singing a thing fit for a king

it's evolution, baby

Last night, I had to admit that I believe in miracles. I came home to find this box sitting outside my apartment door. This means someone in my building actually had the grace to leave the box outside my door. This may mean nothing to most people, but it astounds me. The packaging left little to the imagination as far as what was inside, and still, no one absconded with it.

Anyhow, now that I have received this far too generous gift, anyone want to take bets on how long it takes me to actually open this thing and get it functional? Before you hazard a guess, keep in mind that my iPod nano still has the plastic wrapping that chides "Don't steal music" on it. Maybe this embarassing admission will actually cause you all to coerce me into getting my act together. Rrrriiight.

Dennis Overbye got me again. This time, he has nearly convinced me to go see the new opera Dr. Atomic. An opera about the days leading up to the atomic bomb, and the fallout thereafter- well, it doesn't quite pop to mind as the best subject matter for operas. In fairness, I am not a frequenter of operas. But this one certainly seems promising. Quoting John Donne while waxing philosophical about science is a fast track to my heart.

And I do find the story of the atomic bomb wholly fascinating and dramatic. Overbye sums it up well in his closing:

The first part of the atomic story ended with the worst fears of the scientists confirmed - more than 100,000 dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The idea that half a century later there would be some 50,000 nuclear warheads on the Earth was beyond their worst dreams; the fact that none of them has yet been exploded in anger since that summer, beyond their wildest hopes.

I wish I could get into the head of just one of those physicists, to see what sort of effect such an amazing and horrifying discovery had on their perspective on life.