Lobster Caught "Half Cooked" in Maine

Two-toned lobsters, they explain, are rare but not unheard of.

The shells of American, or Maine, lobsters usually sport a combination of yellow, red, and blue pigments. But the animals grow symmetrically, with each half of the body developing independently of the other.

In the case of Robinson's catch, half of the lobster's shell was lacking the blue pigment, giving it the appearance of having been cooked to a turn.

All this makes Robinson's fifty-fifty find one for the record books, the Oceanarium's staffers say.

The aquarium has received only three two-toned lobsters in 35 years, they note, and the odds of finding one that's exactly half and half is about 1 in 50 million.

Lute?

In Renaissance Dutch, the word for Lute was Luit. It appears that in Flanders, and hence the Flemish tongue (the variety of the Dutch language used in Flanders), luit was (and is no longer) the usual slang word for the female pudendum.



A fellow lutenist has seen a separate reference to this meaning in a discussion of a painting by Honthort of a prostitute and procuress and a man, the women prominently showing a lute to the man in candelight and pointing specifically to the lute's soundhole. The book was written by Robert Fuchs (what an appropriate name for this post!) a well known scholar on Dutch 17th C art and, I think, former director of the Rijksmuseum, so he must be correct.

Dear, oh, dear. How will I ever be able to play my lute with a straight face again in future?

Per me guerreggia Amor, e la Fortuna!

Go me! =p

20" Laptop!

Yes. You read that correctly. 20". Laptop. Yes. If you thought Apple's 17" Powerbook & MacBook Pro were pushing it, you now have something new to choke on your coffee about. Thank you, Dell!

Can't you just see it now, some geek at Starbucks with a 20" laptop?



20" display, with fewer pixels than an Apple 17".
Detachable keyboard for desktop use.
Weight starting at 18 lbs. That's 8 kg for the rest of us.
$4000 USD for this??? Dell? More expensive than Apple?
Not a peep about battery life - elsewhere we find reports of 2 hours max battery life. Ick!

Someone commented that they'd buy it only to have something big, expensive and fugly to beat someone to death with. After all, it's a hideous Dell, which means it whoever's rich enough to buy it, can't use it to impress girls (or boys, for that matter).

Another comment was "This is about as practical as buying an Apple Cinema display and a mac mini and strapping them to your back wherever you go. Only this costs more than twice as much...for the basics."

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

Oolong the Rabbit

A Japanese rabbit with a love of balancing objects (mostly small food items) on its head. Isn't he adorable?

Official Oolong Site

Oolong Galleries

New Links

Here are two new links:

Lebanese Political Journal - highly informative for those of us who wish to know what's going on in Lebanon from a Lebanese perspective, especially in these troubled times.

Leopolis - similar news from the city of L'viv, from Western Ukraine.

Bush Gropes, Planet Cringes

Bush gives an unwanted backrub to German Chancellor Merkel.

Here is Dubya, strolling speedily into a G-8 summit meeting where powerful, intent world leaders are already gathered to discuss, presumably, serious issues of the day, walking straight up to a seated German Chancellor Angela Merkel and giving her a weird, unsolicited shoulder rub from behind, before dashing to his seat. Oh yes he did.

The pictures, the video reveal all. Merkel reacts accordingly, is instantly creeped out, cringes and shrugs Bush away with a look of surprised revulsion.

Dubya is, of course, oblivious.

Can you believe it? It's G8 for crying out loud. As the article says "Israel and Lebanon are burning. Iraq is in tatters. North Korea is spitting on the world. Global leaders are gathered to discuss the most pressing and violent issues on the planet, many of which the Bush administration had a clammy hand in exacerbating. Might not be the best time for the leader of the free world to give a cheesy frat-guy neck rub to his German gal-pal in front of the world media." It's not a buddy-buddy club.

I wish she'd stood up and punched him. Thatcher would've gotten up and slapped the twit.

Video here.

Please, Please, Don't Let This Turn Into World War IV (or III)

I'm sure my readers will know of the horrible events unfolding between Lebanon and Israel (and possibly even Iran and Syria next). This could very well turn into World War III (or IV, depending on whether one sees the Cold War as WWIII).

Lord, grant us peace in our time, and preserve the holy places!



[image from Paróquia Melquita de Nossa Senhora do Líbano]

Our Lady Of Lebanon, Pray For Us!

A little verse on the events:

Upon the land of cedars we humbly pray,
Her protecting veil may the Holy Virgin display,
God confound the wicked plans of the Jews,
May we never like them evil choose.

Fratres et Sorores, Orate!

I apologise to readers who have no Latin - the nature of this post requires some discretion, as much as it requires many prayers. Those who have Latin, pray; and those who don't, please join in the intention. And sorry about the inelegance and unidiomatic Latin - it's late over here and I'm too upset.

Patres Reverendi, Fratres et Sorores - orate pro Antonio, amico meo, cuius uxor eum linquit.

Liberos vult, sed ea non vult. super omnibus eam amat, sed ea dissidium desiderat. dixit se eum nunc non amare. eum umquam amavit? Mulier dixit se non scire. quam amarum res est. eo quid loquere non scio.

Sunt multae aliae causae, sed de his hic non narrabo - omnia non mihi explicavit.

Orate pro eo, et pro ea, et pro parentibus eorum.

Extract from Sarum Missal

Having just downloaded the entire Sarum Missal in PDF form, I found a glorious bit that gets added to the Ordo Missæ in the Missa Pro Defunctis. Right after the Lavabo and before the Orate Fratres, Sarum has:

Sacerdos: Hostias et preces tibi Domine, offerimus.

Chorus: Tu suscipe pro animalibus illis, quarum hodie memoriam agimus, fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam.

Ah, how lovely!

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs

Attn: Entrepeneurs

Everyone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today’s world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks. Failure to do this may result in situations such as the following (legitimate) companies who deal in everyday humdrum products and services but clearly didn’t give their domain names enough consideration:

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name... wait for it... is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company...
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales (that's in Australia):
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

- all from here.

This day did Fate so cruelly bring
Revolt of the colonies Americans sing;
But we who know the truth of the thing,
Do piously say 'God save the King'!

And no, I don't mean 'God save the Queen'.
The King of England is unmarried.