People have criticized the movie The Day After Tomorrow for its sudden freeze, though frozen mammoths may be evidence of rapid climate changes in the past. Richard B. Cathcart gives the real reason why the movie is scientifically impossible.
I’ve had my first comment spam in WordPress - insidious comments that look relevant, and only the URL field is used for spam purposes. I recognized it as spam since it all came from the same IP, though the URLs varied. (I didn’t visit them.)
So I’m trying out the built-in spam blocking. In WordPress 1.2, just go to Options | Discussion and add IP addresses, URLs, or keywords to the textbox at the bottom of the page, and hit Update.
One hundred years ago today, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe with honors. I’m no so surprised that she did it despite being blind and deaf, as that college students were still in school in June in 1904.
It’s a lovely filk I wish I’d filked myself, but instead Mustang Sally sings the last word on fanfic hate.
The muse quote of the day is brought to you by Ursula K. LeGuin, in the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness, reprinted in The Language of the Night:
I do not say that artists cannot be seers, inspired: that the awen cannot come upon them, and the god speak through them. Who would be an artist if they did not believe that that happens? If they did not know it happens, because they have felt the god within them use their tongue, their hands? Maybe only once, once in their lives. But once is enough.
The Stargate SG-1 Fan Awards 2004 are open for voting. This fandom public service announcement was brought to you live, in real time, by the long-lost Jemima. Don’t hold your breath for the next live entry.
Someone emailed me about my experiences with Arraiolos kits. There’s been a wool problem with the kit I got a while back, and I really ought to chase down the company about it.
I probably should have gotten a kit from Serranofil or, even better, Rosários. I can’t tell whether they sell yarn alone - when I have time, I’ll look at the Portuguese version of the Rosários site and report back.
A couple of posts from Jason at Gene Expression discuss unusual variations in height between countries and within individual countries over the course of time. The first post has some interesting excerpts from a New Yorker article and his own doubts that nutrition is the explanation. The second post tells the sad tale of short Koreans and other Asian height variations.
Here are a few fun links on media bias:
Cheese link of the day: Guard Your Cheese
On June 22nd, 1940, the French surrendered to the Nazis. The newly-formed Vichy governmend asked for an armistice, the terms of which were signed in the same railway car as the armistice of November 1918. The car was then destroyed.