…Reginald Shepherd. It’s bad enough when people younger than me are far more talented than I’ll ever be, but it’s much much worse when they die.
Category Archives: Asides
Asteroid fly-by
On their mission blog, the European Space Agency (ESA) team overseeing the Rosetta spacecraft have released a video of the Asteroid (2867) Steins flyby which took place yesterday. Vital statistics for Asteroid (2867) Steins are also available on the ESA Web site.
One step closer to facism
Salon.com has documented how, in the lead-up to a major election in one country, police forces broke into the houses of suspected political opponents brandishing automatic weapons, handcuffed everyone in the house, confiscated computers and political pamphlets, and arrested suspected ringleaders under a vague law giving broad powers to arrest just about anyone. No, not in Russia or Africa, this happened in the United States. Kinda makes you wish for the good ol’ days when President Nixon was wiretapping and intimidating people and lying. Thank you, Will, for blogging about this.
Molly Peacock
Looking for a reading for this Sunday, I found this poem by Molly Peacock. Huh, I said to myself, I’m not sure I agree with her at the end but it tells a great story. Then I found out Molly Peacock wrote a memoir about not having children. Huh, I said to myself, I’m gonna have to read that.
Month without plastics
Carol and I are on a “plastics diet,” trying to minimize our plastics intake. But a blogger at the BBC is going us one better — she’s trying to go a whole month without buying any kind of plastics at all. It’s harder than you think….
Glass Door
I’m fascinated by Glassdoor, a new Web site that aggregates salary information and anonymous reviews of what it’s like to work for a company. Obvious limitations: only works for big companies (you can’t post anonymously from a company with only 2 employees!), and there’s still not enough reviews. Even so — man, I wish I had this site back when I was in sales….
Discontinued
I thought the Olympics were over, but they go on and on like a dreary Charlton Heston film: lots of bombast, not much substance. However, there is relief from the dreariness:– the BBC has recreated three discontinued Olympic sports in this video. Hey, i’d watch underwater swimming on TV….
Canadian reading list
John Mutford of Yellowknife, NWT, has developed a really good reading list for Canadian literature for the Canadian Book Challenge he promoted on his blog “The Book Mine Set.” Alas, the challenge is now over, but it’s still a good reading list if you want an introduction to Canadian lit. Yes, I have quibbles (what, no Frederick Philip Grove? — Haliburton but no Raddall?), but on the other hand he gets bonus points for including poetry, non-fiction, young adult books, and children’s books on his list.
Via.
Water trails
Betty S. sends along this link to a database of canoe-able water trails in the U.S. Alas, none yet in my home state of Massachusetts.