Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:27 AM

Where can you see jaguars?
Only in Stoneham!
Come to Stone Zoo, they've got jaguars!
Can you believe it?

Yes, Stone Zoo's jaguar pair, Kanga and Pacal, have once again become parents with the arrival of three cubs on March 18, 2006. The cubs are the second litter for the pair who produced a male and female cub in summer 2004. ... The three cubs will remain with their mother for about a year and then likely be moved to other institutions participating in the jaguar Species Survival Plan for breeding.

The Stone Zoo homepage has more information including this great photo of Kanga and cubs.

But if you really want to melt from cute, Boston.com has a four photo slideshow of the kitties, taken by Globe staff photographer Mark Wilson.

But I noticed something peculiar about this image.

The photographer is inside the cage!

Is one of the Stone Zoo jaguars a stringer for the Globe?

Opening verse filked from "Kenya" by Weebls. See it if you haven't already.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:58 PM

Though we selected our monikers independently, Magpie and I both chose it for the same reason: an attraction to shiny things.

Magpie regularly finds the most wonderful things.
Take, for example, this post from the wee hours of the morning:

Not like we in the US need to read this book or anything.

In 1993, a short book by Gene Sharp called From Democracy to Dictatorship was published in Thailand, intended for use in Burma by opponents of that country's dictatorship. Written by political scientist Gene Sharp — an expert in nonviolent political struggle — the book is a practical introduction to using nonviolent techniques to bring down dictatorial governments. Since 1993 it has been translated into 17 languages, and has seen use in the political struggles against dictators and authoritarian governments in countries such as Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and Georgia.
[. . .]
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that Dubya's administration is a dictatorship now, or that it's likely to become one in the immediate future. But I am suggesting that the analysis of dictatorships and the tactics for nonviolent struggle that Sharp offers in his short book are of more than academic interest to US political activists. Leaders of the Democratic party could especially benefit from a look at what Sharp has to say.

The Albert Einstein Institute offers versions of From Dictatorship to Democracy in many languages. You can purchase the English-language version here or download a copy in PDF form here.

The PDF eBook is free, and has about 75 pages of actual content (excluding frontmatter). [It's listed on Amazon, but only a rare edition from a used book dealer; if you want to purchase a print edition, you're better off buying directly from the Institute for $6]

Also, today, Magpie has found a wicked funny cartoon about English-only from Mikhaela Reid and trashy pulp covers to literary classics.

Thanks, fellow magpie!

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:50 PM

Bill Gates has been making predictions again...

Or, as Really Simple Sidi describes Gates' recent pronouncements on "The New World of Work" (emphasis mine):

Google, shmoogle, just watch Microsoft's vision for knowledge workers

It's also not easy enough just to find the information people need to do their jobs. The software innovations of the 1980s and 1990s, which revolutionized how we create and manipulate information, have created a new set of challenges: finding information, visualizing and understanding it, and taking action. Industry analysts estimate that information workers spend up to 30 percent of their working day just looking for data they need. All the time people spend tracking down information, managing and organizing documents, and making sure their teams have the data they need, could be much better spent on analysis, collaboration, insight and other work that adds value.

Gates seems ignorant that the act of searching itself can add value.

I feel the need to rebut him by (yet again) sharing my favorite quote:

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen.”

— Carl Ally

And two others, in a similar vein:

“The more research I do the more I find everything is at random. Somebody goes off in this direction, somebody in that, and who knows what the end result is going to be?”

— Harrison E. Salisbury

“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.”

— Franklin P. Adams

And Bill Gates thinks that the time people spend tracking down information doesn't add value!? Hah!

The Liminal Librrian recently blogged about the role serendipity plays in searching. There's so much of her entry I could quote, because I feel the same way, but I'll limit myself to this observation:

One of the things that makes [librarians] professional is the underlying inquisitiveness that makes us go beyond, that makes us think about how things fit together and who else might benefit from or be working on a given topic, that makes us ponder what implications our serendipitous finds may have on our workplace or our profession -- and makes us want to pass our thoughts on to others.

Amen.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:10 PM

Courtesy of Bitch|Lab, whom I'll just quote directly:

Barbie doesn't *look* Jewish

I don't either, nor do my sisters but, technically, we are. Long story, that. :)

Check out this short film, The Tribe, about Barbie, a doll that was created by a Jewish woman. It's a nicely produced film, quite art school frou-frou. I really dig the intro and the record player. Tres kewl. I found it via Crooked Timber.

Unfortunately, I don't have the right version of Flash to watch whatever's on the link above.

However, I found much more about the film at the movie's official website, including a trailer, highlights, reviews, and this synopsis:

What can the most successful doll on the planet show us about being Jewish today? Narrated by Peter Coyote, the film mixes old school narration with a new school visual style. The Tribe weaves together archival footage, graphics, animation, Barbie dioramas, and slam poetry to take audiences on an electric ride through the complex history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people -- from Biblical times to present day. By tracing Barbie's history, the film sheds light on what it means to be an American Jew today. It asks the question, what does it mean to be a member of any tribe in the 21st Century.

For local folks, it will be playing at the Nantucket Film Festival: June 15th & 18th 2006, or the filmmakers are selling DVDs and "screening kits".

Hey, Muddah-in-law! Be sure to tell Tobin about this, and point her to this image, titled "Assimilation"

On a different note, but also from Bitch|Lab, check out Art. With an F.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:19 AM

Last night, I dreamed that Dr. House was teaching a classroom of people how to use my company's databases, and he called me in to assist (to drive the databases, and possibly give individual assistance, while he lectured). And among the databases he thought suitable to demonstrate was one devoted to Mexican restaurants in America. Go figure. [No, my company does not make such a product.] I actually had some problems with my role, because I was so used to command-line searching that I couldn't remember the menu commands for beginners.

Anyone care to hazard a guess what that says about my subconscious?

By the way, the winner of last night's "which book should Lis read next" quiz appears to be London 1945, for which I've finished the prologue Prelude and started the first chapter. I'm also bringing The Curse with me in case I change my mind as I progress...

What's on your mind this morning?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:36 PM

Finished Flapper over lunch. Highly recommend it; I'm going to blog about it in more detail later -- it taught me a few things and many of the social issues that arose during the period seem just as fresh today.

Now I've got the dilemma of trying to decide which of the books I've checked out of the library to read next. They're all hardcovers, so it's not like I can bring too many of them with me tomorrow to work until I figure out which grabs me.

I thought Naomi Novik's Black powder war was coming out today, but I was wrong -- it's next week. Too bad; Ian's got jury duty on Thursday and I figured it would make a perfect accompaniment for him.

Anyway, half hour until the House season finale; Boopsie's pissed on the bed twice in two days after several weeks of good behavior; I had trouble sleeping last night and am rather exhausted; and now I'm waiting for a spot on my forehead to clot -- I'm going to have an ugly scab by my eyebrow for who knows how long, and I'm not happy about that...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 PM

A new species of dinosaur has been named: the Dracorex hogwartsia

According to AP reports, its skull will be housed permanently at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

A press release from the museum provides further info, including an interactive promotional javascript, with photos of the find.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:45 PM

So now that I've finished my review of Love's Labour's Lost, I feel comfortable reading what the other critics are saying:

• Boston Globe: Huntington gets more than laughs from Bard by Ed Siegel
• Boston Herald: 'Labour' of love for Huntington by Terry Byrne
• Boston Phoenix: No sex please, we're bookish by Iris Fanger (and what a great title!)
• Even Variety found it worthy of a review by Frank Rizzo (opening with a wonderful turn of phrase, referring to the "quartet of frat lords")

[Read 'em soon -- some of the links may expire!]

I don't quite get it. Ian and I were completely blown away by Robert Jason Jackson as Holofernes.

And yet none of the other reviews deems him worthy of mention.

Is it (as Ian suggests) just because I specialize in Shakespeare so know how difficult a role he undertook? Something that a general theater critic might miss by having a wider focus? Or is there something else going on here?

I still think of myself as an amateur in the whole reviewing biz, and would like to learn and improve.

Last summer, I dug through various online catalogs to compile a list of books on theater criticism. But that just acknowledged their existence, with no notion of their quality. Anybody with a background in journalism, theater, professional reviews or criticism care to share some pointers (practical advice or book recommendations)?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:55 PM

Zabryna Guevara and Noah Bean banter as Rosaline and Berowne in Act II, Scene 1 of Love's Labour's Lost. Photo: © T. Charles Erickson.

Love's Labour's Lost (henceforth LLL) contains one of Shakespeare's frothier setups: The Duke of Navarre and his three best buds swear off women to better devote themselves to their studies. Unfortunately, they make this vow just before the French princess and her three ladies are due to arrive. It's the kind of plan that would only seem wise to young men, and one which young women would have fun foiling. Add a handful of truly oddball characters to liven things up, and you've got quite a comedy.

This is the third time that Ian and I have seen LLL -- first Branagh's 2000 movie, then last year's presentation by A.R.T./MXAT students. But impressively enough, Huntington Theater has put on the most intact version to date, including scenes both the other productions cut. And although all three versions made significant use of music, here it complemented Shakespeare's language rather than supplanting it.

The audience enters to the sight of a magnificent library (like something out of the Renaissance Library Collection): two floors of bookshelves under a windowed atrium. An utterly breathtaking trompe l'oeil. Resting upon the long wooden reading table are several green bankers lamps, and Berowne -- apparently sound asleep. And so he lies in plain sight as everyone takes their seats.

Eric Anderson as Dumain transform'd. Spot the four woodcocks in Act IV, Scene 3: Photo: © T. Charles Erickson.

It's been my experience that Shakespeare doesn't always work with elaborate sets and scene changes. So kudos to the set design and lighting in this production. The backdrops were delightful (particularly the little steamship that marked the ladies' arrival) and even the more elaborate scene changes didn't drag. And they made versatile use of a tree, which dominated the stage for most of the play (photo, left).

Like the movie, this production was set in a pre-war Europe. Branagh used 1939, just before WWII; director Nicholas Martin chose the Edwardian era of 1910-1912. However, the play avoids Branagh's trap of using the impending war to darken the conclusion. Shakespeare's ending is dramatic enough, it doesn't need the additional melodrama. [The ART production circumvented war motifs altogether with a 1950s setting.]

“They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps” Robert Jason Jackson as Holofernes Photo: © T. Charles Erickson.

As I said earlier, this was the most complete production of LLL I have known, and the first time I've gotten to see the Nine Worthies play within a play. This was also the first production that didn't color-code the lovers. It can be a useful conceit, but this version didn't need such shortcuts.

Although everyone in the cast turned in a solid performance, it was the minor characters -- rather than the lovers -- who truly caught my eye. Elisa Bocanegra made it obvious why so many men fawned over Jaquenetta, squeezing every ounce of comedy through her body language and voice. Peter Zachari's Constable Dull seemed like an archetype from silent films, and Jeremy Beck was an impish delight as Moth.

But most impressive was Robert Jason Jackson as Holofernes (photo, right). I've been led to believe that Holofernes is one of Shakespeare's thankless roles: he's funny because he's so boring! Yeah, that's comedy gold. Most productions trim the role heavily; both my previous viewings crosscast a woman. That made Robert Jason Jackson even more impressive. Not only did he bring a droll wit to his part, but he did so with one of the more difficult characters. Unsurprisingly, his biography showed extensive Shakespearean experience. [Oh hey! I just looked up his IMDB page: he was in B5! Cool!]

Anyway, we had a blast and I strongly recommend this production. Even if you've seen Branagh's movie, you haven't seen the whole play. It's worth your while.

For further reading: Ian's review of this production and all of our past theatrical reviews.

PS: I attended high school with an Eric Anderson, who was heavily involved in the theater department. At my ten year reunion, somebody mentioned that Eric was also in the Boston area. I couldn't tell whether the Eric Anderson playing Dumaine is my classmate from Countryside High (it's not an uncommon name, and my information is a decade out of date), but if anyone in contact with him can find out one way or the other, I'd appreciate it.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:25 PM

In my high school yearbook, one of my teachers wrote:

Go far. I want to know a famous extremely well informed person and you're my choice. When you get there (whereever that may be) invite me to celebrate with you.

Perceptive fellow. :)

That was Mr. Zimmerman, whom I had for 12th grade English. Even though I was suffering from a serious case of senioritis at the time, I found him an inspirational teacher, who motivated me with his political activism (I wrote a letter to Richard Nixon in his class) and with his stories about the world of professional journalism.

At any rate, Carl Zimmerman is now running for political office -- the Democratic candidate for Florida House District 48 in Pinellas County: which includes Oldsmar, East Lake, Clearwater, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs

Though I no longer live in Pinellas County, I know friends and relatives reading this blog do.

So, I urge you to take a look at his website, read his positions on the issues, and give him strong consideration.

Who knows, maybe I'll be the one celebrating with him. :)

PS: Skimming thru his campaign blog, it looks like he needs registered voters in his district to sign this petition in order for his name to appear on the ballot. This does not commit you to voting for him come election day, just gets his name on the ballot. If you're in his district, I'd like to ask that of you.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:55 PM

Last month, I discovered:

Did you know that Windows XP doesn't support copying files to a DVD+R drive the way you can copy them onto a CD drive?

You can only write to a DVD drive using a third-party program.

Can anybody recommend a good freeware and/or open source program for copying files to the DVD drive under Windows? An actual high-quality compressing backup would be useful, too, but right now I just want to copy files so anybody can read them from disk and I can free up space on my hard drive.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:54 PM

One bit I meant to share from The Book nobody read: chasing the revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, about artefacts in Italy:

[W]e visited the library in Ferrara and were there astonished to discover Ludovico Ariosto's heart in a large urn, and we found Galileo's index finger in a reliquary in the Florence History of Science Museum.

Secular, scientific relics...

Who would've thought?

And again, I keep trying to imagine a fantasy alternate history where relics and body parts worked according to the popular beliefs. Anybody know of such works of fiction?

Related entries for further inspiration: Esme's embalmed heart and the bone hill outside London.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:50 PM

Quoting Snopes:

Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit identity theft: the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:

The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court and claims you've failed to report for jury duty. He tells you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest.

The victim will often rightly claim they never received the jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information for "verification" purposes.

Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and other private information — exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.

Since I know at least two people facing very real jury duty this month, I thought I'd pass this warning along to the rest of you. It's very clever, and Snopes has all the info you need to protect yourselves.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:20 PM

Over the weekend, Ian blogged about the Finnish Eurovision contestants, Lordi (music video).

This morning, two commenters have said that Ian's post was quoted in today's Guardian, although nobody has provided a link and so far I can't find the article.

I suspect it may only be in the print edition.

So if any readers in the UK can check today's Guardian for an article on Lordi which references "Ian Osmond" or "Xiphias Gladius" or "xiphias.livejournal.com" could you please provide us with a confirmation and details of how and where he's quoted?

Links would be great, if they exist, but even just an article title and page number would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

PS: I emailed the newspaper editors, who confirmed "there is a reference on p.2 of today's newspaper to 'xiphias.livejournal.com' This section doesn't appear online."

Given that additional piece of information, can anybody with a hardcopy of today's Guardian provide the article title and quote the relevant portion?

Thanks again.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM

Of items deserving more attention:

Susie Madrak:

Because it's important, and everyone needs to read it. Somegirl points out that the "real meat" of the immigration bill is yet another massive government database:

The EEVS [Employment Eligibility Verification System] would require - for the first time - all workers to obtain a federal agency's permission to work, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. It would create two massive government databases containing the most sensitive personal information on every lawful resident. Every worker would be registered in the two systems with data files tracking every job they ever sought or held. The two systems combine that information with substantial amounts of personally identifiable information, all keyed to a person's Social Security number.

All employers would be required to participate in a national employment eligibility verification program in an expansion of the faulty but voluntary "Basic Pilot" program. However, no proposals have been brought forth to provide for a secure system; making it likely that the EEVS system would be a ripe target for identity thieves.

Magpie:

Nine months after Hurricane Katrina hit the US Gulf Coast, thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable are still living in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Day 1, those trailers have been a matter of controversy and complaint. Besides being a lousy place to live, they're costing the government far more than would better accomodations, such as Katrina Cottages. FEMA trailers are unlikely to survive floods or high winds, and the propane tanks that usually come with the trailers have caused a number of explosions.

But, as they say, that's not all, folks.

The Sierra Club says that thousands of people living in FEMA trailers may be getting exposed to dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that is known to cause cancer. So far, the environmental group has tested for formaldehyde levels at 50 trailers. Test results are available for 32 of the trailers and all but two of the tests showed unsafe levels of airborne formaldehyde.

Both sites have more, so you should read the original entries.

What other underreported news have you heard?

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:30 PM

Most recently finished book:

• The man who found time: James Hutton and the discovery of the Earth's antiquity

Book currently reading (and enjoying very much!):

• Flapper: a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern

Books picked up yesterday from the library:

• The curse: confronting the last unmentionable taboo: menstruation
• Elizabeth's London: everyday life in Elizabethan London
• How the Scots invented the modern world: the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world & everything in it
• Last dinner on the Titanic
• London 1945: life in the debris of war
• Pickled, potted, and canned: how the art and science of food preserving changed the world
• The technology of orgasm: "hysteria," the vibrator, and women's sexual satisfaction

Books seen at the library for later:

• The decline and fall of the British aristocracy
• Eat my words: reading women's lives through the cookbooks they wrote
• Dangerous tastes: the story of spices

No copies available, but also for later:

• Blood and roses: one family's struggle and triumph during England's tumultuous civil war
• How would a patriot act? defending American values from a president run amok

As always, comments about any of these titles or further suggestions most welcome.