clarifications, omissions, and the settling of bets

blacklight is UVA - the longest wavelengths of the UV segment of the spectrum. won't cause burns, but suspected to cause wrinkles. blacklight bulbs emit light in the 360-380nm range (UVA is 315-380). they are fluorescent bulbs without the coating inside the bulb that would absorb the uv and fluoresce visible light (really they have one phosphor instead of the 2 or 3 to make the whole visible range). the bulb is made from wood's glass, glass doped with nickel and cobalt oxides, that blocks most visible light above 400nm. i love wikipedia!

also, while i'm remembering things, i wanted to share the most interesting result from my brain sex quiz: on empathiser/systemizer, i was 4/20 on empathiser, and 19/20 on systemizer. almost any of the other results could be skewed towards male by the whole science-and-engineering thing, but i don't think that one could be.

this snowglobe continues to be my favorite thing on the web. i keep checking back for a 2005 update.