Web Picks

Video from the recount...Lizard People and Flying Spaghetti Monsters, Al Frankenstin? Sorry it is a bit late. Life intervenes. hat tip to MyDD with them hat tipping all around and figuring that Franken will win with a 35-50 vote lead--a case of every vote counting....

Interesting technologies being developed in France and Australia that seem to indicate the combustion engine is on the way out.  We can hope anyway: h/t Rick...

This post addresses the problem of fundraising (December is when all the letters go out, right?) when the economy is tanking and a broader discussion about how to find topical information on the web without relying on Google. First the helps for non profits.  I have done my share of fundraising and know the challenges of matching the giver's capacity with the message that will motivate a donor to open the pocketbook and give.  In these uncertain times, the site Too Busy to Fundraise has some good advice in this post.  When the going gets tough, build relationships and don't...

The power of Twitter is hard to describe.  It is one form of social networking, or Web 2.0 folks talk about, and it is a kind of extreme short form of communication--only 140 characters are permitted.  People use it to announce the mundane--completion of the chores of life.  They also use it to link to something amazing on the web, or a breaking news story, or a bright idea that needs support.  By watching local people on Twitter, I was alerted to the [possible] new free medical clinic in Viroqua, the recent Dairyland decision, and the live streaming video from...

The BBC website posted this wonderful article about rare recordings of some of the 20th Century's greatest writers recently released on a CD.  John Steinbeck, Arthur Conan Doyle, Evelyn Waugh, Arthur Miller and Vladimir Nabokov are some of the voices on new CDs from the British Library. Most excellent is the audio clip they provide of Virginia Woolf commenting on the English language. It reminds me of another CD set of Jorge Luis Borges lecturing on literature, translation and art--"The Craft of Verse" (audio clips of Borges' lectures at the link above.) And to end this remarkable week, Al Gore...