A Few Things

A few quick things:

• Annalee Newitz writes about female robots in Popular Science Magazine. Excerpt: But as women’s social roles shifted in real life, so did those of their machine counterparts. In the 1970s, women had broken away from their Robby the Robot–style roles in the home and embraced the feminist movement, which led to a crop of fembot protest movies. The most famous of these is The Stepford Wives (1975), a fable in which men replace their uppity wives with obedient, beautiful robots who love cooking, cleaning and sex. Meanwhile, Forbes writer Michael Noer wants to know why can't there be a Stepford resurgence.
• This is an interesting read -- What Wikipedia Is Not.
• The ♥G♥ got hold of some railroad ties and we put them in the backyard in a square so that she can work on a garden. Here's a garden blog I came across for her for reference and links.
• I'm not sure what I think about the announcement that the new Survivor series will organize tribes by ethnicity. It's not necessarily as bad as it sounds... the last season started them off arranged by age and gender (older men, older women, younger men, younger women). It could turn out to be quite interesting. Update: As has just occurred to me, it could turn out even more interesting if they let Jeff Probst sit this one out and have Sen. George Allen take on hosting duties.