Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

John Brockman’s in town to talk about his latest book, What We Believe But Cannot Prove, at a
Harvard Bookstore event.* Some of the many people whose unproved beliefs he included will also be there–the press release mentions Daniel C. Dennett, Daniel Gilbert, Marc D. Hauser, Elizabeth Spelke and Seth Lloyd.

I first heard about John in the early 1980s, as the go-to agent for popular science books. But being a literary agent and collecting smart people for his varied salons are just sidelines, in my opinion, to John’s real calling, being Tom Sawyer. Instead of recruiting help for whitewashing a fence, John wants to get smart people to talk and argue and make some kind of collegial sense of the universe. (Dave Winer casts a wider net, but with similar goals.)

John also seems to know everyone on the planet. A recent Guardian article has a photo of John with Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, but that’s just a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction. Meeting him in 1982, I was showing up very late to a long and varied party.

John’s partner Katinka Matson is doing some amazing art photography–not with a camera, but with a flatbed scanner.

Wednesday’s discussion group should be pretty exciting; I recommend it!

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* Wednesday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Longfellow Hall.

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I’m just a little bit late on celebrating my blog’s third birthday–which happened to happen on January 22, 2006. I haven’t quite managed to collect my favorite posts from 2005 yet, but this post shows my favorite five 2005 graphics. Look, I know that nobody sensible posts on a Sunday morning, so just to keep my fellow blog desperados happy, while infuriating the people who hate the word blog, here are more Betsy’s blog-history links: Blog backstory First bloggiversary Favorite blogposts of 2004 Favorite blogposts of 2003 Whew–blogblogblogblog I think I’m done now.

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1. On being polka-dottedly hard-of-hearing
2. Put that in your search result… (graphic BillBlink)
3. Dried marjoram from her grandmother’s garden
4. Er, ah, Camilla, old bean, oh, dash it all…
5. Eternal life of a Willy Loman
6. Hallelujah for modern music, including Handel’s (graphic pierced Handel)
7. Full moon over blogland (graphic moon)
8. Pre-mocking this year’s Oscars
9. Geek celebration: Our billion-second-iversary
10. De canem nil nisi bonum
11. Happiness is a Dutch bicycle
12. How Descartes made me stop being late to morning assembly…
13. “Few Body Collisions”
14. Portrait of a 1918 blogger
15. One dress, one jacket, one suitcase packed at all times…
16. Un-bargained bargain
17. Soft watches and traveling Saturdays
18. Happy”Day After Mothers´ Day”!
19. Word from a lover (and hater) of science museums
20. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frank Wilczek, and Iker Casillas
21. Randomly generate poetry based on your blog
22. Ultimate h2g2 computer nerd joke
23. Let’s all be post-post-post-post-post-post-Postmodern
24. I like good hotels better than grand ones…
25. Father’s Day and loving men, just in general
26. Galactic strawberries and DMZ birding
27. Comet kaboom just in time for Fourth of July (graphic)
28. “Captain, I canna change the laws of physics!”
29. Close encounter with Phoenicopteris ruber plasticus
30. Deciphering the technology of Mozart
31. Home home home home home
32. Volkswagen Beetles, and Robby, by a nose
33. Duelling mass-market paperbacks
34. Two brothers, eight cousins, and Craigslist
35. Maple syrup miracle (graphic)
36. Chuck McGee, now out of prison…
37. Strawberry fields remembered
38. “I pledge allegiance to the fish”?
39. AP reporter:”What happened? What happened?”
40. Christmas landscape with berries, birds, and blogfriends

And some of my favorite graphics from 2005:

There’s an UN-welcome mat on the doorstep of NH.

Senator John McCain, who planned to step over that doorstep on April 7, now faces demands that he first fire his new “senior advisor” Terry Nelson. Why? NH Democrats explain:

…Terry Nelson was the National Political Director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, where he directly supervised New England Political Director James Tobin. This past December, Tobin was convicted of multiple felonies related to his involvement in the phone-jamming crime.

Not only did Nelson supervise Tobin at the time of the crime, but he then hired him again to work on the Bush-Cheney campaign – even after the RNC was told that Tobin was involved in the criminal phone jamming investigation. In fact, Tobin worked for Nelson again on the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, from which Tobin was eventually forced to resign because of his mounting legal problems.

Think it’s unlikely that McCain will fire Nelson? Josh Marshall’s point of view tickled my Funny Ha-Ha bone:

I’m one of those people who always think we should see the opportunities in situation and not just the down side. So, I’d say McCain should keep Nelson on staff and finally help us get the low-down on just how the phone-jamming episode went down. Who at the RNC knew about it? Who at the White House knew about it?

McCain said he would look into Nelson’s involvement a few weeks ago. So he must have the whole story.

While he’s at it he can ask Nelson about his role in the Tom DeLay money-laundering case too.

This way McCain can be a ‘reformer with results’ too.

I’d say either or both of these outcomes would be welcome.

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Like the new graphic? Pass it on, under my usual Creative Commons license–Attribution, Non-commercial, Share-Alike.

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This is a barge full of coal, one of many each day that float down the Ohio River. See the train tracks in this photo’s lower left? They carry multiple freight trains–gypsum and phone poles and sulfuric acid, going to market on rattling rails of steel. At night, in my comfortable hotel bed, I sometimes wake up a little to hear them go by. Pittsburgh is a constant reminder that our lives depend on more than bits and pixels and dollars. So, let this photo be my small contribution to the debate among Nicholas Carr, Doc Searls, and others on “Business as Morality.” Commerce as well-requited generosity works for only some people, and for them only some of the time. People need a reliable way to exchange some of their work for somebody else’s money–because coal and flour and steel and gasoline are produced by people who want to get paid for their work.

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Meanwhile, in another part of the bloggy forest, Derek Powazek hates the term “user-generated content”, and so do

• Jeneane
• FactoryJoe
• Susan Mernit
• MobileJones
• …and others (a prize to Trogdor for the Most Funny Ha-Ha complaint.)

I agree “user-generated content” is ugly, but its ugliness reflects an ugly truth we might otherwise forget. There really are lots of people who see our “content” as something they hope to loot for their own benefit–and I don’t see why we “users” should try to forget that.

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Update: Yes, but does this mean you and I get more chances?

Everyone’s favorite smart alec Gary Farber emailed me to point out that similar moments will happen in 2106, 2206, 2306, etc. Er–yes, now that I come to think of it–thanks, Gary. So, does that make them into centurial moments?

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Stealth startup Ookles is no longer a secret. Scott Johnson tells all, in a podcast interview with Greg Galant.

Congratulations to my hard-working former boss, who also made the top story on Scripting News this morning. (thanks, Dave!)

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So, what is Ookles? I’m a bit out of the loop now, so I should let Scott tell you but I’d describe it as a tool for families who are currently going crazy figuring out how to keep track of and share all the gorgeous digital photos that could help them not lose the memories of the children, trips, parties, etc. if only they had Ookles to help them do it.

Hey, let Scott explain it. But, as an example of a photo you’d want to share and not lose, here’s a little boy just thinking about the universe.

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I don’t see why Pittsburgh’s Sheraton Square “Rare” restaurant doesn’t quit calling itself a steakhouse and start calling itself a cotton candy house.

Pink cotton candy overflowing a great big glass vase.

I’m just sorry I ate so much dinner before I saw it.

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