affordable style

So here's a question for the techies in the audience to ponder: Why don't Web sites share style sheets? While it's not terribly difficult to set up a style sheet, it does take a lot of practice and a sharp eye for design to create a good one -- and the truth is, a lot of sites could use the help.

Not that you'd want to see a bunch of Web sites all looking the exact same. But, at the least, you could have a style sheet that sets up some accessible fonts, fine-tunes the leading, cleans up the look of blockquotes and bulleted lists, and so on. For nonprofits, where tech resources are often hard to come by, something like this could help them get professional-looking sites up and running quickly.

The World Wide Web Consortium tried doing a Core Styles project a few years back, but that seems to be dead at this point. And in my 12 years of being on the Web and involved in the development of Web sites, I can't remember a single time anyone ever used the Core Styles. I'm curious as to why not.

yakov smirnoff found!

Buried at the bottom of an article about the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies:

Comedian Yakov Smirnoff, who earned a master's degree in positive psychology, was among the approximately 6,000 graduates.

"In America, Jodie Foster speaks at your university's commencement ceremony. In Soviet Russia, your university jails you for seeing a Jodie Foster movie! Haa!"

space magician

From an article about magician -- er, endurance masochist -- David Blaine and his little accident last night:

As early as on the second day of his challenge, Gunel said, there was evidence that Blaine was suffering liver failure; the medical team consulted with medical experts at NASA before stabilizing his condition.

It's so nice to see NASA being put to good use.