==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Just had to use euro symbol in a post, and this page gave me the numeric reference

The caveat about browser capability seems void now: the latest version of Opera has no problem with it, nor does Firefox.

1:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

3 good ones from the UK Guardian

Heckler who called Italian gangsta PM Berlusconi a "buffoon" fined €500 (about $654)

Murder of nun/activist prompts Brazilian gubment to immediately enact legislation to protect forest land

Respected German anthropologist lied about missing link skull, throws accepted scholarship on man's history between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago into twilight zone

12:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, February 18, 2005

Magnetar event

A highly magnetic neutron star released a huge amount of energy on Dec 27

"We figure that it's probably the biggest explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since Johannes Kepler saw his supernova in 1604," Dr Rob Fender, of Southampton University, UK, told the BBC News website.

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We have observed an object only 20km across, on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years," said Dr Fender.

7:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Exhaustive rundown of the differences in the new Donnie Darko disc

I'll stick with the original cut for now, after seeing the deleted scenes in the first DVD release. Less is more.

11:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Publishers will try to boost flagging sales by making books -- and print -- bigger

The article wryly closes:

The innovation will also come as a relief to those authors who may have mistakenly felt that people were not buying their books because of something they had written.

Rather than being concerned about such old-fashioned literary gimmicks as plot, character and the careful choice of appropriate language, they must now recognised that the key to successful writing is to change the font size setting on their computer and to invest in some heavyweight paper at the stationers.

ADDENDUM: I can think of several reasons right off:

-- netflix

-- obviously people are spending time online - reading, no doubt, some of the time.

-- books are too bloody expensive.

-- the state of the world is pretty distracting, at least for me these days.

This being said, I've always found that fonts I dislike do have an effect on my reading experience. It would be nice if you could pick the font you'll be reading.

9:01 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

You;ve probably heard that chastened Virginia lawmakers immediately dropped the ludicrous and demonizing underwear fine when the media got ahold of the story and they were widely ridiculed

But I love the extraordinary comment by (natch) Republican Thomas Norment:

"I find that an indignation, which dampens my humour"

Like the idea of someone actually criticizing these demented little fascist farthogs was disturbing their snufftaking after high tea in the Rectory.

9:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, February 14, 2005

Aotearoa Stonehenge is a tool for teaching astronomy, ancient and modern -- and it's wired for sound for ceremonies

"Aotearoa" is Maori for New Zealand.

11:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Link to underreported.com's occasional series on the media's fear of blogs

Jeez, I wonder if the popularity of blogs has something to do with how the media only report what they're told to by vested interests and their government handlers, and people are finally catching on?

9:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

John Cage and Morton Feldman quibbling in outer space on WBAI, in 5 downloadable segments [via the redoubtable disquiet]

As Marc mention, I'm sure it's more fun to listen to than read, if you can even find a copy.

9:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Imprisonment is freedom file

Elementary school near Sacramento makes electric ID badges mandatory

1:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()