...more recent posts
Newsweek International hears about Central Park birding.
Well, spring migration is just about over, but I promised to post this tidbit. It's one of Tom Fiore's field reports from Central Park, including a compliment for me. Tom is an excellent birder, and particularly devoted to documenting the Park's birds. (Although, like a number of veteran birders in need of new challenges, I think he's now more interested in butterflies.) He writes exhaustive lists in the Park's log book, as well as posting online. He always sees more birds than most of us, but his reports have the nice effect of convincing you that there's got to be something interesting around, if you just keep looking. These log entries at the Boathouse were certainly one of the things that finally convinced me to pick up binoculars, after years of strictly naked eye viewing.
The field report as a literary form is an interesting possibility. Some people want no more than the basics of location, observers, and the birds seen. Others write everything out in paragraphs, like a little story, which is not considered very "scientific". Tom's are somewhere in between: annotated lists with comments and occasional opinions interjected. He collects information from many other birders, and estimates numbers to create inclusive day lists. He's become a sort of minor celebrity of the Park, especially after the story of his kidnapping in Columbia got around, and he was featured in Marie Winn's book Red-tails in Love. Birding with him is a bit of an honor, although mostly I end up watching him, and try to figure out how he sees the birds I miss. By the way, Red-tails is supposedly being made into a movie, by Nora Ephron; not sure if it's going to include the humans, or just the birds. Sadly, the Red-tails' chicks died this year, and several Peregrine Falcon nests around town also failed. Hawks in Prospect Park and Falcons downtown are said to be doing OK. Anyway, I'm posting the 5/19 report in the comment field. Just be aware that when Tom credits me with being cautious and conservative, what he really means is that I just don't know enough to make the quick call. And yes, the Blackpoll Warblers did show up, bigtime, last weekend.
NEWS FLASHBACK:
From a very close friend of the band comes forth the rumor
that the Grateful Dead will play again, minus one little guy....
its never too early to start blogging.
Is anyone planning on getting together tonight? I thought I'd bring it up a little earlier in the day. I've been home with a cold and am feeling better would love to get out and see my pals.
kirks chair up for auction.
Still getting his war on. "Goddamn! I'm sick of these fake-ass terrorist alerts."
What's up with the Dick Armey reference. I missed that. A little help?
'Copy-Proof' CDs Cracked with 99-Cent Marker Pen
Mon May 20, 1:14 PM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony
Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech
method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.
Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past
week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for
deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit
to a stationery store.
"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on
alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."
Sony did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Major music labels, including Sony and Universal Music, have begun selling
the "copy-proof" discs as a means of tackling the rampant spread of music
piracy, which they claim is eating into sales.
The new technology aims to prevent consumers from copying, or "burning,"
music onto recordable CDs or onto their computer hard drives, which can then
be shared with other users over file-sharing Internet services such as Kazaa
or Morpheus MusicCity.
SONY AGGRESSIVE ANTI-PIRACY PUSH
Monday, Reuters obtained an ordinary copy of Celine Dion (news - web
sites)'s newest release "A New Day Has Come," which comes embedded with
Sony's "Key2Audio" technology.
After an initial attempt to play the disc on a PC resulted in failure, the
edge of the shiny side of the disc was blackened out with a felt tip marker.
The second attempt with the marked-up CD played and copied to the hard drive
without a hitch.
Internet postings claim that tape or even a sticky note can also be used to
cover the security track, typically located on the outer rim of the disc.
And there are suggestions that copy protection schemes used by other music
labels can also be circumvented in a similar way.
Sony's proprietary technology, deployed on many recent releases, works by
adding a track to the copy-protected disc that contains bogus data.
Because computer hard drives are programmed to read data files first, the
computer will continuously try to play the bogus track first. It never gets
to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc.
The effect is that the copy-protected disc will play on standard CD players
but not on computer CD-ROM drives, some portable devices and even some car
stereo systems.
Some Apple Macintosh (news - web sites) users have reported that playing the
disc in the computer's CD drive causes the computer to crash. The cover of
the copy-protected discs contain a warning that the album will not play on
Macintoshes or other personal computers.
Apple has since posted a warning on its Web site at:
kbase.info.apple.com/cgi-...KC.106882.
Sony Music Europe has taken the most aggressive anti-piracy stance in the
business. Since last fall, the label has shipped more than 11 million
copy-protected discs in Europe, with the largest proportion going to
Germany, a market label executives claim is rife with illegal CD-burning.
So I’ve got this cat here. Polly the cat. I’m putting her up while Ruth & Nicholas are in Germany. Seems their other cats don’t tolerate her, but she’s been a model citizen here. We had cats when I was a kid, and I had my own, Kitty, for 17 years. She died four years ago, and I’ve been petless since. It’s good to have a cat around. This one is really sweet, with an even temperament. She does all those cat things: chases a toy; rolls on her back; sits in my lap purring. And sleeps a lot. It’s reassuring to see that cats are the same as ever. I’m not planning on getting one myself just now, (too little time, too little space, too much hair,) but somewhere down the road I see myself with another cat. Not Polly, though. She’s moving to Montana soon. Can’t integrate here, so she’s heading west to the RenHillWalls’. Probably a good deal for her.
My only problem is with her name. Everyone knows Polly is a bird’s name; this must be an embarrassment for a cat. So I’ve taken to calling her Poly, as in “many”. After all, the cat is a many-lived creature. Having been rescued from the street, she’s got to be on her second life, and heading for a third, so she’s a Polycat for sure. The names sound the same, so she’s not confused, and I hope this distinction will be observed in Montana. I’m sure you guys will love her out there.
Did I mention she sheds and claws the furniture?
Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary theorist at Harvard University whose lectures, research and prolific output of essays helped to reinvigorate the field of paleontology, died today at his home in Manhattan. He was 60 years old. The cause was adenocarcinoma, his wife, Rhonda Roland Schearer, said.
ludology.org: videogame theory
I've been working out by the lake (Ponchartrain). At the corner of Warbler and Warbler, you know, off of Warbler, past Swallow.
I noticed in our park the day before yesterday, the arrival of grazing season for the squirels. Little tips (sometimes bigger tips) of tree branched littering the ground all over the area.
the dove lives!!!, i took the slightly bloddy busted winged birdie outside and it after resting it flew off....:>):>)...i guess it will may not set a record for long life but its not dead yet....:>):>)
arthur lee euro tour
you know your a yooper if...
If the sky clears, you can plan-it.
another installment of "theyve got way too much time on their hands." new york city map reimagined as if the nazis had won world war 2.
meanwhile, texas reimagines its own history in light of its current ethnic make-up.
world rps society
have a cigar
It's raining men
Not a mother.
(Courtesy ABS)