Kids in the Hall of Biodiversity -- unfortunately, there’s no funny guys in drag here.

I saw talk today of a planned walkout on the Big Brother TV show (I’ve never watched it.). The walkout’s off, I understand. In England, a new reality show has just begun where the contestants are trying to break out of prison. First one out wins £100,000 in cash.

It has been suggested that a comet or meteor strike may have ushered in the Dark Ages, the period in human history from 500AD to roughly 1000AD where progress around the world came to a halt or (in the case of Europe) moved backward. Data from tree rings lend support to this theory.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, long dead, is facing a Scotland Yard mudred probe after accusations surfaced yesterday that he stole the idea for Hound of the Baskervilles from a friend and then had him poisoned. According to the Sherlock Holmes Society, the charge is “complete bunkum.”

Sure, you’ve heard of hedgerow mazes. How about a corn field maze? (The Indians call it “maize” . . .) Now that’s agritainment!

More on the Sorority racial story. The local radio claimed the sister who lodged the complaint against her own group has withdrawn not just from her sorority but also from the university. Her breaking ranks has surprised everyone. Ah – she did leave school, because the sorority refused to void her housing contract when she left the organization. “The women treated me like a pariah. Many of my sisters made insulting faces at me and made insensitive comments to me. No one offered to help me as I removed my belongings from the house. "

I didn’t watch Monday Night Football this week, but it appears Ironminds was pretty close to the mark when they previewed what Dennis Miller’s commentary might be like. I reached this conclusion by reading Britannica.com’s annotated Dennis Miller, a guide to Miller’s MNF cultural and historical references. This is fantastic, especially since their commentary is just as snaky as Miller’s. (Spotted at The Other Side)

On: A flurry of delay-of-game penalty flags on the Broncos, who were unable to get a play off due to the roar of the St. Louis crowd:
Miller said: “I think the reason you’re seeing so many flags is that everybody’s having to communicate in semaphore.”
The reference: Semaphore was a method of signaling with flags developed in France in 1794 by Claude Chappe and his brother Ignace in order to get messages to the war front during the revolutionaries’ battle with royalists. Despite its land-bound origins, semaphore was later used at sea, spawning the common image of a sailor on a ship deck madly waving colored flags.
What Miller might have meant: Perhaps the referees were not really penalizing Denver for delay of game, but in fact were trying to let Paris know that Condé-sur-l’Escaut had been captured from the Austrians.

Tonight I go listen to James Howard Kunstler speak on urban sprawl, and how we can stop it here in Athens. Tomorrow, it’s the Tour de Sprawl, which has been well covered by the local press.

Explore Castle Arcana. Now this is pretty neat. Hand drawn illustrations with clickable hot spots let you walk around the castle and its grounds using first-person perspective. Bits of humor make exploring a treat.

Segregation is alive and well in the University of Georgia’s fraternity/sorority system. I find it odd how the greeks are defending themselves from the charges. Things here are very clearly segregated, both in admission and geography. The press has long used the euphamism “historically black” when referring to the groups whose homes are clumped together and whose members are mostly black. The very affluent white homes align Milledge Avenue (the photo in the story is representative of most). My office is nestled among them, and I see the members every day waiting for the buses. There’s no racial mixing at all. This will certainly shake things up a bit. Good for the sorority sister who complained about this.