Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacular means; but they may also result from the inner structure of the piece, which is the better way, and indicates a superior poet. For the plot ought to be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror and melt to pity at what takes place. This is the impression we should receive from hearing the story of Oedipus. But to produce this effect by the mere spectacle is a less artistic method, and dependent on extraneous aids. Those who employ spectacular means to create a sense not of the terrible but only of the monstrous, are strangers to the purpose of Tragedy; for we must not demand of Tragedy any and every kind of pleasure, but only that which is proper to it.

It starts with a blog posting by SF author Charlie Stross -- who is a fantastically inventive writer, by the way. He writes:

I'm right in the middle of this up in the Bronx right now. The rain is biblical, but the hail has now stopped -- yup, huge chunks of ice were falling in the Bronx in August. The wind has dropped a bit too, though not before a huge tree branch came down in the street outside (it looks like it may have damaged at least one parked car). There will certainly be more down all over the neighborhood by the time this is over.

Our summer weather has been like this a lot, lately, in fact. Not the tornado warnings, but the afternoon deluges. You can almost set your watch by them. It's gorgeous and sunny all day, and then around 5:30 or so, it starts pouring, and I mean torrential, and the wind is strong enough to send it sideways. It doesn't matter whether you have an umbrella: you get soaked anyway. So people huddle under awnings and in store doorways. I did that yesterday--

(I just *heard* the electrical crack of lightning. Shit.)

--huddled in a doorway for a while, and took a few pictures:

I heard about this recentlly, when Larry Dignan, editor in chief of ZDNet wrote at his blog about the rumor -- now confirmed as fact -- that

Apple apparently can disable App Store software remotely on your iPhone 3G. The iPhone calls home and poof the application is nuked.

That was enough to make my head explode. But Dignan continued:

See that guy in the upper right corner? No one is that concerned (or worried) for someone who merely "stumbles," as the official explanation would have us believe. Laura Bush is spectacularly unconcerned, of course -- Xanax will do that, I hear, as well as plaster a 24/7 Stepford smile on one's face -- but look at the woman next to her (is that a Bush daughter?). She's worried.

A closeup:

The real singer was Yang Peiyi, a seven-year-old deemed not pretty enough to be the face of China's most watched moment in history.

Chubby-cheeked with crooked teeth, she was substituted at the eleventh hour by Communist Party officials desperate to present the best possible image of Chinese youth to a curious world.

And the Chinese don't see anything wrong with this:

Those who have been watching the swimming at the Olympic Games could be forgiven for asking the obvious question. I mean: what's happened to women's breasts? Once, female swimming champions had them, now they don't. They have broad shoulders and wide chests, but no lumps on them. It's not quite as it should be. Is it masculinising drugs? Some kind of anti-cosmetic surgery? An early example of massed gene-doping?

No. It's the Speedo LZR Racer. This is a swim suit that improves your hydrodynamic efficiency, and it does so by holding you in, by compressing the body. This has a dramatic effect on biomechanical efficiency, it means that your muscles don't flap about so much. Because of this, the process of recovery after each stroke is infinitely easier for the body to deal with.

An expert in biomimetics has suggested that the suit also helps your body to deal with pain: the compression makes the body send less urgent messages to the brain. You can bear it all much better. In short, you go faster. You can always regain your femininity when you have wriggled out of the damn things after the race.

Pakistan's ruling coalition parties say they have agreed "in principle" to start impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf.

Wow. I guess Musharraf mustn't be the all-powerful evil-overlord dictator we thought he was, if he can be impeached. I mean, otherwise he'd just, I dunno, dissolve parliament or something, and it's not like he can do that or anything, right?

Last year, he gave up control of the army, the country's most powerful institution, but he retains the power to dissolve parliament.

Oh.

Will someone please tell Nancy Pelosi about this?

(Technorati tags: impeachment, Musharraf, Bush)

The publisher is looking for a brilliant miracle worker:

We need more intellectual firepower, investigative articles on serious issues.

We should do more interviews with top-level movers and shakers, authors, academics, CEOs, political leaders, etc.

...

This is for someone really brainy who wants to test the envelope.

...

I see you as someone who comes up with 4-5 really great ideas every month that we should write about. You could do some or all of the writing, or you could help me find just the right writer or writers who should.

...

This is NOT a role in which you will say to me, "What do you want me to write about this month?" It's VERY MUCH a role in which you will say to me, "Here are five fantastic ideas your readers will absolutely love." And then I want those ideas to be so great that I'll simply say "yes, yes, yes, yes -- and yes."

(Technorati tags: fascism)

When I think what Bush and his cronies have done with this country -- how far down the road to full-blown fascism they've taken it ("President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.") -- I feel ill and angry and desperate to do something to counter it. And then I feel despair, because I can't think of anything to do that will be effective. And today I discovered (via Sideshow) that Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque has put into words why I can't think of anything that might be effective:

There are certain sections of New York that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.

(Technorati tags: New York)

Since I first wrote about the Kindle last year, I've seen one in the flesh, so to speak -- it's way cooler than I ever imagined -- and have heard from friends who've gotten hooked on them, and the general consensus seems to be that the only people complaining about them are those who haven't actually used one. I wouldn't mind the chance to play around with a Kindle on an extended basis... and I think I may need to get my own book into a format that Kindle can read.

(Technorati tags: Kindle)

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has apologised after he recommended use of a poisonous plant in recipes.

In a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods, Mr Worrall Thompson said the weed henbane was "great in salads".

Healthy & Organic Living magazine's website has now issued an urgent warning that "henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten".

The chef had meant to recommend fat hen, which is a wild herb.

...

He is unsure how the mistake happened.

I'll tell you how the mistake happened: it's one of two things, or maybe both.

When the revolution happens, we should barbecue the rich on the flames of a burning Wal-Mart.

And when civilization collapses, I'll even hesitate to loot a Wal-Mart.

And that was before I read this, in the Wall Street Journal: