rare bird

This caught the eye of Boing Boing, king of the blogosphere: Guns, Germs and Steel on PBS The TV series Guns, Germs and Steel, based on Jared Diamond 's Pulitzer Prize-winning sci/history book, premiers tonight on PBS. The companion Web site covers a lot of thought-provoking ideas that are interesting whether you read the book, never heard of it, or, um, didn't finish it. From the overview: Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality. * Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet? * Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead? * Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East? * Why did farming never emerge in Australia? * And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty? Link UPDATE: Jared Diamond is speaking in San Francisco this Friday as part of The Long Now Foun

My wife is from Ukraine. My mother-in-law just got her permanent resident alien visa. The only glitch in her interview was that they did not believe the Canadian marriage certificate between my wife and I was real . When she tried to say it was, the officer (obviously, a Ukrainian) said "Why didn't you get a full size copy?" (Our marriage certificate is larger than a driver's license, but not by much. That's the official size of Canadian marriage ceritificates.) When my mother-in-law said, "Well, it kind of is full size," the officer said "Them, marriage certificates, don't come in no tiny sizes like that! Now I know it's fake!" Finally the officer went to the consular and was told that the certificate looked OK. Thanks to my wife for the anecdote.

Before War Of The Worlds blows Episode III into box office history, I had better get this review out there. This review will be focused on content , not technique. I'm not going to debate the merits of Lucas as a director, for example. I'll write a technique review after this one (assuming I have the time). Like the folks over at TheForce.Net , I have also read the book, by Matthew Stover , and recommend it to anyone disappointed by the movie, in any conceivable way. In 1977 I was five, and so truly grew up with STAR WARS. These movies have created an American mythology for my generation that previously had none. Having seen Episode III, I am forced to watch the originals with different eyes. Palpatine is downright satanic as a tempter. He rivals Screwtape in his delicacy. He hardly needs to do anything but nudge Anakin towards the path he wants the Jedi to take. It is a brilliant, persuasive, and contemporary portrait of evil. I think Lucas intended to do this with Vader in