Saturday, May 20, 2006



The essence of a life well-lived is knowing you made a difference and that the ripples of your passage affect others in many positive ways. Never pass up an opportunity to comfort someone in pain. Keep compliments handy and don’t be shy about doling them out. Layer a slice of honesty with the icing of tact. Gift the lonely with your presence. Listen ... Risk opening your heart - the potential gain is worth the possibility of pain. Keep your mind open too - something good might build a nest in there and the crap will eventually find its way out. Pay attention to children and the elderly - the former know what you’ve forgotten and the latter know what you’ve yet to learn. Help someone feel better about themself today. Repeat every day. That’s all that really matters

Can of beans at Woolworth: $1.79
Same can of beans at my local cornershop: 99 cents
Far be it from us to try to figure out why most of us tend to avoid local shops, but we do ... Fish is also less than half the price on Bondi Road at the One that got away, albeit with bones and sometimes a face. But the lines are shorter and the crowds are more fun. What are you waiting for? Think Local, Be Local, Buy Local
... Don't support the sexist, oppressing capitalistic Hollywood corperations, instead smell an organicly grown flower for your entertainment! Ten more commandments?

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Gypsies have a new role model -- African Americans / Push for ...
For the Roma of Eastern Europe, like Agnes Krappai, life never seems to improve. She lives in an impoverished section of this Hungarian town, in a house with no running water. Her neighbor washes a rug in the street, coaxing water out of a hand-pumped well. It's a constant crisis, if there is such a thing.

But now, some leaders of the Roma, or Gypsies, are looking to a new model to try to achieve equality: the civil rights struggle of African Americans. More and more, Roma are going to court to secure their rights, and doing so where they think it will have the best chance for success -- among the new East European members of the European Union and those trying to join, which are seeking to impress Western Europe with strict interpretations of their new anti-discrimination laws.


• If ever there was a big one you should not miss In Beyond the Color Line [Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special gift, but I am passionately curious.” Curiosity betrays emotional passion The dilemma of curiosity and its use ; The same things said about hip-hop were said about jazz – that there was no effort to develop harmony and melody, that it was just the rhythm," he said. "Also, because it was associated with African-American culture, (people thought) it wasn't worth taking seriously. But now, for a lot of good reasons, there's efforts to legitimate hip-hop as a cultural form. Mastering hip-hop culture; No gaming experience is complete without an appropriate score to intensify its drama. Composer Tom Salta understands that better than anyone. Battle Score ]
• · Young People, Risk and Leisure: Constructing Identities in Everyday Life.; ; Can you rise to the highest levels in politics, art and music when you're still wet behind the ears? No experience necessary?
• · · Idle hands are the devil's workshop The 7 Deadly Sins of Professors ; On the road with Junkyard Prophet, apostles to the public schools. What Would Jesus Rap?
• · · · Books on Irish history The Legacies of Leadership ; Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption as a lens for asking what are independent bookstores really good for? Our attachment to independent bookshops is, in part, affectation--a self-conscious desire to belong a particular community (or to seem to). Patronizing indies helps us think we are more literary or more offbeat than is often the case. What Are Independent Bookstores Really Good For?
• · · · · West Australian, 12/05/2006, Anne Bliggins If you're single and looking for a man, the odds are stacked against you. Demographer Bernard Salt has the data to back what most women have long known: there are fewer decent blokes out there than ever. 'Fella Filter is long shot to find love WHERE THE BOYS ARE ; The NYT reports on the expansion of the author reading to include appearances at corporate conference rooms and campuses. "A growing roster of corporations, including Microsoft, Boeing, Google and Altria, the owner of brands like Philip Morris and Kraft Foods, have played host to writers in their offices. Even the United States Treasury Department has invited nearly 40 authors to speak over the last two years. Executives see the author readings as akin to other perks like in-house gyms, subsidized cafeterias and financial advice." Authors Meet Fans Far From Bookstores, at Company Events
• · · · · · BEA Photos ; Walk into the Sonic Laboratory of Queen’s University’s Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast and you enter a temple of audio delights. Driven by Macs, this 21st-century aural haven gives researchers, engineers, composers, and performers a unique space for cutting-edge experiments in music and audio Valhalla for the Human Ear