Oscan

Oscan was an Italian language spoken in much of central and south Italy. It was gradually supplanted by Latin after the absorption the area by Rome in the third century.

Bird's eye view

A bird sees everything at once in total focus. Whereas the human eye is globular and must adjust to varying distances, the bird's eye is flat and can take in everything at once in a single glance.

Riddle me this

Born Motherless and Fatherless
Into this world without a sin.
Made a loud roar as I entered
And never spoke again.
What am I?

Weather-go-round

After several days of nice weather - sunshine and in the 70s, warm enough to run the A/c for a bit during the day - the temperature has dropped again and it's back to running the heater. The Prodigal Son has a cold and my knees and elbows are achy. It's not so much that I mind the cold, or even the heat, it's the temperature going up and down every few days that's wearing on me. I wish Mother Nature would settle on a temperature for the duration of winter.

LibeMeme

Found at Ultrablog.

Copy the list of ten authors below. Replace any that are not included in your home library with one(s) that are. Note any replacements in boldface. Reference where you found LibeMeme when you post.

1. Charles Dickens
2. Alexandre Dumas
3. Agatha Christie
4. Robin Hobb
5. CARL Hiaasen
6. Leon Uris
7. Tad Williams
8. Margaret Atwood
9. William Shakespeare
10. J. R. R. Tolkien

HoustonChronicle.com - Andrea Yates' conviction thrown out

Yates' appeal cited 19 trial errors, but the appeals court ruled only on the false-testimony issue, since that was enough to reverse the conviction. Writing for the appeals court, Justice Sam Nuchia agreed the state hadn't knowingly used perjured testimony but expressed concern that the jury could have been prejudiced when weighing Yates' guilt.

"We conclude that there is a reasonable likelihood that Dr. Dietz's false testimony could have affected the judgment of the jury,'' the court ruled. "We further conclude that Dr. Dietz's false testimony affected the substantial rights of appellant.''

Curry said today that if the appellate judges reject prosecutors' motion to reconsider their decision, prosecutors can appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court.

Despite the false testimony, Yates received a fair trial and was convicted because the jury believed she knew what she was doing and she knew it was wrong, Curry said.

Sleep tight

Early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence the phrase, "sleep tight."

Scientific American: Voracious Black Hole Generates Most Powerful Explosion Known

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | US sees growth in CD sales market

[sarcasm]

Gee, don't these people know that P2P illegal music sharing is crushing the recording industry? Where do they get off paying for music?

[/sarcasm]

Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was obviously not in the right frame of mind to read this book since I didn't enjoy it and I have yet to read anything by McKillip that I didn't enjoy. Instead of finding it lyrical, as the critics would have it, I thought it was overblown and wordy and took much too long to get to the point.

Link to amazon.com

BBC NEWS | Health | Parkinson's damage repaired

BBC NEWS | Health | Tobacco smoke dulls child brains

And what did they use to get here?

Of the 2004 visits, three times as many unique visits were made with a Mozilla flavored browser than with an Internet Explorer flavor.

Of the OS types, Windows made up 73.01% of the visits, Linux made up 24.91%, MacOS made up 1.87%, and BSD made up 0.22%.

And where did they come from?

Aside from the expected .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov visitors I had in 2004, I also had hits from these other top level domains:

.de - Germany
.au - Australia
.us - United States of America
.nz - New Zealand
.nl - Netherlands (Kingdom of)
.ca - Canada
.sg - Singapore (Republic of)
.at - Austria
.jp - Japan
.be - Belgium
.fr - France
.uk - United Kingdom
.za - South Africa (Republic of)
.dk - Denmark
.il - Israel (State of)
.tt - Trinidad and Tobago
.ae - United Arab Emirates
.ch - Switzerland (Confederation of)
.cl - Chile
.fi - Finland
.in - India (Republic of)
.is - Iceland
.it - Italy
.pt - Portugal
.uy - Uruguay (Eastern Republic of)

Keep a blog and they will come

In the 4 1/2 months of 2004 that seitherin.com existed, it had

1,064 unique visits in August,

3,087 unique visits in September,

3,207 unique visits in October,

3,097 unique visits in November, and

4,652 unique visits in December.

Mommy, why is the sky green?

A green flash is sometimes seen just as the sun sets or rises. This occurs because green light is bent most strongly by the atmosphere. So the green is seen before other colors at sunrise, and after the other colors have vanished at sunset.

Annie

We found her body. We have buried her in the front yard.



Update: I've ordered a memorial stone for her. I should have it in about six weeks.

New Year's Resolutions

How could I forget?!?

Quite easily. I gave them up for Lent so I don't make any. I discovered years ago there was no point in making them because I never intended to keep any of the ones I made. I was just jumping on the bandwagon because it was expected. And I really hate doing something just because it's expected. And when I discovered that not making resolutions really annoyed some of the people I knew, well . . . What more could I ask for? Guilt free and a pain in the ass. Almost perfection!

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know a lot of people think it is a wonderful love story, and it is, but I found some of it to be just a bit creepy. I'm not sure I can articulate what disturbed me about the book, which I truly did like very much. Some of it has to do with the nonchalant brutality that Henry displays albeit very infrequently. Some of it has to do with the fact Clare marries a Henry she doesn't really know to wait for him to become the Henry she does know. A small quibble, I know, but it did bother me.

All that aside, I recommend the book. I give it two thumbs up.

Link to amazon.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!