"At the moment at Delhi airport there are probably thousands of people, very few toilets, no water or food left and there is fighting breaking out apparently.

Scary repercussions from the Iceland volcano. Not only airports getting clogged, but people's visas are expiring, and the authorities are unsympathetic.

Visa row Britons stuck in India

Elonka Dunin, America’s leading code-breaker, who “appeared” in The Lost Symbol as Nola Kaye, teases readers with a puzzle that helps drive the plot: "Is the secret to the infamous and as-yet-unsolved Kryptos sculpture at the CIA truly 'buried out there somewhere'?"

Whee, "America's leading code-breaker"? Publicity's nice and all, but that's a bit much. "World's #1 expert on Kryptos", sure, but for a modern code-breaker, I'd be more inclined to list someone such as Bruce Schneier.

Elonka

New York Times Best-Selling Authors Unveil Secrets of The Lost Symbol

From the first page in "The Lost Symbol":

Fact: In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today. Its cryptic text includes references to an ancient portal and an unknown location underground. The document also contains the phrase "It's buried out there somewhere." ...

Heh, Brown's new book has multiple Kryptos references in it. The "Fact" part at the beginning is obviously referring to Sanborn's message, though Brown is twisting K2 and K3 together a bit. The "ancient portal" is actually King Tut's tomb in Egypt, not anything on the grounds of the CIA.

I'm also tickled that Brown included an encrypted reference to me in the book. He's done this in his other books, putting anagrammed names in for the characters. For example, in "The Da Vinci Code", the character "Leigh Teabing" is named after Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent (Teabing is an anagram of Baigent), the authors of "Holy Blood Holy Grail", a pseudoscience book that Brown used as source material for DVC.

So in the Lost Symbol, there's a CIA analyst who's looking at the Kryptos sculpture in chapter 127. The character's name is "Nola Kaye", which is an anagram for "Elonka"! Pretty cool, thanks Dan!

More info on Kryptos, see The Kryptos FAQ

Elonka :)

Kryptos (and Elonka) mentioned in Dan Brown's new book "The Lost Symbol"

Heh.

Locke v. Jacob: Fight poster for "Lost" fans

I heard a story once, maybe it was an old Twilight Zone about construction workers who exist just before us, and make sure our world--our reality--gets built in time for us to enjoy it.

Lovely little short film.

Video: The World Builder

Nice little video about the possible "World of Tomorrow".

Work: Oh, Hello

And in fact, inspirational women in technology are everywhere. From games designers Elonka Dunin and Jane Jensen to Turing award-winners Barbara Liskov and Frances Allen to influential CTOs Mary Lou Jepsen and Padmasree Warrior, women have been making high-level careers in science and technology for a long time now.

I got blurbed. :)

Guardian: On Ada Lovelace Day, let's hear it for women in technology

The résumé of an animator at developer Traveller’s Tales accidentally let slip at least two new Lego titles in development at the studio.

I got a kick out of this not just to learn that a new Lego game product is in production, but how the news got out. :)

Report: New Lego Harry Potter, Indiana Jones Titles In Development

Use this calculator to compare the cost of living between U.S. cities. Select the city you're in and the city you're moving to. Enter your present income and click "Refresh listing." The income required to maintain your current standard of living will appear in the box below, along with the percentage difference between the two cities.

Useful.

Cost of Living comparison calculator

Dragon Con founder Ed Kramer is suing the current director of Atlanta’s annual sci-fi/fantasy convention for allegedly shortchanging him on stock proceeds.

In the suit, filed in Fulton Superior Court, Kramer accuses Dragon Con president Robert Patrick Henry of misspending company funds on Las Vegas boondoggles and hiring unqualified family members.

Dragon*Con founder sues successor over finances