Today, France has officially surpassed California as the fifth-largest global economy.

A 9/11 memorial tribute took a turn for the tasteless metaphorical when 80 birds released from a tower didn't, in fact, know how to fly, and fell to the ground.

It turns out that the planners, upon discovering that all the companies offering trained dove and homing pigeon services were booked up, went to the livestock market and bought 80 squab.

The squab, bred for the soul purpose of becoming soup, had never been out of their cages in their brief lives, and knew as much about flying as a rock knows about floating.

In reaction to the mishap, one of the planners qupped that he saved the birds from a better fate than they would otherwise have had, but vets at the animal clinic, treating some of the birds who managed non-fatal landings, if not soft ones (some on people's heads), would beg to differ.

The irony becomes even more palpable when we consider that a memorial statue of a nude, falling woman was draped and removed from Rockefeller Center for being in poor taste.

Now that the anniversary's past, a lot of people feel that the the mourning period is over, and about time, while others throw political correctness to the wind and share their real thoughts about September 11th.

This last link I find really interesting, because the most disturbing thing for me about 9/11 was the dichotomy between horror and fascination. Movies and TV haven't acclimated me to things like murders and violence, but cinema is the thing that's prepared me for such extreme devastation, and so watching TV on 9/11 last year, it was easy to fall into a mode of "What's the next plot-point?" The scariest part was that there was a next plot point, and another, and another, each hit, each collapse perfectly timed to keep us entranced.

Have you ever had one of those times when you're having an intense conversation with someone in IM, and an hour into it you realize you weren't talking to who you thought you were, because you'd confused two open windows?

I'm so glad that hasn't happened to me.

Astral Projection, Out of Body Experiences, whatever you want to call it, CNN says researchers think they may know what causes it.

Sorry for another 'mainstream media' link, but as Joss said when he tearfully killed off Tara, it would be just as wrong to not do it because of the fear of backlash.

Personally, I think the conclusions are a little dubious, based on the paucity of the data and the sample size (one person). It reminds me of how people in the Middle Ages thought tomatoes were poisonous, because people who cooked with them occasionally went insane. In that particular case, there was a causal relation, but the conclusion was invalid. The real story? People had just started using lead cookware, which the acids in the tomato would break down, putting lead (a known psychotic) into the food and the body.

The same thing happened in Rome when they used lead pipes for plumbing.

I consider myself very open-minded sexually. Even so, this referrer weirds me out a bit.

Invention of the day: Have you seen the Thinkpads with integrated keyboard lights over the display, to illuminate the keys during dark meetings or lectures? The light in and of itself is pretty distracting, especially when they tend to illuminate your hands more than anything else.

The latest in LED technology is ultraviolet LEDs. Now wouldn't it be cool if one of these was integrated into a powerbook screen, just above the display, pointong down to the keyboard, and the inks used for the keyboard keys were slightly flourescent? You could have a Tron-esque keyboard, without lighting up anything else...

Talking with Ammy on IM:

kevin: But right now it's: "I could skydive, or I could visit the bay area..." Same money.
kevin: At least visiting home I get *two* plane rides, and they won't push me out at the top.

It was really foggy when I left for school this morning. I've got to leave earlier, so I can take some time to take pictures in the misty graveyard. Beautiful.

Anyhow, using Yahoo! Messenger to check today's local weather, I got a bit of a surprise:

Does Yahoo know something I don't?

SFGate ran a nice article this morning on the maturation of Instant Messaging into corporate America. I just wish they'd mentioned Yahoo before the final set of links after the article.

(with apologies to Fiona Apple)

Blogging (for me) is tidal. There are times when every little thought gets blogged (had pizza today. It was good, but not enough sauce), and there are times when Fury turns into a more 'traditional' web log, full of external links, and devoid of internal epiphanies...

Sometimes it's not that things are slow internally, it's the 'if you can't do it right, don't do it at all' mentality. Every story requires back-story, until the task is just too daunting.

Don't worry. The good news is that when I start blogging every little thing, it makes it easier to blog other little things, because the foundation of context is already laid.

so I'm playing intramural volleyball in 45 minutes. We lost our first game, but we'll see what two hours of practice (and literally swollen forearms) will garner me and my teammates tonight.

And don't worry, blogging 'every little thing' doesn't mean compromising the sanctities of friendship (whatever I mean by that).

At any rate, the tide is turning. Sure I can say that, but just watch.