“Despite its laid-back script, Smiley Face is as prankishly political as [Gregg] Araki’’s Doom Generation, evincing a deep unease with the media-saturated capitalist nation that Jane crawls inside her bong to escape,” writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times. As for Anna Faris, her “freakishly committed performance as Jane F suggests Amy Adams’’s princess from Enchanted dropped into a Cheech and Chong movie.”

“What’’s going on here, I think, is mumblecore through a marijuana haze,” proposes Vadim Rizov at the House Next Door. “Behind Jane’’s surprisingly depressing hijinks is post-grad malaise: a rare copy of the Communist Manifesto drives a lot of the plot, with Jane occasionally delivering moments of lucid intelligence to remind us that she must”ve learned something in college.” Still, “despite the hit-and-miss jokes that keep Smiley Face consistently engaging and occasionally hilarious - it’’s the most depressing comedy of the year.”

Updated.

By:  dwhudson                        Source

If you didn’t immediately ditch the white stock earbuds that came with your iPod in favor of a pair of higher-end canal phones or headphones, then these 500XL speakers are right up your alley. They’re 500 times bigger than the original; can be powered by USB, batteries, and an AC adapter; and as you can clearly see, are designed to look exactly like the Apple buds. Other than an enormous iPod touch to go along with it (not to mention information about pricing and availability), what more could you ask for?

Via The Uber-Review.

By:  Janet                        Source

Fans of tokidoki might be excited to know that the Italian artist behind tokidoki, Simone Legno, has contributed a training course on his Adobe Illustrator methods to the Lynda.com training library. Simone Legno’s story is an inspiring one for any character artist - a set of characters he once created on his personal website exploded into an enormously popular brand, with products for girls (and women) bearing images of his characters. You can shop for tokidoki products (some quite pricey, like this Trenino laptop bag, which goes for $298). Teenage girls I know swoon when they come across tokidoki bags, cosmetics, jewelry and clothing. It’s a phenomenon.

Check out tokidoki: Creative Inspiration on Lynda.com. Lynda.com offers a fairly comprehensive list of online video courses on Web technology and software. If you’re not already a member of Lynda.com, you can sign up for a monthly or yearly plan - it starts at just $25 for one month of unlimited access to their video/audio training training.

More on tokidoki:
tokidoki Everything
Tokidoki LeSportsac
Cactus friends

More on Lynda.com:
Lynda.com online training library - not just for geeks

By:  Janet                        Source

In the middle of life’s journey,

I found myself in a light-filled woods,

the path long since forgotten…

O.K., not quite what Dante wrote. But then, Via Negativa ain’t exactly the Divine Comedy. I am, however, currently exploring the circle of hell populated by malicious hackers and spam bots (which is why the comments are inaccessible). See you on the other side, I hope.

By:  Vianegativa                        Source

The Yuno is the perfect personal computer for any professional business person or anyone who is always on the go. Not only is it a mug for your morning beverage, it is also a touchscreen display for only the information you want to see, so you are not bound to a desktop during your morning routine.

All it takes are a few touches to display what you want and then you leave it. It then becomes an incredibly informative beverage mug. The Yuno is perhaps the most intuitive computer, because not only does it work without you operating it, you drink from it increasing the user interface on another level.

By:  Gerard                        Source

I must have a soft spot in my heart for Leap Frog products. I had a chance to try out the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, and I’m enjoying the world of digital pens.

All I had to do is use the included software, and everything that I wrote on the included Flypaper notebook could be downloaded via USB to my computer screen. It can even translate handwriting into a Word document, provided the writing is neat.

The Fly Fusion also has other applications, as it can “read” writing via its tiny camera. It can then do some great applications, such as a translator and mathematical problem solver. The device itself even acts as an MP3 player.

This is definitely a great resource for students in high school or college, and costs about $79.99.

Source

By:  Juli                        Source

The Beauty Brains, as part of their series of posts leading up to Valentine’’s Day, discuss the possibility of a scientific reason behind the color red as the symbol of love. According to an article in NewScientist, our ability to see colors may have evolved to help us spot emotional cues, such as blushing in the context of mating. Prior research had suggested that humans developed the acute ability to see colors in order to identify ripe fruit and edible leaves, but a new study now points to our need/desire to access a potential mate’’s emotions as the driving force behind this trait.

Blushing is caused by an increase in oxygen content to the blood, with the color difference most dramatic in the 540 to 560 nanometer range, “the same part of the light spectrum at which the cone cells of primates” eyes are the most sensitive.”

My question: Is red the color of love in most parts of the world?

By:  Sarah                        Source

Thanks one more time to Jackie for sharing a photograph and write-up from her travels to Israel. One last reminder that Jackie is speaking next Monday on Black Irises and Red Tulips - Wildflowers of Israel and Jordan. If I can get organized, I may set Jackie up with the laptop that records presentations and accompanying audio for the web, but no guarantee!

Syrian cornflower is a low growing, annual groundcover native to Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The entire plant may reach 10-25cm in height, and the foliage is smooth and silver in colour.

Although Centaurea cyanoides looks similar to the European cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), the Syrian cornflower is much smaller and is only found in the Middle East. The stunning blue inflorcence is produced in spring and early summer, and is only 2-3 cm wide. See the Flora of Israel website for more photographs of Centaurea cyanoides.

Like other members of the Asteraceae (the aster family), the flower head is actually made up of a cluster of tiny flowers called florets, and they are collectively referred to as an inflorescence. These florets are tubular in shape; the inner florets (called disk florets) are fertile, the larger outer florets (or ray florets) are sterile and showy to attract pollinators. The inflorescence sits in a cup-like structure called an involucre, made up of dark, bristly bracts (modified leaves). Ray florets, disk florets, and bristly toothed bracts are features shared by many Centaurea species. For a closer look at these interesting flower parts, Microscopy UK provides some lovely and extremely detailed photos of another member of this genus, Centaurea jacea.

By:  Daniel Mosquin                        Source

This is a stretch of our eastern boundary, just down the hill from the northeastern corner (where a big tree top came down in the ice storm).

I’ve talked about how I am slowly cutting a clear path along our fences so it’s easy to hike along them when we do so a couple of times a year just to be sure all is well. I’d like to take credit for this stretch: it’s so open and level. (That’s the fence on the left.) I didn’t clear it, though. It is naturally this way. I may have cut back few branches or some low scrub, but this is mostly the work of the forest gods. (Or maybe the nature of the soil.)

Actually, I don’t really want a path this big in most of the places. I’m more of a forest than a field guy. There are a couple of points on the southern boundary, though, that I could clear (in my copious free time) to let them grow more grassy.

It was a beautiful and relatively warm winter day when we made this hike. I think the turn to warmer weather may be just about here. Once the bugs come out, I probably won’t visit the fence lines as often to clear the path, but there may be a couple more opportunities yet before that happens.

Missouri calendar:

Washington’s Birthday
Chipmunks come out of hibernation.

Today in Missouri history:

Radio, stage, television, and USO star Jane Froman, known as the “Soldier in Greasepaint” who hailed from St. Louis, was gravely injured in an airplane crash on this date in 1943. She went on to perform for another three decades.

By:  Roundrockjournal                        Source

I potted my Amaryllis Benfica on November 23rd, about 6 weeks ago. Here’s what it looks like–two stems, the tallest being about 5 inches,  and several leaves. According to the grower, it’s supposed to bloom approximately 8-10 weeks after planting and will be around 2 feet tall. I hope it’s not going to be stunted…it must be getting ready to go through a growth spurt. It’s in a south-facing window getting as much sun as it possible can here in mostly-cloudy New England.

By:  Caroline Brown                        Source