Cyrus Farivar

These guys just came up on SOMA FM. Sweet Estonian rock music — The Tartu Pop and Rock Institute. Here’s some of their tunes, here and here.

“I hate writing. I like having written.” – Anna Quindlen City Arts & Lectures San Francisco, Calif. Aired on KQED on July 11, 2006

Apparently, I’ve cracked the top 10 of “Cyrus” on Google. I’m after the Cyrus Restaurant but before Cyrus’ Blather. When I last blogged about it, I came in at number 11. That is all for tonight.

I was interviewed last week by Sree, Dean of Students at Columbia for the Blogging for Journalists site.

Wow, Condé Nast just bought Wired News (Disclaimer: I’ve written over 40 articles for Wired News, and two for Wired), merging it with Wired magazine, from which it had been divorced for eight years. I wonder how this will change WN’s character. Coverage: Wired News ZDNet GigaOm Boing Boing Paul Boutin

Slate: How was Zidane’s head-butting technique? Impeccable. Experts in self-defense and mixed martial arts say Zidane’s head butt was a flawless demonstration of the form. He positioned his feet close to his opponent and stepped into the blow, contracting his abdominal muscles to curve into the attack. He was also careful to keep his chin down as he approached, which helped him land the strike with the top of his head as opposed to his brow or face. Great piece,…

My favorite Senegalese rap group, Daara J, is on tour right now, and will be playing in Boston this Friday night. They’ll also be doing a bunch of outdoor free summer shows, including in Detroit, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (July 29). Hear NPR’s piece on them from 2005. Becky and I saw them last fall, and they were amazing. I’ll be at the SF show, in my Fadiga jersey.

Dear JetBlue, Recently I had the pleasure of flying on your airline. As a stockholder, I was pleased to enjoy the comfortable seats, excellent staff, and on-time flights. One of the features that you tout on your airplanes is the presence of DirectTV and over 30 channels of television available from each seat at no additional charge. While this may be useful to people who can’t seem to exist without a television nearby, I usually find television at best perplexing…

After getting to play with Melissa’s Nikon D50, I’m now really interested in buying a Digital SLR. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about photography, and while I do enjoy taking photos, my camera is limited in what it can do. I’d like to start taking some better quality photos, and given how much SLR cameras have dropped in price ($530, no tax, including shipping and a 28-80 lens) over the last few years, I just might start thinking…

Maps More Real Than Virtual July 9, 2006 The New York Times By CYRUS FARIVAR The bird’s eye view offered by a flat paper road map works well enough when spread out on the kitchen table, but Volkswagen thinks it can do better for drivers trying to find their way in unfamiliar settings. The company is working with Nvidia, a maker of computer video cards, to bring the satellite images of Google Earth — complete with buildings, terrain and other…