purrs & growls

Herald Tribune - 100 years ago today

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:30:12 +0200

1909 Situation in Spain Is Serious MADRID At the request of the Cabinet King Alfonso has signed a decree suspending the Constitutional guarantees for the whole of Spain. The situation in Barcelona remains serious and the rioting continues. In a collision between the police and the population eleven were killed and fifty wounded. The soldiers refused to fire at the mob, which cheered them, crying “Viva l’Armada!” Barcelona is deprived of light and the tramcars have ceased to run. All the shops are closed and commercial life is at a stop. The bakers, it is reported, will refuse to-morrow [July 29] to sell any bread. Gangs of strikers have left the town to cut the railways line and prevent the arrival of troops. The Spanish situation, both as regards Spain and the African colonies, continues to be very grave. The King has returned from San Sebastian to discuss matters with his Ministers. Rumors are current that Señor Maura may resign and that a military Cabinet may be appointed, events in Barcelona having taken an openly revolutionary character. Troops have been sent from Valencia, Saragossa, Lerida and Pampeluna to re-establish order in Catalonia. The Government is firmly resolved to maintain order at all costs.

Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption)

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:23:22 +0200

Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption):

Online there is certainly a great profusion of opinion, but there is little reporting, and still less of it subject to any rigorous fact-checking or editorial scrutiny. Other than news aggregators such as Google News—which link to articles from publications that still derive most of their revenue from print—the most successful news sites are oriented to specialized audiences. No online enterprise has yet generated a stream of revenue to support original reporting for the general public comparable to the revenue stream that newspapers have generated in print.

lace_cookies.jpg: sugarcoma series 09

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:55:36 +0200

lace_cookies.jpg:

sugarcoma series 09

pb-choc_cupcakes.jpg: sugarcoma series 09

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:55:32 +0200

pb-choc_cupcakes.jpg:

sugarcoma series 09

pumpkin_bread.jpg: sugarcoma series 09

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:55:26 +0200

pumpkin_bread.jpg:

sugarcoma series 09

Flow (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:58:11 +0200

Flow (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

About the Mr Spamalots

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:16:29 +0200

About the Mr Spamalots:

They monitored three spam campaigns, in which more than 469 million e-mails were sent. Of the 350 million messages pitching pharmaceuticals, 10,522 users visited the advertised site, but only 28 people tried to make a purchase, a response rate of .0000081 percent. Still, that rate is high enough to potentially generate up to US$3.5 million in annual revenue, they concluded.

"Think about how stupid the average person is; now realize half of them are dumber than that."

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:19:23 +0200

“Think about how stupid the average person is; now realize half of them are dumber than that.”

- George Carlin

reading about writing

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:56:00 +0200

We are so deeply limited by language, and so ennobled by it. Songs are the attempt to convey what is under and behind language, and so it is counter-productive, if not counter-intuitive, to clutch at exactitudes of circumstance that retreat further in meaning the more desperate we become to quantify them.

My friend Joe Henry says that songwriting is not about self-expression (ewwww), but about discovery. I am of entirely the same mind, which is why I recoil against the attempt to categorize “personal” songs of mine as diary pages and why I resist that niggling insistence on the facts. Self-expression without craft is for toddlers. Real artistic accomplishment requires a suspension of certitude. E.L. Doctorow said that “writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” He may not have been referring specifically to songwriting, but it applies. Great songwriting is not a poor man’s poetry, or a distant cousin to “real” writing. It requires the same discipline and craft. Bright flashes of inspiration can initiate it, but it cannot be completed that way.

Rosseane Cash writes on songwriting in an article entitled “The Ear of the Beholder”, for the New York Times (full article here)

a suitcase: no wonder it was heavy

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:22 +0200

a suitcase: no wonder it was heavy

fortune cookies: messages in Spanish

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:18 +0200

fortune cookies: messages in Spanish

remember the day it snowed?: I do

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:15 +0200

remember the day it snowed?: I do

Guacamole y PBJ: decadence!

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:11 +0200

Guacamole y PBJ: decadence!

TV Dinners: Típica cena en casa

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:07 +0200

TV Dinners: Típica cena en casa

TV dinners: Baked Zitti a la Soprano

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:09:04 +0200

TV dinners: Baked Zitti a la Soprano

color cenorrio: mac and cheese, mantel nuevo y limonadas.

Wed, 06 May 2009 01:46:52 +0200

color cenorrio: mac and cheese, mantel nuevo y limonadas.

doña ciruela: don’t play with your food unless it asks

Wed, 06 May 2009 01:46:49 +0200

doña ciruela: don’t play with your food unless it asks

remember the storm

Wed, 06 May 2009 01:46:47 +0200

remember the storm

Supersingle Me

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:42:02 +0200

Supersingle Me:

Amanece y se me empieza a estrechar la garganta. Ando baja de defensas y esto es lo peor que me podría pasar, las vacaciones moqueando y con escalofríos.

La casa es grande, una…

Typical monthly cost of Type 1 diabetes in the US

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:44:06 +0200

Prices are the full cost, and would be lower for someone with insurance.

Humalog fast-acting insulin: $104.11
Lantus long-acting insulin: $77.20
1 syringe/day for Lantus: $10.50
3 pen needles/day for Humalog: $33.64
4 lancets/day (for finger pricking): $14.99
4 test strips/day: $123.59
Total: $364.03

Sources: American Diabetes Association,www.drugstore.com, U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality