Living In the World, Not on It

I was enthralled by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which has exceeded all of my expectations. I was not a huge fan of Lawrence Fishbourne (not his acting ability as much as the genre of characters and movies; he played angry people or just plain scary ones) and while a show should be good enough on its own merits to survive a major character change, very often it doesn't work out. In this case, though, parting with Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle), Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown) was good for the show and I was tired of the drama in the characters, the loss of William Peterson as Gil Grissom was really a rather unpleasant surprise. I really was not sure how it would work out. As it happens it has worked out beautifully. Yes, I do miss the humour of Gil Grissom; but the producers did not replace William Peterson with another William Peterson or another Gil Grissom and this often is where shows fatally stumble. Instead, Lawrence Fishbourne brings his own wonderful quirks to the character and has...

Saturday 9: Letting the Sparks Fly 1. Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity? I can do that anywhere. There is always something to write about, you know. 2. What would be one thing that would embarrass you a great deal? Um... showing up naked in a classroom? Haven't you ever had that nightmare? So weird and completely disconcerting. 3. What values did your parents instill in you? Many of them, but honesty and being true to yourself is high on the list. 4. What’s a fad of your teen years that you remember well? From the 1980s? Good gods... too many! Big hair is the worst. I did not go for that. 5. What is your favorite breakfast? Salt bagel, lightly buttered with hot Lady Grey or Ceylon tea. 6. What is the best birthday gift that you have received? Ooooohhh, I don't know... that is a tough one. Oh, wait! This laptop! This by and far gets the most use. 7. What gadget could you not live without? Well, that is too easy - my iPod! 8. Do you collect anything? Oh, w...

I couldn't think how else to word this one. So here is the explanation. Do you remember when Big Tobacco lost that lawsuit? Billions in reparations (that, naturally, will never get paid), sanctions and of course, the false advertising campaigns by the tobacco companies to tout how bad smoking really is for anyone. Uh- huh . Do you believe for a moment that Philip Morris actually gave up its dream of tobacco-use world domination? Don't bet on it. I certainly wouldn't place that bet. I know how corporations think all too well - get 'em hooked, and do it while they are young to make it all the harder to stop later. Now bring in the sugar/corn refinement companies. I was leafing through People Magazine , my guilty pleasure. (I gravitate to National Geographic and Discover , so admitting to reading People seems rather plebian... but I can honestly say I read it for the valuable articles, not the "dirt" on famous and/or rich people.) While looking through the one ...

The Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event was the large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time, approximately 65.5 million years ago (mya). It is associated with a geological signature, usually a thin band dated to that time and found in various parts of the world, known as the K–T boundary . The event marks the end of the Mesozoic Era, and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era. Non- avian dinosaur fossils are only found below the K–T boundary and became extinct immediately before or during the event. Mosasaurs , plesiosaurs , pterosaurs and many species of plants and invertebrates also became extinct. Mammalian and bird clades passed through the boundary with few extinctions, and radiation from those Maastrichtian clades occurred well past the boundary. Many scientists theorize that the K-T extinctions were caused by one or more catastrophic events such as massive asteroid impacts or increased volcanic activity . Several im...

Just for Nancy: The Solar System or solar system consists of the Sun and the other celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets , their 165 known moons , three dwarf planets ( Ceres , Pluto , and Eris and their four known moons), and billions of small bodies . This last category includes asteroids , Kuiper belt objects, comets , meteoroids , and interplanetary dust . In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun, four terrestrial inner planets, an asteroid belt composed of small rocky bodies, four gas giant outer planets, and a second belt, called the Kuiper belt , composed of icy objects. Beyond the Kuiper belt lies the scattered disc , the heliopause , and ultimately the hypothetical Oort cloud . In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury , Venus , Earth , Mars , Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune . Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites , usually termed "moons...

Dafydd ap Gruffydd (or Dafydd ap Gruffudd) ( 11 July 1238 – 3 October 1283 ), was Prince of Wales from 11 December 1282 until his execution on 3 October 1283. Following the murder of his brother, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd , he was the last free Welsh ruler of Wales . Early life He was a Prince of Gwynedd , a younger son of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn and his wife, Senana, and thus grandson of Llywelyn the Great . In 1241 he is recorded as having been handed over to Henry III of England as a hostage together with his younger brother, Rhodri , as part of an agreement. He came of age under Welsh law on 11 July 1252, his fourteenth birthday, and was invested, in front of his mother Senana and the Bishop of Bangor , as Lord of the commote of Cymydmaen, at the outer reaches of the Llŷn Peninsula . In 1253 he was called upon to pay homage to King Henry III of England . In 1255 , he joined his brother Owain in a challenge to his other brother, Llywelyn, but Llywelyn defeated them at the Battle o...

...that facilitating, or "grease" payments to foreign officials, unlike bribes , are lawful under U.S. law , but still considered to be questionable from the point of view of business ethics ? (More Wikipedia goodies!) Why am I not surprised? Why is this not that shocking? So bribery is illegal but "grease" payments are not. Well, well. Sounds like a law that needs some serious re-thinking. Clearly this is completely unethical but why is it not outright illegal? I can't pay off the government to keep the H-2B visa programs in place, but companies or exceedingly wealthy people can pay off other companies to do their bidding or keep something bad in place? How is this right? I'd say write your local government, or your congressman, but they are likely delighted that this sort of thing is legal, since they potentially stand to benefit from it!

Since we are now in my absolute favourite time of the year, here is something of interest: The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China 's Zhou Dynasty . In Malaysia , Taiwan , and Singapore , it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or "Mooncake Festival", which is just the same as "Mid-Autumn Festival" but with different names. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late- September in the Gregorian calendar ), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar . This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake , of which there are many different varieties. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most im...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Shocking! ": I wrote the 'Lick Me In The Ass' article, and I'm also the guy who chooses the featured articles you see every day. I'm glad to hear you liked them both. - Mark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raul654 Wel, Mark, you certainly rival and surpass me for useless but cool knowledge!

Early morning mist clings to the hills southeast of Ensay, Victoria , Australia . The township is named after the now-unpopulated island of Ensay in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland . "Ensay" is a Gaelic translation for Jesus . I don't care what this is called, I want to be there! How gorgeous is that? And you know I won't say that easily when I have the most glorious views from my own workplace!

I had to laugh when I saw this. How many teens did I know weeding my way through the mid-pubescent torture that is known as high school did I know into Dungeons & Dragons? This is from the age of paper, 4, 6. 10, 20 and 100-sided dice that you rolled to determine your supremacy in this or that field or fracas. I used to make fun of them in a kindly fashion (most of them were my friends, too, as I was a social outcast as well), and they did invite me to try it - once. Unfortunately, my love of details derailed my interest in this game way too much. I also wanted to know what the characters couldn't have sex. I was around 18 when I tried it. This is a game better suited to boys who still think that girls have cooties. Now, of course, all this is mostly in the annals of history with the advent of "Worlds of WarCraft", "Ultima Online", and sundry other online games and some still just for the stand-alone computer. Luis has tried them all and guess what. I wasn...