Tasks For today:

1) I am getting a digicam for Xmas. Which one should I ask for? It needs to be in the 200 – 300 Eu price range. But money isn`t everything. It?s all about what comes with. Some good starting points are listed on page 29.

2) You have not done a lick of preparation for your presentation?!! Well, no time like the present, eh?

3) Find some nice text. Translate it in Babblefish. Then do it again. And again, then back into English. Send it through the Chat.

4) Apropos Babblefish, a Doctor Who story written by Douglas Adams: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/shada/ You need sound.

5) Links galore:
the ones in bold seem pretty neat.

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I’m goin’ back to Cali, Cali, Cali.
goin’ back to Cali…
That’s right!

Attention- all who did not sign up for the Arnold Let Me have Some Pie Too giveaway!
Let me know asap what you want me to bring back from California.
Please limit your responses on this one to item, quantity and your name seeing as how one tends to be discursive.

Thanks- have a fantastic time where you are during the holidays and everyone be nice to each other.
See you at the Roar of 2004- rOn

“Further out, scientists salivate over the prospect of data manipulation and storage on an atomic level.” (From unit 5.)

A “Bazillion” thanks to Onkel Roman for the cartoon.

I stumbled upon an interesting passage about Arctic pagan roots of Christmas when I stumbled upon this article on shamanism:

It has even been suggested that the figure of Father Christmas derives from this type of shamanic practice. At the winter solstice, Finnish shamans would eat large quantities of the highly toxic fly agaric mushroom. They would then go around the village, dressed in red and white to mimic the colouring of the mushroom, and urinate down the smokehole of each hut. The villagers would drink the urine, which would contain a potent - but not life-threatening - dose of the fly agaric toxin.

Getting high by drinking the urine of those who ingested highly toxic mushrooms is the very first image I get when I think about Xmas.

Here’s more on that from the good folks at Fungus of the Month! With some great pictures.

We will meet the week of Dec. 8th in Language Lab BZW 251.