Terry Pratchett has a new book out, again. It's hard to keep up, and (contrary to publishing industry norms) the newer ones are better than the old ones. Tom Robbins has, too. Actually, two, since I had last checked!

Saw Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang for the first time in decades. Ian Fleming's best work?

Why does nobody involved in designing Mars probes put a microscope on board, so they can simply look for microbes? It would be useful for so much else, too, such as looking at mineral crystallization patterns.

T-shirt: Front, "Don't mind him". Back, "He's OK."

raph: I'm disappointed that you were taken in by this econopundit guy and his attack dogs. Incidentally, he cites Krauthammer claiming that "Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.". K got it wrong. Liberals think that (so-called) conservatives are crooks, toadies, and dupes. (Mostly dupes, of course.) Republicans can't understand why liberals want to upset the gravy train. Krugman fascinates them because he can play every rhetorical trick as well as they can, and is competent too.

deekayen: Maybe you'd better go jump off a bridge.

Evolution still hasn't crashed on me.