A MIX OF MASH-UPS via Seattle Intelligence Post Intelligencer
wash-up:” Web sites combine ingredients from different online sources to create intriguing hybrids.”
SAMPLE SITES
www.analygis.com (census data + maps)
www.aytozon.com (Amazon.com + eBay)
www.celebrity-maps.com (celebrity homes + maps)
www.cellreception.com (cell phone towers + maps)
www.fboweb.com (flight location + maps)
www.homepricerecords.com (home sales prices + maps)
www.housingmaps.com (maps + housing listings)
www.simplyhired.com (job listings + social networking + salary info + maps)
www.trachtenberg.com/emgm (eBay motors + maps)
www.weatherbonk.com (weather + Web cams + maps)
SITES WITH LISTS OF MAPPING MASH-UPS
www.googlemapsmania.blogspot.com
ws1.inf.scd.yahoo.com/maps/applications.html
20-years of �Pride and prejudice� complex
I could not remember what was the last movie I saw in theater, which means it must be long long time ago. But since long long time ago, I�ve been looking forward to seeing this �Pride and Prejudice�. I can�t wait to see a young and perky Elisabeth Bennet (that doesn�t mean I don�t like BBC version and the one with Laurence Olivier). I was so excited with the approaching of its� opening, that I felt I was back to the 13-year-old girl again, whose heart bouncing so fast when turning every page of the book (in Chinese at that time). For a very long time, I don�t know, or believe in any love other than the one between Darcy and Elisabeth, the one built on the parallel of two similar spirits, as well as the enjoyment of intellectual clash. I read and again all the chapters where two of them fight so hard to outwit each other buth underneath the conflict it was such intellectual satisfaction. I remember the sunny Saturday afternoon when my best girlfriend and I read together �if your feeling still are what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affection and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever�. It sounds like Bach. We sighed and laughed at her small bed, dreaming about the days when someone will speak the same words to us.
Now back to the movie, I think it�s doing very well on such love-fight relationship and the chemistry is real between the two; some sexual energy is just right, except at the end the audience burst into laughter when Mr. Darcy showed his bare feet. Talking about the audience, the late show at a rainy night (So Seattle!) was surprisingly sold out and the room was so crowded which only reminds me the audience size for �Fahrenheit 911� or �Lord of Ring�. (Maybe people read more in Seattle?)
It�s very interesting to see the director moved the setting of some important conversation from living room out to the wild. It adds a nice romantic touch and infuses more nature of force to the love in a very conservative era. Some of the scenes feel so �Wuthering Heights�, another favorite book of mine. It�s such a imaginative and bold move to ahve Lizzy standing at the edge of cliff with long hair blowing in the wind, and Darcy and Lizzy kissing against the morning sun in the prairie. I don�t remember too much wild sprit, which is quite typical in Bronte, in Austin’s books. But the movie pulls it out very well. Darcy in the movie was presented convincingly as someone incapable of socializing and small talk, which is very charming (where to find a rich and handsome young man who doesn’t flirt with othe women?). Kightly�s Lizzy is close to Lizzy I envisioned, with crooked teeth though, which looks very naughty. I only wish them were in nicer costumes, and it would’ve fulfill perfectly my fantacy of the perfect love (God, how shallow I am!)
When I was 13, I could not wait to grow up to have my own Darcy-Lizzy story in real life. When I am 30 something now, I wanted go back to a younger years, when love is much simpler thing-an exchange of witty words, a brush of love one�s hand, an evasive glance and an unexpected encounter can lighten the day up like in heaven. I guess I am very old fashioned in heart.
Better than never
Google finally launched blog search engine (not fair, it’s two months ago). I asked the Google research director after her talk two years ago in San Jose when google would have search engine for blogs, since my blog often got readership referred by google; a lot of search terms are amusingly strange and total irrelevant to my blog . She was not quite prepared for that question and told me they did not have such plan since Google tried to include as many WebPages as possible in their search results. hmm, I wonder if I could get credit for the reminder.
I’m worried, for I’m a lady…
(So that’s what happens when you mind is not creative-blogging turns into some reading notes-or in a more fashionable term ‘knowledge management’.)
Now, this one is from newsweek-an interview with Robert Leahy, a psycologist writing a book called ‘the worry cure’.
Why do women worry more than men?
Because, simply put, women are better human being!
“Worriers tend to be more concerned about how other people feel and are better at empathy than nonworriers. Worriers also overempathize, and I think women are more likely to do this than men. In other words, they are concerned with the effect a particular action might have had on another person. Women also tend to ruminate a lot. They tend to go over something over and over again to be sure it�s the correct decision. Men are more willing to fail–or perhaps men have more of an illusion that they�re not failing. ”
Does worry get worse for women with aging?
good news!-and how wonderful to get old: ” Anxiety and depression are most common in women between the ages of 18 and 33. …There are a lot of life changes, a lot of uncertainty and unrealistic expectations about what you have to look like, what your job has to be, what your romance has to be. As people get into their 30s, 40s and 50s, they have adjusted their expectations and have stabilized in terms of work and friendship. You wouldn�t have �Romeo and Juliet� for people in their 50s; it would be called �The Honeymooners.�
learn a new term (or two):
Amygdala-’where all your anger, anxiety and arousal come from’.
agoraphobia -’the fear of being in open or crowded public spaces’
