Rants and Raves

The purpose of this section is to provide a repository for rants and raves, interesting essays, and anything else we find interesting.

• Mind-boggling anamorphic pavement drawings by British artist Julian Beever.  Keep in mind that these are drawn with colored chalk--to be washed away by the first rain. 
   
• The famous photograph from the Marciano-Walcott fight lives again.  (23Sept1952)
   
• Enfeebling America: a wonderful essay on the wuss-ification of America, by George Will.
   
• An illusion of motion.
   
• There's something very strange about this picture taken in a friend's bathroom.  if you think you see the anomaly.
   
• My official certificate from the Word Police Academy.  My motto:  "I have a web site...and I know how to use it."
   
• Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" has generated a controversy about the facts and meaning of the life of Jesus. Not long ago, an additional text was discovered in an ancient linen backpack found in a cave outside Jerusalem contained parchment containing  the musings of one Debbie of Galilee. 
   
• Rule of Terror A description of life under Sadaam Hussein, by Kenneth Pollack.
   
• John Rock's Error: What the co-inventor of the Pill didn't know about
  menstruation can endanger women's health. (New Yorker, March 2000)
  • Here's a related article entitled Farewell to ‘Aunt Flo’ (Newsweek, Feb2002)
     
• Email addresses on web pages are a prime target of spammers. Learn how to form email address in your web pages so that they are invisible to web crawlers and spambots.  Within three months of implementing this technique, my spam dropped by 80 percent.
   
• Flash! ReplayTV (not Tivo) Owns Key DVR Patents.
   
• The way TV news ought to be (requires RealPlayer).
  
  
• If Lincoln had used PowerPoint to write the Gettysburg Address.
   
• Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby.
  
  
• In the History of Gynecology, a Surprising Chapter. To say the least!
  
  
• Email Etiquette  How not to abuse email in ways you weren't even aware of.
  
  
• Nah! It Must Be the Guns  An essay about the relationship between guns and youth violence.
  
  
• Powerful Ideas Need Love, Too!  A wonderful essay on learning by Alan Kay.
  
  
• Electric Vehicles  Feeling guilty that you don't own one of those new electric cars? HA!
  
  
• If Men Had Periods  Why do women have to talk like this?
  
  
• Private Ryan's Mother  No commentary necessary.
  
  
• What Really Was Wrong with Mars Pathfinder This one is rated CG-13 -- there are some mildly technical parts (so people over 13 might require Child Guidance) but they aren't necessary to an understanding of the article.
  
  
• About Dogs  Great quotations about dogs.
  
  
• Do You Know Where (or Who) Your Kids Are?  This will make you feel very old.
  
  
• The Vanilla Ice Cream Problem  Even insane-looking problems are sometimes real.
  
  
• An "Anti-shopping" Trip  There must be a clinical name for this form of depravity....
  
  
• A Cultural Threat to Boys  Now that girls are getting attention, what about the boys?
  (Update 4/24/2002: NOW today announced that "Take Your Daughters to Work Day"
  has been changed to "Take Your Children to Work Day." )
  
  
• Professor Jenkins Goes to Washington  This is a first-person narrative of how, in the political aftermath of the Littleton, CO murders, a mild mannered MIT Professor was called before Congress to testify about "selling violence to our children,'' and what it is like to testify.
  
  
• You Really Can't Go Home Again  U.S. Blacks get a chilly reception when returning to their ancestral African home land.
  
  
• Did you know that the fear of failure is named Atychiphobia? You would if you knew about the exhaustive list of phobias.
  
  
• Survival of the Fittest (M&M)  How one person helps the Mars Candy Company keep the gene pool of its M&M strong.
  
  
• Malibu Barbie. A man digs things out of his back yard and sends them to the Smithsonian Institute for analysis. Here’s a letter of reply from the Smithsonian Institute.