Gregorian Chant on the pop charts

“violin virtuoso […] a onetime child prodigy, performed for spare change on his priceless Stradivarius, incognito, for three-quarters of an hour outside a subway station. Most people hurried past, unheeding. The violinist made a few measly bucks and change.” No, it wasn’t Joshua Bell (via The Fredösphere)

The Tale of the White Jacket

Heavy Nylon - heh. I love that title.

Lawyer’s attempt to be cool misses the mark

More guitar music

Some Great Symphonies You Should Know - a good place for classical newbies to start

I don’t get it. None of those bike helmets look more or less cool than the others. They’re just bike helmets and except for the different colors and relatively minor variations in shape they all look pretty much alike. Which I suppose means that I am not cool and that pleases me no end. Coolness was invented so that people who are not smart enough to be dorky can feel good about themselves.

Earth is getting greener because of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I thought of this a long time ago but I’m not a scientist. Who am I to question all the brilliant minds who insist that the end is near. Well, the end might be near but not like they say. It is our would-be saviors we should worry about the most.

Doubling the jeopardy for Earth is man. Unlike the many scientists who welcome CO2 for its benefits, many other scientists and most governments believe carbon dioxide to be a dangerous pollutant that must be removed from the atmosphere at all costs. Governments around the world are now enacting massive programs in an effort to remove as much as 80% of the carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.

If these governments are right, they will have done us all a service. If they are wrong, the service could be all ill, with food production dropping world wide, and the countless ecological niches on which living creatures depend stressed.

[…]

Amazingly, although the risks of action are arguably at least as real as the risks of inaction, Canada and other countries are rushing into Earth-altering carbon schemes with nary a doubt. Environmentalists, who ordinarily would demand a full-fledged environmental assessment before a highway or a power plant can be built, are silent on the need to question proponents or examine alternatives.

Found at Fresh Bilge.

By the way, here’s another environmental item: Volcanos erupting beneath Arctic ice. Strangely, scientists “don’t see any significant connection” between the volcanos and melting Arctic ice. Hmmmm….

I’ve noticed a lot of interest in Starbucks’ announcement that they are planning to close 600 of their locations. Surely no one is surprised by this. It was inevitable. How many Starbucks do you need in one city block?

A few months ago a new Starbucks opened in The Nearby Small Town. My immediate reaction was shock and that all too familiar feeling that there’s something terribly wrong with the universe. The Nearby Small Town is not the kind of place that has such a thing as a Starbucks. But, as is my way, I quickly got a grip and realized that the opening of a new Starbucks is not quite a civilization ending event. It’s as ordinary and insignificant as the opening of a new McDonald’s.

Wait. Come to think of it, both of those are civilization ending events, just not cataclysmic civilization ending events; just part of the gradual slipping away of civilization.

Anyway… enough melodrama. I have never been in a Starbucks, mainly because I’m not a coffee drinker. I guess that reason doesn’t make a lot of sense; I understand they’re actually in the milk business and serve very little coffee. I have recently been tempted though. I saw an ad somewhere for Starbucks’ frozen lemonade. I have a feeling that on some hot summer day in the near future I will find myself walking into Starbucks. Resistance is futile. I will be assimilated.

Abandoned swimming pools - A couple of the indoor pool buildings have some nice architectural details. (via BLDGBLOG)

Star Trek meets Monty Python - That works way too well. (via Byzantium’s Shores)

Uncommon Goods - unusual home decor, tableware, jewelry and other items; fairly expensive. (via Color Addict)

Nostaligia for stores now gone

Purple Slinky - a site featuring interesting lists, such as, funny signs, poisonous plants, odd chocolate items and time wasting websites.

Timeline of Internet Memes - So now I can find out which ones I missed. Most of them, probably. (via David Thompson)

An object of unexpected significance

OneWord - haven’t tried it yet; looks like a word association thing. (via Shiny Shiny)

The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) now have a website where they sell their old-fashioned style clothing. Right now they only sell children’s clothing but they may start selling adult clothing if there is enough interest.

I’ve never been sure whether I find those “prairie dresses” sweet or creepy. Sweet individually I guess but creepy that they all wear practically the same thing. In the unlikely event that I decide I want to look like that I can easily make my own. If the style catches on they’ll probably try to copyright their designs.

Via AMCGLTD

Here’s a very nice new classical music blog: The Horn. I’ll definitely add this one to my list. Hopefully, I will even get around to reading it once in a while.

I’ve been neglecting all the music blogs for a long time. You might look at the name of this blog and wonder, “Where are the violins?” Well, there are violins playing on my stereo right now. (Myslivecek concerti) I guess I should try to talk about them more often, huh?

The June issue of Smithsonian Magazine had an article about manufactured gem quality diamonds, also called “cultured diamonds.” (A trade group known as the Jewelers Vigilance Committee wants the FTC to force diamond manufacturers to use the term “synthetic” instead of “cultured’)

Naturally, the diamond mining industry is not happy about this development. A spokesperson for DeBeers insists, “Diamonds are rare and special things with an inherent value that does not exist in factory-made synthetics. When people want to celebrate a unique relationship they want a unique diamond, not a three-day-old factory-made stone.” I don’t know… I think a lot of people would be happy to own diamonds that they know no one died for, that in no way helped pay for terrorism and the production of which was less harmful to the environment than diamond mining.

There are also a number of possible industrial uses for manufactured diamond, such as spacecraft windows and electronics.

Collateral Damage - lots of interesting and amusing things. For example, Best Politicians Excuse Ever and weird, ugly shoes

Romulo Lopez Cordero - lots of links, mostly technology related, a few in Spanish

Modern Cat - everything cat related; not just pictures of cats, but also stuff you can buy for your cat and occasionally cat art

The Impulsive Buy - entertaining product reviews. Tag line: “Putting the ‘ew’ in product reviews.”

Green Canary - very well written and entertaining. If this lady isn’t a professional humor columnist she should be.

You might remember that I recently linked to this Ectoplasmosis post about a woman who scratched a hole in her skull and expressed my skepticism. Since then I have read the New Yorker article in which the story appears. Should I believe this incredible tale just because it was told in a prestigious publication? Maybe.

Anyway, this article is extremely interesting for more than just the gross “hole scratched in skull” story. It’s about how itching actually works and all kinds of sensations, including phantom limb sensations.

… the feelings people experience in their phantom limbs are far too varied and rich to be explained by the random firings of a bruised nerve. People report not just pain but also sensations of sweatiness, heat, texture, and movement in a missing limb. There is no experience people have with real limbs that they do not experience with phantom limbs. They feel their phantom leg swinging, water trickling down a phantom arm, a phantom ring becoming too tight for a phantom digit. Children have used phantom fingers to count and solve arithmetic problems. V. S. Ramachandran, an eminent neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, has written up the case of a woman who was born with only stumps at her shoulders, and yet, as far back as she could remember, felt herself to have arms and hands; she even feels herself gesticulating when she speaks.

There’s also an interesting story about a man who experienced a number of strange sensations and the simple partial cure that he discovered thanks to the journalist who wrote the article.

I know there are probably some people out there who want more details and some who are thinking, “Oh no! Not another kitten post!” But I am encouraged by all the comments on the first kitten post so here I go again. I’m not sure why but blogs and cats seem to go together.

Dax is a very cuddly little kitten. She doesn’t play much so far; she just wants to sit on my lap. Actually she would rather sit on my shoulder or cling to the front of my shirt. She’s quiet. If I put her down she usually just sits in or near the last chair I was sitting in and waits.

I think she may get more active in two or three weeks. She came from a household with way too many cats so she’s less than perfectly healthy. She’s a little undernourished. She also has conjunctivitis in one eye but I understand that’s fairly common in kittens.

For such a tiny thing, she’s a little overwhelming. She’s not yet independent like you expect cats to be. I have to be a cat mom all the time. Kes is afraid of her. (Silly old cat.) Kes adopted Crash almost immediately when he showed up on our back porch but she just hisses at Dax and backs away. So humans are Dax’s only friends now.

Researchers have developed a cloth that can absorb mercury from broken florescent bulbs.

I’ve been wondering about the florescent bulb mercury danger issue recently. The old-fashioned long tube florescents contain mercury also don’t they? I have rarely, if ever, heard anyone worrying about the mercury in those. I remember when someone broke a couple of long florescent tubes in the place where I used to work and it was no big deal. They just swept up the glass and that was it.

Lots of photos of Russian cheerleaders. Some of their costumes are… um… interesting. Lots of bling and apparently fishnet stockings are quite popular in Russia.

A collection of flood photos from the U.S. midwest and Asia, after two artists’ concepts.

Brilliant commentary at Stuff White People like. Found via Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars, a very nice blog I came across somewhere recently.

xkcd honors “the greatest commercial in teevee history.”

Strange… I always hear “boom de ah da” but apparently most people hear “boom de yada”. Google confirms that I’m in the minority. 24,000 hits for “boom de yada” and only 1260 for “boom de ah da”.

Actually that should be Overlady.

I wasn’t expecting to get her until at least next week when I will be seeing the person I got her from anyway but she called me last night and I brought the little one home this morning. She’s very quiet and affectionate. I haven’t made a final decision on a name yet. Here’s another pic just to show off how beautiful she is.

She seems so tiny and fragile. I’m just about as nervous and worried as a new parent.

UPDATE: It’s official. Her name is Dax. She had her first visit to the vet today and she was very good.

UPDATE II: More about Dax. And thanks for the link.

It happens every summer - someone leaves a baby in a hot car and goes shopping. The guilty parents always claim they just forgot about the child but how could you? I really don’t see how. Anyway, it’s no excuse. It’s your responsibility to remember that you have the child with you.

And you know… I suppose it’s wrong to judge people by appearances but doesn’t that woman just look like someone who would do something that stupid and irresponsible? They don’t always show the person on TV in these cases but when they do, almost always, they have that unmistakable “trailer trash” look. Of course not everyone who lives in a trailer is trash and not all trailer trash live in trailers; some live in nice homes. It’s an attitude, a lifestyle.

Oklahoma has a shockingly high rate of child abuse and neglect. What can be done? How do you get through to people who would do something like leaving an infant in a hot car on a summer day?

1968 called! They want their graphic design back! — here

I don’t normally go in for swear-blogging, but there are times when only swear-blogging will do. — there

Very quickly now the date approaches where the holes in the future meet the present. — here

I’m not living in the moment, I’m living in September. That’s a problem since it’s not September. — there

Here’s a 1905 map of Oklahoma, available in super high resolution. Found at Dustbury.