meteorite ID, burning man, Mordor and modeling

Tripped over this highly entertaining how-to-ID-a-meteorite-you-found-lying-around site the other day. Oh, goodness. i particularly like the "NOT A METEORITE" tags on some of the pictures.

For Jack, a mostly-serious Atlantic article regarding Burning Man, and a less-ducumentary-though-more-amusing-one.


Annnd, losing ever more nerd cred, i had to google the Mordor meme, as Tolkien has never been my thing. Apparently, the Shire is in Wisconsin, and Mordor in Chicago? Ya know, i'm really not terribly that surprised.
Late note, at the request of Bryan S: So, Van Hise Hall on the UW-Madison campus is called "the birthplace of (Tolkien's )Elven language" on the UW wikipedia page as well as on the official tours, with no real explanation. Backtracking the story lead to this article regarding a grad student who is expert enough on the language to help elaborate/teach it out for the LOTR movies. In actuality, the languages are an invention of Tolkien's, based on Finnish and Welsh.


A NYTimes writer-turned-model documenting his experiences here. My fave part?Concerning a proper modeling attitude:

"I needed to eradicate this crippling mind-set. I knew it would help me if I created a character. I started with the name Hank but then bumped it up to Hanque. I decided Hanque is a former Lufthansa flight attendant who is possibly Nordic — his unplaceable accent swerves wildly from a remote farm outside Oslo to a dimly lighted bar in Akron.

Whenever Hanque says “fabulous,” it comes out “fahvolous.” Hanque likes vegan baked goods, vintage motorcycles and Sofia Coppola when she wears aqua in airports. Hanque dreams of one day seeing bumper stickers encouraging drivers to “Hanque if you love Hanque.”"