Disney is acquiring Marvel Comics. I don’t hate Disney (much) but this is just wrong! This is a marriage made in some weird alternate universe where cute little fawns leap tall buildings and superheros sing sweet, catchy songs about birds and flowers. This is it. I know we’ve all said this dozens of times before [...]

Longplayer is a 1000 year long musical composition. Interesting idea. I listened to a couple of minutes of the live stream and it was pleasant enough but if it was possible to listen to one thing for a thousand years I think I’d choose Mozart. Or maybe Bach. Or… oh heck, if I could live [...]

It’s only 50°F this morning. It’s August 31st and here in Oklahoma it is only 50°F! That is… well, I was going to say phenomenal but as soon as I thought it it felt a little odd because I almost never use that word. In this case I think it’s a perfectly good word because [...]

Anyone who listens to classical music at all has probably heard Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor many times and most violinists have recorded it. It is a beautiful and fun concerto but so is his lesser known Violin Concerto in D minor.

If you are the least bit interested in geeky stuff you should be following Adam Savage on Twitter. I’d follow him even if he wasn’t a celebrity because his “tweets” are interesting. In addition to comments about what’s going in San Francisco and occasional hints about upcoming episodes of Mythbusters he often links to cool [...]

I usually try to avoid having power lines in my pictures but sometimes I take the picture anyway even when there are power lines in the way and I sort of like the way this one turned out. view large And two more common scenes in my part of the world. view large view large [...]

Something else about U.S. health care: You’ve heard the refrain: If the government ran healthcare, it would be just like the U.S. Postal Service. And nobody wants that. Or do we? The USPS, an independent government agency, is the convenient butt of jokes regarding poor service, rude employees, and occasional government mangling of personal property. [...]

Here are a couple of sewing projects that I’ve finished in the last couple of weeks. I don’t have much to say about the first one other than, I love this fabric and I like the way this top turned out. view large I made the next one with fabric I found on Wal-mart’s bargain [...]

I probably shouldn’t say anything about the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy since I don’t have anything especially good to say. (Nothing especially bad either.) I saw a headline yesterday that called him “the greatest of the Kennedy’s” and did sort of a double take. Say what? Edward? The greatest Kennedy? Well, what do I [...]

This political cartoon illustrates what a lot of people have been thinking but it doesn’t make me think, “Good point!” It makes me think that Congress is a lot like a married couple bickering over money. Let’s say she wants to remodel the kitchen and he says, “That’s ridiculous. We don’t need it and it [...]

Architecture round-up – over a hundred unusual buildings 1821 book about opium use – short review and link to e-text. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Movie Poster Index (via Rashomon) Cool Claws – ice cream for cats (via Bifurcated Rivets) Academic Salaries – a chart; one guess who gets paid the most.

How intelligent are cats? Are they self-aware? This bright kitty certainly seems to be. I’m not so sure about my cats. Sometimes they seem to be pretty smart; other times they make rocks look like rocket scientists. The other day Three was chasing a wasp that was flying around the window. He almost caught it [...]

Woofer is an answer to Twitter. Instead of having a 140 character maximum it has a 1400 character minimum. You don’t even have to sign up to use it if you have a Twitter account; just use your Twitter username. I can’t see it ever becoming very popular but I like the idea of it. [...]

Moscow sewers Butterfly Photo Gallery Japan Photo Gallery Apache Photo Gallery SojournerKY’s Flickr Photostream ~Mama-Z’s Flickr Photostream

I watched a show on the travel channel called Extreme Pig Outs. It was about restaurants that serve really huge meals. I mean really, seriously huge. Many of them have challenges – if you can eat the challenge meal within a given time it’s free. Frankly, I find these pig outs appalling and I think, [...]

A 1930 newsreel of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. Via Neatorama

A nice collection of images and links at DRB. Some cool steampunk stuff, vintage sci-fi and a really creepy photoshop among other things.

Andrea linked to these paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. I immediately thought of Kolja Tatic. They’re not all that much alike but they sort of have the same feel. One notable similarity is that both artists often put two distant figures in their paintings. The angle of the light is also similar although the two [...]

Just some more blogs that I’ve come across and bookmarked recently. Pretty Fakes – comics, pop culture, etc. Now That’s Nifty – very nifty stuff found on the Web OklaCookiemaker Quilts – life in western Oklahoma Redneck Liberal – political; an Oklahoma liberal; not as rare a breed as you might imagine Look! A Baby [...]

Simpsons Cards – Skeptics Edition – Hah. Be sure to click on the cards so you can see the details, like number of Twitter followers, weapon of choice and arch nemesis.

Seen on Twitter: Come to think of it, I’d love to see the healthy-cooking lady and Paula Deen in a cage match.

Last week I mentioned that I can’t stand Wagner. Well, that’s not quite 100% true. I have heard several pieces or short parts of his operas that I can stand. Yes, I admit it. I like The Ride of the Valkyries. I also like the overture to The Flying Dutchman. There is one work by [...]

view large view large Late summer stillness Yellow blooms beside the road Days getting shorter (Be kind; it’s only my second haiku ever.)

Fine, the bacon lube and bacon bras are a little creepy. — here Well, the truth is that aliens exist within a strange temporal distortion in which they are exposed to English before human beings even exist, so when they come knocking, they are not only fluent in the language, but technologically far more advanced [...]

Another golden opportunity for organized crime. As it says in the linked post, “Is anyone really surprised?”