! Wonderful toy.
6/06/2005
43 - Class Matters
A very informative and illuminating series by the New York Times that explores how class influences destiny in America (along the categories health, marriage, religion, education, immigration, new status markers, the "relo class", the hyper rich, class and culture) can be found here:
Overview
The Richest are Leaving Even the Rich Far behind
The Mobility Myth
Life Without a College Degree
Marriage, Money and Class
A Portrait of Class in America
God and Man in the Ivy League
Ol d Nantucket Warily Meets the New
Overview
The Richest are Leaving Even the Rich Far behind
The Mobility Myth
Life Without a College Degree
Marriage, Money and Class
A Portrait of Class in America
God and Man in the Ivy League
Ol d Nantucket Warily Meets the New
6/05/2005
42 - Guest Commentary by Stevie: Strawberry Fields
June is the month to buy or pick strawberries right away fresh from the field. To me, strawberries are the perfect fruit. Perfect size, perfect taste, consistence, colour, ... one of God's best inventions.
So a strawberry field is a kind of paradise: The best to eat, and more of it than you could ever have in your life. And one of John Lennons best songs, too.
Visiting the Central Park and the "Strawberry Fields" in memory of John Lennon vis-a-vis the Dakota Building, I was a bit disappointed. I expected a real strawberry field, not only a place named so! And: It would be an honour to me to guard the field. So let's have a real strawberry field in the Park!
Posted by Stevie
So a strawberry field is a kind of paradise: The best to eat, and more of it than you could ever have in your life. And one of John Lennons best songs, too.
Visiting the Central Park and the "Strawberry Fields" in memory of John Lennon vis-a-vis the Dakota Building, I was a bit disappointed. I expected a real strawberry field, not only a place named so! And: It would be an honour to me to guard the field. So let's have a real strawberry field in the Park!
Posted by Stevie
6/04/2005
41 - Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders want to promote international communication through translation of the world's best writing--selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals, on the web. They consider it an dangerous imbalance that 50% of all the books are translated *from English,* but only 6% are translated *into* English. Words Without Borders want to introduce exciting international writing to the public because literature should not be seen as an elite phenomenon but a portal to which to explore the world.
You can search for texts by countries (Africa, Americas, Europe, Middle East, Pacific Rim) or along cities, coasts, mountains, plains, deserts, forests and villages.
A fine page!
.
You can search for texts by countries (Africa, Americas, Europe, Middle East, Pacific Rim) or along cities, coasts, mountains, plains, deserts, forests and villages.
A fine page!
.
6/03/2005
40 - Armchair Revolution
6/02/2005
39 - Efforts to bridge gaps
Yesterday, the initiative “i2010: European Information Society 2010” was launched by the European Commission.
3 policy priorities are outlined:
* to create an open and competitive single market for information society and media services within the EU.
* to increase EU investment in research on information and communication technologies (ICT) by 80%.
* to promote an inclusive European information society. To close the gap between the information society “haves and have nots”, the Commission will propose: an Action Plan on e-Government for citizen-centred services and several flagship initiatives (technologies for an ageing society, intelligent vehicles and digital libraries making European culture available to all) – and finally actions to overcome the geographic and social “digital divide” by an initiative on e-inclusion.
Read more here: European Information Society 2010.
This was an important step in a desirable direction, especially the closing-the-gap-measures.
3 policy priorities are outlined:
* to create an open and competitive single market for information society and media services within the EU.
* to increase EU investment in research on information and communication technologies (ICT) by 80%.
* to promote an inclusive European information society. To close the gap between the information society “haves and have nots”, the Commission will propose: an Action Plan on e-Government for citizen-centred services and several flagship initiatives (technologies for an ageing society, intelligent vehicles and digital libraries making European culture available to all) – and finally actions to overcome the geographic and social “digital divide” by an initiative on e-inclusion.
Read more here: European Information Society 2010.
This was an important step in a desirable direction, especially the closing-the-gap-measures.
6/01/2005
38 - George Bernard Shaw
" Do you know a reasonably healthy woman of about sixty, accustomed to plain vegetarian cookery, and able to read & write enough to forward letters while her husband is away? ... No relatives, if possible. Must not be a lady. One who has never been in a theatre preferred. Separate rooms."
These lines were written by George Bernard Shaw, Irish Nobel Prize winner of 1925, before he married Charlotte Payne-Townsend on June 1, 1898. For 45 years they maintained a "marriage blanc", according to his biographer Michael Holroyd.
GBS even wrote - anonymously - his own marriage notice - as a joke - for the tabloids. Read more in TodayInLiterature...
These lines were written by George Bernard Shaw, Irish Nobel Prize winner of 1925, before he married Charlotte Payne-Townsend on June 1, 1898. For 45 years they maintained a "marriage blanc", according to his biographer Michael Holroyd.
GBS even wrote - anonymously - his own marriage notice - as a joke - for the tabloids. Read more in TodayInLiterature...
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