Wednesday-morning randomness

This is my first day to relax and be lazy in ages. I've gotten more work done on that short fantasy story, but I think more research is in order. There's a SCAdian event downtown on Saturday, and I may go to that to see swordfighting -- or at least the modern equivalent of it -- close up.

Researching this and other things randomly -- including anything that just catches my interest -- I keep stumbling across all sorts of data and information, which is always a pleasure.

Or usually a pleasure -- this article about Microsoft relocating to BC because the US keeps refusing its Korean techs visas was less-than-pleasurable because Bill Gates' face is there. He's wrinkling -- I guess bathing in the blood of fifty Linux programmers daily has not kept him young.

I came again to this statistics page breaking down religious denominations in Canada by number, and -- reading it more carefully this time -- was startled by how quickly religion has changed. Just twenty years ago, the country was 90% Christian. Now Christianity is haemorrhaging numbers, and its current adherents are aging. Meanwhile, Muslims and Buddhists quintupled in the same twenty years, and Hindus tripled.

It also notes that Wicca/Neo-Paganism has almost tripled in ten years, making it the fastest-growing religion by percentage, which religioustolerance.org notes, "To our knowledge, this fact was ignored by all media commentators."

On a completely different note, seeing this cheetah running video made me wonder how someone chose a dance remix of "Bittersweet Symphony" for a nature program. That just seems so random.

(no subject)

Okay, I just purchased two volumes of Byron's work that date to 1885. They aren't in perfect condition, but they're in damn good shape, especially at age 122. And they cost me $12.95. Add this to the 19th-century Tennyson I picked up not too long for less than $10.

That's the one good thing about living in an age that only cares about crap and doesn't read. Good, old books come cheap.