Search Content

Displaying results 55801 - 55850 of 87947

The Old Posts are Here

I want to thank Tim and the interns at Seed for doing all the hard work in moving over all of the old posts from stcynic.com over to here. We're talking some 3000 posts, so this was not a minor project. It took the better part of 3 days to complete, so they really deserve some credit. But now finally everything I've ever blogged about is available here in one place. The internal links won't be consistent, of course, and I'm not gonna spend the time to change them all. But for those who only recently discovered this blog, there's now a huge archive for you to wade through if you're either…

Judge Rules Congressional Office Search was Legal

As I said at the time, the search of William Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill was entirely constitutional. A Federal Judge has now confirmed that, rejecting arguments from lawmakers that the FBI violated the constitution's speech and debate clause when they searched his office with a legal warrant as part of an ongoing bribery investigation. In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman's office violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials. "Congress' capacity to function effectively is not threatened by…

Another Victory on Gay Adoption

The Arkansas Supreme Court has handed us another major victory for gay adoptions, ruling that the state's child welfare board cannot prohibit gays from being foster parents. "There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual," Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote in the opinion. In addition, the court said, the testimony of a Child Welfare Agency Review Board member demonstrated that "the driving force between adoption of the regulations was not to…

Scientists Grow Artificial Penis in Lab

According to Fox News: It's now possible to replace a defective, damaged, or diseased penis with a penis grown in a laboratory -- in rabbits. But the finding promises an amazing new treatment for infants, boys, and men who suffer penis disfigurement. The replacement organ would be grown on a penis-shaped matrix seeded with cells from the patient's own body. There appears to be no truth to the rumors that the artificial penii look like Bill O'Reilly. It's odd that this was done at a Baptist university in North Carolina. An hour south, and the procedure would have been illegal. And in a related…

It's a Miracle!

Leave it to the Worldnutdaily to report things like this: Amid the aftermath of the Palestinian suicide attack today that killed nine comes news of a miracle as a rabbi's life reportedly was spared when a book of Psalms held in a pocket next to his heart was ripped in two by a piece of shrapnel. When I see things like this, I'm always reminded of the old Woody Allen bit about the guy who carried a bullet in his shirt pocket that his grandfather had brought back from WW1. One day he's walking past a hotel and a guy throws a Gideon Bible out a 20th story window and it hits the man right in the…

Daily Links

I'm going to try and remember every day to post a few links to posts by some of the other ScienceBloggers, mostly because if you're just reading my blog and not visiting the other blogs here, you're really missing out on some great writing. From yesterday: Afarensis has an article about and a link to some new fossil finds, this time specimens of A. anamensis that will likely help us clarify our understanding of the relationships between various pre-Homo hominids. John Lynch, who works at the Institute on Human Origins at Arizona State, also has a post on that subject. Orac has an examination…

DeLay Resigns from Congress

Tom DeLay is going to announce this morning that he is resigning from Congress. But gosh, I thought God himself had appointed DeLay to "represent righteousness in government"? If that's true - and DeLay didn't deny it when Scarborough said it - wouldn't it be blasphemy to refuse to carry out the role God appointed him for? Ah, what tangled webs of absurdity are weaved by huckster manipulating religion for political gain. Here's my favorite part of the article: "He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership…

Thursday Night Dog-Blogging

Since dogs are superior to cats, and she's the best Emmy ever, here are some dog pictures a day ahead of the usual pet-blogging schedule. This one shows Her Majesty in her element, basking in the back yard in a little hollow under a bush. (More after the cut) Her little den provides an excellent view of the back yard. This one was shot from behind the bush, while I was waiting for the house sparrows to settle down and be photographed. Of course, the increased bird activity does occasionally force her to get up and re-assert control over the yard. Here she is after chasing off a bunch of…

Astronomy and Literature

Via James Nicoll, there's a new press release from the Cassini mission talking about new radar maps of a region on the surface of Titan that's been dubbed "Xanadu." The topography looks very Earth-like, with rivers and lakes and oceans of methane, providing Dr. Jonathan Lunine an opportunity to show off the benefits of a classical education: "Although Titan gets far less sunlight and is much smaller and colder than Earth, Xanadu is no longer just a mere bright spot, but a land where rivers flow down to a sunless sea," Lunine said. (Based on the other comments quoted, this is another case…

Approaching the spampocalypse

I get an astonishing amount of comment-spam, nominally about dresses - wedding dresses, prom dresses, square dresses and how to fold them, and so on. None of it ever appears so I don't know why they bother, but simply deleting it all from my email queue is becoming ever more tedious. So I've changed one setting - old posts are now closed for comments after 60 days instead of 360, in the hope that at least some will now bounce off. Oh, and a corollary of all this is that I'm far less careful than I used to be about wading through "comment requires moderation" emails. If you've got one that's…

Helvellyn

To the lakes with the children for a little relaxation out of the flow of normal time, or so it seems from up there. My aunt lives in Torpenhow, a village so small it only just about has a wikipedia article. Its to the north west of the park, beyond Bassenthwaite and Skiddaw, looking out towards the Solway Firth and Scotland. Anyway, the only minor item of interest to the outside world is that I finally climbed Helvellyn via Striding Edge. And very pleasant it was too, though it can't begin to compare with the Stubai. Also there was Allonby beach (or whatever it is really called; the bay…

Validating Climate Models

SE has an excellent post about Validating Climate Models. It is all good, but I particularly liked when we ask climate scientists for future projections, we're asking the question of the scientists, not of their models. The scientists will apply their judgement to select appropriate versions/configurations of the models to use, they will set up the runs, and they will interpret the results in the light of what is known about the models' strengths and weaknesses and about any gaps between the comptuational models and the current theoretical understanding. And they will add all sorts of caveats…

What we learn from the APS revision

Having just read Eli being unhappy on the APS I'm struck by a thought, which is that no-one at all seems to think they might learn anything useful about actual climate change from the APS statement or its revised version. All anyone is doing is picking over it to see whether the miscellaneous physicists have managed to understand the research. So: why do these people bother have a statement at all? Would they have felt left out of the party otherwise? Its just the tedious old physcis arrogance again. Background: * http://physicsfrontline.aps.org/2009/11/10/aps-council-overwhelmingly-r… *…

178/366: Domes

I'm going to stop posting pictures of the Nott Memorial, really I am. But I got the idea a week or two ago of trying to see if there's an angle where the observatory dome and the Nott dome look the same size, so I keep poking at that. And, in fact, there is such an angle from the conference room in the Physics department: The Union college Observatory dome and the Nott Memorial dome. This involved a bit of precarious leaning-out to get clear of the window, but it's close to what I had in mind. There's another window that might be a slightly better angle, but it's sealed with plastic…

087/366: Happy Thanksgiving

We're at my parents' house in Scenic Whitney Point, NY, for Thanksgiving, so of course there's only one appropriate subject for the photo of the day: Thanksgiving dinner. That's our traditional turkey dinner, from my seat at the table. We ate very, very well, as always, and the kids have been generally very good (with a few minor squabbles). SteelyKid got bored during dinner, but I made up some math problems to entertain her, so all is well. If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope your day was full of awesome food and family and other stuff to be thankful for. If this isn't a holiday…

Messier Monday: The Wrong-Way Globular Cluster, M68 (Synopsis)

“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?” -Khalil Gibran When you think about globular clusters, you normally think about great collections of hundreds of thousands of stars located in the halo of our galaxy, spherically distributed. Image credit: user Antilhue from Chile, via Astrosurf, at http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/m68.htm. So what do you do if you discover a loose, faint collection of a couple hundred…

Throwback Thursday: Fun Facts for Pi Day (Synopsis)

“So here we have π squared, which an engineer would call ‘10.’” -Frank King This March 14th, stump your friends with these amazing facts about the world’s favorite transcendental number! Image credit: Wikimedia Commons users TechnoGuyRob and InverseHypercube. I've written about Pi Day twice before here on Scienceblogs, but for this year's festivities, I've assembled a collection of my favorite facts about everyone's favorite irrational but indispensible number, from history to pure mathematics to birthdays to astronomy! Image credit: Emil Ivanov, via http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images…

Also, how can you do social networking without beer?

I cower away from the horror that is MySpace, and I scarcely know what to do with facebook; I'm all at sea on this social networking buzz. Now I've gone and signed up for another one, the Nature Network, a social networking site for scientists. I'm still lost. Maybe if I encourage a bunch of you other scientists out there to sign up, some comprehension will begin to gel for me. Attila Csordas has a nice writeup of the whole magilla which helps. I'm giving it a shot, anyway. I already notice it lacks those bosomy young ladies in skimpy clothing that always greet me on MySpace, and the…

Does rain smell like rain, and why?

Did you ever notice that you can smell rain? Usually, you smell it better after the rain, but if you are a highly trained naturalist, or Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadain, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor, or something, you can smell it before it rains. During the rain you are usually inside smelling other things. It is called Petrichor. That word comes from ancient Greek for rock (obviously) and God Blood. That makes sense because with all the gods up in the sky, a certain amount of God Blood would fall to the earth when it rains. Anyway, I came across…

Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Arctic Sea Ice extent continues to be a problem. This year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, ARctic Sea ice reached its lowest extent this year on September 17th, which is about the sixth lowest extent on record, following a multi-year trend of decline. There is variation from year to year. This year's minimum was almost exactly the same as last years. With the exception of 2001, minimum extent has been below the climatalogical average every year since 1998. Dana Nuccitelli has a post on this with excellent discussion and some nice graphics, and he has also produced a…

How To Rescue The Nation From Donald Trump

This is not the best possible recourse, but it might be important. The idea here is to bring the Senate within reach as a body to oppose some of Trump's worst moves, by making the 100th Senator, a seat in Louisiana for which the election has not yet been held, a Democrat instead of a Republicans. This is within reach. Democrat Foster Campbell is a good guy. This could save some people from some awful things that may happen to them over the next four years. And, again, it is within reach. The place to go to give Foster Campbell's campaign some money is HERE. Here is some background…

Late to the Party

(Thanks to Starts With A Bang! reader benhead.) The Hubble Space Telescope has released some beautiful images of colliding galaxies in a huge collection! Here are some of my favorites, with my very own names for them (real name in parentheses). We'll start with the Glowing Arrow (Arp 148): The Highway Windshield (NGC 6240) The Flaming Splinter (NGC 6670): And finally, I call this one "my new desktop wallpaper:" I was going to write a whole bunch about this, but I have been beaten to the punch by Universe Today, Bad Astronomy, and Will Gater. I'll have to wake up earlier next time! In the…

Victory in Ohio

The Ohio State School Board today voted 11-4 to remove the "critical analysis of evolution" lesson plan that was advocated so forcefully by the Discovery Institute and other ID advocates in 2002. Cue screams of outrage about "dogmatic Darwinists" (or "Stalinists" or the "Darwinian priesthood" or whatever today's favorite hyperbole is) from John West and Casey Luskin in 5...4...3....2... Update: Well that only took about 4 hours, here's the DI's response. I'm kind of disappointed, to be honest. Bullies? That's the best they can do is call us bullies? I was really hoping for Atilla the Hun or…

Go for a walk

Here's a cool tool: Walk Score. Type in an address, and it uses Google Maps to look up destinations like parks and stores and theaters that are in walking distance of the place, and gives you a score out of 100 on walkability. A place like Manhattan will give you high scores; one of those desolate suburbs where you have to drive to get anywhere (like my old address in Pennsylvania) will give you lousy low scores. Morris is middling: I get a 52. There's funny stuff in the Google data base, though. It places a Donnelly grocery store a few blocks from my house and says it's 24 miles away;…

The Iraqi Elections

No matter how one felt or feels about whether the war in Iraq was justified, one has to recognize that what went on in Iraq yesterday was a very good thing. The parliamentary elections took place with massive voter turnout, with participation from all of the nation's ethnic groups, and with very little violence. You have to feel good for the Iraqi people, who have a say in their own political future for the first time. Are there problems? Of course there are. But yesterday was very hopeful and might indicate that, despite what I believe to be massive mismanagement of the war by our government…

Update on Schenck and the ACLU

As a follow up on my previous post about Rob Schenck's plan to show up at ACLU headquarters to deliver 20,000 petitions asking them to stop doing things that bother them, I got an email from a source at the ACLU who is having quite a laugh over the whole thing. It seems that the press release for this little stunt was circulated around the office today and they all noted that Schenck had gotten the address wrong. The only one to show up so far appears to be a reporter wandering around in front of the building talking on his cell phone, asking where everyone is. Meanwhile, Schenck may be up…

Esmay Cited by Discovery Institute

It can hardly be surprising that the Discovery Institute has picked up on Dean Esmay's ignorant blather about ID and us "Stalinist" evolution advocates and are shouting it from the rooftops as evidence that "even religious skeptics" disagree with us. The fact that Esmay is an atheist or agnostic doesn't mean he has anything approaching a coherent position on evolution, or even a basic understanding of it. His completely incoherent claim that evolutionary theory "tends to hold that mutation is not the primary way by which creatures evolve" a few months ago was proof that he has not even an…

Skeptically Speaking: War on Science

The latest Skeptically Speaking is "War on Science" This week we’re looking at threats to science and critical thinking, and how you can sort fact from fiction. York University science librarian John Dupuis joins us to discuss what he calls the Canadian government’s War on Science. And Chris MacDonald director of the Jim Pattison Ethical Leadership Program at Ryerson University, joins us to talk about his textbook The Power of Critical Thinking, which can help you navigate the hyperbole and misinformation that happens when the media looks at science news. Listen here. And, I just finished…

Minda Berbeco Joins NCSE

Minda Berbeco Minda Berbeco is a biologist who is an expert on the carbon cycle, climate change, and science education. She'll be joining the NCSE staff's new initiative on climate change related education. "I have long respected NCSE's defense of evolution education and I am thrilled that the organization has taken up climate change" says Berbeco. "I'm even more thrilled to be part of NCSE's new climate change team." From droughts to rising sea levels, climate change will have global effects. "Ignoring the science won't change the realities of climate change", says Berbeco. "We need a…

Ignorance

The smartest radio talk show in the world addresses ignorance, Sunday. Skeptically Speaking # 174: Ignorance This week, we’re looking at how the basic condition of not knowing things provides the motivation to keep science moving. We’re joined by Stuart Firestein, Chair of Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences, to talk about his book Ignorance: How It Drives Science. And on the podcast, we’re joined by Toronto attorney Adam Wygodny, to talk using the law to protect consumers from ineffective and untested alternative medicine products. We record live with Stuart Firestein on…

Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter?

Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant's "owner" taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter. From the daily mail: Jansen said the Orvillecopter is 'half cat, half machine', and part of a visual art project to pay tribute to his cat Orville. Jansen, part of the art cooperative Generaal Pardon, said: 'After a period of mourning he received his propellers posthumously.' Click through to see more photos, and here's the video: Are these…

Congratulations Shawn Otto!

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto has won the prestigious Minnesota Book Award. The award is very well deserved. Here's my writeup of the book, and here's a radio interview with the author that we did a couple of months back. Shawn's book is a critically important analysis of science policy, its potentials and failings, in a world of denialism and politics. As you know, Shawn has been involved with Science Debate (see the big badge on the sidebar?) and the Science Pledge. I'm pleased to announce that in the political campaign that I was recently…

The Poisoner's Handbook

We're taking a break from live recording this week. On the podcast, we're talking science and storytelling. Guest host Marie-Claire Shanahan speaks to science journalist and author Deborah Blum about her national bestseller The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. The book tells the fascinating story of the way that chemical detectives started a revolution in the investigation of crime. And Desiree Schell talks to Bora Zivkovic, blog editor at Scientific American, about a new event that teaches science through personal stories. The podcast will…

#Frankenstorm #Sandy #Occupy #Wall #Street

Reports from Lower Manhattan are sketchy, but the tide gauge shows that the Atlantic Ocean is receding, but not before filling the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with several feet of water, probably flooding several subways, and covering the New York Stock Exchange floor with a few feet of water. So far five or so people in the New York City area and one person in Maryland have been killed, including the very tragic case of two kids killed instantly when a large tree crashed through their house, where they were inside playing. The power outages are extensive and the storm is not anywhere near…

Black people have ruined it for everyone?

The evidence that if you are a Republican you are a member of a club that you should be embarrassed to be a member of mounts. In this case, Jon Hubbard and Loy Mauch of Arkansas speak out in favor of slavery and blame African Americans for the results of institutional racism. "Arkansas Republicans tried to distance themselves Saturday from a Republican state representative's assertion that slavery was a "blessing in disguise" and a Republican state House candidate who advocates deporting all Muslims. The claims were made in books written, respectively, by Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro and…

NASA's Moon Twins Going Their Own Way

Remember the gravity mapping project on the moon? NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-B spacecraft successfully executed its first flight path correction maneuver Wednesday, Oct. 5. The rocket burn helped refine the spacecraft's trajectory as it travels from Earth to the moon and provides separation between itself and its mirror twin, GRAIL-A. The first burn for GRAIL-A occurred on Sept. 30. "Both spacecraft are alive and with these burns, prove that they're kicking too, as expected," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena…

The Faraday Electric Bike

Powered bikes have been around for a long time, and there are many electric bikes available now. But it seems that this new one is a significant change from prior versions. The Faraday Bike doesn't even look like it could possibly be powered. But apparently it is. The frame is, more or less, the battery. The motor is small because electric motors can be small. It has a computer, and apparently, LED lights. It does not operate without human power, but it adds power to your stroke, by about 300% (but that is adjustable) according to the manufacturer. It costs a mere $3,500. But it is…

Twin Cities Creation Science Fair 2014

As PZ Myers points out, it is time for the Twin Cities Creation Science Fair! It is this Saturday, details here. Lorax is going. Normally, those of us from the science community who go to this simply show up and wander around looking at the exhibits and talk science to the kids. No shenanigans. Also, we often go to a nearby venue and get lunch. Last year it was Grumpy's. Over the years, I think, the quality of the exhibits has gone up and the attention to the usual "creation science" myths has gone down. I like to think that a bunch of evolutionary biologists showing up every year has…

Go Home Mars Rock, You're Drunk! (Interplanetary Rock Makes Selfie)

Look at the rock on the right, and the lack of rock on the left. (Our left.) It is being reported that this jelly-donut size rock appeared out of nowhere on the Martian surface between photographs. There are several possible explanations for this. 1) It grew there. 2) It was ejected from a steam vent or something and flew there. 3) This is what a Martian looks like. It will eventually move on. 4) The robot that took the first picture tossed the rock up while driving by. 5) It is a jelly donut. 6) The rock was placed there to cover up a footprint. What do you think? I love it when stuff…

Removing the #Fukushima Spent Fuel Rods. Or not.

TEPCO was going to start removing the fuel rods from the less-damaged reactor building Numnber 4 over the next few days. Today, it was announced that damage to the fuel rod assemblies, some or most of which predated the tsunami and earthquake, this could not be done. There is now uncertainty as to what is going to happen. Here is a video by Fairewinds about this operation, which I believe was made before TEPCO decided to not continue with the removal at this time: As you can see, there are several possible problems. Most of these problems are not related to the reasons TEPCO has given to…

All we need to do to fix our system of education is ...

... well, actually, you can start by shutting up. Then, while you are sitting there quietly read this: Why Teaching Is Harder Than It Looks. Then, add your advice about how we can fix our system of education to the comments below. But each suggestion must be paid for (with money) and fit into the schedule (by paying someone to do what you suggest instead of what they are at present required to do). Which means, ultimately, there is one fundamental answer to improving our system of education: Throw money at it. For starters, stop taking money away from it. The, put more in. Discuss.…

Elizabeth Taylor has Died

She was a major film (and stage) actress of my parent's generation. She was the ultimate "leading lady" and as such often played across her sometimes husband, classic "leading man" Richard Burton. She is famous for having been married and divorced more times than anyone else ever (an exaggeration), but more importantly she's famous for having starred in a number of classic and defining roles. Che was a child star (Lassie Come Home, Jayne Eyre, National Velvet, etc.) and played a diversity of roles as an adult. Her classic performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won her an academy…

Close Up Picture of a Comet

NASA's Stardust-NExT mission took this image of comet Tempel 1 at 8:39 p.m. PST (11:39 p.m. EST) on Feb 14, 2011. The comet was first visited by NASA's Deep Impact mission in 2005. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell PASADENA, Calif. -- Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have begun receiving the first of 72 anticipated images of comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. The first six, most distant approach images are available at http://www.nasa.gov/stardust and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov. Additional images, including those from closest…

Links for 2011-06-13

Maru the Cat does dimensional analysis : Built on Facts "Here is a picture of (I think) Maru the cat playing in a bag. He loves bags. Here is the same picture of Maru, at half the size: Now imagine that Maru is a physicist and the pictures are not pictures but instead windows into the universe he occupies, separate from ours with (possibly) its own unique set of physical laws. The only difference between the two universes is that one has the lengths of everything reduced by a factor of 2. Can the parallel versions of Maru tell which universe they're in - the smaller or the larger? " (tags:…

Thursday Patriotic Toddler Blogging

I didn't post anything to acknowledge Memorial Day this past Monday, because Union doesn't take the day off, so it was just another Monday around here, albeit with fewer stores and restaurants open than usual. SteelyKid was at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, though, and celebrated by going to the annual parade. Which was enough of a hit that she was still marching around on Tuesday when she came home: Where was she marching to, you ask?/p> Why, to the pond, to throw leaves in: What's that got to do with Memorial Day? Nothing. But it's fun, so there you go. (No Appa picture today…

Thor's-day Toddler Blogging 052611

Kate is off at Wiscon (or at least en route-- her flights are all screwed up), and SteelyKid is off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Which means I don't have an Appa picture this week, but in honor of the pagan origins of the name of the day, here's a picture of SteelyKid enacting a scene from the movie Thor: Well, OK, she's just gesturing dramatically with a fruit twist on the steps of the Nott Memorial. But it sort of looks like she might be declaiming some of the ludicrous dialogue of the Asgard sequences... Maybe? I dunno. That's all I've got, really: she's out of town, I went…

Thursday Toddler Blogging 041411

SteelyKid has been sick this week, which made it a perfect time for me to fly down to Maryland for a couple of days. Fortunately, she and Kate have both forgiven me. I did break out the new friend I purchased for SteelyKid a couple of weeks ago, and have been holding in reserve: The fuzzy blue fellow is a plush Eeyore, who was a big hit. We read the story from The House at Pooh Corner where Pooh and Piglet build Eeyore a house at bedtime tonight, and when Eeyore made his first appearance, she had the stuffed Eeyore kiss his picture in the book. "They haven't got Brains, any of them, just…

The snakes are probably a confirming sign

Sorry, California. After the plague of migratory, mammal-eating pythons, we now have independent testimony that God doesn't like you. God is disgusted with California legislators - at least some of them, according to an evangelical chaplain who ruffled feathers this week in the same Capitol where he leads Bible studies for lawmakers. No, I don't accept his personal claims about the desires of the Great Cosmic Poobah, but the evidence from the situation that 1) this bozo gets paid $120,000/year to evangelize to politicians, and 2) weepy-eyed politicians are stumbling all over themselves to…

Impressions of Birka

Responding to my call for archaeopix, Dear Reader Kristi offers us two pages out of her June 2005 travel journal, recording a visit to Björkö / Birka, site of Sweden's first town c. AD 770-970. Explains Kristi: "I sketched the things that made an impression on me, from the island and the Birkamuseet. [...] Art journaling, such as that in my scan, is very popular as a means of documenting amateur archaelogical, historical, and biological interests" News to me, though I'd heard of scrapbooking which seems to be somewhat similar. Any more art journalers or scrapbookers around here? Somebody…

On-Line TV

I'm in the kitchen. My wife just sent me the most amazing link from the living room. TV Links Last weekend I missed the only TV show I watch, Six Feet Under, now being aired in its fifth season in Sweden. Since then, I've tried to find the missed episode on DC++ and BitTorrent, to no avail. At TV Links, a high-bandwidth video stream of the episode is just two clicks away. And they have all the other episodes too. Of all the other seasons. Of every single TV series I've ever felt even mildly interested in watching. I have no idea how they do it. But that site is amazing. I feel like an ad…