There is probably something else I should be doing right now but instead I decided to take a bit of time and see what is new in the WordPress world. Here are a few interesting things I found.

Latex support on wordpress.com blogs

A Latex wordpress plugin for people who host their own WordPress instance

Non-obvious wordpress 2.1 rich editor features

WordPress editor shortcuts

A long list of new and interesting WordPress stuff

If you are looking for local blogs checkout Local Thoughts.

London, Ontario, Canada

University of Western Ontario (UWO)

If you happen to know of other local blogs you can add them to the above pages.

Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits from IBM Developer Works.

Worth reading even if you think of yourself as a shell veteran.

There is a major construction project going on at UWO right now called the Biotron. For details of this really interesting project take a look at the main Biotron website or this article from Canada.com.

A new biology super-lab under construction in London, Ont., will make Canada a testing ground for the latest ideas in disease, ecosystems and agriculture from all over the world.

They will be able to create the frigid darkness of Arctic winter, or the steamy heat of a tropical rainforest. They’ll be able to see what happens to a genetically modified crop under realistic conditions, without letting it escape into the environment.

“This is the first time anything like that has ever been built. So we’re absolutely unique,” says Duncan Hunter, associate dean of science at Western.

“There is no other facility like this in the world.”

“Everybody likes to describe their project, their facility, as being unique and world class. This one truly will be when it’s up and running.”

Pirates of the Mediterranean

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

Yesterday I required some clip art for a document I am preparing. With a little searching I found the Open Clip Art Library. This project provides clip art in SVG (a W3C standard) format licensed under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication. This was perfect for my purposes since I use Inkscape which uses SVG by default.