johnkemeny.com

     

The last total eclipse of the Sun until August 2008 will occur March 29th.  The best viewing will be from two Eclipse-Cities in the southern desert of Libya near the Chad border.  A google search will show many tours, but, as Xavier M. Jubier points out, this is truly one of the most difficult places on Earth to reach.  That’s after you get in the country.  Here is a google search that returns less than 100 on-topic results, specifically excluding tour info.

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From the Fashion & Style Section of the 29-January Sunday New York Times, above the fold is the following story featuring none other than Lia Elizabeth Kemeny:

PARENTS WHO GET THE WILLIES when slipping their children into less-than-pristine grocery carts will be happy to find the Clean Shopper, a cotton liner that fits into the child seat of shopping carts and covers the handle too. “I didn’t want my son to hold the germy metal handle of the carts,” said Missy Cohen-Fiffe, the designer and manufacturer of the quilted liner. “Every time I used it in a store, people asked where they could buy one,” she said. A business was born, and now the Clean Shopper ($29.95) can be ordered in many colors and patterns from www.cleanshopper.com or (800) 635-3899. Lest Junior become overly germphobic, parents can desensitize children with a collection of stuffed, plush microbes from the Museum of Modern Art ($7 each at www.momastore.org). The collection includes a common cold virus, a dust mite, a bedbug and a stomachache. MARIANNE ROHRLICH

Not bad press for 14 months.

Here’s the first blog I found to mention it.

The Google group (used to be Usenet newsgroup – remember?), rec.puzzles has Rare Entries Contests, the best of which is run by Mark Brader.  The goal is to answer trivia questions with the least popular answer.  For example, the last quiz asked the following:

0. Pick one: heads or tails.
1. Name a country that, according to the current CIA World Factbook, is divided into more than 35 states or provinces as defined in (the revised) rule 4.1.2.
2. Name one of the 13 ranks in the standard deck of playing cards used for games such as bridge.
3. Some organizations have names containing a two-word phrase where one word specifies a color and the other a shape (either a geometrical term or a term commonly used for a stylized shape).  Name a color/shape combination currently used in this way.
4. Give an English word of one syllable that names a color.
5. Name a person who at the age of 50 was playing professionally on a regular basis in some team sport in a league with a high standard of competition.  (Events limited to players over 40, say, would not qualify as a high standard of competition.)
6. Name a country some of whose de facto land territory is also claimed by another country.  Note that rule 4.1.1 applies to both countries; this question is about border disputes, not separatism.
7. Name a person who was assassinated during the 19th century and, at the time, was the head of state or head of government of a country.
8. Name a unit of measurement which has been routinely used to express barometric pressure readings (of the atmosphere on this planet) either to the general public or to meteorologists.
9. Give a single word used in English as a noun to designate a type of gun (in the sense of a handheld firearm).  “Type” does not include brand names, numbers, or any forms derived from these.

Have a go at MSB49.  You will learn something.

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, home of the best science museum in the world, the Exporatorium (founded by Frank Oppenheimer – brother of physicist Robert J.), as pictured by the Giga Pixel Project.

With songs like “N.R.L. – Nursery Rhyme Lawyer Song” (MP3), Throwing Toasters is one of the most original funny “groups” around.

              

http://www.susanfgreaves.com/

Plein Air artist Susan Greaves is best known for her landscapes.  But I like her portraits best.  She makes great use of vibrant color.