Intel has developed a digital microscope, marketed for kids at home. I saw this in a catalog (Sam’s Club, I think) and was really excited. An educational computer toy that is fun! You can capture images from the microscope, edit them, print them, email, etc. Fun stuff. But then I found the official homepage and now I’m much less excited. It never comes out and says what the actual magnification levels are (Magnification levels are approximate and have been measured using a 15 in. (38cm.) monitor. Actual magnification will vary according to the size of your monitor is as close as they get.), but all the screenshots look like less than x10. Less than x5, even. Very disappointing, I think.

The more I dig through the BBC web sites, the more I like what they’ve got. I’m listening now to the dramatized diary of a woman living in a village ravished by the Black Plague (1348). They also have a viking attack (645), the Highland clearances (1816) and many more. They require RealAudio, but the scripts are there for the reading as well.

On the subject of searches, you can search many weblogs at once here. You’ll find that often several weblogs will be talking about the same thing at the same time. Some say this is a negative point against weblogs, but the only people that notice the repetition are those who frequent many different logs. I’ve seen that most of you reading this are people that know me from back when, and I’ll assume that you don’t read all of the logs. When I do comment on something that is “making the rounds”, though, I’ll try to do it in a way that doesn’t bore those of you coming in from the other logs.

I’ve played with the format a bit. The most obvious change is the search feature over to the left. It’ll search through the archives, which have really started to pile up. Also, I’m phasing out one statistics counter for another. You’ll not notice, unless you scroll all the way down and see the buttons on the bottom left.

Paramedics Rush Toy To Hospital: A group of British paramedics had the fright of their lives this Halloween, when they mistook a child’s toy found on a London subway station platform for a human fetus and rushed it to hospital. I don’t even know where to begin with this…

November 26th is the busiest shopping day of the year. Adbusters suggests that we buy nothing. I’ll take them up on that. Are you familiar with adbusters? They bill their website as the Culture Jammers Headquarters, and they focus mainly on consumerism. Their site is full of “uncommercials” that need media outlets, spoof ads, and details of their ongoing campaigns. At the grocery store the other day,I saw that they have a print magazine too that I ought to subscribe to. Even if you don’t think much of cultural jammers, adbusters is worth checking out.

If you do your grocery shopping in Lincoln, Nebraska, don’t sample the merchendise! The fuzz’ll be all over you.

Actor Ian Bannen killed in car crash-- most well known here in the US for his recent starring role in Waking Ned Divine. I quite enjoyed him there.

I made a three-pound wheel of swiss cheese over the weekend. Actually, I started making it – the cheese won’t be ready to eat for about four months. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s so very tasty. You too can learn how the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. I highly recommend ordering their 30 minute mozzarella kit. $19.95 gets you everything you need to make 30 pounds of fresh mozzarella except the milk.

Cafe Press: So here’s where I can put my big ugly mug on a big ugly mug for fun and profit. The link will take you to my “wares”, and at the bottom of my “store front” you can click to Cafe Press’ home page. There may be a use for this, somewhere.