Wishing All My Readers A Happy New Year

Which Works Better - Nevis or Museo Sans?

From www.photographworks.com

Nevis And Museo Sans Comparison

I am in the process of making a SALE sign for our main site, and I was making it with Museo Sans when I wondered whether a more ‘blocky’ typeface might work better. That is Nevis, and here are the two typefaces – which do you think works better?

See more at www.photographworks.com

Static site to Wordpress CMS How-To from @CyberCoder

From www.cybercoded.net

Converting older static html sites to WordPress is one of the most popular things for me to work on. Seems there are still a lot of older sites that have no CMS system and when people decide to finally convert these sites WordPress is one of the most popular options.

I used my holiday time to convert one of my own static sites. I wanted to use it as a case study in procedure and time. The site I converted was my Scripts and Database site, CyberCoded.com. This is one of my older sites and I have been too busy to convert it so I continued to manually add pages as needed.

I have about 10 hours invested in the whole process to convert this site. The bulk of the time is in the custom coding of a WordPress Theme from scratch to match an older site. There were 12 pages when I started and as some of the pages had different extensions I decided to convert the site using my favorite WordPress permalink structure and then redirect the old pages.

I used my Blank WordPress Theme so that I could start with a clean slate and match the design to the old site. Read more at www.cybercoded.net

There should be more of this: 10 Embarrassed Men

From blog.art21.org

Much funnier is Annika Ström’s Ten Embarrassed Men, a group of identically dressed middle-aged actors, who huddle around en masse looking awkward, organized by the artist as a response to the representation of women in art fairs. How it really works is by providing a welcome bum note to the atmosphere of overweening economic confidence (however hyperbolic) that surrounds it.

David Shrigley’s stand at Stephen Friedman Gallery is, as you’d expect, properly LOL-funny, which makes his presence at the art fair a bit anachronistic, and his appropriation by the art mainstream an ongoing puzzle. The artist himself was in attendance, painting temporary tattoos on people’s arms. I watched him slowly paint a fly on a man’s forearm. Everyone looked on, looking serious, filming on their phones. Read more at blog.art21.org

What Camera did Irving Penn use?

Highly recommend the rest of this gentleman's blog. And he has another with lots of photography information (I learned how to get the number of shutter actuations on my D700 by reading his blog at http://photophindings.blogspot.com )

What Camera did Irving Penn use?

There is a good old apocryphal story about the author Ernest Hemingway and the photographer Irving Penn. Ernest Hemingway to Irving Penn: “Your photos are really good. What camera do you use?” Irving Penn to Ernest Hemingway: “Your novels are excellent. What typewriter do you use?” The problem with the story is of course that it does not give the important information, which camera did Penn actually use? Luckily, the National Portrait Gallery in London can inform us that he used Rolleiflex, Deardorff V8 and Hasselblad. And certainly a bunch of others during his long life. Ernest Hemingway used a Corona #3 typewriter when he want to Europe in 1921. Thanks to this blog for finding references about this in Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, 1969, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. He is also supposed to have used a Royal Arrow, Underwood and Halda. Three of his typewriters allegedly still are at the Hemingway villa Finca Vigia in Cojimar Cuba. Read more at ardentagnostic.blogspot.com

TwitterMums > SocialMums

"It’s going to work out for TwitterMoms, but the story does point out the potential danger of hitching your wagon to someone else’s star."

Two years ago, Megan Calhoun launched a website devoted to connecting mom bloggers through Twitter. Thousands of moms signed up and with that came the brand names, eager to catch the ear of this influential segment of the online population.

A week ago, Megan Calhoun posted a message saying that Twitter had written to ask her to change the name of the site due to trademark violation. Their motivation is understandable. The name, TwitterMoms, does make you think that it’s related to Twitter but it is interesting that it took them two years to make the claim. Read more at www.marketingpilgrim.com

It doesn't take many, but they have a lot of questions.

From www.sjbaker.org

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?

>> How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Paul Bleisch wrote: > What are light bulbs? On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Steve Baker replied: Oh dear. I wish people would RTFM... --------------------------------------------------------------------- lightbulb(1) lightbulb(1) NAME lightbulb - Convert electrons to photons SYNOPSIS lightbulb [-wattage number] DESCRIPTION lightbulb reads a stream of electrons from standard input and produces photons on standard output. Thus lightbulb <110_volts_ac >light The following options apply to lightbulb: -wattage Sets the rate at which electrons are converted to photons. FILES None SEE ALSO xmas_tree_lights(1), streetlamp(1), led(2) KNOWN BUGS lightbulb is known to fail unexpectedly after some unknown number of applications. Repeated complaints to the authors of lightbulb have failed to come up with a fix for this bug. The only known workaround for a crashed lightbulb is re-installation from a fresh copy of the source media.

NOTES I believe M$ Windows is based on lighbulb because they share the same bug - and the same workaround. It is important to ensure that the input stream is correctly formatted or the lightbulb may crash unexpectedly and with undefined results. Do not attempt to apply lightbulb's input files to other UNIX tools (esp. 'finger(1)'), however, lightbulb's output stream is fairly compatible with most other devices. INSTALLATION Consult a hardware engineer. PREREQUISITES Your operating system must support sockets and switches. Read more at www.sjbaker.org

Winner of best comment by Jan 31 chooses a print

I'm promoting this - have a go and take a peek at the prints on offer.

From www.photographworks.com

This Photograph Is Untitled

Comment and leave your suggestion for the title for this photograph. Best one (I’ll judge it) by Jan 31st and I will mail you a print – choose from any of those in this prints section at Quillcards. Read more at www.photographworks.com

I used to feel bad because I did not understand it.

The process of learning, from the stage of it being in a miasma to the stage of getting a grip on a subject, is one of those swirling whirlpools that can become enjoyable the more one does it. 

So today when I forgot how to say something in a language I haven't used for a while, I realised that  - I used to feel bad because I didn't understand it. Now I don't feel bad because I only forgot it.

From www.creditcardscanada.ca

What Would it Cost to Put the 12 Days of Christmas on Your Credit Card?

We were intrigued by a recent post from Wallet Pop reporting that the 12 Days of Christmas would cost you a total of $23,439. After looking in my purse, I realized that I just don’t have that much on me. You probably don’t carry that much around, either. Most people probably put it on plastic. But what if you did put it on plastic, and what if you took three years to pay off the balance? How much would this year’s 12 Days of Christmas cost then? Read more at www.creditcardscanada.ca

Major UK News

Big news!

Merry Xmas

Sent from my iPhone

Travels Across Northern India - Movie

Earlier this year - Delhi - Agra - Udaipur - Bundi - Haridwar - Varanasi - Darjeeling

 From www.nomorepencils.com

No More Pencils

Travels Across India

Read more at www.nomorepencils.com

Headline of the week: High Street bank | war criminal | Global Witness

""If this allegation by the ICC prosecutor is accurate, it appears that a UK high street bank bailed out by the Government is holding billions controlled by an indicted war criminal, or at the very least would be able to help trace any funds."

From uk.news.yahoo.com

Lloyds Banking Group has said there is "no evidence" that Sudan's president stole $9 billion from his country and deposited it in London. Skip related content

A document among tens of thousands released by the WikiLeaks website reported the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asserting that Lloyds Banking Group "may be holding or knowledgeable of the whereabouts of his money".

Robert Palmer of anti-corruption group Global Witness said: ""If this allegation by the ICC prosecutor is accurate, it appears that a UK high street bank bailed out by the Government is holding billions controlled by an indicted war criminal, or at the very least would be able to help trace any funds." Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com

Japan to continue paying $2 billion for US troops stationed in Japan

Did you know Japan paid for US troops stationed in Japan?

From newsonjapan.com

Japan to continue paying $2 billion for US troops

Japan's government agreed Tuesday to continue contributing $2.2 billion a year toward the cost of stationing American troops in the country. Under the agreement with the United States, Japan's share will remain at the current 188 billion yen ($2.2 billion) through March 2016. The current pact expires next March. Japan had sought a cut in its payment during months of negotiations on the renewal because of economic woes. But officials agreed on no reduction after tensions on the Korean peninsula and worries over China's growing military might highlighted the U.S. military's role as a deterrent for security threats.

See more at newsonjapan.com

Bayer, Clothianidin, EPA, and CCD

Bayer again - Clothianidin it is a neonicotinoid like another Bayer crop treatment - Poncho - which is in the news because of requests to the EPA to ban it.

From www.wired.com

Leaked Memo Shows EPA Doubts About Bee-Killing Pesticide

By Brandon Keim

Over the concerns of its own scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency continues to approve a controversial pesticide introduced to U.S. markets shortly before the honeybee collapse, according to documents leaked to a Colorado beekeeper.

The pesticide, called clothianidin, is manufactured by German agrochemical company Bayer, though it’s actually banned in Germany. It’s also banned in France, Italy and Slovenia. Those countries fear that clothianidin, which is designed to be absorbed by plant tissue and released in pollen and nectar to kill pests, is also dangerous to pollen- and nectar-eating bees that are critical to some plants’ reproductive success.

In 2003, the EPA approved clothianidin for use in the United States. Since then, it’s become widely used, with farmers purchasing $262 million worth of clothianidin last year. It’s used on used on sugar beets, canola, soy, sunflowers, wheat and corn, the last a pollen-rich crop planted more widely than any other in the United States, and a dietary favorite of honeybees.

During this time, after several decades of gradual decline, honeybee colonies in the United States underwent widespread, massive collapses. Read more at www.wired.com

Things I Learned Today

The North Korean bombardment of the island in the Yellow Sea last week went on for an hour.
Sent from my iPhone

Conflating

Sent from my iPhone

A lot of people

David Cameron puts his foot in it and doesn't realise he has done so.

The death of print newspapers is exaggerated

"New research from Experian Hitwise has been used by The Guardian to suggests that 54,000 people a month are accessing content behind the paywall of The Times and Sunday Times.

Times and Sunday Times Online Subscriptions – Yes Or No

We have a stack of part-read newspapers with stickies peeping out of the margins. Tamara is great at finding things I would have missed. I don’t want print newspapers to end.

And somehow I think that if I were to subscribe to a model that I don’t want to be caught up in – namely TASTO – I will be hastening the death of print journalism.

There was also a leaflet for Mature Offers – Special Deals For The Over 50s that I hardly glanced at, and there was an invitation to take out a subscription to the Times and Sunday Times online (TASTO from now on in this article). Read more at www.nomorepencils.com

Oaty Rice Cakes?

They taste like regular rice cakes, but they contain a non sequitur.

US Sells Its Stake In Citigroup - Recoups Investment

The U.S. Treasury can claim victory in its bailout of Citigroup with the huge "cleanup" trade completed Monday that took Treasury out of its remaining 2.4 billion shares at $4.35 a piece. It was a well orchestrated deal that removed the overhang in Citi shares and gave the government an average of $4.15 for the 7.7 billion shares of Citi (NYSE:C - News) it began selling last spring. Now, it's on to another reclamation project, AIG (American International Group) (NYSE:AIG - News). Very soon, Treasury will convert all its preferred shares of AIG into common stock of the insurer, claiming almost 93 percent of the company's total shares. Read more at finance.yahoo.com

Tales Of Wintering Bees

From   astoria-rust.blogspot.com

So Far So Good

After an active summer with my bees I strapped down the tops on the hives to let them be. I left each hive enough honey to last the winter, but since it has been so cold and wet I figured it was time to look in on them today since the sun was shinning. Honey bees don't like to be messed with when it is cold, rainy or windy. Though there was a stiff breeze today it was the best day in the last six weeks to open them up. All six colonies in my upper bee yard were strong and healthy. Some even flew out to check me out. As a treat I poured about a half cup of drivert sugar on top of each cluster of bees. This is finely ground sugar. They can eat sugar in a dry state and another benefit is that it knocks off any mites that may be on the bees. There are another seven hives down at the bee yard by my house. Here the news wasn't quite as good. All but two colonies were healthy. I had one colony that was totally missing, a symptom of Colony Collapse Disorder, and I had another colony that had starved. This is something I never like to see, little bee butts protruding from the honey comb sells. I had left them more than enough food to last the winter, but it appears their honey had been robbed by another colony, leaving them with nothing. My Russian Blue colony was as nasty as ever. No sooner Read more at astoria-rust.blogspot.com

Oddities

Seen on a cafe table in a department store...

How They Are Taking Work Seriously

Rough translation:
Business - we do this the whole day
Crew - this is us
Pleasure - this is what we ordinarily find pleasurable

From onstuimig.nl

Business Dit doen we de hele dag

Crew Dit zijn wij

Pleasure Dit vinden we gewoon leuk

ONSTUIMIG

Love The Upside Down Mouse On Osocio

From osocio.org

Onstuimig

Social advertising and non-profit campaigns from around the globe Links Social Advertising

See more at osocio.org

A Cup Of Timelessness at Mindful Living

From blogs.psychcentral.com

A Cup of Timelessness By Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D.

I drank a cup of tea and watched the flowing and stillness. Quietly and naturally I seemed to forget the return of time.

Tamara Colloff-Bennett, a connoisseur of life’s moments (as  far as I can tell from our epistolary exchanges) writes, in Tea Stories from the East to the West: “[I]n Korean homes [...] tea [...] is served about one-half to three-quarters full in dainty china tea cups.  I once asked why it was never a full cup that was served, and the family whose home I was in at the time told me it was a tradition to suggest the wish for balance in the life of the person who is being served the tea – so the water is poured in up to the middle of the cup.”

Indeed: as life brews, balance it by emptying the mind-cup now and then.  A half-full cup is harder to spill. So, have a cup of timelessness! Resources: read the rest of Tamara’s article Read more at blogs.psychcentral.com

From www.nomorepencils.com

Taking The Rough With The Smooth

What does the phrase, taking the rough with the smooth conjure up in your mind?

Here is a story I heard from a rabbi Tatz in Jerusalem a few of years ago. It goes like this.

Fred moves in to an apartment building. He has been there a few days when he hears a knock at the door.

In my mind it conjures up the idea of accepting bad times as well as good. Or as accepting the bad parts of something as well as the good parts. Read more at www.nomorepencils.com