Frank passed along this note on Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christanity) Rejected Homosexuality . The viewpoint that it's written with is frightening, not surprising given that the article is hosted at the Catholic Educator's Resource Center , but it does give some pointers to places to do more research, I'd actually been under the impression that many of the things they believe still existed to the middle of this century went out of style a few centuries ago, and the article sins by omission, husbands and priestesses as well...:
"In India until this century, certain Hindu cults have required intercourse between monks and nuns, and wives would have intercourse with priests who represent the god. Until it was made illegal in 1948, when India gained independence, Hindu temples in many parts of India had both women and boy prostitutes."
Another 'blog: Medley is Lynette Millett's take on the world, we agree on Elizabeth Dole, and she hits assorted less techie stuff, which is a breath of fresh air in the 'blogging world.
Columbine passes along this sad tale of life sized Jar Jar Binks dolls being used as masturbation toys . Then check out the site which hosts this document, Landover Baptist , "Where The Worthwhile Worship". This could be one to put on my regular rotation...
I hadn't linked to Eric Raymond's new essay, The Magic Cauldron , because I hadn't had a chance to read it. Now I have. I think it's well worth reading if you're managing a product. Unlike Richard Stallman and certain other advocates, Eric makes a reasoned discussion for when it's not economically reasonable to give away code. However, even in the cases where the core technologies need to remain proprietary there's often lots of ancillary code that could be shared and would probably be result in a much improved product if it were.
"There will be circumstances under which the use value of an undisclosed algorithm or technology will be high enough (and the costs associated with unreliability will be low enough, and the risks associated with a supplier monopoly sufficiently tolerable) that consumers will continue to pay for closed software. This is likeliest to remain true in standalone vertical-market applications where network effects are weak. Our lumber-mill example earlier is one such; biometric identification software seems likeliest, of 1999's hot prospects, to be another."
BladeEnc is a freeware MP3 encoder, the author thinks he's worked around the patent issues.
"However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's fully legal for you to download and use BladeEnc since the patents in your country might be different. Also, although BladeEnc in itself is a fully legal product here in Sweden, you might still make yourself guilty of patent infringements if you use it for some very specific tasks."
A new 'blog has sprung up, have browser, will travel looks at hockey, general geeky stuff, QuickTime VR and such. We'll see how it evolves.
Who says all the good computer game concepts are taken? Airfix Digfighter , "is strongly focused on recreating the "toyish" feel of model airplanes in "hand-held dogfights", rather than being an advanced, super-realistic flight simulator - complete with glue fingerprints on the windshield, skewed unit designations and fixed landing gears." And, of course, the missions are flown inside the house. Coooool.
On the thyme theme, lyrics with a different bent, Let No Man Steal Your Thyme .
Come all you fair and tender girls
that flourish in your prime, prime
Beware, beware, keep your garden fair
Let no man steal your thyme, thyme (2x)
Obviously I prefer the sentiments expressed in the one further down.
Last time we went paddling Todd had a CD of a bunch of Australian bagpipers singing Wild Mountain Thyme (perhaps Todd will refresh me on the group's name). For some reason it's stuck with me. As pick-up lines go it's not terribly subtle, but age has given it a certain sort of raunchy charm. To whit, the chorus:
Will ye go, lassie, go
And we'll all go together
To the wild mountain thyme
All around the bloomin' heather
Will ye go, lassie, go
Via PeterMe , a great study on how metaphors improve interface useability .
Net Comic Strip Reviews (Yeah, it's a GeoCities site, but I found it on the Scary Devil Monastery so I hope it'll be stable) reviews various comics found only on the web.
The First Church of Cyberspace .
Tracy Adams on common CGI coding errors .
Graphics weenies, if you ever wondered what could be done with procedural textures, look no further than Katsuaki HIRAMITSU , who's got a couple of shader tricks to do awesome things with RenderMan renderers including some cool fog and clouds . He also keeps a pet rabbit.
Ever wanted to live like the Inuit? The Primitive Skills Group Frequently Asked Questions might be an interesting place to start. Just remember that these are the conditions under which evolution happens.
I hope I didn't pass this one along, but here's a list of actual error messages from Apple's MPW C compiler that are worth a giggle:
"...And the lord said, 'lo, there shall only be case or default labels inside a switch statement'"
Don't know how I missed this the first time around, an article about women dressed as men in Istanbul , and how that changed not only others reactions to them, but their own reactions to themselves.
Via Robot Wisdom , here comes the Poop Moose candy dispenser .
Every school kid should know the song that the melody to "The Star Spangled Banner" was taken from: To Anacreon in Heaven :
"...And long may the Sons of Anacreon intwine, The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."
A neat personal page including an account of becoming a Catholic nun .
Aftercare for assorted different types of piercings . Ouch.
Moller is the manufacturer of that flying car that I linked to on CNN last week.
Inconstant Moon has neat pictures, including the state of the moon each day, and lots of links explaining terms. Could be a fun place to waste some time.
Via Cameron , the EVILFISHtm are here . I think I want the "Freud" one, but that may just be a reflection of my current emotional state...
Discover the Mind Mouse: Hands-free access to your computer . Looks like a 3 pickup EKG system, probably takes a little practice to get right, but looks like a really cool nerd toy. Wonder what the RSI issues in forehead muscles are?
Archives of neat sites posted to Flutterby , notes to webmaster@flutterby.com