Just snagged http://www.facebook.com/markkraft ... works for me.

I do most of my posts from there lately, btw, though hopefully they'll mirror to wherever they need to go well enough.

Trying BlogIt.

(Or BlahGit. Your choice, really.)

Ten years ago, my mom was diagnosed with MSA. She was a pianist, and her music was always a love and a comfort for her ( Read more... )

So, I -- thankfully -- watched all of Battlestar Galactica over the course of several days, rather than having made it a long, drawn out television affair. Frankly, I think I preferred watching the series this way, because while it was worth seeing, it wasn't really worth obsessing over to any significant degree.

Let's be frank... Battlestar ( Read more... )

I was reading a Mexican newspaper on the Swine Flu outbreak, and noticed something disconcerting:

"la “incidencia de los casos graves” involucra a personas en edad productiva, de entre 20 y 50 años de edad."

In other words, seemingly healthy, productive people without weakened immune systems who aren't the typical fatality victims of the flu appear ( Read more... )

Steampunk is neither steam nor punk. It's about using old ideas and old technologies to do things that are either banal, unhelpful, inefficient, or all-of-the-above ( Read more... )

I attended the first Anatolian Festival in S. Cal. over the weekend, and all I can say is that there was a lot to explore, appreciate, and think about. Here's a well put-together video I found on YouTube that shows a bit of what you all missed...

Click to view

In short, it was the largest such festival ever held in America... and a very, very promising first ( Read more... )

...on the way to Anatolian Festival, home to 99 delicacies... sure hope they have samplers, 'cause that's too much to do more than a spoonful each over two days. Stopped for gas near Harris Ranch in the middle of the Central Valley... Coalinga. Opened the car door, only to be assaulted by the completely pervasive smell of cow dung. Couldn't smell ( Read more... )

Project Peanut Butter is a project run by Dr. Mark Manary, who is doing his best to eradicate malnutrition in Malawi and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Manary was the first to conduct clinical trials of RUTF in the region, which offers a 95% recovery rate for severely malnourished children and is administered in the home. This represents a vast improvement over ( Read more... )

I generally do not like Jake Tapper, as I think he tends to be a gossipy, grandstanding journalist, and a poor choice for being the public face of the network in Washington, DC.

That said, this article comes via various sources at ABC News, and it excellently sums up the best possible reason to have elected Barack Obama.

Here is a clear example of ( Read more... )