links, mostly for uilos

How Collecting Opium Antiques Turned Me Into an Opium Addict: "CW: So, you made your own opium den? MARTIN: That's exactly what we did." Once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. (Via a commenter at Lawyers, Guns & Money. There are four sites I know of where the conventional wisdom of Never Read The Comments does not apply: LG&M, Crooked Timber, The Toast, and Making Light.)

A New Physics Theory of Life: "You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant." Fascinating stuff.

Reinventing the Potato: "Consider what happened to apples: By the 1980s, Americans were so fed up with the dominant and inaptly named Red Delicious that all kinds of tastier varieties soared in popularity.... The potato's champions want to bring this same kind of diversity to the humble spud."

How a crazy scientist duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds: "Over the next few years, [Linus] Pauling upped his intake of vitamin C, eventually taking 18,000 mg per day. Vitamin C became his scientific obsession."

Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter: "Round about then, we wondered, if it's not a joke, how should we now refer to Kirby Delauter if we can't use his name (Kirby Delauter)?" (Note the first letter of each paragraph. Someone had a lot of fun with this.)

wonder of wonders

YOU GUYS

YOU GUYS

I got out my cello this morning and tried some of the viola stuff I've been having trouble with.

CELLO IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN VIOLA

By which I mean, I am so much better at cello than at viola.

By which I mean, eight years of lessons followed by a two-decade hiatus beats three months of lessons.

Which shouldn't come as a surprise, and yet.

The trouble, of course, is that I'm more interested in playing the viola. Largely on account of portability, but that's still a reason. So... I guess I push on through the fumblefingers and wandering bow and completely losing my place in the music and on the fingerboard.

I just hope it takes less than eight years. (I'm still shooting for two.)

In the meantime I can break out the cello to remind myself that it does get better. I hope.