Saturday, March 29, 2008

Constant Comment

..Suffice it to say that the world of NuGrief is so vast and confusing, it gets to be like the Dragon Dance in Chinatown, where the dragon is persuaded after an hour to eat an orange, ...

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Black Peter by the Grateful Dead

All of my friends
come to see me last night
I was laying in my bed
And dyin'

I just want to have
A little peace of mind
And a friend or two
I love
At hand

People roll up
Past a hundred and five
Gonna roll on up
Gonna roll back down

See here how everything
leads up to this day

And its just like every other day that's
Ever been

The sun, coming up and them
The sun, it going down
Shine through my window
And my friends
They come around

The people they know
But the people don't care

Take a look at poor Peter
He's lying in shame

Now his friends
Come and see
Come and see
Come and see

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Napoleon Dynamite looks nice, the movie makes no sense. The same is probably true for Juno, I haven't seen it.

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La Gombe
La Gombe or Gombe (formerly Kalina, after the lieutenant, E. Kallina) is a central district in Kinshasa City, in the north of Kinshasa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is bounded on the north by the Congo River and in the south by the Boulevard du 30 Juin.

La Gombe is both a residential area and Kinshasa's business district. It also houses some of the DRC's principal governing bodies, including the Palais de la Nation and the Banque Centrale du Congo on the Boulevard Colonel Tshatshi. Various ministries, diplomatic and media organizations are also situated there.

The offices of Kinshasa's governor are located in La Gombe, making it the capital of Kinshasa Province.

Gombe
"Gombe" can refer to:
-Gombe State, Nigeria;
-Gombe the capital of Gombe State, Nigeria;
-Gombe Streams National Park in Tanzania;
-La Gombe or Gombe, the central business district of Kinshasa
-Gombe, a traditional Norwegian dish.

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

The RDC has a surprising number of colleges and universities.

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Super idea: The Montreal NBA franchise; Quebec Hydro Campers.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

On the Columbo tip

It was Colonel Mustard, in the solarium, with a hairdryer

The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3

1973 - novel published
2009 - movie released

2009 - 1973 = 36

You have just got to let me turn your coat, man,

In his Harlem detective novels, Chester Himes brought the detective genre from Perry Mason to NYPD Blue.

"Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones", two Harlem detectives. "At 6:00 the rib joint was starting up the nights work; the vent spouted gouts of black smoke into the night air. 118th Street was bustling with activity. Coffin Ed and I were sitting in our car drinking coffe....."

Have you ever wanted to know what was going on in Bochcoworld while Martin Luther King Jr and Miles Davis were working?

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My first major Wikipedia contribution was to the Chester Himes article, in 2004. Since then I have over 12,000 English and over 2000 Chinese wikipedia edits. Thank you Chester Himes.

-If He Hollers Let Him Go, 1945
The Lonely Crusade, 1947
Cast the First Stone, 1952
The Third Generation, 1954
The End of a Primitive, 1955
For Love of Imabelle, alternate title A Rage in Harlem, 1957
-The Real Cool Killers, 1959
-The Crazy Kill, 1959
-The Big Gold Dream, 1960
-All Shot up, 1960
Run Man Run, 1960
-Pinktoes, 1961
-The Heat's on, 1966
-Cotton Comes to Harlem, 1965
-Blind Man with a Pistol, 1969
Black on Black, 1973
A Case of Rape, 1980
The Collected Stories of Chester Himes, 1990
Plan B, 1993
Yesterday Will Make You Cry, 1998

I think there are more than this.


Himes transitioned the detective genre from Perry Mason and Miss Marple, all the way to Shaft, Mannix and Stephen Bochco, like 50s rock n roll brought us from Tin Pan Alley to Elvis and Rubber Soul and rap brought us from Foghat to Danzig. Himes and others worked to create an environment in which The Wire, Silkwood, All the President's Men and The Godfather would be created. etc Car 54, where aren't you?

born in the 60s

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

{| class="infobox" style="text-align:center; width:97%; margin-right:30px; font-size:90%"
|-
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of largest cities in Brazil|Rank]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of cities in Brazil|City]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[States of Brazil|State]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of largest cities in Brazil|Pop.]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of largest cities in Brazil|Rank]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of cities in Brazil|City]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[States of Brazil|State]]
! align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[List of largest cities in Brazil|Pop.]]
! rowspan=4 style="background:#f0f0f0;" | [[Image:Sao Paulo Business District.jpg|border|145px|Central Bussiness District, São Paulo]]

|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 1 ||align=left | '''[[São Paulo]]''' || [[São Paulo (state)|SP]] || 11,016,703 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 11 ||align=left | '''[[Belém]]''' || [[Pará|PA]] || 1,428,368
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 2 ||align=left | '''[[Rio de Janeiro]]''' || [[Rio de Janeiro (state)|RJ]] || 6,136,652 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 12 ||align=left | '''[[Guarulhos]]''' || SP || 1,283,253
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 3 ||align=left | '''[[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]]''' || [[Bahia|BA]] || 2,714,119 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 13 || align=left | '''[[Goiânia]]''' || [[Goiás|GO]] || 1,220,412
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 4 ||align=left | '''[[Fortaleza]]''' || [[Ceará|CE]] || 2,416,920 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 14 ||align=left | '''[[Campinas]]''' || SP || 1,059,420 ||align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[São Paulo]]
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 5 ||align=left | '''[[Belo Horizonte]]''' || [[Minas Gerais|MG]] || 2,399,920 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 15 ||align=left | '''[[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]]''' || [[Maranhão|MA]] || 922,458 || rowspan=5 style="background:#f0f0f0;" |[[Image:Barra001.jpg|border|145px|Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro]]
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 6 ||align=left | '''[[Brasília]]''' || [[Brazilian Federal District|DF]] || 2,383,784 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 16 ||align=left | '''[[São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro|São Gonçalo]]''' || RJ || 973,372
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 7 ||align=left | '''[[Curitiba]]''' || [[Paraná (state)|PR]] || 1,788,559 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 17 ||align=left | '''[[Maceió]]''' || [[Alagoas|AL]] || 922,458
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 8 ||align=left | '''[[Manaus]]''' || [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|AM]] || 1,644,690 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 18 ||align=left | '''[[Duque de Caxias|D. de Caxias]]''' || RJ || 855,010
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 9 ||align=left | '''[[Recife]]''' || [[Pernambuco|PE]] || 1,515,052 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 19 ||align=left | '''[[Nova Iguaçu]]''' || RJ || 844,583
|-
| align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 10 ||align=left | '''[[Porto Alegre]]''' || [[Rio Grande do Sul|RS]] || 1,440,939 || align=center style="background:#f0f0f0;" | 20 ||align=left | '''[[Teresina]]''' || [[Piauí|PI]] || 813,992 ||align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | [[Rio de Janeiro]]
|-
| colspan="11" align=center style="background:#f5f5f5;" | {{small|'''Source:{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/cidadesat/default.php |title=Cidades@ |publisher=IBGE | accessdate=2007-06-23}}'''}}
{{small|[[Guarulhos]] is part of the [[Greater São Paulo]].
[[Duque de Caxias]], [[Nova Iguaçu]] and [[São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro|São Gonçalo]] are part of the [[List of the largest metropolitan areas in the Americas|Greater Rio de Janeiro]].}}
|}{{clear}}
Sao Paolo Pop. 11 mm

Bom dia! It's the Portuguese flag.

The shield structure is held together by straps, when the flag is flown, it seems as though the shield motif has been sewn together. The red and the green, the castles surrounding more shields, it seems like other flags. The strapwork is noticeable and interesting and is an important part of the flag.
Good one, Eliot;

Providence = Neurotic
Boston = Irritated
Philadelphia = Unorganized
Washington = Secretive
Minneapolis = Unhappy
Los Angeles = Unhealthful

and

New York = Poor.

Normally in the course of human affairs, as seen on cable news channels and sports radio, people talk and talk about all the different problems in the world and that's good; the governor seems to have actually alienated many people on Wall Street, the very key to his political venue. What a puzzling turn of events!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Gunma-ken


or Gunma Prefecture

What a handsome, tired horse. 群馬県の自治体 Gunma Ken's autonomous political bodies

市部: 前橋市 Don't be afraid to cross the bridge.
高崎市 桐生市 伊勢崎市 太田市
沼田市 館林市 渋川市 Shibuya River
藤岡市 富岡市 安中市 みどり市 Midori City

Hot tsunami of love 勢多郡: 富士見村 Ah, Mt Fuji is visible
North Gunma 北群馬郡: 榛東村 Thinking about baseball in the wee hours of the morning
吉岡町 There is a lucky cat meowing at the door
You have many new things to try! 多野郡: 吉井町 Luck is like a well.
上野村 I'll accompany you through the wilderness
神流町 | Heaven shine your light on me
Sweet Music 甘楽郡: 下仁田町 南牧村 甘楽町
吾妻郡: 中之条町 長野原町 嬬恋村 草津町 六合村 高山村 東吾妻町
利根郡: 片品村 川場村 昭和村 みなかみ町
佐波郡: 玉村町
邑楽郡: 板倉町 明和町 千代田町 大泉町 The Big Spa
邑楽町

"田" is so funny here. One thinks of getting the harvest in and then setting to making frames for rice seedlings over the winter, for the planting. It's important to make the frames, a lot of scientific and technological thought is expressed here, and they seem a lot like pallets at the factory to me in their function and role.

田 is also a map of a ricefield, obviously. I grew up in an agricultural area in New England, fans of geology and geography know that Southern New England has a similar agricultural value to Long Island, home of legendary potato fields, Yaz, and famous tomatoes, as seen on tv's Seinfeld. I worked on the farm and lived for a month on an orange grove in Cheju, it was there that I understood how a farmer will think of his farm as a 田, and then take each quadrant and think of the quadrant as a 田, so on down to the individual plants or trees, all of which makes it possible to keep track of each precious one. I think graph paper was invented by farmers, (x + y)(x - y) and so forth.

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Gunma Prefecture is part of the Kanto Plain. Japan consists mainly of 'the Alps'; plenty of level land exists in Kanto (Tokyo) and Kansai/Kinki (Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe-Nara).

Sunday, March 2, 2008

這17個聯邦州及一個自治市分別詳列如下:The 17 states and self-governing cities [of the Central Area] are as follows:

You would have to be Loki [trickster god] to get through these. It's ok, I can try, I grew up in Mass youth hockey, I get it. I can learn Cyrillic by matching out the Chinese with my extant Soviet geoknowledge, I'll make a game of it. Here's a fact: 'Soviet Union' in German is "Sowjet Union", it sounds ridiculous.

别尔哥罗德州(Белгородская Область) Belkroskiy Oblast
布良斯克州(Брянская Область) Bulangzik Oblast
伊万诺沃州(Ивановская область) Yiwanowa Oblast - must be in Siberia
卡卢加州(Калужская Область) Kalujia Oblast
科斯特罗马州(Костромская Область) - Kestelouma - Kostroma Oblast 2 points
库尔斯克州(Курскская Область) Kanelske Oblast
利佩茨克洲(Липецская Область) Lipazz Oblast - Lipetsk Oblast 1 point
莫斯科自治市(Москва) Mockba SGC 2 points
莫斯科州(Московская Область) Mockba Oblast 2 points
奥廖尔州(Орёл / Орловская область) Aovel Oblast
梁赞州(Рязанская Область)
斯摩棱斯克州(Смоленская Область)Smajik Oblast - Smolensk Oblast 1 point
坦波夫州(Тамбовская Область) Tanpofu Oblast - Tambov Oblast - 2 points
特维尔州(Тверская область) Tuva Oblast 2 points
图拉州(Тульская область) Tula Oblast 2 points
弗拉基米尔州(Владимирская область) Frackiy-Mell Oblast
沃罗涅日州(Воронежская область) Walaw Jir Oblast
雅罗斯拉夫尔州(Ярославская Область) Yal - Jaroslavl Oblast 2 points

I went through the list twice. My score was 16, seems low. I'll try with Northwest Area, Volga Area didn't have Cyrillic.

西北部聯邦管區 (俄语:Северо-западный федеральный округ)位於俄羅斯西北部。由下列聯邦主體組成:

阿尔汉格尔斯克州 (Архангельская Область) Archangelsk 2 points
涅涅茨自治区 (俄语:Ненецкий автономный Округ) Nenetsk Autonomous Area 2 points
加里宁格勒州 (俄语:Калининградская Область) Kaliningrad 2 points
卡累利阿共和国 (俄语:Республика Карелия) Kaslia?
科米共和国 (俄语:Республика Коми) Kemi 1/2 point?
摩爾曼斯克州 (俄语:Мурманская Область) Murmansk 2 points
诺夫哥诺德州 (俄语:Новгородская Область) Novogorno 2 points
普斯科夫州 (俄语:Псковская Область) Pskov 2 points
圣彼得堡自治市 (俄语:Санкт-Петербург) St Petersburg 2 points
列宁格勒州 (俄语:Ленинградская Область) Leningrad 2 points
沃洛格达州 (俄语:Вологодская Область) Wagegerda 00 points

總面積1,677,900平方公里,人口13,974,466 (2002年)。現任總督為Ilya Klebanov。

Better, 14 1/2 out of 22.

南部联邦管区 (俄语:Южный федеральный округ)位于俄罗斯最西南部,介乎乌克兰和哈萨克斯坦之间,大致覆盖了北高加索地区。由下列联邦主体组成:The Southern Area is to Russia's Southwest, Ukraine and Helaksetan - Kazakhstan 2 points - are there, ....... -2 points. The list:

1阿迪格共和国 (Республика Адыгея) Adiger Republic
2阿斯特拉罕州 (Астраханская Область) Astrakhan 2 points
3车臣共和国 (Чеченская республика) Kanglu Republic
4达吉斯坦共和国 (Республика Дагестан) Dagestan 2 points
5印古什共和国 (Республика Ингушетия) Ingushetia 2 points
6卡巴尔达-巴尔卡尔共和国 (Кабардино-Балкарская республика) Kabalda Balkar #$#@
7卡尔梅克共和国 (Калмыкия-Кхалмтангч Республика) Karmaike Repbulic - Kalmyr Republic ? points
8卡拉恰伊-切尔克斯共和国 (Карачаево-Черкесская республика) Kalahiy Chekst
9克拉斯诺达尔边疆区 (Краснодарский край) Krasnodar 2 points
10北奥塞梯-阿兰共和国 (Республика Северная Осетия–Алания) North Ostia Aran ?
11斯塔夫罗波尔边疆区 (Ставропольский край) Stavropol 2 points
12罗斯托夫州 (Ростовская Область) Rostov ? points
13伏尔加格勒州 (Волгоградская Область) Halgegg-Ler 00 points

總面積589,200平方公里,人口22,907,141 (2002年)。現任總督為迪米特里· 科扎克(Dmitry Kozak)。
Surface area is 589000, population 22mm, current president Dimitri Kozak.

10 points out of 26. Not good. I used to sort of know this.

Kamchatka OblastThat is a nice yurt. I should finish watching All About Lily Chou Chou, the ancient Altaic ways are so prevalent in Japan.

Recipe Talk: Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is good and good for you. Reading some recipes at 'the place that sells the canned Thai curry', one learns that it is ok to simmer coco milk for a long time, and one should fry meat and vegetables with the material at the top of the can of milk. Excellent information.

Making Thai curry from a small can of red curry, green curry, tamarind curry, etc, is simple, one follows the English language instructions on the label or one looks up some recipes online. The best recipe I have found yet involves making spaghetti sauce the normal way and then adding a can of coconut milk. As is the case with many other changes in my life in the past 15 years, I am sure I will never make plain spaghetti sauce ever again.

Here's a good one: bacon, coconut milk, vegetable, egg + fried rice.

Indian curry is another good idea, as with Thai it is easy and inexpensive to get restaurant quality food in the kitchen. The key is to cook up some 'garbanzos' to create the base of the curry.

Growing up with European-American food you learn it's good to simmer things, and sometimes leftovers taste better because the food gets more suffused with the onion, garlic, parsley, sage, as time passes. With Asian food, which may have a shorter simmering time, you fry or pop the spices in oil, as the beginning of the cooking process.

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