September 2007 Archives
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Images taken with the world's fastest lens
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Just added this to my viewing list. A Kennedy-type family hires a new consigliere (Peter Krause). Kiefer's dad's in it (sounding Canadian, not Bostonian), Billy Baldwin and it's more than a little camp.
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Got a Canon 50mm/1.4 + hood from a shop today. They suggested I get this UV filter with it at 52 euros. Glad I waited and got it online.
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Microdisney anthology re-release. FM's Viva Dead Ponies will also be rereleased including an extra compilation disc. No new stuff.
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Everybody has their favourite text editors. This has been mine for the last... oh.... I've forgotten how many years.
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"The air smelled like toast. Toast is quite nice, but when you realize it's steel, and it's probably particles, it's not very good." Dublin has a smell like that, I always imagined it was the smell of Guinness being brewed.
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"AttentionTrust provides the community with tools to control our attention"
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Hey look, it's the bloke who hired me.
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But to tag "FNL" as a "football show" is like saying John Ford's "Stagecoach" is about bandits and Indians running amok in the old West.
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Huh? They're still around?
Didn't know you could do all that with a jet ski.
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Still want these. Next time I go to New York.
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Examples of design patterns, user flows, interfaces, etc
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Francis Bacon, Dennis Potter , Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon.
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...
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Ratings moguls Nielsen starts counting the online vote.
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Lookit! My own Nielsen page with all the stuff that I like.
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"To kickstart the site, Hey! Nielsen is launching a contest to vote for the Best TV Blog in the U.S. and Canada."
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"sometimes it’s just a lack of imagination amongst the non-famous that sees insanity where all that lies behind it is professionalism and self-preservation" Yes I am going to bookmark every single post Stephen Fry ever makes.
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New Fray group at Flickr
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Yay, Mute, good work.
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"Take a look around the official R.E.M. Live Fanzine to co-incide with their first ever live album. Add your own photos and reviews."
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Muwahaha. Via posterestante.org.
Was the net slow for you yesterday? My transatlantic connection was completely throttled. It's a wild guess, but it may have been the 140260 people torrenting the Season 2 premiere of Heroes combined with the 113347 breaking the law for Prison Break S3x02. And that's just counting the ones listed on eztv.
I remember (cue string quartet) when you'd get pistol whipped for including a 50 kb attachment and extradited for allowing HTML mail. And I'd be the one dishing out the punishments. Now I'm hoovering a couple of Gigabytes per day and nobody bats an eyelid, least of all myself.
Are torrents clogging up our pipes? They may be, but that's probably not the reason why CRIA (Canadian recording industry association) shut down the popular Demonoid tracker today.
I tried but couldn't find any links to support the theory. I do remember reading reports some years back about bittorrents killing bandwidth.
I remember (cue string quartet) when you'd get pistol whipped for including a 50 kb attachment and extradited for allowing HTML mail. And I'd be the one dishing out the punishments. Now I'm hoovering a couple of Gigabytes per day and nobody bats an eyelid, least of all myself.
Are torrents clogging up our pipes? They may be, but that's probably not the reason why CRIA (Canadian recording industry association) shut down the popular Demonoid tracker today.
I tried but couldn't find any links to support the theory. I do remember reading reports some years back about bittorrents killing bandwidth.
This Volkswagen commercial combines 'Lost in Translation'-type images with Richard Burton's evocative reading of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. Gorgeous. (via Vanderzande.com).
I'm not that keen on motorcars in general, but I do keep telling people that driving through cities at night and London in particular is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world.
See also www.night-driving.com.
... what are you watching? This season I'll be checking out:
- Bionic Woman (S1 starts September 26. Eastender runs quite fast.)
- Cane (S1 starts September 25. Latino Dallas for the 21st century.)
- Chuck (S1 starts September 24. Nerd helps spies. Firefly's Jayne co-stars)
- Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall (S2 starts September 30)
- Friday Night Lights, starring Kyle Chandler (S2 starts ?)
- House, starring Hugh Laurie (S4 starts September 25)
- Jericho (S2 will return as a mid-season replacement)
- Mad Men (S1 still on)
- Prison Break (S3 just started)
- The Office (S4 starts ?)
- Desperate Housewives (S4 starts September 30)
- Battlestar Galactica (S4 starts February 2008)
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If you're using MT4.0, upgrade to 4.01. Speeds up nicely.
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(via kottke) "To get a properly exposed sunset, meter the area directly above the sun."
{ Nick, Kylie and Shane singing Dylan's Death is not the end on MTVe. }
Brilliant lyricist, compelling performer and one of the most consistent and prolific artists on the planet today, Nick Cave turns 50 today. Thanks to Chris for reminding me.
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Slides of Erwin Blom's presentation at Mastermundo: "Hippie shit! - Complex - Exclusive - Closed - Boring"
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Great photoblog
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Must translate and stick to people's foreheads
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Blast from the past. Still blogging then.
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Never bite the soup dumpling in half. I love videojug.
To speed up rebuilding on this and previous installations of Movable Type, I cut my archives in half and publish through two different blogs. #1 is the one you are looking at. #2 is 'prolific classic' (archives from 1998 - 2001), which resides at prolific.org/classic/
#1 Publishes fine, it shows the 3-column layout the way I want it, with sidebars. #2 Won't show its sidebars, whatever I do. Not on the front page, not on the archive listing and not on the entry pages. I can't figure it out and don't see any difference in the templates. Anniwun kan halp?
I've also not been able to get dynamic publishing working on more than one blog. MT won't let me publish both #1 and #2 dynamically at the same time. So now one is published static, the other dynamic.
Fixed. The problem occurred because I was publishing one blog's archives outside the root. Hmm. I'd call that a bug.
(The first one to tell me 'why don't you use wordpress' or 'why don't you just code your own' gets a punch in the nose.)
Fixed. The problem occurred because I was publishing one blog's archives outside the root. Hmm. I'd call that a bug.
(The first one to tell me 'why don't you use wordpress' or 'why don't you just code your own' gets a punch in the nose.)
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LOLPENGUINCLASSIKZ format. Heh. Classic.
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Jenni Diski is on Metafilter
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Interview with Jenni Diski, mentions Metafilter
"I now think all musicians are tossers who've been given this wonderful gift to create music, so you allow for that. Doesn't give them the right to be cunts!"
Tony Wilson (paraphrased)
"We never really listened to Ian's words. We did after he died."
Barney
Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays.
Tony Wilson (paraphrased)
"We never really listened to Ian's words. We did after he died."
Barney
Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays.
- You tell someone you've been in this business twelve years and they say 'Why aren't you mega rich?'
- You help people with their pc troubles and are told: 'You could make a living out of that!'
- Twelve years and you've never owned a USB stick. Never bought one and was never given one as swag. Until today when someone passes on their second-hand 512mb.
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"It’s one thing to want to keep the proprietary system closed, but to present a device sealed in digital Araldite is a Bad Idea." Not bad coming from a card carrying Mac-adept.
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Make Bob Dylan talk whatever you want
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Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares starts on USA television. They've added annoying Hell's Kitchen type narrator and music and picked psychos for restaurant owners. Ugh.
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VPRO's Picnic 2007 aggregator
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Interview on Popnography.com
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"A new campaign, shot by photographer Rankin, features the reunited group wearing a variety of looks from the Autograph autumn range."
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"At this, Cleopatra took off one of her pearl earrings, extracted a huge pearl, ground it up and dissolved it in wine vinegar, then drank it down. "
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That's nice. Now can we make the thing more useful and less juvenile?
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And that's why I'll never buy one, Steve.
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"Just add @backtrackr as a friend and your posted links will be published here on BackTrackr."
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The lovely Fray.ocm is coming back as a quarterly printed book. Call for submissions.
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"authentic, alive, and uncompromisingly fun"
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"Clooney is possessed of a foghorn. Draw your own conclusions."
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"Edwyn Collins’s brush with death left him unable to walk or talk. Now recovering, the indie hero has a new album out, and a sunnier attitude."
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Steve Kilbey 'reviews' Tori Amos. "All night long tori was busy gesticulating, hand jiving as she hammered the keys"
As seen in a narrow street on the edge of Vieux Nice, near Promenade des Anglaises. I went through my holiday pictures again and added a bunch to the set at Flickr. Watch the slideshow.
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"Phase 1 is now underway with the first public “beta” release of our new fingerprinting technology. This will mature into a nice sexy (free) API that lets you grab clean metadata based on an audio fingerprint. "
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The Haka never gets old.
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Brianna got hitched!
One more video from The Police's concert in the Amsterdam ArenA. I was all set to video the whole song... and then I hit the wrong button, so I missed the first few bars. I know it looks like I was miles away from the stage, but I was in the - huge - front enclosure.
Setlist:
Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
Encore:
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You
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Sign the petition to arrest minister Ahmad Harun
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"a real-time slideshow of photos Blogger users have recently uploaded to their blogs. It's a great snapshot of what people are thinking and posting about, right now"
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I don't know what this is about and it's still funny. Seth Green (Oz) is gewd.
The Police are great at jazzing up their songs. Not something I'm terribly keen on, but I enjoyed the night out with friends. The sound was ok for Amsterdam's ArenA standards. Sting wore skinny pants, his legs like matchsticks. Tantric me arse. Andy yawned a bit one point. He always sounds off key in his solos. Stewart Copeland's still very, very good. And looks like mathowie. The crowd was old like me. 50 quid bloke cloned x 50,000. I enjoyed the night out, but the music didn't move me, nor transport me back to my young years in any way.
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"So what the fuck is this UK, Gunnin’ with this US of A"
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Georges Jeanty does a Giles/Faith go Avengers thing. Fabulous.
Did anyone else get asked 'as a member of the blogging community' to write about a certain social aggregator (and post their demo) by some PR company. All in return for 'a link to your site'?
I guess today it's my time to say I'm not yer hoor.
I'm in no way influential here - and I'm never quite as ticked off as Tom can get - but our Whedonesque.com gets quite a bit of traffic and press. That's why and where I received the e-mail. I guess our address got on to some kind of list.
We've done sweepstakes and contests in collaboration with various companies relevant to our niche audience, but our community blog's subject matter is has to pertain to Joss Whedon. We wouldn't even allow a post about some random application unless it was somehow relevant to our subject.
So not only do they ask people to shill for them, they ask the wrong people. Fabulous.
I guess today it's my time to say I'm not yer hoor.
I'm in no way influential here - and I'm never quite as ticked off as Tom can get - but our Whedonesque.com gets quite a bit of traffic and press. That's why and where I received the e-mail. I guess our address got on to some kind of list.
We've done sweepstakes and contests in collaboration with various companies relevant to our niche audience, but our community blog's subject matter is has to pertain to Joss Whedon. We wouldn't even allow a post about some random application unless it was somehow relevant to our subject.
So not only do they ask people to shill for them, they ask the wrong people. Fabulous.
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I need to (re)learn how to drive. This is a link to a female-friendly (?) driving school in Amsterdam
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Great personal post about the rise of the far right movement in the low countries
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I am following the new Hell's Kitchen with Marco Pierre White. Never mind the crawling up Jim Davidson's hole, I think he's just a bore. None of Ramsay's surprising charm. I'm watching it for the sweet celebs now. Barry McG, the girls, even Brian Dowling.
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That's odd. Someone on the block has been playing Led Zep a lot this week. I don't hear any music coming from any of my neighbours usually.
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Saw Ainsley Herriot make this on tv just now. I'll have to try it, but I shouldn't have too much of it, health-wise.
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I gave up on BSG halfway through the first series. The tone was too dark for my mood at the time. Now I find I am enjoying it heaps on the Dutch Sci-Fi channel. Am going to catch up with torrents and do an all weekend BSG viewing.
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Another driving school that comes recommended
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Creating a graphic of your listening habits as recorded by Last.FM
I haven't said much about my trip to the South of France. Not like three years ago when I kept a diary during the holiday and posted it when I got back. I tried to do that again, but my notebook has exactly one page filled.
If I ever go again, I'll skip Nice. I should have remembered that from 2004. I don't really like the place very much. I could have spent a lot more time in Marseille, somewhere I feel quite at home. I wish I had. I could have spent more time relaxing too.
It wasn't until the final days that I started to be not so stressed. Maybe I was a little too active. Up at the crack of dawn to take pictures. Walking everywhere, even if the locals said where I was going was too far to walk. It never was.
I'll remember the stunning Cocteau church in Villefranche and the evening boat trip off the coast of Marseille where, for a short while, I befriended a Parisian English-teacher who said 'actually' every other sentence. The teacher, the Polish lecturer with the weirdest speech impediment - imagine the Welsh LL-sound, every other word - and I drank our complimentary wine while the sun set slowly behind the Frioul Islands.
But now I have started my new job. I am soaking in a new environment and new tasks to do. It doesn't quite feel like I have a shorter commute just yet, the extra hours sleep are needed for my brain and body to recover.
It looks like I'll want to be in Dublin about three weeks from now, it's that time of year again. I haven't got the date yet, but unless it's on a weekend, I've no chance of going. I'll be there in spirit.
Picture sets:
Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Nice
If I ever go again, I'll skip Nice. I should have remembered that from 2004. I don't really like the place very much. I could have spent a lot more time in Marseille, somewhere I feel quite at home. I wish I had. I could have spent more time relaxing too.
Villefranche
It wasn't until the final days that I started to be not so stressed. Maybe I was a little too active. Up at the crack of dawn to take pictures. Walking everywhere, even if the locals said where I was going was too far to walk. It never was.
I'll remember the stunning Cocteau church in Villefranche and the evening boat trip off the coast of Marseille where, for a short while, I befriended a Parisian English-teacher who said 'actually' every other sentence. The teacher, the Polish lecturer with the weirdest speech impediment - imagine the Welsh LL-sound, every other word - and I drank our complimentary wine while the sun set slowly behind the Frioul Islands.
Frioul archipelago
Perhaps the best part was the 1st class train ride back to Paris and from there to Brussels. Will absolutely choose to do that again over flying, if time permits. Trains are good.But now I have started my new job. I am soaking in a new environment and new tasks to do. It doesn't quite feel like I have a shorter commute just yet, the extra hours sleep are needed for my brain and body to recover.
Brussels, arcade shop window
It looks like I'll want to be in Dublin about three weeks from now, it's that time of year again. I haven't got the date yet, but unless it's on a weekend, I've no chance of going. I'll be there in spirit.
Picture sets:
- Marseille
- Vieux Nice
- Nice (black and white)
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"Kiri-origami artist Taketori cuts and folds paper to make realistic-looking insects. Each critter is crafted from a single sheet, without glue, and paint is often used to add to the realism."
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Lately I've been toying with the idea to remove all (google) ads from my sites. Don't know why. 's Not like I don't like the $$.
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"But I fundamentally believe that newspaper publishers who are prepared to experiment, innovate and invest online will create significant cultural and commercial value as a result of their efforts."
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I think this is the restaurant the Mute Records rep brought us to. Would like to go again.
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Or it may have been the one on Rue Haute as described in the comments of this post.
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"Radicalization is the bigger problem because it creates rifts in society that will take a long time to be bridged."
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Nick Sweeney's got a (new) blog
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Symbolsused during the USA's Great Depression
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"...like Billboard Charts for Gadgets". Seems a bit Apple-biased and gets the release date for MD's spectacularly wrong. Plus MD's are still used in broadcasting, especially radio.
Feedreaders have killed blogrolls, haven't they? Well, I've brought them back to this site. There's a small, sort of old school blogroll in the right hand column now which contains some fixed staples in my blog diet, some going back to cabal pre-blog days. And I've revived my blo.gs and blogrolling lists. They have become a bit long over the years and haven't been updated in a long time, so I've put them on separate pages, using MT4's new 'page' feature. I'm not sure that's the best way to deal with them, but it will have to do for now.
As you can see there have been a few changes here. Nothing too spectacular.
I upgraded to Movable Type 4. Initially confusing, I think I'll come to appreciate the new features. It took some time figuring out where what was, as templates have been ripped apart in modules and I've never quite been able to figure out the logic in MT's stylesheets.
There's one thing I've been unable to do and that is to create a new navigation bar above the header, just a black bar exactly as wide as the header... it should be simple and somehow it isn't. If anyone is familiar with MT's new stylesheets and thinks they can help me out here, let me know, please.
I still have to move over the second half of the archives from my old installation (and I do recommend a fresh MT4 installation instead of an upgrade) and redo some of the old includes and widgets.
Another thing that's changed is the site's title. We're back to the old prolific.org domain. You know what they say: once a prol always a prol.
Some stuff I've run into while moving to MT4:
I upgraded to Movable Type 4. Initially confusing, I think I'll come to appreciate the new features. It took some time figuring out where what was, as templates have been ripped apart in modules and I've never quite been able to figure out the logic in MT's stylesheets.
There's one thing I've been unable to do and that is to create a new navigation bar above the header, just a black bar exactly as wide as the header... it should be simple and somehow it isn't. If anyone is familiar with MT's new stylesheets and thinks they can help me out here, let me know, please.
I still have to move over the second half of the archives from my old installation (and I do recommend a fresh MT4 installation instead of an upgrade) and redo some of the old includes and widgets.
Another thing that's changed is the site's title. We're back to the old prolific.org domain. You know what they say: once a prol always a prol.
Some stuff I've run into while moving to MT4:
- The Feeds.app plugin no longer works.
- I don't like wysiwyg editors at all
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As I said to Hg earlier, it's like Elvis passing away.
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Am currently addicted to this cheese.
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The amazing Mario Lanza singing E Lucevan Le Stelle (Tosca), and Someday (The Vagabond King).
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"Besides a facelift, the service has undergone several enhancements, both in how you browse new links, and search through them."