- This is nice, but I don’t think I’ve seen an overwhelming drop in spam this week, have you? Besides which, as the article says, it will only take spammers about a week to recover. [via]
- So apparently there’s a town in Turkey called Batman. And apparently its mayor is suing Christopher Nolan and Warner Brothers because “There is only one Batman in the world….The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.” Which of course sounds ridiculous and ill-timed. They’ve had some sixty years and plenty of other Batman books and movies to raise an objection and haven’t. And even if theirs was the first Batman in the world — which some of the comments at Peter David’s blog suggest it’s not — that’s no reason there can’t be more than one. Especially since a) more people know the caped crusader than the town; and b) Bruce Wayne is Batman because he’s dressed like a bat, not because he’s Turkish. Unless of course he’s Turkish Batman…but maybe it’s better not to confuse the issue with that.
- Hmm. I was planning on reading next year anyway… [via]
- Pollutants cause birds to sing tainted love songs:
Yet not all chemicals make for shoddy songs. Earlier this year, a team of UK researchers discovered that oestrogen-mimicking compounds, such as bisphenol A, endow starlings with more complex songs that females prefer over chemical-free songs.”It was kind of scary because their immune system was shot to hell,” DeLeon says of the starlings. “The females were preferring males that were singing better, but [the song] wasn’t an honest signal of quality.”
Style over substance, even in the ornthological world. [via]
- My mild obsession with Top Chef continues apace. They’re in New York this season, and it will be interesting to see what I recognize. (I’m guessing they filmed over the summer, but I never saw them, even near Grand Central, which is only a couple blocks from my office.) I was just thinking my love of the show is a little silly, since it’s essentially the same thing season to season, if not episode to episode. But they definitely seem to be shaking things up a little. A double elimination in the first week? Yikes. Immediate favorite to win? Stefan, maybe. Last year, I guessed Richard right off the bat, and he made it to the final three.And no, don’t worry. I won’t be live-blogging the entire season or anything.
no friday random guess?
ok, i just realized it was still thursday. (or, very recently friday, according to central standard time)
ignore previous dopey comment from a virtual stranger who came across the site about four years ago and just kept coming back. (in case you were ever wondering)
apologies. 🙂
Thanks so much for mentioning The Year of Readers here 🙂 I hope to see you sign up soon.
I think I read too much to join Year of Readers. Even when I was in school, I could never get anybody to pledge more than 2 cents a book for the MS read-a-thon. They were all certain I would bankrupt them.
Just how many books do you read a year?
I’m right now at 48, 58 last year. So I don’t think I’m in any danger of sending anyone to bankruptcy.
I’m at 148 so far this year. (Well, 148 and three-quarters, if you want to get technical.) That’s up from last year, when I finished 137.
Mind you, some of them are very short.