Scuffulans hirsutus

Snark 101.

Who “… may be personally responsible for the consumption of more billions of hours of human time than anyone around“?

The inhabitants of the moon never see an earthrise or earthset. However, spacecraft orbiting the moon, e.g., the Kaguya, do. Here is the earth rising and setting, as recorded in HD. (Via Aziz.)

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Speed Racer is probably worth skipping (though I might listen to Racer X). If you’re looking for an exciting race story, I recommend instead the Kuricorder Quartet’s take on “Highway Star”:

Here’s the quartet again with some tunes you might recognize.

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Understatement of the week:

Something tells me the commenter hasn’t met all that many nuns.

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Give peas a chance:

(Via Blackadder.)

Let’s see if nested blockquotes work:

I heard Fr. Neuhaus, in the EWTN commentary, try to sneak in something in, in that classic hushed, “golf announcer” tone:

“We have not been given background notes as to who to credit for introducing the Holy Father to aspects of the aesthetic suffering endured by the faithful in America.”

Ursula K. LeGuin and NRO.

Frëd reviews an episcopal space opera:

One suspects the bad influence of the good, but inexperienced, padre. (Yes, you read the cover right: one of the co-authors is the Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J.)

Post title of the year.

And comment of the week:

When I was in law school I got involved in several long discussions about whether Zombies would count as persons under the 14th Amendment. And to think people called me weird.

(ibid. Via Eve Tushnet.)

Eve Tushnet on Miss Manners:

It’s somewhat startling how many of her rules and guidelines stem from the basic principles of putting others first and protecting them from our rougher feelings: how to write a thank-you note for a present you didn’t like; how to respond to a friend who gets embarrassingly drunk at a party (and how that friend ought to behave the next morning!); how to politely and charitably point out that someone has cut in front of you in a line. Even the correct way to refuse an invitation (apologize, but say no firmly, and don’t make excuses) is concerned in part with sparing others’ feelings: If you say, “I’d love to, but I’m afraid I’ll be flossing my otter,” you not only invite argument and attempts to persuade you away from your excuses. You also let your friends know exactly where they rank on your scale of priorities — possibly above cleaning the gutters, but definitely below otter dental hygiene.

It’s probably going to be close to two months before I can photograph ballet again. (The doctor says the bones are healing “perfectly,” but bones and ligaments take time, lots of time.) If you miss the pictures of dancers, visit Bill Luse’s page.

Tiepolo’s Cicadae, pastel 2007, Judith Baker Waller

Judith Baker Waller, an old friend of mine from Wichita State, is exhibiting some of her art at the University of Wisconsin now through March 21. If you are in the Menasha area, it’s worth a visit.

A little bit of Mozart with unconventional instrumentation.

Here’s something different by the same perp and his colleagues.

Fred recently discovered Komar and Melamid. I first encountered them half a lifetime ago when they made an appearance at Wichita State. Their schtick then was that they bought and sold souls. They were particularly proud of purchasing Andy Warhol’s. The business wasn’t as lucrative as they had hoped, though, so by then they only accepted souls on consignment.

They came to Fred’s attention through their fusion of musicology and statistics. By polling, they attempted to define the characteristics of the “most wanted” and “least wanted” songs, and then realize the songs. I’m afraid that I’m the in the 28% that dislike the wanted song. The unwanted song, however, is an amazing hodgepodge of accordion, bagpipes, tuba, banjo, operatic soprano and obnoxious kids, and it’s worth 22 minutes of your life. Once will probably be enough.

Oh, yeah, Komar and Melamid are painters, too.

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Mr. Darwin is the son of a planetarium lecturer. He reminisces about the artificial skies here.

Let’s take a break from ballet and look at some other kinds of dance. Via Mark Sullivan comes this example of dance as a martial art:

Bonus points if you can identify the pianist.

Via Robert the LLama Butcher, an outstanding canine performer.

And there’s the dancing stormtrooper of Akihabara.

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One more reason why I intend to remain the last person in North America without a cell phone.

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If three women together mean “mischief,” what would, say, three geeks mean?

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An epic win for the Japanese: the Gurren-Lagaan Jack. 

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Let’s get into the Olympic spirit: 

Congratulations to the LLamas, who turn five today.

Congratulations also to Angus and Sarah.

Final Fantasy A+ (Via Shamus).

One way to handle a telemarketer (Via Ken the Brickmuppet).

I found a website that makes Flash jigsaw puzzles from pictures on your computer. There’s one made from one of my photos below the fold.

Update: A memory from my days in the SCA that I’d like to forget.
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… yet again. John Salmon, that is.

Inside the Basilica Cardinale, with the light of two suns shining through the windows. Curiously, outside the front door of the church it’s raining.

I spent recent lunch hours investigating how much of a Catholic presence there is in Second Life. There’s not a lot. A search for “Catholic” places yields only ten results, some of which I’m staying far away from.¹ A search for “Catholic” groups finds twenty-eight, some of which are not the least bit religious. Some do appear to be sincere, though, and one or two might be worth joining if I had more time, e.g., The Catholic Tolkien. Still, I’m more than a little leery of such organizations as Fr. Simoni’s “Second Life Catholic Church,” whose charter advertises Mass, Confession and sloppy proofreading.

During my investigations, I took numerous snapshots. Here’s a selection.

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1. Here’s what turns up when you search for “jesuit” places (warning: offensive). (The Society of Jesus may be well-intentioned, though.) ↩