Plastic Continent

I guess this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me but it did: 3 million tons of plastic; an island larger than Texas (I thought nothing was larger than Texas), is just floating round and round in the middle of the Pacific, merrily killing things, and everyone agrees it’s already too big a problem for us to do anything about. Yikes!

Story 1        Story 2

Six things about me, of which you neither knew nor cared

This is in response to Spleeness’ excellent post asking people to disclose six quirks about themselves. I’m all for sharing, especially when I’ve got nothing to write about, although I’m not sure how I’ll narrow it down to six.

1. My little toes curl right under my feet and I have to walk on them. I blame winkle-picker shoes in the Sixties. It couldn’t simply be that I’m hideously disfigured. It does make me just that bit taller, though.

2. I’m responsible for the Second World War.

3. I don’t like men. Nothing personal, I just don’t. (Oh, and a big “hi” to Norm, Tony, Bill and all my other friends.)

4. I hate people who can’t see the difference between a statistical generalization and a sweeping one. Saying that women are shorter than men is not the same thing as saying that YOU must be shorter than HIM. Nor does the latter invalidate the former. I’m just saying this because everyone is stupid like that. Nobody gets this right. Not ever.

5. When my motor cortex is distracted, my hands tend to pull out body hairs – from my nose, my arm, my eyebrows, anywhere. Don’t let me sit on your new suede sofa.

6. I adore artificial crab meat. I know it’s made from pulverized trainers but I like it. It almost tastes a bit like crab, sometimes.

6a. I hate lists that end before I’m ready.

Independence Day

I’ve been lucky enough to have lived with two very different women, both of them lovely people. I’m trying not to read too much into the fact that it was only after I left each of them that they really started to blossom, but yesterday I was able to mention Ann’s interview about her passion for science and her doctoral research, and today it’s Sara’s turn. She’s just finished writing a new book, so if you need a dose of her indomitable spirit and positive attitude, you’ll find it here. Good luck to both of them.

Independence Day Parade, Flagstaff

Stunning portrayal of a global train wreck

Oh my goodness! Alon told me I should see this, in a comment to yesterday’s post, and yes indeed, I should have, and so should you. Watch it now. I’m not even going to attempt to describe it, you’ve got to watch it. Now!

(If it won’t stream smoothly, get a YouTube downloader and watch it from your hard drive (I used the downloader built into Speedbit’s DAP). It’s an 800MB download and then it requires a further 90 minutes to blow your mind.)

When you’ve watched it, make sure that everybody else on Earth watches it too.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject