The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

- Arthur C. Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008)

Why am I still welling-up at the end of The Amber Spyglass even though it's the fifth time I've read it and I know exactly what's going to happen? The Iron Giant and Grave Of The Fireflies have exactly the same affect, and I've lost count of how many times I've seen them.

Via Ben Hammersley comes this rather fantastic mashup of T.S. Eliot reading his own “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Portishead's “Sour Times” (and as Ben notes, I had no idea Eliot had recorded any of his own work).

This gives me an excuse to share one of my favourite Eliot quotes:

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.

Too true.

Looks like researchers at the University of Alberta are one step closer to creating "The Subtle Knife".

Forget the phrase, "sharp as a tack." Now, thanks to new University of Alberta research the popular expression might become, "sharp as a single atom tip formed by chemically assisted spatially controlled field evaporation." Maybe it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but considering the researchers have created the sharpest object ever made, it would be accurate.

Hmmm, beware the Spectres.

Hat tip: Slashdot.