A big hello! and sorry! to anyone who’s ended up here via an incorrect link in the PDF/PowerPoint of my presentation today. A very long time ago we used to

Thank you, xkcd, for the clearest and shortest explanation of string theory I’ve yet seen:

Today is: International Day for Disaster Reduction National (in the USA) Coming Out Day. My Mom’s birthday. Happy birthday Mom!

Yesterday: Got up, ate breakfast, wished body would tolerate caffeine, read the (very thin) paper. Got dressed and headed down to the basement to help D mix up some thinset

Teeter-totter 2 Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. D: Wake up, Maddy. Time for breakfast. M: blurgh. nnnn. snzzzzzz. ZZZZ. snfffblurgggh. D: Come on, time to get up. M: Zzzzzzzzz. Zz. D:

Collision Detection reports on a Japanese wine-tasting robot with disturbing opinions about its keepers — Robot thinks people taste like “bacon” When a reporter’s hand was placed against the robot’s

Borrowed from Melle: run your name and the phrase “last I heard she/he was” through Google: The last i heard she was an Army MP somewhere in Germany Last i

…of a fortyish man at the bus stop this morning. Nice shoes, nice suit, shirt and tie, groomed hair, and a large Star Trek communicator pin on his left lapel.

Anyone who was at a Club Med in the 70s will remember this song. Born to be Alive

From the BBC: Cows also ‘have regional accents’ Farmer Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, said: “I spend a lot of time with my [cows] and they definitely moo with a Somerset

A brilliant concept, as depicted hilariously on Flickr Bershon is a word that I’m pretty sure is not really a word at all, but my friend Erin and I, growing

Dave & Maddy with Mac the Moose Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. Because you can’t possibly go to Moose Jaw and not pose with Mac the Large Canadian Roadside Attraction, even

Toronto skyline, from the Ward’s Island ferry Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. Taken from the Ward’s Island to Hanlan’s Point ferry. Startling not to see the Royal York!

Courtesy of a colleague: Best government document titles ever! Includes the barnburners “Do you know oatmeal?” “Elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation : are we doing enough?” “Vitamin A in war

Dandelions for everyone Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. Maddy collected dandelions for everyone when we were in Vancouver last month — they look quite nice in that vase! More Vancouver photos

Mothball sniffing warning issued Doctors have warned teenagers about the dangers of sniffing mothballs after two teenagers fell ill through the habit. Mothballs? That’s even more lame than inhaling compressed

And of course the Coil video is on Youtube. Six and a half minutes long — not eight, as I had remembered, but still pretty darn long for a song

Laibach covering Sympathy for the Devil (mp3, about 11Mb, about eight minutes long) I giggled all the way to the subway listening to this one, and then happily filed it