Sports: Football: USA pro-fb climaxes today in the SuperBowl championship game between Colts and Bears

UPDATE: 10:14 pm ...
Indianapolis Colts beat Chicago Bears 29-17 to win Super Bowl

Since I may not get a chance to blog on American pro-football's premier game today, tho I will be watching it on TV, I thawt some prep piece was more than appropriate. And I think I found a gem in Philadelphia Inquirer's Bob Ford column a couple days back--"A big name fit for Super Bowl" (Jan29,2k7).

Sometimes a sporting event, particularly one as publicized and fervently followed as the National Football League's Super Bowl, can become more than just another game on the schedule, another contest to be watched, dissected and then catalogued in the endless agate world of the record book.

This Sunday's championship game is just that kind of event, because along with the importance that sports fans will naturally give it, the game also carries a deep social significance, a meaningful milestone being passed on a long road toward equality in this country.

When the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears take the field and stand at attention on their sidelines for the national anthem, that song might mean a little more this time around for the coaches who brought their teams this far.

As the cameras focus in, particularly on the Chicago sideline, it will be hard to ignore the fact that, after all these years, there is finally a coach in the Super Bowl named "Lovie."

In the days leading up to the big game, Lovie Smith, the Bears' head coach for three seasons, has tried to downplay this story line, just as throughout his coaching career he has been loath to play the name card.

Smith said he looks forward to the day when a coach is judged only on his coaching ability and not what name he happens to have. That will be a good day for all of us, Smith indicated, and who can deny that?

But although Smith, and, to a lesser extent, Tony Dungy [Colts head coach], would like to focus solely on the football game, that is hardly possible this year. (There has never been a head coach named "Tony" to reach the Super Bowl, either. And in the history of the four major professional sports, only Tony La Russa has preceded Dungy to the championship round as either a head coach or manager.)

The walls are much higher out there for little boys named "Lovie," however, and Smith's ability to scale them puts a large dent in the insidious nameism that haunts our country even after all these years. With his success, little Lovies everywhere can dare to imagine big things for themselves, and know that there is no goal too outlandish, no dream too big and no impediment too daunting for those willing to work hard and believe in themselves.

While there is rejoicing in all parts of the country over Smith's breakthrough, there is particular pride in Dallas at the Love Field headquarters of L.O.V.I.E. (Lovie Overcomes Vicious Inequality Everywhere), about 100 miles west of Smith's hometown of Big Sandy, Texas.

Sports, by Sportikos

According to Jeremy "Lovie" McFarlin, the organization's president, the success of Smith is just the shot in the arm needed by the movement.

"It's been a long time to wait for some attention since Lovey Howell was on TV," McFarlin said. "And what people fail to realize is that not only does Smith's success break down the barriers for those named Lovie, but also for others. He is out there as well representing the possibilities for those named Lovey, Lovee, Luvie and Luvee, and we have also heard from people named Huggie, Squeezie and Smoochie who feel similarly empowered."

Lovey Howell, a character played by actress Natalie Schafer on the Gilligan's Island situation comedy more than 40 years ago, has long been the standard bearer for the name and its various permutations. Even while marooned on a barren island, she was able to maintain her dignity and wardrobe, undaunted by the circumstance, unbowed by the indignity of her surroundings, and unfazed by the knowledge that for all eternity men would never sit together in bars and ask one another, "Ginger, Mary Ann or Lovey?"

With Sunday's Super Bowl, however, the rescue ship will finally reach the island and few can doubt that one of the last major hurdles in name equality will have been surmounted.

The NFL deserves some credit in all this. Advances in the fight against nameism don't just happen. The league, which for too long saw its teams choose head coaches from what seemed to be an old-name network, encouraged the franchises to expand their thinking.

Certainly, there is still a revolving door for the Toms, Chucks, Bills and Daves, but NFL teams must demonstrate an openness in their hiring policies now. Teams must be willing to break preconceived notions and develop an interview process that is inclusive for those whose mere names might have disqualified them in the past.

The jobs obtained recently by Marvin Lewis, Brad Childress and Lane Kiffin are testament to the change, but nothing has had the impact of the success enjoyed by Lovie Smith, particularly as he climbs atop the largest stage in all of American sports.

While Sunday will be a day to enjoy the ultimate football game of the 2006 season, it will also provide an opportunity to reflect on just far we have come as a society.

Because there is nothing quite like an easy story line to convince us that some significant progress has been made, even if the facts out in the wider world don't agree. We eat it up like a halftime snack and it goes down very easily.
Contact columnist Bob Ford at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/bobford.

Okay, enuff of the ethical reflection on America's lead sport, and now to the batle-prep stuff for today's game.



First, check out Bears and Colts Get Ready to Battle (Feb4,2k7): "The Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears are the combatants in Super Bowl XLI, and both teams have suffered through considerable enough periods without success that a win on Sunday night will rank as an especially celebratory moment. Sunday, February 4, 2007" It's got tbe win/lose/stats history of the two teams in the context of Amrican football history. It also gives some of the h+l+ts of the current season, including that fabulous seesaw game between the Colts and the New England Patriots, a game I watched but never found time to blog about. Maybe blog-thinking about a game undermines the pleasures of viewing the game itself. I'm just wondering. But to head off the post-game fatigue, this blog-entry. And a good time to all!

Sports: Soccer: Italy's shame has players leadership calling for a No Soccer Year!

The Brit soccer site, Football365.com, carries an article "Italy Can't Just Play Happy Mondays" by Adam Fraser (Feb3,2k7). An episode of violence at a game between between Catania and Palermo, where the "the death of a policeman during riots at the Sicilian derby" has finally induced the desire for deep ethical reflection on where soccer is going.

...[T]he Italian players have called for a year without football. "I want my proposal taken seriously that soccer should stop for a year in order to reflect on the evils that exist," insisted Sergio Campana, president of the Italian players' association.

Sports, by Sportikos:

It might be necessary. Sometimes such measures are. The five-year ban on English clubs participating in Europe might have set our players back a decade or more in terms of technical ability, but what does that matter when you can go to a game safe in the knowledge that you won't be going home in a f**king ambulance?

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. Italian football finds itself in that position now. The world is watching.

The full article is recommended strongly for those of us who love sports, and soccer (football nonNorthAmerican).

Arts: Architecture: Libeskind's new museum structure., the Hamilton Building, joins the Art Museum of Denver

Christian Science Monitor reports and reviews the new Hamilton Building of the Art Museum of Denver, Colorado. Marilynne Scott Mason, "Art is off to new heights in the Mile-High City" (Feb1,2k7). The photos cry out to you to clickup the article and see for yourself.

Flinging open the windows of perception, Denver's new Frederic C. Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, defeats almost every kind of expectation.

The new building -- constructed next door to the original castlelike
structure designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti -- has a striking
bolt-from-the-blue presumption that brings with it an elation few new
buildings can generate.

Spiked, cantilevered, and crystalline in form, the Hamilton reflects
the mountain environs Mr. Libeskind says inspired its contours. Most
of the inside walls are bent inward or outward, with few right
angles. There is far more to these strange contours than at first
meets the eye: This museum stands for more than its obvious purpose
of housing art objects.

"Of course, this museum is about the human endeavor -- it is about
art," Libeskind said in a phone interview, "and it is about the world
beyond the obvious. This building is rooted in the ground, and it is
open to the sky ... and it is about light -- and not just the physics
of light (which, of course, is part of architecture), but it is also
about the light that shines in your soul, to be in communication with
the world, with time, and with history."

On the first floor, the broad granite stairway leads the eye in an
awe-inspiring upward spiral to galleries on the next three floors, on
to a slanted skylight in the distant ceiling, suggesting the reverent
grace of a great cathedral, the natural wonder of a chambered
nautilus, and the exacting upward striving necessary in climbing
mountain paths. The metaphor is unmistakable -- this is the light that
draws us, a guide and the prize of all human striving toward meaning.

The circular movement upward toward the light was a decision made to
express the ineffable around us, Libeskind said. "The world is not
just here by itself. I am not exceptional in [believing] this -- I
think every person who thinks and who experiences the world knows
there is more to reality than the physical, visible space. [The
spiritual] is in the experience of life.... I think [spiritual
meaning] is a global and universal aspiration."

Architecture, by Archibald

For Libeskind, the Hamilton Building "speaks of the indestructibility
of the human spirit and the inventiveness of art...." Constructing a
building to house and help people better understand the art in it is
an act of hope, he said.

"Architecture is about life, the affirmation of life, and it is about
home, and it is about the perspective of a horizon that goes beyond
the obvious," he explained. "It can be universally experienced.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, you can share through architecture
that greater sense of purpose of the human home in the world."

Libeskind's aesthetic includes capturing something profound in a
place, its indestructible quality -- the quality that endures through
centuries, he said. The architecture of the 21st century is "not just
being satisfied with technique and glittering facades. It is about
human beings. It is about intimacy, it's about conversation, the new
architecture. It's not about anonymity, either, but it is about
intimate spaces. Architecture can provide that, can provide something
that really is unprecedented, giving you a new freedom. I know that
word is often used in a rhetorical way. But I mean [the new
architecture is about] giving you the freedom to see in a new way, to
look from a different angle, or to look up -- at a skylight."

The crystalline form of the new building provides many intimate
spaces. Turn a corner and an inverted-roof angle drops down over a
sculpture by Kiki Smith called "Genevieve and the May Wolf," almost
insisting that you stop and study this life-size piece of a woman and
a wolf.

Many other works also find a new vigor in the Hamilton's evocative
nooks and crannies -- like birds that hang their nests in impossible
mountain crevices. The Hamilton fosters works of modern and
contemporary art, requiring visitors to rediscover the mystery and
marvel of the creative spirit behind the works.

The Hamilton does have its critics who believe it does not serve the
art collection well. Indeed, there are exhibits that don't work. Some
of the 19th-century art appears out of sync with its futuristic
surroundings. Then, too, some viewers prefer traditional spaces,
believing that the building in which art is shown should not compete
with the works within its walls.

But the controversy surrounding the Hamilton seems misplaced. So much
of modern and contemporary art defies the eye and preconceived
notions about beauty and truth, and demands that the viewer learn to
question, think, and see anew. And so does this new building.

(c) Copyright 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.

Obviously, in the Hamilton, Art Museum of Denver, we have
a stunning new contribution to this genre of museum architecture and to
the artistic discipline of architecture as a whole.

Technics: Business: MTV, a Viacom corporation, has effectively wrung a promise from Google to censor all signs of MTV on YouTube

MarketWatch again today carries important tech/biz news, this time about Viacom/MTV's attempt to shut out individual consumers who publish "found art" TV clips from the major entertainment company and its TV subsidiary. The article is about Google-owned YouTube (which latter we haven't covered yet here on refWrite Backpage. MarketWatch's Ben Charny & Russ Britt, "YouTube says it will remove Viacom clips" (Feb2,2k7--click up the article to check for updates).

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc.'s YouTube unit, the free video-sharing Web site, bowed Friday to Viacom Inc.'s sweeping demand that it remove more than 100,000 of its videos from the site.

"It's unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube's passionate audience, which has helped to promote many of Viacom's shows," a YouTube representative wrote in an email statement.

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

Viacom said it issued the demand after months of failed negotiations to strike a content-licensing deal with Google (GOOG: GOOG481.30, -0.45, -0.1% ), which acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion last year.

It remains to be seen just what impact this might have on YouTube's popularity. Clips from MTV and other Viacom properties have been among the most popular on the site; some have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

As of Friday morning, however, clips from shows produced by the MTV network, which Viacom owns, could be easily found on YouTube, which is an indication that YouTube has yet to fully act on Viacom's request. Some of the videos have been viewed more than 500,000 times.

Those interested in techbiz and the whole complex of issues regarding copyr+t, will want to read the whole Charny & Britt piece, as will readers who watch the techbiz stockmarket (as Viacom's and Google's latest standings are quoted). As to the substance of the snippet quoted from MW, we can see vividly deomonstrated just how paleolithic Viacom's business plan is, how unable or unwilling MTV is to cope with the new phenom of popular use of small bits and pieces of the surfeit, the detritus if you will, of advanced technical capitslism in its popular mode. Remember, YouTube references to the engorgement of moving-pictures-as-junk are part of the public's creativity, just as unpredetermined by MTV as is P2P file-sharing where no commercial gain is involved. MTV is sham and disrespectful of its audience who want to make their own uses of the images Viacom's engineering of what images with what sounds by what media may have privileged access to a wholly receptive/captive audience.

The point is that in the advanced tech-image and tech-sound industries, the unfettered short short short quotations and artistic usages by amateur video-clip makers actuall sells MTV products, as well as those of the major sound-recording corporations.

Technics: Business: Amazon won't see a half of its predicted yearly profits, tho sales up 34%

According to MarketWatch's Ben Cheney writes-up the modern business economics of Amazon, the miracle bookdealer by internet. "Amazon profit drops by half; sales rise 34%--Shares rise late on bullish forecast" (Feb1,2k7)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon.com Inc. late Thursday reported its profit dropped by half, even while sales rose 34%, as the company lost the benefit of a large tax gain it had a year ago and saw its operating margin narrow.

Still, Amazon also issued a forecast for its next quarter and all of 2007 that were slightly ahead of expectations, sending its shares up nearly 5% in late trading.

Click up the article for the full details and a stock market report on the company.

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

That's the biz ec (microeconomics, but Amazon doesn't seem to qualify for the qualifer "micro-") of it. How does Amazon do it? A very large part of the answer to that question comes from Read/Write Web email newsletter [readwriteweb "at" gmail "dot" com ].

First, Amazon continues to innovate to live up to its Web 2.0 potential. Read/Write (Jan26,2k7) points out two Amazon services I had not met before:

Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is all about distributed storage. S3 saves you from the hassles and big costs of buying and maintaining storage hardware for your site's needs. YouOS is one example that secures its data on scalable Amazon S3 servers. You can see if a web site is using S3 or not by keeping track of your status bar while a page loads; S3 powered sites will frequently fetch data from http://aws.amazon.com address. R/WW's MyBlogLog for example uses S3.

Even though the advantages are so obvious and the company that offers it is the well trusted Amazon, my personal experience tells me that S3 usage is not very large either yet.

Amazon EC2

Similarly to S3, EC2 (Electronic Cloud 2) is Amazon's distributed computing power system. Considering the fact that it's still a beta service and its implementation is not that easy, the low usage is understandable. But when it gets ready, Amazon EC2 will become a compelling service that ends all the hassles of maintaining clusters and scalable services.

Second, now there's Amapedia (Read/Write, Jan26,2k7):

Amazon Quietly Launches Amapedia, a Wikipedia For Products

Amazon has just released a new Wikipedia clone, called Amapedia. It's described as "a community for sharing information about the products you like the most." So far Amapedia has had no promotion from Amazon, but it was discovered today by Rogers Cadenhead. Anyone with an Amazon.Com account can edit the site. Regarding the name, Amapedia appears to be a combo of the words Amazon and Wikipedia: ama[zon][wiki]pedia.

Note that this is a different wiki product than what Alex Iskold was referring to in yesterday's post, on Amazon's use of tags, ajax, blogs and wikis. In that post we were discussing the ProductWiki feature, but it states on Amapedia's homepage that "Amapedia is the next generation of Amazon.com’s ProductWiki feature; all of your previous ProductWiki contributions were preserved and now live here."

The site looks pretty raw currently and has little info in it - it is after all brand new. But a wikipedia for products makes perfect sense for Amazon. Who better to spotlight products and gather product information from the community, than Amazon? Another way to look at this: Amapedia could become the next generation of user reviews. User reviews on websites today are relatively rigid and old fashioned, so Amazon may be thinking that Amapedia will be a new platform for user reviews - it may help remove redundancy in reviews, while offering more completeness.

We'd like to see a bit more structure in the Amapedia pages, so that it is less chaotic when people edit it. For example add sections to pages. But the fact that tags are there already is fantastic - Amazon is calling this "collaborative structured tagging". Check it out and let us know what you think.

Third and foremost, the review-notice on Amapedia (Read/Write, Jan25) hints at the key to Amazon's steady-on bbut slow success" "a community for sharing information about the products you like the most." Amazon's features of reviews by the experts, but most of all by readers of the books involved, multiple reciews of a single book often are the backbone of why readers searching for a book they haven't read, go to fellow-consumers and derive an over-all impression from the aggregate of the fellow readers and fellow consumers, especially. The stats that point to other books that purchasers of your given title have also purchased in addition to the one that interests you, apparently also has a large influence on new buys. This info is detailed in Read/Write (Jan24,2k7) by "The New Face of Amazon - Tags, Ajax, Plogs & Wikis." The stats are the result of what are called "reccomendation engines."

TV: Serials: The Jerry Springer madhouse sideshow

I saw the Jerry Springer Show tonite, replete with his tail-end 30-second sermon, and I continue to regard it as among the most barbaric on North American TV that I've ever seen. Looking at his in-studio audience, I can't help thinking of it as the perfect symbol of "The Ugly American."

TV, by Anaximaximum

More to come....

TV: Serials: 24's Jack Bauer, an anti-Muslim propaganda tool?

National Review gives readers M. Zudhi Jasser on "Why Do They CAIR about Jack Bauer? -- 24 is an opportunity for American Muslims to fight the real enemy: Islamism" (Jan29,2k7). Far from being an anti-Muslim action series (as the crybabies of victimhood at CAIR like to pretend), Jasser says Kiefer Sutherland's 24 gives a realistic picture of a certain small minority of Muslims in North America to whom the larger Muslim community has to respond in a pro-American Muslim way.

TV, by Anaximaximum

Jasser, himself a Muslim, starts off his unexpected TV review without mincing words:

Yet again, the old, tired “major” American Muslim organizations have come out in full force to object to something unobjectionable. This time, they’re angry about the storyline of 24, the highly popular TV drama on Fox: When the recent premiere episode ended with a terrorist network detonating a nuclear device in a Los Angeles suburb, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced its fear that “this would serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice in American society.” The show had begun with a depiction of an America gripped in fear after an eleven-week run of suicide bombings, apparently by radical Islamist terror cells, in cities across the country.

Sutherland created and produced the show, and plays its star role of Jack Bauer. It's won awards, and does hold a viewers' interest, apparently even the interest of professional victims at CAIR. But, as noted, Jasser finds the series "unobjectionable" given today's world realities and the activities of North American Islamofascist cells.

TV: Serials: Roger Friedman says 'America turns off Trump,' ambiguity, irony?

A favourite Entertainment writer, Roger Friedman, who puts out the daily Fox 411 newsletter about The Biz, notes the early ratings stats for Donald Trump's new season of his weekly reality-TV show featuring young would-be entrepreneurs, The Apprentice. Whether Mr Friedman be correct in his conclusion or not, on one little matter, I don't think he fathoms just how much Americans hold their noses to avoid puking when Ms O'Donnell's visage mars the TV screen. Indeed, her takeover of The View after her professional sponsor, one Barbara Walters, booted the only black woman on the 4-woman panel of the latter show, in order to give said O'Donnell a platform to attack the Trump--all this registers rather oppositely on me, compared to what Mr Friedman thinks [the interspersions in brackets are mine - Anax].

The new season of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice had a dismal start on Sunday night. The show finished third in its time slot, far behind ABC’s Desperate Housewives and CBS’s Cold Case.

Even worse: Apprentice lost millions of viewers from its lead in, the Grease reality show that preceded it. The Apprentice rating was a miniscule 5.4.

TV, by Anaximaximum

What happened to Donald Trump? He used to be so PR savvy. But his tirades and constant attacks against Rosie O'Donnell have done to him what Tom Cruise’s criticism of Brooke Shields did to him in 2005. [What about the O'D's diatribes against the Trump?; and, after all, Didn't she start it?]

Doesn’t Trump realize that the bulk of the non-football viewing TV audience are women and that once they sense an enemy, there’s no going back? [The fallacy of so many Entertainment journalists is being iterated here by Mr Friedman. Is he so immersed in his industry that he forgets that "women" is not an ideologically-monolithic category and that many women watch football and go to football games, etc. And that even those who don't do football either at the scene or on the screen, nevertheless include very many who detest the O'D, including many Lesbian women. Simply put, it takes neither gender- nor sexorientation-specificty to notice how thoroly she comes across as a barbarism.] I doubt Apprentice can regain its ratings of old.

Me too. But then I never did like the Trunmp's show much, and never found the Trump himself interesting. Nevertheless, he sure did stir up some interesting showbiz dirt when he took on the insults of OD and shoved them back in her face, which of course opened her mouth again like a compulsive sphincter. I don't like Barbara Walters either; now more than ever she leaves me cold as she seems to lack a scintilla of authenticity. Both with how she treated Star Jones and Donald Trump. Star I always liked.

Sports: Soccer: European star soccer-player Beckham heads for LA, USA

Welcome to North America! Altho Los Angeles and its Galaxy pro-soccer franchise is faraway from Toronto, or any other part of Canada, soccer fans here got a boost from the news that David Beckham is joining Major League Soccer on the continent. He's already got an academy going in LA, since his visit in, to teach the sport to interested youngsters, so his hook-up with Galaxy is not without anticipations. Here in Toronto, we're feeling great about the new major stadium being built for the sport.

Christian Science Monitor's Mark Sappenfield has a piece "What Beckham's 'bend' means for US soccer" (Jan16,2k7). It's a rather snotty article actually--one that, besides using in scare quotes the questionable word "bend," refers also to his "dreamy hair" (twice), to his "paparazzi-perfect smile," and even to his "Spice Girl wife" (but no mention that they are the proud parents of three kids).

There is a factual core to the piece worth reading, but for all the skewered personal references, there's no pix to give us a sense of the reality of the man. Shame on CSM for all the speculation on DB and his future. The article is overwrawt in heaping supermanish expectations and respnsiblities on the sportsman, and really rather unwelcoming.

Sports, by Sportikos

For my part, I think Beckham will do his best to give North American soccer a leg up. But most of all, he'll be positioned in LA. He'll have the run of the TV talk shows, advertizing opportunities for products bearing his name or his endorsement, and ... and I'd bet, after soccer, he's got movies in the back of his mind. His wife--her name is Victoria, Mr Sappenfield--mite enjoy, when the kids are older, some performing / acting gigs as well.

Again, welcome to North America!

Technics: mobile phones: Is the iPhone a mobile phone?, or just what exactly is it, and with what is it set to compete in the marketplace?

What is an iPhone?, the AppleWags are asking. Appligos has a series of posts on the iPhone, presented to the world this January by Apple's Steve Jobs. The most recent post quotes and comments on the ontological-technical question almost philosophically.

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

Arts: Photos: 'The art, craft, & unique narrative form that is photography'

National Geographic held its 2nd annual seminar on photojournalism - expanded to a consideration of photography whenever pursued as a narrative form, a means of storytelling, whether fact or fiction. Miki Johnson reports on the seminar in her article "Celebrating Photographic Storytelling" (Jan16,2k7).

National Geographic has every right to be proud of itself -- and specifically its photos.

But last Thursday's seminar at the National Geographic building in Washington, D.C. was not just an occasion for the organization to pat itself on the back. The one-day event brought in photographers from far outside the magazine's photojournalistic focus and even highlighted German competitor Geo magazine.

"This day is for those who love the art, craft, and unique narrative form that is photography," explained National Geographic's Director of Photography David Griffin, who helped orchestrate the seminar.

National Geographic brought in nearly 400 photo editors, industry professionals, and professional photographers, many of whom have worked with National Geographic, for the free seminar to celebrate photographic storytelling.

Conveniently, it also proved an ideal place to unveil photographer and editor Nick Nichols' new photography festival in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

In the day's final announcement, Nichols invited the crowd to attend the Festival of the Photograph, June 7 to 9. The event will include exhibitions by Sally Mann and William Albert Allard, an interview by Alex Chadwick with Eugene Richards, as well as workshops, and, of course, "two monster parties." [www.festivalofthephotograph.com]

Nichols also entreated the audience to nominate photographers to be included in the show, which will focus on photojournalism. And although Perpignan Photo Festival's mastermind Jean-Francois Leroy "will come and anoint us," Nichols joked, he does not pretend his festival will be at the same level as the revered French festival, although some may call it the "redneck Perpignan."

By and large, though, the National Geographic seminar was simply a chance to see impressive projects by top-notch photographers.

Edward Burtynsky's two series on manufactured landscapes and China's urbanization impress on several levels: vibrant colors, incredible detail, and sheer size. His wall-size, medium-format images of vast tailings fields or chicken processing plants the size of small cities discuss the way humans reshape our natural landscapes and hint at the destruction our unchecked expansion can wreak.

"We live a life that is so disconnected from the place it arrives from," he explained. "I'm trying to bring those worlds back into focus."

Photography, by Owlie Scowlie

NPR's Day to Day host Alex Chadwick also conducted an "Inside the Photographer's Studio" interview with VII photographer James Nachtwey, whose story on military medics ran in the December issue of National Geographic.

Drawn out of his infamous reticence by Chadwick, Nachtwey, who is known for his deep dedication to his subjects, said he had even more of a stake in this story than usual because he had been "on the receiving end" of military medicine. In 2003 he was wounded in a grenade attack on a unit he was covering in Baghdad. Nachtwey's Time magazine colleague, writer Michael Weisskopf, lost most of his arm while reaching for the grenade, an heroic act many attribute with saving the lives of everyone riding in the Humvee at the time.

A welcome bit of levity among such serious issues came from photographer Duane Michals. Michals is a flurry of abstract declarative sentences and shockingly dirty jokes stuffed tightly into the body of a sprightly 75-year-old -- so tightly that he seems helpless to stop the thoughts pouring out of him in a steady stream.

A sprinkling of his sage thoughts: "We are an event in the universe," "The great joy is that I'm not you and you're not me," "I can't stand people who don't have opinions," "If you don't feel anything it's bullshit," and "Pictures lie!"

Oh, and he has a book coming out, Michals suddenly remembered. It's called Photo Follies: How Photography Lost its Virginity on the Way to the Bank (Steidl).

Other speakers included commercial photographer Jill Greenberg, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore (filling in for Roy DeCarava), and Ruth Eichhorn and Christiane Breustedt with their tribute to 30 years of Geo magazine.

To highlight the revolutionary work included in the magazine's recent book, 30 Years of Geo, the German Geo director of photography and Geo International editor in chief showed photo stories from Geo including ones by Marc Steinmetz, Ingo Arndt, Peter Granser, George Steinmetz, and a very young Nichols and Nachtwey.

Thursday's seminar also included short memorial videos for National Geographic photographers Kurt Wentzel and Tom Abercrombie, along with freelance photographer Ed Kashi's photographic flipbook of Iraqi Kurdistan, which was licensed in November to MSNBC through an online auction.

Also speaking to new photographic applications of technology, Mark Lubell, Magnum Photo's New York Bureau Chief, discussed the agency's recent revamping and launch of Magnum in Motion. Next month Magnum is launching a new version of its online player with bigger pictures and more interaction. The player already has brought the agency's multimedia essays to millions of online viewers, and made it easier for those viewers to purchase photographs from the agency.

A friend of mine received a Canon PowerShot A530 digital camera for Chrismas. This model is not at all on the h+end of Canons, but still cost a pretty penny, as the expression goes.

Principium Consumers Hub

I asked him what he wanted it for, and he murmurred something about documenting the neiborhood, the city (Toronto), mapping his broader world. That sort of thing. Then he, still murmurring, said something about refWrite not being graced by photo sets that tell a story. I cawt his implication, promptly dismissing it. But today, my editor said mentioned rW's "lack of pix." Then, I ran across this article by Miki Johnson, at PopPhoto.com, the website of American Photo magazine. I recommend it. Check out their "15 Hour Photographer" event on Sunday, Jan21,2k7.

Music: Internet: Following upon Web 2.0, now a specialized development being named Music 2.0

ReadWrite email newsletter has brawt into view a new trend in music websites on the Net, a new trend that advances your music interests in several speciality directions that ReadWrite and the Music 2.0 site itself are busy organizing into categories (the latter, the mothersite is interactive, so you can signup and get into the categorizing process too). My quote is from the newsletter article mentioned, while the live links in it are to speciality webpages of the mothersite:

Directory of Online Music Services

Interesting new directory of "music 2.0" services, which includes the following useful categorization:
▪ Music Services (major label content) - places like iTunes and Rhapsody where you can purchase or subscribe to music
▪ Music Discovery - places that help you find music - these fall generally into 3 subcategories:
▪ Social - wisdom of the crowds sites like last.fm, iLike, Goombah and Qloud

Music, by Anaximaximum

▪ Content-based - recommendations based on the music content - Pandora, SoundFlavor, MusicIP
▪ Expert based - Music recommendations from people - music blogs, irateradio.com
▪ Music Experience Augmentation - sites to make your music listening experience more enjoyable - music dashboards like sleevenotez or Snapp Radio

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

▪ Playlist Sharing - this includes playlisting sites like MusicMobs, fiql and Webjay
▪ Music Metadata - add to the data surrounding the music - MusicBrainz, All Music Guide, Gracenote

The content hasn't been fleshed out on a lot of those pages, but still it's a good start and one to watch.

.Of course, the big issue of music via the Net is the status of file-sharing on a person-to-person basis. There's a demurral in the ReadWrite presentation that some of the sites in the directory may be illegal; but really? In Canada file-sharing is not illegal as long as no commercial selling or buying is taking place, only an exchange or gift ("freebie"). Many file-sharing sites apparently kick out members who indulge in free downloading but don't offer their own music for free download to other. So, the attaching of the label of "illegal" is not true, unless precisely qualified by the legal jurisdiction involved. The worst feature of the music exchange process is the so-called DRM (Digital R+ts Movement) that sets up obstructions to block owners from free disposal of their goods.

Movies: Awards: Foreign Press doles out Golden Globes

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Golden Globes Awards this year counted among the winners Helen Mirren, Eddie Murphy, Sacha Baron Cohen, and America Ferrera, comedienne star of ABC TV's serial Ugly Betty. Sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes are often thawt to be a precursor to the Oscars. The following from China View expresses the worldwide interest in the American film and broader entertainment industries:

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Moving drama "Babel" won the best picture award at the 64th Golden Globes ceremony here Monday night, with its strongest contender "Dreamgirls" winning three major awards.

Moving drama "Babel" won the best picture award at the 64th Golden Globes ceremony here Monday night, with its strongest contender "Dreamgirls" winning three major awards.

Jennifer Hudson holds her award for best supporting actress in a musical or comedy for her role in "Dreamgirls" while backstage at the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California Jan. 15, 2007.

Veteran director Martin Scorsese picked the best director for his crime thriller "The Departed."

"Babel," directed by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, led all nominees into the ceremony. It won only one, which was also the biggest prize.

"It took us more than one year doing this film, shooting it on three continents and in five languages, and it seems no matter how many languages you shoot a film ... the power of cinema is universal," said Inarritu when receiving the trophy from California governor and former action star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The movie described immigration problems among four families between the United States and Mexico after the "9.11" terrorism attack.

"Dreamgirls," an upbeat musical about the rise of a 1960s soul trio loosely based on The Supremes, gained three important awards, including the best musical picture, the best supporting actor and actress awards for Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. It now seems a certainty to earn an Oscar nod when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science unveils its best picture nominations on January 23.

Legendary Martin Scorsese picked up the best director award for his criminal film "The Departed," after his victory for "Gangs of New York" four years ago.

British actress Helen Mirren also had a big night, taking home two best actress Golden Globes -- one for her role as the queen of England in the HBO miniseries "Elizabeth I" and the other for her dramatic film role as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen."

Movie Awards, by Anaximaximum

Meanwhile, Forest Whitaker was named best actor for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland."

Meryl Streep won her sixth Golden Globe, winning the prize for best actress in the category of musical or comedy motion picture in the film "The Devil Wears Prada," while Sacha Baron Cohen won the best actor in the same category for his black humor film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

Leonardo Di Caprio and Clint Eastwood went into the ceremony as the first actor and director, respectively, with two nominations in the same category. But both were passed over.

DiCaprio was nominated for best actor for "Blood Diamond" and "The Departed," but lost to Whitaker, while Eastwood had nominations for directing "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," but Martin Scorsese won the directing prize for "The Departed."

Eastwood did not come away empty-handed as his "Letters from Iwo Jima" -- a film about the famed World War II battle from the Japanese perspective -- won the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film, beating out Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," "The Lives of Others" from Germany, "Pan's Labyrinth" from Mexico and "Volver" from Spain.

"Cars" took home the first Golden Globe awarded to an animated film, beating out "Monster House" and the recent box office blockbuster "Happy Feet."

Hollywood veteran Warren Beatty was presented with the Cecil B.De Mille Award for lifetime achievement during the ceremony. The award put the 69-year-old Beatty in the company of former recipients such as Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson.

Since the 1963 adoption of the current format of separate best picture winners for drama and musicals or comedy, 70 percent of the films that ended up with best picture Academy Awards, the Oscar, had first received a Golden Globe.

Last year, acting Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and George Clooney all won Golden Globes before stepping into the Oscar Awards history.

However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives the awards, has drawn criticism for its small size of 85 members, which theoretically makes it more susceptible to influence by studios and publicists, the absence of members from internationally renowned publications, and the practice of some members of posing for photographs with stars, which would be an ethics breach at most U.S. publications.

Associated Press points out that the telecast of the awards increased its audience over last year to 20 million US viewers, and even beat out Jack Bauer of the TV serial 24 on Monday night (15.7 million, up a bit even so), according to the Nielsen rations.

TV: Serials: The inimitable TV schedulers declare list of top series

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Yes, Zap2it has a list for us, a list of the top television series over the past 30 days, according to the searches Zap users pursued in scheduling and data-checking specific shows.

Your Favorite Shows
Based on searches from past 30 days

Heroes*
Lost
Six Degrees
Prison Break*
The O.C.*

TV, by Anaximaximum

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Friday Night Lights
Vanished
Jericho
Men in Trees
The Office
Veronica Mars
Grey's Anatomy
The Nine
House*
Justice
Supernatural (previously reviewed)
24*
Boston Legal*
The Unit*
Smallville*
Bones*
Gilmore Girls*
Ugly Betty*
Criminal Minds
Battlestar Galactica
30 Rock
Brothers & Sisters

I see a series that I sampled (and panned, I hope, delicately) made this list. I can't for sure say Too bad for popular taste; because the very name chokes in my throat. But I must admit that on the Zap2it list are a number of shows that I have enjoyed in times past, tho some of those have in the last 30 days no longer whetted my TV-consuming appetite. Those I liked at one time or another are marked by asterisks above.

TV: Serials: I got 5-minutes 'deep' into an episode of Ghost Whisperers...

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Another ugh!. Unfair! Okay, another look is in order at some time, when I feel well fortified. Perhaps I'm prejudging. But the 5 minutes I saw of Ghost Whisperers was the opposite of self-recommending on part of the show.

TV: Serials: An influx of demons indicates a war between decent psychics and them, on Supernatural

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Supernatural is a 10 pm Thursday series of episodes with a detailed backstory, quite well filled-in for regular viewers since the serial was launced in Sep2k5. The main characters are brothers. The older brother Dean Winchester (played by Jensen Ackles) takes up his father's task to become a hunter--that is, a demon hunter. In contrast, the younger Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) had aspired to go to law school. But with a personality difference established between the two, they "travel the country looking for their missing father and battling evil spirits along the way."

Sam Winchester is a college student bound for law school, determined to escape his family's past - unlike his older brother, Dean. Ever since they were little their father has been consumed with an obsession to find the evil forces that murdered his beloved wife, and [thus, dad] recruited his two young sons to help .... They have grown up as hunters of the supernatural.

And there's the rub! That much-abused word "supernatural" which merely amounts to one side of a philosophoical issue on the view that splits "nature" from what isn't nature (hence, supernature) and hints for some of an Unmoved Mover God or, to universes of cosmic forces or entities with super-human (supernatural) powers.

Sam escaped this way of life after high school, and now has a happy life with his girlfriend, Jessica [but she doesn't show up, nor is referenced in tonite's episode], and a promising future career. Dean, however, stayed behind with his father to join him in his "hunting".

TV, by Anaximaximum

After Dean arrives for Sam's help when their father goes missing, Sam must join his brother to find dad. His one weekend trip to search for the missing John Winchester becomes an ongoing quest after a horrible tragedy ruins any thought of a happy life for Sam.

The two brothers, bound by tragedy and blood to their mission, travel across the country encountering terrifying and dangerous forces most believe to be nothing but superstition and folklore, such as the Lady in White, the Indian beast known as the Wendigo, Phantom Travelers who cause plane crashes, Bloody Mary, and many more.

From Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers McG ( Charlie's Angels , The O.C. ), writer/executive producer Eric Kripke ( Boogeyman ) and Robert Singer ( Midnight Caller ).

I missed the title of this week's offering, whose gloomy scenes and alleged "drama" labelled "sci-fi" ended up being just above the mediocre--and, in that sense only, "good" (the ratings system stacks the possible categories). You couldn't tell,however, fromt the fan-club rating results--"perfect," "superb," etc.

TV: Serials: NCIS projects to the top of my chart in looks but writing goes for cuteness, twitchiness

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I like mainstream TV's NCIS a detective story with a naval twist. The acronym spells out to: Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The show launched on CBSin 2003, a spinoff of the previous JAG which featured military lawyers and had a certain conceptual gravitas. What is justice, and so forth.

The NCIS show has always been well camera'd; it has the lush colour work of any series produced by Donald Bellasario. But this evening's episode underlined the show's writerly twitchiness. And cuteness. It's all just too thick with froth, undermining any real suspense in the story-line. If looks were everything, on the other hand, you could forget twitch and cuteness.

TV, by Anaximaximum

Presumably, the intention is to add humour, but I find the result something of an overdose. Funny, no; cutesy, twitchy, yes. Dramatic force, undermined.

Tonite's episode, "Singled out," was a repeat of Season 4's Episode 3 (Oct3,2k4).

Aesthetics: Music: As older rappers claim hiphop is dead, Christian hiphop grows and spreads its limited vision of the Gospel

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The Courier Post in Camden, New Jersey ("South Jersey" across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) carries a Q & A article by its columnist Kim Mulford, "On a (holy) roll--Everything you ever wanted know about Christian rap music."

While thirtysomething rap stars complain hip-hop is dead, holy hip-hop is growing.

Since Christian rap began two decades ago, the genre has improved in quality and quantity, while gaining acceptance among churches and the music industry.

In April, for the first time, the prestigious Grammy Awards will include a category for "best rock gospel or best rap gospel."

Next week, 125 Christian rap artists from around the country will perform during a music-and-worship fest in Atlanta called Holy Hip Hop Week. Organized by Holy Hip Hop Inc., the event highlights performers from dozens of cities and will be aired nationally (though not locally) on the cable network iLifetv.

Still, gospel rap rarely gets radio play. Here, then, are answers to questions you never knew you had about hip-hop's holy rollers.

Q: I've never heard a Christian rap song. Is it any good?

A: "The music has gotten much better than when it first started," says Caresa Northern, an Atlanta promoter who operates a Christian nightclub and handles booking and marketing for Holy Hip Hop Inc. "It's more in tune to what's going on in society today. If you heard (gospel rap artist) Canton Jones, you would think it was Jay-Z."

Q: What are the lyrics about?

A: "They rap about their relationship with God, about being holy," says Northern. "They rap about (treating) their body as a temple, about not having premarital sex . . . about how the devil is trying to attack them, how God saved them . . . just what pertains to their life."

The discourse in answer to this above question starts well but then devolves rapidly into a negative tone. The whole approach sounds anti-holistic and defensive. Where's the great vision of the reach of the Gospel into every nook and cranny of everyday existence? What of finding vocations in serive to God and humanity...doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, athlete, painting, opera singer, journalism. The write-up says "just what pertains to their life." Whose life? I don't know any young people who are getting married to avoid premarital sex. I don't know any who equate horniness with the devil making a special attack on them. What about their schools: are the rappers rapping for better schools? For the freedom to go to a Christian school with broad horizons rather than God/Devil dualism? The root of hiphop seems so meagre, no wonder it's often so very uncreative in either its Gangsta or Christian forms. It cultivates mediocrity both poetically and musically, whether Christian or Gangsta. Excellence should be its goal for authentic performers; and all-of-life-redeemed should be its horizon of hope and mission.

Q: That can't possibly be cool. These guys sound like nerds, not "gangstas" who know anything about the 'hood or the "real" music industry.

A: Not true. A number of gospel rap artists were once secular stars. Mr. Del (aka Delmar Lawrence) from Memphis, Tenn., left the controversial and platinum-selling rap group Three 6 Mafia to become a Christian rapper. Christopher Martin, formerly "Play" in the 1980s-early '90s group Kid n' Play, is hip-deep in holy hip-hop.

Gospel rap now claims as its own Kurtis Blow, the first rap artist accepted by the mainstream (remember 1980's "The Breaks?")

Pop Music Scene, by Owlie Scowlie

Q: What are sales like?

A: Not huge, but it's getting better, says Danny Wilson, founder and CEO of Holy Hip Hop Inc. (The organization's first compilation CD was nominated for a Grammy in 2004.)

"We're still dealing with the fact that people don't know anything about it," says Wilson.

The Gospel Music Association reports Christian rock and hip-hop music accounts for about 25 percent of all Gospel music sales. Gospel music recently posted double-digit sales growth and is expected to increase as churches diversify their music ministries.

Q: Hip-hop doesn't belong in church. Aren't Christians supposed to be singing hymns and praise-and-worship music?

A: Holy hip-hoppers are using their music to reach people who are turned off by traditional church. The genre slowly is being accepted by churches as an outreach tool for youth. Insiders such as Cross Movement and Holy Hip Hop would like to see more churches embrace it.

"What I think "church' has to understand is that hip-hop is here to stay," says Wilson. "It wasn't created by man. It was created by God. It's an opportunity for you to use it as a tool to bring people close to God."

Q: Who are some up-and-comers in Christian rap?

A: Those on the move are Canton Jones, Shei Atkins from Houston (her song "I Got Shot" is taken from her personal life), Tony Stone, Lecrae and T-Bone.

Q: Are there any Christian rappers in South Jersey?

A: Absolutely. Cross Movement Records, a Christian nonprofit company founded in 1997, is based in Deptford. The group The Cross Movement is known as one of the forefathers of holy hip-hop and has released six albums, some of which placed on the Billboard charts.

South Jersey is home to Vigilant Multimedia & Entertainment, a nonprofit organization which promotes local Christian rap artists. VME held monthly holy hip-hop concerts in Camden before moving its venue to Philadelphia a few months ago.

Christian rhythmn-and- praise hip-hop artist Modern Day David (aka Lawrence Williams) lives in Willingboro. His self-titled sophomore album is addictive. (Check it out online at www.mddmoderndaydavid.com)

Also, a new Christian rap artist from Raritan, Somerset County, will be performing at the Holy Hip Hop Awards next week. Prophetess (aka Tamara Lanza) has been writing gospel rap for about a year.

Q: Where can I find Christian rap?

A: Some gospel rap CDs are in wide distribution in stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. You also can download songs from iTunes or eMusic. Free music can be heard at soundclick.com. Or check Altared Lives Radio, an Internet radio gospel station (www.altaredlives.org).

If you like it, buy it. Churches also can invite Christian rappers to perform. Northern from Holy Hip Hop does booking for about 200 artists.

"Just support the artists," Northern urges. "For half those artists, that's their lifeline . . . . That's their livelihood."

Isn't hiphop actually more the parading of attitude than anything else? Doesn't Christian hiphop parade the same damned attitude all gussied up in Bible verses? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I've overlooked something in the new trend, as hiphop itself enters into decline simply because of its poetic and musical poverty.

Technics: Consumer Economics: Amazon's 'dynamic pricing' shifts price on books you indicate you may really want

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At TechDirst, Mike has the goods on Amazon's bad-business practices, traced by a little "economic geekery." The article: Citizen Journalism Bites Into Amazon's Attempts At Dynamic Pricing" (Jan4,2k6). The operative doctrine, not mentioned, is "marginal utility."

In economics classes, at some point, you learn about the idea that dynamic pricing could be very efficient. If you could charge each person at the price point where they most valued the good (assuming that it was above the cost for the good), you could maximize your profit. People who valued a good very highly could be charged a lot more, while those who would still buy it, but only at a small premium could also be sold the product. That way you maximize both the number of sales and the profit. Sounds great, if you can pull it off. However, it makes one very big assumption: that the information flow is asymmetric. Only the seller knows the prices and the buyers don't compare. Because, if buyers can compare, or see the fact that sellers are changing prices based on how desperate you are, they get pissed off -- and having angry buyers isn't good for business. This was clearly seen way back in 2000 when Amazon started experimenting with dynamic pricing. Depending on who you were, it would offer somewhat different prices on certain goods. The economic geek in me thought that was a cool idea (and an opportunity to try to do some arbitrage), but the consumer in me thought it was bad -- and many consumers agreed with that side. The anger over the plan forced Amazon to apologize and shelve it.

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

So, it's interesting to see a new story suggesting that Amazon may be fiddling with its prices again, even to the point of potentially putting small increases on books that people put in their shopping carts to think about, but don't actually purchase. However, where this gets really interesting is in a separate discussion of that original article that wonders if a bunch of people could team up with the data they all have from Amazon associate fees to determine if this is actually happening, and if so, how it works. What this shows is the flipside of the original point on dynamic pricing. Since it really only works when you have asymmetric information, what happens when that information flow is broken down by new tools, data and communications systems? In other words, the very concept of "citizen journalism" can actually impact the economics of a market by gathering and spreading information flow beyond what would normally be available.

Principium Consumers Hub

Meanwhile, in an entirely separate story, it seems that these same "users" are outing another secret Amazon policy. Slate has an article about Amazon's secret price guarantee, where they'll match the lower price if the site happens to drop the price of something you bought within 30 days of purchase. The company doesn't officially state that policy anywhere, but Slate found out about it from a user in Amazon's forums, who discusses the policy. Again, this would appear to mess with Amazon's attempt to keep the information flow asymmetric, preventing them from being too aggressive in dynamic pricing.

Tags: Amazon's scam

• technics
• economics
• consumereconomics
• dynamicpricing
• marginalutility
• bestbusinesspractices
• Amazonscam

Arts: Music: There are new tastemakers around, and Big Music corporations don't yet know how to cope

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New York Times music reporter Jeff Leeds analyzes the techniques being used nowadays to thwart the system of of the Biggies in determining musical taste to suit their own ease in making profits. It's been notorious how the manufacturers of musical recordings of pop music in all genres have controlled, despite their own "competition" among themselves, what music-lovers may here.

At pandora.com visitors are invited to enter the name of their favorite artist or song and to get in return a stream of music with similar “DNA,” in effect a private Internet radio station microtailored to each user’s tastes. Since the service made its debut last November, more than three million people have signed up.

Besides Pandora, there's Last.fm, Launchcast and Rhapsody. These links are to the frontpages of the websites; you'll have to navigate to the online personalized radio service of each.

But they are tuning in to more than a musicologist’s online toy: [these] services ... have become the latest example of how technology is shaking up the hierarchy of tastemakers across popular culture. In music the shift began when unauthorized file-sharing networks like the original Napster allowed fans to snatch up the songs they wanted, instantly and free.

Pop Music Scene, by Owlie Scowlie

But the field is also full of new guideposts: music blogs and review sites like the hipster darling Pitchfork have gained influence without major corporate backing. And customizable Internet radio services ... are pointing users to music far beyond the playlists that confine most FM radio broadcasts.

All told, music consumers are increasingly turning away from the traditional gatekeepers and looking instead to one another — to fellow fans, even those they’ve never met — to guide their choices. Before long, wireless Internet connections will let them chatter not only on desktops, but in cars and coffee shops, too. And radio conglomerates and MTV, used to being the most influential voices around, are beginning to wonder how to keep themselves heard.

Technics: Visuals: Giving a Guest Pass to Flickr non-members for special access to a specified series of your Flickr photos

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For any Flicker member-user who wants to give special access to a certain set of pictures, an access expanded to that a certain set of friends who themselves aren't Flicker members but whom you want to offern a chance to enjoy the photoworks ....



As a special guest on Flickr website, using Guess Pass, you can view the Anaximaximumphotographicus copyr+t set of pix, a set that belongs to the brand refEpix for refWrite.

Guest Pass

How do I share my photos with people who aren't Flickr members?

Well, you can always share any public photos you have in your Flickr photostream just by grabbing the URL from your browser's location bar and popping it an email. Anyone can see your public photos anytime, whether they're a Flickr member or not.

But! if you're looking to share private photos with people, you should try using a Guest Pass. You can grant anyone access to the entire contents of one of your sets, including any private photos it contains.

TechNotes, by Owlie Scowlie

Go to the set you'd like to share, where you'll see a "Share this Set" button. Then we'll help you either send an email to friends via Flickr or make a special web address (URL) that you can share around.

The Guest Pass is actually just that URL., This means that whoever sees that URL will be able to access the set and all the photos inside it.

The first 3 photos of the set are currently accessible to Flicr members and also to nonmembers who get their Anaximaximphotogrphics Guess Passes for use until the designated expiry date of each pass allowed. Congrats to Anaximaxium.

Tags: Flickr Guest Passes

• aesthetics
• arts
• technics
• photos
• computers
• Flickr
• refEpixFlickrseries
• FlickrGuestPass
• Anaximaxiumphotographics

Technics: Online: Google's Gmail has a glitch that for a tiny percentage of users means all mail goes poof!

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ZDNet.com just published a post by Marc Oliphant entitled "Is Gmail reliable?" (Dec29,2k6)

About 18 months ago, I lost access to my Gmail account for a few hours when an early version of Greasemonkey caused a glitch that made Google think there were an inappropriate number of simultaneous logins being made to my account. The problem was resolved quickly enough but I was devastated for those few hours by the thought that all the information I had stored in that account might be lost. Fast forward to present times and there are reports that a "small number" of people have seen their Gmail accounts vanish and they may be permanently gone.

There's plenty of discussion going on surrounding this glitch led by TechCrunch and Om Malik. With an additional year-and-a-half of data stored in my Gmail account, I got more than a little concerned about what losing that information might mean to me. So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of and reset my Gmail account's POP3 settings to download all of my mail locally. Every bit of it.

I think it's finally finished now - no, another 682 messages just arrived as I'm writing this! It's taken about 16 hours for all the mail that's arrived so far to come down from Google's servers and for me to wade through a lot of cruft that I'm sure was important to me at one time but is pretty much history and not content I'm likely to ever need again. What I find most interesting is how much Gmail has impacted my e-mail habits as it relates to the information I send and receive in that environment.

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

There's a message on the Trash page in Gmail that asks, "Who needs to delete when you have over 2000 MB of storage?!". I guess I've been subliminally conditioned to accept that notion relative to my Gmail context in stark contrast to how I handle my business mail in Outlook on my PCs or Mail.app on the MacBook. Because my company uses IMAP mail, I have an always up-to-date and synchronized view of that mail store from any device I use, and I practice my idiosyncratic approach to GTD by converting actionable e-mail messages into tasks and appointments to keep my Inbox empty.

Perhaps it's the lack of real integration between Gmail and Google Calendar (which I don't use all that often) that prevents me from taking the same approach in my webmail. Or maybe Gmail has allowed me to tag and archive with abandon because everything seems to work regardless of how much stuff I allow to accumulate.

In either case, the implications of losing all that history and information rattled me. And so I'm downloading, scanning, deleting, and archiving my Gmail locally. Better to be safe than sorry. I can afford a few hundred megabytes of storage more than I can the loss of years of accumulated correspondence. Google is saying the glitch has only affected a small number of accounts and they're hard at work trying to figure out what went amiss. That's all well and good and exactly what they should be doing. In the unlikely event that this problem is not so isolated (or that I'll be unlucky enough to join that "small number" of affected accounts), I'm changing my approach to make sure I don't wake up to find my stuff vanished.

Back to the triage.

My strategy is to use Gmail basically for the technical lists to which I subscribe, like TidBITS, CSS daily digest, and I use Gspace storage. I also get my Google Alerts on various self-defined news searchterms, but I delete almost all of them from Gmail as soon as I get a chance. All this stuff comes thru also to my Mail.app, but I filter it into trash without even reading it. That leaves only a few strays from people who use Gmail for personal or professional direct correspondence. These I filter into their appropriate personal mailboxes. I wouldn't want to cope with Marc's superabundance, regarding which he has no mention of spam.

Sports: Car racing: NASCAR 4-part DVD documentary a hit among US troops in Iraq & Afghanistan

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Washington Times carries AP's Jenna Fryer article on the documentary "NASCAR videos 'golden' for troops" (Dec17,2k6):

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- John Warner set out to make a simple movie about NASCAR driver Wendell Scott.

By the time Mr. Warner was finished, the filmmaker had spent $3 million of his own money to create a four-part DVD documentary that traces the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing from its early days through the 1960s.

Mr. Warner knew "The Golden Era of NASCAR" was a film of which he could be proud. Narrated by his father, Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, the film is truly a labor of love.

But when he received a thank-you letter from a U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan who used the film to fill his idle time, the younger Mr. Warner realized just how special it was.

Now he's donating 10,000 copies of the set -- which retails for $79.95 -- to Operation Gratitude. The nonprofit will include the DVD in Christmas packages it sends to deployed U.S. troops.

"Documentaries by nature are very passion driven, and to get the whole story on film is a very powerful thing," Mr. Warner said. "And then I got this letter from the brother of a friend of mine who really enjoyed the story, and it really touches you to know that something you have done can bring joy to other people."

Mr. Warner enlisted help from his stepmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who penned a letter that will be included with the DVD sets. She also included one handwritten letter to commemorate the 200,000th care package that Operation Gratitude will mail out.

"Millions of people around the world are remembering you each day in their prayers. I want you to know that I am one of them," Miss Taylor wrote in the three-paragraph letter.

Sports, by Sportikos

"Please believe that as you travel through harm's way, you are valiant, loved and respected. I wish you safety in the days ahead and a warm reunion with those you love."

Getting Miss Taylor to contribute to the gift "only took a phone call," Mr. Warner said, as the actress was pleased to help.

"This was something that is important to me, especially since the films touch on all the World War II veterans who helped create NASCAR," Mr. Warner said. "This is just one way that a civilian like myself can give back."

A Virginia native, Mr. Warner was introduced to NASCAR when his father stumped for votes at stock car races with Miss Taylor, the elder Mr. Warner's second wife.

The racing interested the young Mr. Warner, who launched a career of modest success racing sports cars. But when he retired four years ago, he needed a new project and turned his attention to telling the story of Mr. Scott, the first black driver to win a NASCAR race.

"There was no book written on him -- there still isn't -- which is very unusual for a man who is the Jackie Robinson of racing," Mr. Warner said. "So I called up his daughter, and we talked for hours, and it really became a passion of mine to tell his story."

But in researching Mr. Scott, Mr. Warner uncovered story upon story of other NASCAR pioneers. He interviewed more than 50 old-timers and their families and interspersed it throughout the film with his father's narration, which is done in a perfect Southern drawl.

Mr. Warner didn't make "Golden Era" to get rich, and with a willingness to give copies of the set to any deployed serviceman who asks, his profits are continually shrinking. But that won't shy him away from another project -- he would like to focus on NASCAR through the 1970s next -- and it won't spoil the joy "Golden Era" brought him.

"The one thing that was amazing is that Southern people by nature like to tell tall tales, and a lot of them are what had gotten me interested in the project," Mr. Warner said. "And they all turned out to be true. That was the amazing thing -- every one of them was true. I was just astounded."

Tags: NASCAR Golden Age

• aesthetics
• sports
• NASCAR
• troopsAfghanistan
• troopsIraq
• DVDs

Aesthetics: Arts: World's first luxury underwater hotel, Hydropolis, is being constructed under Dubai's waves

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A remarkable architectural project has been announced for the waters off Dubai, the architecturally well-known Gulf State. DesignBuild-Network, the online website for "everyone in the building design and construction" industries recently features a project called Hydropolis.

Currently under construction in Dubai, Hydropolis is the world's first luxury underwater hotel. It will include three elements: the land station, where guests will be welcomed, the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel, and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex. It is one of the largest contemporary construction projects in the world, covering an area of 260 hectares, about the size of London's Hyde Park.

"Hydropolis is not a project; it's a passion," enthuses Joachim Hauser, the developer and designer of the hotel. His futuristic vision is about to take shape 20m below the surface of the Arabian Gulf, just off the Jumeirah Beach coastline in Dubai. The £300 million, 220-suite hotel is due to open at the end of 2007 and will incorporate a host of innovations that will take it far beyond the original blueprint for an underwater complex worthy of Jules Verne.

There are only a few locations in the world where such a grandiose dream could be realised. A high proportion of today's architectural marvels are materialising like fanciful mirages from the desert sands. We have come to expect extravagant enterprises to be mounted in the Middle East, and especially in Dubai. "This venture could only be born here in Dubai," says Hauser. "It [has] a very open-minded, international community - and that's what makes it so special."

The land on which Hydropolis is being built belongs to His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. It was his last free beach property on this stretch of coast. The project is a fantastic one, yet Sheikh Mohammed's success record with comparable schemes instils confidence that science fiction can become fact. With his support, several companies have been formed to kick-start this phenomenal project, and around 150 firms are currently involved.

"There have been many visions of colonising the sea - Jules Verne, Jean Gusto and several Japanese architects - but no one has ever managed to realise this dream," says Hauser. "That was the most challenging factor, and that's what makes it so fascinating. Despite being a dream of mankind for centuries, nobody has ever been able to make living underwater possible."

Underwater hotel design

The original idea for Hydropolis developed out of Hauser's passion for water and the sea, and goes much deeper than just building a hotel underwater. More than just curiosity, it is a commitment to a more far-reaching philosophy. "Once you start digging deeper and deeper into the subject, you can't help being fascinated and you start caring about all the associated issues," he explains. "Humans consist of 80% water, the earth consists of 80% water; without water there is no life."

Hydropolis reproduces the human organism in an architectural design. There is a direct analogy between the physiology of man and the architecture. The geometrical element is a figure eight lying on its side and inscribed in a circle. The spaces created in the basin will contain function areas, such as restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and theme suites. These can be compared to the components of the human organism: the motor functions and the nervous and cardiovascular systems, with the central sinus knot representing the pulse of all life.

The ballroom, located at this nerve centre, will have asymmetrical pathways connecting the different storeys along ramps. A large, petal-like retracting roof will enable the staging of open-sky events. Staircases, lifts and ramps will provide access to the ballroom, while flanking catering areas will supply banquets and receptions.

Hydropolis Land Station

In order to enter this surreal space, visitors will begin at the land station. This 120m woven, semicircular cylinder will arch over a multi-storey building. On the lowest level passengers board a noiseless train propelled by fully automated cable along a modular, self-supporting steel guideway to Hydropolis. A just-in-time and on-demand logistical system will facilitate efficient supply of goods to the hotel.

The upper storeys of the land station house a variety of facilities, including a cosmetic surgical clinic, a marine biological research laboratory and conference facilities. On the lower levels are the staff rooms, goods storage and loading areas, and hotel and parking areas.

The land station also includes a restaurant and high-tech cinema screening the evolution of life in the ocean and the history of underwater architecture. As a finale, the screen will open to reveal the real-life Hydropolis. A viewing platform at the front opening of the spanning roof will allow views of the architecture as well as the light shows of Hydropolis.

Architecture, by Archibald

Marine Architecture

This structure promises to be a conceptual as well as a physical landmark. While human beings accept the existence of water, we have only a superficial appreciation of its significance. "We waste it, go swimming in it and generally take it for granted," says Hauser. "Humans could actually live self-sufficiently underwater, generating energy, nurturing food supplies and so on. This is why we are starting a foundation to demonstrate something of the importance of water in our lives.

"My general plan was to create a living space in the sea. My initial proposal was a deep-sea project, which looked very different. I had to adjust to the local reality of the natural surroundings and change to a shallow water construction.

"We want to create the first ever faculty for marine architecture because I believe that the future lies in the sea, including the future of city planning. I am certain that one day a whole city will be built in the sea. Our aim is to lay the first mosaic by colonising the sea."

Hauser plans to incorporate many different elements associated with the sea. The cosmetics will be ocean-based, the cinemas will screen films that focus on aquatic themes and a children's seaworld will educate as well as entertain.

He views his creation as a place where those who do not dive - or do not even swim - can experience the tranquillity and inspiration of the underwater world. "We are expecting around 3,000 visitors per day in addition to the hotel guests. The aim is to inspire people to develop a new awareness of the sea."

As well as emphasising the positive aspects of water, Hauser also believes we are systematically destroying marine life, and thus wishes to draw attention to various dangers and problems, such as the loss of algae and the destruction of the coral reefs.

Funding and Development

Dreams, however fabulous, remain unfulfilled without the cash to support the commitment. "The hardest part of the process was finding sponsorship to the tune of €550 million," admits Hauser. "That's what brought me to Dubai. Still, it was a battle which took two-and-a-half years and proved tougher than developing the project itself. No bank would pay such an amount. It's a risky investment, as there are no pilots. We had to convince investors that it is safe and will bring returns on investment."

With official blessing, the Dubai Development & Investment Authority (DDIA) established a framework to handle grants and authorisations. Once the financial backing was guaranteed, the sonar analysis of the seabed complete and 7,000 anchors in place, construction began in summer 2005.

"We are sure that this hotel will set a precedent," says Hauser. "Crescent-Hydropolis is now planning a chain of underwater hotels, and nine countries have shown interest. Some will be the realisation of my initial deep-sea design." Hauser has even chosen to make his permanent home in Dubai. "And that won't change after the project [is finished], regardless of where our next project will be. The infrastructure is exceptionally good here - and it seldom rains!"

Key Players

Crescent Hydropolis Holdings LLC were the original intellectual property rights developer and are acting as the project developers, with SIBC Industrial Building Consultants as the global project managers.

Consultation has come from Q3A+D Limited as architecture and design consultants and Siemens I&S IS Facility & Systems Engineering as the technical engineering consultants. OSTSEE-KONTOR GmbH are providing the marine and naval surveying services.

Design, architecture and interior scenery is being provided by 3-Deluxe System Modern GmbH. The underwater foundation, tunnel and access way will be the work of DCN Duik Combinatie Nederland B.V.

Less ambitious but still quite interesting is the underwater Red Sea Underwater Restaurant, Eilat, Israel. The facility is already in regular use.

Tags: Dubai's underwater hotel

• architecture
• buildingunderwater
• underwaterbuildings
• hotel
• restaurant
• Dubai
• EilatIsrael

Aesthetics: Arts: What is it about TV's character played by Vincent D'Onofrio, I don't like?

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Rather, what is about this character that I detest? Smart-alecky pop-Freudian analyst, Detective Robert Goren, head honcho of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, who is written up in the show's scripts on the assumption that he is always r+t, and because he's so blantantly smart, also always knows he's r+t. Thus, this copdick has the r+t to bully and badger and blackmail his victims (of course, they're always guilty, but in real life such a cop would not be jailing the guilty only). Could there really be any such copperdicker? Over all, L&O: CI totters on a poor script with black and white characterizations, not enuff grey, with the benefit of the doubt always going to D'Onofrio (yes, you guessed it, I'm prejudiced against the character but can't keep separate in this case, that the actor is actually someone else).

TV, by Anaximaximum

There's an axe being ground thru-out the narrative structure of each episode, the entire series, and in the end I put it all at the feet Dick Wolf, the creator of the show. Not all his creations are this bad, by any means. But I think perhaps he gets to create too many and in D'Onofrio's incessantly insulting transcendent omnipotent Freud he's created a deeply amoral prime time TV show.

Immediately following the broadcast of today's episode (which is no different from the usual in this series), another episode series by the same Dick Wolf takes to the screen on the Omni2 channel seen here in Toronto. This second series is actually, with the D'Onofrio-starring offering, part of a set of four.

Dick Wolf, one of television's most respected drama series creator/producers, is the architect of one of the most successful brands in the history of television Law & Order. Wolf serves as creator and executive producer of the four Law & Order drama series from Wolf Films and NBC Universal Television [1.] Law & Order, [2.] Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, [3.] Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Trial By Jury [launched] in the 2004-05 season. In addition, he is creator and executive producer of NBC's courtroom reality series Crime & Punishment, which chronicles real-life cases prosecuted by the San Diego District Attorney's office. ...

Wolf's Law & Order [multi]series continue to re-write the annals of television history. With more than 320 episodes under its belt, Law & Order – now entering its 15th season on NBC – is the longest-running current drama series on television. It has received 11 consecutive Outstanding Drama Series Emmy nominations – the record for most consecutive series Emmy nominations in the history of television (tied with Cheers and M*A*S*H) – and won the coveted Emmy in that category in 1997. With NBC's most recent pick up (through 2005-06), Law & Order will become the longest-running police series and the second-longest running drama series in the history of television, behind only Gunsmoke. Law & Order's other accolades include: the highly coveted Peabody Award; multiple Emmys; the Crystal Apple Award from the New York City's Mayor's office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting; the Writer's Guild Award for Television and numerous other high ranking tributes.

Really? The Writer's Guild Award for Television? Oh, that doesn't include the D'Onofrio writing/acting debacle.

Tags: TV's Law&Order

• aesthetics
• arts
• TV
• dramaseries
• detectivestories
• D'OnofrioVincent
• WolfDick

Aesthetics: Arts: Napster announces its free-chosen music awards for 2006

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Complete List of 2006 Napster Award Winners

Napster U.S.


Most-Played Artist
Jack Johnson

Most-Played Song
"Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy

Most-Played New Artist
Carrie Underwood

Most-Played NapsterLive Session
Natasha Bedingfield Rising Star Arctic Monkeys

Most-Played Self-Published Artist
Jadox

Unstoppable Artist
Scott Joplin

Most-Played Cover Song
"One" by Cowboy Junkies (originally performed by U2)

Most-Played Alternative Artist
Coldplay

Most-Played Alternative Song
"Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy

Most-Played Blues Artist
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Most-Played Blues Song
"The Thrill Is Gone" by B.B. King

Most-Played Christian Artist
Third Day

Most-Played Christian Song
"Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot

Most-Played Classical Artist
Andrea Bocelli

Most-Played Classical Recording
"Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro)" by Andrea Bocelli

Most-Played Comedy Artist
Weird Al Yankovic

Most-Played Comedy Recording
"White & Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic

Most-Played Country
Artist Rascal Flatts

Most-Played Country Song
"What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts

Most-Played Dance/Electronic Artist
Madonna


Most-Played Dance/Electronic Recording
"Everytime We Touch" by Cascada

Most-Played Folk Artist
Damien Rice

Most-Played Folk Song "
The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice

Most-Played Hip-Hop Artist
Eminem

Most-Played Hip-Hop Song
"Ridin'" by Chamillionaire

Most-Played Jazz Artist
Norah Jones

Most-Played Jazz Recording
"Come Away with Me" by Norah Jones

Most-Played Latin Artist
Shakira

Most-Played Latin Song
"Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira

Most-Played Pop Artist
Jack Johnson

Most-Played Pop Song
"Move Along" by All American Rejects

Pop MusicScape, by Owlie Scowlie

Most-Played R&B Artist
Mary J. Blige

Most-Played R&B Song
"Unfaithful" by Rihanna

Most-Played Reggae Artist
Sean Paul

Most-Played Reggae Song
"Temperature" by Sean Paul

Most-Played Rock Artist
Nickelback

Most-Played Rock Song
"Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy


Most-Played World Artist
Enya

Most-Played World Song
"Only Time" by Enya

Napster U.K.

Most-Played Artist
Snow Patrol

Most-Played Song
"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley

Most-Played New Artist
Arctic Monkeys

Most-Played NapsterLive Session
The Feeling Rising Star Infernal

Most-Played Self-Published Artist
Suzanne Ciani

Unstoppable Artist
Frank Sinatra

Most-Played Cover Song
"One" by Mary J. Blige (originally performed by U2)

Napster Germany

Most-Played Artist
Nelly Furtado

Most-Played Song
"No, No, Never" by Texas Lightning

Most-Played New Artist
Texas Lightning

Most-Played NapsterLive Session
Akon Rising Star Chamillionaire

Most-Played Self-Published Artist
Humberto y Sus Amigos

Unstoppable Artist
Elvis Presley

Most-Played Cover Song
"One" by Mary J. Blige (originally performed by U2)

Napster Canada

Most-Played Artist
Coldplay

Most-Played Song
"You are Beautiful" by James Blunt

Most-Played New Artist
Gnarls Barkley

Most-Played NapsterLive Session
Default Rising Star KT Tunstall

Most-Played Self-Published Artist
David Barela

Unstoppable Artist
Johnny Cash

Most-Played Cover Song
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow
(originally performed by Cat Stevens)

Sports: American Football: Washington Redskins losing to New Orleans Saints in pro NFL game

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I picked up the game in the 2nd quarter, when the Redskins were leading--Washington 13, New Orleans 10. Michael Lewis takes the kickoff way back in the Saints defense zone, runs the ball 26 yards before he's taken down by the Redskins. But in the next scrimmage, a Saints man is taken down again. There's "a breakdown of protection." Again. And now the Saints drop a pass.

Sports, by Sportikos

The Saints are in big trouble, tho now there's only a 6 point advantage for the Redskins. Saint Reggie Bush picks up some yardage, but it gets squandered in the next play. Time out. Redskins' Rogers blocks a Saint pass into the endzone. The time's just about gone ... and it's the Redskins 16, Saints 10. A dismal day for the Saints, but still they lead 'Skins in the natonal NFL standing.

Tags: Clooney's neo-filmnoir

• aesthetics
• sports
• footballproUSA
• RedskinsVsSaints

Sports: Soccer: I'm watching the English Premier League football clubs. Aston Villa vs Bolton with a 1 lead

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The game is warmly-fawt but seems a bit sloppy. The crowd is at h+pitch, gloriously noisy thru-out. The clock is ticking 85:49. Four minutes added. Anelka seems the big gun for Bolton in this English Premier Cup game, a real frenzy hurtling toward conclusion, Bolton Wanderers 1, Aston Villa O.

Sports, by Sportikos

I'll have to check out the Premier Cup's website, and look into Bolton. I saw them play last week against West Ham United in the Barclays Premiership.

To bone up on the league, part of the official Football Association, you mite try these source:

The Premier League's Surprise Team
Premier League website
Official write-up of today's game Sat Dec16,2k6

Tags: English football (soccer)

• aesthetics
• sports
• footballUK
• soccer
• EnglishPremierCup

Movies: Neo-noir: Clooney's 'Good German' a style-flick mimicking '1940s Hollywood romantic thriller'

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Christian Science Monitor's film critic Peter Rainer (Dec15,2k6) whacks movie "The Good German" in theatres now. He says the flick, starring George Clooney with Cate Blanchett, is 'sytle over substance." It "makes an earnest attempt but can't save the film from its emptiness" (MELINDA SUE GORDON/WARNER BROS.)

"Not so 'Good German'"

Director Soderbergh goes for a 1940s noir feel, but loses story.

Movies, by Anaximander

"The Good German" is a prime example of a movie made by highly skilled and intelligent filmmakers that nevertheless seems misguided from the get-go. In attempting to make a movie that mimics a 1940s Hollywood romantic thriller, director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Paul Attanasio have concocted what amounts to perhaps the most elaborate film-school exercise ever mounted by a major studio.

Whew! That do sting!

Tags: Clooney's neo-filmnoir

• aesthetics
• arts
• film
• filmnoir
• Hollywoodromanticthriller
• ClooneyGeorge
• stylefilm

Sports: American Football: Pro battle between Buffalo Bills (31) and NY Jets (13)

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I watched the Buffalo Bills vs NY Jets game, on TV, this Sunday afternoon. The Bills put into play such skilled and heavy-duty gents as Justin Miller (who intercepted, ran to recover 92 yards -- an eventlet that will enter the history books).

Sports, by Sportikos

Lee Evans, Nate Clements, Mike Nugent kicked 38 yards using the last second to HalfTime, to gain field goal pointage. In the second Half, one name and image stands out as a huge part of the victory: Willis McGahee.

I honestly can't remember all that about the Jets. The final score says itall: Bill 31; Jets 13.

Climb the ladder in the standings, Bills. Bull buffaloes all. Go!, Bills

Technics: Cellphones: Appligos blog dollops the dope on non-identical iPhone twins coming in 2007

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refWrite's brother blog, Appligos carries the latest info on Apple's cellphone project as discussed on Slashdot and AppleInsider. Scheduled for release in 2007, analysts predict the marketing of two versions of iPhone that will be tied to .Mac (the annual-subscription online multifeature Web 2.0 suite).

Technotes, by Owlie Scowlie

One can't help wondering if the iPhone developments will eventually lead to a development parallel to the huge success of iPod, but to make it so eventually, iPhone would not be able to prachute into the lead as did iPod which displaced the the longtime market-occupant Sony Walkman, largely due to iPod's connection to the iTunes Music Store. Instead, iPhone would have to slug it out for every mile of market share against all the handheld miniphones called "mobile phones"--still, none of them have a tie-in to .Mac.

Tags: Appligos features Apple iPhone

• technics
• cellphones
• iPhone
• .Mac
• iPod
• iTunesMusicStore
• SonyWalkman

Sports: Pro Football: New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboys

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I've been watching the Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants game out of East Rutherford, New Jersey. Much a naif, I found myself siding with the red jerseys, which turned out to be those of the Giants who are lagging behind the Cowboys ahead by 3 points (10 Giants, 13 Cowboys). Brandon Jacobs (263 llb) cawt the pass by Eli Manning, with Jacobs moving his bulk some 20 yards at breakneck speed. Another tuff opponent on the losing side at the moment, would be a guy named Shockey. Then there's T C Barber.

Sports, by Sportikos

Tony Romo is the head honcho for the 'Boys team. Aside from Romo's, the only name I absorbed from the Cowboys is Martin Grammatica's--he's their kickisto. ... But now in a set of electric moves, the Giants have tied-up the score, 13-13. Yeah, team! (We're in the 4th Quarter, so things are thick and tense.)

Dallas scores again, 20 to NYG's 13. 2-minute warning. Shaving ad.

TC Barber receives from Manning and gains 28 yards for the Giants. Another yardage gain by Barber. Now, Burress scores another touchdown for the Giants. Tie again! A thriller of a pro-football game, American style.

A minute left, two time-outs. Cowboys in field-goal proximity, but get a 5-yard penalty. Which puts Dallas in question because Grammatica's range is doubtful now. Romo is whipping his boys into a final-moments frenzy. Grammatica comes out to the field for the field-goal kick, crossing himself, crossing himself again.

Giants take a time-out. Grammatica is crossing himself again, and again.

Grammatica takes his kick, puts Cowboys on top. Dallas 23, Giants 20.

1 second left. Giants make their play. Fizzes out.

Dallas Cowboys win.