Occasionally, my web alert for "Hosken" turns up a winner. Genital shape key to male flies' sexual success "Male genitals generally, and in Drosophila specifically, evolve very quickly, so we were...
Permalink
The Dutch word "scheepvaart" means "maritime", not ovine flatulent whatever. ...
Permalink
Book Report: It's Complicated
It's about teenagers using social networking sites… Speaking of social networks, I'm lahosken@mastodon.social on Mastodon. What? What was I talking about? Right, the book It's Complicated. It...
Permalink
My bus slowed to a crawl behind the naked march. Fans of nudity slowly slowly ambled down the middle of Haight Street, in the way traffic. It seemed rude. Did they really feel justified blocking buse...
Permalink
Book Report: Livesaving Lessons
This book by swordfisherwoman Linda Greenlaw is different—it's about adopting a teenager. This feels like higher stakes than life-or-death actions out on the water: Greenlaw and her daughter ha...
Permalink
Book Report: Tic Tac Toe and other Three-in-a-Row Games
I vaguely remembered that there were some three-in-a-row games that weren't tic-tac-toe, but I couldn't remember what any of them were called, so internet searching yielded nothing. Then I thought to...
Permalink
Book Report: The Gollywhopper Games
It's young adult fiction answering the question: What would happen if there was a puzzle hunt in a toy warehouse that was magical like Charlie's Chocolate Factory? On the one hand I wanted to read th...
Permalink
Skunk smell is stronger by second floor window than on ground floor. What's the story behind that? "Polecat-apult"? ...
Permalink
Comic Report: Evolution: the Story of Life on Earth
This is a comic about evolution: there's a framing story in which aliens talk about evolution on earth. I know some evolution. Some stuff I learned has since been shown wrong. I don't know all there ...
Permalink
I enjoyed playing the computer game Forumwarz, but I need to attach a big disclaimer to that. This is a game about terrible parts of the internet, sort of in an alternate reality in which the line be...
Permalink
I have reason to believe that a New York Times Op Ed columnist read my name while he was pooping. I think I deserve a Poo-litzer for that. ...
Permalink
Wooly Pig Cafe
There's a Wooly Pig Cafe 3rd Ave and Hugo in San Francisco. I feel like I scored some kind of "scoop" by discovering this cafe by walking around instead of by reading Heath Putnam's Wooly Pig blog. ...
Permalink
HTML Logo
Someone at the W3C made a logo for HTML5. HTML is the format of web pages. It changes. For years, most folks used version 4.01, but lately people have been proposing, coding, and using some new fe...
Permalink
15 Games Meme
I got tagged by a meme in Facebook. It's about games. Since I'm on the front seat of this bus and the people on the seat behind me can see my laptop screen, I guess I won't playtest any puzzles rig...
Permalink
Gadget of Intent
The Samsung Epic looks like it's going to be a pretty sweet phone. (This is a good time to mention: Despite my place of employment, I don't know more about the Samsung Epic than you do. Its abilitie...
Permalink
Not-Really-Puzzlehunts are Everywhere, even Denmark
At work, I work with training/educator folks. Tonight, I posted a message about stuff I'd read this evening. But it's not confidential or anything so I guess I'll post it here, too: LARPers run a...
Permalink
Meta Vanity Searching: Nearby Search Suggestions
You know how some people are so shallow that they Google themselves? I do that. I did that today. But this time was different. You know how when you type a little into the Google search box, it p...
Permalink
Zine Report: Cometbus #52 "the Spirit of St Louis"
Punk is about community--but this (fictional, keep reminding yourself it's fictional) story is the story of a punk community that's too small, too self-involved. The protagonist came from Berkeley, ...
Permalink
Book Report: The Mythical Man-Month (leftover cheap joke)
Last week, I posted a rough draft of a study guide for The Mythical Man-Month. I left a cheap joke out of that study guide. That study guide was serious business and had no room for cheap jokes. S...
Permalink
Book Report: Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections
I read this book years ago, but I read it again more recently. It was on sale as a tiny paperback. Sometimes it's useful to have a pocket book that, you know, fits in your pocket. That way you can...
Permalink
Book Report: Old Man's War
In this science-fiction novel, it's the far future and yet recognizably-human (albeit heavily-augmented) humans are somehow still relevant? Humans are better at fighting than human-controlled robots...
Permalink
Puzzle Hunts aren't really Everywhere
I saw a campaign poster for Obama. It read Fired Up And Ready To Go ...laid out with those line breaks. I'm so acrostically minded that I found it crudely funny. I blame the puzzle hunts. (I a...
Permalink
David Hill on Hypotheses and Blurting
David Hill replied to yesterday's blog post on hypotheses in puzzle-solving. He replied on Facebook, so you probably didn't see it. I'll post his reply here. I have a couple of reasons for wanting...
Permalink
2007: Year in Review
Here is a summary of my 2007 blog posts, generated via Markov Chain: January The team, I was that does as recording to be an anagram dealie, "SETEC Astronomy," these alphabet. If your minor that sh...
Permalink
Site Update: The Basic Eight vs Lowell High School
(Today is April Fool's Day, but this is not an April Fool's Day prank.) The Basic Eight is a novel by Daniel Handler. It's set in Roewer High School. Daniel Handler went to Lowell High School a ye...
Permalink
Link: Book Report: Prank the Monkey (pages 91, 92)
You might think yesterday's book report was obnoxious, only covering the first third of a book. If so, you'll find this even more obnoxious: a review of pages 91-92 of a book. Rob "How Much is Insi...
Permalink
Book Report: Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
Last night, I watched Word for Word perform Lorrie Moore's short story "Which is More than I can Say About Some People." Wow, what a great short story. It was fun seeing it performed, but it was al...
Permalink
Book Report: Treasure Island
I kicked myself off of Game Control for the Pirate BATH game. I was getting tired of reading about nothing but pirates. Factual pirate research isn't much fun. Pirates were bullies, they killed pe...
Permalink
Practical Physics
Outside the San Francisco main library, there is a bin where one may return borrowed things. I walked up to it, ready to return a few books. A lady was already there, looking inside, noticing somet...
Permalink
