ignis fatuus

Janet:
In the velvet darkness,
Of the blackest night,
Burning bright,
There’s a guiding star.
No matter what or who you are.

Brad & Janet:
There’s a light…

Chorus:
Over at the GNF place.

Brad & Janet:
There’s a light…

Chorus:
Burning up the human race.

Brad & Janet:
There’s a light, … light … in the darkness of everybody’s life.

There’s a fine line between upbeat and satiric.

 Tangentially relevant mash-up.

[You might have thought that I would come back from Down Under with something of actual human interest to blog about.  You would be wrong  ... well, at least for now. - JPS]

As an accomplished master of the obvious, let me point out that we live on a the surface of a sphere.  However, for most practical purposes we might as well live on a big flat world with a rectilinear North-South/East-West grid (and a big mongo Greenland to boot - you know, so we have more ice to raise the sea level with ….)  Very long distance travel is an exception, and especially so when it takes you close to the antipodes of your usual haunts. I just returned from Perth in Western Australia, which is the closest antipodal city to the Eastern U.S. *(I also got down even further south to the fabulous Augusta/Cape Leeuwin area at the extreme SW of Australia, which is even closer to being the anti-NE U.S.) It got me thinking about some of the interesting and somewhat counter-intuitive aspects of antipodes.  [Quick question (verbal and visual answers down below somewhere ) – If you go northwest from your current position, which way does your antipode go?  (assuming you are not at one of the poles.) ]

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[Update 2/21: Any question as to why I included "Dean" Broder  in this parade of the wankers, can be dispelled by reading Glenn Greenwald's two excellent recent posts on Broder and his role in propping up the administration. Here and especially here.]

Watching the piteous national political media at play in so many different fields of the Lord this past week (bloggers, planes, leaks, and my fave: Gosh, there was corruption early in the occupation of Iraq! Why weren’t we told?) brought to mind a somewhat tangential (but apocalyptic!) diary I had posted at DailyKos a few months back.

 The Four Postmen of the Apocalypse

First, after Grantland Rice ( the “Dean of American Sportswriters”, back when being the Dean meant having a clue.)

Outlined against the troubles of a nation, the Four Writers wrote again. In Internet lore they are known as arrogance, pomposity, cluelessness and idiocy. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Broder, Woodward, Howell and Hiatt. They formed the crest of the cyclone before which the reputation of the Washington Post was swept over the precipice these past ten years as a million readers peered at the bewildering panorama spread out on their breakfast tables and computer screens.

And thence on to more Ancient Sources

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[Update: hmmm... something does not quite look with this picture....What could it possibly be?] 

.FNG a ni demusnoc kcurt a yb revo nur saw enoyreve ylnedduS

***BREAKING*** *** Web Only Exclusive*** ***BREAKING***

By KIRBY ALTHOUSE, Associated Press Writer

PALO ALTO - Cyber-researchers at the Hoover Institution on Massively Redundant Sucking and Blowing confirmed the discovery of an Internet White Hole in a rarely visited corner of the blogosphere. Long postulated, but never previously observed, researchers traced the source of the White Hole via Internet tubes to a much more significant Internet Black Hole that had developed several weeks prior (see comment #287 here.)

Experts puzzled over the interesting transformations that the content being emitted from the White Hole had undergone. While certain images and in-jokes were unchanged, other content was not: danger had become harmlessness; hockey, golf; French, American; and 2001: A Space Odyssey emerged as Star Wars. Other key elements and content appeared to be missing altogether. A pair of shoes was found as well.

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[More from the archives on the 40th anniversary of a pioneering event in blogging.] 

Dang! Just checked Sitemeter, and so far no one else has read this humble blog. Well, write it and they will come … I hope.

I have had the strangest feeling all day, very dream-like. It is like I am both here and not here, all at the same time. It makes me somewhat apprehensive, as if some important event were about to transp

 Schrödinger’s Cat   - 01/04/61

[From the archives on the 40th anniversary of a pioneering event in blogging.]

Starting tomorrow I will be bringing a unique cat’s eye view of the world to cyberspace. And I am not just any old cat! I am the pet of a world famous physicist!

But right now, it is dinner time. Is the food out yet? It may or may not be, the master uses some infernal apparatus of his to decide when to feed me. If I go into the kitchen and check, I will know for certain, but for now it is much more “delicious” to just sit here tasting it in my mind - regardless of the actual state of  food-outedness.

Schrödinger’s Cat - 01/03/61