Today's Links
My son Ethan turned three years old today. He greeted this news with a "Woo-Hoo!" and a stream-of-conciousness rant on candles, balloons and cakes. It's good to be three, I think. I read somewhere that three is the time when one's brain really fires up and starts getting creative. True dat, he has his toys interact with one another now, playing out little stories he concocts for them. Pretty simple stuff at the moment but I can see it's going to get more complex in short order. The downside is that his brain is creative 24-7, which means his dreams tend to be much more vivid and he is not always happy about that - more nightmares. But on the whole he's a better boy for it. I think this is going be an exciting year for Ethan. He starts junior kindergarten in September. A big step for both him and his parents. I can't believe this little man who only recently required total assistance just to keep him alive, will be stepping onto a school bus and venturing away from the nest under his own volition. Wow.
Graphics and Web Design Based on Edward Tufte's Principles - a detailed "course" on applying the good work of Tufte to the ultra-modern (and yet not so) world of the web.
So there's a new Pope in town - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany was chosen by his peers as the next pappa of the 1.1 Billion 'people who identify themselves as being of the Catholic faith'. A former member of the Nazi Youth (it was compulsory at the time) the 78 year-old Pope is known as an ultra-conservative hardliner, John Paul II's official church bulldogma. As he is not likely to spend a long time in office before he dies, I see Ratzinger's appointment as a transitional one - sort of like a having a transitional girlfriend after a breakup, to keep house while the Church looks for a young conservative (of which there are very few) to groom for the position. By the time he dies, within the next 10 years, they should have either found someone in their 50s or early 60s, or have given up the chase and bowed to public pressure and elected a moderate to replace Benedict XVI. By that time, it will take a young moderate Pope at least as long as John Paul II did to pull in the reins, to let them out again. Should be an interesting generation.
The Morning News: Never Say Neverland Again: "A contest was recently held to find someone to write the official “Peter Pan” sequel. Though author Geraldine McCaughrean was chosen from hundreds of candidates, James Finn Garner shares with us the openings from a number of rejected applications."
Google Maps has expanded to include the UK - cool! I hope they get the Satellite pic function online soon as well.
What Kind of American English Do You Speak? Apparently I speak 45% General American English, 25% Yankee, 15% Dixie, 10% Upper-Midwestern and 5% Midwestern. This probably means I'm Canadian, although they don't seem to have that option (surprise!).
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing - one of the most significant and recent examples of the United States' vulnerability to attacks from within. One fellow has posted a remembrance of being a resident of Oklahoma City that day.