It's been a busy day here at mediawench.life: cats were taken to the groomer for an anti-fungal shampoo and brush-out, vomit was cleaned out of the dog's bubble, therapists were spoken to and a shipment of iSight webcams arrived.

Since we're the only folks we know with iSights (or any webcam for that matter), we've only bridged the gap between the basement and the kitchen. But, it works fine and setup was slick and quick as could be- plug it in, fire up iChatAV, and pop click you're looking and talking at each other.

Now if only my far-flug friends would get with the program!

Get a webcam, talk to a schnauzer. Hell of a deal.

5:23:46 PM     leave/read comments []

Number of Threatened Species Tops 12,000 [Scientific American]

And counting!

In total, 12,259 species--characterized as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable--had the misfortune of making the list. What is more, 762 plant and animal species are recorded as already having gone extinct and 58 remain in existence only in cultivation or captivity. "While we are still only scratching the surface in assessing all known species, we are confident this figure is an indicator of what is happening to global biological diversity," says IUCN director general Achim Steiner.

2:51:13 PM    

NGG note: Douglas McGray is getting a lot, perhaps way too much, print for his thesis about GNC (that's Gross National Cool) and today at a symposium in Tokyo he delivered a speech titled, "Cool Japan: Japan's Cultural Power." We have not seen any links to stories about his speech yet, but, even better, we present to you a transcript what he said: [Nippon Goro Goro]

Japan's Gross National Cool. 

Excellent read! Hai!

1:57:00 PM     leave/read comments []