Monthly Archives: February 2006

McCloud (Dennis Weaver) Dies

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Just heard that TV actor Dennis Weaver (aka ‘McCloud) has passed away. In the US they are wondering how come Don Knotts, Darren McGavin, and Dennis Weaver all died this weekend gone? But for me it’s just another funny coincidence. Why?

Well ’cause back in 2003 I went to a nerdy conference in Portland (same trip I coincidentally presented a paper which quoted the Muslim invention of algebra which I recently blogged for Headshift on 1001 Inventions & where I saw a T-shift for Ozomatli which eventually led to me figuring out that I was called ‘Stuart’ for American cultural reasons (see earlier blog entry about my father’s US work for NASA) rather than Scottish & where I heard at Seattle airport on the TV that Microsoft where finally gonna release some code & where I caught K19-the Widower; another coincidence); at the conference dinner (where I was sitting with my Harvard friend Meg, recently dooced) there was a guy who was a really close match to McCloud in my eyes though no one else had said anything.

So I asked the guy, “hey anyone tell you that you look like McCloud?”; and his reply was peachy. “Funny you should say that, but my grandmother dated Dennis Weaver”. This guy was an academic so of course I believed him!

PS: What a coincidence of coincidences.

Mind your language

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Liked this amusing ad for Berlitz language services featuring the German coastguard.

Epicentred design

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Like the concept of ‘epicentre design’ for the web – knowing first what is the key element of the page first and foremost and designing with that in mind; not so far removed from my earlier blog on what is the ‘dynamical key’ in terms of macro systems.

Stuart Hall lookalike competition

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Will the real Stuart Hall please stand up:

And then you say, “Shall I stop talking about identity,” but how can you stop talking about identity? (Stuart Hall, above)

1969

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For myself 1969 was a big year as I had the chance to work on my scrap book on the moonlandings, made a touch more meaningful by the fact that according to family legend my father had worked on some diode or switch for the programme.

I like the coincidence of the fact there is a news story about finding water on the moon, which on the other side is about a white guy in Australia campaigning on Aborigine rights.


TRy this

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Boycott Bond!

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Oops. Looks like some Bond fans don’t like the choice of Daniel Craig as 007. But at least they’ve got a sense of humour about it, with these lookalikes:

How many bloggers does it take to change a light bulb?

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Question: How many bloggers does it take to change a light bulb?

Answers:

One to change the light bulb and to post the fact that the light bulb has been changed;

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently;

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs;

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs;

41 to correct spelling/grammar errors in the flames about spelling/grammar errors;

6 to argue over whether it’s “lightbulb” or “light bulb”;

Another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive;

Two industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is “lamp”;

27 to post URL’s where one can see examples of different light bulbs;

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy;

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ;

44 to ask what is a “FAQ”;

2 to post reasons why the light bulb burning out is the result of a government conspiracy;

4 to say “didn’t we cover this a few months ago?”;

43 to say “do a Google search on light bulbs”;

5 to say “thank you”;

1 lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

Profile of Semir Osmanagic – a Bosnian American

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Semir Osmanagic, who describes himself as Bosnian American, is becoming known as the person who discovered the existence of pyramids in the Bosnian town of Visoko. But this is only the latest enigma that has attracted the attention of the explorer. Osmanagic has spent a lifetime travelling to and researching ancient sites around the world.

Unconference

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Liked the concept of the ‘unconference’ talked up on Geek TV by Chris Pirillo and Ponzi in promoting Gnomedex in Seattle this July, where not too much in the way of topics or speakers planned in advance (“they tell us why Gnomedex is not your father’s geek conference, etc..”). Guess it’s a bit of the people before technology approach they also profile. Which by way of coincidence leads back to a Headshift piece profiled on Robin Good’s blog..not to mention Dan’s recent piece on Contactivity.

This being Sunday it reminds me of a quote in Andrew Kopkind’s ‘The Thirty Years Wars’ about the rise and fall of the 60s and a lot more besides. Reporting in 1965 from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he says of their approach: “It is anarchic rather than monolithic, social more than economic, downward pointing rather than pyramidal in organization. It is supremely undisciplined. There is no plan, no program. SNCC’s major effort in the South this summer will be the ‘Let the People Speak’ conferences held in several states and then perhaps, regionwide. “We want the people to tell us what we can do. We’ll do anything they tell us,” said John Lewis, SNCC chairman.

By a twist of fate I had the good fortune to meet Julian Bond, one of the SNCC leaders at a civil rights history ‘conference’ in Newcastle in 1998 (shortly after returning from covering the 30th anniversary of the dealth of MLK for the BBC, coincidentally). And I asked him about the truth of SNCC’s ‘unconference’ approach: ‘no plan/no program’. And he replied “that’s just because they really didn’t know what they were doing!”