Scriptfrenzy, 2011

Okay, just a quick note to mention that April is among other things, the month that Scriptfrenzy hits town. Write a hundred pages in April. There are all kinds of scripts and all kinds of formats you can do this in. At the very least ,check out the plot machine. It's fun.

What to do in an emergency--or maybe not

I don't actually know who reads this blog apart from a couple of people who have probably already seen it over on Adrian McKinty's blog, but because it is so incredibly great, I'll post this feat of heroism here anyway. It's pretty darn inspiring.

Why Can't We Go Straight?

File this under life's little mysteries...

Parasitic mind control

Yesterday, somewhat typically, I walked in a bit late to this weekly discussion group I go to. It's usually pretty free form, so I didn't know if we would be talking about Japan, or Wisconsin or Libya this week. But instead we had a biologist from up at the university speaking and as I came in, he was talking about parasitic mind control and other ways that bacteria and other parasites use their hosts as servants of their own survival ends. One way they do this is parasitic mind control. The following is an example which he told us to google. So I did.

Crickets can't swim well and normally don't like water. But when invaded by this worm, which is large enough to take up most of their inner body, they find themselves compelled to leap into water against their own needs. This is why:



The cricket presumably dies, and the worm goes on to breed anew. Ah, our natural world...

Mitoza

Another recommendation from the always intriguing Very Short List.

You could call Mitoza a game, but it's not really that, especially if you expect to win. I'm not entirely sure that there isn't a winning combination, but it hardly matters. Check it out. You'll see what I mean.

Les Miz Plays Madison.