§ || ¶John Kerry's Speech
Kerry's speech to the Democratic Convention, July 29, is at:http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0729.html
§ || ¶Purple Haze
There's a purple haze over Washington to Minnesota these days.
According to SpaceWeather.com: " A moderate geomagnetic storm that began on July 22nd after a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field is finally subsiding, but it could start again tonight if, as expected, another CME sweeps past Earth. Sky watchers in northern Europe, Canada and northern-tier US states like Washington, Wisconsin and Minnesota should remain alert for auroras.
Hours after a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on July 22nd, a geomagnetic storm began, sparking auroras over parts of North America. Sky watchers spotted Northern Lights as far south as Minnesota, Washington and Michigan in the United States. Some particularly nice purple auroras appeared over Wisconsin.
The giant sunspot that triggered this activity is now crossing the middle of the sun and could unleash more strong solar flares and CMEs in the days ahead. Amateur astronomers using safe solar observing techniques should have no trouble seeing the 'spot, which is wider than the planet Jupiter."
§ || ¶Salt Flats
This is where I work- 
Not quite at the salt mines, but at the salt flats.
Working near the salt flats these past 8 years has always been strange. At some times during the year the color of the ponds turns various shades of blue, orange, green, even gray. On windy days foam blows over the roadway making snow-like drifts. And the odor... well what can you say?... it's certainly organic.
But for years it has been a vast, encrusted wasteland. There are parts that look like sand covers the pond and you could walk out quite a ways. But that crust is not very deep and you would probably fall thru. I don't know if anyone has tried walking on it. It's certainly not an ice flow.
A few years ago you would see the occasional barge collecting salt. But that all stopped eventually. And the whole area has gone into decline. The ponds on this side of bay and on the East side were started during the Gold Rush to make salt for the mining process. Later, as I was told by one of the volunteer park rangers, it was used to make industrial salt. The whole area and its colorful ponds (the color comes from various blooms of algae that live at high salinities) are worth seeing when flying into San Francisco from the south.
The fact that finally this area will be part of the greater SF Bay regional park is great news.
The mountain at the top of the photo is Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The view is up the west shore of SF Bay. San Francisco is not quite visible - it is somewhere in fog below Mt. Tam, and the brown hill in the distance is South San Francisco, just beyond the airport.
§ || ¶The Onion
There was a time when The Onion was truly funny and subversive.Remember this one?
§ || ¶Julius Knipl in Japanese?
Seems hard to believe, but a Japanese edition of Ben Katchor's "The Beauty Supply District" has been published.
One would think that Katchor's work, which is very New York, wouldn't travel well. I wonder what the Japanese will make of it. Katchor's humor is so oblique one would think that it even people in Hoboken would have trouble with it.
§ || ¶Zowie! Igor the Music Server is ONLINE
My friend DM's CRT 500 MHz G4 iMac blew its disk last week, so I helped him find and install a newer LCD iMac, which he's very happy with now. In return I got the old iMac with the dead disk. So I ordered a new 30Gb drive and installed it and loaded Mac OSX. The idea is to make it our music server. Today I connected it up with an iMic USB audio hub to my 100W stereo system in the living room. Running the Ethernet cable from the computer center downstairs thru the garage and up into a hole in the floor in the "library" was, to say the least, "fun". And amazingly, I didn't goof up the RJ45 connectors!
So I just installed it in the CD cabinet! I gave the music server the name Igor. The first music served was Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto.
Now, with the windows open, I've got London's Resonance 104 FM blasting in real time all thru the neighborhood!
I've unplugged the FM tuner .. it never worked very well anyway and San Francisco FM radio is, well, pitiful.. and plugged Igor into the Tuner slot. Internet Radio Lives!
What a blast!
§ || ¶Ben Katchor - Picture Stories
Ben Katchor's picture stories, starting with Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer,
present an odd and sometimes baffling view of life in some strange
metropolis, not unlike New York City. But the humor is definitely Neu
Yawk. His website also contains excerpts from the Julius Knipl radio show that appeared occasionally on NPR. My favorite is The Double-Talk Artist. The radio shows featured the voice of Jerry Stiller. Katchor's latest weekly story is Hotel & Farm, which is featured, as usual, in the The Forward, the last remaining Yiddish language newspaper in NY.
§ || ¶IE and National Security
The U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is warning Web surfers to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser. (Internet News)I have always held that the Microsoft OS and ubiquitous products like Office, Entourage, and Outlook, pose a national security risk because of their vulnerability to computer viruses due to their numerous security flaws. This new warning from CERT emphasizes this fact. Add to it that probably 90% of all commercial and government offices run these MS products (including places like energy power plants, water treatment plants, etc.), a massive virus that disables everything IS a REAL national security risk.
All MS products should be forced to carry a warning label: Use Of This Product Endangers National Security.
Alternative to IE? Mozilla.
§ || ¶Longest Concert
People in Halberstadt, Germany, are taking John Cage very literally.
One of Cage's pieces, called Organ2/ASLSP ("As Slow As Possible"), is just a few sustained notes. But, as Cage indicates, these are to be played as slow as possible. Well, the debate rages on as to how slow is "as slow as possible" really. Two new notes were added July 5th. The next chord will start March 5, 2006.
"To commemorate John Cage’s eighty ninth birthday on Sept. 5, 2001 a performance of his work ORGAN2/ASLSP intended to last 639 years began to sound – played on an organ built especially for this single concert. As luck would have it the most suitable environment imaginable has been found to house this project. The Burchardi church in Halberstadt, originally the centre of a large monastery complex and heavily influenced by Cistercian architectural impulses but secularised in 1810, is today austere, simple and without ornament."
The first couple of years only the sound of rushing air was heard. They are taking reservations for the rest of the performances. A description of the project in English is in PDF. But on the German side of the website there are lots of photos of the ancient church and much more information.
§ || ¶Midyear
Today is the 183rd day of the year, and there are 183 more days left.Its the exact middle of the year. And this year midyear falls exactly on July 1.
Now half the year is all but gone. Its all downhill from here.