==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, November 16, 2002

New ad-free portal/webmail site My Way takes on Yahoo, MSN etc.

5MB email with no ads is tempting, though I haven't tried it. I'm trying out mail.com and 37.com which have 10MB and 7MB storage respectively. They both work pretty well but are ad-rich (as is yahoo, though it's got an easy, friendlier design). I'm testing ISPs because I want to switch from peoplepc.com and want alt-emails for the transition -- and ureach.com is running these dropdown ads you have to click on to read the page, like msnbc.com. I can't abide that shit.



9:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Dalton Ghetti's miniature pencil lead sculptures [The Ends of the Earth]

2:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sterling's site offered up multi-links for accessing free wireless across the US this week

Also Free Geek, a Portland OR group that offers Linux machines in exchange for helping build them and free computers and support for any business that pays for access.

1:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, November 15, 2002

Marine archaeologists find sea level rose 40' off Florida sometime in the last 8400 years

1:42 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tips on viewing the Leonid meteor shower on the 18th/19th [Space Weather]

10:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Balinese perform special purification ceremony at blast site

3:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

In case you weren't tracking it, metascene is back and it's bad, as usual

2:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Rash of fake commemorative plaques tweak Parisians, tourists

4:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Cat owners: there's a new $300 litter box that cleans itself [Christian Science Monitor]

2:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Near-simultaneous solar flares erupted on opposite sides of the sun on Halloween

Observed with a new Air Force telescope to gauge conditions for space travel and space station inhabitants, this has never been seen before.

1:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

David Sterritt puff piece on Far from Heaven

Haynes works another transformation on the story, spotlighting two kinds of bigotry that still remain prevalent today.

Sirk himself explored racial prejudice during the '50s in "Imitation of Life," his finest film, but homosexuality was a subject that could only be hinted at in that heavily censored era.

Haynes takes on these still-relevant topics with enormous tact and sensitivity, making a forthright plea for compassion while avoiding any hint of sensationalism.

He also does a masterly job of re-creating Sirk's passionate visual style, using a delicious sense of aesthetic artifice to convey feelings as rich and profound as anything today's tricked-up filmmaking techniques are capable of generating.

Equal praise goes to the cast: Moore and Quaid give Oscar-worthy performances. Dennis Haysbert's portrayal of Raymond is a revelation.

6:09 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

A Tip o' the Blog to largehearted boy for the link to my film list post

Look like a good site for music fans. He's got mp3s up from the new Sigur Rès album and lots of news. Also check Jeans And A T-Shirt, especially if you live in the LA area.

l-boy also points to res magazine which has an album's worth of new electronic stuff up as mp3s, including a track from the new Casino vs Japan, which I'm looking to buy soon.

5:01 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Ethel the Blog points to a list of the best 100 SF books which isn't bad [me-zine]

5:05 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Windows GUI with Linux reliability?

Xandros has released a $99 Linux desktop that allows the easiest migration from Windows yet

4:38 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, November 11, 2002

The Bomb Project: "a comprehensive on-line compendium of nuclear-related links, imagery and documentation. It is intended specifically as a resource for artists." [Schism Matrix]

6:25 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Frederick Crews' new book Postmodern Pooh satirizes post-60s lit theory [u]

So what's wrong with contemporary literary criticism? A good clue in Postmodern Pooh can be found in the contribution by Carla Gulag - who has co-administered the 'ever popular Marxism and Society Program' and 'lectured and written widely on topics pertaining to Critical Sociology, Critical Anthropology, Critical Legal Studies, and Critical Criticism'. For Gulag, 'the truly essential tasks of criticism' are: 'cognitive mapping, reconciling emergent and residual forms, weighing symbolic against diachronic factors, detecting and disabling master narratives, retotalising the Real, and deciding what is hegemonic over what, and why'. [link]

12:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Philip Noyce's new version of The Quiet American has understandably ruffled some Imperial Feathers

More on that at my other site.

But the urgent topicality of the plot contrasts sharply with the changes in Vietnam since Greene's tour there.

Given the intervening twenty years of war and twenty more of political isolation, it would come as no surprise to find that none of Greene's old haunts in Vietnam are still standing. But not only are they still there, many of them have been restored to better than mint condition. Indeed, Vietnam today is full of astonishing contrasts to the opium-soaked, decadent world of Greene's novel, and the irony of some of these contrasts can only be deliberate.

In any case, the movie looks like a must-see. Brendan Fraser -- a fine choice it would seem -- takes on Audie Murphy's role as the "American," and Michael Caine turns in what might be the role of his career as the jaded, complex British correspondent.

But not only is the climate a bit dicey for portrayals of the dark side of American foreign policy right now, the movie doesn't have a happy ending either. Which is why I haven't heard of it til now -- and on a British site.

2:00 PM - [Link] - Comments ()