sheldrake

There's something about this clarification from Wikipedia that's immensely satisfying, don't you think?

Second Life. This article is about a virtual world. For the theory of multiple lives, see Reincarnation. For the process of cryopreserving legally dead persons for eventual reanimation, see Cryonics.

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

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This article about Geoff Ryman's short story, Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter and about morality in fiction, is very interesting. I recommend reading the story first though.

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Eating was good yesterday. It involved pies, pasties, chocolate cake, iced buns, gravy, roast potatoes, green beans, red wine. Not all at once, obviously.

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Does anybody know why the hell I am so damn lazyy?

Well, not really a big old rant. I just wanted to have a go at explaining why the forthcoming film of The Dark is Rising makes me boil with incoherent rage. First, imagine a book you really care about. Then imagine they're talking about the movie adaptation of that book in the following quotes:

( Cut for the many people who probably don't care )

American Red Cross

From the Guardian:

'I'm just glad I saw it'

New Orleans was the city of jazz, Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, the place where the US Bible Belt came unbuckled. Former New York Times editor Howell Raines laments the destruction of the Big Easy, and asks: why did President Bush do so little in response?

(unrelated)

One side can be wrong

Accepting 'intelligent design' in science classrooms would have disastrous consequences, warn Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne

(unrelated again)

I had not thought Death Eaters had undone so many.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Poet

I lied. I do have something to say. I just drank some seriously out-of-date chocolate milk.

The more I hear about this book-banning guy in Alabama, the further my jaw drops. For instance:

Cutting off funds to theatre departments that put on A Chorus Line or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may look like censorship, and smell like censorship, but "it's not censorship", Allen hastens to explain. "For instance, there's a reason for stop lights. You're driving a vehicle, you see that stop light, and I hope you stop."

...

Would Allen's bill cut off state funding for Shakespeare?

"Well," he begins, after a pause, "the current draft of the bill does not address how that is going to be handled. I expect details like that to be worked out at the committee stage. Literature like Shakespeare and Hammet [sic] could be left alone." Could be. Not "would be". In any case, he says, "you could tone it down".

I mean ... w t bloody f-ing f? Frankly I've got reservations about letting this man out on his own, forget going around introducing bills and stuff. But...

Earlier this week, Allen got a call from Washington. He will be meeting with President Bush on Monday. I asked him if this was his first invitation to the White House. "Oh no," he laughs. "It's my fifth meeting with Mr Bush."

So there you go. Not a joke, apparently.

From The Guardian. Link thanks to crazybutsound.

Chris Weitz on adapting Philip Pullman's trilogy for the screen (thanks to Kia for the link).

I have to say, I'm really, really bloody impressed.

Um, bababa... what was I going to say? Oh yes.

rochefort brings to my attention this interview with Susan Cooper, which I don't think I've read before. Or if I have my brain has long since erased it to make room for random facts about boring things. It looks very interesting, although I haven't read it all yet.

Why is Yahoo so crap?

Eh... can't think of anything to say really. I'll stop bothering you now.

Let's try posting in the right journal, shall we?

Anyway. I got this from lebannen, who can't remember where she got it from. It's Paul Bettany interviewing Heath Ledger. They talk about Ned Kelly and a little bit about gay cowboys, woo!
Heath: "I'm going to wrangle a wrangler."

*salivates just the tiniest bit*

*crosses fingers that Jake Gyllenhaal will, indeed, be the wrangler in question*

Stop typing inside asterisks!

Tut. I apparently can't shut up today. Back later I'm afraid.

Ugh. I thought this cold was going away, but today I feel as though someone's poured glue into my head.

Good stuff in the Observer this week: I'm completely fascinated by Grayson Perry, the transvestite potter nominated for the Turner Prize. Also, I think I need Nigel Slater's book. Here he talks about food and sex.

Haven't done much this morning. Went to the Co-op -- the girl putting the vegetables out was giving me evil looks. Helped galactic_jack plan lessons, which was fun, more so because I don't have to teach any of them.

( My dream about shape-shifting dinosaurs -- PG-13 for disturbing imagery )

Politician slash

Interesting article in today's Observer, about Stephen Frears' new film, The Deal, which is about the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Ooh, the intrigue!

Given the current disclosure of intimate emails and the level of semantic quibbling about the Government's veracity, I wonder if he had any qualms about producing a knowingly fictional version of real events. Was he worried about the boundaries between truth and rumour? 'In this kind of thing,' he says, with some certainty, 'you just have to draw your own line, trust your own judgment or else you would go mad.'

Blair/Brown/Mandelson - my new OT3.

( Boring )

Do you think you’d be as compelling to people without the speculation?
Everyone has the things that they find interesting about someone else. The subject of sexuality doesn’t scare me. I find it funny. I find it entertaining. I think every straight man has the capability to have sex with another man. Don’t you agree?

I think every gay man views straight men as "get-able."
It’s true. It happens a lot, doesn’t it?

Robbie Williams in The Advocate