New Tolkien Available Today
Christopher Tolkien, the third son of JRR Tolkien, has been working for thirty years on an unfinished manuscript left by his father. J.R.R Tolkien began “The Children of Hurin” in 1918 but never finished it. His third son, Christopher, has spent nearly 30 years piecing together drafts to turn them a single story, written entirely in his father’s words. “After a long study of the manuscripts, I tried to build a coherent narrative without editorial invention,” Christopher Tolkien told the Internet site dedicated to his father’s work. The Children of Hurin is set in Tolkien’s imaginary world of Middle-Earth but takes place long before the events in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Children of Hurin hits the shelves...
Google Earth Navigates Backcountry
Tech savvy hikers rejoice! Google Earth has added GPS-based interactive hiking information. From the Google blog: Trimble Outdoors has partnered with Google to provide Google Earth viewers with GPS-based interactive hiking information. We’re very excited about being able to share all the great GPS content we’ve developed over the years and through partnerships with magazines including Backpacker, Bicycling and Mountain Bike. It’s an outstanding resource for outdoors enthusiasts, or really, anyone who wants to do a little research before setting out on a hike. You can access lots of multimedia info on fitness and outdoor adventures, including routes, points of interest, pictures, video segments and even audio clips. Essentially, anytime, anywhere...
RE: Imus isn’t the Real Bad Guy
If you haven’t heard about Imus yet you probably live under a rock in the desert. There’s been a considerable uproar about the whole incident. Some good thoughts, along with a tremendous amount of noise, has arisen from multiple perspectives on the issue. Jason Whitlock, an excellent columnist for the Kansas City Star (my hometown paper), published a column today on the incident that I find to be superb. I’ll quote a good deal of it here, but I encourage you to read the whole thing at the source. Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is...
Recent Pictures: Six O’Clock Vintage Photography
Don’t forget to check out Six O’Clock Vintage Photography. Find a new image posted every day. I’ve recently made a minor update to the site color scheme (now the header is grey) in order to put more focus on the pictures themselves. I’m mulling over some other subtle changes as well. Let me know if you have any suggestions. A preview of the last 5 days of photographs from Six O’Clock Vintage Photography is...
Fat Chance
Apparently dieting doesn’t work at all. Categorically, the practice has been slammed by overwhelming evidence from the most thorough and comprehensive study on the subject ever. Here are some snippets from an article on the findings: Last night, the US scientists behind the latest research – the most thorough and comprehensive analysis of its kind – said dieting simply did not work. Pooling the results of the various studies clearly showed that, while people do lose weight initially, most quickly put all the weight back on. In fact, most people end up weighing more than they did to begin with. Dr Mann’s research showed that up to two-thirds of dieters put on all the weight they lost – and more – over a four to five-year...