Rotundus.com

We also learn that on the way to the symposium Socrates suddenly became lost in thought. "This is one of his habits," Aristodemus says to Agathan. "Sometimes he goes off and stands still whereever he happens to be."

- Stephen Miller, Conversation: A History of a Declining Art, p. 41

I seem to recall Daryl bumping me into a grocery store at one point when I'd become somewhat lost in thought. Ah well, I suppose that you could do worse than being like Socrates.

Barbara Kay: First, kill the husband. Second, claim sympathy as a widow

Per Glenn Sacks's comments, the woman in question was awarded half her former husband's pension after attempting to hire a hitman to kill him. This issue seems to be symptomatic of the letter vs. spirit of the law question. But that said, judges these days can also be quite "innovative" when it comes to determining the spirit of laws previously passed.

Children's Vegetable Intake Linked to Popeye Cartoons

I'm guessing that it wasn't Darren's favourite show.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: American Time Use Survey Summary

Another thing that any arguments arguing that women working outside the home are underpaid need to take into account: "On the days that they worked, employed men worked 56 minutes more than employed women. This difference partly reflects women's greater likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked longer than women--8.3 hours compared with 7.5 hours."

Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you.

Some Google engineers attempt to guesstimate the total number of books on the planet. Someone needs to teach them about significant figures.

From a New York Times article Your Brain on Computers: Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain:

Mr. Braver, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was one of five neuroscientists on an unusual journey. They spent a week in late May in this remote area of southern Utah, rafting the San Juan River, camping on the soft banks and hiking the tributary canyons.

It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects.

How can I incorporate a rafting, camping, and hiking into my research? Or will I have to settle to adding in an extra day in locations to which I'm able to travel?

Part of Christianity Today's Global Conversations series, with the latest article entitled To Serve Is To Suffer. One quote I found interesting to ponder (emphasis mine):

Several people have sympathized with me, saying it must be hard and frustrating to serve in a country wracked by war and hostile to evangelism. Indeed, we have suffered. A few months ago, one of our staff workers was brutally assaulted and killed. But I think the biggest pain I have experienced is the pain I have received from Youth for Christ, the organization for which I have worked for 34 years. I can also say that next to Jesus and my family, Youth for Christ has been the greatest source of joy in my life. Whether you live in the East or the West, you will suffer pain if you are committed to people. This is suffering that can be avoided. We can avoid pain by stopping the relationship or moving on to something more "fulfilling." But what do we lose?