BREAKING SURF
| The Present State of Blogs |
| Exploring and Collecting Usenet History Online |
| Golfing Mongolia |
| Imaging Everest |
| Biking around the US |
| The Staffordshire Past-Track |
| Travel Tips |
| Stickers: 21st Century Graffiti |
| Ron Gershman's Photography |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Let Your Brain Take the Ftrain |
| The Art of the Rejection Letter |
| Short Story E-Zine |
| The Worst Jobs in Science |
| Volcanoes of the Great White North |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
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BREAKING SURF
New $20 Bills Enter Circulation
The US Federal Reserve System has just released the redesigned $20 bill for circulation. The big change is the addition of subtle non-green colors in the background, which make the venerable greenback more difficult to counterfeit. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing points out other changes designed with security in mind. In addition to the pictures of the new bill, the Web site also ofers videos from the ad campaign that the US government will be mounting as it introduces the new bill to consumers. One nifty interactive feature is a page that lets you enter your ZIP code to indicate that you've received a new $20, thus helping to build a map that shows the spread of the new currency.http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/
California Recall Election Results Maps
The circus is mostly over. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California - surely one of the great American immigration stories ever. We'll leave the punditry to the media and just point you to maps that show how each California county voted. The geographic split is telling. The state provides maps: one shows the recall vote split and a second shows the voting for governor candidates. Los Angeles County and a coastal strip from Monterey to Humboldt Counties (and as far inland as Yolo County) voted against recall. Cruz Bustamante won a smaller subset of those same counties.Recall: http://vote2003.ss.ca.gov/Returns/recall/mapN4.htm
Vote: http://vote2003.ss.ca.gov/Returns/gov/mapB.htm
Coder and computer analyst Paul Graham has written an essay that sums up the current state of play in the spam wars. Specifically, he discusses the effectiveness of Bayesian filters, a method for dealing with spam that he made popular. He notes several ways in which spammers are trying to circumvent such filters, notably either by inserting random text into the spam e-mail or by rewriting their pitches to sound less like spam. Neither strategy is very effective, Graham reports. He goes on to mention even more sophisticated methods of algorithmically identifying spam, which include following URLs to check out the spammers' Web content and looking for more complex associations between words in the spam. While Graham cites better than 99% success in spam filtering with current filters, the amount of spam still taking up bandwidth on the Net has sadly not noticably decreased of late.
http://www.paulgraham.com/sofar.html
A scientific article called "Documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck" deserves a prize, and faithful readers will know which one it won. An Ig Nobel, of course (in Biology). It's that Ig Nobel time of year, when research work that first makes us laugh and then makes us think dominates the headlines, sort of. Awarded Oct. 2 in Cambridge, Mass., this year's prizes bring the Ig Nobels back to the zenith of Ig Nobelity - the last few years have, frankly, not been as inspiring as, say, "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces." Look at the list of winners and try to find one that doesn't make you laugh out loud. For better or worse, it remains unclear what happened to the duck. If you have a moment, catch the streaming video of the ceremony.
Prizes: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2003
Video: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-webcast.html
Around the time the Ig Nobels are announced, some group in Sweden hands out the Nobel Prizes, which are generally a lot less amusing but equally inspiring. On the other hand, about a decade ago the Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin, which in retrospect is good for a laugh. Copping the prize for literature this year was John Coetzee of South Africa. He's described in the Nobel press release as "ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilisation." The prizes for physics, chemistry, and medicine were a little less controversial, and we await the Oct. 10 grand finale, this year's Nobel Peace Prize. As the awards are announced, the Nobel e-Museum updates its Web site. That alone may not be enough to draw you there, but maybe the raft of Flash games which can not only eat time but possibly even teach you a thing or two, will.
http://www.nobel.se/
New Copy-Protected CDs Not Very Well Protected
The music industry keeps trying to copy-protect its product but they keep doing an atrocious job of it. Last year's CD copy protection could be defeated with a felt tip pen (see NSD 8.19). The most recent sophisticated method can be defeated by using the shift key. MediaMax CD3 is a new copy-prevention technique from SunnComm Technologies designed to prevent copying CDs on computers. John Halderman, a computer-science grad student at Princeton, examined the technique and determined that it works on Windows and MacOS by installing a driver on the computer the first time the CD is inserted. The driver places restrictions on copying the music from the CD. Anybody can easily disable the driver's installation process by, for example, holding down the shift key in Windows, or by removing the driver after it's been installed. This copy protection is embarassingly easy to circumvent. Halderman's Web site has the complete report on how it fails to work, and as we went to press, SunnComm announced it will sue Halderman for DMCA violations and damages. Wired has that news.NSD 8.19: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v08/nsd.08.19.html#BS4
Halderman: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60774,00.html
Humor in the National Do Not Call Registry
The on-again off-again legal adventures of the US National Do Not Call Registry (NDNCR) are amusing enough. The registry allows Americans to sign up to block all telemarketing calls from companies they have not purchased from. The telemarketing industry claims that the registry will ruin the US economy and has found judges willing to rule against the legality of the program, but then the US government found other judges who said the NDNCR can proceed. The situation got even funnier when humorist Dave Barry entered the ring. In an amusing piece on telemarketers and the NDNCR, Barry inserted the toll-free telephone number of the American Teleservices Association (ATA). The public hit the ATA with a flood of calls, which the group found really, really annoying. The ATA changed its number, but Barry is not giving up. Here's his follow-up column.Barry: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/6934584.htm
Do Not Call Registry: http://www.donotcall.gov/
Given what we learned about NASA from the Columbia accident report, "The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap", appearing in the journal Astrobiology, is rather remarkable. First, it is well written and concise. Second, it is clearly the result of a fair amount of sustained collaborative thought. We know of life only on Earth, and so astrobiology seems at first thought to be a field without any subject matter, but after reading this document you'll understand how the field not only exists, but is intellectually vibrant. By objectively analyzing the existence of life on Earth instead of taking it for granted, astrobiology appears profoundly comparative, even at the level of comparing life on Earth during different geological eras. The Astrobiology Roadmap's section on understanding how Earth became a viable site for life and how that might change is thought-provoking and worth your time. How Congress or anyone else will continue to fund astrobiological study is another question. NASA has a site similar to the paper.
"The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap": http://tinyurl.com/qcww
NASA: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/
CIA Reveals How It Handled Agent in USSR
If you love spy novels, you'll love this true, detailed account of how the CIA ran an agent in the Soviet Union until a disgruntled ex-CIA employee turned him in to the KGB. The CIA's plant, A.G. Tolkachev, provided the US with valuable intelligence based upon his own work at a Soviet research institute. In particular, he provided detailed information about Soviet avionics and aircraft research and development. The article comes right from the CIA and its most striking parts are the detailed discussions of how the agency supervised Tolkachev and provided him with equipment, money, and support. This is almost a handbook on how to fight the KGB in Moscow, right from the source and much better than any John Le Carre novel. Interestingly, Tolkachev had to contact the US embassy staff repeatedly before anyone would take him seriously - although we guess that such a procedure weeds out the kooks and allows for preliminary surveillance to cut down on double-agents. Interestingly, those who use gathered intelligence are known as consumers. For an unclassified CIA document, this is rather remarkable.http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol47no3/article02.html
Republicans Who Watch Fox Really Are Ignorant: Study
There's no way we can report this without being flamed by somebody who operates with their political sensitivity set to "nitro". As we don our asbestos body armor, let us disclaim that we don't make the news, we just point you to primary sources and make up snappy headlines. A research group from the University of Maryland explored the public's "significant misperceptions" about the Iraq war and how they correlate to political affiliation and media consumption. The group looked at three falsehoods: 1) there is a proven link between Saddam's Iraq and Al Quaeda; 2) weapons of mass destructions have been found in Iraq; 3) world public opinion generally supported the war. The study found that those who believe these misconceptions have "sharply higher" support for the Iraq war. To find why these misconceptions persist, the study looked at news source and political affiliation. Here are two direct quotes: "Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions" and "It is also true that Republicans and those with lower education are more likely to have misperceptions." The full report has extensive documentation and statistics with detail about other news sources and other political party affiliations. Read it yourself.http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/Media_10_02_03_Report.pdf
Kay Statement on Iraq WMD Report
David Kay's statement to a group of high-powered government committees about the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) Interim Progress Report suggests that the report does a good job of milking the evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to maximum effect. That's not to say that there's no smoke there, but there's no call for water bombers, either. The evidence that emerges is of systematic focused destruction of evidence - documents and computer hard drives mostly - coupled with a hidden network of laboratories and storage areas, as well as persistent attacks on ISG personnel and facilities. Kay points out that finding the WMD needle in the large conventional-munitions haystack in Iraq is a daunting task and that it's too soon to say whether the needle is there or not. Clearly, Iraq concealed illegal activities from the most recent UN inspections and there seems little doubt that Iraq intended to develop WMD in the long run. That's damning enough for some, although it's not at all clear what such efforts actually achieved and how far along such programs were, which seems to be what most folks want to know. It's going to be some time before any firm conclusions can be drawn. It's frustrating that the report itself isn't available publicly.http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html
Popular SF author Bruce Sterling presents his choice of ten technologies that deserve to die in this short Technology Review article (it requires free registration to read). Tops on his list are nuclear weapons, coal-based power, and the internal-combustion engine. We can probably all agree that nuclear weapons should go away, although they likely won't. As for coal-based power, though - hold up a second. Technology like smokestack scrubbers can render coal-burning plants comparatively clean. Possibly a larger problem, in this case, may be found in those parts of the world where coal is still a predominant source of fuel for household heating and cooking. We'd go for the elimination of that "technology" in a heartbeat. Sterling's take on things is sure to set your neurons sparking, in any case.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/Sterling1003.asp
Hurry up! The Boobie-Thon is slated to close Oct. 11. Robyn, the founder, was originally going to run the Second Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon for the entire month of October, which is the designated National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Editing, updating, and taking donations has grown into a job too big for a pregnant lady with a real-world life to keep up with, so Robyn will stop accepting submissions or donations on Oct. 11. It seems clear that she's come up with a big way to support breast-cancer research.
Boobie-Thon: http://tampatantrum.tobynopoly.com/boobiethon/
Robyn: http://www.tampatantrum.com/
The Culture of and in Online Gaming
LawMeme is presenting a series of articles on the world of online gaming as a prelude to a November conference on the subject. Looking seriously at fun is always intriguing, and these articles by James Grimmelmann, editor-in-chief of Gaming Industry News, digs into the subject of massively multiplayer online games with verve. The first article looks at Second Life, a game that avoids one persistent bugaboo of online games - boredom with the familiar - by allowing players to build new things themselves and enrich the game with novelty. To deal with the virtual inflation that stalks such games as rare, coveted goods become cheap and commonplace, Second Life taxed players for keeping stuff around. Some players felt it was unfair to tax those who helped build major projects that made the game more enjoyable for others. Players rebelled with highly creative protests, including such antics as replacing a model Washington Monument with tea crates and wearing shirts and erecting billboards with revolutionary slogans. The protest grew into a kind of party, which enlivened the game and led the game designers to tweak the tax. How such crises arise and how they play out fascinate Grimmelmann, and he infects us with his enthusiasm across the whole spectrum of articles.Grimmelmann: http://tinyurl.com/qdgo
Conference: http://www.nyls.edu/pages/777.asp
MIThril Update on Wearable Computing
Are you wearing your computer? Do you want to? If you answered "yes" to either question, head on over to the MIT Media Lab site. MIThril, a MIT wearable-computer project, has a new article that details its latest work. Linux PDAs figure heavily in the project, which has so far produced about 30 systems that are actively being used on campus. One of these must be great at exam time.... Even if you don't want to be tied to a machine, try reading the "MIThril 2003: Applications and Architecture" paper. It's an engaging and well written exposition of the project and its goals.MIThril: http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril/
Paper: http://www.media.mit.edu/~rich/209_DeVaul_R.pdf
Linux and Mac OS vs. Windows Security
It's amusing to occasionally dip into the operating system (OS) wars and watch the combatants battle in the "mine is better than yours" flame war. Notwithstanding the fun, the discussion of the relative merits of how the differing OSs handle security is a serious concern. Microsoft Windows in all its incarnations is by far the major target of viruses and other hacking exploits. Why? One argument hinges on the fact that there are so many more Windows boxes, and because the platform is so ubiquitous, it is the malicious hacker's choice of victim. Security Focus columnist Scott Granneman takes on this myth and debunks it. According to Granneman, the numbers don't add up. There are far fewer viruses for Mac OS and Linux proportionately to the deployed number of such boxes than there are for Windows machines. Furthermore, Granneman argues that the default settings and Unix heritage of Mac OS and Linux make them inherently more secure. His analysis is worth reading, as is the extensive discussion that follows it.http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/188
EFF Doesn't Trust Trusted Computing
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has some thoughts on the "trusted computing" that Microsoft touts as its new goal. It notes that it's possible to design an integrated set of features that incorporates changes to both hardware and software without compromising the autonomy of the end user. Such an approach is in direct opposition to the approach advocated by the leading trusted-computing proposals. The "remote attestation" feature in the present proposals is particularly disturbing, as it affords third parties the ability to enforce policies on your computer with or without your permission. This inexcusable arrangement is among several that the EFF discusses and challenges in this position paper. Add it to your must-read list, particularly if you ever code or add code that (gasp!) enhances the usefulness of your paid-for software.http://www.eff.org/Infra/trusted_computing/20031001_tc.php
New SANS/FBI Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerabilities List
The SANS Institute and the FBI have published their latest annual list of the top 20 most critical Internet security vulnerabilities. This year, the list is actually two separate lists of ten: the ten most commonly exploited vulnerable services in Windows, and the ten most commonly exploited vulnerable services in UNIX and Linux. The 20 vulnerabilities make up a fairly technical collection of items, but anyone who runs a computer connected to the Net should read it and make an effort to understand it.http://www.sans.org/top20/
Possibly proving that power corrupts even good guys like Google, the search engine company has moved to muzzle affiliates of its AdSense service. Google AdSense has attracted many Web sites, including many blogs, to its program of search-relevant text ads. Some affiliates, including blogger Erik Thauvin, are claiming that Google is arbitrarily canceling AdSense contracts and reducing payment schedules. Google abruptly cancelled Thauvin's AdSense account with two months payments to him owing because, the company claimed, his site took advantage of fraudulent click-throughs. Google provided no proof of the charge, which Thauvin says makes no sense. Google has no comment, and wants none - it recently added a gag rule to its AdSense agreement. This doesn't sound like the Google we know and love, but perhaps the company is beginning to feel pressure in the online ad market. The Register has the goods.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33180.html
Details of Impending Microsoft Browser Changes for Developers
As we reported in NSD 9.34, Microsoft lost a patent-infringement lawsuit regarding how a browser, i.e. Internet Explorer (IE), can use plug-ins. As a result, Microsoft must change how IE handles plug-ins. The changes are disruptive and will affect many Web developers and plug-in providers. Microsoft has released details of the changes it plans to make to IE's handling of Java applets and ActiveX controls. The Microsoft Web site has links to documentation as well as a test version of IE that shows how these things will work after Microsoft makes the changes. Anybody who develops Java or ActiveX plug-ins will want to go through this information.NSD 9.34: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/sub/v09/nsd.09.34.html#BS4
Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/
ONLINE CULTURE
The results of this survey of blogs remind us of citation statistics for articles in scholarly journals: a few articles are cited repeatedly while most are ignored and sink into oblivion. Same thing, it seems, happens to blogs. The survey, of 3,634 blogs on eight blog-hosting services, found that although blogging is exploding in popularity, most blogs are abandoned early. Girls blog more than boys, and teens more than older folk. The typical active blog is updated every 14 days, much less often than is popularly supposed. Blogs, it seems, are usually aimed at small social groups such as families, classmates, and friends instead of the general netsurfing public. Links in blogs predominantly point to sources other than traditional news sites. The celebrity blogs you may have heard about don't fit the typical profile; this survey reveals the glacial underbelly of the blogosphere.http://www.perseus.com/blogsurvey/
Exploring and Collecting Usenet History Online
Ever use Usenet? If so, you might want to contribute to the Exploring and Collecting History Online (ECHO) project on Usenet. ECHO is a collection of projects that aim to record first-hand histories through the Net. The Usenet ECHO project is trying to gather recollections of Usenet newsgroups, particularly of the pioneer days of Usenet, that can then be browsed by other readers. Usenet, a Net-based discussion board, was invented in 1979, long before the Web. If you have memories of the early Usenet, by all means contribute. You can also read first-hand accounts of how people around the world have used its virtual roundtables to discuss thousands of topics from aerobics to zoology - even if most of them admit somewhat geekily to have been tempted to Usenet in search of chat about SF television.ECHO: http://echo.gmu.edu/
Usenet project: http://echo.gmu.edu/usenet/index.html
ONLINE TRAVEL
Even Tiger Woods would hesitate to golf a course 2,322,000 yards long and, as the CIA World Fact Book states, slightly smaller than Alaska in area. Throw in grassland fires, drought, and dust storms, and you'll likely agree it takes a lot of balls to do what New Hampshire native Andre Tolme is attempting to - golf his way across Mongolia. Tolme is not endorsed by Nike or the PGA, though he does solicit sponsors. You won't find him selling Buicks at Golf Mongolia, his good-humored and engaging travelogue. This spring, when he began his mostly solo adventure, Tolme discovered with his first drive that wind would be a problem. This may be the stuff of Hollywood slapstick, but the prospect of bubonic plague, poisonous snakes, and other natural hazards lend credence to his statement that his impetus is to bridge understanding between Mongolians and Americans. Golf Mongolia includes Tolme's progress reports, photos, press coverage, and scorecard. He completed the first hole in eight days, 40 balls, and 833 shots (122 over par). After 1,000 km of striking persistence, seas of long grass have forced Tolme to postpone the remainder of his expedition till next spring. Here is a man in search of something other than perfection.http://www.golfmongolia.com/index.html
To mark the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, the Royal Geographical Society has mounted an exhibition of photographs of the mountain the Tibetans call Chomolungma. The society has drawn the images from its collection of 20,000 photographs taken on nine Mount Everest expeditions between 1921 and 1953. The exhibition focuses on the landscape and people of the Himalayas and tells the story of those involved in the first attempts to climb Everest. The atmospheric black-and-white images of climbers in ties and waistcoats reveal an era of climbing before modern fabrics, equipment, and techniques made the sport slightly safer. Sir Edmund Hillary himself opened the physical exhibition in Nepal earlier this year.
http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Concepts/Virtual_Everest/-1.html
Riding a bicycle at ten miles an hour lets a cyclist see more of the countryside or city than driving does. After Ted and Colleen retired last year in Mystic, Conn., they sold their house and set off to ride their bicycles around the US. They have been documenting their travels in words and images on their Web site ever since, and it certainly does make for entertaining reading. They stop whenever something unusual catches their eyes, such as an archaeological dig, the Hershey chocolate museum, and the Lake Huron lightship. If their journey inspires you to make your own, definitely check out their hints and tips section, which can help you avoid the worst mosquitoes (Arkansas) and the least courteous fellow road-users (RV-drivers). Useful tips include asking postal workers for directions and the firehouse staff for restrooms and water bottle refills.
http://www.garringer.net/foam/
Staffordshire, an English county near the northern portion of the Welsh border, boasts a thousand years of churches, a tradition of coal mining, and a generally long and storied history. Where else will you find an illustration of a magnificent church dating from 1160? Like much of the UK, this small county is steeped in history, and some examples are available online here. Content is only likely to grow, as the Staffordshire Past-Track project has as its goal the enhancement of access to collections of historical material relating to the history of the Staffordshire area. Presently, it's a bit thin on detail, but still worth a peek, especially if you plan to be in the area.
http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/
This site tries to cover anything you think of when planning a vacation or even just a day trip. It offers thousands of tips for and links to airlines, cruises, theme parks, etc. The quality of information varies throughout the site - the Kids Traveling Tips section, for example, raises more questions than it answers but would certainly focus the mind of any parent. The advice is definitely written from an American perspective and can be slightly off for certain topics such as tipping where the etiquette varies with local custom. The section on packing is particularly useful with practical hints on avoiding wrinkles in your clothes and a comprehensive packing list for the traveler who always arrives without a toothbrush. If you're seeking links to particular embassies, you'll find this site's links list fairly complete and accurate.
http://www.freetraveltips.com/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Stickers: 21st Century Graffiti
The whole tagging/graffiti thing is so lame. It's just turned into a venue for gangbangers and general punks over the years. The new, cool venue for artistic expression is now stickers - some of which are really large. Spray cans are out; printing is in. Serious urban artists create their artwork, then print it out on good-quality media. Then they apply these gems to walls, bridges, or whatever. StickerNation brings sticker artists together and features interviews with some of the best. Download and print cool stuff, or upload your own. It's a sticker exchange. Dude, if you're still using spray-paint, you're outta the loop. Catch up here.http://www.stickernation.net/
Take a break from your hectic day and check out some stunning photography shot by Ron Gershman. Who is Gershman? There's a serious lack of vital information at his Web site - all we can tell is that he might be a physician and he might be in LA, and that he is certainly one amazing photographer. Judge for yourself as you view his online gallery. As the cliche says, Gershman's photography speaks to you. Through his lens, you'll believe in love, innocence, death, peace, and joviality. You'll be transported to old worlds or even find yourself feeling the effervescence of first love. Striking in color and contrast, these photos are an illustrated journey of the human spirit.
http://www.rongershman.net/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
For more selections, check out: Netsurfer Books: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/ Netsurfer Library: http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
eBay Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools
Shadows Over Baker Street
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Soundtrack)
The Ethics of MemoryLet Your Brain Take the Ftrain
Ftrain.com is a blog, and most blogs are boring as heck. Ftrain.com isn't. It isn't updated daily, which seems to give blogger Paul Ford time to ruminate. He does it well, and that's why you'll find a short hop on the train worthwhile. He's erudite; meaning that unlike the rest of us, he's actually read Herodotus and McLuhan and can incorporate some of their positions into his random essays with lucidity - a rare commodity in this day. He may not be a millionaire (or maybe he is), but he has darned good style. Ford has organized Ftrain.com as a multidimensional entity, with posts and themes that double back and double forward into and among each other. If you don't check it out, you'll never forgive yourself when you find out what you missed, or something.http://ftrain.com/
The Art of the Rejection Letter
More manuscripts are being submitted to publishers than ever before, which means that there are more rejection letters now than at any time in literary history. In this Telegraph article, poet Tom Payne provides an author's view of the phenomenon of the rejection letter. He has had a few of his own to contend with, which puts him in fairly exalted company - Gertrude Stein, Primo Levi, and, more recently, J.K. Rowling have had their knock-backs, and Marcel Proust's "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu" was rejected by Andre Gide. In times gone by, the would-be author only had to contend with rejection from a publisher, but literary agents have also now gotten in on the act. Payne also talks to Clare Morrall, author of the Booker Prize-nominated "Astonishing Splashes of Colour" and something of an expert on rejection letters, having received thousands of them in the course of her 15-year writing career. A thick skin is a must for writers, and Payne reminds us that continued rejection of the manuscript of "The Confederacy of Dunces" is widely believed to have led to John Kennedy Toole's suicide.http://click.email-publisher.com/maabou1aaZ8b8a54ftcb/
A new writers' resource online is adding a fresh new vibe to the writing community. Papermite is an e-zine that provides exposure for new writers or seasoned authors looking to try something new under an alias. You won't find your typical SF, romance, or coming-of-age stories here. As the creators of this site note, Papermite publishes strong, original short stories that are accessible but not typical, traditional, or expected. Published quarterly, Papermite seeks to blur the line between reality and fiction. The editors seek quasi-confessional stories that represent the early 21st century. Currently, the e-zine is calling for submissions for their winter 2003 issue. If you've always had a passion to get your writing published, but know that your stories stray from the norm, have a look. You may discover your calling, or at the very least discover others who have the same zest for writing as you.
http://www.papermite.com/index.html
SURFING SCIENCE
Scientists show intelligence, curiosity, discipline. Think twice, though, before you idealize a career in science. Kids have good reason to prefer paychecks as pop singers, movie stars, or professional athletes. In addition to wealth and glamour, we can point to the online poop from Popular Science. "The Worst Jobs in Science" is a collection of behind-the-scenes thumbnail exposes of the dirty work you rarely hear about. Fart-sniffing made the top of the list. Looking for something easier? How'd you like to sit still for clouds of famished mosquitoes? Clean labs full of virulent pathogens? Give barnyard animals hand-jobs? Get bitten by rats while you stick electrodes in their brains? NASA engineers get no extra pay when they "spend a few months in cramped captivity to test their equipment" and drink water recycled again and again from urine. How cool is that? Astronauts put up with a lot, including rectal probes and nausea induced during stress training. Scientists may react to such reportage with a shrug. All in a day's work.... In our Netsurfer family, we have folks who have pureed small rodents, freeze-dried human feces, and done just about everything you can to and with a rhinoceros.http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,484153-1,00.html
Volcanoes of the Great White North
Visit this government of Canada Web site for a look at a subject very few people even know about: Canadian volcanism. At this Natural Resources Canada portal, you'll discover a detailed and easily navigated guide to everything anyone would ever need to know about fiery Canadian mountains. Start with an overview of the different types of volcanoes that dot earth's landscape. Canada is home to many different varieties of volcanoes, including stratovolcanoes (which typically display a pointed top and sloping, curved-in sides) and cinder cones (which are characteristically round or oval with a depression in the top). Further investigation will have you reading about eruptions and the likelihood of one in the Great White North. This online resource to one of nature's most turbulent natural phenomena - and the volcanoes of the land they inhabit (we kid, we kid...) - is highly informative and easy to navigate.http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/gsc/pacific/vancouver/volcanoes/index_e.html