#6245 Pondering on progress, mapped friends, sartjee booty-gal, maggot art, Arab culture, book TV

Ah, almost as good as being there… Miami Book Fair International is on CSPAN2. (BookTV) right now. Wow, I *really* wish I could be there. So wonderful… the second largest Book fair in the world, just a few miles away. I really have to go next year, if possible. I’d have to commit myself to a certain dollar amount before going, though… I could see myself blowing a *huge* chunk of change if allowed to run unchecked. I’ve been glued to the channel since landing on it about 1pm today. some great speakers, and I really want to buy a number of the books the authors have been speaking about now.

Two in particular stand out and are going on my wish list –

Donovan Webster, “The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II”

Eric Schlosser, “Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market” (same guy that wrote Fast Food Nation)

Both authors are also wonderful speakers, and really draw you into the topics at hand.


I wonder sometimes about our modern, automated society. When did pre-made clothing become the norm? 19th century? Before that, for the entire history of man wearing clothes, clothes were all tailor made if the funds were available, or put together at home, if you weren’t. Just amazing to me, the little things, sometimes. I take sounds for granted, too. Imagine someone from three hundred years ago.. a time of mostly silence save for sounds that animals and humans made right then (maybe wind chimes?) . Now we’ve got cars, and radio, all sorts of machinery making noise. One has to consider if it’d be deafening to the visitor, given what he was used to.


sartjee: the hottentot venus “Abducted and brought to London in 1810, this young South African girl was put on display at pubs, fairs, museums and universities because of her ‘unusual’ physical appearance. A debate ensued between abolitionists and those who wanted to study her from a scientific point of view. She died at the age of 25, and her skeleton remains in a Paris museum.”


maggot art “Children get hands-on experience with insects that most people find truly disgusting — maggots — while creating a beautiful piece of artwork to share with others.”


Looking at my Clustermap, and I’m a little tickled at how small the world is. Of course, North America is heavily represented, especially in the Northeast and California given how LJ is skewed in that direction.

Just out of interest, I set up the with a map, too. Without even introducing the meme to the community, the globe is really peppered with members. I don’t know if I’ll mention it to the community, because it seems rather off-topic, but I’d love to see the whole community represented there.

Of course, for humility, I checked out the paidmembers map, too. That’s an impressive number of strikes.


Random Scotto Factoid – If you toss candy corn into the time honored mix of salted peanuts and chocolate chips (pseudo trail mix) you get a taste almost exactly lake a Baby Ruth candy bar. Warning, wickedly fattening. First discovered this mixture after Halloween / before Thanksgiving in 1984.

I also like ketchup on eggs.


Arab culture and civilization new encyclopedic site.

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