Now it can be told: Why the cookie crumbles:

Scientists in Britain have discovered why biscuits seem to break so easily.

Using sophisticated laser techniques, physicists at the University of Loughborough, in the north of England, found that a biscuit develops “fault lines” a few hours after it comes out of the oven.

As it cools down, it picks up moisture around the rim, causing it to expand — while at the same time, moisture at the centre makes it contract.

The result is a build-up of strain forces which pulls the biscuit apart, making them vulnerable when handled, moved or packaged.

Sophia put herself down for a nap this afternoon. Demanded to nap, in fact. What you may not know is that not only has this never happened before, but I did such poor sleep scheduling with her that I became dependent on using the car to make her nap. But when she’s tired, she can put herself down for a nap.

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Go check out This Woman’s Work. Mom, writer, comments on Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka—it’s one stop shopping in a blog.

And re: Depp as Wonka: What a great choice! Diane sez: Depp as Wonka—”Eccentric” Cage as Wonka—”Seriously, deeply creepy”

But what about the Oompa-Loompas?

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Want confirmation that models are not, in fact, born at a higher level of beauty than the rest of us? Check out Greg’s Digital Archive, which has a seriously cool after-and-before slideshow of a model.

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I include this link primarily for Ceej and other Snape-fanatics out there: What kind of Snapeist are you? I still haven’t read the fourth book, let alone the fifth book, and I am falling desperately, hopelessly behind in my Potterology. Oh well: c’est la vie.

That’s okay: evidently there are plenty of people with enough time on their hands to take up the slack. Scary, scary people. (From Bookslut.)

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I took the kids to the new main branch of the San Jose library last week. I thought it was pretty cool: the intersection of a city’s main branch and a college’s library. I hope this is the wave of the future; I hope the experiment works and neither side has cause to regret it. It was seriously wonderful to be able to wander through a few of the stacks, picking up whatever book caught my eye. Well, until Sophia or Simon got impatient, which happened about every thirtieth of a second.

Lots of carrels for studying. Complete with power plugs and Internet connections. Of course, we visited during August, so school is still out; I’m sure the place has a much different feel when it’s full of San Jose State students elbowing one another to get that last Cat-5 connection.

Our parking tab for the lot across the street came to $4.50, for not that long of a visit, so clearly I have to scope out the downtown San Jose parking situation a little harder. Not that we’re going to go there very often, because it’s a little bit of a drive and the only section of a library I get to spend much time in these days is the kids’ section. But it’s worth checking out.

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Speaking of libraries: okay, the Los Angeles library system is not the greatest in the world, but I didn’t quite realize how great I had it. ‘Round these parts, I have my local town library (for residents only, peasant), the San Jose library system, and the Santa Clara County library system. I have three library cards. If I want to find a book, I have to check three websites. I have to keep track of which book goes to which library. And that’s if one of the libraries has the book, and half the time none of them do. (A few times I’ve gone to check the LA library and it always has the book I’m looking for.)

I know, life is tough. And there’s always Amazon. But I’ve been doing so well at keeping my bookbuying sprees under control!

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I probably shouldn’t mention this: I managed to get to the Y (avec les enfants) five times this past week! I feel like I am getting into a groove, exercise-wise. (Of course, I have probably just jinxed myself for the coming week, but oh well.)

My muscles feel a little sore but not so much that I’m in pain. Just like, “Oh yes, I’ve been moving my body.” I’ve even been having a very strange sensation when I’m the passenger in the car and I look out the window: as I watch the scenery pass by, I have the strongest impulse that I want to be out there, running. I can feel my body tensing up, like I’m getting ready to do a few miles. I don’t know if this is what people mean when they refer to the endorphin rush. I do know it’s one of the lures of running for me: to feel my body in motion, to feel it working.

And in the short time since I joined the Y I’ve gone from barely being able to do 4.2 miles/hour on the treadmill to doing a few stretches at 5.0. My immediate goal is to work my way back to 6.0, which is what I used to do on the treadmills at Apple. My long-term goal is to get to 7.5 miles per hour, or an 8 minute mile, if for no better reason than I wanna.

Mail.app (the mail application that comes with OS X) does a faboo job of filtering out spam and storing it in the Junk folder. Problem is, I’m still getting 300-400 spam messages a day (and rising). Sure, they’re mostly going into the Junk folder, but still.

So: any nominations for spam filtering software we can put on our OS X server?

Update: Oops! Darin says I totally have it wrong. What we need is help configuring our WebStar mail server so that it refuses most of the spam!

And no, we don’t want to switch software.