hateful fearmongers?

It's silly but it's funny — So Google has this new Google Maps service, right? The idea is that you can look for things like "pizza in Atlanta" or "hotels near LAX". Someone came up with this search (a must click!): hateful fearmongers in washington dc

Theoretical Blogoscience

Evidence that the word "blog" and all its variations has passed into my brain way too many times in recent days: last night I had a dream in which I made a blog post (of course) entitled "Theoretical Blogoscience." (Keep reading, you can gain some insight into the sad wish-fulfilment dreams of a would-be academic) In this post, I explored the possibility of a new field, by analogy to theoretical neuroscience, in which we would "exploit recent advances in the fields of computatational learning theory, information theory, and (something else?) to address fundamental questions in the information content and social networking of blogs." (it doesn't even make sense) The post gained some notoriety, and I was asked to give a talk on the topic at a major conference. At said conference, we determined that armed with this new tool, we could finally put the social sciences and historical inquiry on a solid scientific footing. Then I rose to Heaven in a blaze of glory, or something; anyway the dream ended. Pretty pathetic, huh? And in the meantime I can't keep track of my ID for two consecutive days.

Merry Candlemas!

Merry Candlemas everybody. As apparently only devoted churchgoers, beekeepers, and aging revolutionaries and their game show hosts still remember, it has been 40 days since Christmas (if you're not a Julianist), and hence time to celebrate the fact that Mary completed her 7 days of uncleanliness, plus her 33 days of continuing in the blood of her purifying, and so brought Jesus into the temple for the first time. Catholic tradition, established in the 11th century, is to hold a procession of beeswax candles, representing the entry of Light of the World into the Temple. In England, begining in 1709, personal (private?) candlemaking was forbidden, licenses issued separately to tallow and beeswax chandlers, and a tax applied to the chandlers. In 1834, the candlemaking regulations were lifted, which kicked off an era of innovation, beginning with Joseph Morgan's 1834 invention of a continuous candlemaking machine, using a piston to eject candles as they solidified. His invention could produce 1500 candles per hour, no doubt causing the unemployment of many a member of the Chandlers Guild. Alternate history: if Jesus had been a woman, then following the edicts of Leviticus 12:5, Mary would have been unclean for 14 days, and have continued in the blood of her purifying for 66 days, putting Candlemas on March 15. That most famous March 15 preceded Mary's by 44 years, of course. But had everyone been observing Candlemas at this time, perhaps Czechoslovakia would have been a nation for one day longer in 1939, or — ironically — Germany forced to wait one more day before achieving formal independence from the Four Powers in 1991. Small changes, small ripples. best to all