Snippets:
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Computer: To change appearance of Windows XP and improve performance (e.g. turn off fading of menus): Right click 'My Computer' --> Properties --> Advanced tab --> Performance: Settings. Source.
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Marsch der Verdammten (Der Spiegel, 2/2004, p114; in German): Article about the 'Ross Sea Party', a group of men that had the objective to install supply depots for Ernest Shackleton's 'famous' Antarctis crossing in 1915/16. Starting from the opposite site of the continent toward the pole, three men lost their lives after a series of mishaps, including loosing their ship. In the end the party met their goal under harsh conditions, only to learn later that Shackleton's effort had failed. Interesting to see again, how poorly expeditions were prepare in those days.
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Book: History of Herodotus at the Gutenberg Project: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. There is a Gutenberg 'Best Of' CD with some great world literature!
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People of Ideas: Names, pictures and info on important people.
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Video: Mystic Seaport . Video Tours Great America Series. Eastman Kodak. ~27 min. 1989. Narrated by Walter Cronkite. Short overview of the seaport part of the museum in Mystic, CT. Mostly advertisment for the museum, with some history. Overall not very informative; there would be so much more to tell.
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Book on CD: John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men. Unabridged. 3 CDs. Original material 1937. Penguin HighBridge Audio 2002. Story of the mentally disabled Lenny and his friend George, who nurture a dream of independence. Until reality catches up... Must read. Sometimes depressing atmosphere.
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Books: Booksense: A family of independent booksellers. Lists with book recommendations.
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Books: Bookcrossing. Creative way of telling others about a good book, and emptying your bookshelf! Register a book at the web site, obtain a unique ID number, then release it into the wild. Whoever finds it should then go to the website again to acknowledge the receipt, read it, and potentially release it again. And so on ... sounds like fun!
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Music: Air. French duo (Jean-Benoit Dunckel, Nicolas Godin) that recorded the music to the movie 'The Virgin Suicides' (2000). Several albums. Easy listening music; gets boring after a while.
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Video: Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition: 1.) Star Wars (1977, 1997), 125 min. 2.) The Empire Strikes Back (1980, 1997), 127 min. 3.) The Return of the Jedi (1983, 1997), 135 min. w/ Mark Hamil (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia). Produced by George Lucas. Special Edition is refreshed and new scenes were added. Some scenes were enhanced. Action-packed science fiction movies without any big story, lots of bad acting and cheesy moments. Special effects are outstanding considering when the movies were filmed. Overall an important set to watch, but don't expect too much.
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Computer: McAfee AVERT Stinger: Free stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.
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Book: Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt: History of My Life (written ~ 1797). 12 Volumes. Lengthy account of Casanova's life and the art of seduction. Simple style. Draws an interesting picture of 18th century life in France and Italy.
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Janine Antoni. Touch. 2002. 9 min 37 sec. Single-channel video installation with audio. Antoni balances on a tightrope on a beach with view onto the water. The gently breaking waves provide a tranquil rhythm to the sceene. While Antoni walks, the rope stretches, giving the illusion that she actually walks on the horizon.

Janine Antoni: Touch

Antoni is represented by Luhring Augustine Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.


Snippets:
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Science Cartoons: by Sidney Harris; some are quite enjoyable.
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Restaurant: Eisbach. Munich, Germany. Minimalist website.
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Exhibition: Haus der Kunst, Munich: Patti Smith 'Strange Messenger'. Dec 19, 2003 - Feb 29, 2004. Just because you're famous playing rock music, doesn't mean you can paint. Expendable!
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Music: Delta Goodrem: Young Australian pop singer; CD: Innocent Eyes; diagnosed w/ Morbus Hodgkin
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Music: John Coltrane Web Site.
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Music: Lyrics of many Anne Clark songs. Best collection, despite annoying pop-ups
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DVD: Blackadder. Blackadder Goes Forth (saw 4 epsodes). w/ Rowan Atkinson. Transcripts.
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Exhibition: Loriot. 11/8/03-1/25/04. Extended to 2/22/04. Bayerische Akademie der Schoenen Kunste. Original drawings; film clips.
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Education: University of Phoenix Online. Online university. Watch the 60 Minutes-Sement on the pros and cons of online vs. campus education.
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Theater: Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). Waiting for Godot. Beckett ordered that none of the characters can be played by a woman. Theaters need to honor this rule until the rights for the existentialist play expire 70 years after Beckett's death.
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Design: The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention. 10/12/99-1/9/00, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NYC. Organized by the Library of Congress. Other online exhibits.
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Video: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). 91 minutes. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. w/ Peter Sellers (3 roles). B/W. Dark satire-comedy hybrid on the dangers of an atomic war between the U.S. and Russia. Very strange. Must have been even more effective during cold war times. Must see, but once is enough.
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A treatise called Stomachion is attributed to the Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, Sicily (287 BC - 212 BC; best known for his exclamation 'Eureka'). The treatise is based on a game by the same name consisting of 14 pieces of various polygonal shapes originally forming a square. The goal of the game was to reconfigure the pieces to form different interesting shapes (e.g., animals). Similarity with the ancient Chinese puzzle 'Tangram'. Recent investigations suggest that Archimedes' Stomachion is a treatise on combinatorics, i.e. the mathematical discipline to determine in how many ways a given problem can be solved. (see New York Times, Dec. 14, 2003)

Stomachion is described in a fragmentary manuscript called the Archimedes Palimpsest (Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, MD). The term palimpsest comes from a Greek word meaning "scraped again", since the parchment was scraped and reused to write a Christian prayerbook, probably because of shortage of paper .


Other Links:
Archimedes of Syracuse


Snippets:
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Video: The World According to Garp (1982). w/ Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close. 137 min. Based on a novel by John Irving. Starts out funny, but then mutates into a weird, irrelevant, pointless family drama. Certainly a quite unique combination, but could have been cut to under 90 min. Only John Lithgow (as Roberta Muldoon) gives a stellar performance.
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CD: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248; Archiv Produktion; Polydor International (1965). Just right for the season.
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Video: Galileo's Battle for the Heavens (2002). Based on the book 'Galileo's Daughter' by Dava Sobel. PBS/NOVA Video. 120 min. Describes Galileo's struggle against the Catholic Church and its Inquisition. A side track of the film is the relation between Galileo and his illegitimate daughter Maria Celeste. Most disputed book: 'Dialog'. More info at PBS and The Galileo Project (includes translations of the letters by Maria Celeste to her father).
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The Official U.S. Time , accurate within 0.2 sec, is provided by the two time agencies of the United States: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO). Also contains links to educational exhibits about time, including one about Daylight Saving Time.
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Video: Start Treck IV: The Voyage Home (1986). w/ William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley; directed by Leonard Nimoy. Capt. Kirk and crew saves the earth by traveling into the past to pick a couple of humpback whales. Does not take itself seriously. Cheesy plot, but funny!
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Mesothelioma: rare type of cancer with tumor cells found in pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium. Disease is caused by chronic inhalation of asbestos.
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Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and Henriette Vogel (1780-1811) were friends and committed suicide together.
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Restaurant in NYC: The Sazerac House, 533 Hudson St, Manhattan, West Village. American and Seafood in a house from 1826; decent prices. History.
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Music: John Cage, American experimental composer: 4'33", written in 1952, consists of three completely silent movements; lasts exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
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Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1471): Le Morte Darthur. Malory's "Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table.". Volume 1 and Volume 2. Standard source for later versions of the legend. T. H. White's 'The Once and Future King' (4 novels, published in 1958) and the conclusion 'The Book of Merlyn' (1977) are 20th-century retellings of the Arthurian story.
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Radio: BBC Radio. Includes 'BBC Radio Player', a Radio on Demand to listen to the program of the last 7 days, e.g., The Official Chart Show.
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Exhibition: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Costume Institute, NYC: 'Bravehearts: Men in Skirts' (Nov 4, 2003–Feb 8, 2004). "Bravehearts locates 'men in skirts' in historical and cross-cultural contexts and looks at designers as well as individuals who have appropriated the skirt as a means of injecting novelty into male fashion, transgressing moral and social codes, and redefining ideals of masculinity." Oh, well ...
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Dynamic Planet Blog
TOC: Table of Contents
November 2003

1.) The English Patient
2.) Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art / Ieoh Ming Pei
3.) Mongoose
4.) Ways to perceive a piece of art
5.) Wikipedia sister projects