Software Soapbox

Awkward facebook invite of the year

You know this had to have happened.......

Facebook   Hi Mark, Aaron Sorkin wants to be friends with you on Facebook.     Aaron Sorkin     Thanks, The Facebook Team Respond now: Confirm Friend   To confirm (or quietly ignore) this request, go to: http://www.facebook.com/n/?reqs.php&mid=33a865aG5429a646G15305a3G2&n_m=zuckerberg%40facebook.com

 

Facebook Hi Mark, Aaron Sorkin wants to be friends with you on Facebook.     Aaron Sorkin     Thanks, The Facebook Team Respond now: Confirm Friend   To confirm (or quietly ignore) this request, go to: http://www.facebook.com/n/?reqs.php&mid=33a865aG5429a646G15305a3G2&n_m=zuckerberg%40facebook.com

When the President Calls About the Vick Dogs

Now that President Obama has jumped on the Michael Vick bandwagon with an official call to Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie to congratulate him for giving the quarterback another chance, all of us here at Best Friends are waiting for a call from the White House to congratulate us for giving Vick’s dogs a second chance. I’m quite sure that the other organizations that also took on some of the canine survivors of the football star’s dogfighting operation are similarly poised.

via blogs.bestfriends.org

Google Spaces shows us where Wave went

So it's safe to say that Google Wave didn't really make one upon the tech world as a whole, but it certainly was a neat idea. While Wave itself now lives with the Apache Software Foundation, the core concept, easy and direct collaboration with anyone, has new life with Google Shared Spaces.

via www.engadget.com

Remixing the Holidays: Hip Hop Holiday Music

It’s the week before Christmas, and as usual, we’re celebrating with our annual “Remixing the Holidays” series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season. We’re kicking things off with Jon Solomon. For over twenty years, Jon — who is Jewish, by the way — has been hosting Princeton University's 24-hour Christmas special on WPRB.

This year, he’s decided to walk us through the often underappreciated genre of hip-hop holiday music. And he’s here to reassure us: it goes far beyond Run-DMC's "Christmas in Hollis."

via www.thetakeaway.org

Only in Vegas - Underwater Santa Claus

Bryson Drescher, 3, and his mother Jenny Drescher of Laughlin, Nevada, look at an underwater Santa Claus swimming in a 117,000-gallon aquarium at the Silverton hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada December 19, 2010. The Santa was equipped with a microphone so that he could communicate with the children. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

via english.people.com.cn

Private collectors?

...a team of experts using advanced scientific techniques say they have conclusively identified the head, passed down over the centuries by private collectors, as that of the monarch.

via news.yahoo.com

The other Side of Vegas, part 2 - Plant World and Dancing Parrots

Visitors to the Las Vegas Strip can often forget that there's a city out there that supports the strip.  and that city can contain many weird and wonderful things. 

We started an apparently belated search for a good Christmas tree today.  We like to support local businesses when we can, so we passed by the Home Depots, Lowes, and Las Vegas' multi-location Star Nursery (that got its start in Vegas, but is now just another big corporation that does not like to keep their warranty promises),  and headed to Plant World.

Plant World Nursery is this big, weird collection of random gardening and plumbing items, but that's only one reason we like to visit.  They also have entertainment in the form of various animals and exotic birds roaming the premises. 

We were surprised to see that they still have the parrots out, even though it's fairly cold here (about 60 degrees fahrenheit).  They don't leave them on the roosts as they do in the summer, but instead keep them semi-enclosed in cages with heat lamps in the back.  They also have several adopted cats that will provide you with escort services  (not that kind) and entertainment during your visit to the property, and charge you only a neck or back rub for the privilege.

Today a large, well-fed Tabby decided to accompany us and was no diappointment.  He immediately directed us to the most lively parrot in the whole place, and then put on a great show trying to catch a sparrow that had flown into the parrot's cage to steal some leftovers.  That's where I got this great shot, I call "Ambition":

 

A little later the parrot put on a show for us:

All in all a great day!  No Christmas Tree yet, but lots of simple pleasures.  Gotta love the Vegas!

 

Something you don't see every day....

Tawny Kitaen (@Tawny_Kitaen) is now following your tweets (@bbenz) on Twitter.

Tawny Kitaen @Tawny_Kitaen Southern Cal

Bio Actress, proud mother of two beautiful daughters (who I adore) daughter, sister and friend.

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The domino project

It’s no secret that publishing is changing. After five hundred years, the act of making, selling, reading and sharing books is evolving. Ten years from now, it will be (for the first time) unrecognizable to Gutenberg. My expanded thoughts on this are on my blog today.

via www.thedominoproject.com

Apple engineer uses Lego to rebuild ancient Greek mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism is what you call truly old school technology.

via www.engadget.com