Jul 05, 2008: Today's Picks from Arts & Letters Daily
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%, far more than previous estimates, says a secret World Bank report... more»
Because we must decide if some means can be justified by their ends, moralists will always be in work. Consider the history of the CIA... more»
Better to let the Arabs “do it imperfectly than to do it yourself perfectly: for it is their country, their way and your time is short.” T.E. Lawrence is still right... more»
Standing in a knitting shop in upstate NY - don’t ask - studying the
walls, I spotted this label from afar on an air heating unit. Trent
Reznor being one of my favorite musical artists, I was naturally
compelled to take a photo.
What I didn’t anticipate seeing were the words “Mercer, Pennsylvania”
on the label. You see, that’s precisely where Trent is from, and I’m
led to believe that this must be the family business!
Delighted to discover that it wasn’t just a random appearance of the
name as I first suspected but is instead “the” Reznor name.
-Roderick
-
Sent from the road via Wireless Blackberry
www.roderickrussell.com
Just a quick note to readers that in order to support blog submissions from my BlackBerry, I’ve finally upgraded to the latest release of WordPress. The last version was accepting my posts but not posting the entire content. At the recommendation of other users, I’ve upgraded (about time, really) and all works flawlessly.
I should make a quick note about two plugins.
As submissions from my phone while I’m on the road tend to be more whimsical and consist often of nothing more than a photo, I needed a good way to handle media attachments to WordPress via email. Alas, the built-in support is a bit finicky.
Thankfully I was able to locate and install the PostMaster plug-in (http://blog.xforward.com/?page_id=65). So far it’s working perfectly and invisibly and I can recommend it.
Journalist Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food along with four previous books, spoke at Google last month as part of their Authors@Google series. The video of his talk is up on YouTube and it’s incredible.
So compelling (and practical) was his talk that I rushed out to purchase his book immediately and it’s been worth every penny. In a world that has constantly conflicting scientific reports on nutrition, a government that issues shifting guidelines oftentimes in response to politics rather than data, and supermarkets filled with food-like products rather than food, how are we to know what to eat? And why in the world would we even have to ask such a seemingly silly question?
Pollan addresses and answers these questions and more in his book while also giving us – in seven words no less – very practical advice on eating and staying healthy.
Sword swallower and mind reader Roderick Russell will be appearing at the Pennsylvania College of Technology for a show that is completely free and open to the public. (sponsored by PCT Student Activities)
WHEN: Saturday, April 19th WHERE: Klump Academic Center Auditorium on the PCT Campus (W. 3rd in Williamsport) TIME: 8:00 pm PRICE: FREE!!!
The theater is a beautiful little performance space with 561 seats that I first worked in back in, oh, 2004 or so. We’d like to fill the space and have a great time. If you’re in the area be sure to come on out, and bring your friends!
Many thanks to all who turned out for the book signing this past weekend at Borders Books in central PA. Not only did we have a capacity crowd, the store also sold out of their entire stock of the book!
The Take a Picture, Get a Poster promotion is still running, but again, if you want to participate you better do so quickly, as the book won’t be around much longer!
###
After a long journey through the postal system from Germany to the United States, along with time spent being forwarded within the US itself in an attempt to find me while I travel, the March issue of Matador Magazine, Germany’s best-selling GQ-style magazine, has finally made its way into my waiting hands.
A bit late perhaps – the fault being entirely mine, as I’m currently away from home – but the spread looks great, making it well worth the wait.
Alongside the usual gear reviews found in men’s lifestyle magazines (audio equipment, auto news, gadgets), how-to lists and entertainment news, you’ll also find an interview with Charlize Theron, a profile of Shaun White, and a list of bands with the guru’s they adore. Amy Winehouse apparently works one-on-one with David Sye, while the Beach Boys go in for the more 60’s commercial message of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And of course there’s also the stunning spread (oddly not the cover) of Sabrina, aka Miss Matador. What men’s lifestyle magazine would be complete without a Miss Magazinename?
I love hearing from fans of the show. I get incredible letters from all sorts of unexpected places, and sometimes, they let me know that I’ve been spotted in unexpected places.
One of the most recent messages was from Bethany Boles, a fan from Connecticut. She was recently visiting New York City and while in downtown Manhattan she spotted me as part of the Magic Hat ad campaign. (for those who don’t know, I lent my image to Magic Hat Brewery for a series of commercials and print ads run throughout the country)
Naturally I was flattered that someone even noticed me amidst the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, and I was thrilled that Magic Hat had placed ads throughout the city. What I didn’t realize was the extent of the presence!
Nigel Hardman, a 40-year-old “illusionist” from England was recently charged with eleven counts of cheating the benefits system (aka collecting unemployment, for those in the States) after his “act” brought him to the attention of authorities.
Performing – and I use that term very loosely – under the name Prince Razaq, he is said to have presented “death-defying” stunts such as sword swallowing, fire eating, walking on broken glass, escapes from straitjackets and standing on a bed of nails. Investigators apparently became curious regarding his claims of “too ill to work” - for which he was collecting benefits - after seeing him perform on the television show The Big Breakfast, clearly demonstrating that he was, well, not too ill to work!
A collection of persistent mistakes and fraudulent facts from the world’s most popular reference work.
How many times have you found yourself in a lovely yet heated discussion, feeling that you might be making some headway with your argument, only to hear the following dreaded phrase - “Weeeelll, according to Wikipedia…” - followed by a stream of apocryphal facts and sources?
Forget for a moment the questionable prudence in citing an encyclopedia as a source – after all, we all turn to it as a quick reference now and again – but with mistakes so rampant, bias so pronounced and (despite Wikipedia’s best policy efforts) the actual real world practice of scholarly correction so spotty, how can we in good conscience trust the trivia that comes spewing forth from the Grand Collaboration?
side note: I have direct experience with the sketchy nature of Wikipedia. A good friend’s well-researched entry was once removed with no explanation and replaced with a poorly written and terribly inaccurate 14 year old girl’s entry (still active), while one of my own original entries became a marketing platform for my competitors – still uncorrected years later.
How to view your website in 53+ browsers on 3 major platforms in mere minutes with zero effort.
Though current statistics indicate that almost 62% of web users are surfing the web with some version of Internet Explorer (reaffirming that I always find myself in a minority) with Firefox coming in a distant second at around 28%, web designers need to be aware that users will be viewing their websites in a huge variety of web browsers each running on a wide cross-section of platforms. Safari and Opera are the only other browsers to regularly make the top stats lists, but there are literally dozens of browsers and platforms available.
A bit old according to ‘net standards – being from October, 2007 and all – but just picked this up from Casey’s blog and it got me to thinking…
TwitterWhere is an application that allows you to view Twitter Tweets by location via RSS or XML. Along with other Twitter-based apps (such as TwitterVision and TwitterMap, mentioned even on the TwitterWhere page) it’s a cool little extension of Twitter that gets geeks excited simply by being a neat remix of data.
My first thought upon seeing this was “cool, I can watch and anticipate flash mobs and the like by location!” which made me stop and consider - “Hey, anyone can watch and anticipate flash mobs by location!”
Undoubtedly some savvy government type entrenched in an office somewhere – Homeland Security, local police, et. al. - also had this “duh” moment, and maybe even wrote their own app eons ago.
I’ll be on the road for the next seven weeks and will be making some public appearance stops along the way. Here’s one to watch out for:
Roderick Russell : Sword Swallower Appearance and Book Signing
Borders Books and Music
300 Lycoming Mall Circle
Pennsdale, PA 17756
DATE: April 12, 2008 TIME: 1 pm
I’ll be on hand to sign copies of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not : The Remarkable… Revealed and will be giving a close-up performance, a brief sword swallowing demonstration and a Q&A session to follow.
(note about video: My inclusion of this is a bit unfair to Lang Lang, as this is not a formal performance. Truth be told, it’s wonderful to see such joy and delight in the act of making music. Nevertheless…)
My good friend Melissa sent along an article that I missed yesterday from the New York Times.
It’s a great article - but then, I’m sympathetic - and Melissa was curious to hear what I thought about it. I jotted off a quick response and, after sending, realized that it would be perfect for discussion here as well.
