Saviour sibling, shipwreck of Ishtar
stakes a new antipode.
Warm my hands at a plume from Tvashtar.
Dumptor brisk, sezgaho antipope.


"Aware of Adam's prophecy that the earth was to be 'destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water'--but not sure which cataclysm would come first, these early astronomers...constructed two pillars, 'one of brick, the other of stone,' and 'inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain.' For added protection, the duplicate was erected at a distant location 'in the land of Siriad,' where, Josephus asserted, it had remained 'to this day.' Which may well have been the case two thousand years ago, when his history was written, though no trace of such a spire has come down to modern times." --Nicholas Basbanes, A Splendor of Letters (2003)


Room 26. (via BritlitBlogs)


Rejoinder to Dyson. "Therefore if the trees could simply be persuaded to drop diamonds instead of leaves, repairing the damage to the atmosphere could be fast, I suppose..."


Better late than never.


How to Prevent a Revolution.