Cyril's Gleans

gleans at 6:20 AM MT, 12/15

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15books.html?r=1 - A new book is a tribute to a Microsoft researcher, lost at sea in 2007, who argued that computing was transforming science.

From strange signs and bizarre pictures to quirky news and features, we bring you the most interesting and funny articles and galleries on all things travel. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/weird-wide-world/?utmsource=tmg&utm_medium=TD_www&utm_campaign=travel1512am

Jude Law described director Guy Ritchie as like a father to two wayward sons as he attended the world premiere of Sherlock Holmes, in which Law stars alongside Robert Downey Jr.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6812722/Sherlock-Holmes-Jude-Law-and-Robert-Downey-Jr-wayward-sons-to-Guy-Ritchie.html

Marissa Mayer: An omnivorous Google is coming
Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president for search products and user experience, shares her unparalleled insights into the future of internet search engines.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6810021/Marissa-Mayer-An-omnivorous-Google-is-coming.html

Wine tastes better if a room is backlit with red or blue ambient lights, a psychologist has found.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6810671/Wine-tastes-better-in-blue-or-red-lit-rooms.html

Will next year finally see the much-heralded mass migration from paper to e-books? ... http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/A71EF2DD1BB4BBBC86257675000176A0?OpenDocumenthttp://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1946348,00.html?xid=rss-topstories - Searches on Google for popular news topics often turn up stories from a little-known website ahead of stories from major media sites. Is this another case of David whipping Goliath, or is it just the weird science of search-engine optimization? <== Cyril likes examiner.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/weird-wide-world/?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_www&utm_campaign=travel1312 <== recommended

The wealth of media in modern life means the average person is bombarded with enough information every day to overload a laptop computer, a study has found.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6801633/Modern-life-causes-brain-overload-study-finds.html

Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers by Ambrose Bierce - http://www.powells.com/review/2009_12_13.html?utm_source=overview&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_overview&utm_content=Ambrose%20Bierce's%20Write%20It%20Right%3A%20The%20Celebrated%20Cynic's%20Language%20Peeves%20Deciphered%2C%20Appraised%2C%20and%20Annotated%20for%2021st-Century%20Readers&PID=18

gleans at 10:30 PN MT. 12/08

Sestina for W. H. Hudson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Hudson

I

Many years ago the builders built the road.

It went from there to here and back to there

With frequent missing steps along the way.

To reach the end was not to begin again,

And few there were so supremely able

As not to miss and fall from off the path.

II

How many times to fall from off the path

And once again to re-begin the road

Does it take to make the wise one able

To understand the reason it is there?

And must he never say, "Not, not again!

"I will not pass again along this way!"?

III

Some few are born upon the wilder way

And do not choose to take the common path.

They worry not to never pass again

And hurry on to go beyond the road,

Seeking from birth the there beyond the there -

Are they sad that most are not so able?



IV

Is he not among the clearly able,

The mounted man who rides the wilder way

Through the Purple Land from there to there?

He does not slip nor stumble on the path.

His thoughts unturned and keeping to the road,

He stops to talk but starts along again.



V

Returning to the Purple Land again

Quells the doubter’s fears and makes him able

To rise up and continue on the road

Behind the horseman on his fearless way

Thinking not while following fast the path

About the endless there beyond the there.

VI

Who walks from there to here and back to there

And reaches the end need not begin again.

Who never slips nor falls along the path

And undismayed continues able

To keep the path and question not the way,

Alone he wins to find the further road.



VII

Able are they who choose the wilder path

Never again to pass along this way.

Alone they find the road beyond the there.

A poem at 6:30 AM MT, 12/04

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Christmas Bells

I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

I've got thm blue-footed booby blues in the night

Abstinence makes the booby's feet grow bluer and its heart fonder
Times Online - Hannah Devlin - ‎In a study of the blue-footed booby, which is native to the Galápagos Islands and Ecuador, they found that when birds had a year off from reproducing their feet got an even bluer sky-blue.

Writer(s): Mercer/Arlen/Cyril

My mama done tol' me, when I was in knee-pants
My mama done tol' me, "Son, a woman'll sweet talk"
And give ya the big eye, but when the sweet talkin's done
A woman's a two-face, a worrisome thing who'll leave ya to sing the blue-footed booby blues in the night.

Now the rain's a-fallin', hear the train a-callin, "Whooee!"
(My mama done tol' me) Hear that lonesome whistle blowin' 'cross the trestle, "Whooee!"
(My mama done tol' me) A-whooee-dah-whooee o' clickety-clack's a-echoin' back the blue-footed booby blues in the night.
The evenin' breeze will start the trees to cryin' and the moon will hide its light when you get the blue-footed booby blues in the night.

And take my word, that mockingbird’ll sing the saddest kind of song, he knows things are wrong, and he's so right.

From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four winds blow
I’ve been in some big towns and I heard me some big talk, but there is one thing I know
A woman's a two-face, a worrisome thing who'll leave ya to sing the blue-footed booby blues in the night.

My mama was right, there's blue-footed booby blues in the night.

gleans at 8:10 AM MT, 12/01

On a falconry adventure day, Gary King finds that fearsome birds of prey are best kept at arm’s length

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/outdoors/6691415/Falconry-adventure-days-Britains-got-talons.html

An art student based in a warehouse in east London has invented a product already being described as the best thing since Sellotape and Blu-Tack.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6684351/Sugru-Is-this-the-best-invention-since-Sellotape.html

Aleppo: My kind of town. Head to the Syrian city of Aleppo for exoticism, medieval shopping malls and deep-fried falafel, says Gail Simmons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/middleeast/6699294/Aleppo-Syria-my-kind-of-town.html

Toby Clements finds pleasure in books for the loo or the bedside table, including Schott's Almanac 2010, and the blackly witty Seasonal Suicide Notes by Roger Lewis

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6662722/Humour-books-of-the-year.html

Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/28/london-plaques-emily-cole-review

A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary (Paperback)
~ Alain de Botton (Author) - http://www.amazon.com/Week-At-Airport-Heathrow-Diary/dp/1846683599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259680164&sr=1-1