Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"If science fiction is exploring how technology affects people's lives, then one of the best SF movies ever made was Singin' in the Rain" -- David E. Romm. (Swiped from Susan Stepney's site, after Fred pointed it out.)

"Live Journal Ancestry: Who made you get a LiveJournal? Post that person's LJ, and if this meme spreads, see, you'll eventually be able to click click click and see who your LJ grandfather, great grandmother, great great grandthing, etc, etc, is all the way back to the pioneer days."

Various people on Elbows had mentioned LiveJournal, so I would have gotten around to it eventually, but it was mostly wanting to keep up with what silmaril and xpioti were writing that got me interested enough to start reading, then commenting, then writing my own journal.

• To get the disturbing political item out of the way early: John Ashcroft's Subpoena Blitz: Targeting Lawyers, Universities, Peaceful Demonstrators, Hospitals, and Patients, All With No Connection to Terrorism: "The message could not be more clear: The government is not going to stop at only investigating people connected to terrorism; it is willing to look at the most personal aspects of anyone's life. And the guiding principle won't be security; it will be politics."
• Avi Rubin's firsthand experience as an election judge. "I started realizing that some of the attacks described in our initial paper were actually quite unrealistic, at least in a precinct with judges who worked as hard as ours did and who were as vigilant. At the same time, I found that I had underestimated some of the threats before. I think that being an election judge was the best thing I could have possibly done to learn about the real security of elections."
• lizard115 had an interesting observation about civilization, comparing it to Jenga. "[...] When the game starts, someone takes the principle and displaces it. They move it to the top. The principle has been displaced and put in a different place, changing it's worth and position in the tower [...]"
• Archeologoical evidence regarding the sword in the stone
• If Microsoft had written Nmap
• A photo tour of Pripyat, a ghost town since the Chernobyl disaster. (I actually found a pointer to this elsewhere, before getting it from various LJ friends.)
• A Volvo concept car designed entirely by women, with some interesting features (thanks to misia). "[...] this is not a statement about sexual stereotyping. We wanted to see what would happen when we gave women all the decisions."
• The ECWR Frequently Asked Questions About the Bible and Homosexuality is an excellent companion/followup to preachermanfeed's "I Have No Title For This" (the one includes the line "Sit down CHRIStian. Give me that bible you're waving before you hurt yourself.") and "The Bible And Homosexuality" (his non-ranty continuation).
• Thanks to amberfox for pointing out sumerianwotd, the Sumerian Word Of The Day: "Each evening it is updated with the word for the following day (weekdays only), with its phonetic reading and meanings, plus possibly interesting facts! The proper procedure is to then write the Sumerian word on your hand so that you can learn it throughout the day. This is what all the cool kids are doing."
• The subtext of Green Eggs And Ham (thanks to Fred). "Green Eggs and Ham is more than a simple children's tale of the need to try new foods. It is a disturbing glimpse at the Cold War forces that made Eisenhower-era America the stifling society it was, a nightmare for the creative and intellectual classes."