Fridtjof Nansen rocks

No, really he does. He had an awesome life, and he won a nobel prize. Plus he came up with the Nansen bottle. He's a hero's hero.

Introduction to Physical Oceanography

Hmm... lecture notes from Marine Sciences 1 at the Flinders University of South Australia in Adelaide. "Not a substitue for a proper textbook," but probably interesting all the same.

Timur-lane

So there was this fourteenth century Asiatic-nomadic-turkic conqueror fellow called Timur, which means 'iron,' and he was lame, which coagulates into Tamerlane. His father, Taraghai, was the first of their tribe to convert to Islam. He joined a monastery and advised his son that "the world is a beautiful vase filled with scorpions." Timur took this to heart, and set out to conquer and crush Central Asia from Russia to India to the Ottoman Empire, and was going after China when, at the ripe old age of 69, he took ill and died.

More photos

This set was interesting too. Mostly ad concepts, looks like. Some were oddly disturbing, some just odd. And the question here: are they soft, or hard plastic?
...I have to stop now

Photolicious

So I found some photos at fishki.net. I found this one strangely compelling. Apparently some people collect random photos. And this is pretty, even if it is just a photo of stained glass created by someone else.
I guess it makes perfect sense that the web contains an enormous proliferation of photoblogs. Myself, I'm scared. I take so few pictures that each and every decent one is precious to me.

Jellyfish are super awesome

Faster than the blink of an eye, or a speeding bullet... it's the sting of a jellyfish. NPR science correspondent Joe Palca reports on new research that reveals how fast jellyfish stingers move on their targets.

Bacon Pie

My boyfriend told me to make him a bacon pie. This is a variation on the 'go bake me a pie'/'what am I going to make this pie out of?' conversation that we have every week.

Hawaii Five-O

So occasionally, when kayaking, guests make some comment about Hawaii Five-O. I was raised without television and the last season aired two years before I was born, so I don't get it, but I took the time to look it up and it must have something to do with the closing credits, 'cause Wikipedia says 'The closing credits repeated the theme music over a short film of either some outrigger canoeists battling the surf or the top of a motorcycle unit...'

From the GDR, with Love

Anika, a founding member of PiPiPi, is in Germany. At least for a little while longer. And she found someone's really cool photo project.

Lactic Acid

According to the New York Times, Professor George A. Brooks at UC Berkeley is redefining the way exercise physiologists think about lactic acid.

Contra-ception

Just in case you were interested in a brief history of IUDs, or of birth control in general, or the long-haul well-written option from Planned Parenthood. IUDs may have been ispired by Arabs inserting various things into she-camels to keep them from getting pregnant on long caravans: stones, apricot pits, bits of copper... The Planned Parenthood article claims it's just a legend, and there certainly don't seem to be any hard sources.

And, also with no listed sources, four percent of American women own no undergarments.

Scrabble Score

Now I wish I had an X or a Z in my name, which is obviously made up of very common letters, and would get me nowhere in a cut-throat game of Scrabble.

Ah, Russian house!

State Park

No one should piss this freely, but I do.
O bunting egg, O Lord.
Thank you keeping the grasses evil and smooth.
The park ranger is female.
She wears a stiff green ranger outfit over her leotard of soft yeti hair.
She gave me a formal warning.
She gave me Bob Kaufman by the fire.
In twilight tasks preceeding new arrivals, she gave me this site dilated
by force.
A site thinking for itself, all by itself.
O deep in the hurry penultimate screw.

Peter Richards

Seattle History

If you wanted to know about Seattle's history, www.historylink.org has lots of articles on things like, say, Alki.

Gergely Kiss

His name is not pronounced how you think, because he's from Hungary. Even though I missed it (the logistics of travel between Seattle and Connecticut having defeated me), his senior recital looks like it was awesome.

SIMoN says

Sweet! A whole website about the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, with a photodatabase of cool things like invertebrates. I found it looking for info on Stylasterias forreri, the fish-eating star. Sadly no photos of the actual eating. But this is a sea star with extra long and pointy pedicellariae, used for snagging the unwary. After that I suppose they do the usual eversion of the stomach.

Doomsday Clock

Ever wondered how close atomic scientists think we are to blowing ourselves into little bits? Check the Doomsday Clock.

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off...
and we will all be blown away!

Bovine Fistulation

As per wikipedia, a fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between organs or vessels that normally do not connect.
Apparently agricultural research to determine digestion rates of different types of feed is performed on cows with "windows." Insert your own (w)hole milk/hol(e)y cow jokes here.
The other question is, would you do the same to your head?

Turkmenbashi

Everyone loves Turkmenbashi. My boyfriend aspires to be a 'bashi when he grows up. It's all about the hair. Or maybe it's his spiritual guidance that provokes people to make him giant shoes...

The Crazy House

It isn't exactly a yellow house, but I do live with Rebecca and Kelly, who has been known to walk around in her underwear and ballet shoes.

Exploding Dog

Surely you know explodingdog.com, but this one is my favorite.

Coxswain

Certain people will always be able to direct my movements with great precision. Dana is one of them. (The other two are both named Amy.)

Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema

There's a new journal starting up in the UK. Maybe they'd want to publish my thesis.

Wilderness First Responder

When will I have time to take a course here, or here, or here? How about here or here or even here?

Emergency contraception

Sometimes I worry, and the internet doesn't make me feel better.

MUD

I used to play online all the time.

Cheburashka

Cheburashka is going to be a feature film in Japan. Soyuzmultfilm, soon to reach Disneyesque proportions?

Making friends and influencing people

I've had effects I didn't even realize at the time...

WA State Flower

In 1892 the women of Washington State chose... the rhododendron!