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Entries from May 2008

Soap and memories

May 31st, 2008 · No Comments

I have a favorite bath soap. It’s Pre de Provence sage soap. (And I only just discovered that I can buy it from Amazon! I have to go a bit out of my way to buy it.) I also like the verbena.
This week I was near a store in Cambridge that has small bars, and [...]

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Fishbowls in England

May 29th, 2008 · No Comments

On Sunday, May 28, 1665, Samuel Pepys records in his diary “a fine rarity.”
Thence home and to see my Lady Pen, where my wife and I were shown a fine rarity: of fishes kept in a glass of water, that will live so for ever; and finely marked they are, being foreign.
Goldfish had only recently [...]

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An intriguing standard

May 20th, 2008 · No Comments

I’d never heard of Pecha Kucha before a couple days ago, but it apparently boils down to
20 slides, 20 seconds each. That’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds per presentation.
Originally invented for creatives, it’s being picked up by other communities. I found some great tips that apply to any public speaking. I’ll certainly be keeping it [...]

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Broadcasting music

May 19th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m broadcasting on behalf of Radio Riel today, for our “Magnatune Mondays.” Today’s connecting thread is “strings.” Plucked, strummed, bowed, or beaten. Have a listen at http://music.radioriel.org.

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Practicing and imitating

May 16th, 2008 · No Comments

Andrew Brown is both a jazz musician and a Unitarian and radical Christian minister. He has written No Image - No Passion or how practising rock and roll moves in the mirror taught me the value of imitation:
. . . merely desiring the fruits of a liberal religion without at the same time seriously seeking [...]

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Deeply weird

May 14th, 2008 · No Comments

There’s a little graphic and such, but here’s the central, weird finding of a Pew study reported in The Climate Change Attitude Mystery | Wired Science from Wired.com
The confounding part: among college-educated poll respondents, 19 percent of Republicans believe that human activities are causing global warming, compared to 75 percent of Democrats. But take that [...]

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An amazing resource

May 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

The Old Bailey Online has not only “The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913,” but also extensive background materials.
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.
There are essays on “Community histories”:

Black Communities
Gypsies and Travellers
Homosexuality
Irish London
Jewish [...]

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