Happy 90th, I.M. Pei

I want to give a Friday morning acknowledgement to I. M. Pei, who, I would call, the last great architect. He likes to work primarily with stone, concrete, and glass. You have no doubt seen many of his achievements, ranging from the Louvre Pyramid to the East Building at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (both pictured below) Pei turned 90 yesterday, yet he is still able to produce new projects at an astonishing rate. His latest is the NASCAR Hall of Fame, set to open in 2009.

At three minutes and four seconds after 2:00 a.m. on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be 02:03:04 05/06/07. This will never happen again.

Update

I have now taken my large test and should have a bit more free time to post items on here. However, in the immediate future I will be somewhat busy with travel - Sewanee tomorrow, St Louis next Monday and Tuesday, and New York, NY the Monday and Tuesday after that.

Now, for something interesting, below is an excerpt about Rudyard Kipling, found on Wikipedia.




Kipling was one of the most popular writers in English, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author Henry James famously said of him: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and he remains today its youngest-ever recipient. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he rejected.

For more, see here.

-EDIT - General Electric may have set a record last year by filing a return that, had it been printed on paper, would have totaled more than 24,000 pages.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

My apologies for the dearth of posts recently. I have a large exam coming up on Wednesday and have been preoccupied with studying. I'll be back to providing interesting articles, videos, and word of the days, soon.

One thought before I go. I agree that Imus's comments were over the line, but it seems to me like the public outcry is a little over the top. The lead story on NBC news the past couple of nights has been about this guy. He was wrong, but why is it the leading story on all major media outlets this entire week? I don't get it. Why don't they go report some real news, like all the children that are being murdered in Darfur.

The Best Place To Work - Google

Several weeks ago Fortune magazine named Google the best company to work for. The article online is here. The video below (a Today Show segment) summarizes the environment pretty well. Perks include: 11 gourmet cafeterias, Wi-Fi-enabled coaches from five Bay Area locations to assist employees commuting to work, onsite barber and masseuse, laundry rooms and dry cleaning, ability to bring pets to work, foreign language tutoring. The list goes on and on

arriviste \a-ree-VEEST\, noun:

A person who has recently attained success, wealth, or high status but not general acceptance or respect; an upstart.

Sherman, in his $1,800 imported suit and British hand-lasted shoes is . . . an arriviste and a poseur.
-- Frank Conroy, "Urban Rats in Fashion's Maze", New York Times, November 1, 1987