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Alison Hawke

Alison Hawke

Changing the world

From Philip Gerard's "Writing a book that makes a difference" If you had the power to instantaneously change one thing in the world that didn't affect you personally, what would it be? Why would you change it? What's the most eloquent argument

New music

Does anyone know any compilations of Arabic electronica besides The Rough Guide to Arabesque?

Wireless access sofa

Happy Fourth of July! I'm blogging from the sofa. No wires, no nothing, except the occasional crackle from the speakers when the laptop talks to the wireless box upstairs. Totally painless install on my part, because Hubby did it for me, including the part where two blue boxes

Petunias of the world...

"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was "Oh no, not again." Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about

Pentaquark (particle physics 101)

Quarks seem to like prime number combinations, two, three, and now five quarks combine into one subatomic particle, Behold the pentaquark. Physicists have discovered a new class of subatomic particle that will provide unexpected insights into the fundamental building blocks of matter. The discovery involves quarks - particles that make

Quiet

Someone in my department died last night in her sleep. There's only thirteen of us in the department. Don't know what to feel or think.

Everquest

Another BBC News story: EverQuest exposes cost of sexism. Well, duh. EverQuest gives game players, both male and female, the chance to throw off their Earthly restrictions and become a hugely powerful warrior, sorceror, priest or monk in the online world of Norrath. Some people also use it as an

Bounty

Interesting piece in the BBC News today, Above the law: US bounty hunters. Multi-millionaire fugitive rapist Andrew Luster is back in police custody, but he was tracked down by an independent bounty hunter, not the authorities. The bounty hunter in question, Duane "Dog" Chapman, could face charges of

Float Trip

Hubby and I went on our first ever float trip this weekend, on the Black River, with a whole pile of people, friends and family of friends. After three days of solid rain, the river looked high and there was a noticeable current. Our first capsize happened about five minutes

Send in the Trolls

My Linux usability rant/essay is back online. I took it offline back in February after a troll posted the URL to a Linux advocacy newsgroup that proceeded to trash me rather than deal with what I'd actually said. No prizes for guessing that my next computer will

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