Antikythera Understood (Reblog)

It has been a long time coming, but we finally know what the world's oldest surviving computational device was supposed to do. The Antikythera Mechanism was apparently used to mark the timing of the Olympic, Nemean, Corinthian, and Delphic games. The Telegraph has a well-illustrated article on the findings, and Nature has some more rigorous discourse.

Cat Tactics (Reblog)

My cats haven't mastered the art of pointing to their mouths yet, but we still get the point...

FISA: (Reblog): Freedom from Intrusive Surveillance, my Ass!

Some clear information on the evils of FISA...

Two Dogs In A Pod (Pets)

We've taken Líle over to play with Daisy several times now; most recently, she and Daisy beat the heat together under the picnic table.

Steak Alert (Pets)

Líle is normally a fairly quiet, polite dog during the day-to-day operation of our household. All bets are, sadly, off whenever we have guests and she goes into kangaroo-on-crack mode. So it was really surprising this 4th of July to suddenly start hearing these high-pitched yips, squeaks, and even the rarely reported actual barking. What wrung this commotion out of our puppy? NDM had set the holiday T-bone out on the counter while we were heating the grill. We don't do meat in our household very often due to my wife being made entirely from vegetable matter, so this was Líle's first encounter with a steak of any kind.

Turtle Enters Stage Left (Pets)

Finally, video evidence that Hagar can invade our house whenever she wants...

Nina Paley's Film (Recommendation)

Probably my only reader who goes back far enough to remember Nina is GCE. She moved westward where she works in comics and animation, and in fact she's now made a film, Sita Sings the Blues. Its style is pretty far removed from what I think of as "Nina Classic", which shows what a talented artist she is.