Requisite mention of politics...

To all my American friends: congratulations.

A happy outcome.

Some of the Out 100...

This listing of the significant 'out' people of 2008 is worth looking at for this picture of Barrowman alone. Good work, Greg Lotus! I like the watch, though it isn't quite as snazzy as a Time Agent's wristband. The item calls Anything Goes "frank and unvarnished", which I wouldn't quite agree with: the autobiography is totally honest, but selective. I love it that they casually call Scott his 'husband' rather than his 'partner'.

Very nice picture of Ian McKellen, who seems to always photograph well. It has info about McKellen I didn't know:

The son of pacifists, and a lifelong atheist, he has been out since 1988—the year in which the British government enacted a controversial act, popularly known as Clause 28, forbidding the "promotion" of homosexuality "as a pretended family relationship" in schools. That same year McKellen met with British Secretary for the Environment Michael Howard, hoping to enlist his opposition. Howard refused, but asked for McKellen's autograph. The actor gallantly pulled out a pen, before writing: "Fuck off, I'm gay."

I want to read McKellen's autobiography. He hasn't written one, has he? I wish he would.

Most of the people here, I've never heard of. Shows my ignorance, I suppose, of sports and American culture. I find this photo of Diana Nyad interestingly androgynous. I have heard of Luke McFarlane, but did know - or remember - that he's Canadian.

Where is the rest of the list? I have no time to browse right now... maybe later.

Fuel...

In light of all the problems that need to be solved in this world, I've seen a lot of links to this discovery of fungal fuel. Which sounds... miraculous. The solution to a lot of problems. A holy grail, the item calls it, though it isn't exactly a spiritual breakthrough.

But doesn't it sound too good to be true?

Okay, I live in hope. But I can think of all sorts of things that sounded briefly like the answer to similar or greater problems in the world - fish farms, nuclear fusion, electric cars, hovercraft - but they either didn't work, or caused greater problems than they solved, or were suppressed by vested interests.

Interesting, though.