• The Big Picture | Boston.com: "News stories in photographs", it says. Daily photo-essays of about 15 images, nice and big.
• Earth's Seasons | US Naval Observatory: The times of the Summer and Winter Solstices, Aphelion and Perihelion for every year until 2020.
• Stories We've Seen Too Often | Strange Horizons: A list of story plots and themes which this online publisher has seen far too often. Tr�s amusement.
• The Sassy Uterus: Someone on Twitter said this was the best blog title he'd seen in ages. I visited and found myself reading post after witty post about… childbirth and raising a baby. Like I'd normally care!
• Writing Style for Print vs Web | Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.
• Graffletopia: A massive collection of stencils (templates) for the OS X diagram/graphics tool OmniGraffle.
• Waiting for the Rapture | IEEE Spectrum: The singularitarians believe that in the next several decades we?ll have computers into which you?ll be able to upload your consciousness: immortality.

Election über-analyst Antony Green (pictured) has joined his eponymous Antony Green Appreciation Society on Facebook. Asked to give an election prediction, he said:

No. If I wanted to do predictions, I would have studied astrology. Not that you have to study anything to do astrology. It’s hardly a science.

It certainly looks like it will be an interesting election. There’s only been one opinion poll this year that suggested anything less than a 6% swing. If a swing like that occurred, you’d have to have the logical skills of a Christopher Pearson to construct a scenario where the government prevented Labor gaining 16 seats. I suppose we have another few weeks breathlessly hanging on to see if there is a poll turnaround.

Maybe more than a few weeks, if the election gets strung out until December. I reckon by then we’ll all be well over it.

P.S. Watch out, Antony! There’s an echidna behind you.

So you feel like you’re in over your head? Good! Believe it or not, this is how you’ll learn to swim — longer, faster and farther than you’ve ever done before — metaphorically speaking, that is. Dive in.

Today’s advice seems, in the clear light of a Tuesday morning, strangely compelling. My desk is piled with work, but there’s a certain clarity of focus about what’s important and what’s not. I’m diving in… I’ll report back at day’s end.

It’s time to do some downsizing when it comes to your personal and professional life. Take control and strip away the non-essentials. How can you start fresh if your mental and physical space is cluttered with the past?

Supposedly an eclipse, like the lunar eclipse we had yesterday, are times of radical change. And I do feel like a “fresh start” this morning. Odd. Maybe it’s just the gentle rain — which I always love.

Have you ever stood too close to a painting or a photograph? Here you thought you were looking at a drop of rain, but when you back up, you realize it’s the entire ocean. Take that perspective on your life now.

Yes, you. Now.

Um, yes Miss.

Back later.