3.  In Les Miserables, a character is described thus:  "Everything failed him and everybody deceived him; what he was building tumbled down on top of him. If he were splitting wood, he cut off a finger. If he had a mistress, he speedily discovered that he had a friend also. Some misfortune happened to him every moment."  I don't get why the friend ( Read more... )

I've just had Firefox crash and lose a whole nearly-completed post! Gnash!  (and no, DW didn't save it).

So just hasty greetings, and here, have a view of a White Whale.  (Print news story,with short embedded looping footage.)

I hope everyone's NFE stories are going cheerfully.  :) This entry was originally posted at http://heliopausa.dreamwidth.org ( Read more... )

:)   This is a not-entirely-visible post, because I'm posting it to LJ only, so since it's already on DW on ysabetwordsmith's blog. 
It's about how nature does invisibility, and is astounding and beautiful.  (short article with embedded fifty-second video)

I dreamed last night that I had agreed to write a story (not Narnia - SF, I think) and it was due in two days, and I was thinking, 'Oh yes, two days, I'd probably better start', and then thought 'Two days! Panic!' and woke myself up.  Which I suppose is just plain anticipation-anxiety for the NFE.  I finished writing a letter-to-the-writer, anyway.

( Read more... )

Just to group these together, really.

In Argentina, an orang-utan is judged to be a non-human person, and thus to have the right to be freed from a zoo, into a Brazilian sanctuary.  (The zoo may appeal.)

In the USA, a chimpanzee is judged not to be a person, and thus to remain ownable property.  (The Nonhuman Rights Project  may appeal.)

In India, a ( Read more... )