Angels from Another Pin

Angels from Another Pin
(Small and powerful, but without the Communist dictator)

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31 December 2001 ::

But isn't the Messiah made of cardboard?

An Egyptian geologist used a copy of an ancient map which was discovered in Luxor in 1820 (and which has been sitting in a museum in Italy ever since) to rediscover the gold mines of the Pharaohs. There are tons of gold and other related metals in the ground there, as well as archaologically interesting mining equipment from the ancient world.

27 December 2001 ::

And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of peace and harmony.

Two miles long, one hundred and fifteen thousand years deep, the Greenland ice cores preserve volcanic ash from Krakatoa, lead pollution from ancient Roman smelters, and ice age Mongolian dust. They also may preserve an echo of how our civilization will end--stuttering to a halt in a few decades of wild climate swings.
Terry Jones, the droll, thoughtful member of Monty Python (and the author of a scholarly book on Chaucer of which I've read a small section) speaks out on terrorism and grammar.
Better go play with this before it gets Slashdotted: Make your own "O'Reilly" book cover.

26 December 2001 ::

It's so difficult to find authentic banana dye in this town.

Real financial planners think up a fiscal plan for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "The Watchers should give her disability, a retirement plan and probably some kind of stock options."
Joss Whedon will be creating a science fiction show set 500 years in the future.

21 December 2001 ::

Ia! Ia! Shub-Rudolf! The Red-Nosed Reindeer with a thousand young!

Unless I get really bored over this long weekend, Angels from Another Pin will be on hiatus until 12/26. Merry Christmas!
Mark's new comic, They All Laughed, is very cool. The comic's subtitle is "It's easy to be a villain, until they start taking you seriously." Words to live by.
One hack to rule them all.
With the Cold War over, NORAD must meet the needs of a new generation of Americans.

20 December 2001 ::

The Tuvalu Preservation Society also issued a statement from their headquarters atop Mount McKinley.

Did you know that much of child psychology is based on the faked and plagiarized work of two monumental liars, Sir Cyril Burt and Bruno Bettleheim? Neither did I.

19 December 2001 ::

I'd probably get just as many presents if I'd set the Pope on fire in the past year.

Christmas in Texas: Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Really.
In the far distant future, the view in our sky may be very, very dull. We'd better pay attention to the distant cosmos over the next few tens of billions of years, or we will lose all chance of learning about it--because it will be invisible.

18 December 2001 ::

Which narrows the suspect list to William Gibson...and you.

Proof there is still humor among pilots, even nowadays: Santa has received a waiver so he can overfly restricted U.S. airspace. Possession of the waiver is contingent on the operator of the sleigh making certain that all good little boys and girls receive something nice under the tree.

Ah. Microsoft security. If you value your computer and you're running Microsoft Windows, go to Microsoft's Web site and (if you haven't already updated to IE5.5SP2 or IE6) download Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 or Internet Explorer 6, then once you are on IE5.5SP2 or IE6 run the latest security patch for IE. (Ivy, I'll take care of this for you.) Warning: IE5.5 or IE6 will take 3 to 12 hours to download over a modem.

17 December 2001 ::

We suggest putting your clothes back on and finding a new pencil.

Another link for Ivy (and everyone else): The Sorting Hat. It declared me to be a Hufflepuff, which apparently is a good thing.
There are only 500 published science fiction and fantasy authors in the English speaking world, according to Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, editor at genre publisher Tor.

14 December 2001 ::

Thoughtlessly double clicking on zipped executables has them throwing up a "Where am I? Where are my DLLs? WHY AM I ENTOMBED IN CARBONITE?" error.

Hello Kitty meets the New Testament in a phenomenon I am tempted to name Hello Jesus. This is a real, commercial site. Be afraid.

13 December 2001 ::

I'm on drugs and I have no pants!

Tonight, we have the Geminid meteor shower. Tomorrow afternoon, we will see a partial eclipse of the Sun starting at 4:13 PM EST (Philly and Baltimore) and 3:06 PM CST (Monmouth).	Glenn Juskiewicz
The history of music is the history of aesthetics, religion, and science. The Pythagorean comma and the wolf interval, Galileo's father and the music of the spheres all exist in the story of the search for the proper tempering for instruments.
Semiconductors hint at a future of nanotechnology, artificial atoms, and virtual chemistry.

12 December 2001 ::

That tube is for tube-related science, not tube-related fun!

The memory of the Internet now extends back 20 years thanks to Google, who have put twenty years of Usenet news articles online.	Mike Ryan
Using a set of satellites that flash by in orbit just moments behind one another, scientists have discovered the secret of the black aurora.

11 December 2001 ::

Careening emotions and murky ethical dilemmas aren't good enough for you, I suppose!

Are you sad that the 70s supergroup Yes is no longer releasing albums? Well, you can create your own progressive rock lyrics through the magic of computers with the Virtual Jon system, an automatic Yes lyrics generator.
More games! You are a slime. A volleyball-playing slime. Win the game! Your invertebrate phylum is counting on you!

10 December 2001 ::

I've got a theory - it could be bunnies.

Happy Hannukah! For the Festival of Lights, I give you a festival of lasers. It's a quite cool little science game.
Make your own warning tags, signs, and such, with whatever text you want. WARNING: Live tasmanian devil.

7 December 2001 ::

History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it just screams "Why don't you listen to me?" and lets fly with a big stick.

You folks seemed to like the "Manos" test, so here's the ultimate, exemplary, indeed definitive personality test.
The United States and Israel are developing a point-defense laser. The prototype is a permanent emplacement that uses a chemical power source. The finished product will be a vehicle-mounted device with an electrical power source.	Mike Ryan
For all the Buffy addicts in the audience, I bring you MP3s of the songs from Buffy the Musical.
Sixty years ago: A date which will live in infamy.

6 December 2001 ::

Bendix then ran off to try to vaporize a quart of Strawberry Quik.

There's no escape from The Muffin.
You can see the Shuttle launch from anywhere on the East Coast of the United States, if you know where and when to look.
Another beautifully designed and implemented game from Orisinal: Pocketful of Stars.

5 December 2001 ::

Your ignorance of Time Cube is evil.

You must know! Which character from the legendary bad film Manos, the Hands of Fate are you?
Schlock Mercenary is a surprisingly erudite and science-literate comic about a mercenary company in the 31st century. New recruit Schlock uses cool but indecypherable weapons; learns modern economics; and visits the daringly terraformed Moon, where he learns about transient religions and creates the ultimate answer to theological debate. All this while he handles an artificial cocoa addiction. Read it from the beginning.
Last month, the Leonids caused spectacular lights in the atmosphere of Earth--and on the surface of the Moon.	Mike Ryan

4 December 2001 ::

You brought me back from the dead because you don't know DOS?

I probably shouldn't feed Ivy's Civilization addiction, but...if she knew I had this link and hadn't put it here, she would do something awful. So: FreeCiv.
Before Hollywood shredded it, there was the original script to Mystery Men.

3 December 2001 ::

They're born on third base and spend their entire lives thinking they hit a triple.

Ivy has declared that only things which have been posted here in the main Web site can be discussed over in the discussion group. Others have declared their wish to discuss things which have not been posted here. I will answer this by linking to everything, thereby solving this logical conundrum. Since I already explained the meaning of one hand clapping, I think I have now become a bodhisattva.
Science has determined that your friends aren't normal.
New game: 'Tis the season to fly overhead really fast and drop presents on deserving children from Santa's A10 interceptor.