The Periodic Table of Poetry [via Calamondin]
Daily Archives: 31 Mar 00
Great use for the web. Create and publish a reading list, sharing books that matter to you. “Find others who share your tastes or…expand your horizons…Make new friends and start great conversations.” Trouble is, I’m not sure I want to be part of a virtual community based on people who have read the same books I have. (Did Groucho Marx say that?)
More for you Malcolm Gladwell watchers — an interview by Toby Lester from the Atlantic.
Recent research had turned the paleontological world on its head by indicating intermingling and perhaps even interbreeding of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon human ancestors. Now a new study using DNA derived from Neanderthal tissue samples concludes that we do not have Neanderthal in our bloodlines. [BBC]
Thanks to Jorn Barger for pointing us to this: Gillian Anderson’s first journalistic assignment is interviewing David Duchovny! ‘But maybe we should have therapy for long-running
series actors. It’d be good for the cast of “Friends” to
have group therapy. We’d have couples therapy,
because we’re not an ensemble…(W)e do spend so
much time together, and it’s a hard relationship to
navigate. As soon as I say, “No, we don’t see each
other after work,” then it’s “You hate each other.”‘
The saga of BlowTheDotOutYourAss.com:
“The Sams aren’t trying to
stop the Internet from ruining San Francisco; they just want to
remind people how absurd it is to work like a dog, in a city
that is quickly forgetting leisure and humor, for a company
that’s revolutionizing something as inconsequential as how
you purchase toothpaste.” [Salon]
A Heartwarming Tale of Staggering Generosity
“This could perhaps be
the first time in domain-name history that a URL mix-up has
inspired such generosity, especially between an otherwise
unlikely pair. Truly staggering and, hopefully, inspiring.” McSweeneys.com to host mcsweeneys.net.
Planets for Dessert
On April 6, 2000, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the
Moon will put on a delightful after-dinner sky show.
The quartet will
converge inside a circle just 9 degrees across. To admire the display, simply go outside after dinner on April 6 and look toward
the southwest sky. Around 8 p.m. local daylight savings time the slender crescent
moon will be easy to spot about 30 degrees above the horizon. The brightest
nearby “star” will be Jupiter. At magnitude -2.1, the giant planet is 8 times
brighter than Saturn, which glows pale yellow less than 3 degrees west of the
Moon. Mars will lie a scant 1.1 degrees north of Jupiter. The red planet
(magnitude 0.3) will be about 3 times fainter than Saturn (magnitude 1.4).
The article on this conjunction also includes a discussion on the May 5, 2000 grand conjunction of the moon and five planets. Will it be apocalyptic, as some predict?
