the royal philatelic service moves with the times
Tanaqui Weaver, cited here recently, reports:
the UK issued a neat 2nd-class stamp with an atom of c60 illustrated. It’s thermochromic black, and a hot thumb on the stamp whitens it out to reveal a captive atom of carbon in the centre. pretty.
Did anyone mark the occasion when Tom Lehrer’s joke about Mozart reached a certain age?
Claire Wolfe enjoys Firefly, film at eleven. She’s not so keen on Kaylee:
The only element that didn’t ring true to me was this little gamin girly they made the ship’s mechanic. She sort of “intuits” the machinery of the ship – not with alien powers, but just with a loveable girliness. I didn’t believe it for one second, and pictured real mechanics groaning at the idiocy.
I wonder what she’ll think of River later on.
I’m no technician, but let me say I didn’t get that vibe off Kaylee at all. It is established in later episodes (Shindig and Out of Gas come to mind) that she is simply a mechanical wiz who makes it look easy.
Dave Langford heard from Tanaqui Weaver:
Slavishly imitating the title gadget of Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, With Occasional Music, there’s now an MP3 player (‘AK-MP3’) designed to fit the ammo clip slot of a Kalashnikov.
Later: T.Weaver explains, “Ananova’s Quirkies frequently brighten my day.”