Tag: friends

I have the best friends

I came home this evening from work and found a box from Amazon.com! A big surprise, of course! I quickly opened it to find “The Beak of the Finch” by Jonathan Weiner, sent to me as a gift from Rebecca!

This book (already added to my allconsuming.net list on the right) is a book I’ve been wanting to read for years. I first came across a copy in a bookstore back when I was still an undergrad student. The price was beyond what I could afford then but I made up my mind that I had to read the book. I never did find it again (in a library or elsewhere) and so I was always recommending the book to friends without ever having read it myself! And now finally I can and goddamn! I’ve been right to recommend this book! 😀

Oh, I didn’t really say what the book was about, did I? Well, on the Galapagos islands, where Darwin collected many specimens on his voyage on the Beagle, are found 13 species of finches (also known as Darwin’s finches as he was the first person to collect the specimens.) Now due to the weirdness (even to a biologist) of island biogeography, populations of animals and plants on islands like this evolve at a fairly quick rate. Therefore a detailed, systematic study of any such population should give you all the real data to show evolution on the march! And that is what “The Beak of the Finch” documents along with a very well written exposition on Darwin’s theory with all the requisite history to fill in the spaces.

Read this book!

Getting shifty

James and I had a bit of a chat today and he’s been considering reviving the shiftx blog.

We spent some time hashing out so called “straplines” and couldn’t agree on anything nor find anything as catchy as Metafilter‘s “more addictive than crack.”

In any case, it’s meant to be an “eXtreme weblog” or a “hardcore weblog.” Right. Stop that giggling you. I’d suggest you take a look at what’s on there first.

I’ve been added as an author there although I’m not sure when, if ever, and what I’d be posting there.

Blog crawl

That’s what my posting frequency has slowed down to. So, to fill in the silence, here’s a couple of entries from my friends’ blogs.

First up, from Heidi‘s blog, Katya’s cooking show!

Next, a link I have shamelessly stolen from James at Nomen Luni.

And if that weren’t enough, I’m even stealing most of the text of his entry.

Field is comprised of 1,300 unwired fluorescent tubes in a grassy field in Bristol. The piece, by artist Richard Box, warns of the dangers of living in proximity to electricity pylons: the tubes glow from the power of the electromagnetic field created by 400kV overhead cables. More worrying, were you to approach a tube, you’d find that its glow fades because the human body is the more efficient conductor. The resulting installation has an unreal quality—so much so that photographs of Box’s work look almost as though they have been fabricated.

I found this idea incredibly cool and not really worrying. It would be interesting to to see the patterns of glow fading or brightening up if, for instance, a few people were dancing amongst the tubes. How’s that for changing this installation art to performance art? 🙂

On a totally unrelated note, I’d gotten very tired of hearing people arguing needlessly over the Presidential Daily Brief (WashingtonPost.com, free registration required I think.) Tom Tomorrow has an interesting point to make on that.

And now to more mundane and not so fun things. I have deleted my orkut and LiveJournal accounts as they seemed to be more troublesome than necessary. Abrupt yes, but what has to be done has to be done.

The Panda’s Thumb

I decided to skim through the blogs of my GNE contacts today and was reading Outis‘ blog and came across this post.

The post speaks of The Panda’s Thumb, a community blog “dedicated to explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution movement, and defending the integrity of science and science education in America and around the world.”

Great reading, go visit there NOW!!

Doing my bit (as usual, ;-)) I have duly added in a badge into my navbar on the right.

w00t!!

So then… I heckled Arul into creating an LJ account. And surprsingly he agreed rather easily and even posted there today!!

Typical Arul vitriol, but ever so funny and relevant! I love it… I just hope he keeps up with the momentum. That way, it assures me of some good reading every few days!

I’m on LiveJournal

I created a LiveJournal account today. Not because I’m moving my blog there, but just so I can comment on my friends’ journals there. The only post on my LJ is a link back here. So in order to be complete, and totally self-referential, here’s a link to my LJ.

My user id is oooky, feel free to add me in as a friend! 🙂

A new friend?

The other reason I feel better today, is that I’ve had a fun coversation with someone through their livejournal comments. I stumbled upon Roopa’s LJ [link removed] by following a link from someone in orkut, to their journal, to a comment posted by her, and to her journal.

You can follow that thread here [link removed].

So Roopa, if you’re reading this, thanks! You helped cheer me up today, despite the fact that you were “pissed OFF! [link removed]” Oh and my name is A*****. Pleased to meet you! 🙂

updated: 05-15-2004, Roopa knows my name now, so I’ve removed it from this post! And the link to her LJ too. 🙂