party shout

Really interesting post about the history of square dancing in the french west indies, with modern examples and video!
Over time, the contredance and quadrille were “Creolized” by African slaves, who initially adopted the dances to mock their masters. After the abolition of slavery in 1848, Afro-Caribbeans took the dances and music to whole new levels, adding a bit of tropical sultriness into the genteel and courtly dance patterns. Quadrille became Kwadril, and other new Caribbean styles emerged out of European dance forms. Yet the dances still kept some of the aristocratic trappings from Europe – curtsies, bows etc.

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partytubes!
via danny, who points out that often the awesomeness of a project is indirectly related to the presentation of it:

and this video was posted on the National Galleries of Scotland Facebook page today.

Go, ComicCon, go!
lgt huge pic, scan from left to right.

music friday?

I put some kevin bewersdorf music over on my other blag: http://ilovecopyleft.tumblr.com/post/847535713/dl-my-heart-still-beats-by-kevin-bewersdorf

I'm looking for some time-tracking service, either software or web app, preferable free although I could pay a little bit to track my hours more rigorously now that I'll be doing a bit more telecommuting. Any suggestions?

So we have a baby! Check Facebook for photos, but her name is Dahlia Yvonne Winnick Pousson and she arrived at 4:26 AM this morning. Dinah is doing well. We're hoping to set a date for a naming ceremony in Baltimore real soon and everyone is invited.

Did you guys hear that there was an earthquake in Maryland!? My mum just emailed me about it. She woke up with the bed shaking and the pictures on the wall rattling for a few minutes.

:(

The Barefoot Bandit apparently got caught a few days ago. He was the kid who lived in the wild and stole an airplane, etc...

On July 11, 2010, Harris-Moore was captured just before dawn at Harbour Island, Bahamas. Local officers picked up his trail in Eleuthera after recovering a 44 foot (13 meter) power boat stolen from a marina on Great Abaco. A police official said the suspect attempted to flee, but police shot out the engine on his boat. Before being arrested, Harris-Moore threw his portable computer into the water and put a gun to his head, but the police talked him out of killing himself. He told the police that he intended to go to Cuba to throw authorities off his trail and proceed to the Turks and Caicos Islands. His mother had hoped that he would flee to a country that did not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Biggest star, EVAR

Astronomers used a Very Large Telescope -- the instrument's official name -- to detect the most massive star discovered to date. In scientific lingo, it's a "hypergiant."

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Today (edit: Friday, July 16, 2010) is Onny's last day working at Daedalus. In a brief couple of weeks, he'll be headed off to Chicago, to pursue a dual master's degree at Northwestern University. This is the tasty-sounding MMM program, where MMM = MBA + MEM. He'll be spending a lot of time being studious and philosophical about business and good product design. Here is my artist's rendition of what lies ahead.

Congratulations & good luck to Onny! We'll miss him here in Pittsburgh, but luckily, p.mode keeps him just a quick page reload away. Bon voyage, friend!

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Cool archaeological find... 18th-century ship discovered underneath World Trade Center site

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Okay, Core77 really hit it with this blog headline.

Apple's crazy-looking anechoic testing chamber looks like they subleased it from the X-Men

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