Thursday, May 22, 2008

Another Music Fest

The lineup for the 2nd Annual Louisiana Cajun & Zydeco Festival in New Orleans has been announced:

http://www.jazzandheritage.org/cajunzydeco

Best Beaches in US Named

A beach in Florida, Caladesi Island, is #1, according to the new ratings from "Dr. Beach". Number 2 is Hanalei Beach on Kaua'i. Hamoa Beach on Mau'i came in at #7.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/05/22/best.beaches.ap/

I took this picture of Hanalei Beach on Lei Day in 2003.

VOG Damage

A new committee will explore possible volcanic smog damage in Hawaii:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004430577_webvog21.html

The Incredible Shrinking New York City

A geographer has determined that the Big Apple is 17 square miles smaller than previously calculated.

Brooklyn shrank the most. Brooklyn borough President Marty Markowitz's reaction? “Now is clearly the time to annex Governors Island,” he said. “In the meantime, maybe I should get one of these sophisticated measuring devices to use as my scale at home — I might find out I’ve lost more weight than I thought.”

More calculations here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/nyregion/22shrink.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Music Digest for Thursday

Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters to honor The Who

http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=4982

The Beatles on the Tom Snyder "Tomorrow" Show-now on DVD

http://eclipsemagazine.com/dvd/john-paul-tom-ringo-the-tomorrow-show-with-tom-snyder-john-lennons-last-tv-interview-plus-paul-mccartney-wings-ringo-starr-and-huh-angie-dickinson/5512

A look at the Qatar Symphony

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=May2008&file=Local_News2008052243232.xml

A Canadian punk band is investigated by the Mounties

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=8e2a562c-37eb-46cc-9a7a-062899dcfcf4

A crawfish and music fest in Texas. Tasty!

http://www.theexaminer.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=2173

Review of a new Nokia Bluetooth headset:

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/tips/Nokia-BH-503-Bluetooth-Stereo-Headset.htm

And the Ohio Senate wants to give fake "name" bands the hook

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/21/truth_in_music.html?sid=101

Tomato Road Trip Update #3

Auwe!

My tomato plants left Louisville at 4:06 AM this morning, and instead of trucking as in years past from Kentucky to Massachusetts, they were put on a UPS jet, arriving at MHT (Manchester NH) at 5:59 AM. They left MHT at 6:37, arrived at UPS in Laconia at 7:45, and are now on their way to Saddle Hill.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

All in the Family

The Brown family of Maui in concert:

http://www.mauiweekly.com/aenews/story6865.aspx

Continuing Education

Attend a free class at M.I.T. by going online! Course 16.72, "Air Traffic Control", looks interesting...

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

How Coffee Changed the World

The bean with the buzz...

http://www.livescience.com/history/080519-hs-coffee.html

It's About Time...

"The Associated Press reports that the major US carriers, desperate for any idea that will conserve fuel, are cutting flying speeds on some routes.

Jetblue claims that extending each of its flight by two minutes saved $13.6 million last year. Southwest Airlines, despite a fuel hedging program in place that leaves it in better shape than most of its competitors, will save $2 million a year by adding one to three minutes to each of its flights."

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/to-cut-fuel-cos.html

A Star Explodes

Credit: NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler


"While peering at her computer screen four months ago, astronomer Alicia Soderberg expected to see the small glowing smudge of a month-old supernova. But what she and her colleague saw instead was a strange, extremely bright, five-minute burst of X-rays.


With that observation, they became the first astronomers to catch a star in the act of exploding.


"For years we have dreamed of seeing a star just as it was exploding, but actually finding one is a once-in-a-lifetime, event," said Soderberg, a Hubble and Carnegie Princeton Fellow at Princeton University."


Don't Fly This!

PHOTO CREDIT: RUNE SOLNØRDAL, Aftenposten

"The airport serving the southern coastal city of Kristiansand wasn't among those hit by Norway's recent airport strike, but it was nonetheless disrupted on Tuesday – by a moose running along the runway."

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2436211.ece

Tomato Road Trip Update #2

1:07 PM EDT

Tomatoes have arrived in Louisville. From here, as I recall from years past, they truck it the rest of the way, which will take them to the final UPS staging area in Chelmsford MA by Thursday afternoon...

Tomato Road Trip Update #1

My tomato plants left the nursery in Springfield, OR Tuesday evening at 6:53 PM local time, and arrived in Portland OR at 12:40 AM this morning.

After more processing, the UPS plane took off at 6:10 AM local time, or 9:10 AM Eastern. As I recall, they fly non-stop to Memphis...no, Louisville!

Owl City

Here on Saddle Hill the barred owls have been partying all night lately-what a racket!

Here's what they look (and sound) like:

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=varia

Smart Bird!

"TOKYO - When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_fe_st/odd_japan_parrot_returns

New York City Waterfall Art Update

More on the project, which will include four giant man-made waterfalls:

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=24332

Hawaiian Music Mini-Digest

Not a daily feature, maybe a weekly one...

It's Waikiki Hula Fest time:

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/6653/40/

And some school kids got free ukuleles and a visit from slack key man John Cruz...

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/GETPUBLISHED/80520053/-1/SPORTSFRONT

VOG May Return to Hawaii

http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/504035.html

Wednesday Music Digest

FUSE tv on cable will telecast the Bonnaroo Festival in June

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/05/19/daily16.html

Yamaha rolls out a new "digital music instrument"

http://www.physorg.com/news130580446.html

Joe Cocker sighting

http://www.ticketnews.com/Joe-Cocker-embarks-on-four-month-tour5821234

Sir Paul McCartney wants a "celebratory" funeral

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/5571

Pink Floyd wins Sweden's Polar Music Prize

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hu9LWNkpUXZZ47s6DiOQonnS8xgAD90Q22I00

Samsung introduces a "personal trainer phone"

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/21/review_samsung_adidas_f110_micoach_sliderphone/

And there are Led Zeppelin Canada dates rumored:

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/05/21/led_zeppelin_set_for_canada_dates_