Since Stacey’s didn’t have volume 18 in the Aubrey-Maturin series handy, I picked up a couple of other Patrick O’Brian’s, including The Golden Ocean. This novel was written earlier (1956) than the series which made the author famous, but it’s in print now thanks to his other success. The Golden Ocean is a historical rewrite…

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The kids and wife have been out of town all week. Life is different on your own, running your schedule without accounting for other people. That doesn’t include the office, of course, but I avoided spending all my extra time at work. Phew. My mania for consuming media — so much easier than creating it…

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I won’t be filling any aggregators for a while. Back in a while.

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Reuters gives the article a less provocative title, but “Gene Blocker Turns Monkeys Into Workaholics – Study” is really about procrastination. “The gene knockdown triggered a remarkable transformation in the simian work ethic. Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal,” he added. I know we’re 97% the…

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After reviewing a political map presented proportionally to electoral votes, I can only think a few thoughts. First, California is so damn big, in so many ways. Second, I do hope that predictions of “blue” victory work out. Third, my vote might “count” for more if it were not in California. Fourth, applying maps to…

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(to the tune of “I want my TV” … think Sting pitching in for Mark Knopfler and the rest of Dire Straits) Robert Andrews weighs in on the vigorous debate (hope that link works… the online-news mailing list archive is not easily linkable) with his thoughts on registration frustration. My response? He’s proposing something that…

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Testing something… sorry about the nonsense.

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…but I’ll hope that my credit cards are not yet among the public. With a name like John Roberts, I’m a ripe enough target for identity theft as it is. Article is at CNET News.com, by Rob Lemos.

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Looks like a doozy of a map collection, especially since it needs specialized viewers… GIS is a whole technology subset I know very little about, but the end product is fascinating. The ever-increasing detail in which we think we can represent something is fractal; the deeper you dive, the more you realize you can never…

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Jonathan Delacour provides an Australian perspective to all the flag-waving in an American election year. Lots of refreshing viewpoints and facts, with a few jolts along the way, like this: the United States: …accounts for 5 per cent of the world’s population, 20 per cent of the world economy, and fully 50 per cent of…

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