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New Year 2007 Countdown - Applet

New Year 2007 Countdown - Applet.

New Year countdown around the world (2007)

If you cannot see the above applet, you will have to enable java in your browser. If you get an error message from the applet, it is probably because of a firewall. You could still see the clock by using the non-applet counter.

Information

The above applet shows the remaining time until year 2007 in time zones all over the world. Click on any underlined city (top part of applet) to show a single countdown counter for that city in a separate window. Click on any line with cities (lower part of the applet) to change the main digital counter to that time zone.

The Lives They Lived - New York Times

The Lives They Lived - New York Times.

The Lives They Lived
Published: December 31, 2006

Left: Screenshot of illustration from the article...

This is our 13th annual Lives They Lived issue. Many notable people died over the last 12 months, among them Coretta Scott King, Robert Altman, Ann Richards, William Styron, Caspar Weinberger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Red Buttons and Augusto Pinochet. This year has again brought the deaths of many men and women in the American military; more than 800 American troops were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006. In addition, countless Iraqis have died. This year also saw three deaths closer to home.

The New York Times lost R. W. Apple Jr., a marvelous writer and an editor at the paper for 40 years; Gerald Boyd, the first African-American managing editor at The Times, who was known for his tenacious reporting and demanding editing; and A. M. Rosenthal, who reimagined and reinvigorated the newspaper during his 17 years at its helm.

Always this time of year, we get the lists of those public and cultural figures who have died in the last year.. this list includes links to tribute articles...

Times Square hits stride for New Year's - USATODAY.com

Times Square hits stride for New Year's - USATODAY.com.

Times Square hits stride for New Year's
Updated 12/31/2006 11:04 AM ET, By David B. Caruso, Associated Press

NEW YORK — Hundreds of thousands of revelers will flood Times Square on Sunday evening for a celebration that will wash away thoughts of world conflict with music, glitz and celebrity star power.

At least a million guests are expected, and those who come will find New York City at what may be the peak of its prosperity and appeal to tourists.

BY THE NUMBERS: TIMES SQ. New York City's massive Times Square celebration by the numbers: • Expected weather at midnight: About 40 degrees, cloudy skies. • Crowd size: Incalculable, but probably exceeding 1 million. • Number of portable, public toilets in Times Square: 0. • Minimum price of a hotel room on Dec. 31 with a view of the square: About $1,200. [See more on the article..]

With relatively warm temperatures in the low 40s expected, this year could be a record-breaker on several counts, organizers said. Crowds are expected to pack Broadway all the way to Central Park.

An unprecedented 3.5 tons of confetti will be dumped on the crowd during the evening. Visitors are expected to drop tens of millions of dollars on food, booze and souvenirs, capping what some are calling the city's busiest tourism year ever.

Google Coming to North Carolina? Part 2 | Marketing Pilgrim

Google Coming to North Carolina? Part 2 | Marketing Pilgrim.

Google Coming to North Carolina? Part 2
Friday, December 29th, 2006;
-- Andy Beal |

Just over a year ago, I pieced together a whole bunch of rumor and speculation to show reasons why Google could set-up office in North Carolina.

Thirteen months on and we learn that N.C. has offered Google $4.7m in incentives if it builds a server farm in struggling Caldwell County.

    A company spokesman told The News & Observer via e-mail that the company is evaluating a number of sites, including the one in Lenoir, for an expansion that could bring $600 million in new investment and 210 jobs to a region socked by job and industry losses.

That sound you hear is the many techies in North Carolina updating their resume. ;-)

Good post, and the deal should fly, and why not? NC is hot after Silicon businesses and it makes sense; they have more to offer than the California and other counterparts, and their government is *smart* enough to recognize incentives *breed* integration, competition, and business environments that succeed by their own greatly-influenced momentum.. NC has the MO now, and Google is smart enough to recognize where 21st Century innovation will come from...

Library Launches RSS Feeds - The Library Today (Library of Congress)

Library Launches RSS Feeds - The Library Today (Library of Congress).

December 18, 2006
Library of Congress Launches RSS Feeds
New Service Offers Bulletins on News, Events, Additions to Web Site

The Library of Congress today launched a series of news feeds using the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology.

Since its launch in 1994, the Library's award-winning Web site has been the destination of Web users seeking authoritative information and unparalleled collections, with more than 22 million digital objects available in 186 terabytes of content, including photographs, maps, music, film, books and reference information on topics ranging from American history to science and technology to popular culture. The RSS service was launched in response to public requests for alerts on additions to the Library's digital collections, updates of events at the Library's public venues in Washington and news of the institution.
...
The Library will launch additional feeds in specific content and subject matter areas in the coming months. All new RSS feeds will be available from key content pages within the Library's extensive Web site, as well as from a central RSS Web page at www.loc.gov/rss/.

I added these feeds from LOC to my Sage RSS reader (a sidebar reader within Firefox 2.0) ...

champagne - Allrecipes

champagne - Allrecipes.

champagne
[ sham-PAYN ]

This most celebrated sparkling wine always seems to signal "special occasion." Though bubbling wines under various APPELLATIONS abound throughout the world, true champagne comes only from the Champagne region in northeast France. Most countries bow to this tradition by calling their sparkling wines by other names such as spumante in Italy, Sekt in Germany and vin mousseux in other regions of France.

Only in America do some wineries refer to their bubbling wine as "champagne." Dom Perignon, 17th-century cellarmaster of the Abbey of Hautvillers, is celebrated for developing the art of blending wines to create champagnes with superior flavor.

Nice short overview article about champagne, the bubbly of the season...

NPR : For Writer Lillian Ross, the Story's in the Details

NPR : For Writer Lillian Ross, the Story's in the Details.

The Long View
For Writer Lillian Ross, the Story's in the Details
Listen to this story...

Left: Screenshot of "Portrait of Hemingway" excerpt

Morning Edition, December 22, 2006 - Writer Lillian Ross joined the staff at The New Yorker in 1945, and is one of the few writers who boasts the disinction of having worked for all five editors since the magazine's inception. Her work has been compiled in several books, including Talk Stories (1966), Takes (1983) and Reporting (1964). She discusses her work with Steve Inskeep.

Ross' profiles of famous people include rich details that bring the subject alive on the page. Ernest Hemingway liked to talk in broken English. During a conversation at dusk, Hollywood director John Huston deliberately left off the lights as if arranging a shot in his own film noir.

Great sound interview with Lillian Ross.. imbedded in the piece is a long excerpt from her "Portrait of Hemingway" ...

ALA | ALA Library launches Web tools to access professional information

ALA | ALA Library launches Web tools to access professional information.

For Immediate Release, December 5, 2006
ALA Library launches Web tools to access professional information

(CHICAGO) The Library of the American Library Association (ALA) today announced the launch of two new Web tools to aid ALA members, librarians and library workers in accessing professional information online.

The “Librarian’s E-Library” (http://www.ala.org/librariantools) uses tools from Google Co-Op to create a customized search engine.  Librarian’s E-Library searches over 125 key information-rich web sites with the information library workers need to do their jobs better.

The ALA “Professional Tips” wiki (http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/) provides a pathfinder to using the rich resources of ALA’s Web site; compiles the ALA Library’s responses to questions received from the field; and, perhaps most importantly, enables the library community to share new resources for advancing the practice of librarianship.  The wiki already includes three main areas: a categorized set of articles on topics in librarianship, an ALA history timeline, and a Q & A area with links to longer articles.

Ann Seidl, writer and director of The Hollywood Librarian - 12/27/2006 - School Library Journal

Ann Seidl, writer and director of The Hollywood Librarian - 12/27/2006 - School Library Journal.

Ann Seidl, writer and director of The Hollywood Librarian
Debra Lau Whelan -- 12/27/2006

This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping.

Left: Screenshot of SLJ article on the Web

Make sure to have your gowns and tuxes ready for the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Washington, DC, this June.
You won't want to miss the red carpet, black-tie premiere of The Hollywood Librarian, the first documentary ever about—you guessed it—librarians.

SLJ caught up with writer and director Ann Seidl (her production company is called Overdue Productions) to talk about this long-awaited labor of love, why she made it, and what "stars" are in it.

What's The Hollywood Librarian about?
My documentary is the first real look at the lives and work of all kinds of librarians in the United States—school librarians, academic librarians, children's librarians, public librarians. There's lots of humor, lots of poking fun at the stereotypes, and that will dispel the myth of the repressive, humorless librarian.

Should be a first-class affaire! Kudos to Anne for making this happen.. her *vision* brought the story to the screen.. check out her Web site...

Brilliant Ideas That Found a Welcome - New York Times

Brilliant Ideas That Found a Welcome - New York Times.

State of the Art
Brilliant Ideas That Found a Welcome    
By DAVID POGUE, Published: December 28, 2006

It may take a village to raise a child, but that’s a trivial task compared with the act of bringing a new electronic gadget to market.

Marketers determine what the masses want, product managers guide the design, engineers bring the thing to life — it’s a lot of cooks. No wonder so many people across the country are, at this very moment, staring at newly unwrapped electronic holiday gifts in utter bewilderment.

Great list, David.. I particularly like this one: "A RECORD RADIO BUTTON Samsung Helix is a regular music player, like an iPod (though smaller). But it’s also an XM satellite radio receiver." ...

College libraries: the condensed version - Los Angeles Times

College libraries: the condensed version - Los Angeles Times.

College libraries: the condensed version
With millions of items to store, and research often done online, some schools pack little-used books into annexes.
By Larry Gordon, Times Staff Writer December 25, 2006

For a first-time visitor to the back closet of the UC system's libraries, the experience is like a dizzying optical illusion. Within its thick concrete walls and bunker-like interior, the partly underground building tucked into a quiet gully on UCLA's campus contains row after row after row of crowded shelves that usually are off-limits to anyone but special librarians.

How could there be so many books, journals, microfilms and documents in this tomblike space known as the Southern Regional Library Facility?

The count, officials report, is about 5.5 million — and growing.

The New Yorker : A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner)

The New Yorker : A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner).

A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner)
by James Thurber
Issue of 1927-12-24 Posted 2003-12-15

This classic New Yorker holiday story, from 1927, appears in the anthology “Christmas at The New Yorker,” which was published by Random House.

It was the night before Christmas. The house was very quiet. No creatures were stirring in the house. There weren’t even any mice stirring. The stockings had been hung carefully by the chimney. The children hoped that Saint Nicholas would come and fill them.

The children were in their beds. Their beds were in the room next to ours. Mamma and I were in our beds. Mamma wore a kerchief. I had my cap on. I could hear the children moving. We didn’t move. We wanted the children to think we were asleep.

DrWeb's Domain: DrWeb's Top Ten Christmas Movies

DrWeb's Domain: DrWeb's Top Ten Christmas Movies.

Friday, December 24, 2004
DrWeb's Top Ten Christmas Movies

Here's my favorite Christmas movies, with links to see more about them at the Internet Movie Database.. enjoy the holidays...

A re-post of my favorite Christmas movies.. first listed in 2004 on Christmas Eve.. after reviewing the list, it still holds up well, I think.. enjoy the holidays, and thanks for reading DrWeb's blog...

Zuzu still believes ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ - Holiday Guide - MSNBC.com

Zuzu still believes ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ - Holiday Guide - MSNBC.com.

Zuzu still believes ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
Karolyn Grimes offers petals, holiday cheer to fans of holiday classic   Updated: 2:22 p.m. PT Dec 22, 2006

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. - Zuzu has a cold again. She sniffles and sucks on a cold pill as she signs autographs for fans lined up to the door in a coffee shop. Karolyn Grimes jokes that she left her coat open, like her character Zuzu Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

But a more likely culprit is the holiday crunch of appearances by the former child actress — from a Victorian festival in Puyallup, Wash., to the Colorado Country Christmas Show and now to Seneca Falls, which claims to be the inspiration for director Frank Capra’s mythical Bedford Falls. Around Christmas, this Finger Lakes village is gussied up like the snowy movie town with white lights and wreaths strung across the main street. And the 66-year-old Grimes has come for a weekend celebration.

Google Press Center: Zeitgeist 2006 Year-End

Google Press Center: Zeitgeist 2006 Year-End.

Goggle Press Center: Zeitgeist 2006 Year-End

A year’s worth of search speaks to our collective consciousness, and 2006 is no exception. To compile these year-end lists and graphs, we reviewed a variety of the most popular search terms that people typed into Google. Click on all the tabs to learn something new — or confirm that you too reflect the spirit of the times. Except where noted, all of these search terms are global for Google.com.

Google.com - Top Searches in 2006

1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Google News - Top Searches in 2006

1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006