I received a very strange email while Marisa and I were away on our honeymoon:

I'm not exactly sure what he's talking about, but he sure goes on...

I was driving to school, but it was late at night and I was lost. I stopped by a hotel that was in some kind of shopping center and somehow lost my keys. I didn't realize this until I went back to my car and the only thing in my pocket was one of those leatherman multi-tools. I started going through all the tools, thinking maybe my key was in there, but as soon as I extended the knife attachment, some guy walks up and says "Wanna have a knife fight?" and pulls out a switchblade. I tell him that my knife is entirely unsuited for fighting and that he'll have to go somewhere else to start a fight. The guy keeps following me around, making comments about how much he likes fighting with knives, and a bunch of knife-related innuendo, when I finally find my keys and try to jump into my car before he can react, but he stabs at my crotch and I wake up quite suddenly...

I go back to sleep, and there are a bunch of people trying to get across some kind of canyon. Problem is, there is a big gorilla (like King Kong) sleeping on the other side. Someone gets the bright idea to try and jump a bicycle across while carrying a rope for everyone else to cross with. I was freaked out the whole time because there was *no way* they were going to make that jump. I got distracted by some plant that I found that was making a weird cricket sound, and I don't know if they ever got across.

That's the date Marisa and I are getting married at the Great Lakes Science Center! Now we just have to do everything else there is to put on a wedding!
[Submitted by Erik Hughes]

From Salon:

Yes, such horrible suffering!

I found a fascinating article at the NeuroLogica Blog discussing whether the mind is separate from the brain, and I agree completely with the author's conclusions:

Since we won't be able to attend Gaian Mind this year, we are seriously considering attending Wicker Burning Man at Four Quarters instead. It's a local Burn, and will definitely give us a good first camping trip for the year!