happy halloween etc.

hi folks

hope you are all having a really nice halloween
it is a beautiful day here today

I have been spending a lot of time working on the ridge, cutting back dead things and so forth. the weather has been so nice it seems silly to spend time on the computer...

so, I have been having some interesting results in experiments creating a painting medium from pokeberries...the color is sort of close to B565A5...as it dries it creates very interesting effects. applying this pigment to weathered locust makes it look a bit like cedar wood, but with a much higher color saturation.

saturday was very busy, but it was a happy kind of busy...pet rescue day was fantastic. lots of people came to show their support. and 16 dogs and cats found homes. YAY!!!!!!!

also I just spoke with Chris at the Jacksonville Center and it sounds like their Halloween event was a great success. The drama show sounds like it was very cool. I can't remember if it was a falcon or a hawk that Lee had, but I wish I could have seen it.

let me see. what else. oh yes any of you who are curious to hear some firsthand accounts of search engine optimization gymnastics might enjoy the Dogs on Trucks dot net blog.

there is also some new content in there related to Google Adsense, and how Google decides what ads to deliver to whom, and how it trains its little robots to predict what we want to know about.

OK I must be going. take care & have a wonderful day.

--Suzy

tags: Jacksonville Center, Jacksonville School, art, natural dye, natural pigment, artificial intelligence, adsense

scene from pet rescue day

a scene from Pet Rescue Day 2005
in Hardy, Virginia

SML Pet Rescue Day 2005

Smith Mountain Lake Pet Rescue Day 2005
this event will take place in Hardy, Virginia on October 29, 2005. learn more...

slashdot post re: sideways information buckling

BarryNorton writes "In a world that increasingly takes the WWW, its pages and the other documents we exchange in the electronic world as given - and knights Tim Berners-Lee without an understanding of the pre-WWW background of stateless client/server document architectures (e.g. Gopher) and hypertext (e.g. Xanadu) on which he built - there still beavers away a forgotten figure, Ted Nelson, eager to more fully achieve the original hypertext vision. In recent communications Nelson says: 'The tekkies have hijacked literature- with the best intentions, of course!-) - but now the humanists have to get it back. Nearly every form of electronic document- Word, Acrobat, HTML, XML- represents some business or ideological agenda. Many believe Word and Acrobat are out to entrap users; HTML and XML enact a very limited kind of hypertext with great internal complexity. All imitate paper and (internally) hierarchy. I propose a different document agenda: I believe we need new electronic documents which are transparent, public, principled, and freed from the traditions of hierarchy and paper. In that case they can be far more powerful, with deep and rich new interconnections and properties- able to quote dynamically from other documents and buckle sideways to other documents, such as comments or successive versions; able to present third-party links; and much more. Most urgently: if we have different document structures we can build a new copyright realm, where everything can be freely and legally quoted and remixed in any amount without negotiation.'"

slashdot post re: site re-design

EdwardianDandy writes "Web designer Khoi Vinh, whose firm Behavior is responsible for the redesign of the Onion, argues on publish.com that an upcoming contest to overhaul Slashdot's look will yield interesting results, but the outcome will suffer because the underlying architecture is off limits." Normally I don't post stuff "About" Slashdot here since I find meta naval gazing very boring, but this article has many good points about architecture and design, even if his whole premise is based on a contest that we haven't spent more than about 5 minutes thinking about, and is mostly just meant to be a fun way for users to contribute themes to Slashdot. If Khoi wants to enter the contest, we'll consider his designs along with everyone else's. (I'm sure we can't afford him tho). And if he (or anyone) wants to make changes more substantial than cosmetic CSS, I'd consider them too. The upcoming Slashdot Redesign contest is intended to be more about design than architecture, but good ideas are good ideas.

100 oldest domain names in the registry

hi folks

here is a picture of some chickens in a truck

little Tia Shan (Peaceful Mountain) was just born at the DC Zoo

well my Happy Heeler is not so happy today. she is going to the doctor later this morning. I really hope she starts feeling better soon.

a few articles of note from the past few days...one is from slashdot, I believe...the article puts forth the idea that we are in an information glut, and that attention is the true commodity these days.

I believe this is very true. I also believe that people feel as though getting on the Internet is like being in a rat maze, or getting inside a pinball machine which was solely created to drain them of attention.


< loop AGREE "The Internet is Evil" DISAGREE loop >


the other item of note was an excerpt from Cory Doctorow's Themepunks. I posted part of it below.

oh yes! I started mixing sumi ink with the oil paint. it is very interesting. painting with the sumi ink is the closest thing I have found to casting actual shadows on a piece of paper.

the picture above is in sumi ink

bye, have a great day, thanks for reading

an excerpt from Cory Doctorow's Themepunks

She used to try to read everything, but it was impossible to keep up -- now all she wanted was to keep track of whether the interestingness-index was on the uptick or downtick.

It had started to buzz that morning and the pitch had increased steadily until it was actually uncomfortable in her pocket. Irritated, she yanked it out and was about to switch it off when the lead article caught her eye.

KODACELL LOSES TJAN TO WESTINGHOUSE

The byline was rat-toothed Freddy. Feeling like a character in a horror movie who can't resist the compulsion to look under the bed, Andrea thumbed the PDA's wheel and brought up the whole article.

eight dolphins seen swimming in lake Pontchartrain

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 13, 7:09 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - The manatees that grazed in Lake Pontchartrain before Hurricane Katrina haven't been seen since, but eight dolphins were leaping in the lake this week. More...

inaka skate park logo

suzy nees

hi folks,

there are a few new things in the loop today.

several blue heeler pictures, as some visitors have been promised.

hope you are all having a good day.

--suzy

tech, art, & pet welfare news for october 12. lightly aggregated

Letters to Nantoka

Dear Nantoka, I hear that you are learning how to play Clickstorage Hockey.
Would you care to have a Skate Mate?

Sincerely, An Actual Hockey Player.

Dear Actual Hockey Player, sorry, I am too busy fainting right now to answer your question.

---

hi folks,
well my little assistant is snoring away here. I think she finds this place much more relaxing than the dog pound. the people there are very very nice. they are very very nice people doing a job that would just break me into a thousand little pieces. but when the dogs bark at the pound, even the cleanest, most well-kept on dogpound on Earth, the noise is deafening. it is very frightenening to the dogs.

anyway shown above are some before & after pictures.

she reminds me so much of the kind of dog a gnome would have. she acts exactly the part. Cleo is probably a mutt, most people have told me, but she is probably mostly Blue Heeler.

---

I have been experimenting lately with Google Adwords lately...those of you who are here to study search engine science, feel free to print a piece of Dogs on Trucks letterhead and grab a pencil.

now write CULTURE PORTAL in the top left hand corner

and put some content somewhere within the Dogs on Trucks template area.

please feel welcome to submit these materials for consideration if you are interested in participating in the 2005 winter exhibit.

other coloring activities will be available online soon.

--

dear Nantoka,

Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap!
My report on global warming is due in five minutes!
Please help me immediately!

sincerely, Henrietta in Dogs on Trucks, Kentucky.


---

sculpture project ideas



design a hypertext ad that will inform people about global warming

design a coloring activity that will tell kids about sea turtle populations

put a quesadilla in a blender and take photos of it
to show people what happens when soil gets over-aggregated

gently explain to a scientist why his or her scientific findings are getting buried in Google, even though they are highly relevant.

explain to Google (or another audience) why the whole carbon credit thing does or does not wash with you

take a picture of a mountain and rip it in half, then try to gently sew or stick it back together.

---


bloggers...do you love pets?
please consider participating in the
ideapark.org 2005 Dogs on Trucks Web traffic drive
www.ideapark.org

librarians...do you love pets?
please consider participating in the
ideapark.org 2005 Dogs on Trucks Web traffic drive
www.ideapark.org

blue heeler wa ikaga desu ka?
ee blue heeler no shashin
free, no trash content
www.perfectjunk.info

God don't make Junk
and neither should we.
free, no trash content
www.gracelander.org

tech, art & democracy news for October 10

hi folks,

hope you all had a great weekend and are doing well.

new content in the loop includes links to Unicef and to the Red Cross/Red Crescent. these organizations are helping to clean up after the devastating earthquake that hit Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan this weekend.

other new content in the loop: the ideapark.org community is organizing a traffic drive to benefit pet adoption initiatives in Southwest Virginia and across the nation. Petfinder.com is in the spotlight, along with several pet rescue events coming up soon in Southwest Virginia.

the first of these events will be an open house at the Giles County animal rescue on October 15. also, there will be a pet supply drive to benefit the shelter on October 22.

and on October 29 there will be a fundraiser and a pet adoption meet & greet at the Westlake Shopping Center in Moneta, Virginia. Cats, dogs, and miniature horses will be there, and a variety of fun activities are planned.

news on any these events can be found in the ideapark.org loop.

speaking of pets...2006 is the year of the dog and I have just added the image above to some items in my cafepress shop. this picture is a sumi ink drawing of a blue heeler, one of my all-time favorite breeds.

other new items in the shop include a "say no to cruel & unusual coal mining" sticker.

so, I have made a little Ning page to keep track of some of the Traces bookmarks...Ning was all the rage in Technorati last week and it appeared in the technorati top ten briefly today. I am not a huge fan of some of the content you will see if you visit the main Ning pivot, but the concept behind the Ning community is pretty great.

in art news...a stonemason friend will be exhibiting some work at the Traces gallery in Floyd soon...he says he plans to include some work which illustrates the "mason's marks" stonecutters traditionally used to "sign" their work.

also the Sustainable Living Education Center in Floyd will be hosting an exhibit of art, design, writing and handcrafts during the month of December 2005. If you are interested, please call Jeri Dewey at the Jacksonville Center at (540) 745-2784.

some rumblings of discontent within the technorati search pages today... headlines have included "technorati sucks!" "technorati search results are manipulated." it's a bit ironic, if you ask me...although I really can't blame these authors for being a bit frustrated with the search tool that first broke the "news" that Christopher Walken was running for president.

I still think that Technorati more than makes up for its shortcomings by getting the international community to take notice of stories like today's Guardian Unlimited article about the struggle for democracy in Taishi, China.

well that's all the time I have for right now. have a great day. thanks for reading.

--Suzy

tags: Virginia, Floyd, Moneta, Giles, Newport, Pearisburg, New River Valley, earthquake, petfinder, China, Kashmir, mountain, democracy, land rights, mountaintop removal, coal, energy

Tech, art, & ecology news for Oct. 7

hi folks,

hope you are all having a nice day.

yesterday evening I got an urgent message from Appalachian Voices with information on some proposed changes to the Clean Air Act...the memo appears in the post before this one. This is about a bill that will be in the House of Representatives TODAY and it has the potential to gut existing safeguards to the health of American citizens...especially those who live in our nation's Coal Basket.

top news in Technorati includes an article about the Catholic Church and information about a CBS News poll showing Bush's approval ratings at an all-time low of 37 percent.

I had a great meeting with Wayne and Billy the other day about the new Sustainable Living Education Center that will soon be opening at the Jacksonville Center in Floyd. An exhibit is planned for this winter, so if you are interested in participating, volunteering, or showing some work, please call Jeri Dewey at the Jacksonville Center at (540) 745-2784.

Bye, have a wonderful day.

--Suzy

tags: technorati, church, Catholic, Catholicism, Christianity, religion, Bible, evolution, literal, interpretation, creation, creationism, accuracy, approval, Bush, War, environment, coal, energy, policy, sustainability, art, culture, events, Floyd, Virginia

urgent - a memo from Appalachian Voices

VERY URGENT – Appalachian Voices has just learned that the US House of Representatives will vote on FRIDAY, October 7, on a bill that will gut key provisions of the our federal clean air protections. The bill, called the “Gasoline for America’s Security Act” (H.R. 3893), would eliminate a critical part of the Clean Air Act, called new source review, that requires utilities to install new pollution control equipment when they make significant upgrades to coal-fired power plants.

No matter where you live, PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY, by noon on Friday if at all possible, and ask them to vote no on this bill. To find your Representative and his or her phone number, go to this website and type in your zip code: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

We strongly suggest you call your Representative. However, if you only have time to send an email to your Representative, click here: http://action.lcv.org/campaign/energy_100605

We have also learned that the utilities are heavily targeting US Representatives from North Carolina in their lobbying efforts, so it is especially important for our supporters in North Carolina to contact their US Representative.

In April, 80% of the members of North Carolina’s state legislature signed a letter calling on the state’s US Representatives and Senators to oppose any rollbacks of the Clean Air Act. Click here for more information: http://www.appvoices.org/air/ncgaletter.asp

In addition, a number of towns, counties and cities across North Carolina have adopted resolutions asking the delegation to oppose any rollbacks of the Clean Air Act. If you live in or near one of these localities, be sure to mention the resolution to your Representative:

- Watauga County
- Alexander County
- Haywood County
- City of Asheville (Buncombe County)
- City of Hickory (Catawba County)
- City of Boone (Watauga County)
- Town of Sparta (Allegheny County)
- Town of Taylorsville (Alexander County)
- Town of Seven Devils (Avery County)

The “Gasoline for America’s Security Act,” is just a new and opportunistic way to package the same old proposals designed to weaken the Clean Air Act that have been promoted by big polluting power companies in Congress for the last three years. It is bad for North Carolina, the Appalachian Mountains, and the nation.

This harmful legislation would:

- Allow 20,000 aging industrial facilities to increase pollution without installing modern pollution controls.
- Delay existing smog cleanup deadlines for many years.
- Undermine diesel engine cleanup requirements that would ultimately eliminate 20,000 premature deaths and $140 billion in health costs annually.
- Do nothing to provide lower gas and energy prices.

Finally, please help us spread the word by forwarding this action alert far and wide! Thank you!

If you need any help in contacting your Representative, please contact Appalachian Voices at conservation@appvoices.org or toll free at 1-877-APP-VOICE.

--
Mary Anne Hitt
Executive Director
Appalachian Voices
703 West King Street, Suite 105
Boone, NC 28607
828-262-1500

Visit us on the web:
www.appalachianvoices.org

some parts of the Bible aren't true, say UK Catholic bishops

October 5 2005
Catholic church no longer swears by truth of Bible

by Ruth Gledhill. from the Times Online.

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true. The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible. More...


image: God bless us, every prototype. Suzy Nees/2004

tags: religion, creation, creationism, evolution, Catholicism

The Ning Thing & other tech news for Oct. 4 2005

so, I tried Ning today and it is pretty cool.
not all of the content is cool but the overall concept is pretty neat.

Ning is a new web thing that is probably going to give Craigslist, Flikr, & Match.com a good little run for their money.

from the Ning FAQ:

"Ning is a free online service (or, as we like to call it, a Playground) for people to build and run social applications. Social "apps" are web applications that enable anyone to match, transact, and communicate with other people."

Ning is beating the pants off Writeboard in the Technorati charts. yesterday Writeboard went from #10 to #9 and quietly dropped off the charts. but when Ning appeared in the #10 spot today it quickly shot up & is now perched in the #3 spot.

I tried Writeboard yesterday and although it seems pretty useful I could not find anyone interested in using it with me.

also, it is difficult (impossible?) to completely erase comments and I think that is a big fear for people. people don't want to write something they might regret, even if it is robot-proof.

there is not a lot of content on Ning yet.
mostly stuff about (you guessed it) palo alto & san francisco.
once the content starts pouring in I can imagine the site might get too bloated to be much use, but maybe that won't happen.

hopefully Ning won't be just another refrain on the Meet Exciting Singles in Your Area thing.

the best thing about Ning I think is that you can use it to build a playground for your own social network or geographical area IF you get in on the Ning Developer thing which is first come first served.

so. we will see I suppose.

I saw a big cafepress ad in Technorati today about their affiliate program.
Is anybody actually making money with cafepress? I am very curious.
the base prices are so high that it's hard to justify marking anything up more than 25 cents.

now they have their big affiliate kickoff and I am finding it hard to get excited about the gigantic profits I am supposed to make if I turn in all my friends' email addresses and get them signed up as cafepress shopkeepers.

oops I must get going now. have a wonderful day & thanks for reading.

--suzy

tags: ning, technorati, iki, ikimono, ikigai, cafepress

delay indicted again on new charges

monterey aquarium, october 2004
image by suzy nees

hi folks,

I just read an AP article (via Yahoo headlines) that says Delay has been indicted by a Texas grand jury on a new charge...last week Delay was charged with conspiracy; today he was also charged with money laundering.

in other news, slashdot just posted a link to a very interesting article in the Sunday Times about the scientific study of happiness...earlier today there was a slashdot post about the open source ecosystem, and how it is attracting venture capitalists.

from boingboing comes news of a cryptozoology exhibit happening next year at Bates college in Lewiston, Maine:

"Often considered a marginalized science or a farcical adventure, the practice of cryptozoology is the quest for unknown, rumored or hidden animals. Its most notorious pursuits include the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman though it has also revealed animals that are now part of the classified natural world."

today I was learning about carbon sequestration & came across an interesting site called terrapass.com...pointcarbon.com is also pretty interesting...

well I must be going now. take care & thanks for reading.

--suzy

tags: Delay, indictment, grand jury, Texas, open source, monsters, myth, legend, sasquatch, carbon offset, ikigai, existentialism, the problem of existence

traces writeboard

big sur, california/october 2004

hi folks, hope you are all doing well
it is a beautiful day here today
I just finished making a writeboard for traces
it was ridiculously simple
I expect "writeboard" to climb up the technorati ladder pretty quickly
it had jumped to #9 the last time I checked
I am hoping that the traces writeboard will work as a sort of intranet for folks who are interested in the ideapark.org and traces initiatives
so if you have gotten an invitation I hope you will feel welcome to join in the discussion about the traces and ideapark.org missions
ok well have a great day, take care
suzy

tags: writeboard, image, coastline