The range of illumination:

It really is tubes!

The Telectroscope
Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel will finally be completed. Immediately afterwards, an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope will be installed at both ends which will miraculously allow people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.

One end of the tunnel emerges next to Tower Bridge on the banks of the Thames in London - the other is next to Brooklyn Bridge on the banks of New York's East River.
It looks like something HG Wells might have imagined.
Each end has a giant telescope-like construction which appears to punch its way out of the earth.

There are dials, and levers, and thermometer gauges on the side of the 20m long brass and wood construction.

Peer into it and you can see people on the other side of the Atlantic.

Wave at them, they wave back at you.

Write on the whiteboard, and ask a question, and they will write back.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7415911.stm
"...and for a moment, two groups of strangers, in two cities thousands of miles apart, jump up and down and smile at one another."

So I'm officially dating a Doctor now!

Congratulations, Faidra!

http://www.whencloverfieldhit.com
is the site we just launched. The premise is that you make a movie of what you were doing when the Cloverfield Critter hit New York.

Since I'm not in New York City, I figured the most obvious choice would be to be sitting, reading a book, perhaps sipping a glass of iced tea.
Maybe scratch my face, yawn, pick something from my teeth. I'd use the provided sound effects and music for perfect mundane things like turning on the tap in the bathroom, or my whiny cat begging for bits of tuna.

But...I don't think that's what they probably have in mind, and I'm disqualified from participating anyway.

Damn you dirty apes!

Resolution One:
I should buy Paparazzi Play Set and place it facing me on my desk at the new job. That way, I can feel like I'm a really famous Information Architect, and my adoring fans and press are following my every mood.

Resolution Two:
For all my fears and trepidations about leaving a place where I'm comfortable enough, making plenty of money and have a short commute...all for the sake of doing what I want to be doing :


Petty people and their petty pettiness almost got to me today, but you know...?
Fuck those people! Wanna have an adventure?

My Easter was better than yours.

Also, Minor Regeneration Spell.
Three years ago, Lee Spievack sliced off the tip of his finger in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane.

What happened next, Andrews reports, propelled him into the future of
medicine. Spievack's brother, Alan, a medical research scientist, sent him a
special powder and told him to sprinkle it on the wound.

"I powdered it on until it was covered," Spievack recalled.

To his astonishment, every bit of his fingertip grew back.

So a splendid dinner at Aria tonight with discussion of the hyperreal twisted off with an encounter with some members of The Upper Class who chatted with us, and it's not even contempt - they view everything as an experiment but without regard to conclusion or result. There is no class warfare in this sense, it's just another species altogether.

Also, metaphor is a system of example and illustration, not proof.

Also, dinner was really incredible.

Trying to whistle Aphex Twin in the office pisses off your co-workers to no end.

“What would you do if you knew that this was the last night of the world?”

“What would I do? You mean seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.”

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought.”
( Read more... )

The Monster Manual First Edition was right!

But someone brought up a good point:

Yeah?
Well if dolphins are so awesome, how come they live in igloos?

Claims that dolphins are exceedingly intelligent are increasingly brought into doubt due to their continued liking of humankind.