Pick your own TLD

Today is a glorious, glorious day in the history of Musing Among The Vegetables blog, because today we get not one, but three domain names for you, our loyal readers, to pick from. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to give you

• MusingAmongTheVegetables.com 
• MusingAmongTheVegetables.org
  
• MusingAmongTheVegetables.net
  

That's right my friends, for the longest time I could not decide whether I'm a business, an organization or a network entity. Or maybe even a person. In the end, I decided that being as multifaceted as I am, I should register all of the above, plus redirect my other domain milovanov.ca to this blog. 

In the end, my dearest readers, I think it is you who win, because now you have the liberty of accessing this blog in harmony of your interpretation of me, as a com, org, net, or ca. Use this power wisely and remember, com can also be interpreted as "communist". So choose your TLD wisely.

Hard times

Be afraid... be very afraid.

From here 

Well, at least the transportation industry is doing ok.

Radio pays

Why hasn't anybody told me about Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" radio show on NPR before? It's absolutely amazing! This kind of live interaction with the people you usually only hear on the records, it's like having them sit right here in your living room - which is exactly why I think radio is a much, much personal and intimate medium than television. (Oh, I saw Woody Allen's Radio Days just recently. As always, highly recommended. With original music by Dick Hyman . Go check it out now. Oh and there's a recent episode of "Piano Jazz" with Dick Hyman where he talks about Radio Days.)

So anyway, my soundtrack for tonight's work is Ray Charles chatting with Marian from 1990 and playing and singing and doing that thing he can do and laughing in his idiosyncratic way. Groovy!

Oh, by the way, NPR is a perfect example of how it's actually possible to create excellent programming while fairly balancing public and private funding:

According to the 2005 financial statement, NPR makes just over half of its money from the fees and dues it charges member stations to receive programming, although some of this money originated at the CPB itself, in the form of pass-through grants to member stations.^[8] About 2% of NPR's funding comes from bidding on government grants and programs, chiefly the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the remainder comes from member station dues, foundation grants, and corporate underwriting. Typically, NPR member stations raise about one-third of their budget through on-air pledge drives, one-third from corporate underwriting, and one-third from grants from state governments, university grants, and grants from the CPB itself.

Over the years, the portion of the total NPR budget that comes from government has been decreasing. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of NPR funding came from the federal government. Steps were being taken during the 1980s to completely wean NPR from government support, but the 1983 funding crisis forced the network to make immediate changes. More money to fund the NPR network was raised from listeners, charitable foundations and corporations, and less from the federal government. (from here )

Hear that, CBC? I mean, I love CBC radio, I think it's one thing we can be proud of as Canadians, but my gut feeling is that only around 20% of Canadians actually think it's fair that it's completely funded by their taxes (number based on an Ipsos gut survey from Nov 30, margin of error 3%, 19 times out of 20). NPR in my view presents a much more democratic model of culture funding, where the people support the things they love with their own cash.

And now, back to Ray. Geoooorgia!

Bill Evans on "Piano Jazz"

Here's a rather extraordinary episode of Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" with Bill Evans from November 1978, two years before his death in 1980.

Mrs Palin

At a time when Russia and US seem to be experiencing another cooldown in relations, we all need more of grassroots acts like this.

It's not you, it's your brain wiring

This article says that we might now know why some people get such a high from new experiences:

Have you got the new iPhone yet? Do you like changing jobs now and again because you get bored otherwise? Do you go on holiday to different places every year? Then maybe your neural connection between ventral striatum and hippocampus is particularly well developed. Both of them are centres in the brain. The reward system which urges us to take action is located in the striatum, whereas the hippocampus is responsible for specific memory functions. ... With people who constantly seek new experiences, striatum and hippocampus are evidently wired particularly well. 

 Look, a squirrel!

Honk for french cafe owners

When the french were going to introduce their smoking ban legislation, I correctly predicted that decision would put the world on the brink of apocalypse. Now, with ripples going through the whole world, stock markets in the dumps and panic reigning supreme, the boomerang has come the full circle and struck home. As NYT reports, "Across France, Cafe Owners Are Suffering":

In Paris, Bernard Picolet, 60, is the owner of Aux Amis du Beaujolais, which his family started in 1921 on Rue de Berri. “The way of life has changed,” he said. “The French are no longer eating and drinking like the French. They are eating and drinking like the Anglo-Saxons,” the British and the Americans.
“They eat less and spend less time at it,” Mr. Picolet said.
People grab a sandwich at lunchtime and eat as they walk or sit at their desks. They stand in line to buy prepackaged espresso sachets, to drink coffee at home, or have coffee at the office, at the boss’s expense.

 O my french brothers and sisters, if that is happening, then truly the dark times are looming. You are the only ones who can still avert the global catastrophe and the wrath of gods. First, ban the smoking ban, and second, institute an program of mandatory early childhood smoking. If you don't, I'm terrified to think about the world we might leave to the future generations. Act now! Won't somebody please think of the children?

For dessert, here's Sartre's Cookbook by Eric and Kathryn Meyer.