Get in the Christmas spirit with as cute pictures of cats celebrating Christmas. WNBC in New York City has over a hundred photos that their viewers submitted.
22
Dec
2006
22
Dec
2006
Google Christmas Surprise
While looking for something using Google a few minutes ago, I stumbled upon a little Easter… errr… should I call it a Christmas Egg?
Do a search for “Christmas” or anything else that generates Christmas themed ads on the right side and you’ll see a row of Christmas trees along side your results.
16
Dec
2006
Stopping a scam artist
While browsing Digg tonight I happened upon this clip on YouTube of supposed psychic Sylvia Browne on Montel Williams’ show pretending to be psychic and upsetting families who have already suffered tragedies. Personally, I think there just aren’t enough people in this world who kick others when they are down. If more people went to hospitals and punched the ill or went to animal shelters and stepped on kittens the world would be a better place. Wait, you say that doens’t sound right? Well, that’s what Sylvia Browne does!
The thing that baffles me is that Montel gives this creature a platform from which to spew her crap. He always seemed like a reasonably intelligent guy to me, but yet he lets her on his show. Maybe he thinks that if people see her in action, they’ll realize exactly what she is.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but I think that stopsylviabrown.com does a better job than I could. (and you jsut have to love his logo!)
14
Dec
2006
Even more photos
December has been a productive month for photography on my site. I just added even more photos. You can check out a bunch of photos from Christmas at Longwood Gardens in the Photos section.
12
Dec
2006
Another Victory for Christmas
I have to commend the Port of Seattle for correcting a really stupid mistake they made over the weekend at the Seattle Airport. They pulled down all of the Christmas trees at the airport after a rabbi complained. The employees of the individual airlines began buying their own trees to display in their ticketing areas because that is leased space and the Grinches at the Port commission couldn’t make them remove them.
However, after some public pressure the airport has now replaced the trees. They also say they did it because the rabbi said he wouldn’t sue.
I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. This is not a religious issue! While Christmas is obviously rooted in a religious tradition, their is also a secular side to the holiday. I know people who aren’t even Christians who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas. I’m not exactly a bible scholar but nowhere in the bible story do I recall hearing about Santa Claus being present at the nativity scene.
12
Dec
2006
Another Victory for Christmas
I have to commend the Port of Seattle for correcting a really stupid mistake they made over the weekend at the Seattle Airport. They pulled down all of the Christmas trees at the airport after a rabbi complained. The employees of the individual airlines began buying their own trees to display in their ticketing areas because that is leased space and the Grinches at the Port commission couldn’t make them remove them.
However, after some public pressure the airport has now replaced the trees. They also say they did it because the rabbi said he wouldn’t sue.
I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. This is not a religious issue! While Christmas is obviously rooted in a religious tradition, their is also a secular side to the holiday. I know people who aren’t even Christians who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas. I’m not exactly a bible scholar but nowhere in the bible story do I recall hearing about Santa Claus being present at the nativity scene.
11
Dec
2006
James Kim Coverage
It’s amazing how far and wide-reaching the coverage of James Kim’s tragic death has been. Usually a tech journalist such as James has a small following who will pay attention to something like this (I’m among that group.) but his tragic demise has been covered by every news outlet imaginable. I can’t stand People magazine, but even they put him on their cover. CNN had a special about it tonight as well. Even competing tech media outlets are doing memorial pieces about him.
The latest news is that he actually walked 16 miles in his attempt to save his family, not the 10 that was first thought.
11
Dec
2006
Huge Photo Update
I just arranged the Photos section of the website. I tried to better organize it by breaking my photo collection up by years.
At the same time, I also added quite a few new photos. The Winterthur album contains photos from my recent trip with Beth to Yuletide at Winterthur. The Hofbrauhaus album is from my grandfather’s 85th birthday celebration. There are also photos from the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ as well as a ton of photos taken during a business trip to Hampton Roads.
Enjoy!
07
Dec
2006
An impressive campaign
I thought this picture was pretty cool. The company that makes wreaths from fresh Maine balsam for LL Bean has a campaign to make and places wreaths on the graves of those buried in our nation’s national and state veterans cemetaries. The above photo is a small portion of the 5000 wreaths that Worcester Wreath Company donates to Arlington National Cemetary.
You can learn more at Wreaths Across America.
07
Dec
2006
James Kim — 1971-2006
You probably already know that I was a huge fan of the long gone cable channel ZDTV/TechTV. One of the people who contributed to that channel’s success was James Kim. Last weekend he and his family disappeared while on their way home from Thanksgiving at a friend’s house in Oregon. After being lost in the snow for over a week his wife and children were found. James, however, had left them to find help 2 days earlier.
After an extensive search by land and air James’ body was found earlier today. It appears he was leaving a trail of clothing to help searchers track him, but they got there too late.
Besides losing a great technology journalist what strikes me is that this could happen to anyone. They missed a turnoff and looked at map and found another route to take. It was a National Forest Service road that, unkown to them, is not plowed in the winter. They became stuck and wound up staying in their car for a week with little or no food.
I’ve seen a lot of people who were critical of James’ decision to leave the family and car. But I can’t imagine how desparate he must’ve been at that point. They ran the car heater until it ran out of gas. They then burned the tires for warmth. Seriously, how bad does a situation have to be to push you to the point where burning your tires is the best option. After a week of being stranded, he had to think that they’d never be rescued unless he went for help.
Like I said, what is so scary is that this could happen to anyone. I mean I don’t expect that you could get quite that lost in the this part of the country, but there are is still plenty of wilderness in places like Oregon. It’s definately making be reconsider what I carry in my trunk.
You can donate to the family at the site set up by a friend while the family was missing at www.jamesandkati.com.
You can also view a tribute from his coworkers at C|NET.