Diligent scribbling noises

Wrote 1000 words of a story for a new anthology, the nature of which shall remain a secret for now as it hasn't been announced yet AFAIK. However, if you've read Ray Bradbury's story The Silent Towns from The Martian Chronicles, it's partly inspired by that. (Not the sexist stuff, the creepy stuff. I want to compile a list of frightening stories involving telephones, including Bradbury's Night Call, Collect and Dial Double Zero, Clarke's Dial F for Frankenstein, and about half of Press Gang.)

I've started a new journal, greennotebook, in which to record words I don't know as I come across them, along with other word-related stuff. (There's nothing there yet but a few URLs.)

The Face

I've often wondered why women wearing makeup - I mean in the media - look pretty much identical. A titbit in New Scientist suggests the answer: "The preference for pretty faces might arise because attractive people have the prototype human face. If hundreds of faces are merged, the resulting 'average face' is very appealing." So the makeup could literally be trying to create a generic face - like that faintly creepy bit in Understanding Comics about the Smiley.

(The brief news item is about a study of babies' apparent innate preference for attractive faces, but neglects to tell us how "attractive" was defined. I have a sneaking suspicion that, say, baby!Jeff Goldblum's physiog doesn't come any where near the human average. And yet, flange.)

Rock on, Kay Howard.

Who's Next?

Gazing deep into my crystal ball, and also into the report in New Scientist on the lack of "clear evidence" that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, I divine that:

- As much as I'm sure it would love to, Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

- If Bush wins the election, the US will invade Iran on the grounds that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

thankyew