Missing: A Vase, a Book, a Bird and 10,000 Years of History From the NY Times, on the destruction of Iraq’s cultural legacy: Above all, scholars reacted as mourners struggling with an overwhelming loss. In Boston, Dr. Russell fought back tears as he described a sculpture from the museum he had seen in the 1980’s: a small carving of a bird, one of the earliest stone sculptures in existence, from around 8,000 B.C. “The archaeologists had found it literally in the hand of its ancient owner, who had been crushed to death when the roof of his burning house fell …
I just lost an argument with my two year-old son. He insists that Tweety Bird is a duck. I asserted that he’s a canary. “He’s a duck.” “A canary.” “A duck” “Why,” says I, “do you say that he’s a duck.” “Because,” says Finn, “he swims and he has duck feet and feathers.” I had never thought of Tweety’s feet as duck feet, but he sure doesn’t seem to have toes. And if Finn is right, and he has in fact been seen swimming, then the little old lady has a duck on her hands, and not a canary. (Anyway, …
First from the travel section of the Nashville City Paper: “As we move toward summer, the hot spots of travel are Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where currency values have plunged to a rate (in both countries) of more than 3 pesos (Argentina) or 3 reals (Brazil) to the U.S. dollar, versus one to the dollar a short while back. Steak dinners at parillas in Buenos Aires (and what tender steaks!) can now be had for $5, whole meals with wine in Rio for $7, taxis for $1, public transportation for 50 cents! And rates for getting …
theory.sauna dialogues an IRC transcript from net.sauna OAF: Hi HHeater: Hi Alexander! Welcome to the net.sauna. OAF: Thank you for the invitation HHeater: How is Stockholm doing; beautiful day there? It is blazing sun in Linz. HHeater: The sauna stove was accidentally left on for the night, temperature in the sauna was 50 Celsius when I entered, almost 60. Now the door is open, cooling down for the beginning of our dialogue. OAF: I don�t know anything about the weather – I have worked all night. HHeater: I had a party instead. Would you like to dive in to talk …
The Egg Nebula On September 27 and October 16, 2002, the Hubble Space Telescope pointed its Advanced Camera for Surveys at the 3,000-light-year-distant Egg Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The view is nothing short of stunning � it is as if someone tossed a pebble into a celestial pond. The scene here is a composite image from three polarizing filters. Light from each filter has been colored red, blue, or green; the colors indicate different orientations of dust particles in the nebula. The ripples are actually shells of gas and dust sloughed off in convulsions by the obscured, dying central …