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oooohh... Handy: Processor comparison chart. How fast is that Mac compared to a similar PC? What about dual-core chips? This chart has the answers.
I need to try this place: Ken's Artisan Bakery. What do you say, AmyJo? Hot chocolate at Sahagun followed by some fresh bread?
The skin you're in — "When Erika Thereian changed her Second Life skin from white to black, other things changed. Friends became distant, men made assumptions about her sexuality that they hadn't previously made, and there were blatant racist attacks." [via sennoma]
Portland tops list of bicycle-friendly cities, again — you gotta love it here! [via frykitty]
How to free up hard drive space under Macintosh OS X — some useful tips for those running out of room.
Far more hilarious than it has a right to be: What if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging?
Final standings: official medal count and my alternate medal tracker that takes into account population and GDP. (Compare with the 2002 Olympics alternate medal tracker.)
Yet another respected critic raves about V for Vendetta. Dare I get my hopes up? The source material for this film is from the greatest comics writer of our generation. It's directed by the same people who brought us The Matrix. I want to love it, but I'm afraid it'll suck.
Parting the Red Sea — don't like your country? Make your own! Plans to take over South Carolina and convert it to a sovereign "goldy nation". [via Kris]
Despite the presence of Bob Costas, NBC's Olympics coverage always sucks. This year is no different. It's maddening. I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Okay, New Yorker fans: Malcolm Gladwell has a weblog!
This article argues that bin Laden is achieving his objectives, that Bush and Blair do bin Laden's work for him
Awesome! Indie rock bands routinely refuse lucrative licensing agreements with Hummer, sticking to their principles instead of giving in to evil.
via Dave: Houston proposes surveillance cameras in apartment buildings and Chicago wants them in private businesses. Smile — you're on candid camera!
The nagging differential, tackling the housework question. This gets to some issues that Kris and I have been talking about for fifteen years. [via frykitty]
The Rights of the born, yet another excellent essay on abortion. [via frykitty]
Coming this summer: another Philip K. Dick film adaptation: A Scanner Darkly. [via frykitty]
Excellent info for future reference; how to deauthorize iTunes on all computers. (I've been worried that if one of my computers died, I wouldn't be able to use my purchased music on a replacement machine.)
One of the best stories to come out of the Olympics: Bode Miller sucks!
Ah, here is a little piece of heaven: the Muppet Wiki [via fotw]
My favorite event at the Winter Olympics? Would you believe Ice Dancing? It's true. I love it more than any other event. It'll be on NBC three nights: Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I'll be glued to the tube.
Another example of why you oughtn't place your blind trust in the Power That Be: RFID tags are attackable by cell phone. Kris and I watched Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room last night, and I'm feeling rather disillusioned with this nation's corpocracy. Can you tell? [via Dave]
I just spent a long time on the phone last night talking another person through recovery from a PC virus/spyware attack. These things are all too common. What a surprise then to find this morning reports of possibly the first Macinosh OS X trojan.
Fuck the bastards: RIAA says ripping CDs to your iPod is NOT fair use. Here's the deal: if you comply with these greedy corporations, if you continually grant them greater power over the media and over the copyright laws, eventually they will be able to charge you for access whenever and whereever you want to use your media. It's time to take a stand, folks, it's time to tell Big Media to shove it.
The most popular myths in science — I recognized most of these as myths, though some I believed to be true (such as "a penny dropped from the top of a tall building could kill a pedestrian") [via frykitty]
The annotated Captain Carrot. I keep waiting for DC to anthologize this, but I don't know if it's ever going to happen. I may just have to buy a set off eBay.
Progressive Ruin's 100 More Things I Love About Comics
The top ten sci-fi films that never existed is actually a fairly decent rant (though filled with l33t hyperbole) on the state of modern science fiction films. [via mefi]
I don't buy a lot of computer games anymore, but when I do it's nice to know that the Mac Game Store exists. (Civ4 in June!)
Biker/blogger with a helmet-mounted video camera films car crashing into her as she rides her motorcycle. (Not gross, just interesting.)
Pew Research Center study on happiness. Are you a married rich white religious Republican living in the southern U.S.? You're happiest! (Statistically speaking, that is.) [via bb]
Shocking! Toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants [via bb]
Better living through video games — Canadian researchers are finding evidence that the high-speed, multitasking of the young and wireless can help protect their brains from aging [via Jenn]
Their own version of a Big Bang — why are religionists so scared of evolution? Why do they not even take the time to understand it?
Netflix sends frequent renters to the back of the line — the company's shady business practices go mainstream. I've become increasingly frustrated not because of the inability to get new releases, but because the turnaround from Netflix has dropped from two days to five days. That, my friends, is unacceptable. [via Dave]
Update on the status of the new Logan's Run: Bryan Singer still writing and directing, planned for release in 2008 [via Kris, of all people]
U.S. company implants electronic tags in workers — would you allow this to happen to you? [via Dave, of course]
The secret cause of flame wars: people believe their intended tone can be perceived 80% of the time in internet communication, but in reality recipients are only able to perceive the intended tone 50% of the time.
I know I already covered this in the main blog, but here's actual media coverage: Starbucks kills chantico [via kris!]
Word-for-word from waxy, because it's so damn good: Video: Top Gear trashes a Toyota Hilux (increasingly insane tests of strength; also: Top Gear Turismo and more)
Comics! Games! Teaching Company lectures! Visit J.D.'s eBay auctions. (This item will stay at the top of the flotch for several days.)
Strange as it may seem, I'm going to use the the flotch to record my lawn mowing this year. The warm sun and high wind all week dried the grass so that it mowed like butter. It only took me 01h 22m to mow. I listend to Jonathan Strange (at Waterloo) on my iPod. To start the mower, I used old gas mixed with the 40:1 lawnmower fuel.
Zeppelins forever! Worldwide Aeros announces luxurious airborne cruise ships. More here and here. [via Dave, of course — he's my link to all the latest airship news!]
How songs get popular: the science of hit songs. [via /.]
Nicole on the easy way vs. the right way.
You know how I love tales of interspecies friendship. Well, here is a series of wonderful photographs portraying Cairo, an Italian mastiff puppy, who was introduced as a playmate to 10-week-old Koza, a lion cub whose twin died, at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I love this. [Again, via frykitty, who should e-mail me this stuff.]
Herman, the giant rabbit. No, really. [via frykitty]
Nick and Kris, rejoice! Musical genius has been rewarded with an eighteen-inch Freddie Mercury action figure. I know what my wife is getting for her birthday...
I've died and gone to heaven! Evil Jungle Prince is a food blog covering all my favorite cuisines. If only Kris liked this food, too.
Your pregnancy is a punishment from God and sluts need to be taught a lesson: "It’s not about abortion, it’s about the sex. These people are absolutely crazed at the thought of women who have sex and like it. They want it to stop, and if young women have to bear unwanted children or even die as a result, then so be it." [via rw]
What an amazing story: Stone-age tribe kills fishermen. Apparently, the "lost island of the savages" has been known for decades and is intentionally kept isolated from the modern world. [via bb]
Alone together in World of Warcraft: an interesting analysis of the social dynamics of this supposedly multiplayer game. This article argues that, largely, people choose to be by themselves in this heavily social virtual world. [via waxy]
QML, the quest mark-up language, allows you to create web-based choose-your-own adventure games. Sounds like fun.
Blurb: self-publishing made simple?
This may be a repeat: From Poynter Online comes fifty writing tools [via the aforementioned cribnotes]
PayPal fee calculator, which is useful for eBay sellers
I don't even know what to say about this: Lovechess, "combining erotica and chess". NSFW!
OMFG! The Bobacabana is a Seattle home filled (filled) with Star Wars memorabilia. There's even a cereal room [via mefi, where the owner responds]
Yo, Will! Look what I googled! A Perfect Storm: Retailing and the Middle and Upper-Middle Income Consumer, from the web site of Kaplan's Ben Hur
Read this long article criticizing another article that cricized the Oscar nominations. It's fascinating stuff.
For Pam, Joel, Aimee, and Kristin: Things I Learned From My Patients. Stories from medical students about the strange things people do to themselves...
Info on Aaron Sorkin's fall show for NBC, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Have I mentioned I want the Sports Night DVD set?)
Possible repeat, but worth it: Secondhand Suicide, a weblog by a suicide widow. Powerful, touching, disturbing stuff.
Ben Roethlisberger has been weblogging for the past year. (Ben is the quarterback for the Super Bowl-bound Pittsburgh Steelers.) [via matt]
In celebration of the fact that I didn't write a single word (creatively or in the main weblog) for the week I was on vacation, here are two writerly links: What Writers Do Right and Being Able to Write: Lessons From Other Writers [both via ml, a jackpot of good links lately]
What kid wouldn't love this science experiment? The Mentos fountain (watch the video) [via ml]
For all my friends who knit, perhaps you too can aspire to beautiful art made with knitting. I'd love to have the first one. [via ml]
Though I've never linked to it before (or even bookmarked it), epguides.com — an on-line repository of episode guides for television shows — is one of my most-used sites. It's indispensible.
