Reading Rothenberg and Joris’ Poems for the New Millennium I stumbled across a section of Arabic poets who published from 1956 to 1964 as the Tammuzi poets, taking their name from the ancient Mesopotamian god of seasonal decay and rebirth. These poets were born in many places in the Middle East, including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Iraq and their poetry is a nod to classical Arabic forms, yet informed by the spirit of inquiry brought about by exile, post-colonialism and avant-garde movements elsewhere. Chief among these poets is Adonis who was born Ali Ahmad Said in Syria in 1929 (see …
My old pal Peter Rukavina runs a company on Prince Edward Island called Reinvented, Inc. They do websites and stuff. This year he landed the job to publish the PEI provincial election results online in real time on election day. Sounds fine, except that election day this year coincided with the arrival of Hurricane Juan to PEI which knocked out power, servers, polling booths and governement offices. Did this deter the hardy Islanders from boldly forging on? Not on your life. Over 80% of them voted. All the talk about election weirdness from the bastion of democracy to the south, …
From Fast Company comes a short article about failure, called Failure Is Glorious: “The area of the ‘possible’ is the area in which we develop products that the customer will love and buy. The area of the ‘not possible’ is represented by the new projects that people are not yet ready to understand or accept. Working close to the borderline is very risky, because you cannot see it with your eyes. It is not clearly drawn or marked. You can only feel it by using sensibility and intuition — two characteristics rare in industrial organizations that are led by technology …
My friend in Montreal, Bob Hunt of Way Down Here, dropped everything he was doing and played this elegant little applet the other day. Taking his advice, I did the same, and was rewarded by an amazing little game. What is it that makes this so appealing? The music? The whimsy? The simple animation? Play it and then leave me a comment with your opinion. I want everything in my life to work this well. That link is why Way Down Here is one of my favourite Canadian blogs. In the spirit of lists, and inspired by Pollard, here are …