popplers

Hallowe'en weekend quickies

• Got back from Philly on Thursday evening and met up with Chris and Sean for sushi dinner at You You, and an early start on our annual zombie-fest. We opened with a classic from 1985, Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead (RT 88%). "Send… more… paramedics."
• We got a decent number of Trick-or-Treaters last night. The tombstones look good, and the new "plumbing" that Sean did for the fog machine worked really well. Lots of compliments. Sean bought the Resident Evil trilogy on Blu-ray, so we chased "Living Dead" with Resident Evil: Apocalypse (RT 21%). "I'm leaving town, and I suggest you all do the same."
• We had a non-traditional Día de los Muertos breakfast at Parker's Maple Barn in Mason, NH: pumpkin waffles with real maple syrup. So good.
• Today we're just vegging out and playing Little Big Planet. We're working our way through an amusing story arc that has a whole Day of the Dead themed wedding, lots and lots of calaveras, and some adorable costume pieces. Fun stuff.
• Also, I am now a Twitter dork. I haven't succumbed to the Facebook, but I followed Poz & Curt's lead. If you're interested in the random thoughts that enter my head, please enjoy: http://twitter.com/popplers.

Science quickies!

• Fascinating NYT article on the short life of the Furcifer labordi chameleon, including a discussion of selective pressures that will be quite familiar to any players of Ursuppe. "[T]he entire life span of the Furcifer labordi chameleon — from the moment of conception to development in the egg, hatching, maturation, breeding and right through to its last little lizardly thud to the ground — clocks in at barely a year."
• More smart corvids: magpies and the mirror test.
• Confused sea turtles march into Italian restaurant: "The baby turtles -- which ended up under the tables of startled diners at the beachside restaurant -- were probably thrown off track and lured by the eatery's bright lights, said Antonio Colucci, who was called to help rescue the group." (I prefer to think that they were just looking for some really good pasta all'amatriciana.)
• Today's plague-y tidbit: apparently the enormous death toll in the 1918 influenza pandemic wasn't solely due to the flu. Let's give a big hand to our special guest star, bacterial pneumonia. Yay, co-infections!

And this has nothing to do with science, but I loved the awesome headline and some of the bizarre reportage within the story: Monkey eludes dragnet at Tokyo train station. "The standoff ended when the monkey climbed down and dashed out of the station, with several policeman and local TV crews in tow. News reports said the monkey was last seen heading in the direction of nearby Yoyogi Park." (Send out an APB!) "The animal appeared to be a Japanese monkey, which are native to the country, and was about 27 inches (70 centimeters) long from head to the tip of the tail. No one was injured and no trains were delayed in the incident."

Wednesday quickies!

• Via McSweeney's: It's Not You, It's Your Uncontrollable Telekinesis.
• I encourage my fellow Bostonians (and Cantabrigians) to attend the North American Symposium on Sasquatch Research, hosted by the Greater Boston Bigfoot Institute. Come support 826 Boston and all the cool stuff that they do!
• Just bought tix to QED, a play about Richard Feynman— "Nobel Prize-winning physicist, brilliant and controversial theorist, accomplished juggler, prankster, safecracker, and lover of Tuvan throat singing". The previews will take place at MIT, but the show will open this summer at Underground Railway Theater's spiffy new space in Central Square.
• Via the NYT: Ask Me About My Flux Capacitor. Best quote: "Having a DeLorean is like 5 percent being a rock star."
• Finally, only 16 shopping days 'til ROFLCon. Come for the LOLcats, stay for the memes… Tip your server, try the veal!

I don't care if it rains or freezes

The Indian grocery in Central Square, Shalimar, sells dashboard Ganeshas with Velcro on the bottom. I think this is awesome. That is all.

Swedish quickies!

• Via The Register: surströmming attack! (There is an accompanying video wherein several non-Swedes sample this "delicacy".)
• Get Fuzzy: this week, Satchel built a model of the Vasa. (Mon./ Tue./ Wed./ Thu./ Fri.)
• I realize that this one is old news, but I just heard it today while listening to a Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast: being a heavy metal fan counts as a disability? I smell a Swedish urban legend. Or maybe that's just the surströmming lingering.

Quickies, interrupted

• Via bOINGbOING: Terry Border's wonderful, whimsical sculptures made from household stuff. Bent Objects
• Via Neil Gaiman: Teller (the smaller, quieter half of Penn and Teller) has been working on a production of Macbeth that sounds absolutely incredible. It's running at the Two River Theater Co. in Red Bank, NJ, from Jan. 15 through Feb. 17. Their vision is Macbeth as a grand guignol, with lots of blood and horror and incredible effects (courtesy of Teller). Even cooler (for a theater geek) is that Teller has been documenting the creative process in his journal.
• Via Cute Overload: an amusing film by Simon Tofield, entitled Cat Man Do.
• Via Rocketboom: ROFLcon. The organizers describe it as "the ongoing record of an effort to assemble every famous internet meme or celebrity to come to Harvard in the spring of 2008 to attend a conference." After looking at the guest list and location (Hahvahd, our fair city), we're so there.

Christmas Quickies

• Via Warren Ellis: Merry Xmas From Ben Templesmith
• Via the Boston Globe: The Scrooges, Boston's finest Christmas-themed Stooges cover band. How can you not love a band that bills itself as "like the Stooges, only much drunker"?
• Several favorite episodes from This American Life: The This American Life Holiday Spectacular (2006), The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Suit (1999), and A Very Special Sedaris Christmas (2002).

Friday quickies!

• The Boston Globe ran our flamingo pic— woot!
• This New York Times article on the golden age of road maps brings out my wanderlust. I want to head for the wide open spaces, with John Margolies at my side.
• Bill Maher on why we should revisit the Constitution: "Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that this election brought new thinking to Washington. It didn't. It brought Democrats, who are often just Republicans slowed down a step by a sense of shame. But they're not revolutionaries, and they're not really diverse."

Game show quickies for a rainy Tuesday

…in which Ken Jennings (who has a new daughter as of last night) figures prominently…

• Jeopardy!: Ken Jennings answers 5 questions for the Salt Lake City Weekly and the Hartford Courant interviews Alex Trebek.
  
• 1 vs. 100: Ken Jennings on his experiences as a member of "the mob". "[It] has a lot of potential. Saget's obviously in his element with almost no warmup; he has the makings of a great host. The Mob elimination gimmick is clever and addictive, especially if the show is edited to pick up the pace a bit."
  
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: Boston University neuroscience researcher Ogi Ogas uses cognitive science to win big. "The first technique I drew upon was priming. The priming of a memory occurs because of the peculiar "connectionist" neural dynamics of our cortex, where memories are distributed across many regions and neurons. If we can recall any fragment of a pattern, our brains tend to automatically fill in the rest." (Ogi also has an article on the same topic in the Boston Globe.)

Scrabble Quickies!

Recently, a record-breaking game occurred at the Lexington Scrabble® Club. The winner's score was 830, the loser's score was 490, and the total was 1320!

• Club statistician Mike Wolfberg offers play-by-play and historical notes.
  
• The Boston Herald has a picture of winner Michael Cresta (but not Wayne Yorra).
  
• Stefan Fatsis has a thorough game analysis and interesting comments at slate.com.

Bonus Scrabble quickie: nifty furniture installation from the London offices of Bloomberg financial services. I want these. (Thanks to everyone who forwarded the link to me!)

p.s. Be careful when playing Iwan in Scrabble.

Friday quickies!

• Ig, Ig, Ig Nobel!
• Gorgeous latte art in NYT feature, complete with how-to video.
• Chris's brother bought an Airstream. I want one for my office, or to do some fabulous tour across the USA in retro luxury (complete with flat-panel TV!).
• Old favorite from The Onion: FDA Okays Every Drug Pending Approval, Takes Rest Of Year Off

Friday quickies!

• I would very much like to spend 36 hours in Honolulu right now. It is dreary and grey today.
• I am a sucker for cute food. Via Boing Boing: appallingly cute fast food mini-meal. Surprisingly, it still contains 46 g of fat and 114% of the U.S. RDA for sodium.
• This seems like something that Nathan Pooley would do: Wolverine costume for Hallowe'en, complete with retractable metal claws. (Coincidentally, the costumer is also named Nate.)
• I want my Chimfex Fire Suppressor.

OCD quickies!

• I feel like Zippy the Pinhead: Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse. Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse. Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse.
• Well-written Freakonomics column on hygiene and hand-washing, and the results of a hospital's attempts to increase compliance.
• Via Boing Boing: Squid Soap!

Friday quickies!

• Why doesn't this ever happen to me? Woman comes home to find house cleaned.
• I love Defective Yeti. Further adventures of The Squirrelly: careers in bioengineering. "Awwww, isn't that adorable?!"
• Via Accordion Guy: great cartoon from Wondermark! - sitting in at the Al Qaeda morning meeting. "I want to see some outside-the-box ideas here, okay?"
• New York Magazine has a nice Will Shortz interview: crosswords, sudoku, puzzles, and more. Bonus quote from Jon Stewart: "I'll solve, in a hotel, a USA Today [puzzle], but won't feel good about myself."
• Favorite headline from The Onion: Commuter Playing Some Sort Of Alphabet Sudoku.

Friday quickies!

• You just can't make up news headlines like this: Dog destroys Elvis' teddy bear at museum.
• I don't know which is more awesome: the fact that there is going to be a Ned Flanders appreciation event at a Christian festival, or the fact that there is a tribute band named Ned Zeppelin. "[Simon Jenkins, the organizer of the tribute] said Flanders sets a good example for Christians. "He's a very ardent believer… and at the same time he's very humble," he said. "Although he's got very strong beliefs, he's not thrusting them down anyone's throat and he's not being unpleasant about it. […]"
• The Onion A.V. Club interviews Alan Moore and discusses his newest work, Lost Girls. (Already ordered our copy.)
• Neatorama offers a huge list of cool barbeque grills. I love the Austin-Healey BBQ Grill.
• Via Robot Wisdom: amazing Gnarls Barkley/ Supertramp/ The Who/ Rockwell mash-up: Arty Fufkin - Crazy Logic (2^nd mp3 link in the post).

Friday quickies!

• Brief update from the Boston Globe on Mentos and Diet Coke performance artists Stephen Voltz and pal Fritz Grobe… (yay, EepyBird.com!)
• NYT on yummy, super-creamy, low-fat ice cream. What's the catch? It contains genetically modified "ice structuring" proteins that are "cloned from the blood of an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish, the ocean pout". I'm sure that the Japanese will love it (ref: Japanese Ice Creams, The Wackier World of Japanese Ice Cream).
• For your listening pleasure: Jane's Addiction's Been Caught Stealin' like you've never heard it before. (I heard this on The Infinite Mind on North Country Public Radio a few weeks ago and almost did a spit-take. I just learned today that it's Lea DeLaria singing!)
• It's a Yule tide!
• Jack Kerouac's original version of On the Road soon to be published in its entirety. "The version of "On the Road" that Kerouac wrote [on a 119-foot paper scroll] will be published next year in book form for the first time, said John Sampas of Lowell, the executor of the writer's literary estate and the brother of his third wife, Stella. It will include some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs."

Tuesday quickies

• Via Poz (a Scrabble ninja in his own right): Rules to Live By.
• I love Mimi Smartypants; I've often thought that children are from some other planet. (Nora is apparently an Irken living among us.)
• Great video (and I like the URL too): wherethehellismatt.com.

Tuesday quickies!

• Microcars!
• Wisconsin "weather": hatch of mayflies so thick that it showed up on radar. (I expect that you would have seen similar patterns in the Adirondacks last week due to massive clouds of no-see-ums and angry blackflies. I have a blackfly bite on my ankle and it still itches.)
• Nifty "3-D" crop circle found in Oxfordshire, England.
• This week's On Language column in the NYT explores parts of speech and "functional shifting"— the nouning of verbs, the verbing of nouns, etc. Bonus fifty-cent word: anthimeria. Quoth the inimitable Madeleine Page: "Hang your burnished head in shame, you language slaughterer, you egregious verbifier of stout nouns. Stoppage of such linguistic mauling is required forthwith. Reformationing, in short, is demandfully requiremented."

Wednesday quickies!

• Don't miss the Museum of Bad Art's newest exhibit: Hackneyed Portraits.
• I've read about Twinkie "sushi" before, but this new cookbook offers down-home goodies such as Patriotic Twinkie Pie (sounds good) and Pumpkin Twinkie Bread Pudding (hmm, not sure about this one). According to an Amazon.com reviewer, one of the chapters is entitled Twinkies and Meat, and includes a recipe for "Pigs in a Twinkie" (aieee!).
• Knitted nautiloids. Knitted nautiloids. Knitted nautiloids! (They would go nicely with the squid hat.)
• Behavior modification techniques: if it's good enough for dolphins, it's good enough for me: L. R. S. (least reinforcing syndrome).

Saturday quickies!

• Gas pumps sound like peahens in heat?! (Or are peacocks extraordinarily dumb? "His two brothers are also showing signs of confusion when it comes to finding a mate. One appears to have a crush on the family cat, and the other has been seen attempting to mate with a garden light.")
• Brilliant Colbert Report clip: Stephen interviews Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia's 8th District.
• Interesting Guardian article on MMORPGs and griefers. Article includes this (made-up?) estimate from Stephen Davis of IT GlobalSecure (a firm that specialises in developing security technologies for online games): 25% of customer support calls to companies operating online games are a result of griefing.
• Two favorites from The Quotable Sam & Max:

  Max: "I'm not a malefactor, I'm a lagomorph"

  Sam: Aww… It's a cute hydrocephalic kitten.
  Max: I'll call him Mittens, 'cause I think he'd make a fine pair of them.
  

• Wonderfully snarky review of Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder from i-mockery.com. "The fourth (and most recent) issue was so late there were rumors going around that Frank Miller had heard all the criticism of the book and was taking great pains to rewrite and improve his script. Well, after reading the fourth issue, I'm here to tell you that those ugly rumors are simply not true."

Thursday quickies!

• I'm only mildly curious about Hoffa, but I have to make zombie cupcakes for Hallowe'en. Brilliant!
• Jane and Michael Stern hit the road in search of a Connecticut "road food" specialty: steamed cheeseburgers. (And here I thought that it was a White Castle thing.) For more goodies, check out roadfood.com.
• Via Warren Ellis: for an anniversary date that you'll always remember, tie the knot on 6/6/06. "In the UK, some expectant mothers whose babies are due on June 6 are so concerned about giving birth on the date marked by the satanic number that they have scheduled caesareans and inductions beforehand."
• Gnome ban. Gnome ban. Gnome ban. "Mr Rumball objected to the ban, claiming it was sheer snobbery that kept gnomes out. He pointed out that garden gnomes were the pride of 19th-century aristocratic gardens before they fell from grace […]"
• Very funny Lore Sjöberg (of Brunching Shuttlecocks fame) on the joy of rental cars.

Friday quickies (angry political version)

My anger and disgust with this administration is apparently unbounded, as it increases every day, with every news story I read or listen to. I feel that there is nothing that I can do to influence the outcome of anything that happens in government, and every day I read something else that makes me want to scream and scream and scream. Why aren't there 218 Representatives and 66 Senators who are willing and eager to impeach W? Barring that, why couldn't Congress reauthorize and reinstate the Office of the Independent Counsel? Paging Mr. Starr: there are some allegations of misconduct that we'd like you to look into. Currently making my head spin:

• Halliburton received a contract to build centers with "temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." I can't wait to see what "new programs" get cooked up for us over the next 907 days.
  
• Historian Sean Wilentz ponders the Dubya legacy: Worst. President. Ever. "Instead of emphasizing any political, diplomatic or humanitarian aspects of a war on Iraq -- an appeal that would have sounded too "sensitive," as Cheney once sneered -- the administration built a "Bush Doctrine" of unprovoked, preventive warfare, based on speculative threats and embracing principles previously abjured by every previous generation of U.S. foreign policy-makers, even at the height of the Cold War. The president did so with premises founded, in the case of Iraq, on wishful thinking."
  
• Checks and balances, my ass. More bizarro logic: Bush will "faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution," but he can ignore any statute passed by Congress that conflicts with his Constitutional interpretation, including "military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research."

Friday quickies (sweetness and light version)

We are back from (a rather extended) vacation: tan, rested, and ready. We left behind the sun and sand, and have returned to a dreary New England springtime. Everything is in bloom, but the skies are gray, the lawn is knee-high, and the rain just keeps on coming. I expect that this weekend will be quite busy, as we take care of dirty laundry, neglected yard work, and elementary ark-building.

Without further ado, assorted flotsam that caught my eye:

• Evolutionary news: snakes with hips and finches with flair!
• More gnome-napping: a 300-pound cement gnome was stolen from Milford, MA.
• Lileks on TiVo training: "[It's] like training a puppy: We'll do better this time! No scraps from the table. I made the mistake of giving it a thumbs-up on Judge Judy, because it promptly recorded every single court show on the air, including the entire program day of the Zoning Hearing Board Channel."
• CulturePulp gave a shout-out to Chris Baldwin's Little Dee, a well-drawn and whimsical comic featuring a little girl, a bear, a dog, and … a vulture? I love the art, and the stories are extraordinarily sweet, and not-at-all cloying. When the book is back in print, I'm buying several copies for gifts— good stuff.
• I love Mimi Smartypants: Nora discovers skateboarding.
  Nora: Can I do the skateboard?
  Me: Maybe when you're bigger. Hey, let's go on the swings.
  Nora [ignoring me]: What is he doing now?
  Me: Looks like an ollie kickflip.
  Nora [whispering reverently]: Ollie...kick...flip...
  Me: Oh good lord.

Friday quickies

• Thought-provoking op-ed piece from The Morning News on supporting an author through buying books, staying in print, and libraries. I'm going to pass this one on to a friend of mine who is an author, just to see what she thinks. As a huge fan of the library, I'm torn. I read lots of books that I don't ever buy (too expensive, no longer in print, only available in hardcover) but I also buy books, receive them as gifts, add them to my Wish List, etc.
• Amusing page with lots of screenshots from the original Batman TV series fight scenes: the Batsigns.
• Jonathan Schwarz on Schrödinger's War: "It's easy to understand why the Bush administration wants it both ways: we're at war because that gives them more power… but we're also not at war because they would then have treaty obligations, such as under the Geneva Conventions."
• Cat and Girl root for the patriarchy.
• Environmental science student offers interesting observations on the coming plague. "Certainly not all conclusions drawn from data are correct, nor is all data necessarily valid; however, you must address these issues on their own terms, on scientific terms: you must show why different conclusions would be more appropriate or why the presented data is invalid. What you cannot do is shut your eyes and dismiss science as an ideology."
• Follow-up article on Tyler Hinman and other American Crossword Puzzle Tournament competitors. "The consensus from the hard-core faithful was 'As long as I can finish ahead of Ken Jennings, all will not be in vain,'" said first-time competitor Janet Siefert.

Friday quickies

• Fluff New York Times article on the eternal popularity of zombies.
• If you live in the Bay Area, you can get homemade Indian lunches, delivered to your door for $4-8. Brilliant! Bonus word: tiffin.
• Brazilian pastry chef at Cambridge restaurant Chez Henri offers yummy-sounding boca negra, a dense chocolate-chipotle cake.
• Cat and Girl on theoretical vegetarianism!

Friday quickies!

• Try out to be a Jeopardy! contestant— on-line!
• The Onion A.V. Club interviews Ray Harryhausen and Billy Bragg!
• Via Poz: Douglas Coupland interviews Morrissey.

  "It's not my job to develop a therapeutic analysis of the man, but I think that he's pulled so far into his shell that, save whatever friends and family he has, he's genuinely become what he once pretended to be - that reclusive glumster we all fell in love with - cranky and restless in his bedsit, mooning about obscure stars from distant eras. Which is to say, it's his myth, and he's very happy with it, thank you, and if you don't like it, piss off. And it's also why we Morrissey fans love Morrissey. Everybody wins."

Tuesday quickies!

• Snacking yesterday spurred a discussion on where "baby" carrots come from. A quick search turned up these (old) articles on the origins of bachelor carrots and a green advice columnist's take on the ethics of consuming them.
• Free coffee at Starbuck's tomorrow (Wednesday, March 15) from 10 a.m. to noon!
• I love The Onion: New Poll Finds 86 Percent Of Americans Don't Want To Have A Country Anymore. "I already belong to a health club, a church, and the Kiwanis Club," Tammy Golden of Los Angeles wrote. "I'm a member of the Von's Grocery Super Savers, which gets me a discount on certain groceries. These are all well-managed organizations with real benefits. None of them send me a confusing bill once a year and make me work it out myself, then throw me in jail if I get it wrong."

Weekend quickies!

• The Boston Globe has a fun interview with two local entrepreneurs' quest for the perfect bagel. Their solution? The bagels are made in New York, and you finish baking them at home. Ray's New York Bagels stack up pretty well in a blind taste test, and they're readily available at most grocery stores in the area. Unfortunately, they don't make salt, poppyseed, or egg.
• Swedish archaeologists have found a ship from the late 1300s, buried in the mud. This is a couple hundred years earlier than the other famous recorded shipwreck, the Vasa.
• Gooney birds! Gooney birds!

Firefly quickies!

• Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
• Excellent fan-made t-shirts from Black Market Beagles: I love the Little Damn Heroes series.

Bonus items for Buffy Joss Whedon fans:

• If Joss Whedon directed Peanuts…
  
• Hilarious back-and-forth discussion between Joss and Warren Ellis re: Comicon (Nerd prom). Read through the comments for gems like this:

  Joss Whedon Says:
  February 16th, 2006 at 12:39 am
  

  Who is this Ellis guy anyway? He thinks he all that cuz he wroted "Planety". The facts is, KomiKon is AWESOME becuz people dress up like stuff — but nobody dresses like Warner Ellis, I guess, mister sour grapes. I talked to Sumner Glou and she said nobody ever mailed her body parts except for one time an arm and then a messenger brought her a thyroid gland but big deal, SERENDIPITY fans happen to be the most tastefullest fans who have extra or redundant body parts. […]

Valentine's Day quickies!

• From the fine(?) folks at Something Awful, Star Wars valentines for your inner geek.
• Etiquette for stalkers: no refunds.
• Lileks on thongs. ('Nuff said.)

They are making plans that have far-reaching effects

Music quickies!

• There was a great need for beer. And Buffalo wings. It was one of those weeks. Went to the Sit'n Bull and saw The Band That Time Forgot. Celebrated Tito's birthday. Fulfilled the aforementioned need for beer and wings: Mission accomplished.
  
• I like Beth Orton. The video for her new song, Conceived, is sweet (but would be ever so much better with real Muppets). Most of the animals look a little wrong, like taxidermied Muppets (especially the deer!). I think it's because the eyes aren't quite right. The mole rocks, though.
  
• Empirical proof: even if you've had a really bad week, you will feel better if you put The Name of This Band is Talking Heads in your car's CD player, especially if you crank up the volume during Pulled Up and/or The Girls Want To Be With The Girls. That is all.

More science quickies

• Scientists combine 100 images of virus to show 3-D structure of HIV.
• I knew that we shared 99% of the chimpanzee's genes, so I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that chimps seem to be more closely related to humans than to gorillas and orangutans.
• Did you see the recent news story that basically said men enjoy seeing cheaters suffer? Then don't miss James Gorman's amusing Side Effects column, This Is Your Brain on Schadenfreude.
• Finally, it's only tangentially science-related, but I really enjoyed Yiyun Li's Tang-flavored memoir, entitled Eat, Memory: Orange Crush.

Weekend quickies

• Huge flocks of birds roosting in your town? Call this 83-year-old "crow whisperer" (but only if you live in Decatur or Bloomington).
• Alert reader Poz calls our attention to Boston-based tiki band Waitiki. Next local show: Friday, March 24th (venue TBA).
• For one more weekend only: Acme Theater's New Works Winter Festival. 18 short works by 18 different playwrights (including 4 of Acme's own!), performed over 2 days. After next week's performances, the audience choice favorite award, The Charlie, will be presented. We enjoyed Friday night's "Track A" so much that we went back on Saturday night for "Track B". I particularly liked Mark Harvey Levine's Surprise, a well-written and funny entry about a psychic who can only see 2 minutes into the future.
• Word origins: dog's breakfast and gaslight. For whatever reason, these two have both come up in (separate) conversations recently, and each time there was someone who had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Weekend political and science quickies, with some humor thrown in the mix

• A few months after 9/11, President Bush authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans in the US without having to obtain court warrants. Bush supporters argue that the president's actions "make sense, regardless of their legality." (That screaming you hear is me.)
• The Onion on the Patriot Act: "I'd really like to tell this damn government what I think, but thanks to the Patriot Act, they already know."
• Apparently SNL got funny while I wasn't watching. This ad for Woomba cracked me up.
• Who wouldn't love to find a shoggoth hair toy in her Christmas stocking?
• Don Wise on Incompetent Design: "Look at the bones in your face. They're the same as the other mammals' but they're just squashed and contorted by jamming the jaw into a face with your brain expanding over it, so the potential drainage system in there is so convoluted that no plumber would admit to having done it! So is this evolution or is this plain stupid design?"
• I can't read this headline: Researchers: Mother squids nurse eggs without thinking of "squid milk." An extremely cool photo accompanies the story.

Sunday photo gallery

• Snow pix from Friday's storm
• Nifty latte art (I particularly like the bunny)
• Fantastic wildlife photos (winners of the National Wildlife's 35th annual photography competition)

P is for Panda

• Panda news
• Panda pix
• Panda bento
• Panda pun

Quickies!

• Best. Movie Trailer. Ever.
• Giant squid. Giant squid.
• I love the little thylacines.
• A two-part interview with Joss Whedon: Part 1, Part 2 (thanks, chrism!)
• Scary/ funny Lysol ads from Slackdaddy. (This one is my favorite— it frightens me.)
• Brilliant parody take on the USPS's American Scientists stamp set.
• Vintage test photos from Consumer Reports

Panda quickies

Pass the bamboo shoots, brother:

• Baby panda!
  
• Giant panda!
  
• Tare panda!
  
• Stealthy panda!
  
• Radioactive panda!

Quickies!

Thursday Quickies:

• Via McSweeney's: Dear Mr. President
  
• BattleBots for the masses: combat robot kits for modding
  
• New York Times features Barbara Ehrenreich: Who Moved My Ability to Reason?
  
• Penguin promoted!
  
• mental_floss (which, sadly, seems like Games magazine for dummies): Six Degrees of Ken Jennings. Check out the magazine cover pic on their web site and see if you agree.
  
• Dinosaur news: Volcano + Asteroid = Mass Extinction? (I prefer this alternate theory.)
  
• Invasive exotics. Invasive exotics. ("I, for one, welcome our new cnidarian overlords." )
  
• Happy birthday, Poz!

Quickies!

• PvP on Star Wars: let go of your hate. I am Brent Sienna.
• Via the Boston Globe: MIT Museum acquires awesome slide rule collection.
• Watched Jeopardy! last night with Chris, and we both jokingly came up with the correct question: What is Crete?
• Finally, on-the-job training that you can use!
• Yay! Poz updated his postcard page.

Lighter topics for a Saturday morning

• I really like this game: Guess-the-Google. I haven't been able to get close to a high score, but it's fun. (Requires broadband.)
• I'm amused by Darth Vader's weblog.
• Spiffy dual-duty heat/ electricity co-generator for the home. I want one.
• Interesting history of Concord grapes and Jewish wine.
• Funky hats!

Quickies!

• Dang, Nora is a cute kid. I love the Chucks.
• Swedish taste sensations: Mattias explained this to me once, and I asked him if it was an acquired taste. He considered this for a moment, then replied that it was the opposite of an acquired taste. If you eat it and you don't like it, you will never like it. (He also described filling up the sink with water, and opening the package underwater so that the stench doesn't leak out.)
• Eww. Eww. Eww. I don't like caterpillars.
• To counteract that mental image, I bring you this story: Awww. (Note: he's doing better now. And they named him Squirt.)
• I love The Onion. What do you think? and this week's Horoscopes.
• Watchmen: not dead yet.
• Gnome news from Alert Reader Elke. (She did not, however, point out this movie.)
  Posted by rv at 10:50 AM | Comments (1)