Animal Impressions (1): Tom impersonates a bunny rabbit (2.2Mb). Animal Impressions (2): Tom impersonates a monkey (2.4Mb).
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As Ben Folds [weblog] might have said had he taken a different career path:
“I’m rocking the net now,
Just like Jason Kottke did.
I’m rocking the net now,
Except that he was talented.”
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On The Autopsy…
If you read one thing today, make sure it’s this – it’s the kind of article that uncovers a hidden part of the world – it gives you a sense of what is happening just below the surface. One of the most important articles that Barbelith has published to date: The Autopsy – “Someone points out that your blood oranges-and-balsamic vinegar salad looks like a tub of organs. You laugh. It is well known that your colleagues will die young; that’s the way it is. You do not think about who will have to do their autopsies. Brooke Magnanti works in the death industry.”
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On American remakes…
From an e-mail:
Universal Pictures announced today they plan to make a film of the momentous football match that took place on Saturday. “Five-One” is the tentative title of what could be next year’s big summer hit, depicting the American national soccer team’s stunning victory over Germany.
Nicholas Cage heads an all star cast as the captain of the brave US Soccer team haunted by the trauma of losing in the 2000 World Cup final on penalties and the death of his wife in a riot caused by English football hooligans, and finds love in the arms of a female sports journalist played by Julia Roberts. Mel Gibson is the no-nonsense Swedish coach who leads them to glory, with Keanu Reeves, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Will Smith playing some of Cage’s heroic team mates.
Jeremy Irons is set to star as Sir Nigel Villiers-Smythe, the dastardly Englishman who coaches the German team and forces them to play with poisoned-tipped studs to try and cheat the heroic American team out of victory. Director Steven Spielberg defended the film-makers’ decision to focus on the American contribution to the victory over Germany and the inaccurate & even imagined events in the story, saying, “Obviously we’ve had to take some artistic licence to make the story work on film, but I hope that what we produce will be true to the spirit of what happened on that famous night.”
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Think of me fondly…
“When it comes to huge openings, a lot of people think of me.”
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The world's first cookies…
“Mr. Montulli’s first description of cookies can still be found on Netscape’s Web site. The document describes how a relatively few bits of text can perform tasks like identifying a visitor, tracking the items he is preparing to buy and setting a date for the cookie to be destroyed. In a whimsical example drawn from Saturday morning cartoons, Mr. Montulli displayed a cookie that might be set on a customer’s computer by the fictional Acme Corporation: Cookie: CUSTOMER=WILEE COYOTE; PARTNUMBER= ROCKETLAUNCHER0001” [link]
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On the "Electric Telescope"…
On the “Electric Telescope”: “I have read with interest the letter (No. 15374) of Mr Redmond in your last number. Though not an electrician, the possibility of transmitting images – built up, as it were, of a number of points – by means of a number of circuits, each containing selenium at the receiving end, as suggested by your correspondent, occurred to myself a short time since.” English Mechanic and World of Science no726, 21 February 1879 [link].
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Davo's back from foreign parts…
An afternoon’s excitement: Davo is finally back from ‘forn parts’ and has taken the day off to explore the wonderful world of dossery. We have decided to go play at Moulin Rouge this afternoon at Swiss Cottage. If you’re unemployed or lazy, why don’t you join us? We’ll be wearing fake moustaches and Groucho Marx eyebrows and eating too much sugar.
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A depressive weblogger…
God, how embarrassing. Apparently I’m getting back my reputation as a depressive weblogger. Quick. Urgent. Think of something fun to write about.
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Is Christianity vanquished in the UK?
I haven’t believed in god for over fifteen years now.
I was thirteen when my little brother was born. My mother had come into the TV room and sat me down on the tan sofa and asked me how I’d feel about having a little brother or sister. I said that I didn’t want one. My mother looked slightly perturbed and said that I was going to have one anyway. I remember not being entirely thrilled by the news.
By the time my brother was born I was totally excited by the idea. My mother went into labour early in the morning and I was woken up by her smiling beatifically at the end of the bed ad patting her bulge and telling me to get ready. I couldn’t have been more excited. I got into my school uniform and we drove into Norwich, where we went and made sure my mother was comfortable. Then my father drove me into school and then, for some ungodly reason, went to work.
I remember talking to my friends about the new arrival during lunch break, standing on the doorsteps of Norwich Cathedral. But somehow, by the time school had ended, I’d completely forgotten about it. It was only the sight of a friend of my mother’s waiting to pick me up that reminded me. We went and bought a teddy bear for my little brother and drove to the hospital to see him.
Months later, he was to be Christened. I had never been Christened – my life had been so disorganised and random in my earlier years that no one had gotten around to it. It had become a badge of honour to me in some ways. Everyone I knew had been Christened – I was special, weird, a thirteen-year-old rationalist philosopher surrounded by superstition and madness. But despite taking pride in it, I’d never really thought about whether there actually was a god or not. When my mother said that she would like it if I got Christened along with my brother, I was forced to think about it for the first time. And I was horrified. I just didn’t believe it all. It seemed so ridiculous. Such a ludicrous proposition. It just didn’t make any sense. Nonetheless, bowing to parental pressure I went through with the ceremony, feeling awkward and hypocritical all the way through.
Yesterday the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, declared that Christianity was ‘almost vanquished in the UK’ [BBC News]. He said that people in Britain were now seemingly indifferent to Christian values and the Church. To me this can only be a positive sign. Whatever else might be lacking in people’s lives, they no longer feel that the mystical texts of another people half a world away and thousands of years old can patch up that hole. To me it seems like they’ve all been set free.