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Interesting quote from the Bill Murray Reddit AMA thread about how a visit to the Philippines made him think of Gregor Mendel: But I would like to know about Mendel, because i remember going to the Philippines and thinking “this is like Mendel’s garden” because it had been invaded by so many different countries over […]
Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars films, is on Twitter as @TheWookieeRoars. He runs a fun and engaging stream for fans, posting historic behind-the-scenes photos from Star Wars production and other fun imagery. But when he posted a photo of an “awesome” standing cat wearing a Chewbacca bandoleer I had to […]
This Christmas, spare a thought for those in the Philippines still reeling from Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda last month, and for all who suffer hunger, oppression, loneliness, and want. More material on the typhoon to add to my original Haiyan post:
An email I sent for distribution at my church, First Baptist DC, answering queries about typhoon relief contribution opportunities for fellow Baptists here in the USA after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. Following the call for donations I’ve also included a gallery of ships run aground during the typhoon, a display of the fury of the storm.
Cinema-related reading (and related media) that has crossed my path in recent months: Peter Jackson’s Violent Betrayal of Tolkien. Bad enough that they split the story into a triple-segment money-grab, but even worse was altering the Warg/forest chase scene into a trite action movie climax against an archnemesis who was barely even in the book. […]
Mental Floss: History of the Trapper Keeper. My Trapper Keeper period ran from high school to about sophomore year of college. Back then my taste ran towards the “Designer Series” Trapper Keepers: surrealistic computer-generated 3D landscapes and colorful floating geometric shapes and chrome spheres — a very early 1990s aesthetic. This Guilty People column on […]
Costco CEO Craig Jelinek Leads the Cheapest, Happiest Company in the World — Businessweek on how Costco is doing right by its workers and reaping profit as a result. How The Few Have Chosen Inequality For The Many — Despite lots of good economic news, the benefits are not trickling down to regular people, and […]
An intelligence leak has revealed PRISM, a massive US NSA data mining operation spying on people’s data shared through Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, AOL, and others. Outrageous, but ultimately not surprising, given that President Obama has, disappointingly, shown himself all too willing to continue his predecessor’s expansion of powers to invade privacy in the […]
So Yahoo acquired Tumblr. This might not bode well, considering what happened to Geocities, or it might bode at least kind of well, considering that Yahoo might have saved Flickr from itself. For what it’s worth, Marissa Mayer has promised “not to screw it up.” I moved my “tangential hilarity” weblog to Tumblr from Livejournal […]
Explosions at the Boston Marathon. People killed, including a child; grisly injuries among runners and spectators. Photos of the carnage. Video of the blast as seen by a runner. Schneier recommends responding to terrorism with indomitable calm. How to Help. May all affected find aid and comfort, and the bombers be brought to justice. Update: […]