Snippets:
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Video: Marco Polo: Journey to the East (1995). 50 min. A&E Biography. Overview of the life and travels of the young merchant Marco Polo (1254-1324) to the East, especially Mongolia and China, in the 13th Century, and his encounters with the great Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan (1214-1294). More about Marco Polo and his Travels.
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"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree..." begins the famous poem fragment 'Kubla Khan' (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Coleridge Archive here.
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Quoteworld: Collection of 15,000 quotations. Searchable.
~~~~~~~
Old Man of the Mountain: Franconia Notch State Park, NH; was a natural rock formation that was formed by a retreating glacier during the lasst ice age; geologists speculate it looked out over Profile Lake for more than 12,000 years; it suddenly collapsed due to erosion on May 3, 2003.
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The dialectic between the Apollonian and the Dionysian: Apollo was the Greek god of truth, light, and order; Dionysus (Bacchus), the god of fertility, passion, spontaneity, and rebellion. They represent polarities of the human personality. Apollonian modes of thinking see form and structure as the basis for individuality and rational thought. Dionysian concepts value the breaking of boundaries through extreme action or experience (drunkenness, madness).
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History Guide
~~~~~~~
Media Guide: Mondo Times. Collection of links to over 13,300 media around the world (newspapers, magazines, radio, TV).
~~~~~~~
Rainer Kunze: German writer and poet, b. 1933. Transferred from East to West Germany in 1977. Georg-B?chner-Preis1977. Biography (in German). Press info w/ bio and list of books <> (in German). Some poems (in German).
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William Derham (1657-1735): Anglican clergyman; wrote: Astro-Theology: or A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1715).
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Short Story: Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778): Micromegas: A Philosophical History (1752); science fiction short story, English translation. At the end of the story, Micromegas gave to man a rare book of philosophy that tells all that can be known of the ultimate essence of things. The pages of the book were blank.
~~~~~~~
Cavia porcellus (Guinea pig): first found by Europeans when arriving in South America where the animals were domesticated by inhabitants; species does not exist in the wild.
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Animal Diversity Web: Good collection of info for all different animals; searchable; includes pictures and classification.
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John Dryden (1631-1700): English poet, dramatist, critic, and translator; wrote 'The Maiden Queen' (1667. Selection of works. Other English Poets at Samuel Johnson's Lives of English Poets.
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The Venerable Bede (673-735): English monk and historian; wrote 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People'. Other medieval texts at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
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Reverse Phone Directory: Annoying pop-ups though.
~~~~~~~
Price Engine: NexTag.
~~~~~~~
Video: Gattaca (1997). 101 min; w/ Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman; directed by Andrew Niccol. Science Fiction. In an age where genetic analyses are routinely used to design perfect children, and to determine their future disease profile and life expectancy, a young 'imperfect' guy -- conceived and born 'natural' -- decides to slip into a different identity to become an astronaut for the aerospace company Gattaca Corp. A murder in the company as well as a love affair jeopardize his plans. Chilled atmosphere, good story. Some breathtaking moments. Some B-class acting. Overall, a good movie. My rating: 7 out of 10.
~~~~~~~

Notes from 'The Path to Tranquility' by His Holiness the XIV. Dalai Lama, edited by Renuka Singh:

January 18: "To develop patience, you need someone who willfully hurts you. Such people give us real opportunity to practice tolerance. They test our inner strength in a way that even our guru cannot. Basically, patience protects us from being discouraged."

January 29: "It is said that if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at your body now; if you want to know what will happen to you in the future, look at what your mind is doing now."


Snippets:
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Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980), American naturalist. North with the Spring (1951), Autumn Across America (1956), Journey Into Summer (1960), Circle of the Seasons (1953), Wandering Through Winter (1965).
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Book: 'Durst' (in German, Engl. transl. 'Thirst'). 1976. An extraxt from 'Wind, Sand, und Sterne' ('Wind, Sand, and Stars). A desert pilot crashed in the desert and struggles against his own mind. Good tempo. Beautiful language.
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Video: Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. 1999. 133 min. w/ Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor. Prequel to the first Star Wars film. More special effects, lots of shooting, laser sword fights, and battles. Trying to give a meaning to 'later' episodes in the series. Don't expect too much.
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All Movie Guide. Useful information about movies. Similar to All Music Guide.
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Video: Seven Years in Tibet (1997). 136 min. w/ Brad Pitt, David Thewlis. The story of the Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer during his years in Tibet, and his friendship with the young Dalai Lama. Film has too much Hollywood Schmalz and is too shallow for the intensity of the subject. Thewlis' acting is significantly better than Pitt's. However, some great nature scenes.
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John Pike (1911-1979): American watercolor artist and illustrator. Wrote books on watercolor painting.
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Public Citizen: national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that represent consumer interests
~~~~~~~
Consumer Reports and Consumers Union.
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Video: Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time (1992). 84 min. Directed by Errol Morris. Documentary on the life and work of the renowned cosmologist. Hawking is suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, motoneuron disease), which nearly completely paralyses his body, but leaving his mind fully active. Excellent biography of the person, including interviews with friends and family. However, the science of Hawking's work could have been explained a little more in detail.
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The basis of good communication: Meant is not yet said, said is not yet heard, heard is not yet understood, understood is not yet agreed, agreed is not yet done, and done is not yet maintained. (freely translated from German; after Konrad Lorenz, 1903-1989, biologist, ethologist [ethology = the scientific study of animal behaviour], Nobel Laureate: Gemeint ist noch nicht gesagt, gesagt ist noch nicht gehoert, gehoert ist noch nicht verstanden, verstanden ist noch nicht einverstanden, einverstanden ist noch nicht getan, und getan ist noch nicht beibehalten).

Snippets:
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Book: Odoric of Pordenone (1265?-1331): The Travels of Friar Odoric (2002). Translated by Sir Henry Yule (1820-1889). A report by the Franciscan Friar Odoric on travels to the East in the 14th century, written in 1330. Odoric was from a monastary in Udine, a city about 100 km northeast of Venice in Northern Italy. He tells tales of Turkey, Iran, India and China, and of the Great Khan. Some of his stories seem exaggerated, but he claims that he has either seen things with his own eyes, or knows the facts from 'reliable sources'. Interesting historic document.
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Bluenose: Fishing schooner designed by W.J. Roue of Halifax, and built by Smith & Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, CA. Launched on March 26, 1921, she was used for racing and fishing until her wreckage on a reef near Haiti in January 1946 . The image of the Bluenose has graced the Canadian Dime since 1937. The ship itself is a salt banker, i.e. the preservative for the caught fish is salt (1 barrel for 4 barrels of fish).

In 1963, a replica of the Bluenose with much more comfortable interior (Bluenose II) was launched, but has not been allowed to race, so she could not jeopardize the reputation of the original Bluenose. Bluenose II has become Nova Scotia's most recocgnized symbol, and was sold to the province in 1971 for $1. She is now maintained by the Bluenose II Conservation Trust

Other Links:
Bluenose Resources
Bluenose II Pictures
Bluenose II Specifications

Snippets:
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Sailing: Port lights are red (remember by associating it with the color of port wine), starboard lights are green.
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Sailing: Schoonerman: Schooners and Tall Ships; includes links to many web sites of tall ships.
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"One of the most important rank differences between writers is whether they only think for themselves or also bring the rest of the world to think about itself" (Egon Friedell, Austrian historian and writer, 1878-1938, in 'Steinbruch').

Snippets:
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Philosophy: Martin Amerbauer: Erste Schritte in der Philosophie (2000, in German). 111 pages. Link to text on Amerbauer website. Concise introduction to philosophy in PDF format; w/ good references to important books.
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Video: Kundun (1997). 135 min. Directed by Martin Scorcese. Music by Phillip Glass. Based on the life of the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso). Dalai Lama means 'Ocean of Wisdom', Kundun means 'The Presence'. Very slow story, but beautiful pictures. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the colors and the music. However, the oppression by the Chinese is a major theme in the second half of the movie. Well balanced.
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Fishing: Chebacco: famous narrow-sterned boat style without jib; formerly much used for fishing; originated in Chebacco (now Essex, MA); also called pinkstern and chebec
~~~~~~~
History: LeMO = Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online. German history from 1900 to now; w/ pictures, videos, and lots of information (in German); hosted by: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
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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.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
Computer: McAfee AVERT Stinger: Free stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~
Music: Delta Goodrem: Young Australian pop singer; CD: Innocent Eyes; diagnosed w/ Morbus Hodgkin
~~~~~~~
Music: John Coltrane Web Site.
~~~~~~~
Music: Lyrics of many Anne Clark songs. Best collection, despite annoying pop-ups
~~~~~~~
DVD: Blackadder. Blackadder Goes Forth (saw 4 epsodes). w/ Rowan Atkinson. Transcripts.
~~~~~~~
Exhibition: Loriot. 11/8/03-1/25/04. Extended to 2/22/04. Bayerische Akademie der Schoenen Kunste. Original drawings; film clips.
~~~~~~~
Education: University of Phoenix Online. Online university. Watch the 60 Minutes-Sement on the pros and cons of online vs. campus education.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~

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.
~~~~~~~
CD: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248; Archiv Produktion; Polydor International (1965). Just right for the season.
~~~~~~~
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).
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~
Mesothelioma: rare type of cancer with tumor cells found in pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium. Disease is caused by chronic inhalation of asbestos.
~~~~~~~
Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and Henriette Vogel (1780-1811) were friends and committed suicide together.
~~~~~~~
Restaurant in NYC: The Sazerac House, 533 Hudson St, Manhattan, West Village. American and Seafood in a house from 1826; decent prices. History.
~~~~~~~
Music: John Cage, American experimental composer: 4'33", written in 1952, consists of three completely silent movements; lasts exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~
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

Wikipedia, the online free content encyclopedia, has several sister projects. All Wiki's are work in progress with varying degree of completion, but quality should constantly improve over time. All sites are free:

Wikiquote: a online compendium of quotations

Wiktionary: a multilingual dictionary

Wikibooks: dedicated to developing and disseminating open content textbooks

Snippets:
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CD: George Winston: Autumn (1980). Piano solo. Beautiful and relaxing.
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Lyonel Feininger: Exhibition at the 'Hamburger Kunsthalle' in Hamburg, Germany. Before becoming an artist, Feininger was a caricaturist for the Chicago Tribune. Later, he became renowned through cubist paintings of medieval churches and ships.
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Web Site: Nation Master: Statisitcal information about each country compiled from various sources. Many categories. Incredible resource!
~~~~~~~
Video: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). 116 min. w/ Charles Laughton (Quasimodo) and Maureen O'Hara (Esmeralda). Directed by William Dieterle. Probably the best and most memorable version of the Victor Hugo classic. Gripping.
~~~~~~~
Katabatic winds = winds that flow from the high elevations of mountains, plateaus, and hills down their slopes to the valleys or planes below. E.g., Foehn.
~~~~~~~

A thought: One can perceive a piece of art in ways of increasing intensity: 1.) it can make you think, 2.) it can move you and whirl you around, bring out the best or the worst feelings in you, or 3.) it can carry you away leaving you breathless for hours, carving itself into your mind, growing in you the desire to never part with it again.

Snippets:
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Video: Notre Dame - Witness to History (1996). 56 min. New River Media Inc. A documentary around of the gothic cathedral in Paris and its history. Informative. Also covers some of the history of France.
~~~~~~~
Book: Albert Camus: Der Fremde (1942; in German; English: The Stanger). Story of a young man who lives detached from his life, and is seemingly unaffected by pretty much everything that is going on around him. After killing an Algerian for no obvious reason, he stands trial not only for his deed, but for his character. Sad story, lacking any love, faith or hope. Camus presents a superb analysis of an indifferent personality, and raises many fundamental questions.
~~~~~~~

The Mongoose is a member of the family that includes ferrets, weasels and martens. It is a rather small, weasel-like carnivore native to Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. It is famous for its snake-fighting abilities, where it is almost always victorious because of its speed, agility and timing, and also because of its thick coat. The mongoose is resistant to alpha-neurotoxins contained in snake venoms. It has been shown that the mongoose acetyl-choline receptor (AChR) does not bind alpha-bungarotoxin (BTX) [Barchan et al., PNAS 89, 7717 (1992)]. The most 'famous' mongoose is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

Snippets:
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Digipac®: CD packaging consisting of a sturdy plastic tray and high-quality cardboard. Alternative to Jewel Case. Allows more fancy cover designs. Usually more expensive than the Jewel Case.
~~~~~~~
Video: Taxi Driver (1976). 114 min. w/ Robert DeNiro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Set in NYC during the dangerous 70s. The lonely, mentally unstable, psychotic cab driver Travis Bickle (DeNiro), in looking for his own identity, feels he needs to "sweep away all the scum from the streets." After a failed date with a beautiful political campain worker (Shephard), he arms himself and decides to violently 'rescue' a child prostitute (14-year old Foster) from the street. Film noir. Great cast, great acting. Disturbing story.
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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, is recognized as one of the most important university museums in the country. The museum hosts Asian, African, European, and American art. Click here for links to the Permanent Collection.

The building was designed by world-renowned architect I.M. (Ieoh Ming) Pei, who also built the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington DC, the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris, France, the Hancock Tower in Boston, and the Javits Convention Center in New York City. The museum building looks like a giant sewing machine and overlooks the valley and Cayuga Lake.

Other Links:
Other buildings by I.M. Pei
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Architects LLP. w/ lots of pictures

Snippets:
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Book on Tape: Michel Ondaatje. The English Patient. [Abridged] (1993). Read by Michael York. 3 hours.The book on tape helps understanding the intertwined story better. Good abridgment: contains all parts essential for the story and a lot of beautiful passages.
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Video: Churchill - The Finest Hours (1964). 111 min. Narrated by Orson Welles. Academy Award nomination in 1964 for Best Feature Documentary. Biography of Winston Churchill mostly from original film footage. Gives a good overview of Churchills life, and also the key events in both World Wars. Contains plenty of Churchill quotations. Well done.
~~~~~~~

An intriguing thought from 'The English Patient' by Michael Ondaatje: "Tell me, is it possible to love someone who is not as smart as you are? [...] Could you fall in love with her if she wasn't smarter than you? I mean, she may not be smarter than you. But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? Think now."

Snippets:
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Video: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994); 123 min; w/ Robert De Niro (The Creature), Kenneth Branagh (Victor Frankenstein), Helena Bonham Carter (Elizabeth); directed by Kenneth Branagh. The Classic with a great cast.
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Video: Young Frankenstein (1974); 108 min; w/ Gene Wilder (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Peter Boyle (The Monster), Marty Feldman (Igor), Teri Garr (Inga); directed by Mel Brooks. Very funny! Teri Garr looks like an earlier version of Lisa Kudrow.
~~~~~~~
Video: The Fall of the House of Usher (1960); w/ Vincent Price. Thrilling horror movie after the novel by Edgar Allan Poe. A young suitor comes to visit the family of his bride-to-be in the House of Usher and tries to rescue her from the madness of her brother. Well done, even though the story itself is a bit slow.
~~~~~~~
Book: Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient (1993). The intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Complex story. Jumps between times and places. Need to pay attention to detail. Need to read slowly! Full of many hidden treasures.
~~~~~~~
Video: The English Patient (1996). 162 min. w/ Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe. Directed by Anthony Minghella. Received 9 Oscars, including Best Picture. Gripping. Tragic. Sad. Deviates from the book in many points, but in itself a good movie. Great cast.
~~~~~~~
Video: Rebecca (1939). 130 min. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. w/ Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Restored version. Based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Young, inexperienced girl marries the rich widower Maxim de Winter, but soon realizes that the 'shadow' of de Winters first wife, Rebecca, is all around. First hour is much too slow and, though Fontaine's acting is superb, her role is annoying. Olivier alternates between macho, temperamental, and depressed. Overall a good movie, but story could just as well have been told in less than an hour.
~~~~~~~
Video: Girl, Interrupted (1999). 127 min. w/ Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg. Directed by James Mangold. Girl (Ryder), after attempting suicide, checks into a mental hospital and quickly makes friends among the patients. But she learns that she needs to make a choice between them and the 'sane' world outside. Good movie, dramatic at times. Good tempo (most of the time). Plot reminds of 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. Jolie is quite scary and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
~~~~~~~

Dynamic Planet Blog
TOC: Table of Contents
October 2003

1.) Brown Dwarfs
2.) Virtual Observatories
3.) Alexander the Great
4.) Robert K. Merton: The Matthew Effect in Science
5.) More on Dido & Aeneas
6.) Roger Bacon
7.) Funny computer stories
8.) Khaos / Erebus / Elysian Fields
9.) Some numbers about Blogs

Some numbers about Blogs: NYT October 23, 2003: 'Blog Bog and an E-Mail Pony Express' by Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell. Recent study by Perseus Development, a research firm and maker of software for surveys: 66% of the 4.12 million Blogs, created on eight leading blog-hosting services, have been "abandoned'', i.e., not updated for at least two months. 1.09 million of those were one-day wonders. Fewer than 50,000 of the sites in the study were updated every day. The typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends. However, only blogs on eight leading blog-hosting services were studied. According to Perseus's research: 2002: 1.62 million active blogs, 2003: 3.3 million. In 2004: 5.86 million predicted.

Snippets:
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Video: The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization. PBS Home Video (2000). 165 min. History of ancient Greeks with focus on Cleisthenes, Themistocles, Pericles, and Socrates. Informative, but too long.
~~~~~~~
Video: Naked Lunch (1991), 115 min. Based on the book by William S. Burroughs; w/ Peter Weller (Robocop), Judy Davis (Deconstructing Harry), Roy Scheider (Jaws); directed by David Cronenberg (The Fly). Music by Ornette Coleman. A drug-addicted pest-control man drifts into the hallucinatory world of 'Interzone'. Imagination and reality melt into a horror trip. Surreal, weird, great special effects with lots of bugs and phantasy creatures. Just don't watch it while you are eating.
~~~~~~~

Glossary of Greek Mythology:

Khaos (Chaos): Greek goddess; was the first of the Protogenoi (ancient elemental gods); the female personifcation of air; also means lower atmosphere of the earth - air, mist and fog; her name means "gap", i.e., the gap between earth and sky. Others say that Chaos is the void which came into being before anything else, or a shapeless and confused mass of elements.

Erebus (Erebos): Greek god; the male personification of darkness; his thick mists of darkness were said to envelop the edges of the world; husband of Nyx (Nox, =Night). Erebus' name was often used to describe the cavernous underworld of Hades.

Elysian Fields (Elysium): happy otherworld for heroes favored by the gods; final resting place of the souls of the virtuous; paradise of the heroes, either in the Underworld or in the far West.

Other Links:
Theoi Project: A Guide to Greek Gods, Spirits, and Monsters


Snippets:
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Video: The Piano (1992). w. Holly Hunter, Sam Neill. Slow. Boring. Depressing. Waste of time.
~~~~~~~
Book on Tape: Jules Verne: Around the world in 80 Days (originally published in 1873). The English gentleman, Phileas Fogg, his servant Passpartout, the Indian princess Aouda, and the detective Fix travel around the world in most unusual ways for the purpose of winning a wager. A classic book with a couple of suprises! A good read. Other stories by Jules Verne.
~~~~~~~

David Pogue (NYT, October 16, 2003) amused us by reciting a couple of short, but 'effective' funny computer stories:

"Hello, Apple? My cup holder broke off." "Uh, sir, that's your CD-ROM tray."

Or this: "Hello, Dell? My mouse is squeaking." "Squeaking?" "Yeah — and the funny thing is, it squeaks louder the faster I move it across the screen!" "Ma'am, why are you dragging your mouse across the screen?" "Well, I saw a message that said, Click HERE to continue!'"


Snippets:
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Video: 'Tut: The Boy King' (1978). Hosted by Orson Welles. Warner Home Video. Objects from King Tut's tomb filmed in the National Gallery in Washington DC (on loan from the Cairo Museum). Archeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnaravon discovered these treasures of ancient times in 1922/23.
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Video: 'Joe versus the Volcano' (1990); w/ Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. When a hypochondriac is told by a physician that he has a 'brain cloud' and only six more months to live, he accepts the offer to jump into a volcano on the remote tropical island Waponi Woo. During his trip he learns to enjoy life. Cheesy, but funny! Unconventional characters. Meg Ryan in three roles, you can hardly recognize her!
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Video: Great Souls: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn --- Voice of Truth (2002). 56 min. Biography of the Russian writer who was a Gulag prisoner, was sent to labor camps in Siberia, and finally set the stage for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Major books are 'The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956', 'The First Circle', 'Cancer Ward ', and 'The Red Wheel'.
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Book: Aldous Huxley: Science, Liberty and Peace (1946). Harper & Brothers Publishers. Huxley was a visionary, forseeing many of the problems that the science and technology race in the 20th century has brought up. To him, applied science aids a few people seeking control over the masses. He especially refers to the science that is conducted for warfare, and discusses the social impact of the atomic bomb. Short book (86 pages), but addresses a lot of very relevant questions!
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Notes on Book 'Calendar' by David Ewing Duncan (1998):

Roger Bacon: Franciscan friar (c.1214 - 1292); interest in mathematics, optics and general sciences; one of the first scientists at the end of the Middle Ages; wrote his 'Opus Majus' in 1266; it contained, among others, the idea of a reform of the Julian Calendar, since it was off by one day every 130 days; dispatched the book to Pope Clement IV, who unfortunately died suddenly in 1268, driving Bacon's ideas into oblivion; it took three more centuries, until Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585) finally fixed the calendar in 1582.

Length of the (tropical) year: 365d, 5h, 48min, 45sec

Lunar month: 29d, 12h, 44min, 2.9sec

Julian Calendar (Julius Caesar): since Jan. 1, 45 B.C.

45 B.C. is known as the 'Year of Confusion'. Length: 445 days

Gregorian Calendar (Pope Gregory XIII): since 1582; Gregory eliminated by papal bull the dates October 5-14, 1582

The Gregorian Calendar is off from the true solar year: 25.96768 sec per year

Other Links:
Roger Bacon: Friar Bacon His Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magick
Roger Bacon: Biography
Catholic Encylopedia: Roger Bacon
WSHU: Engines of our Ingeniuity: The Temptress Moon on 1/24/03


Snippets:
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Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO): international network dedicated to communicating Buddhist truths in ways appropriate to the modern world. Other Links to FWBO.
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Bas Hoeben's Photo Gallery dedicated to The Art of Black and White Photography
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CD: Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. Recorded in New York, New York on January 21 & April 22, 1949 and on March 9, 1950. First released in 1956. Remains one of the defining, pivotal moments in jazz. Three sessions where the sound known as 'cool jazz' was essentially formed.
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Video: Eastern Philosophy. Cromwell Films 2002. Part 1: Confucius, Shinto (50 min). Part 2: Hinduism, Buddhism (50 min). Part 3: Judaism, Islam (50 min). Informative overview, but -of course- far from comprehensive.
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Index Librorum Prohibitorum = Index of Prohibited Books = 'list of forbidden books' of the Roman Catholic Church; the first catalog of banned books to be called an index was published in 1559. Publication of the list ceased in 1966, and it was relegated to the status of a historic document. The Index of 1559 (in Latin). Some more information here (including 20th century authors). Index Expurgatorius = list of books allowed only in expurgated form.
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CD: Eric Dolphy: 'Outward Bound' (1960); Dolphy plays alt saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute; Freddie Hubbard on trumpet; also contained on the Dolphy compilation 'The Complete Prestige Recordings' (1995).
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Aristarchus of Samos (c.310 - c.230 BC): proposed a heliocentric universe; of his original works, only 'On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon' survived. His heliocentric treatise is known to us through references by Archimedes. Copernicus, in his famous 'De revolutionibus caelestibus' gave Aristarchus credit for his idea (although interestingly it was crossed out shortly before publication).
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Video: So I married an Axe Murderer (1993). 93 min. w/ Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Amanda Plummer. Funny, creative guy falls in love with mysterious woman from a butcher shop, who he supects is a bloody killer. Sometimes rather poor acting, especially at the beginning. But has some very funny moments!
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CD: Latin Quarter: Mick and Caroline (1987). Intriguing lyrics and music. WWW: Latin Quarter (German and English)
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CD: John Coltrane Quartett: The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions (1995). Two sessions recorded May 23 and June 4, 1961 at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Coltrane's first recording for Impulse. Trane's Quartett is supported by a brass orchestra that, among other distinguished musicians, includes Booker Little (tp), Freddie Hubbard (tp), and Eric Dolphy (as, bc, fl). This studio recording was made just a few months before the legendary recordings at the Village Vanguard in November 1961.
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Video: Metropolis (1927). Directed by Fritz Lang. w/ Gustav Froehlich (as Freder Fredersen), Brigitte Helm (as Maria/The Robot (AKA Futura)). Silent movie. Story of a revolt of the Working Class against the Upper Class of the city Metropolis. The pacifist leader Maria is abducted and exchanged by a robot who then leads the revolt. Great science fiction movie with unbelievable special effects, considering it was filmed in the 20s.
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More on Dido & Aeneas:
1.) Dido and Aeneas: Aeneas is the Trojan equivalent to the famed Greek hero Odysseus (= Ulysseus).
2.) Bulfinch's Mythology
3.) Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) painted 'Dido Building Carthage; or, the Rise of the Carthaginian Empire' in 1815, which can be viewed at the National Gallery, London. For this and other Turner paintings, also see WebMuseum , Paris.
4.) Carthage Empire: about 800 BC the Phoenicians (Queen Dido) established Carthage on the edge of a region in North Africa that is now Tunisia. The city became the commercial center of the western Mediterranean and retained that position until overthrown by Rome.

Robert K. Merton (1910-2003): 'The Matthew Effect in Science'. Science 159, 56-63 (1968). Article about the reward and communcation systems of science. Highly productive scientists that study at one of the major universities gain more recognition than equally productive scientists at a lesser university.

Merton, a sociologist at Columbia University, New York, NY, received the National Medal of Science and is perhaps best known for having coined the phrase "self-fulfilling prophecy" (= a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true). Merton developed this concept out of his interpretation of W. I. Thomas' "definition of the situation," i.e., "If men define things as real, they are real in their consequences."

Other Links:
Garfield Library (UPenn): Robert Merton
Wikipedia: Robert K. Merton
William Isaac (W.I.) Thomas: California State University, Dominguez Hills
W.I. Thomas: The Unadjusted Girl (HTML Text)


Snippets:
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Book-on-Tape: Miles Davis: 'Miles: The Autobiography' [Abridged]; Quincy Troupe (Contributor), Levar Burton (Reader); book published in 1989; MD tells the story of his musical career, but also talks about family and personal matters, including his drug and alcohol addiction.
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Video: Mummies and the Wonders of Ancient Egypt: Hieroglyphs. A&E Home Video (1996). Hieratic: ancient Egyptian cursive writing; derived from the earlier, pictorial hieroglyphic writing. Hieroglyph: from the Greek word for "sacred carving".
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Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.): Son of Philip II of Macedon. Was tutored by Aristotle. Unified the divided city states of Greece and conquered, among others, Persia and Egypt; marched all the way to the borders of India before he retreated. Through his journey the Greek language and culture was carried into the eastern Mediterranean and into Mesopotamia. Alexander's conquest was described by Flavius Arrianus (Arrian, circa 87 - after 145 A.D.), in his 'Anabasis' (translated into English by Aubrey De Selincourt in 'The Campaigns of Alexander' in 1958).

Other Links:
Alexander the Great at Livius.org
Alexander the Great on the Web

Snippets:
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Video: Alexander the Great (1956) w/ Richard Burton (Alexander), Claire Bloom (Barsine). Mediocre story of Alexander's life and battles, especially the conquest of Persia.
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Virtual Observatories (VOs): allow new ways to analyze astronomical data:
- GAVO (German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory)
- NVO (National Virtual Observatory)
- SkyView Virtual Telescope
- Astrobrowse
- NASA/IPAC Extragalactic database

Other Links:
'Google fuer Sterne' by Stefan Schmitt. DIE ZEIT 04.09.2003 Nr.37 (in German)

Brown Dwarfs (originally called black dwarfs): Objects that, when formed by condensation out of a cloud of hydrogen gas similar to stars, do not accumulate enough mass to generate the high temperatures needed to sustain nuclear fusion at their core. They radiate energy through gravitational contraction. Mass approx. 13-70x Jupiter. First Brown Dwarf, Gliese 229B (GL229B) was discovered in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Other links:
The Discovery of Brown Dwarfs by Gibor Basri. Scientific American, April 2000
Wikipedia: Brown Dwarfs


Snippets:
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Video: The Blair Witch Project (1999); w/ Heather Donahue, Joshua 'Josh' Leonard, and Michael 'Mike' Williams. Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Tagline: In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittesville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. One year later, their footage was found (IMDB). I am split on this one: on one hand it's great to see a movie that can scare you without any special effects; on the other hand the movie drags out too long on the same cheap thrills. I bet the scare was more dominant while the film was still in theaters, and everyone believed is was truely the 'real' footage of three film students.
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Video: The Color Purple (1985); w/ Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey; director: Steven Spielberg; based upon the novel by Alice Walker. The decades-spanning story of Celie (W.G.) who grows from a suppressed girl to an emacipated woman. Good story, but too long, and too sappy!
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William Gibson: Author; father of 'cyberpunk'; coined the term 'cyberspace'; first novel: Neuromancer (1984).
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Book on Tape: 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. Unabridged. Read by Peter Firth. 6.5 hours. Sterling Audio (1992). Book originally published in 1932. A vision of a future world, where the 'ideal' society achieved 'happiness' through genetic cloning, abandoning criticism, and constant dullness by taking psycho-stimulating, anti-depressant 'Soma' tablets. A must-read!
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Dynamic Planet Blog
TOC: Table of Contents
September 2003

1.) Soviet Army Memorial in Berlin
2.) Adult peristence of head-turning asymmetry
3.) Robert Kanigel: Apprentice to Genius
4.) Virgil: The Aeneid
5.) Total solar eclipse in New York City 1925