Abby is one month old
My daughter Vanessa out for a stroll with Abby. I am really digging it being a grandfather… not just because we have a new life on the planet but because I still find it so amazing that my daughter has grown into such a beautiful person, and now a mother.
Stairway to Heaven … on an iPhone
I think this is a very cool iPhone app … but no, you really can’t play all the parts in Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.
Smule’s Ocarina
The folks at Smule have released an ingenious viral video of Ocarina (iTunes link), the company’s iPhone app that allows users to “play” their iPhones as if it were an Ocarina, being used in a performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
Ocarina converts your iPhone to an Ocarina — the user must blow into the microphone, and an Ocarina-like note is played through your iPhone’s speaker. Four virtual buttons on the touchscreen allow the user to change that note just like an ocarina, and the software is even sensitive to different intensities of blowing.
Ocarina also has a global function that allows you to see where other Ocarina users are on the planet on a 3D globe, and to hear what they’re playing.
Studs Terkel has died
Studs Terkel, who made his name listening to ordinary folks talk about their ordinary lives — and who turned that knack for conversation into a much-honored literary career — died Friday. He was 96. Studs was a dear friend to the family and was one of my father’s oldest friends.
Terkel died of old age at his home in Chicago, his son Dan said.
“He lived a long, eventful, satisfying, though sometimes tempestuous life,” Dan Terkell said. “I think that pretty well sums it up.”
The author of blockbuster oral histories on World War II, the Great Depression and contemporary attitudes toward work, Terkel roamed the country engaging an astounding cross-section of Americans in tape-recorded chats — about their dreams, their fears, their chewing gum, about racism, courage, dirty floors and the Beatles.
from Los Angeles Times
Zeitgeist: Addendum
Make some sense out of the crisis we find ourselves in today. This movie makes it clear that even ordinary people can understand “the economy” and what it means to our lives. Zeitgeist: Addendum, attempts to locate the root causes of pervasive social corruption, while offering a solution. This solution is not based on politics, morality, laws, or any other “establishment” notions of human affairs, but rather on a modern, non-superstitious based understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, to which we are a part. The work advocates a new social system which is updated to present day knowledge, highly influenced by the life long work of Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project.
Colin Powell endorses Obama
This is big. Although there have been many things done at the hands of Colin Powell that I do not agree with, he is an intelligent, thoughtful and well spoken person. He has had tons of experience in not only public service as an elected official, but in all aspects of life. I am pleased he has made these statements publicly on “Meet The Press” today and I think it will go a long way towards insuring that Barack Obama will be our next president.
Everyone is doing great!
I am posting one last picture from the hospital where Abby was born. Everyone is home now, and little Abby is just eating, sleeping and growing everyday.
you can call me grandpa
My daughter Vanessa gave birth to Abigail at 1:35 AM Saturday morning, October 11, 2008. Everyone is doing great! Abby arrived a little earlier than expected so she is pretty small but healthy and beautiful.
You can view some more pictures at the Gallery
Bruce Springsteen in support of America
My good friend Joanie Blum sent me this link, saying: This little clip is interesting for the 1st 4 minutes and fun for the last 5 -If you’re not a fan, then the 1st half is a well-spoken speech and you can skip the music on the back end -
Just a little confirmation that some performers do, indeed, speak eloquent and informative sentences!
Springsteen in Philadelphia for the Obama Voter Registration Rally, 10.4.08
Australian scientist discovers low cost solar cell
Nicole Kuepper, a 23-year-old PhD student from UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, has developed photovoltaic (solar) technology involving a simple inkjet printing process. The work could bring electricity to 2 billion of the world’s poorest people - and has already two prestigious Eureka Prizes for Nicole.
Why limit this to “the world’s poorest people”? We should be doing this HERE in the United States, the self-proclaimed richest country in the world.
