Commodore 64 laptop

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/06/commodore-64-laptop.html

An Amiga laptop would have been cooler IMO, but apparently that's already been done.

language, gender, and worldview

Heard this on NPR this morning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102518565

The gist: as most of you reading this know, a number of languages have gendered nouns. (In Spanish, for example, problems are male and surprises are female. :) ) So a scientist decided to check to see whether the gender of a noun in one's first language affects the kinds of adjectives associated with it. The answer: yes.

What's more surprising (to me, anyway) is that this appears to be true even if you've just been learning a new synthetic language, and have no previous experience of languages with gendered nouns.

a friend's status message re: North Korea's recent launch

"North Korea: we do NOT throw things. I want you to apologize to Japan and take a time out."

This is, as karjack--and rarely has it been so appropriate!--comedy plutonium. :)

anyone going to Norwescon?

I'm trying to decide whether I want to go or not. If you are reading this (and thus presumably someone I actually know :) ), sing out. :)

If I do, I'll probably only go for parts of a couple of days at most, as there are other things going on this weekend (hey, who decided that having an SF con the same weekend as Easter was a good idea?--someone whose kids are too old to go egg hunting, that's who).