NZ - another quake Tracicle. I hope you and family are ok.

How is the web changing how we deal with "cognitive surplus? A four-year old looks for the mouse while watching a dvd. What will she expect when she grows up? more inside

Mofi has seemed to be fading for a while, If you don't read tracicle's blog, maybe you should. more inside

War songs. Folk songs brought us together in the 1960s in protest of the war in Viet Nam. "Big Muddy" seems especially relevant today. (via the Mofi thread about the Smothers Brothers.) more inside

Curious birthday George Tracicle's birthday is July 27. more inside

Designing rooms for your home? Could you live comfortably with what they've come up with, or is this design for design's sake? more inside

Niger economy benefits from trees. (Newsfilter, NYT registration may be required. Farmers in Niger have begun loving the trees they used to cut down to grow crops. more inside

Curious George. Has anyone else tried to post a comment to tracy's admin blog recently and not been able to. I tried to do so on the new thread regarding jb's MoFi post. I got a window for posting a comment, but when I tried, got a message that I couldn't post without logging in. But, there didn't be any way to actually do that. So, went back to the eeked thread and tried to add a whining comment, but the thread is closed. *cries*

Tacky beach towns I’ve always loved them, and regret that they’re being up-scaled, at least in California. In the 1940s and 50s, Santa Monica had its Muscle Beach and a small pier,, with it’s merrygoround, separated by a boardwalk with hot dog stands, curio shops and small wood frame beach houses. Now, it’s prime real estate. more inside

Abu Kahleel is an Iraqi blogger that I've linked to before. He has another blog which is more political: called Iraqi Letters. more inside

Slow news-day filter This showed up as a headline on Yahoo! News. more inside

Dubai does it again! And again! Most of us have probably read about their housing developments, but this is the first I'd heard of ski resorts in the desert.

Simplified spelling... good, or bad? Must be a slow news day if this got into Yahoo headlines. But, it is an interesting issue. more inside

Boonville California is a small town in the Coast Range Mountains between the Sonoma Valley wine country and the Mendocinoo Coast. It's a scenic area and largely agricultural, but it's most widely know for Boontling, a folk language created there in the 1800s. With a vocabulary, of over a 1000 words, it was remarkable to hear. But, sadly, it's on the brink of pikin' to the dusties.

Ok, everyone can be Curious George except MonkeyBashi. I sent this email out in May to people who are identified in the 4th paragraph: (Damn, this is going to be really long, so please have patience.) more inside

How do females chose mates? {[While big-antlered red deer are busy fighting each other to show a female who has the best rack, the doe sneaks off to mate with less well-endowed stags. Female red-winged blackbirds are not easily impressed, either. Having the most macho plumage has no detectable effect on how many offspring a male sireS" more inside

Pump your own gas? Not in NJ One of my favorite memories of living in NJ was the inabililty to pump my own gas. more inside

Camaraderie building at work? By spanking? Touch-feelie employee bonding sessions appear to have gotten out of hand. more inside

"My Family and Other Animals." Last night, Masterpiece Theater on PBS (US) showed this memoir based on a story by Gerald Durrell about his family's stay in Corfu in the late 1930s. It made me love Masterpiece Theater all over again. more inside

Eugene McCarthy, dead at 89 Many of you "kids" may not know who he was, but he was one of the political good guys of the 60s and beyond. The 60s liberal generation voters, including myself, reallly wanted him to win sooo badly, but the Democratic Party had fragmented by then, and he lost. And things have gone down from there. But, he did force Lyndon Johnson to give up his bid for re-election. We could so use a new McCarthy clone, but I don't know whether the Democrats have the basic where-with-all to nominate anyone so willing to stand up for liberal principals. Kind of the end of my dreams.