Nanocomposite research yields strong and stretchy fibers : "Lycra-like materials were inspired small business answering service y spider silk." (Via Nanowerk News .)

Tomorrow I head down to Monterey for the TED conference. I look forward to TED all year. It is a fantastic chance to catch up with old friends, meet some really interesting new ones and exercise my brain and my imagination. But, as with TEDs of the past, I find myself stuck -- I am at a loss for what to pack. Not because the weather is unpredictable (although Monterey in March is a bit unpredictable). Rather, I find myself thinking, "What does one wear to meet Paul Simon?" "What does one wear to meet President Clinton?" "What does one wear to meet John Maeda?" Perhaps I'm the only one asking myself these questions, but I'm guessing not. It would be hard to think that how one email faxes resses is irrelevant at a conference with "design" in its name. The only guidance the TED organization gives you is this -- "Dress code, as ever, is casual." OK, so I can rule out my tuxedo. But that leaves a whole lot of other possible outfits. If I were to meet with Larry Lessig, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Will Wright. If I were to meet with EO Wilson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Maira Kalman. If I were to meet with Richard Branson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Tracy Chapman. So you can see my conundrum. What is appropriate dress for the TED conference? One thing is for certain. The answer to this question appears to be different for pretty much every TEDster.

Bring me my bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desire. And I’ll bring you the hide of Patricia McKeever, the internet Torquemada of Scottish Catholic gaydom. Ms McKeever, of Catholic Truth is, as reported in The Times yesterday , a one-person outing operation, determined to uncover closeted cassock-lifters, to drag them shrieking and naked from their metaphorical priests’ holes and thereby to cleanse the Church. Ms McKeever has restored me to myself, reminding me – at an age when I expend my passions carefully – of just what it is in the portable power generator ublic sphere that makes me most angry. It’s the gap – the abyss – between the stated reason for the actions of the world’s McKeevers and their real (if hidden) motives that so appals. Why does Ms M send letters and e-mails to priests and seminarians whom she suspects of going to gay clubs? Why does she demand of an Edinburgh clergyman to know whether he is a homosexual? Ostensibly to “raise awareness of the problem . . . ultimately to ensure the safety of others in the Church. Not just the physical safety of children, important though that is, but also the spiritual safety of people and congregations entrusted to the care of a homosexual priest or bishop.” She is no relative, naturally, to the poison pen writer, or to the persecutors of imaginary backsliding converted Jews or secret Trotskyists. She doesn’t send her missives, of course, for the pleasure of it, for the excuse to think and talk dirty in the name of purity.

Tomorrow I head down to Monterey for the TED conference. I look forward to TED all year. It is a fantastic chance to catch up with old friends, meet some really interesting new ones and exercise my brain and my imagination. But, as with TEDs of the past, I find myself stuck -- I am at a loss for what to pack. Not because the weather is unpredictable (although Monterey in March is a bit unpredictable). Rather, I find myself thinking, "What does one wear to meet Paul Simon?" "What does one wear to meet President Clinton?" "What does one wear to meet John Maeda?" Perhaps I'm the only one asking myself these questions, but I'm guessing not. It would be hard to think that how one dresses is irrelevant at a conference with "design" in its name. The only guidance the TED organization gives you is this -- "Dress code, as ever, is casual." OK, so I can rule out my tuxedo. But that leaves a whole lot of other possible outfits. If I were to meet with Larry Lessig, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Will Wright. If I were to meet with EO Wilson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Maira Kalman. If I were to meet with Richard Branson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Tracy Chapman. So you can see my conundrum. What is appropriate dress for the TED conference? One thing is for certain. The answer to this question mobile micropayments ppears to be different for pretty much every TEDster.

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Nanocomposite research yields strong and stretchy fibers : "Lycra-like materials protect social security ere inspired by spider silk." (Via Nanowerk News .)

Tomorrow I head down to Monterey for the TED conference. I look forward to TED all year. It is a fantastic chance to catch up with old friends, meet some really interesting new ones and exercise my brain and my imagination. But, as with TEDs of the past, I find myself stuck -- I am at a loss for what to pack. Not because the weather is unpredictable (although Monterey in March is a bit unpredictable). Rather, I find myself thinking, "What does one wear to meet Paul Simon?" "What does one wear to meet President Clinton?" "What does one wear to meet John Maeda?" Perhaps I'm the only one asking myself these questions, but I'm guessing not. It would group trip e hard to think that how one dresses is irrelevant at a conference with "design" in its name. The only guidance the TED organization gives you is this -- "Dress code, as ever, is casual." OK, so I can rule out my tuxedo. But that leaves a whole lot of other possible outfits. If I were to meet with Larry Lessig, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Will Wright. If I were to meet with EO Wilson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Maira Kalman. If I were to meet with Richard Branson, I would likely dress differently than if I were to meet with Tracy Chapman. So you can see my conundrum. What is appropriate dress for the TED conference? One thing is for certain. The answer to this question appears to be different for pretty much every TEDster.