December-January Link Dump

Last month while I took a break from blogging, I did not take a break from surfing. As usual I came across many websites I thought worth recommending. Here is a somewhat expanded link dump of cyber tidbits and morsels. I think nearly anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis will find something of interest here.

The first link refers to the picture above. Islamophobia Today is a great source for articles and incidents to throw at any closet bigots you might know. I understand all of your friends, like all of mine, are free of bigotry. But there is always a scapegoat of the moment that many consider deserving of what they would never admit to be prejudice or bigotry. These days it is Islam that fills the bottom rung in our collective psyche.

One of my favorite links from the past (three years ago) is the Ben Cohen BB video about nuclear arms using BBs to illustrate, yes this is Ben of Ben & Jerry's. Recently I found this one on the Obama $100 million budget cuts, this one uses pennies to provide the scope of the U.S. budget.

One final site with a political tinge. Not My Priorities. Not only do you get to express our views on how your tax dollars should be spent but they have free postcards to send to your representatives that give you the opportunity to vent a bit. I sent mine!

On a completely different plain I found Wisdom Bits - Nubbins of Wisdom from Everlasting Song Mavens.  A bit of quotable fun.

I remain amazed that JG Wentworth spends millions of dollars on television advertising to people who have structure legal settlements. I am amazed that it is so profitable for them meaning there are tens of thousands of lawsuit winners out there to be advertised to. Now I find that if you are in a really long divorce battle and your are running low on money to live and to continue to sue the bastard who left you for his 22 yr. old secretay, there is a company that will invest in your divorce settlement. Balance Point Divorce Funding will give you a lump sum to live on and to be able to continue the divorce proceedings. Their cut? Well they get a piece of the final divorce gouging.

How about a World Clock, not just of time or time zones but of world population, deaths worldwide, U.S. budget deficit, world wide energy, environmental numbers, food and more.

I point out this next website without looking in a mirror or trying to touch my toes. Fat is the new thin when it comes to male sexual performance or size does matter kind of. No not that size!

You know I seldom let a month go by without some photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. This is what NASA calls the Advent Calendar 2010. Twenty-five shots from Hubble, some old some new. The pictures are beautiful, the words will provide the wonder.

Final, two posts from friends of mine who also engage in this frustrating, egotistical adventure we call blogging. The I Don't Give a Crap Tax from Michelle Lewis and techno-bling and the demise of a Qigong Master by Mira. Interesting reading, admirable writing.

Welcome to the new year, remember the days really are getting longer but the nights are more inviting.

Link Dump

There's been a lot going on out there on the world wide web. Some of these links come from my own surfin' expeditions and others comes as suggestions from friends and fellow cyber travelers. I absolutely guarantee you won't care for all of them, so I shall add some prose to guide your clicking finger.

The first is a series of color coded maps of racial and ethnic diversity in U.S. cities. These are flickr photos from a gentleman named Eric Fischer. Easy to access and probably more fascinating when you check out the cities you know well. For me two interesting finds: there really is a Chinatown in San Francisco (third row, first map) -- look for the really, really green blob. And Detroit (second row, fourth map), sure there are a lot of racially segregated places all around the country, the original idea behind these maps was to demonstrate "homophily" which is the theory that we group together not because of segregation but because we want to be around those who share our group traits. You decide how that explains your favorite big city or not.

Next a quick science link answering the age old question about the condition of Schrodinger's cat. A good friend and cat lover noted that Schrodinger actually overlooked the fact that the cat is also an observer, dog people don't get that.

On a lighter note, this is came to me entitled Dating 1961, when I forwarded it to my high school friend it most reminded me of, she responded: "I never came home after twenty minutes." Damn, I should have dated her.

Touted as The Best Motivational Video, I suggest you not check it out unless you are a fan of Fight Club. Personally, I think I would take a step back from anyone truly motivated by this but you decide, I've been wrong before. This was sent to me by two friends on the same day, so I took notice.

For those in my generation who never really got it what our parents felt when they saw us listening to Black Sabbath, watching Mick Jagger and growing our hair ever longer... Watch this offering from Evil Boy and feel the generational disconnect. For anyone who started to watch the motivational video above and turned it off -- do not even start watching this one. BTW, there is a 30 second commercial lead-in not part of the video.

Finally for something truly uplifting, if nothing else today has hooked you... try this three minute gymnastic dance video. Even if you are not into modern dance, the gymnastics in this piece are truly spectacular. Wish I could move like that.

June Link Dump

Tis been a busy month with way more web information than I could post. So here is an end of the month link dump. First, something fanciful -- that map up there is called Food Wars, which shows the territories covered by the major food chains in the USA. Not at all what I expected.

Next, a couple of new blogs I find very interesting. My nephew Jake is in China doing a summer internship and has chosen to stay in touch via Tastes Like Chicken. Then there is my good friend Mira, who has literally leapt into the blogosphere with her and this part is true blog; already 13 posts in less than a month, now that is a blogger.

May I humbly recommend that you take about ten minutes to read this Conversation with God. No really. I found it very enlightening. I am sure there are several Mormons out there smirking because their faith has several similarities to this thesis. But do give it a read, ten minutes ain't that long.

For another dose of spirituality, one of my poker media buddies, Michelle Lewis, has a nice (non-poker) piece on the Meaning of the Number 9.

Having trouble focusing, try this little visual test from the NYTimes and this second one on multi-tasking. Let me know if they work for you, I scored 100% on both and methinks they may be underestimating us cybernoids.

I will wrap up with an Annie Lennox take on Bob Marley's Waiting in Vein.

Link, Blog, Life Dump

Back in Berkeley and sorting thru the debris pile of notes from ten days in Vegas. Not every note becomes blog-worthy and others just are random ponderings on the nature of reality or something like it.

We ran into several living street statues on the Las Vegas Strip. You know those struggling actors/waiters who get into some kind of costume and then stand still. Always a bit puzzling for me but seen as evil by one of my traveling companions. He had the reaction that many of us have to clowns the first time we actually get the dark nature of those big footed pervs. What I liked the most about this conversation was his immediate off-the-cuff comment when several of us pointed out that we considered mimes much worse. "Street statues are the Bastard Stepchildren of Mimes." What a great phrase.

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Whether Weather. We got lucky last week in Vegas, only one day was over ninety degrees. Global Cooling don't you know. I drove through several hours of 90+ on the way back Saturday but it was a pleasant 52 degrees when I arrived in the East Bay early in the evening. Today is a glorious foggy, rainy and sunless day, which is weather I truly enjoy. But tis late in the season for wetness here in Northern California, the summer dry season is usually upon us by now. What does all this mean? 

Well for one thing the reservoirs are filling up. Several of the water basins, including the monster Lake Shasta are above historical average for this date and we have yet to experience the bulk of the Sierra snowpack melt. Not that the lingering drought is over but this has been a good wet winter for California and at least for today -- it continues.

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Free book download. The University of Chicago Press is offering a free download every month. These are academic books but they really are free. This has been going on for about a year and the titles are usually interesting and truly diverse. This month: Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America. You get the whole book and, of course, a pitch to download other offerings at quite reasonable prices. 

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And finally today, there appears to be a hashish crisis in Egypt. It is unclear at present whether a government crackdown (perhaps not the best word choice) is responsible or just another product supply issue associated with the worldwide economic crisis. Here in California there is a similar problem with a crash in marijuana prices brought on my over supply from the Emerald Triangle and the medical marijuana initiatives. I got the marijuana story from NPR, which actually took a business perspective on the story and nearly decried the loss to the growers from this plummet in commodities pricing.

For Your Alternate Reading Pleasure

I began the month with a picture dump, for symmetry I penultimately end with a link dump, with pictures of course!

I had the pleasure to attend the inaugural seating of the Oakland Secret Kitchen, now it appears Eva has a website, which can only tempt locals and make those far from the Bay drool over their separation from the super secret suppers. I will report as the months and morsels roll on.

Lots of the olde poker crew complain that Amy does not update her personal blog enough any more. While that may be partially true, the quality of her commentary remains outrageously spot on, currently she equates bookies and Goldman Sachs. For those who need a more regular fix, you can always check out her day job. 

Staying in my olde haunts, while deeply immersed in poker I always read Dr. Pauly's Tao of Poker; I now consider it a sinful pleasure. But mirroring my own turn from poker to a more complete, if dyspeptic, view of life; I read his Tao of Pauly with a more camaraderie than before. Pauly plays with more sharp objects than I do and I wear chain mail when I venture out, he is more likely to go commando.

Somewhere in that same universe, the one described as birthed from poker but no longer there; this is where you and I find Brad Willis (Otis to his poker buddies). I get pleasure from reading, not from all reading, but when I do locate that pleasure center, well like any addict I tend to go back there time and time again . . . hence my penchant for Brad's writing on his RapidEyeReality site.

Another olde friend has launched her own website or blog or educational resource or alternate view of life on this rock. Clearly something completely different but I am back where I spent the 90s and far, far from the world both of poker and from what is often referred to as ordinary reality. If you have a passion or an interest in words like indigenous, sustainable, ecological, contra and far-out in a different realm --- you might want to check out Tina's view on the world. 

And now for yet another something completely different. One of my olde college roommates has been playing in a band for over a decade and now they are, well, nearly mainstream or at least moderately profitable, which means they can afford new sheet music. If you are fortunate enough to live the greater Boston area. I can without reservation recommend a night with the Party of 9. Check here for a sample of their faire.

And finally, I don't know him but I was sent a handful of his Hawaiian surf photos and just had to pass them on. You know I have a thing for web art that acts like a cyber flashbulb. The artist is Clark Little, his website is full of incredible images from the island surf. Below just one example.

Link Dumpling

Time to divest another glop of internet sites, articles and assorted detritus, flotsam, jetsam and other internet stuff. Use caution when using the links below, they have been proven to eat up gobs of time and will cause you to indiscriminately forward all kinds of info-knowledge of questionable use to the recipient.

First, I promised some friends last weekend that I would supply this first link. They were discussing the "renaissance" that is taking place in Detroit. OK, some were and others were mostly engaged in ridicule of this the 97th revitalization of Detroit in the last 46 years. My only comment was and will remain: "It's Detroit!" Here is the link I mentioned: Job Gain/Job Loss

Next my good friend and co-author Amy Calistri has suddenly revitalized her blog with content that is more and more not poker and more of the actual world everyone else lives in. Sometimes you lead by example, other times you just keep whining the same old refrain.

The good Dr. Pauly has once again shocked the poker community by demonstrating his grasp of things well beyond the world of flushes and straights. The truly insightful post from the good doctor on Paul Cezanne, the world's first tournament reporter.

I was hiking during the entire bubble boy incident last week, so when I eventually heard of it I assumed it was a remake of the John Travolta movie. Then I was gone for the weekend, so I missed the anti-balloon boy daddy "news" and internet furor. When all is said and done, I don't really care but my opinion on the entire non-incident was soundly captured by Otis writing on this blog Rapid Eye Reality. Although I was absent, it still is not my fault, how about you?

If you think you are a nerd, or perhaps you feel your increased computer time is beginning to sap your humanity and replace it with nanotechnology or at least plot lines from old episodes of Star Trek (the original version not the Next Generation or Voyager but maybe Enterprise but... oh shit, I've been infected!)

Sorry. My point up there was that about once I week I go and read Wil Wheaton's blog, if for no other reason than to demonstrate to myself that I am still human and not actually linked to this laptop by cyber-filamention or mind meld. Wil's writing reminds me that there are actually interesting humans who speak about technology and the techno-nerd sub-culture in ways that leave me completely baffled and greatly relieved.

Finally, my culturally subversive video of the week and one that every one should see but particularly young women between the ages of 3 and 83. Watch to the end, it gets even more creepy at the very last.

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graphic credit: archive