| Pirates of Sundance
If your computer desktop is anything like mine—and, brother, it is—you've paved over every spare pixel in an iconistan of clutter. Desktop design originated in a wistful visual metaphor, the clean, still work surface, encouraging users to productive ends. Leaps forward in computing horsepower and the rise of constant Internet use has transformed the tabletop terra firma into a cockpit, an antic terminal for the networked self. Our desktops are now a thick impasto of tabbed windows, pull-down menus, dashboard widgets, and application alerts. No possible distraction gets left behind, no link, feed, IM, twitter, or poke unheeded.
It's blindingly obvious to note that disarray is one of the defining aspects of the frequent Web user. (I could cite some pertinent statistics, but I don't trust myself to get back to this word processor window.) Ask any designer: Without white space, humans have difficulty focusing.
Recall vote looming for Arlington mayor
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Tickets for SMMUSD Stairway of the Stars Concert Go on Sale Friday
On March 22nd and 23rd at 7:30 pm, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will present the 58th Annual "Stairway of the Stars" at the Civic auditorium in Santa Monica. This event remains one of the most popular annual events in the city as it spotlights the talents of the district's music students, teachers and music curriculum. One of the highlights of this year's performance will be the addition of an Elementary Honor Choir, which developed as a result of the district's expansion of the music program this year. Each year the band, orchestra or choir is featured at the Stairway of the Stars concert. This year, the guest conductor will be Mr. Lawrence Stoffel. Lawrence Stoffel returned to his native California when he assumed the position of Director of Bands at California State University, Northridge in 2004.
IMNZ Independent Album Chart January 2008
IMNZ Chair Mark Kneebone is currently at the MIDEM music trade show in Cannes, where music business execs from over 90 countries are gathering. Independent label bodies the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) and MERLIN are hosting meetings with their delegates from all over the world, making MIDEM a crucial forum for setting the agenda for indie activities in 2008. For Kiwis in London longing for some homeland vibes, Spacific.net - the UK website dedicated to New Zealand music - are hosting their annual Waitangi Day event at Cargo on Feb 6th, with performances by London’s Maori club Ngati Ranana, Adi Dick and Precious Clark, as well as DJ sets from Tubbs, Horace and Big K. Warm Earth records has signed to MGM/Planet for the distribution of Te Vaka in Australia; their latest album ‘Olatia’ will be released in Australia on February 16th.
Wong Maye-e
And, barely 20 meters away, I had one in my binocular sights, half hauled out on the muddy swamp bank, jaws slightly agape but enough to display an impressive array of dentistry, and absolutely motionless. It looked primeval, and it might be, as crocodile design has been largely unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. It also seemed sluggish, as if weighed down with armor plate, but this is deceptive: On land a saltie can match a man in a short sprint and in the water it swims sublimely. But this one was going nowhere, basking in the early morning sun and in my admiration. Along the beautifully laid out boardwalks I found a Crimson Sunbird, a minute garnet gem, the precocious Ashy Tailorbird that literally sews its nest together and the Malay Water Monitor a serious lizard at 1.5 meters.
Of palaces, world hotelier honors and surfing
RAYMOND N. BICKSON Hometown: Honolulu Now lives: Mumbai, India Position: Managing director and CEO of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces Age: 51 Recent honor: Hotels magazine this month named him 2007 Corporate Hotelier of The World High school: Saint Louis graduate, 1973 Other studies: The Goethe Institute in Berlin, the Alliance Francaise in Paris, the Universit de Sorbonne in Paris, L'cole HteliEre Lausanne, and Cornell University in New York. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in Boston. What does he like to do on vacation? "I try to go to the beach." .
Pretend IRS scammers call Iowans
According to a news release from the IRS, there is an e-mail scam that claims the recipient is eligible for a tax refund, then provides a link to a fake IRS Web site. The IRS recommends that recipients do not click on links in, or open attachments on these e-mails. "Most of these are abroad," Brammer said. Canada is a particular concern. Brammer said a common scam is people receive a notice that they have won a prize in Canada for $500,000. To get the prize, people are asked to cash a counterfeit check for a few thousand dollars and wire the money to an address in Canada. "That is extremely common," Brammer said. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Competition Bureau have teamed up to fight scams by creating the Canadian Anti-fraud Call Centre.
CAMPAIGN 2008
To hear Mitt Romney tell it, Florida didn't anoint John McCain. It merely narrowed a scrambled Republican field to a two-man race. But as the Republican contest detonates into 21 far-flung states voting for GOP candidates on Tuesday, Romney still needs to neutralize two men whom Florida voters pushed to the fringes: Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. Giuliani, whose third-place thud in the state forced him to bow out of the race Wednesday, is moving supporters into McCain's camp. At the same time, Huckabee's folksy mix of politics and religion is siphoning away the conservative voters Romney needs to offset McCain's appeal among moderates. ''Florida reshapes the race completely,'' said U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, whose last-minute endorsement of McCain helped him overtake Romney.
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