Belgium: What Would Poirot Do?
Posted on September 21, 2007 - Filed Under Belgium, News, Audio | Leave a Comment
It looks like a case for Hercule Poirot. The Economist wants to kill off Belgium. What is the motive, what will be the instrument of death? In an editorial this week, that venerable bastion of common sense in a world of cable news banshees suggests that Belgium should be allowed to just wither away. Not […]
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Big Trees
Posted on September 19, 2007 - Filed Under Books, Audio, California, Tech & Science | Leave a Comment
Stout Grove Redwoods Stout Grove — Photo & Review: Russell Johnson
On this Fourth of July I am looking out my window at something that transcends our brief, troubled time, a being whose living cousins were born before Jesus, who have survived the scores of scoundrels that have spread misery across the earth in the name […]
Read More..>>2007:A Baggage Odyssey
Posted on February 9, 2007 - Filed Under Airlines, News, Audio, Travel Biz | Leave a Comment
It is one of the best uses of music in a movie ever. In Stanley Kubrik’s classic “2001: A Space Odyssey, a bunch of crunky old rocket ships drift around space waltzing to the Blue Danube. Why does that make me think of airline baggage: “Look, there’s a flaming chunk of Samsonite reentering the atmosphere… […]
Read More..>>The Golden Gate Bridge: A Troll’s View
Posted on February 7, 2007 - Filed Under Audio, California | Leave a Comment
Over the weekend, while stalking the Queen Mary 2, I walked under the Golden Gate Bridge, getting a very untouristy look (and listen) at it. I recorded the weird, unnerving sounds of traffic a few feet above me. What was that clank?
Under the Golden Gate Bridge [0:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup […]
Read More..>>Horse Walks into a Bar: My Digital Lifestyle
Posted on January 17, 2007 - Filed Under Audio, Culture, Tech & Science, Gadgets & Cameras | Leave a Comment
It was one of those bars where the smell of stale smoke and cheap whiskey permeate the air like that of bat turds in a cave, a way-off-the-strip joint in Las Vegas wedged between a wedding chapel and a lawyer whose sign promises to beat your DUI. I had stopped there on my long […]
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