I was going to relegate this link (alert: PDF file) to the sidebar, because who needs yet another list of cicada recipes? But then I started skimming over the intro, and came across this reasonably interesting bit of trivia: “You have, in fact, probably already eaten many pounds of insects in your lifetime. Most Americans […]
What You Don’t Know You’ve Eaten Can’t Hurt You
Posted by Ben on June 10, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/yummy-bugs/
Noplace
The road is now like television, violent and tawdry. The landscape it runs through is littered with cartoon buildings and commercial messages. We whiz by them at fifty-five miles an hour and forget them, because one convenience store looks like the next. They do not celebrate anything beyond their mechanistic ability to sell merchandise. We […]
Posted by Ben on June 10, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/noplace/
All In Favor of Doomsday Proposal…
It’s not everyday words like “doomsday proposal” get tossed about semi-casually in the news headlines. (BoGlo/AP: “House rejects doomsday proposal” by Jim Abrams [June 3, 2004])
Posted by Ben on June 9, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/doomsday/
Transit of Venus
info quicktime video (1.4mb)
Posted by Ben on June 8, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/transit-of-venus/
Ecomiscellany
Disfiguring Seafood Diseases. They don’t know what causes the dread ‘ugly lobster disease’ (which is actually called ugly lobster syndrome or black spot disease, if you can believe that), but at least they know it doesn’t harm the meat. Phew. (AP: “Baffling Disease Makes Lobsters Look Ugly” by Jay Lindsay [May 25, 2004]; CBC: “Lobster […]
Posted by Ben on June 8, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/miscellaneous-crap/
Survey Says, Global Warming Rocks!
Another one of the billions (well, not quite) of climate-themed articles sparked by The Day After Tomorrow. Interesting thing about this one being the figure(s) it cites: “While 72 percent of Americans said they were concerned about it [global warming] in 2000, only 58 percent say so now, and only 15 percent believe it has […]
Posted by Ben on June 5, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/survey-says-global-warming-rocks/
True Story
“CHARLES WYCKOFF: Hello. KEVIN B. WYCKOFF: Hey, Dad. CHARLES: Huh. Well damn, boy. We just had your funeral today. KEVIN: Yeah I know, I heard. CHARLES: Well, what the hell is going on?“ (Harper’s, via MeFi)
Posted by Ben on June 5, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/true-story/
Massively Negligent Rundown
Stranger Danger. Wonder of all wonders, miracle of all miracles, children stay inside because they’re afraid of the outside world; I wonder how they got that way? Not only that, but (also unsurprisingly), most of their fears—and their parents’ fears—are based on “an unrealistic estimate assessment… of the risks of the outside world.” Writes Amelia […]
Posted by Ben on June 4, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/massively-negligent-rundown/
Whispering Vultures
Whispering Windows. As if Advertising weren’t already obnoxious enough, some company’s decided to go an invent a store window that talks to passers-by, coaxing them to enter the store, buy the product, etcetera. Yes, so talking shop windows will undoubtedly lure more people into stores, at least until everyone’s accustomed to the chatterpanes. But at […]
Posted by Ben on June 3, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/whispering-vultures/
Fledgling Conspiracy Theorists
There are some strange things floating around surrounding the death of Nick Berg. Questions about who really killed him, what the video really showed, etc. While none of this quite pinpoints anything resembling a massive conspiracy, it does raise some questions that need to linger a while longer. (For the impatient [and for anyone who […]
Posted by Ben on June 2, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/fledgling-conspiracy-theorists/