:: meanders ::

:: The Fullest Moon of All
Today's Full moon is indeed bigger (11%, of course only visually) and brighter , by a full 20%. The Algonquin people called her the Snow Moon, while at the same time, the Colonials called her the Hunger or Trapper Moon. My favorite is the San Juan people's name, Coyote Frighten Moon.

:: A Fab Blast from the Past...
It is odd to think 1996 as being very very long ago, but a trip on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine - Web Pioneers category puts perspective on that most pivotal year for a couple of budding company named Yahoo! and Amazon.

:: Web rage!!
You are not alone!! Web rage hits the internet, from BBC News. But fear not, there is an oasis where you can slake your thirst for sanity, if only for a moment.

:: Lest you be tempted to think Kenneth Lay was really clueless
Sherron Watkins was almost as protective of Mr. Lay as his wife. Qui Bono is ever the right question to ask, however, when ascribing motive. That Lay Sold Shares for $100 Million, $20M sold in the three weeks after being informed by Ms Watkins of the improprieties, leads me to doubt that Mr. Lay was as clueless as he is being painted.

:: Dont Forget, a poem by Steven Berg
I was always called in early for dinner. It was dusk usually, half an inning to go, I'd hear my mother calling me to beat the dark, everyone would mumble, I'd throw my glove down and leave. At home, sitting at the table, I'd imagine the score, and the speckled homework book seemed to watch me until I opened it, stared at the numbers, and fell asleep. Damp laundry rustled in the yards of the houses. Everyone was punished like this because our parents worried we'd fall, and missed us, but we always got hurt anyway, or we'd sit for hours sanding the wings of a wood fighter plane until they shined like metal. We climbed walls until we slipped and our legs broke, our first kisses were so murderous we almost fainted. Don't forget, this is inside us every day. We want everything, our hands stop too soon, and who are we when a face whispers and opens to us like a wave? The tame grasses of the head, the moist spiral ear, some water nobody has crossed-- you feel yourself leaving, you can't lift your hands, you stand there, leaving. STEPHEN BERG
[ image source ]

:: Far Eastern Economic Review - on blogs
I think Jeremy Wagstaff gets it right. Here's Where the Party Is

:: The Color Orange
Overheard on NPR

The color orange is the color of insanity,
worn only by prisoners and buddhist monks

:: Garibaldi (endangered California State fish) ::

:: Opt Out of this One Now
A public service announcement, courtesy of "mother":

Starting in July, Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion will release personal info to anyone who asks for any reason. The "Opt Out" telly is 888-567-8688...the first option on the recording is for two years only...the third option be mo betta.

:: Ted Turner: the Media Turnip
Ted Turner says that 9-11 Was Act of Desperation and that

"I think they were brave at the very least," Turner said of the 19 airliner hijackers believed to have committed the attacks, adding that they "might have been a little nuts."

How can one be brave and nuts at the same time? Like the standards for what a hero is, ie, victims are heros these days, the standards of bravery are in sad disarray. Worse, the fixation with celebrities and their drivel, on and off screen, has long overstayed its welcome. Fantasy was once a personal diversion. It has become a public obsession. Practicing self restraint, I cede the soapbox.

:: America's Library
The Library of Congress site,America's Library, is a nifty use of taxpayers money for kids and adults. "Meet Amazing Americans" presents easy to digest 3-page illustrated vignettes. Mr. Carnegie left a legacy of grand library buildings and by 1911, 8 years before his death, had "given away" 90% of his fortune. Who are the Andrew Carnegie's of today?

:: John c. Dvorak Blabs Blogs
John C. Dvorak, PC magazine writer, and TechTV host of Silicon Spin on Blogging, along with some reasoned replies, a few diatribes, and a couple of good links for further reading. While Dvorak does capture some of the more trite aspects of a certain type of blog, he does miss the potential inherent in the blog medium. One could easily say any medium is about ego gratification, individuation, blather, a search for community, and outlet for wanna-be's. For instance, for every professional actor, there are scores involved in community theatre. For every elected official, there are countless soapbox orators. What distinguishes blogging from other media is its sense of immediacy. This is where the potential of the web log is. How else can one have access to an individual one might never otherwise have "known"? You must try blogging to know this: the interface encourages a more personal experience in an otherwise quite impersonal cyberspace. This, I believe, is why blogging- be it a blog, journal, diary, or invere-dated webpage-- will continue to grow and evolve. And that is the point not seen by Mr. Dvorak. Enjoy the freshness and sincerity of the early years while you can. No doubt, as with all human enterprise, a harder edge will eventually develop.

:: Rogue traders of our time
Rogue traders of our time, from BBC

:: The Economics of Morality & Depravity
Alas, not a subscriber so I can't see the entire article, but certainly this picture says it all! from The Dismal Scientist, 5 Feb 02

---

And in other developments, yet another paper trader gets caught:

Dublin, Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Allied Irish Banks Plc, Ireland's largest bank, may lose $750 million from alleged fraudulent currency trades at its U.S. unit. The shares plunged as much as 23 percent. Allied Irish has found that a trader at Baltimore-based Allfirst Financial Inc. made a series of fictitious transactions to hide losses he was making on real trades, said Gary Kennedy, the bank's head of finance, in an interview. This would be the biggest trading loss from unauthorized trading since 1996 when Sumitomo Corp. of Japan disclosed it lost $2.6 billion from copper trading