Negative Links

After having waxed rhapsodic about the joys and wonders of Blogville, I came across this refreshingly cynical remark by Steve of Steve's No-Direction Home Page:

I wish there was a way to "negative link" to say: don't go here. It's the kind of thing that makes you stupider after you read it than you were before.

We all know the kind of site he's talking about, so I won't even bother mentioning the specific place he's suggesting that you NOT go.

Actually, back to pollyanna mode: it's a very good thing that there are no such things as negative links. The web is an affirmative place, capable of routing around crap without erasing it. Sure there are sinkholes that a lot of people seem to willingly fall into... but that's no more true than in the rest of life, is it?

[via Steve's No Direction Home Page]

Happy Blogiversary to Me

A year ago today I started this weblog. Since that time, I've reclaimed my pleasure in writing, made good friends whom I've never met in person, and discovered an astonishing number of wonderful writers who offer up their gifts freely to an unseen audience.

This is not a high-traffic site. In the past year, I've had somewhere around 6,500 visitors, who've spent an average of 1 1/4 minutes per visit. Still, that's more than five and a half solid days of readership. I have to remind myself: these were all volunteers. I can't believe it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I would probably be doing this anyway, because I enjoy it. But it makes it that much more fun to know that there are some readers out there.

For me, the weblog phenomenon speaks to the core qualities that make the 'net so valuable: freedom, equality, shared interests, unexpected and rich connections. I am honored and delighted to take part.

Year 2: Bring it!

And so it begins...

Get ready for the Nobel Prize committee, boys.

The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins.

The work is being hailed as "a very great accomplishment" and the technique promises to open unique avenues for manufacturing drugs.

The really impressive thing here is that they engineered an artificial 21st amino acid, and got the organism to replicate it. This opens the door to all sorts of fascinating possibilities.

Read more about in The New Scientist.

[via boing boing]

Laughing Boy Rants Again

You ranted AND you made me laugh. That does it, onto the blogroll with you! My favorite single line from the latest screed:

Old people are universally insane.

That has disturbing implications for us all (see below for a less humorous take), but never mind. Anyone who ends a rant with the lyrics to "A Place in the Choir" is all right by me.