LATEST ADDITIONS

I'm fascinated by blimps. I've also always wondered why they weren't used more for hauling cargo, especially stuff that didn't fit neatly into road-width containers. <I>National Geographic</I> says I'm not the only one.

Watched <I>I Robot</I> while practicing work avoidance yesterday. What a steaming pile of crap based on the title of a book with the same name! You know a movie's in bad shape when even it sqaunders Will Smith's considerable charm, but <I>I Robot</I>'s biggest flaw was that it abandoned almost everything from Asimov,except the three laws (good) and a very 1940's view of what robots would be. Who needs mechanical manservants when everyday objects perform more and more of our chores?

Nationmaster.com's got 'em. Amazing go-to resource for maps, stats, and factoids.

Stephen Brown argues that Sid Vicious and Mozart shared the quality of primitivism, by which he means the winnowing away of unnecessary complications. I see his point with Sid, but in Mozart's case, I see it as the essence of the refining fire. Still, a good read and well-argued, even though, IMHO, wrong.

<I>Caution:</I> This is just a theory.

<I>Ampulex compressa</I> is a wasp that uses its stinger to temporarily paralyze and then hot-wire a cockroach so that the wasp can "drive" the larger critter home, where it can lay its egg on the roach host and seal it into a nursery. When the egg hatches, the larva chews its way into the host, where it feeds itself and then spins a cocoon.

Beautiful photographs of ghost towns.