Last night/this morning, as I couldn’t sleep from fever and other annoying symptoms of an ear infection, I watched The Lady from Shanghai. The movie? Interesting in bits. Whatever. But man, was Rita Hayworth beautiful. Good God.
Animal Handymen
Or handypeople. Wired Science presents a list of animals making and using tools in the wild.
Inauguration
Overall pretty nice. I liked that Obama was nervous enough to stop in the middle of his oath and wait for Roberts to help him out. It was kind of a sweet moment of humanity. And it’s the last time that the Chief Justice will lift a finger to help out Obama. Update: Ok, so […]
John Mortimer
If you’ve never read any of the Rumpole books, then you still have the chance to read one for the first time. I don’t know what I expected when I read my first one. I think I was waiting for some sort of Jeeves story, but with barristers and wigs. I love Wodehouse and Jeeves, […]
To Bee or Not to Bee
I’m reading Fruitless Fall, by Rowan Jacobsen. It’s mainly about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has apparently devastated the bee keeping industry around the world. I haven’t gotten to a lot of the CCD stuff yet (as of page 60), but what I have read has been fascinating. Bees’ lives, the different roles in their […]
My Birthday Present
If you’d like to get me something 100K-ish, you could do worse than this. For only four hundred bucks, there’s this.
It's Personal
I hung around Israel for six months or so, and the family in the picture above sort of took me in. We were all visiting the “Flour Caves” at the time of the picture. I’m the guy crouching on the far left. Today I just keep thinking about Yakir, the little boy on the far […]
Liberals and Libertarians
I just listened to a podcast that brought together several libertarian and liberal thinkers to discuss their common beliefs. Some speakers talked seriously about working together practically, voting and campaigning for the same candidates. Of course, Libertarians have been supporters of the Republican party for a long time. Without agreeing with the whole Republican platform, […]
An Army Marches on its Stomach
Walking along with my to-go lunch in hand, it occurred to me how heavy the bag was. Probably a good pound or more. Man, I thought, we sure are inefficient machines. According to Einstein and the rest, the amount of atoms in my lunch should be able to power a human for a hell of […]
Facebook Isn't For Everything
I like Facebook for checking out what my friends and formerly long-lost acquaintances are up to. I look at pictures and read status updates. Occasionally, I comment on people’s pictures or status updates. It’s great. But I don’t think that everything belongs on Facebook. Here’s a status and comment thread I read today. I changed […]