Regarding a's observation (#2), I believe he or she has a valid point, although rearranging the word order would not correct it much. Since the word for "wolf" is used as a direct object, it should be "lupum," which is the accusative form of "lupus." Although syntax in Latin can be flexible, I believe the correct way to phrase this would be "Homo ad homini lupum est." A more concise way would be "Homo est homini lupum" --- also acceptable. (I could be wrong, though; best to consult a very good professor of Latin.)

And h's comment (#3) regarding pronunciation: In classical Latin pronunciation, "v" was pronounced like "w" in English, "e" was pronounced like long "a" and "i" was pronounced like long "e." The name "Venn" (of diagram fame) is not Latin in origin; therefore it is not pronounced like "Wayne." However, one must keep in mind that Latin pronunciation was subject to all manner of local variants in Italy and abroad during (and long after) the days of the Roman Empire. Latin was spoken (sort of) by scholars as far afield as Wales, Scandinavia and Poland during the Middle Ages, and pronunciation (and even spelling) was adapted to suit the habits of the speaker. Consequently, we often hear "veni, vidi, vici" pronounced in "Church Latin," which uses colloquial Italianisms and sounds to English speakers like "veiny, vidi, vichi." It's still Latin, but not the way Caesar would have said it. (The effect is like hearing Shakepeare performed with a Texas drawl, I guess. No offense meant to Texans, of course.)

"Calling Mission Control... Instruments indicate it is time for 4:00 AM feeding. Not covered in training; request further instruction. Please hurry - can't take much more of that crying... Over."

"This is Mission Control. Babies don't come with instructions. Just do the best you can. And seal used diapers in refuse container - do NOT jettison from airlock. Have already received complaint from ISS regarding this. Over."

I see nothing here that either proves or disproves the authenticity of these pictures. Most of the arguments I've read for their being phoney have some holes in them. For example:

Traditionally, Islam has forbidden the depiction of the human form. However, this is a reaction against idolatry, and more tolerant Muslim cultures have no problem with photographs or drawings of living things, because nobody's going to bow down and worship a drawing. Statuary seems to be in a different category, though... Anyway, you may recall that under Saddam's rule, his portrait was everywhere, his palaces were adorned with cheesy Frazetta knock-off murals of blonde ingenues being rescued by muscle-men from crocodiles & such, and bootleg videos of American films were easy to get in the markets. As bad as Saddam was, religious fundamentalism & intolerance wasn't his thing. Remember, one of the first buildings targeted by insurgents after his capture was a Catholic church in Baghdad. That would not have been there if Saddam had a problem with "other" religions. His was a very secular dictatorship.

The clothing & buildings are actually typical of modern Baghdad. Most of the residents live in flats, like you'd find in most urban centers around the world nowadays. Robes & turbans are usually only worn for religious holidays & observances, if at all.

Hot, dry climates can be rough on a car, but at least they don't rust out too easily. Just as in the American Southwest, you can find older-model cars still running in some Middle-Eastern countries. Their guts are probably completely replaced, but the bodies stay intact until one has a bad accident. The Oldsmobile doesn't surprise me. Or maybe it was the easiest kind of car for the artist (I'm using the term loosely) to draw.

Ted (#11) probably hit the nail on the head as for the purpose of these drawings: part instructive, mostly fantasy. Yes, these tortures very likely were carried out. Maybe it helped to have a "list of options." Maybe it was also to frighten their captives. Keep in mind that strong, brave men do not torture people --- only weak cowards do, to overcompensate when they get the upper hand on someone. (I know, this is of no comfort to the victim! I'm just elucidating here.) A brave person would see no honor in fighting an opponent who is crying and wetting his pants. But a bully would find it funny and would have an easier time carrying his crime even further, into torture & death.

A final word before I sign off: Despite what the insurgents might say about God and faith, they are full of horse puckey if this is what they are doing. The Qur'an plainly states that God instructed us to not kill. Any attempt to circumvent this Commandment with excuses or exceptions counts as blasphemy as far as Islam is concerned. Anyone who makes excuses in order to commit murder is obviously ashamed of the facts: they are frustrated and are too stupid to think of a more constructive solution. And anyone who takes pleasure in torturing & killing has definitely gone off the deep end.

Re: jj's comments ---

The article mentions nothing about carbon dioxide, which, along with carbon monoxide, is associated with burning fossil (carbon-based) fuels such as oil & gasoline. As far as I know, the only waste product of hydrogen fuel is water. This process, assuming it actually works, produces only water and aluminum oxide as waste; and it looks like they have a plan for how to handle the AlO. (Since AlO exists as a solid at Earth temperatures, it doesn't pollute the atmosphere. Don't eat it, though!

I kind of figured that gallium would be the sticky wicket here, but it seems like they've crunched the numbers there, too. And even if it means stopping to refuel a little more frequently, I won't mind if all it means is carrying a jug of water and a box of pellets in the trunk. No more hunting for a service station that's still open at 11:00 PM! And any opportunity to cut my expenses while allowing me to get to work & back is welcome.

I'm not ready to buy stock in the industry just yet. K. brings up a good point about Purdue's track record in the fuel technology department. For now, I've printed up the article for my files, and remain cautiously optimistic.

Check the pattern buffers! If the original pattern is still in the buffers, we just MAY be able to re-materialize him.

Well, it worked on "Star Trek"...

Anyhoo, while sending the cremains into deep space or at least into orbit would have been a sweetly apropos gesture, the practical purpose of the mission was to test this experimental rocket's equipment. They needed to make sure the machine could safely bring something into orbit, and safely deploy a package to parachute down. What better way to drum up funds than to offer (for a price) to make someone's cremains part of the test package? Obviously, the targeting system or something still needs work. (Not to belittle the sentimental value of the cremains, but at least it wasn't a million-dollar piece of equipment that got lost!)

Ah, the Isadora Duncan death. #63 Pointed out a rather blatant flaw in the newspaper account. This is an example of just how much "news" is embellishment. It's typical of 1920s journalistic style (go for the heart-wrenching, human-interest angle), and shows up today as well, usually in less-reputable rags that seek to sensationalize.

A close friend or relative of Ms. Duncan's actually witnessed her death. She did have a chauffeur, but she gave him the day off so she could ride in the fancy car of a gentleman with whom she was having an affair (she and her husband were not on speaking terms). She told her friend (or relative) she was stepping out, got in the car, and they drove off. They'd barely driven a block when the witness reported seeing Ms. Duncan's head suddenly slump to the side. The car stopped --- the driver may have noticed his passenger's condition, or felt something tug at the axle --- but it was too late. Her neck had been snapped and her trachea crushed by her famous scarf. Morbid, but apparently not dramatic enough for the papers. Consequently, the writer added details about her being pulled from the car and dragged at full speed while screaming --- and the result was something that makes no sense: a passenger who can scream despite strangulation & a broken neck, and an oblivious driver who can hear screams over the racket of driving, but fail to notice that his beautiful passenger had suddenly bailed out. (Keep in mind, too, that the car was open-topped and had no muffler, driving on a cobblestone street. The driver could have heard no more than the wind roaring in his ears, had he gone at "top speed."

... and re: #5 --- The "Medieval Chinese dude" was Wan Hu, a Medieval official with a dream of flying. He conceived of a goose-powered flying machine (but never built it), and tried to fly to the Moon in a skyrocket-powered chair. Nice try, but he blew himself to bits.

Cool! I know of another famous "death by bookcase". Composer Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888) was a concert pianist who became a recluse (like the non-paralyzed Collyer brother). When he wasn't playing for a few close friends or composing, he studied the Kabbalah (a book of Hassidic Jewish mysticism). One day he climbed a stepladder to reach a book about the Kabbalah that he kept on the top shelf of a bookcase. Humidity had caused the books to swell, and he tugged and tugged to free the weighty tome, ultimately pulling the bookcase away from the wall...

I always found it ironic that he died a decidedly "smushed by the Hand of God"-style death while searching for God.

Wow! I'd love to know what kind of battery it uses (and how long it takes to charge). Two of the non-aesthetic drawbacks of earlier batcars were their limited range and the fact that charging them gobbled up so much electricity (usually made by burning coal) that they kind of defeated the purpose. According to the specs, it sounds like these problems have been overcome! I'd gladly pay an extra $10 a month on my electric bill if it will shave off $100 from my monthly fuel bill.

Why not? One of the reasons dinosaurs are so popular is because we can't see any living ones. Even though they did exist, and fossils tell us a great deal about them, there's still so much we don't know --- and so our imaginations help us fill in the blanks. In the case of cryptozoans and mythological creatures, where there isn't even proof that they ever existed, our imagination has even more play. By attaching the details of actual anatomical structures to imaginary animals, we exercise both our knowledge of real science while taking our imaginations out to play.

Supposedly there's an old proverb that goes: "He who rides a tiger cannot dismount." (In other words, you got yourself into this inescapable situation.)

I'll have to check out the video at a later date (56K modem), but I laughed when I read the description. Yep, that darn piece consists of 3 chords in a very repetitive cycle --- virtually identical to about 90% of '50s rock-n-roll (and a lot of pop music today as well). I think I found its minimalist style interesting when I first heard it, but the novelty wore off very quickly. I think I would still find it an interesting experiment today if it weren't so blasted popular!

One interesting aspect to the piece: near the end, it strays away from the three chords, augmenting some of them slightly (at least in the melody). The harmonies generated in the process are quite beautiful, and would not really be heard in other music for about a century, when Beethoven used them.

Now, if using this, one makes a slice of toast featuring a Jesus- or Mary-like image and sells it on ebay, then it should pay for itself pretty quickly. One could mass-produce these edible icons at will, without having to wait for the miracle of vaguely face-like blobs of singed toast to occur naturally...

Cool pupil! I've seen squared-off pupils on other animals as well: goats and octopus have rectangular pupils. Octopus pupils remain level with the horizon as the octopus rotates. If you look closely, you'll see that fish eyes have four small lines radiating away from the (circular) pupils at right angles; these reveal that fish eyes swivel to remain level with the horizon as well.

Again with the pigs! I think it's cute. Even if the pig's snout's a little germified, it's good for kids to ingest a little dirt now & again to keep the immune system strong. And the psycho-social benefits of having a healthy, loving relationship with our fellow Earthings are innumerable. Two cautions, though:

#1: Pigs have very sharp teeth. More people are killed by pigs each year in the USA than are killed by sharks worldwide. I'm not sure what prompts pigs to attack, but hopefully that's not a worry in this case.

#2: Tapeworms!

I'm not surprised. Despite all the "tastes like chicken" jokes surrounding cannibalism, most accounts by people who actually admit to having tasted human flesh claim it tastes like pork. When you consider that pigs are chemically very similar to ourselves and eat the same basic foods, it's not surprising that we taste alike as well. "Religious" laws against eating swine probably began with competition against pigs who were eating the natural resources we needed in areas where food was scarce. Apparently, the benefits of eating the pigs did not make up for the amount of "human" food they consumed. In places where food was more plentiful, or where wild boars lived in areas separate from human settlements, such proscriptions did not arise.

In case anyone's wondering what I eat, I'm a vegetarian. But I find this sort of thing fascinating nonetheless, and won't try to force anyone to change their diet on my account.