Steven Den Beste of  Chizumatic is rather under the weather. He's got some wretched thing called "uveitis", which seems to be an afliction of the eye that's damned scary and utterly sucks.

Go wish him the best.

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Dark Roasted Blend has scored an interview with the Sci-Fi /Fantasy author John C. Wright.

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Via Eaglespeak comes this humbling post from Commander Salamander.
It's short, read the whole thing.

Fortunes can be won and lost but honor can rarely be regained.

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This is deep.
Mabey...

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Astro, who like me is currently swamped with schoolwork,  has recently passed one of those little milestones that make ones life complete.

I did have an unique experience today - I saw my first furry. I thought these people were internet urban legends, but now I can confirm that they do indeed exist.

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Colleen Doran has opened a Cafe Press shop....


...go check it out!

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I've been the unpleasant combination of  jetlagged, sick, busy, and with no free cash since I got back from Japan.

Dial-up +megapixel camera= SUCK so pics will have to wait....in the meantime, as I throw in the towel on another day and crawl into bed after playing catch-up with what's been happening, here are some links from the last week or so that caught my eye today.

Murdoc linked to this.....then, no doubt, sought treatment for whiplash.

The Martian rovers are getting downright geriatric in probe years, but they survived the dust storm and are still going. More here. Heh...I love the '70s future font.

Via Rand Simberg...Lobes of Steel:

"Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain."...

 Jeff Goldstien has thoughts on the new book by Andrew Anthony.

Via Instapundit: At the American Thinker, Thomas Lifson has a must read piece on Arthur Millers secret son.....

Also via the blogfather...a worried leftie actually thinks to take 10 paragraphs articulately asking Whither the anti-totalitarian left?...which the Brickmuppet can answer in one sentence.

We call them neo-cons now.

 The always interesting EagleSpeak has a triple whammy of excellent posts, on the Goose Creek 2, the implications of NATO operations off East Africa, and a link to a thoughtful opinion on the Law of the Sea Treaty.

Colony Worlds posts on one of my favorite things, the prospect of settling what is likely to be the most habitable world in the solars system...no not Mars...Titan! There's a neat presentation on what Titainian music will sound like too! Darnell also relays a story about Space Devs idea for a lunar internet.

Via the Danger Room comes this neat post on flying subs....while I'd linked to a story about the preWW2 Russian idea before, this is MUCH more comprehensive....I never knew they'd gotten one to work!

Don runs the numbers on Potemayo and finds them wanting.

Anyone who loves comics needs to go to Allan Harvey's blog and scroll down at least once a week.  

 Well that's 4 of the unforgivable blog cliche's...

Lessee...if I link to that top10 list again that's 5....

oh......this'll do for 6.

 Thanks to Wonderduck 4 the screencap.

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...is not oil, nor diamonds nor gold.

It is your time.

My time is perpetually eaten by locusts, but, just in time for the new school year, Colleen Doran has finished a really good 4 part series of posts on time management.

These are reprints of an article she published some years ago and was linked to on my old blog. However, the post has been massively updated and expanded.

Part 1 is pretty straightforward with an update, part 2, adds about 2 pages of anecdotes regard reactions to part 1 before it actually begins....read those though...they are telling...#3, is the shortest but in many ways the most pertinant to many of us in college and  4, is geared most closely to artists.

Note that if there are any aspiring artists amongst my..er..legions of readers...her blog is a treasure trove of useful advice.

For any others who, like me, lead Walter Mitty lifestyles, it is interspersed with moments of high weirdness and drama...that for some might be....cautionary tales.

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Shamus...still recovering from his surgery ...now has  a line of merchandise available for sale.

Go buy one for the DM!

(I'm sure he'll slip you 50 XPs)

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Don is perpetuating crimes against music.
Astro comments on the importance of comments.
Satharn has thoughts on various categories of friends.
SDB links to an example of a productive self-realization.
Wonderduck points to this inside look at  Malaysian Radio.
Colleen Doran is on lockdown...but in rather pleasant surroundings.
PulpJunkie has listed upcoming TCM movies with useful commentary.
Wind's oversold but this is cute... also, bioroid boogers & budgetballoonin'

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 In fact he's even managed a blog post (which would seem to bode well). At least it bodes better than the tooth he broke after surgery...or the grafitti vandals infesting the O.R.....no really....sort of...read the whole thing and send your good  wishes!

      

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. ...who is getting his gall bladder removed tonight.

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Astro has revamped his site. Go check him out!

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Brood 13 is upon us!

Well upon Wonderduck anyway....

  We do have some big cicada outbursts in select counties every 13 to 17 years. This year we are supposed to get a very localized big one (up near Luray I think).

Actually we have cicadas every year in Virginia because of staggered hibernation periods and these "dog day cicadas" are bigger than most!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!! Here in Virginia we also get jellyfish infestations!
Hundred degree heat with 100% humidity in August! We have icestorms, snowstorms and we're just far enough north to get some of the worst 'Nor'Easters'! We get hurricanes! We get tornadoes! We even get earthquakes! (YES WE DO TOO!) In the fine clay soils of the mountains we get frost heaves, we get avalanches and like everyone, we get floods, and forest fires and we've got six species of poisonous snakes (OK 4 are rattlesnakes...but one, the cottonmouth, is one of the most aggressive venomous snakes in the world!) , yellow jackets,  alligators, sandspurs, PeTANs black widows, brown recluses and fire ants plus we occasionally get red tides!



So I would not get all worked up about the return of the cicadas...if ...

.....If it didn't coincide with the return of Rachel Lucas to blogging, where she gives unsolicited advice to guys who use dating sites....which I'd think is a lost cause, but....)
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL not one but 2 posts by Bill Whittle who's not been blogging for months! He gives another of his literate, rational and inspirational screeds ...er...and then suggest we move into virtual reality and start a utopian community to get away from the bad people.....I'll...er...think about that...

As if that wasn't disturbing enough.. in comment 5 to this post Habib explains EVERYTHING!!
(thanks to Phil Bowmeister  for the last pointer)

Something is up...
(duck, cover, all that)

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Wow, the Anchoress has had a raging linky fit....

Actually the Anchoress has a remarkably interesting blog that I'd neglected blogrolling. Agree or disagree, she's generally thought provoking without being mean or insulting.

A case in point is this piece on the implications of Bloomberg's mooted 3rd Party run. I agree with her that it is really too early to pay any mind to the '08 race, my God, I've got a life afterall* , but after the Perot fiasco, the implications of this are somewhat scary.

But....it is way to fricking early to be worrying about presidential campaigns.


* (full disclosure: I'm an undergraduate, unattached otaku...so I don't actually have a life)

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