James Doohan (Star Trek ’s Scottie) is a father-to-be at age 79. BBC headline: “Scottie to beam up a baby.”

If you need transcripts, video, audio, or background information from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, look no further than Stone Dead Productions in Australia. Those Bruces sure know how to serve up a transcript.

textfiles.com is your source for everything ASCII. Over 20,000 documents are at your fingertips. The emphasis is on text files from the 1980’s, and they are arranged by category. The humor section alone is a goldmine for would-be fram ers.

Ask and you will receive. The very next site I visited after posting about the yak creature was a weblog titled Mandomonger Farm, 21st century American Homestead. Of course, I’ll be spending plenty of time there reading, but the very first entry there was for Oklahoma State’s Breeds of Livestock - Goat Breeds pages. Photos of every type of goat are there, as well as cattle, horses, sheep, swine, and “other”.

I was leaving the potential country home last night and made it a few hundred yards down the road when I had to swerve to miss some sort of Himalayan yeti mountain yak. Or something… I have no idea what it was. It had a body like a yak, but a goat head with big curled sheep horns. I checked the American Goat Society webpage where they describe all the breeds, but they don’t have photos. I’ll know by Saturday whether the house is mine or not, and then I’ll try to track down the critter and figure out what it was.

Where is Cassini now? Cassini is on its way to Saturn, arriving in 2004. While it’s flying there, you can see simulated views from the spacecraft. One view looks back at Earth, a second looks toward Jupiter, a third looks ahead at Saturn, while a fourth view looks down on the craft from high above the solar system. The pictures update themselves every few hours, and for the next few months they serve a second purpose: watch the planets align in the great 5/5/00 alignment that will destroy the Earth (as we know it)! You know, this planet’s getting hard to live on what with all the catastrophes lately. First the devestating asteroid impacts last November, the whole Y2K / apocalypse thing, and now the planets pulling the Earth apart. Sheesh! Enough, already! How will I ever make it to 2003, when the mothership arrives to take home the chosen 144,000?

PBS’s NOVA began a new series yesterday. Secrets of Lost Empires shows historians trying to reproduce ancient engineering marvels using the same ancient methods. The first episode detailed the medieval trebuchet, a catapult/slingshot that was the first weapon to threaten stone castle walls. The websites are up to the usual high PBS standards and provide plenty of background material and links to other sites of interest. In the SCA, a medieval recreationist/research society I belong to, there is some interest in recreating siege engines of all types. The annual Estrella War (to be held in two weeks in Southern Arizona) hosts a siege engine contest. The entries have gotten more impressive and authentic in recent years, but I haven’t yet found any photos. I miss Estrella.

Listen to all those glorious TV theme songs from days gone by at TV Cream Themes. This site made one of my co-workers very, very happy when he got to listen to the theme from Fall Guy. Whatever makes you happy, Brad…

As Kurt Vonnegut recovers from his near-fatal house fire, you can browse through the most comprehensive Vonnegut site in the cosmos, courtesy of Duke University. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Kurt!

I haven’t mentioned my Who Wants to be a Millionaire efforts lately. I’m still trying, and every night get tripped up by the final question. I thought I had a chance last night, but couldn’t put four historical monarchs in order based on the timespan they ruled. Amanda McKay, also from Athens, will be on the show tonight.