] Altogether the remains of 147 out of the 263 recorded
] popes of history are buried down here.

Interesting article with details about the papal tombs under the Vatican.

The Pope's Burial Place

] If you have a suitably enabled web browser then the
] relationship calculator below is able to determine the
] relationship between two descendants of a common ancestor
] by selecting their relationship to that common ancestor.

Nice utility that helps you figure out how you're related to someone else in the family tree. Second cousin thrice removed, great great grandniece, etc.

Genealogy Tool: Determining Family Relationships

] W latach 1953-1956 zosta%u0142 przeprowadzony Proces
] Apostolski i Kongregacja przyst%u0105pi%u0142a do
] dyskusji o heroiczno%u015Bci cnót. Papie%u017C Jan
] Pawe%u0142 II, 11 pad%u017Cdziernika 1980 roku
] promulgowa%u0142 dekret heroiczno%u015Bci cnót, a po
] zatwierdzeniu cudownego uzdrowienia ksi%u0119dza
] W%u0142adys%u0142awa Misia ten sam Papie%u017C, dnia 22
] czerwca 1983 roku, beatyfikowa%u0142 Ojca Rafa%u0142a
] Kalinowskiego w Krakowie.

This is the Polish language page about the sainting of my (thrice)great-uncle Raphael Kalinowski by Pope John Paul II. I am meme-ing it both for the benefit of Polish-speaking friends and family, and also so that I can bookmark the search terms for later research. For example, in English, he's Saint Raphael Kalinowski. In Polish, he's "sw. Rafala Kalinowskiego". With accent marks properly placed, it's pronounced "Rahfahwa Kaleenovskeeyehgo".

(Polish language) The Sainting of Raphael Kalinowski

] The Atlanta Time Machine website is dedicated to
] examining the history of Atlanta, Georgia by comparing
] vintage photographs of Atlanta with much more
] contemporary images shot, more or less, from the same
] perspective of the original photographer.

Atlanta Time Machine

] In Sherlock Holmes' story "The Adventure of the Dancing
] Men", a man reports that his wife, Elsie, became upset
] when she received several notes with figures of dancing
] men on them. Holmes went about deciphering the code.

Someone sent me a pic of a T-shirt from a convention, that used this code. It was a fun little brain stretch.

If anyone else wants to take a look: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tapestry01/303595.html

Elonka

Dancing Man Code

Things to do with those extra computer monitors you have lying around... ;)

Impressive Monitor Architecture : Gizmodo

] As part of the official Saudi government TV coverage of
] Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism conference in Riyadh,
] February 5 - February 8th, Saudi Sheikh 'Aed Al-Qarni
] made statements accusing the Jews and the U.S. of using
] terrorism. Later, after his statements were translated by
] MEMRI, Al-Qarni retracted these statements on Saudi TV.
]
] Subsequently, the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq
] Al-Awsat reported on a campaign "spearheaded by MEMRI,
] against the Saudi Muslim cleric 'Aed Al-Qarni." According
] to the paper, "MEMRI was also behind another campaign
] intended to pressure the U.S. administration not to
] participate in the counter-terrorism conference."

Interesting. MEMRI, the organization that takes it upon itself to provide English translations of Arabic columnists, has gotten enough clout that it's now getting attacked....

MEMRI Controversy

terratogen wrote:
] The satellite feature is pretty neat.

The directions feature is nice too, and it's a huge relief to be able to request directions by just typing in a single line search box. I'd been getting really annoyed with Mapquest's interface... Like I would type an address at "St. Louis, MO", and I'd get back this big yellow exclamation point with "Did not find this exact address, but found one very similar: 'Saint Louis, MO'", and ask me to hit the button again. Or it would get upset that I typed "Lane" instead of "Ln". Really irritating.

I still have a few other of my more obscure direction requests to check on Google Maps, but so far it looks much superior to Mapquest. And I *really* love the click and drag feature!

RE: Google Maps

] Visit to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican

Nice site with a collection of large-scale images of the Sistine Chapel, including extensive text descriptions of each one.

Web Gallery of Art - Visit to the Sistine Chapel

I saw this sig at the bottom of a friend's letter, and identified with it strongly. ;)

I don't so much read my email as I swim upstream against it.