Monthly Archives: August 2007

On the record

Posted on Tuesday, 28 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Something good has come of unfortunate, nonplussed Lauren Caitlin Upton’s on air meltdown: Geoffrey K. Pullum turns it into a teaching moment about the term of art used to distinguish proper names that do not use a definite article (Argentina, … Continue reading →

Posted in Words Words Words | Comments Off

A shining

Posted on Tuesday, 28 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Via ArtsJournal: Philip Kennicott produces an excellent piece about the art, science, theater, and politics of illuminating the monuments and other public buildings of the National Mall at night. A recent revamp of the lighting of the Washington Monument, employing … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and Architecture, Local News | Comments Off

Potomac to Occoquan

Posted on Monday, 27 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Since I’ve already walked, piecewise, some of the longer paved trails in the area—the W&OD, Mount Vernon, the two trails that connect them, and the Capital Crescent—I needed a new project to keep me motivated for outdoor exercise, so yesterday … Continue reading →

Posted in In the Field, Like Life | Comments Off

Upcoming: 4

Posted on Monday, 27 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Via Robot Wisdom auxiliary: support for microformats is planned for Firefox 3. This could be just the thing that causes the adoption of microformats to take off. Heck, with the right tools to use, I might even start using them … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogs and Internet | Comments Off

The Hothouse

Posted on Sunday, 26 August 2007 by David Gorsline

The Hothouse, by Harold Pinter, was written in 1958 (contemporary to his reputation-building The Dumb Waiter and The Birthday Party) but not produced and published until 1980. The play may look back to conventional British satire and sex farce, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theater | Comments Off

Some ink: 2

Posted on Thursday, 23 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Like Leta said when she tipped me to the post, we received a short and sweet review of Significant Others in the Silver Spring Penguin.

Posted in Backstage | Comments Off

Thump

Posted on Wednesday, 22 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Ellen Barry and James Estrin follow Colin Grubel, graduate student in biology at Queens College, to Swinburne Island in Lower New York Bay. Swinburne hosts a colony of Double-Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), whose numbers have rebounded, like those of other … Continue reading →

Posted in Birds and Birding | Comments Off

Squeezed

Posted on Wednesday, 22 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Suhas Sreedhar explains why the old Bruce Springsteen CDs that I’ve ripped sound so much quieter than newer tracks. The dynamic range of CDs (as opposed to vinyl) and digital signal compression technology made it happen. In the 1980s, CDs … Continue reading →

Posted in Engineering, Music | Comments Off

Some rules

Posted on Wednesday, 22 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Learn from everyone. Follow no one. Watch for patterns. Work like hell. —Scott McCloud, Making Comics, p. 255

Posted in Backstage | Comments Off

Significant Others wrapup

Posted on Sunday, 19 August 2007 by David Gorsline

We struck Significant Others this afternoon, insofar as packing up some props and moving a few pieces of furniture back to storage can be called a strike. Leta and I got two solid performances in, after some technically shifty work … Continue reading →

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Caveat emptor

Posted on Sunday, 19 August 2007 by David Gorsline

So now we have a uniform, federal certification program (the NOP) for organic food. Should be easy to trust that geen and white label, to know that what’s on the breakfast table was raised without chemical nasties, eh? Not so … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture | Comments Off

The trip to Harrison

Posted on Sunday, 19 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Alex Witchel catches up with Horton Foote, the Chekhov of Texas, still elegant and active at 91.

Posted in Theater | Comments Off

Not even trying

Posted on Friday, 17 August 2007 by David Gorsline

It’s a little of a dog-bites-man story, but the kerfluffle over the bad D.C. geography in the new Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake is entertaining in a wince-inducing way. Just one among the apparently many gaffes, spotted by Reliable … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Local News | Comments Off

Some links: 19

Posted on Thursday, 16 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Via Laura’s Birding Blog, David Sibley summarizes research about what kills birds. The design of the bar chart is unfortunate: Sibley is apparently trying to use bar lengths to represent estimated values in most cases and error ranges in others. … Continue reading →

Posted in Birds and Birding | Comments Off

Crooked CA watch: 4

Posted on Wednesday, 15 August 2007 by David Gorsline

Disgraced former CEO Sanjay Kumar reported to a minimum-security federal prison to begin serving his 12-year sentence.

Posted in Computing and Mathematics, Economics and Business | Comments Off