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Stefana is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the University College London, where she is in charge of the Digital Anthropology programme. Between 2004 and 2009 she developed the User Observatory at Swisscom.
Interview with Stefana Broadbent on our increasingly mixed personal and work lives (in French)
Stefana is currently a visiting research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, and was the head of the Customer Observatory at Swisscom.
Her work was published in Business Week and The Economist, and she was a speaker at many conferences, including LIFT and Picnic.
Check also her UsageWatch blog where she observes the evolution of technology usage.
ComDays07 / Stefana Broadbent: The 20 people we communicate with
"In traditional marketing research, she says, if you ask what the main constraints on usage of communication services are, the obvious answer would probably be price and some personal attitudes towards tech. But what we find in our research, observing people closely, is that actually the real discriminants are time and social networks.
Time: we collect hundreds of timelines and logs, we ask people to reconstruct with us their previous day of communication: who they communicated with, how, etc. We ask them to describe their social environment. Let's consider teenagers. The image adults have about teenagers online is lots of friends, connected all the time, etc. Swiss teenagers: all use instant messaging; e-mail is used only for communicating with adults and institutions; all of them have a mobile phone and send SMS daily; more than 50% have a profile page on social networking sites; they read blogs and use Youtube etc. BUT there is something very specific to the Swiss educational system. In Switzerland, there is a high proportion — 75% — of professional/vocational training ("apprentices"). Teenagers are in a professional setting; receive a salary; they are in constant contact with adults during the day; etc. If we compare the structure of the day of the teen apprentices and that of their parents, it's often not that dissimilar, except for the evening hours. And their patterns of communication are also very similar: balancing between work and private life; have a rather limited set of contacts. Apart from instant messaging, in Switzerland from 13 to 50 year old the patterns of usage of communication channels are very similar.
The other factor that has an impact on communication behavior is social networks. The close circle of contacts is composed of about 20 people: 7 in the "intimate circle", 13 in the "close circle". A further 37 are "weaker ties". This core of 20 is a number that's consistent across countries in Europe and the US. Who's in this core? About 60% are "given" contacts (family, schoolmates, work colleagues, neighbours), only 40% are "chosen". If you look with whom people communicate, 3/4 of the contacts happen with the people within those 20 "core" contacts. What does this mean? It may look obvious, you only communicate with the people you know. But to me it means: those 20 people are our (telecom operator's) playing field. When we think of services for our customers, we have to keep in mind that their space is 20 people wide."
"Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who leads the User Adoption Lab at Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecoms operator, has been looking at usage patterns associated with different communications technologies. She and her team based their research on observation, interviews, surveys of users' homes and asking people to keep logbooks of their communications usage in several European countries. Some of their findings are quite unexpected."
The article, which was written by Bruno Giussani, features six of Stefana's interesting research results:
- A typical user spends 80% of his or her time communicating with just four other people.
- People are using different communications technologies (fixed-line calls, mobile calls, texting, IM, VOiP) in distinct and divergent ways.
- There is a flattening in voice communication and an increase in written channels.
- Instead of work invading private life, private communications are invading the workplace.
- People generally do not work while on the move: hotel rooms and airports are not seen as an appropriate environment for substantive work and are mainly used for e-mail.
- Migrants are the most advanced users of communications technology.
Experientia and Intel present at EPIC 2013 in London
EPIC 2013, the conference on "ethnographic praxis in industry", kicked off in London today, with experts from around the world gathering for the three-day conference exploring ethnographic investigations and principles in the study of human behavior as they are applied in business settings.
This (Monday) afternoon, Experientia will give a joint presentation with Intel, titled Mobility is More than a Device: Understanding complexity in health care with ethnography. The presentation describes a recent research project on how doctors use mobile devices in the healthcare industry, and the impact that new technologies are having on workflows and patient care.
The project was conducted by Experientia for Intel last year, with research in hospitals in China, Germany, the USA and the UK. The conference presentation focuses on how ethnography can be a vital tool in understanding complex environments such as health care facilities, and outlines key methodological insights from the project.
Experientia UX researchers Anna Wojnarowska and Gina Taha co-authored the EPIC paper with Intel's Todd Harple and Nancy Vuckovic. The paper will be published in full in the EPIC conference proceedings. Today, Nancy and Anna will present a concise overview of the key findings, in the Faraday Theatre at London's Royal Institution of Great Britain venue.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) Experientia partner Mark Vanderbeeken will moderate the conference's Town Hall Debate on the recent challenges in ethnography. Short statements by Natalie Hanson (ZSAssociates), Sam Ladner (Microsoft), Tricia Wang, Leisa Reichelt (GDS) and Stefana Broadbent (UCL) will introduce the public debate, that is set up to strongly involve the participants.
Book: Digital Anthropology
Digital Anthropology
Edited by Heather A. Horst, Daniel Miller
Berg Publishers, Oct 2012
Anthropology has two main tasks: to understand what it is to be human and to examine how humanity is manifested differently in the diversity of culture. These tasks have gained new impetus from the extraordinary rise of the digital. This book brings together several key anthropologists working with digital culture to demonstrate just how productive an anthropological approach to the digital has already become.
Through a range of case studies from Facebook to Second Life to Google Earth, Digital Anthropology explores how human and digital can be defined in relation to one another, from avatars and disability; cultural differences in how we use social networking sites or practise religion; the practical consequences of the digital for politics, museums, design, space and development to new online world and gaming communities. The book also explores the moral universe of the digital, from new anxieties to open-source ideals. Digital Anthropology reveals how only the intense scrutiny of ethnography can overturn assumptions about the impact of digital culture and reveal its profound consequences for everyday life.
Combining the clarity of a textbook with an engaging style which conveys a passion for these new frontiers of enquiry, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of anthropology, media studies, communication studies, cultural studies and sociology.
Heather A. Horst is a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia.
Daniel Miller is Professor of Material Culture at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK
Tom Boellstorff, Heather Horst, Lane DeNicola, Faye Ginsburg, Stefana Broadbent, Danny Miller, John Postill, Jelena Karanovic, Bart Barendregt, Jo Tacchi, Adam Drazin, Haidy Geismar and Thomas Malaby
A report on the Medicine 2.0 conference in Boston
Report by Experientia researcher Anna Wojnarowska
Harvard Medical School hosted this weekend the Medicine 2.0 conference in Boston.
The fifth edition of the event invited academics, practitioners and clinicians for two days of lectures, discussions and presentations, analyzing the changes taking place in the healthcare sector around the world.
A major topic recurring throughout the presentations was how decision makers can respond and finally fulfill patients' needs to engage more consciously in their treatment, personal data management and the diagnosis process, areas that had been hidden from them beforehand.
Dave Debronkart, the closing speaker of the conference highlighted how the dynamics between the medical institutions and their patients reshape in the Web 2.0 reality and how they will further develop.
While we are used to a one directed top down relation between the authorities and the patients this is changing now into a growing interaction between the two and will further evolve into a dynamic environment where all of the parties involved will be able to freely share content, exchange opinions and expertise and look for advice.
The area of user experience research in healthcare seems to be still only developing, but with visible progress. An interesting presentation by Cassie Mcdaniel from the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation (Toronto) showed how the designers struggle to survive among the healthcare providers, trying to deliver user friendly solutions.
Two obstacles – complexity of the issues to address and the difficulty in cooperating with all the parties involved – render the implementation of changes slow and rarely effective. Nevertheless the reality is changing and more and more stakeholders see the value of users research methods when researching future opportunities for development.
As one of the presentation in the "Consumer empowerment, patient-physician relationship and sociotechnical issues" panel, I presented a project I conducted at University College London in 2011, under the supervision of Stefana Broadbent.
It was an ethnographic study of a cardiology institute in Warsaw with a focus on the way the digital technologies influence the dynamics between the doctors and patients. The audience admitted that approaching such a fragile context as hospitalization in an ethnographic, direct way is highly valuable and allows to formulate context relevant insights that would not be attainable through other methodologies.
I am looking forward to hearing about the progress in various research initiatives signaled this year during Medicine 2.0 2013 next fall in London!
Discussing ethnography at University College London
The "Anthropology in the Professional World" section of the course features talks from well-known practitioners in the field. Mark will speak about the challenges inherent in Experientia's research and design work, focusing on qualitative user experience research: from device and user interface challenges to contexts, ecosystems and sustainability.
UCL's Digital Anthropology programme is led by Stefana Broadbent, former chief anthropologist at Swisscom (and featured as such in The Economist in June 2007).
The talk is part of Experientia's ongoing commitment to the education of upcoming designers, researchers, and usability experts, which has seen all of Experientia's partners lecture at various tertiary institutions, as well as a recent five-year research and education collaboration agreement with the Design and Human Engineering School (DHE) of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Korea.
More information on the UCL Digital Anthropology course, and Mark's talk, can be found here.
TEDGlobal: 'The democratisation of intimacy'
"Modern communications are not expanding our social circle, but anthropologist Stefana Broadbent says that mobile phones, instant messaging and social networking are actually strengthening our core relationships.
Research has shown that with instant messaging, if there are 100 people on your buddy list, you'll only chat with at most five people on your list. Eighty per cent of phone calls are to four people. With voice-over-internet service Skype, that number drops, with most people calling only two others."
Read more about the democratisation of intimacy on Broadbent's UsageWatch blog.
TEDGlobal updates
(TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and it's an exclusive conference that brings togethers thinkers and doers from around the world. The TEDGlobal edition is directed by Bruno Guissani.)
Here are some selected highlights:
Manuel Lima
An interaction designer at Nokia, Lima looks at how complex interconnectedness can be understood. He is compelled by the divide between information and knowledge. So he looks at information visualization.
Rebecca Saxe
In her talk at TEDGlobal, cognitive neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe presented her breakthrough discovery of a particular section of the brain that becomes active when we contemplate the workings of other minds.
Aza Raskin
Aza Raskin is the head of user experience for Mozilla Labs (the people who created Firefox), and today he's giving us a demo of a whole new kind of Internet browser. Instead of asking us to become computer literate, he's making the browser learn our language.
Stefana Broadbent
Technology anthropologist Stefana Broadbent analyzes how we text, IM and talk.
Jonathan Zittrain
TEDGlobal director Bruno Guissani takes the stage to welcome Jonathan Zittrain who is a lawyer that specializes in technological, and of course, Internet-based law.
Gordon Brown (video)
Speaking to an international conference of technology entrepreneurs, academics and artists at Oxford, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the creation of global institutions to deal with the global problems.
>> See also Guardian PDA post
Also check out the Guardian PDA blog post on a new mobile phone search service for Uganda. It talks about the work of Jon Gosier of Appfrica, who has launched a simple project using a corp of mostly volunteers with mobile phones to find out what Ugandans want to know.
UCL London is starting a new MA in Digital Anthropology
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous. From Facebook, Youtube and Flickr to PowerPoint and Second Life. Museum displays migrate to the internet, family communication in the Diaspora is dominated by new media, artists work with digital films and images. Anthropology and ethnographic research is fundamental to understanding the local consequences of these innovations, and to create theories that help us acknowledge, understand and engage with them. Today's students need to become proficient with digital technologies as research and communication tools. Through combining technical skills with appreciation of social effects, students will be trained for further research and involvement in this emergent world.
This MA brings together three key components in the study of digital culture:
1. Skills training in digital technologies, including our own Digital Lab, from internet and visual arts to e-curation and digital ethnography.
2. Anthropological theories of virtualism, materiality/immateriality and digitisation.
3. Understanding the consequences of digital culture through the ethnographic study of its social and regional impact.
And what's more: The Ma will be run by Danny Miller, one of the most outstanding anthropologists today, renowned for his book on the use of cellphones in Jamaica, and specialist on material culture. And no other than Stefana Broadbent (former chief anthropologist at Swisscom and featured as such in The Economist) is a fellow in the programme.
The MA starts in September 2009.
"Ethnic minority groups are at the forefront of digital communications in the UK, with high levels of mobile phone, internet and multichannel television take-up. But, despite this, many people from ethnic minority groups lack confidence finding content online and are concerned about content delivered on digital communications, new research from Ofcom reveals.
Ofcom's media literacy audit of UK adults from ethnic minority groups draws on quantitative research from the four largest ethnic minority groups in the UK : Indians, Pakistanis, Black Caribbeans and Black Africans. The audit provides a rich picture of the different elements of media literacy across television, radio, the internet and mobile phones amongst ethnic minority groups."
In three years…
In three years we worked with some of the best companies in the field and some of the best people too.
Here they are in alphabetical order:
Our clients
Alcatel-Lucent (France, Spain), Area Association (Italy), Arits Consulting (Belgium), AVIS (Italy), Barclays (Italy, UK), Blyk (Finland, UK), Cittadellarte (Italy), City of Genk (Belgium), Condé Nast (Italy), Conifer Research (USA), CSI (Italy), CVS-Pharmacy (USA), Design Flanders (Belgium), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Expedia (UK), Facem (Italy), Fidelity International (UK), Finmeccanica (Italy), Flanders in Shape (Belgium), Haier (China), Hewlett Packard (India), IEDC-Bled School of Management (Slovenia), IKS-Core Consulting (Italy), Istud Foundation (Italy), Kodak (USA), LAit (Italy), Last Minute (UK), Max Mara (Italy), Media & Design Academy (Belgium), Microsoft (USA), Motorola (USA), MPG Ferrero (Italy), Nokia (Denmark, France, Finland), Research in Motion (Canada), Samsung (Italy, Korea, UK), Swisscom (Switzerland), Tandem Seven (USA), Torino World Design Capital (Italy), Voce di Romagna (Italy), Vodafone (Germany, Italy, UK), and Whirlpool (UK).
Our collaborators (interns, consultants and staff)
Sven Adolph, Ana Camila Amorim, Andrea Arosio, An Beckers-Vanderbeeken, Josef 'Yosi' Bercovitch, Enrico Bergese, Niti Bhan, Elena Bobbola, Janina Boesch, Giovanni Buono, Donatella Capretti, Manlio Cavallaro, Gaurav Chadha, Dave Chiu, Raffaella Citterio, Sarah Conigliaro, Piermaria Cosina, Marco Costacurta, Laura Cunningham, Regine Debatty, Stefano Dominici, Saulo Dourado, Tal Drori, Dina Mohamed El-Sayed, Marion Froehlich, Giuseppe Gavazza, Valeria Gemello, Michele Giannasi, Young-Eun Han, Vanessa Harden, Yasmina Haryono, Bernd Hitzeroth, Juin-Yi 'Suno' Huang, Tom Kahrl, Erez Kikin-Gil, Ruth Kikin-Gil, Helena Kraus, Francesca Labrini, Alberto Lagna, Shadi Lahham, Jörg Liebsch, Cristina Lobnik, Maya Lotan, Ofer Luft, Davide Marazita, Claude Martin, Camilla Masala, Myriel Milicevic, Kim Mingo, Emanuela Miretti, Massimo Morelli, Peter Morville, Muzayun Mukhtar, Giorgio Olivero, Pablo Onnias, Hector Ouilhet, Christian Pallino, Giorgio Partesana, Magda Passarella, Romina Pastorelli, Danilo Penna, Andrea Piccolo, Rachelly Plaut, Laura Polazzi, Laura Puppo, Alain Regnier, Enza Reina, Anna Rink, Michal Rinott, Silvana Rosso, Emanuela Sabena, Vera de Sa-Varanda, Craig Schinnerer, Fabio Sergio, Manuela Serra, Sofia Shores, Massimo Sirelli, Natasha Sopieva, Yaniv Steiner, Riccardo Strobbia, Victor Szilagyi, David Tait, Beverly Tang, Akemi Tazaki, Luca Troisi, Raymond Turner, Haraldur Unnarsson, Ilaria Urbinati, Carlo Valbonesi, Marcello Varaldi, Giorgio Venturi, Anna Vilchis, Dvorit Weinheber, Alexander Wiethoff, Junu Joseph Yang, and Mario Zannone.
Our partners
Amberlight, Design for Lucy, Fecit, Finsa, Flow Interactive, Foviance, Italia 150, Launch Institute, Prospect, Savigny Research, Syzygy, Torino World Design Capital, UPA, URN, Usability Partners International, Usercentric, UserFocus, User Interface Design, and UXnet.
Our friends (insofar not covered by the above)
Nik Baerten, Valerie Bauwens, Toon Berckmoes, Ralf Beuker, Marco Bevolo, Daniella Botta, Stefana Broadbent, Francesco Cara, Jan Chipchase, Allan Chochinov, Elizabeth Churchill, Gillian Crampton-Smith, Regine Debatty, Federico De Giuli, Jesse James Garrett, Adam Greenfield, Hubert Guillaud, Wilfried Grommen, Laurent Haug, Bob Jacobson, Marguerite Kahrl, Anna Kirah, Simona Lodi, Peter Merholz, Bill Moggridge, Donald Norman, Nicolas Nova, Bruce Nussbaum, Laura Orestano, Vittorio Pasteris, Gianluigi Perotto, Carlo Ratti, Hans Robertus, Bruce Sterling, John Thackara, Joannes Vandermeulen, Lowie Vermeersch, Judy Wert, and Younghee Yung.
Thanks to you all!
Pierpaolo Perotto, Mark Vanderbeeken, Michele Visciola and Jan-Christoph Zoels
The Experientia partners
PS. We are constantly looking for great talent! We currently have openings for interaction designers, communication designer, information architect, IT staff, usability consultants, etc.
"It is migrants, rather than geeks, who have emerged as the "most aggressive" adopters of new communications tools, says [Swisscom anthropologist Stefana] Broadbent. Dispersed families with strong ties and limited resources have taken to voice-over-internet services, IM and webcams, all of which are cheap or free. They also go online to get news or to download music from home."
That same trend is also present in the United States, with Latinos depending on their cell phones for more services than other [major] ethnic groups, turning to it for messaging, downloading music, surfing the Web and e-mailing, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
"According to [a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey released last month], on a typical day, Latinos were more likely to use their phone to send or receive a text message, play a mobile game, send or receive e-mail, access the Internet, play music, instant message, or get a map or directions. Fifty-six percent of Latinos said they did at least one of these activities, compared with 50 percent for African Americans and 38 percent for whites.
The numbers are supported by a Forrester Research survey last year that found Latinos were more likely than other users to text, instant or picture message, send e-mail, check the weather, get news or sports updates, research entertainment, check financial accounts and receive stock quotes through their phone."
Interestingly, "the cell phone in some cases is being used as the primary computer for Latinos, serving up e-mail and the Internet, in the process bridging what has been called the digital divide that still exists for some minority and disadvantaged groups."
The article mentions many reasons for this: economic (lower mean household income, so less broadband access at home), demographic (family and friends are spread out across the United States and across the border), and cultural (a higher value is placed on staying in touch with family and friends).
But even though these ethnic minorities are advanced users, mobile phone marketing companies consider them as only interested in the cheap offers: "Hendrik Schouten, director of marketing for the Hispanic segment at AT&T, said carriers assumed Latino users wanted the cheapest phones and were more likely to use prepaid plans because of limited budgets." This now seems to be changing.
Interactions Magazine – first impressions
It looks, feels, and reads exactly like a magazine for our profession should be. Why did no one think of this before? It contains a lot of in-depth articles by people I respect or others I am curious about. It is the ideal magazine to take with you and read on the road or on a couch.
Another first impression is that Richard Anderson and Jon Kolko, the editors-in-chief, have gone out of their way to transcend an American perspective on the profession: from the British Elizabeth Churchill, to the Austrian Telecommunications Research Center, and from Stefana Broadbent and Valerie Bauwens of Swisscom Innovations, to South African Gary Marsden and the Beijing-based Gabriel White. I applaud this commitment very much, especially since many USA-based blogs and publications do not take this global view, or assume – wrongly – that the American view equals the global view.
So bravo to the two editors in chief for the direction taken, and bravo to ACM, the publishers, of providing them with this opportunity.
The ACM advertising department has a golden opportunity now: the new "Interactions" approach is out there, but the advertising hasn't caught up. It's still very much old style. Some fresh and creative approaches there could make Interactions Magazine a really sustainable publication.
Once I have finished reading the whole magazine, I will definitely write something more in-depth. Meanwhile, Richard and Jon, keep on going in this direction. I hope ACM will take the logical next step: making the articles available online. I am also curious to hear where ACM (an abbreviation which stands for Association for Computing Machinery, a rather awkward name in this day and age) as an organisation wants to go with this, and how it wants to position itself in the new UX landscape. The magazine is silent on that topic. Perhaps ACM's executive editor or group publisher can be prodded for an article on this in the March-April edition or on the website.
In any case, I strongly suggest the readers of this blog to subscribe to the magazine, if you haven't already done so. It's only 50 USD.
PS. In Boston – Next week my partner Michele Visciola and I (Mark Vanderbeeken) will be in Boston for a client meeting. We will arrive on the 23rd and leave on the 27th. If readers of this blog are in Boston then, it would be nice to meet. Please contact us at info at experientia dot com.
Interactions Magazine relaunched
The content looks very exciting indeed and the editors-in-chief have done a great job at getting some of the best people in the field to contribute.
- Filling Much Needed Holes, a column by Don Norman on unmet needs which you can find fully online here;
- Persona Non Grata by Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting;
- What's in a name? Idioms, metaphors and design by Elizabeth Churchill of Yahoo! Research.
- Towards a model of innovation by contributing editor Hugh Dubberly;
- Designing for Disagreement by Paul Burke;
- Designing for the Last Billion by Gabe White of Frog Design;
- Primal Interactions by Alex Wright, information architect at the New York Times;
- Mobile Spatial Interaction by Peter Froehlich, Lynne Baillie and Rainer Simon of the Motorola Telecommunications Research Center;
- The Business of Customer Experience: Lessons Learned at Wells Fargo by Secil Watson of Wells Fargo;
- The Linguistic Command Line by Aza Raskin of Humanized;
- Understanding Convergence by Stefana Broadbent and Valerie Bauwens of Swisscom.
In addition, there are several "Forum" pieces and a few book reviews.
Unfortunately, the publishers (ACM) have taken a weird approach to the online version: while the site has all the trappings of an online publication (with a nice design, a good table of contents, commenting, and article blogposts), it contains hardly any content! They only have excerpts available online – you have to be an ACM member to read the full text – in the printed issue that is (at $50 for 6 issues). Also there is no information about the authors online. Not surprisingly, the site has very few comments and I doubt it has much traffic.
I hope the hard copy will arrive quickly here in Europe, but even more that Richard and Jon will be able to convince ACM that this is not a very good online policy.
"Anthropologist Stefana Broadbent talks about trends in entertainment and communication. With her team of sociologists and psychologists she observes people closely and collects a whole set of data (diaries, bookmarks, playlists, they ask people to keep logbooks of communication and media usage, etc). She is a great speaker and a much-needed tech myth buster."
According to Giussani, she showed a set of apparently disconnected data that all point in the same direction: there is no substitution – everything is added. "There is more and more media piling on, more devices, more channels. What's happening is that everything is moving into the background, everything is becoming wallpaper. [… There is] a constant flow of "open channel interaction".
"Now, there is a problem: the whole industry is trying to say bye-bye to routine. The whole ICT industry today has to do with putting people in total control and deliberate choice of everything that they will listen to, look at, etc: VOD, HDD recorders, IPTV archives, podcasts, videocasts, personalized radio stations, layout skins, etc.
But users can only multitask if we don't ask for all their attention. Choosing kills routines and requires attention — the moment you choose you commit to something — it moves the activity to the foreground; being in control means being actively focused."
- Read full story
– Read review on Pasta & Vinegar (by Nicolas Nova)
– All Picnic07 videos
People regularly featured on this blog
In alphabetical order:
Marko Ahtisaari
Ken Anderson
Nik Baerten
Genevieve Bell
Chris Bernard
Tim Berners-Lee
Ralf Beuker
Nina Boesch
Danah Boyd
Stefana Broadbent
Tyler Brûlé
Bill Buxton
Jan Chipchase
Hilary Cottam
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Alistair Curtis
Uday Dandavate
Liz Danzico
Regine Debatty
Paul Dourish
Jyri Engeström
Richard Eisermann
Jesse James Garrett
Fabien Girardin
Anand Giridharadas
Bruno Giussani
Adam Greenfield
Jonathan Kestenbaum
Anne Kirah
Dirk Knemeyer
Jon Kolko
Mike Kuniavsky
Loïc Lemeur
Dan Lockton
Victor Lombardi
Nico Macdonald
John Maeda
Ranjit Makkuni
Ezio Manzini
Roger Martin
Stefano Marzano
Simona Maschi
Bruce Mau
Grant McCracken
Jess McMullin
Peter Merholz
Crysta Metcalf
Bill Moggridge
Peter Morville
Ulla-Maaria Mutanen
Jakob Nielsen
Donald Norman
Nicolas Nova
Bruce Nussbaum
Carlo Ratti
Howard Rheingold
Louis Rosenfeld
Stephen Rustow
Dan Saffer
Nathan Shedroff
Jared Spool
Yaniv Steiner
Bruce Sterling
Marco van Hout
Rob van Kranenburg
Mark Vanderbeeken
Joannes Vandermeulen
Jeffrey Veen
Timo Veikkola
Michele Visciola
Eric von Hippel
Paola Zini
Jan-Christoph Zoels
"Twenty-five years after they were invented as a form of shorthand for computer-geeks, emoticons – an open-source form of pop art that has evolved into a quasi-accepted form of punctuation – are now ubiquitous.
No longer are they simply the province of the generation that has no memory of record albums, $25 jeans or a world without Nicole Richie. These sweet hieroglyphs, arguably as dignified as dotting one's I's with kitten faces, have conquered new landscape in the lives of adults, as more of our daily communication shifts from the spoken word to text. Applied appropriately, users say, emoticons can no longer be dismissed as juvenile because they offer a degree of insurance for a variety of adult social interactions, and help avoid serious miscommunications."
Note the casual observation that our communication is shifting from the spoken word to text, which is confirmed by Swisscom's ethnographic research on communication patterns in Switzerland.
The article also includes a short interview with Scott Fahlman, the inventor of the emoticon.
Research on smartphones and the work-life balance
The USA Today article reporting the research highlights how these devices increase efficiency, reduce stress, and "swing the work-life balance to the company side of the scales".
These results stand in contrast with Swisscom research recently reported by Bruno Giussani in The Economist, which makes one wonder to what extent the validity of the Research in Motion study is limited to senior managers only.
"Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who leads the User Adoption Lab at Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecoms operator, has been looking at usage patterns associated with different communications technologies. […] Although the rise of the BlackBerry has prompted concern about work invading private life, the opposite actually seems to be true: private communications are invading the workplace. Workers expect to be plugged into their social networks while at work, whether by e-mail, IM or mobile phone. Last year at a food-processing factory near Geneva, the workers revolted when the director tried to ban mobile phones from the factory floor, and he was forced to relent. Their argument was that they wanted to be reachable during the day, just as people who sit at desks are."


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UTC head football coach Russ Huesman watches his players during the Mocs' spring football scrimmage at Finley Stadium in this file photo.Photo by Doug Strickland /Chattanooga Times Free Press.
An already thin position for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team was even leaner for Monday's practice as sophomore Nakevian Leslie was the only experienced linebacker in the rotation.
With Muhasibi Wakeel and A.J. Hampton already sitting out the spring following surgery, the linebacker corps took another hit with T.J. Jenkins missing practice with a hamstring injury and Ale Ashlock attending a late class.
That mean converted tight end Austin Hall, a former Boyd-Buchanan player, and walk-on Gage Frady, who played at Bledsoe County, got action alongside Leslie, who also is slowed by a pulled hamstring.
"It's tough for me because I'm supposed to be limited at practice myself," said Leslie, who's making the switch from outside to inside linebacker. "But unfortunately with everybody else going down I can't be limited. I have to be able to take the extra reps.
"It was frustrating at first, but the coaches and other players are considerate and they've sat me out a couple of times just so I can get some rest. The injuries are slowing us down, but I feel like by the end of spring practice we'll be in good shape."
During one portion of the Mocs' skeleton drills, they went without linebackers, and for most of the two-hour workout getting enough plays was not a concern for the few healthy bodies.
"Today was a little different," linebackers coach Rusty Wright said. "T.J. had been running with the first team before he pulled his hamstring, and I want him back out there [Wednesday] because he's got to practice. But you've just got to do what you can do. I mean, we've got to practice, so you've got other guys that need work, too.
"It's different for me because I've gone from having Wes [Dothard] and Gunner [Miller], guys who had been in it for four years and knew as much as I did, to now guys who are still learning the position. We go back to day one, the basics like making sure we're lined up properly, that the footwork is good, and that's what you spend a lot of your time doing."
There will be talent at the position, once those sitting out heal and two promising freshmen join the rotation in preseason camp.
But with just six practices remaining before spring workouts wrap up, coaches have been impressed with Leslie's willingness to push through his own injury to remain on the field. During last Friday's scrimmage at Finley Stadium, Leslie had the biggest hit of the day, drilling receiver James Stovall near the sideline.
"He's a tough kid, man, I give it to him," head coach Russ Huesman said of Leslie. "A.J. Hampton is coming off surgery and Muhasibi is coming off surgery, so there's nothing you can do there. We're really thin on defense right now, and especially at linebacker, so I appreciate Nakevian coming out every day with a little banged-up wheel."
• The third annual "Scrappys," UTC's all-sports awards banquet, will be held April 10 beginning at 7 p.m. at The Chattanoogan hotel. Space is limited and the $50 tickets can be reserved by calling Joe Levine with the UTC Mocs Club at email@example.com or 423-425-4233.
There also will be a private VIP reception with the Mocs coaches at 6:30 p.m. UTC athletes and coaches from all 17 men's and women's sports programs will be honored for the accomplishments in competition, the classroom and the community.
• The two McCallie School members of the Mocs' highly rated signing class, offensive lineman Cam Walker and receiver/defensive back C.J. Fritz, were at Monday's practice to watch drills.
• Mocs coaches will host a free youth clinic before the Blue/Gold spring game April 11. The clinic is set up for kids in eighth grade and under, with registration at 5:15 p.m. The spring game will kick off at 7.
Contact Stephen Hargis at firstname.lastname@example.com or 423-757-6293.
Stephen has covered local sports in the tri-state area for more than 24 years, having been with the Times Free Press since its inception, and has been an assistant sports editor since 2005. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP's newsroom, winning numerous state, regional and national writing awards, including seven in 2013 and a combined 12 in the last two years. He was named one of the top 10 sports writers ...

subset: commoncrawl


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Iman Ali showcased beautiful lawn prints 2010
ur photoghphry nd make over are vy gud.plz stop try to female look mre specally in personality of shehzad raza.anyhw ur work is outstanding.open mre make over points in lahore specially in cantt.
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American Museum of Natural History in a streamlined orange Calvin Klein Collection gown, her attention drawn to the dinosaur skeletons in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda that welcomed guests to AMNH's annual gala.
Agyness Deyn's amazing career in the world of fashion started when she won the Rossendale Free Press "Face of 99 competition, when she was 16.
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Smartbooks on Their Way: ARM-Based Mini-Notebooks
When the Computex show opens in Taipei on June 2, among the announcements will be a series of Linux notebooks with ARM processors.
A day earlier Qualcomm officially announced the new smartbooks device class and the 45-nanometer Snapdragon chipset platform. The hellosmartbook.com site already has some info and a promotional video.
The smartbooks device class is somewhere between a smartphone and a notebook. All devices should work over WLAN, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS. Battery life should range from six hours to a few days. The CPU includes ARM processors, limiting usage to Linux and Windows CE, prompting most manufacturers to call them Linux devices.
Next to Qualcomm, Freescale ARM-based devices should also appear under the Smartbook brand, as LinuxDevices.com announced. Freescale may not be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform, but its own i.MX515 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution instead, as we reported. The first devices are targeted for Autumn of 2009. The smartbooks should cost around $200 and weigh less than a kilo, with most of them possibly implementing a touchscreen.
Issue 170/2015
Buy this issue as a PDF
TOR Network Isn't So Anonymous
A new study says it is possible to unmask 81% of TOR users.
.NET Goes Open Source
Redmond joins the revolution by turning the .NET Core Runtime into a GitHub project.
Drupal Advisory Unleashes a Torrent of Attacks
Users only had 7 hours to update before the intrusions started.
HTML5 Gets Promoted to a Standard
It's official: The new web arrives
Linus Addresses Criticism for Harsh Language
Kernel king admits his tone has alienated volunteers, but says the demands of the process require directness.
New SSL Attack Lets a Malicious Listener Steal Session Cookies
New flaw in an old encryption scheme leaves the experts scrambling to disable SSL 3
Leading Open Source Coder Rants about Rants
Lennart Poettering wants to change the way Linux developers talk to each other.
HP Splits into Two Companies
Enterprise giant frees itself from ink and home PCs (and visa versa).
Mozilla Labs Shuts Down
Mozilla's product think tank sinks silently into history.
Internet Giants Launch Collaboration to Improve Open Source
TODO group will focus on open source tools in large-scale environments.


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Council watch
Billy Manes pays attention to city government so you don't have to
Published: November 7, 2012
ITEM: The city approves the use of an Orange County contract for the purchase of protective bunker gear for the Orlando Fire Department.
TRANSLATION: It's the end of the world! Run to your bunker! Well, not really. With the Orlando Fire Department's firefighter bunker gear reaching the end of its ten-year life cycle, the department is requesting to "piggyback" off Orange County's Fire Rescue and Hazmat Supplies and Equipment contract for the purchase of 500 sets of new gear. The estimated cost for the new swag is $1.3 million and includes coats, pants, boots and gloves, all featuring high-tech design features such as bi-flex heat channel knee pads, dead-air panels, double waterproof wristlets, and Kinetic Kut™ patterning. Not sure what all that means, but wristlets definitely sound like must-haves for the holiday season!
ITEM: The city approves an Amendment to the General Employee Defined Benefit Retirement Plan, reopening a brief window to allow the purchase of service credits for contractual service rendered prior to 1989.
TRANSLATION: And finally, because there always has to be at least one in a crowd, the city is reopening a window of opportunity for one individual to purchase service credits for contractual work the unidentified woman did prior to 1989. The city originally opened said window for employees whose work was not previously treated as credited service under the Defined Benefit Pension Plan back in 2009. "Unfortunately, one eligible employee" missed the memo the first go around, so hopefully, she jumps through the window this time, albeit three years late.
> Email Billy Manes
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Business & Economics :: Plant Watch, Mergers and Business News
April 19, 2013
Gerald Ondrey
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) and Valero have successfully implemented Praxair's new CONOx emissions-control technology at Valero's petroleum refinery in Ardmore, Oklahoma. This technology has helped the refinery meet its...
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Sherry Crockett is used to seeing deer, wild turkeys, foxes and raccoons in the woodlands that surround her home. But a coyote -- now that was a bit of a surprise.
"Our first coyote sighting was last spring about this time," said Crockett, who lives on Rocky Springs Road just outside Frederick. "It was early in the morning when I looked out over our deck and saw ... well, I was not 100 percent certain of what I saw."
But after observing it for a few minutes, as it wandered into their yard, Crockett and her husband confirmed the doglike animal was a coyote.--
In late April of this year, the couple had a second coyote visit their backyard. "It was very early in the morning, just after dawn," she said.
She has not seen it since, but Crockett said she keeps her camera by the door in hopes of snapping a photo should the coyote return.
In mid-April, Christine Reeder did snap some photos of a black bear that not only tiptoed through her tulips, it ate one. The bear wandered through her backyard to the front of the house, where it munched on a tulip planted beneath a tree at her home near Gambrill State Park on U.S. 40. Last year, she saw a sow and two cubs in her front yard.
This is the time of year when reports of coyote and black bear increase, said Harry Spiker, game mammal section leader with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife & Heritage Service in Oakland. Coyote and black bear populations are increasing, he said, so it's only natural that more people would be catching glimpses of them.
"Statewide, coyotes are found in every county," Spiker said. The first documented sightings in Maryland were in 1972 in Cecil, Frederick and Washington counties, he said. Today, Garrett County has the largest coyote population.
Spiker said the urban myth that coyotes were "stocked" in Maryland is just that, a myth. Coyotes are a Plains animal and as the population grew, their territory expanded using two routes -- up to Canada and the Great Lakes region and down through New England, and a southern route that took them east across the Mississippi River, through Alabama and Tennessee and into the Mid-Atlantic states.
"They likely came into Maryland from both," Spiker said, noting that Maryland and Delaware were the last two states in the contiguous United States to be colonized by coyotes. A decline in the wolf population left a niche for coyotes to fill. They are a top-order predator, meaning they have no natural predators.
The Eastern coyote roams Maryland. "It's considerably bigger than its Western cousin," Spiker said, noting the Eastern coyote typically weighs between 30 and 35 pounds and the Western coyote is about 10 pounds lighter.
It's believed that as the coyotes moved east, they bred with wolves, resulting in the larger Eastern coyote.
"Eastern coyotes can be blond to black to the typical colors of a German shepherd, like gray or brown," Spiker said. "Out West, typically they are gray or brown."
In Maryland, coyotes would have had their litters in the past month or so, Spiker said. They have one litter per year, typically of four to six pups. Coyotes are nocturnal, but with a litter of pups to feed, it's not uncommon to see the "mom and dad" out hunting to feed their brood.--
"The habitat they use is varied," Spiker said of coyotes. "They love to hunt fields and field edges" for voles, moles and rabbits. Pup dens are in "safe places like marshy areas, where they won't have much contact with people."
Coyotes also have large home ranges and travel long distances. "They'll stay pretty close to home when the pups are little, but when the pups are bigger, they will cover a range of several miles, and it may take several weeks to cover their territory," Spiker said. "Most of the year they are found solo, unlike wolves that travel in packs."
Red foxes prefer the same habitat and resources that coyotes do, and it has been observed that when coyotes expand into an area, the red fox population can decline; that has not been the case in Garrett County, however, Spiker said.--
Coyotes have been known to prey on livestock, but it's usually limited to an individual coyote, he said.
"There have been a small number of incidents," Spiker said. Between 2006 and 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued six coyote trapping permits statewide for problem coyotes, he said. There is a year-round daytime coyote hunting season and a trapping season in Maryland, he said.


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Welcome Ruby/Umrath/South 40 residents!
Congratulations on being assigned to the Rubelmann, Umrath, and South 40 Houses. Rubelmann, which currently houses 140 first-year students and six RAs on three floors, opened in 1958. Umrath and South 40 Houses are the two newest buildings on the South 40 and opened in August, 2009. Umrath houses 99 first-year students and three RAs. The South 40 House is home to 225 upperclassmen and six RAs.
We hope you will take some time to peruse this website and learn more about your new home at Washington University. Be sure to learn more about the RUSoFo staff, check out the RUSoFo facilities link to see floor plans of the building you will be living in, join the RUSoFo Facebook group, and explore the gallery for pictures of our fun and exciting events from last year.


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A Monkey Off My Back
Im happy to wish you (both) luck, AMOMB, but thats not why you wrote me. You want me to pat you on the back and congratulate you for your newfound maturity and wisdom. You want me to say that your new lady friend is lucky she caught you now, while youre willing to take on this fearsome struggle to accept her despite her non-figmentness, instead of when you were still holding out for your imaginary ideal. Crap. The truth is, now that youve lived long enough to be married at least once, produce several children, and reject the affections of a lot of women, its about bloody fucking time you grew up. Im not so put off by your daydream of the perfect galwe all have fantasiesbut that you kept believing not only that you would eventually meet this paragon of pulchritude, but that she would actually be interested in you. A certain amount of self-confidence is sexy, but what really turns a gal on is a guy with enough humility to consider himself lucky to have her. No woman wants to think the man she loves is settling for her or keeping her around because its too much trouble to start over. If this new gal is as good as you say, you should thank her every single day for loving you enough to put up with your arrogant ass.
My parents, who are in their 60s, are bigots. It isnt just that they love racist and ethnic jokes; they actually believe theyre superior. They have no tolerance for anyone who dresses differently, has different religious beliefs, or, worst of all, isnt both heterosexual and chaste before marriage. Pretty much everyone they know feels the same, so all their beliefs were pretty much ingrained in me. It came as quite a shock to me when I moved to a large city and started meeting people who looked different but were regular people with families and lives. Its like I have to unlearn a lifetime of prejudice. I still dont understand a lot of choices people makefacial piercing baffles me, and Im easily embarrassed by overt sexualitybut I try not to be judgmental. I love my parents. They never deliberately harmed anyone and, except for teaching me to despise everyone but white Christians, theyve always tried to be good people, but its hard for me to be with them now that I realize how negative and narrow their views are and how they damaged me. Should I try to educate them, or is it better just to accept that theyre too old and too set in their ways to change?
A Kinder, Gentler Daughter
Every religion touts itself as the one, true path to salvation, and when people limit their knowledge to only what a particular faith wants them to know, ignorance and intolerance are the inevitable result. Your parents are just like millions of other people, believing exactly what theyve been taught. Theyre comfortable that way and they feel no need to ask questions. Youre lucky to have escaped and that youre bright enough to accept the evidence of your own experience over your childhood conditioning.
If you want to change your parents thinking, which wont be easy, try starting with a subtle approach. Next time your dad tells a racist joke, tell him youve met some African-Americans, or whatever his target is, and the joke doesnt make sense. This tells him he cant count on you to appreciate his humor without making any direct challenge. If the soft approach doesnt work, you could tell them you find their jokes offensive, but dont be surprised if they get mad or accuse you of being disrespectful. Youll have to take this one step at a time. If you make absolutely no headway, remember, it is possible to reject your parents prejudices without rejecting your parents. I despise Catholicism, for example, but I love my Catholic mother. We know that neither of us is changing the others mind, so weve agreed to disagree and we just dont bring it up.
Pick and Choose (4/12/2006)
First of all, homosexuality isnt like snake handling or Catholicism; it isnt a cult or a religion you can be recruited for or converted to.
Territorial Rites (4/5/2006)
Family Guy (3/15/2006)
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Refacing a Website
TechTriad redesigns the Winston-Salem Air Show each year. After so many years, we've decided to rebuild the site and use a "face" that can be edited each year but not require so many CSS and image changes.
Websites should be: flexible, flexible, flexible.This site now has the ability to change performers, homepage slideshow, sponsors and the flying and activity schedule with minimal effort.
See the 2012 site as the Air Show enters its second century.


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When I am looking at you, you simply look at me! When I am giving you my being, you give your being to me. Be available, let it be a contact. It is not a communication, it is a communion. I am not communicating a certain message which can be deciphered, decoded - no. I am giving myself to you in that gesture. It is bigger than any meaning that can be given to it - and you are also bigger. If the contact happens, you will feel that boundaries have dissolved. For a moment you were not there. For a moment you were possessed by me - and not only by me but, through me, by the whole. So whenever I look at you, whenever I want to penetrate into your eyes, whenever I knock at your door, at your heart, open the doors.
Don't try to find the meaning. In finding the meaning you will miss the meaning - because the contact is the meaning, a deep inner embrace is the meaning.
The second question:
Osho,My mind is in such a state of confusion that it is impossible to remain in the middle. Wouldn't it be better to follow the mind in all its extremes so that I can experience the whole absurdity of it?
The first part of the question: "My mind is in such a state of confusion that it is impossible to remain in the middle."
I am not saying that you should remain in the middle. If you try to remain in the middle you will never be in the middle. The middle is a balance; you cannot try to be there. You will have to lean to the left, you will have to lean to the right. Don't cling to any position. Be free. And between leaning to the left and leaning to the right, somewhere a subtle point arises in you. It is not outside of you. If you go to look outside there is left and right; there is no middle.
It is just like time. Space and time are together. Try to understand. If you look at the clock there is past and there is future, there is no present. Your clock never says what the present is - it cannot say, because the moment it has said it, it is already the past. So the hands of the clock move from the past to the future; there is no present in your clock - cannot be. Present is not part of time. You have learned in your schools and your universities that the present is part of time - that is absurd. Present is not part of time. You have heard it repeated so many times that time is divided into three tenses - past, present and future - that it has become a conditioning in your mind. No. Time has only two divisions: past and future.
Then where is the present? The present is in you. If you look out, you will find past and future; if you look in, you will find the present and always the present. There is no past and no future - there cannot be. You move inward and you move into the eternity of the present; you move outward and either you move into the past or you move into the future.


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A virtual tour of the Mother Road October 27, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Computer games, Preservation.
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The World Monuments Fund in 2007 listed Route 66 as one of the most threatened historical sites in the world.
Now, the group has hired a company to to create a virtual tour of a small section of the Mother Road. It is hoped that these virtual programs can be expanded to include many other sections of Route 66 to assist city planners, tourists, and preservationists.
The WMF commissioned GeoSim Systems to create a virtual tour of a section of Route 66 in South Pasadena, Calif. In it, longtime California roadie Glenn Duncan leads the tour.
According to a WMF release:
This virtual reality system is geared directly toward the public experience and allows business owners, residents, municipal governments, and others to connect and add to the online resource, whether through posting community data, uploading daily menus of their restaurants, or traveling through Route 66 as an avatar. It therefore serves would-be travelers as well as local residents.
This pilot demonstration is envisioned as an opportunity to foster a more robust constituency along Route 66 and, hopefully, to encourage the expansion of the virtual reality documentation across the eight states that are connected by Route 66.
Here's a video introduction:
And here's the download for the virtual tour. (Note: The download is more than 130 MGs, so make sure your computer can handle it. Setup after the download takes less than 5 minutes.)
Below is a screen shot from the virtual tour. The foliage and buildings look mostly natural, and in the tour you'll see traffic and pedestrians passing by.
The freakiest — but fun — part of the virtual tour is seeing Duncan flying like Superman from one Route 66 landmark to the next. I half-expected him to dash into a phone booth and emerge in a red and blue caped uniform.
I suspect a few other roadies will be lining up to have their own chance to zip along like their favorite superhero in their favorite Route 66 neighborhood.
My first impression is it's an interesting tool, and probably one that will become more ubiquitous in the coming years. Welcome to the future, folks.
Hit-and-run crash damages Tulsa restaurant October 26, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants.
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A hit-and-run motorist crashed into and damaged the Corner Cafe, 11th Street (aka Route 66) and Peoria Avenue in Tulsa, early Monday, reported the Tulsa World.
The vehicle struck the western corner of the restaurant at 2:11 a.m.
Even though it is a busy corner, restaurant owner Ali Khater said it was the first time such an accident occurred in the 16 years the Corner Cafe has been open.
Despite the damage, the restaurant operated as usual Tuesday morning, reported KOTV.
KOTV's report also contained surveillance video footage from inside the restaurant of a car crashing into the building, backing out, and driving away.
A KJRH-TV video report says the car is believed to be a green Ford.
Top ghost sites on Route 66 October 26, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Ghosts and Mysteries.
5 comments
In the spirit of the Halloween holiday, I decided to list the most notorious spots on Route 66 where ghosts and other unexplained phenomena occur.
Literally dozens of locations along the Mother Road have seen such weirdness over the decades. I narrowed it down to the top five:
- Spook Light, near Quapaw, Okla.: Also known as the Hornet Spooklight in a rural area near the Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas border, it appears as a distant ball of light at dusk or night. It pops up regularly enough that Waylan's Ku-Ku restaurant in Miami, Okla., provides maps so you can check it out for yourself. Some think it's the ghost of a miner and his lantern; others think it's the ghost of an Indian. "Roads to Quoz" author William Least Heat-Moon and others say the light is caused by headlights from old Route 66 to the west. However, the light has been documented even before the invention of cars.
- The Oatman Hotel, Oatman, Ariz.: The ghost that reputedly haunts this 1902 hotel is of miner William Ray Flour, who drank himself to death behind the hotel in 1930. The spirit of Oatie reputedly opens windows, plays bagpipes, and yanks off bed covers. The hotel also reportedly houses the ghost of a chambermaid in one of the rooms. And hotel staff have heard the long-dead Clark Gable and Carole Lombard whispering and laughing from their honeymoon suite.
- Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, Ariz.: The hotel boasts so many ghost stories, it has devoted a section of its website to them. It includes apparitions of a bank robber, prostitutes, a bellboy, a baby, a dancing couple, and "The Meat Man." The hotel says Room 305 is its "most active" in terms of paranormal activity, including a rocking chair that rocks by itself.
- Tri-County Truck Stop, Villa Ridge, Mo.: The now-closed restaurant has been investigated by Missouri Paranormal Research after reports of strange activity, and a story about that sparked more than 50 comments on Route 66 News — many with their own weird stories about the place. One of the ghosts is "George," who reputedly has gotten fresh with the restaurant's female help.
- KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque. The 1927 theater reportedly is haunted by a 6-year-old boy, Bobby, who was killed in a boiler explosion in 1951. Bobby supposedly behaves himself if treats are left on a water pipe for him in the back of the theater. But if the treats are removed, all sorts of technical problems occur during shows or movie screenings.
As I've said, this isn't a comprehensive list of spooky places on Route 66 by a long shot. A few Route 66 travelers have reported spooky experiences of their own, as the comments in this post from 2005 show.
Route 66-themed bridge will be built in Rancho October 25, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges.
5 comments
If you have to replace a historic railroad bridge, this is the way to do it.
Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., will be widened to six lanes, which will necessitate the removal of the 81-year-old Pacific Electric Railway Bridge near Baker Avenue. But what will replace it seems to be a pretty good substitute, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:
The new bridge – which is part of the Pacific Electric Trail that crosses Foothill – will feature artwork depicting scenes of California and Illinois, the end points of Route 66. According to Associate Engineer Curt Billings, one end of the bridge will feature art of palm trees and the Pacific Ocean. On the other end, there will be windmills and white oaks, Illinois' state tree.
Just east of the bridge will be a park featuring the same varieties of grapevines that were first brought to the area from the San Gabriel Mission. A portion of the old bridge, which was torn down in July, will be preserved as a monument at the park and a section of the original Route 66 will also be preserved.
City officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to mark the start of the entire project, which is scheduled to be finished by November 2011.
Here's a Google Street View look of the original railroad bridge.
"The Route 66 of the West" October 24, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways, History.
2 comments
The Press-Enterprise posted a fascinating historical article about U.S. 395, which goes 1,400 miles from Canada to Mexico through Washington, Oregon and California.
Route 66 obviously stays true to U.S. 66, the Mother Road. But we're happy to occasionally give some bandwidth to other notable historic highways. From the article:
U.S. Route 66 is a much-documented highway many Americans fondly remember as the "mother road," crossing east-west from Chicago to Los Angeles. U.S. Highway 395 may be less widely known — yet "it was the Route 66 of the West but it was the north-south version," said Dick Fox, a Temecula historian.
"At its peak (use), it was called the Three Flags Highway," Fox said, because 395, completed in the 1930s, linked Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
"It went through every little burg and city, all the way up" to the Canadian border near Spokane, Wash., he said.
Travelers in parts of southern California may be able to follow old 395 better because of new signs that were recently installed.
U.S. 395 was the primary north-south highway in the region before Interstate 15 was built. Also, bypasses were built for U.S. 395 after World War II convoys had trouble getting through some towns.
Here's a Wikipedia entry on U.S. 395. Here's Cameron Kaiser's excellent site about 395. AARoads has a good site, with lots of photos, too.
Manic Mark October 24, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Religion.
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Here's the latest entry of "Route 66: A Road Trip through the Bible." This one's from the Book of Mark.
Mark could stand to drink decaf.
Jest in fun October 24, 2010Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.
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Michael Garin and Mardie Millit, aka Michael and Madie, provide a more whimsical take on "Route 66."
Not that I'm complaining.


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Chatham University to present The Best of the MFA Series with free public screening of a film by Chris Nicholson
March 26, 2013
Event is hosted by Chatham's Graduate Film Society and Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Technology program
PITTSBURGH (March 26, 2013) … Chatham University will present a free public screening of "Haunted States of America" by local filmmaker Chris Nicholson, MFA '12, at 7 p.m. on April 11 in the Eddy Theater. The screening is part of The Best of the MFA Series, hosted by the Graduate Film Society and the Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Technology program; the series aims to share the power of cinema with the community. A Q&A session with the Pittsburgh Paranormal Society will follow the screening.
Nicholson is an award-winning filmmaker with an MFA in Film from Chatham University in Pittsburgh. He is an independent filmmaker, video production specialist in the Pittsburgh adverting industry, and a video production instructor at Robert Morris University. Nicholson's upcoming projects include writing, producing, and directing the short romantic comedy "Speed Dating," and handling directorial duties for a horror feature film this fall.
Nicholson has won the Pittsburgh Film Workers Association Creech Award for best short film in 2010 for his multiple festival-winning film "Jack Ale Lantern" and was also finalist in 2011 for "Fortune Cookie." He was awarded a Telly Award in 2009 for the short documentary "Ben Geyer's Geo Bee Challenge." Nicholson's films "Bray Road" and "A Creeping Fear" have been screened at national film festivals with "A Creeping Fear" named a finalist for the best short film at this past year's Midnight Black International Festival of Darkness in Los Angeles. His commercial work includes TV & web commercials, viral videos, corporate videos, and a featured documentary "Sean Jones Artist of the Year Tribute" for the Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative and the August Wilson Center Theatre in Pittsburgh. For more information about the screening, contact Summer Marsh at email@example.com.
About Chatham University's MFA in Film and Digital Technology program
The MFA in Film and Digital Technology program is focused on advanced project work in a range of media production areas, principally film/video, DVD and the Web. It is designed to extend and develop students' experience and knowledge in the field of media production and their understanding of creative and critical practice within the media industries. Students in this MFA graduate program are encouraged to explore the ways boundaries between previously separate forms of media production are blurring. Students will focus on developing their understanding of how emerging concepts such as interactivity, connectivity and convergence of emerging technologies such as DVD and interactive video are creating new creative possibilities, production processes and delivery systems for more traditional forms of media production, such as film and video.
About Chatham's Graduate Film Society
Chatham's Graduate Film Society is a student-led organization that encourages people who are passionate about film and cinema to watch, discuss, and enjoy movies with fellow film lovers.
About Chatham University
Chatham University, founded in 1869, is located in the vibrant Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa. Preparing students from around the world, Chatham's enrollment throughout the past decade was the fastest growing in the Pittsburgh region. With enrollment of over 2,300 students and consisting of an undergraduate women's college and co-educational graduate and online programs, Chatham has consistently been ranked among the top master's level institutions in the Northeast by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Offering challenging academics and innovative programming in the fields of sustainability and the environment, health and lab sciences, creative and liberal arts, and business and entrepreneurship, a Chatham education is designed to meet the needs of tomorrow's economy, today. For more information, call 412-365-1139 or visit www.chatham.edu.


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The Fall
John Malkovich is J. M. Coetzee's exploiting and put-upon professor
|Steve Jacoobs
|John Malkovich, Jessica Haines, Antoinette Engel, Eriq Ebouaney
|Release Date:
John Malkovich is almost too perfect for the part of Disgrace's David Lurie. His patina of erudition, his reptilian eroticism, and the air of amoral self-absorption he so often embodies onscreen all fit the protagonist of J.M. Coetzee's 1999 novel like a bespoke suit, but putting him at the center of a Job-like two-hour travail almost makes you long for someone slightly more likeable to watch suffer. Then again Coetzee's novel and Steve Jacobs' faithful adaptation are, in a way, about what we get rather than what we want or think we deserve.
A chilly white literature professor at a South African university, Lurie embarks on an affair with brown-skinned student Melanie (Antoinette Engel), although calling it an affair makes it sound like fun. The way her foot absently dandles during their first tryst, the excruciating slowness with which she later joins him in bed, underline his heedless abuse of his power over her. David's actions, and his casually defiant lack of remorse for them, lose him his standing and his job and send him on a road trip to visit his earth-mama daughter Lucy (Jessica Haines) at her remote farm, which she shares with black tenant Petrus (Lumumba's Eriq Ebouaney). Not feeling his wounds, much less licking them, David helps out around the farm and at a local animal shelter until a savage attack by a trio of black youths mortally injures his remaining illusions regarding what his life has become.
The predatory affair with the darker-skinned student, followed by the white characters' slow-dawning realization that they have no power over the land they own, or the blacks who "owned" it before them, set up obvious allegorical resonances with South African society, pre- and post-apartheid. But Coetzee's book, adapted here by Anna Maria Monticelli, isn't so simplistic. While David's experiences with external forces drive the plot, the real story centers on his internal struggle. A specialist in Byron, he espouses the poet's imperious view of individual passion as cause and license, despite having outlived the youth that fueled the Romantics' fires. As the cosmopolitan life he enjoyed and the comforts and assumptions that came with it fall away, he comes to rethink the value of his desire and pride and acquaint himself with the basic acceptance of what any given day, or any given person, has in store, whether it's a companionable roll on the floor or the knowledge of death.
It's a painful process, and not always easy to watch as David, Lucy, and Petrus each make decisions that they all three must live with, for better or worse. But Malkovich's adroit embodiment of David, aided by Jacobs' light touch, makes each step of the journey clear and memorable.


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Chatham Condo Rental Photos and Description
Ideal for 4-5 people with central a/c
Enjoy your summer vacation in the Light House Beach area of Chatham. This very clean, modern condo is just a few steps to the private salt water beach of Outermost Harbor. This condo has central air conditioning and offers a bedroom on the first floor with a queen size bed and 2 twins in the upstairs loft area, plus a fully equipped kitchen, casual living room with a 40' HDTV flat screen television, and a full bathroom on the first floor. Other special amenities include a DVD player, wireless internet, telephone with free long distance, gas grill, and lovely back deck with furniture for outside relaxing and dining, plus beach chairs. There is a pull-out sofa in the living room. Outside shower for rinsing off after the beach. Cleaning fee $100, security deposit $400.
- Suitability:
- children welcome
- non smoking only
- pets not allowed
About The Owner
We have been visiting Chatham for almost 30 years and love the town, beaches, and the area. We still get thrilled everytime we come to Chatham.
The Owner purchased this condo in 2011
What makes this condo unique
Love getting FRESH fish (just caught by the commercial fleet in Chatham) at the Fishing Pier, bringing home to grill, along with great clam chowder and lobsters!!


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Product Design and Development
Spring 2013
Prof. Steven Eppinger, Prof. Warren Seering, Prof. Matt Kressy
The detailed course syllabus shows the class schedule, topics, and project assignments.
The course web site on Stellar used for handouts, assignments, and detailed class information is restricted to registered students. https://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/15/sp13/15.783/
A photo gallery with many past class projects can be viewed at: http://web.mit.edu/15.783j/www/gallery.html
The class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. On most days, the first half of each class is in lecture/discussion format; the second half is in studio/lab format when all project teams will meet.
The class textbook is: Product Design and Development by Ulrich and Eppinger (5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2012). http://www.ulrich-eppinger.net Amazon
The Spring 2013 class is full. It was oversubscribed during MIT pre-registration. Students notified before the course begins are de-registered and encouraged to register for another class or try again next year.
This is a graduate class for MIT students including MBA, LGO, MEngMfg, and other graduate students. A separate PDD class is offered for SDM students (ESD.40), which may also be open to students in other programs.
Students must register for the course for grades; the MIT P/D/F grading option is not allowed for this course.
To balance the class, a certain number of seats are filled by MBA, LGO, and Engineering students.
In Spring 2014, all MIT students will be required to register under 15.783J and to participate in the Sloan bidding process. This will hopefully maintain the target balance and give priority to graduate students in their final year. Students wishing to register under 2.739J or ESD.32J to get engineering elective credit for the class may change their registration after the course begins.
RISD students register for the course through the RISD ID department.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program
System Design and Management (SDM) Program
Mechanical Engineering Department


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President Barack Obama has called corn-based ethanol the most successful alternative fuel we have ever developed.
Billed as a green replacement for billions of gallons of gasoline, ethanol has enjoyed political support from across the spectrum.
But the results of America's ethanol policy have not been as green as advertised.
Here's what you need to know:
Ethanol is an alcohol that is fermented and distilled from corn. Since 2007, when Congress required oil companies to blend billions of gallons of ethanol into their gasoline, it has become one of America's most widely produced renewable fuels.
When it burns, ethanol emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline. That's why it is a centerpiece of the plan to reduce greenhouse gases.
But getting ethanol from corn has a hidden environmental price that the government rarely acknowledges. America's ethanol policy has encouraged farmers to plant millions of new acres of corn.
More than 5 million conservation acres – environmentally sensitive farmland that had been set aside and allowed to grow as grassland – have disappeared on Obama's watch.
Every time a farmer plows into grassland, it releases carbon dioxide that had been naturally locked in the soil.
In the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the policy encourages a practice that actually emits greenhouse gas.
The corn boom has increased fertilizer pollution in Midwest waterways and beyond. Scientists say that's worsened a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Environmentalists and many scientists now say, when all the environmental factors are considered, corn ethanol is not a viable strategy for combating global warming.
But it has been a boon to Midwest farmers.
The Obama administration no longer pitches ethanol as a greenhouse gas strategy.
Rather, ethanol is frequently presented as a program that helps rural America.
- Farm, conservation groups dispute criticism of ethanol
- Industry attacks AP ethanol investigation
- 5 stories of interest to Fort Wayne area residents – Tuesday, Nov. 12
- 10 Things to Know for Today - Tuesday, Nov. 12
- Corn marketers: Ethanol story has misinformation, falsehoods
- Ethanol era comes at dirty cost


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They say Capt. Theodore Knight hid the rum he sneaked into Florida in burlap bags in Lake Placid, outside the tiny bar now known as Cap`s Place.
The bar was a speakeasy, later a casino, and now it`s a restaurant. Customers are greeted by a sailor in a launch on the far side of the lake and regaled with tales of the restaurant`s history as they are ferried across.