"A planet where apes evolved from men...?"

(Insert your favorite Planet of the Apes joke here)

Demanding rights for great apes

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament is to declare support for rights to life and freedom for great apes on Wednesday, apparently the first time any national legislature will have recognized such rights for non-humans.

Ancient Artifacts

A couple of recent news stories about amazing artifacts from the ancient world:

Did ancient Amazonians build a 'Stonehenge'?

2,500 year-old sarcophagi uncovered

Master of Champions, continued

I watched the first episode tonight. It was good, but a little disappointing. MoC is a competition much like Star Search or American Idol. The early commercials I saw made the show seem like something else completely. I'll tune in again next week and give it another try.

Master...Of...Champions!

One of my fond memories of TV while growing up was all the oddball series and specials about stunts and record-breaking attempts. I remember a bunch of these during the early '80s -- shows such as That's Incredible, Guinness World Records, Games People Play (and to a lesser extent, Real People). There were a few good ones later in the '80s and '90s, like The World's Greatest Stunts.

So it should be no surprise that the commercials for a new ABC series have caught my eye. Master of Champions premieres on Thursday night this week. It looks like it will be over-the-top enough to be a worthy successor to those great classic stunt shows of yore.

Get the Led Out

When I was growing up and I would hear Led Zeppelin, the most prominent instrument I heard was the genius guitar work of Jimmy Page. In the last few years, the most prominent feature of Led Zeppelin for me has been the genius drumming of John Bonham (see When the Levee Breaks, Fool in the Rain, Kashmir and Moby Dick, specifically).

And if you ever get the chance, check out Dread Zeppelin.

What is...the Library Thing?

I discovered this site tonight. It appears to be similar to CD and DVD tracking sites like DVD Tracker. It allows you to "catalog" your book collection online, get recommendations, and contact other users with similar tastes. Maybe I'll give it a try in the next few weeks. There are a couple of blogs associated with it for more info.

This is pretty interesting from a library science perspective. One issue (mentioned in their blog) is how information is categorized on the web (tags) compared to the library world by LC subject headings. Worth checking out.

The 100 Years, 100 Cheers special

The American Film Institute's special on inspiring films, 100 Years, 100 Cheers, was on CBS tonight. I can't argue with the choices -- no doubt you could fill a list of 200 pretty easily. It's nice to see Mr. Smith..., Mockingbird and It's a Wonderful Life so high on the list, being some of my favorites. Harry Bailey's line at the end of Life, "...the richest man in town!", always gets me weepy, even just a clip like this.

Zero Energy Home Enters Affordable Range

From Discovery Channel News, here's one of the better news stories I've read recently. It's still expensive, but like anything else, over time the price of the components will come down. All new houses should be built this way.

And this is another story about the potentials of wind energy.