It doesn’t get much play in the publicly-available cultural anthropology literature, but there’s an island in the Pacific where an interesting conflict has played out over generations. The island, which has an untranslatable name – generally rendered in English as  “Ryeezahn” –  is occupied by two tribes, the Kritsi and the Syenz, which have been at war for generations, a war temporarily restrained in an uneasy peace. The root of the conflict, as visiting anthropologists have … [Read more...]

I don't know why this intrigues me so much, but there's a place online where you can see close-to-realtime maps of the actual WIND — Wind Map — in motion! Click to zoom, mouse-hover to see the wind speed at any point, and look at some of the past maps to see weird and wonderful patterns of the river of atmosphere flowing over and around us. … [Read more...]

There are a lot of "stunts" I don't care much for. David Blaine standing for 72 hours in a chamber with Tesla-coil lightning ... well, he might as well have stood there for 72 hours with a coin taped to his forehead. When I was about 5 years old I decided I would stay up all night by myself, just to see what it was like. The answer is: Boring. Ditto for David Blaine. Yes, it's sort of impressive that someone can stand on their feet for 72 hours without a bathroom break. But it's the standing … [Read more...]

Flexagons: Fun. I first got to play with them back in the 60s. I always wanted a flexagon business card.   … [Read more...]