Christo & Jean-Claude's Exhibit in Central Park -- The Gates

Over the weekend, the two renowned artists -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude -- opened their newest adventure with fabric, color, and spectacle as they opened The Gates. If I remember correctly, there are over 7,000 gates from which saffron-colored fabric sways in the breeze installed on the paths in Central Park in New York.

Visit their website, The Art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, where they have complete information about their latest project (some 26 years in the planning and permit-gathering) along with a number of their other exhibits.

Amazing and, in the best sense of the word,......Spectacular!

Hearing Voices?

In yet another amazing thing the Internet can do -- along with the hard work, insight, and inspiration of great ideas -- the BBC has made available a wealth of audio interviews of just about anyone you can think off.

Start here to go to the beginning of the alphabetical list. Chose the beginning letter of someone notable's last name and see what they've got. This page starts you out at the letter "A's" and here's sample of who you could hear from the BBC archives: Maya Angelou, Ansel Adams, Robert Altman, Eve Arnold, and David Attenborough.

Prime History

As someone who is not exactly a mathematician, I would say that the whole notion of prime numbers has held some fascination. For example, prime numbers seem to hold special importance to the folks who eat and breathe numbers.

In case you're interested, I ran across a site that sets out the History of Prime Numbers. I think you'll find some clues here.

Endangered Languages

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is concerned about the possible loss of spoken languages worldwide. It has a site to help highlight this concern called the Interactive Atlas of the World Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Some of the goals of this site include:

1. Contribute to the safeguarding of languages in danger of disappearing with a view to contribute to the preservation of the world's linguistic and cultural diversity.
   
   
2. Share knowledge on endangered languages through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
   
   
3. Promote public awareness and international debate concerning languages in danger of disappearing through the development of an interactive on-line tool.
   
   
4. Foster intellectual cooperation with local, regional, national and international organizations in order to combine efforts to promote and preserve the world’s endangered languages.

A very interesting site and laudable goals.

The History Of Valentine's Day

Leave it to the History Channel to have a whole site devoted to the History of Valentine's Day. Not only do they give us the history (and sometimes guesses) about the genesis of Valentine's Day but there are stories of great romances. You can even visit a Valentine's Day Gift Shop.

Check it out to your heart's content!

Pasta! Pasta! Pasta!

Pasta is definitely not in keeping with our carbo-aware world these days but I can't honestly claim to have kept pasta out of my diet. Quite the contrary!

Well, if you also find those tasty noodles ending up on your plate, you might be interested in discovering more about all the ways you can turn eggs, flour, and water into more than spaghetti....into pasta!

Though I associate the Hormel company with meats (especially Spam!!!) and not noodles, they have a part of the "Knowledge" area of their website devoted to giving you all you need to know about pasta.

Check out Types of Pasta!

Got Vitamin A?

If you are in need of just a bit more of good ole vitamin A, one place you're bound to find it in abundance is the CarrotMuseum. It won't take much digging around to find just about all you'll ever want to know about this orange munchie!

Everything Google -- Oh My!

I've only begun to scratch the surface of what author Nancy Blachman has put together with her GoogleGuide site, but, my oh my, there is a lot here to learn about this most common search engine. Can it do a lot of things!

It's gotta be that anyone -- yes, anyone! -- can learn something new about Google thanks to Ms. Blachman. Give her site a test drive! You'll be amazed!!!

Find Those Bloopers In The Movies

Although not obsessive about it, I have to confess to be a person who will spend some time at the movies trying to catch the mistakes in shooting, continuity, or just plain bloopers up there on the screen.

Lo and behold, there is a web site that tracks and compiles "mistakes" from the silver screen (and some from the small screen, too).

Check out MovieMistakes. It's good for a chuckle sometimes with an occasional "how did they think they could think we wouldn't notice that???"