Monday, October 22, 2007

Snippets:
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Patents: Peer to Patent: Novel patent review system that includes the public. Project in cooperation with USPTO.
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Travel: SeatGuru: Info about airplanes and airline seats for all airlines.
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Computer: Prevent Expanding "User" Folder When Opening Windows Explorer in Windows XP and Vista: Change shortcut target to '%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, c:' or see here.
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DVD: Ringu: Anthology of Terror: 1.) Ringu (1998): Director: Hideo Nakata 2.) Rasen (1998) 3.) Ringu 0: Basudei (2000): Prequel to Ringu 4.) Ringu 2 (1999). The films that inspired the American version 'The Ring'. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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DVD: Short Circuit (1986).98 min. Director: John Badham. w/ Ally Sheedy (Stephanie Speck), Steve Guttenberg (Newton Crosby). The robot Number 5 is struck by lighting escapes and evolves into an intelligent being with the help of a young woman. While one of his creators tries to retrieve and deactivate Number 5, he falls in love. Cute but some amateur acting. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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DVD: Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi). 129 min. Director: Bernardo Bertolucci. w/ lon Brando (Paul), Maria Schneider (Jeanne). Stormy love affair between a beautiful French woman and a depressed American. Weird, disturbing movie. Partly explcit. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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Computer: Yugma: Free web conferencing, online meetings and web collaboration services. However, slow at times.
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DVD (Airline): Easy Rider (1969). 95 min. Director: Dennis Hopper w/ Peter Fonda (Wyatt); Dennis Hopper (Billy). Two hippies make a trip from L.A. to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. On their journey they are searching for America. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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DVD: Troy (2004). 163 min. w/ Brad Pitt (Achilles), Diane Kruger (Helen) , Eric Bana (Hector), Orlando Bloom (Paris). Director: Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm, Outbreak, Das Boot, Die Unendliche Geschichte). Adaptation of Homer's great epic. Some good special effects. Entertaining. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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DVD: The Grapes of Wrath (1940). 128 min. B/W. Director: John Ford. Afterr the novel by John Steinbeck. w/ Henry Fonda (Tom Joad), John Carradine (Casy). Poor Oklahoma family is displaced from their land and makes a journey to California in hope of a better future. Gripping story. Superb cinematorgaphy, reminds of pictures by Dorothea Lange. Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
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Music: The Pink Floyd album 'Animals' showed Battersea Power Station, a defunct power plant near London on its cover.
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Music: Douglas Spotted Eagle: combines Native American flute with synthesizer. Also records movie and TV soundtracks.
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DVD: Bad Timing (1980). Director: Nicolas Roeg. w/ Art Garfunkel (Alex Linden), Theresa Russell (Milena Flaherty), Harvey Keitel (Inspector Netusil). After a woman is rushed to the hospital with an overdose of pills, her lover is interrogated by the police, slowly dissecting the course of their affair. Inter-cutting is predominant, ie not chronological. Starts benign, then spirals downward. Disturbing ending. Sexually explicit. Mediocre acting by Art Garfunkel. Was originally named 'Illusions', but then renamed before release due to conflict with the book of the same name by Richard Bach. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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Cities: Bangalore (officially Bengaluru), India: Capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Estimated metropolitan population of 6.5 million. Sights: 1.) Vidhana Soudha: Legislative House of the State of Karnataka 2.) Karnataka High Court 3.) Bangalore Palace 4.) Lal Bagh: Botanical garden w/ lotus ponds, fountains, glass houses and stone formations that date back over 3.0 billion years 5.) MG Road and Brigade Road. Also to visit: Iskcon Temple (ISCON = International Society for Krishna Consciousness), 'Hare Krishna'; built to promote vedic culture and spiritual learning); Indian Institute of Science; Mysore (2 h drive; famous for its palace and sandalwood).
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Music: London '66-'67 (London 1966-1967): An EP w/ two "lost" tracks, a longer version of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Nick's Boogie". Tracks were originally recorded for "Tonite Let's All Make Love In London" on January 11 and 12, 1967, a film by Peter Lorrimer Whitehead, an English filmmaker who documented the counterculture in London and New York in the late 1960s.
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Cities: Amsterdam, NL: 1.) Avenue Hotel, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 33 2.) ACH Leidse Square Hotel, Tesselschadestraat 23 3.) Rijksmuseum 4.) Van Gogh Museum 4.) Maurya: An Indian Cuisine, Korte Leidsedwarssraat 49A.
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Art: Ten Dreams. Galleries cover galleries cover the works of more than 180 master artists during the last 200 years. Includes Balthus, Tamara de Lempicka, Maxfield Parrish, Max Beckmann, Paul Gauguin, Edward Hopper etc.
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Photography: Eugene Atget (1857-1927): French photographer. Made photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris. Neighbour of Man Ray at Montparnasse. Photographs at the George Eastman House.
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Photography: Bruno Bisang (b. 1952). Swiss photogapher. Advertisement, magazines, fine art.
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Life: Angie's List: Info and ratings for contractors in your area. Requires sign-up. One year free service.
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Science: Otto Hahn (1879-1968): German chemist; Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944; discovered nuclear fission together with his assistant Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner. Meitner needed to escape from Germany in 1938 because of her Jewish heritage and was later overlooked for the Nobel Prize.
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DVD: 11:14 (2003). w/ Hilary Swank (Buzzy), Patrick Swayze (Frank), Rachael Leigh Cook (Cheri), Henry Thomas (Jack). Director: Greg Marcks. Five more or less parallel events intertwine the lives of residents in a small American town. A dead body lands on the hood of drunk man who passes under a bridge on the highway. At the same time, a young woman is hit by a car carrying three rambunctious juveniles. The story and sequence of events slowly unravels. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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DVD: Thunderball (1965). 130 min. w/ Sean Connery (James Bond), Claudine Auger (Dominique 'Domino' Derval). Director: Terence Young. James Bond is on a mission in Bermuda to recover two stolen atomic bombs. Many diving scenes. Bond in macho style. Overall rating 6 out of 10.
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DVD: Pink Floyd --- Live at Pompeii (1972). The Director's Cut (2003). 92 min. Director: Adrian Maben. Original film contained mainly music from the Pompeii event. In later versions, studio recordings from 'Dark Side of the Moon' and interview footage was added. DVD also contains interview with director with some insights into the project. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Astronomy: BLAST (Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope: submillimeter telescope held by andd launched using a high altitude balloon. 2 meter primary mirror. Apparently, BLAST was destroyed during its last mission in Jan. 2007.
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Literature: Ricarda Huch (1864-1947): German writer, poet, and historian. Wrote three volumes about German history (Deutsche Geschichte) during the Nazi regime (which she opposed) and about German romanticism (Die Romanik).
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DVD: The Devil Wears Prada (2006). 109 min. w/ Meryl Streep (Miranda Priestly), Anne Hathaway (Andy Sachs), Emily Blunt (Emily), Stanley Tucci (Nigel). Young aspiring journalist gets introduced to the world of fashion through her new job with the arrogant chief ('the devil') of a fashion magazine. At first she resents the people, but her desire forr a career makes her one of them while destroying her personal life. Life is full of choices... Streep plays her role as the red dragon well. Some scenes rather comical and exaggerated. Slightly superficial. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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