Poetry Archive: You can enjoy listening here, free of charge, to the voices of contemporary English-language poets and of poets from the past. The Archive is growing all the time.
Monthly Archives: November 2005
Military historian: Costly withdrawal is the price to be paid for a foolish war
The Forward Newspaper Online: By Martin van Creveld. “For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.”
Harper, Bush share roots in controversial philosophy
The Tyee: “What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect to the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement.”
Olduvai George
Olduvai George: “Self-portraiture may be a pretentious beginning (I’m the one on the left), but then I’ve chosen this garish color scheme and put myself in the header. Hopefully, it won’t blind too many of you. I should mention that I don’t condone underage drinking, but Australopithecines probably matured faster than we do today and there was no danger of him driving.
Scientists, be on guard… ET might be a malicious hacker
Guardian Unlimited Technology: According to a scientific report, planet Earth’s computers are wide open to a virus attack from Little Green Men. The concern is raised in the next issue of the journal Acta Astronautica by Richard Carrigan, a particle physicist at the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. He believes scientists searching the heavens for signals from extra-terrestrial civilisations are putting Earth’s security at risk, by distributing the jumble of signals they receive to computers all over the world. The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (Seti) project, based at the University of California in Berkeley, uses land-based telescopes to scour the universe for electromagnetic waves.
Salvia divinorum user’s guide
Sage Wisdom: Never let Salvia be used where firearms, knives, or other dangerous objects are present.
To make a quid from dried leaves, weigh out 2-8 grams of dried leaves. Place the leaves in a small bowl of cool water. Once the leaves are wet and have been soaking for about 10 minutes, remove the leaves from the water, squeeze the excess water out of them, and ball them up into a quid.
Big questions
Perception puzzles, visual perception, optical illusions and paradoxes
Flash Cards II
Pirelli calendar
Pirelli: Flashy
Stamps of the Soviet era
Stamp Russia Art and Stamp Collectors Group present selected Stamps and Postal Stationery of the Soviet Russia and USSR from 1918 to 1990s, complete mint sets and single stamps, also used stamps of the same years.
Today’s Inspiration
A place for those with an interest in illustration from the 40s and 50s to share their knowledge, views and opinions. Also see Leif Peng Cartoon Art.
President Bush tries to escape
Yahoo! News Photos U.S. President George W. Bush reacts as he tries to open a locked door as he leaves a news conference in Beijing November 20, 2005.
Bush and Albert Hubo
Yahoo! News Photo
U.S. President George W. Bush shakes hands with Albert Hubo, a 130-cm-tall, two-legged robot topped with a head modeled after Albert Einstein.
The Global Language Monitor
Global Language Monitor: Monitoring the world’s languages. Misguided Criminals, Intrinsic Aptitude, and Thought Shower top annual list of politically correct words
The Zen of Skunk Cabbage
Science Now: Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is widespread in the woods of northeastern North America and Asia. Skunk cabbage shares more than a healthy stink with its warm-blooded namesake: like skunks, people, and other animals, the plant produces body heat. Now, a clever mathematical analysis has shown that this rancid relative of the lily may have a beautifully simple thermostat.
Use /etc/hosts to block ads at the local level
macosxhints: Includes a link to a hosts file with a mess of ad sites that you might want to block.
On the effectiveness of aluminium foil helmets
Media Laboratory, MIT A study using a network analyzer reveals that rather than protecting the brain from invasive radio signals used for mind control, tinfoil beanies actually amplify the signals. “Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.”
Kill Bill’s Browser
killbillsbrowser: Thirteen reasons to switch to Firefox:
- You’ll only see porn when you want to.
- Your kids will only see porn when they want to.
- Your computer won’t spend its free time telling the world about Viagra soft tabs…
The Wooden Library
SLU Libraries: “The wooden library, or xylothek (from the Greek words for tree, xylon, and storing place, theke) consists of 217 volumes describing 213 different species or varieties of trees and shrubs.”