Hands-On Science
The Sun: “Masturbating an elephant in the cause of science isn’t an easy job – just ask wildlife expert Dr Thomas Hildebrandt. Just touching a jumbo penis – they measure more than 1.5metres when aroused – can have painful consequences as German scientist Dr Hildebrandt reveals. He said: ‘One guy I know got a black eye from being hit by an elephant’s penis.'”
Can’t Miss Panel at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is going down the weekend of Coachella. I won’t be there. (And I won’t be at Coachella either.) But if you can make it, Tod Goldberg is moderating a panel about books and blogging featuring none other than Carolyn Kellogg, Ron Hogan, and a gentleman by the name of Andrew Keen, who has written a book called The Cult of the Amateur, which describes “how the democratization of the digital world is assaulting our economy, our culture, and our values.” And here I was thinking that the fault could be leveled at the Bush Administration. But no matter.
This promises some serious fireworks, particularly with one of the Goldbergs at the helm.
As it so happens, I have obtained a pre-pub copy of Mr. Keen’s book and I plan to devote a future post on this subject.
At Long Last, Someone Clarifies the Quality of Jim Davis’s Humor
The Sidebar
In light of the redesign, I’ve received a few emails from folks who are upset that I didn’t include them on my blogroll.
Let me explain the situation.
First off, the blogroll on the right hasn’t been touched in two years, meaning that it doesn’t really account for the sites I now read. Redesign-wise, the only thing I did in relation to the blogroll was remove sites that had not been updated in the past year. And I have every intention of one day going through the blogroll with a fine tooth comb. But this is the least of my priorities right now. Because such a task involves an entire day that I don’t have. And I’d rather spend this time meeting deadlines, generating content, turning out podcasts and otherwise being a verbal wiseacre. Sorry, but staring at code is about as appealing as suffering under a Nazi dentist’s chair. Which brings us to a corollary.
COROLLARY: Since I do not have the time to tweak the blogroll, I have attempted to atone for this by trying to link to any posts I find interesting. And, rest assured, I do read you, if I know about you. And if you have found a link that I find interesting, something that I have not found, I accredit.
I assure you that I am not consciously trying to hurt or exclude. In fact, I even accredit to sites that I don’t particularly care for. And has it ever occurred to you that I may not even be aware of you? Of course, if you want to make me aware, send me an email with an RSS link and I’ll happily add you to the hundreds (thousands?) of blogs I have in Bloglines and, if your stuff is interesting to me at some future point, link you accordingly.
I assure you there is no grand conspiracy. I am not interested in link exchanges or reciprocal links. I simply don’t have time for this. But I am interested in the exchange of information across multiple blogs, which I will happily track and link to.
If this makes me an asshole, so be it. I’m genuinely baffled that people pay attention to my prattle. I try to respond to emails. I try to be equitable about the breadth of my linkage. I’m doing the best that I can.