I haven't quoted Nick Carr in way too long

So here is something from a recent blog entry:
The quality of any entry in Wikipedia, for instance, is ultimately determined not by how many people work on it but by how many talented people work on it. An entry written by a single expert will be better than an entry written by a hundred fools. When you look deeply into Wikipedia, beyond the shiny surface of "community," you see that the encyclopedia is actually as much, or more, a product of conflict than of collaboration: It's an endless struggle by a few talented contributors to clean up the mess left by the numbskull horde.

Heart warming story

A pair of brothers has been sending each other the same birthday card for 42 years.
Each time the now-laminated card is sent, the brothers add messages to it. The small messages combine to make a sort of abridged family history. When the writing space on the card was used up, the brothers began attaching hand-written notes to the card. Over the years, the envelope has grown in thickness, with six small note pages attached to the original.

A Komodo dragon virgin birth

From the Pakistani Daily Times comes the joyful news that Sungai the Komodo dragon has given birth. The question, though, is "how did it happen?"
But Sungai laid the fertilised eggs before even meeting her British lover — and the last time she is known to have had intercourse was two years ago, with another Thoiry Komodo dragon called Kinaam. Thoiry founder Paul de la Panouse told AFP that there were two possible answers to the riddle.
As an aside, I'm amused at the Komodo dragon's rather gruesome method of killing prey, infecting them with the stew of bacteria in the dragon’s thick, copious saliva—bacteria virulent enough to infect and kill deer, goats, water buffalo and other creatures unfortunate enough to get bitten by the drooling reptile.

Beer bottle in bird's nest

Beer bottle in bird's nest
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

Taken way back when. I suspect that the beer is Castle Lager.

O.T.O. news

Grand Lodge of Australia chartered.

Wonderful Arthur C. Clarke quote

that I hadn't seen before:
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert
Thanks AaronLawrence

truckkitty1

truckkitty1
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

So cute! Mattress looks kinda grimy, though.

Zupan's is fine with me

Usually I don't write suggestion letters to companies, but I did write one to Zupan's recently. I was extremely impressed by their responsiveness, getting a reply from both their Owner and their Director of Marketing. Zupan's obviously cares about their customers, and that is very gratifying.

Mike Salovesh, Anthropologist, passes on

Michael Z. Salovesh, a retired professor of anthropology who spent nearly three decades at NIU, died Wednesday, Dec. 7, at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Baltimore, just two days prior to the death of his new bride, Louana M. Lackey. He was 74.

I took a few classes with Dr. Salovesh in the early '90s, when I was a graduate student at NIU. He was a charming, funny, level-headed chap. RIP, Mike.

Link to full obit.

How I love 5ives

Take a look at Merlin's Five suggested Flickr tags.

Interesting case of cannibalism

Relgionnewsblog reports on an interesting case of cannibalism in India:
"Our investigations revealed the pair exhumed the body on Friday and after lopping off its head they devoured its heart, liver and other soft organs, thinking the act would give them with immense powers," Jaunpur police chief Abhay Kumar Prasad said.
"We have also found the half-eaten headless corpse after interrogating these two men," Mr Prasad said.

Goofy Young Mick - 1992 NIU dorm

Goofy Young Mick - 1992 NIU dorm
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

Drinking gluwein

verlorenvlei9
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

This photo didn't scan too well, but it's a favourite. Young hippy Mick drunk from drinking gluwein (that's whats in the big pot.)

Memories: the Chicken Pot Pie

When I was younger, and still living in South Africa, I did a lot of hitch hiking. I didn't have a car of my own and by and large hitch hiking was a dependable way to get around. I had a few incidents, but not many. Some amusing, some less so. Here's one of the amusing ones.
I was hiking back from my sister's place in Table View to the flat in Milnerton where I was living with my mother. I got a ride from a young gent, who was eating a pot pie as he drove. (I must pause to say that pot pies in South Africa are usually one hell of a lot tastier than American ones.)
He had another one, a chicken pot pie, and offered it to me. I was touched. I said something like, "Gosh, it's not often that someone will just give you a pot pie."
"Well," he said, "you get nothing for nothing."
I wasn't so much shocked as his proposition as amused that he thought me so cheap. A pot pie? You've got to be kidding. But I just answered, "Umm... never mind."
He continued to try to convince me to "go out for a drink" with him, but I was steadfast. I got back to my flat and we parted ways. But he let me keep the pot pie after all. Nice of him.

Very cool indeed: multisided dice from Thinkgeek

In bone, hematite, and brushed steel.

Inbox Zero

Like me, you probably get many emails a day, and there is the danger of getting behind and overwhelmed. 43 Folders Inbox Zero series is for you.

The Beast on Google Scholar

Search for 'Aleister Crowley' on Google Scholar and you find some interesting papers apart from the usual books. Here are a few that I haven't yet read and that look intriguing:

The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Aleister Crowley and the Magical Exploration of Edwardian Subjectivity. Alex Owen. Journal of British Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan., 1997) , pp. 99-133

Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley and British Intelligence in America, 1914-1918. Richard B. Spence. International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. Volume 13, Number 3 / October 1, 2000.

The Neverendingly Told Story: recent biographies of Aleister Crowley. Marco Pasi. Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism. Volume 3, Number 2. July 2003

Another list of Social Software

Here. But is Google Web 2.0?