The Bestiary

I caught a fascinating episode of PRI's (always-fascinating) To The Best Of Our Knowledge entitled "The Bestiary" (mp3)  The show ran amok in the wilds of myth, fantasy, pseudo/possibly-real, and the unbelievably weird, rare, and endangered.  Some highlights:

• The kappa, Japanese water sprites known for "passing gas" or kidnapping and eating children, can be dispatched and appeased in two ways:  first, when confronted by a kappa you should try to take advantage of its sense of ettiquette...it will be forced to return your deep bow with one of its own, which will in turn drain the pool of water that sits atop its head, weakening it.  Secondly, you can befriend a kappa by a generous gift of cucumbers (of note, this is why cucumber sushi is called kappamaki).
• The EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) of Existence Project "...highlights and protects some of the weirdest and most wonderful species on the planet.  EDGE species have few close relatives on the tree of life and are often extremely unusual in the way they look, live and behave, as well as in their genetic make-up.  They represent a unique and irreplaceable part of the world’s natural heritage, yet an alarming proportion are currently sliding silently towards extinction unnoticed."  This is an astounding collection of amazingly unique and adapted creatures.

What I've Been Listening To (9/8/08 - 9/12/08)

This week - books!

• Junot Díaz (of Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" fame, which I enjoyed) reads "Flaka," a new short story, at a recent appearance at Harvard Square's Brattle Theater. (mp3  |  via The Boston Phoenix)
• Paul Auster (of "Travels In The Scriptorium" fame, which I also enjoyed) reads 40-minutes worth of his new book, "Man In The Dark," which, while seemingly similar to Scriptorium, sounds as though it continues his magically bleak and compelling voice. (mp3 | via KQED's The Writers' Block)
• Neal Stephenson reads a short bit from his new book, Anathem (video | via The Long Now Foundation)
  

Tweeting Birth and Twittering Toddlers

Found today:

Valleywag - Oh God, She's Tweeting Childbirth
"At 4 cm. Epidural is in. Doing well."

NYTimes - Twittering From the Cradle
"Call it convenient. Call it baby overshare. But a host of new sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil’Grams and Kidmondo, now offer parents a chance to forgo the e-mail blasts of, say, their newborn’s first trip home and instead invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives."

As Kat points out, there is a fine (sad) line between this an sending emails as your dog ("I wuv my walks.  I wuv dem!  Woof woof!").  Though, as with most things, Minor Tweaks' Fiddler's "Off Leash" column gets this right.

Chevy Volt: Pre-production cool to production lame

I was honestly excited about the Chevy Volt...mainly because the prototypes looked, in my opinion, pretty rad:



But that design has morphed into this ugly Corolla-blob: