Elsewhere, 9/17
Robert Jordan, author of the long-running “Wheel Of Time” fantasy series, has died. He was in the process of working on “A Memory Of Light”, the twelfth and final book of the series, which he had promised to finish even if it ran 1,500 pages. He apparently left notes in case he died before finishing the final novel, so that others could finish what he started.
Big news on the jQuery front: first, jQuery 1.2.1 is released and now, jQuery UI (more info) is in the wild. jQuery UI is “a fully themed interaction and widget library built on top of jQuery,” and it looks very impressive. A few browser bugs need some tracking down, but aside from that, I can’t wait to find a project to use this on.
Jonathan Christopher asks “At What Point Do Semantics Not Apply?”: “Are semantics completely inapplicable when it comes to CSS? Do you feel as though trying to create semantic classes is simply overzealous? Without the structured definition and documentation of (X)HTML to back it up, is CSS better left to be implemented on a ‘what works’ basis? Are semantic names that only describe visual orientation as meaningful as valuable as those which describe the informational meaning?”
Richard Thompson’s “Cul de Sac” comic strip has just been syndicated, as what’s more, has received praise from none other than Bill Watterson, creator of “Calvin & Hobbes”. More info here. (Links may require registration.)
Speaking of Calvin & Hobbes, The Scriptorium wants Christians to know “What You Can Learn from Calvin and Hobbes about the Message and the Medium.” Sigh… I miss “Calvin & Hobbes”.
Also on The Scriptorium, “Harry Potter is Dreadful and Vulgar” — and that’s not a bad thing: “What makes these works of both classic and popular literature of real worth is that they are grounded in a transcendent understanding of what is good. There’s lots of G.K. Chesterton quoting to be found, always a good thing in my book.”
Brett McCracken is compiling a list of hipster types; read part one.
Holy moley… Bleep is selling all Warp albums for only $6.99 throughout the month of September.
“Amish Grace and the Rest of Us”: “…the fact that forgiveness is so deeply woven into the fabric of Amish life should alert us that their example, inspiring as it is, is not easily transferable to other people in other situations. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but how does one imitate a habit that’s embedded in a way of life anchored in a 400-year history?”
What happens when you cross “The Simpsons” with Star Wars? A work of genius, that’s what. Via
Christendom’s favorite wierdos, The Swirling Eddies, have a new album out entitled The Midget, The Speck, And The Molecule, their first new album in ten years. You can listen to a song on their MySpace page.
Xbox 360 Fanboy have several clips from Mass Effect, the latest RPG from BioWare, and they look pretty sweet.
Darren Hughes is back from TIFF 2007, and he’s tuckered out: “…the average film quality this year was better than any of the past fests I’ve attended. But the pangs of home-sickness and the bouts with movie fatigue kicked in a few days earlier than I would have liked, and by Saturday night I was ready to get on a plane.” His pick of the fest: Jose Luis Guerin’s Dans la ville de Sylvia.