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Woah, it's like update time...
Jul. 18th, 2006 12:54 pmSo anyway some stuff has happenned and I s'pose I ought to comment.
Waterstone's have made it very hard for me to keep money. They've got 3 for 2 on all SF and fantasy books. I now have a big pile of books to read.
Auntie has a spiffing little radio programme called Imagining Albion, about the work of British Sci-Fi writers from H.G. Wells to the modern era. This week's was on Space Opera, previous ones have dealt with invasions, utopias, dystopias and other fun things. Iain M. Banks discusses "Space Hippies with really big guns", Alastair Reynolds gets namechecked, and E.E. "Doc" Smith is gently poked fun at. (The Brits don't go about inventing metals called X that mean you can ignore Einstein!). Sadly I've missed most of the series, but the Beeb does the marvellous Listen Again service, which is nice.
I've set myself the goal of leaving Jessops by November. I'll have been there for 5 years by then, and I really think I've served enough time in retail. Even if I leave to join the NHM as a tour guide, I really need to get out. (If you want camera-type accessories and stuff let me know sooner rather than later).
Odontogriphus omalus is one of my favourite little critters from the Burgess Shale. It's the one that prompted Simon Conway Morris' "Oh fuck not another phylum" quote on first seeing it. Well it isn't another phylum, it has a radula. Its therefore a primitive mollusc. For those of you who don't know what it looks like, it's flat, roughly oval and grew up to 125mm long. Rather unprepossessing, but its been suggested as a relative of everything from brachiopods to chordates. Pharyngula and Muton both discuss it. Its interesting because it gives an insight into early molluscs- and they may go back into the late Precambrian- Its looking more likely that many of the Ediacaran fossils are primitive members of modern groups. It also means that the method of feeding (grazing on mats of bacteria and algae) is very old.
And to cheer us all up in a week of thoroughly bad news (cf Lebanon, etc). Kent Hovind has been put on trial for tax evasion! And pleads not guilty on the grounds that he is "employed by God and therefore does actually owe anyone any taxes"!
Waterstone's have made it very hard for me to keep money. They've got 3 for 2 on all SF and fantasy books. I now have a big pile of books to read.
Auntie has a spiffing little radio programme called Imagining Albion, about the work of British Sci-Fi writers from H.G. Wells to the modern era. This week's was on Space Opera, previous ones have dealt with invasions, utopias, dystopias and other fun things. Iain M. Banks discusses "Space Hippies with really big guns", Alastair Reynolds gets namechecked, and E.E. "Doc" Smith is gently poked fun at. (The Brits don't go about inventing metals called X that mean you can ignore Einstein!). Sadly I've missed most of the series, but the Beeb does the marvellous Listen Again service, which is nice.
I've set myself the goal of leaving Jessops by November. I'll have been there for 5 years by then, and I really think I've served enough time in retail. Even if I leave to join the NHM as a tour guide, I really need to get out. (If you want camera-type accessories and stuff let me know sooner rather than later).
Odontogriphus omalus is one of my favourite little critters from the Burgess Shale. It's the one that prompted Simon Conway Morris' "Oh fuck not another phylum" quote on first seeing it. Well it isn't another phylum, it has a radula. Its therefore a primitive mollusc. For those of you who don't know what it looks like, it's flat, roughly oval and grew up to 125mm long. Rather unprepossessing, but its been suggested as a relative of everything from brachiopods to chordates. Pharyngula and Muton both discuss it. Its interesting because it gives an insight into early molluscs- and they may go back into the late Precambrian- Its looking more likely that many of the Ediacaran fossils are primitive members of modern groups. It also means that the method of feeding (grazing on mats of bacteria and algae) is very old.
And to cheer us all up in a week of thoroughly bad news (cf Lebanon, etc). Kent Hovind has been put on trial for tax evasion! And pleads not guilty on the grounds that he is "employed by God and therefore does actually owe anyone any taxes"!
