It’s a shorter list this time with more commentary. joy!

22 Firefox Extensions to Turn Gmail into a Powerhouse - Google took my gmail down on Friday afternoon. I’ve rarely felt so helpless! Here’s some pointers to customizing Firefox for gmail. Still love it - but may have to pay to get premium reliability. Any personal recommendations from this list or your own?

The dark side of Dubai - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent - a completely different look at Dubai from my week trip of last month. Scary stuff, though every place has it’s good/bad sides... just like us. Still, I’d return to visit.

Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre - I learned how to play Settlers of Catan back in 1996 in Rochester, NY, while at a Star Wars card tournament (I never learned how to play that card game). My UR friend Jeff Hannes taught me & Seth Leamer that Saturday afternoon - he was supposed to be writing about the tournament and was still obsessed with a board game - crazy! Well, 150+ games later, it’s still the one that got me into the hobby. Each of the family members have their favorite version (mine is Cities & Knights), but we rarely play it at game night as it’s almost considered old school by now. This article talks about how it’s gotten so popular in the US in the past 5 years!!! Guess I’m ahead of my time?

Magazine Preview - The Civil Heretic - Freeman Dyson - Profile - NYTimes.com - I have tremendous respect for the aged and legendary Dr. Dyson, though I disagree with him on a few hypotheses.

3-D: The Future of Movies - TIME - since I built the home theater, the only movies I’ve seen in the theaters are 3D or independent. I’m sure 3D home movies aren’t too far away, but they definitely justify the trip/experience now!

Rheumatology Exhibition and Conference 2009 to open doors in Dubai tomorrow | IIR Middle East - has a short interview with me.

Why is there Anti-Intellectualism? - intriguing question. I so often notice the anti-technology/science themes in movies/books that ride this wave of being afraid of what we don’t understand...

Topless Robot - TR Non-Review Review: Watchmen - I read the whole graphic novel and enjoyed the movie more for it, since it’s truly made for the readers/fans in mind (and out to ensure an R rating). Still, not the best movie, but I appreciate what was done to create it. The novel is outstanding.

His and hers: Study examines the role of gender in the stigma of mental illness - may not be new, but still fascinating.

And to close, some statistics humor: xkcd - A Webcomic - Correlation What’s sad is that I love this one - laughed out loud for certain. Oh how I’ve changed.

Well, I forgot to put my sheets in the dryer and so now have some unexpected free time to add to the blog. No full-out organization this time. Enjoy!

Ten Years On, Office Space Returns! - Dallas Observer. Classic movie with some great pictures and stories 10 years later!

Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters - CNN.com Can’t leave out a story about Muppets! Here’s a Muppet movie poster a local friend made.

:: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM :: A Lord Of The Rings Fan Film - Very impressive!

YouTube - Girls on the dance floor - Far East Movement Music Video Contest Submission - My friend, Kristen Chan, made this for a competition. Fun!

ThinkGeek :: I void warranties - Kids :: Action Shots - My friend, Melissa, took this shot of her son. Perfect!

YouTube - WoW Intervention! - Hilarious! Just in case, WoW = World of Warcraft.

The True Stories Behind 5 Famous WTF Images | Cracked.com - Entertaining short piece (w/pics of course!)

Prank War 7: The Half Million Dollar Shot - CollegeHumor Video - OMG! Hilarious practical joke involving Maryland men’s college basketball game.

ABC News: Kinky Sex Is on the Rise, Therapists Say - Hmm... wonder if it’s just on the rise for people who can afford therapists?

Metrogrades: The Best Cities for Recycling: Men's Heath.com - Not surprising, many midwest towns not high up, though Omaha is better than most!

The Daily Show's Best Evolution Moments | Comedy Central - In honor of Darwin’s birthday.

Pharyngula: Louisiana boycotts science; scientists boycott Louisiana - Staying on theme.

Huge gamma-ray blast spotted 12.2 bln light-years from earth - am very curious as to what this could be from.

Testing relativity from the 1919 eclipse— a question of bias - Physics Today March 2009 - Bias?! That’s what I study!

J!NX : Clothing for Gamers & Geeks - Jessica Chobot profile - I’m a fan of this T-shirt site and Jessica’s (who works with a friend of mine at IGN). Two for one!

Paul Harvey - 1918 - 2009 - Listened to him a lot when I was a kid. Usually with grandparents or in the car going to another school for class trips/gifted. Had no idea he’d been around so long. Page 2. That’s the rest of the story. Good day. All quotes I garnered from him. Rest in peace.

I’ve got to get better categories for these posts!
Anyhew, enjoy!

I really like my xbox 360 (currently playing Jade Empire & Rock Band 2), but I don’t play much with strangers on it, even though it’s got the best online video game system (non-PC). This is one of the reasons why:
Topless Robot - The 10 People You Meet on Xbox Live

The Video Game Revolution: "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked" by Henry Jenkins | PBS

Mad Geophysics: Magnetic Anomaly Map of the World

Brian Cox on CERN's supercollider | Video on TED.com - more info on the LHC by a great lecturer (very short talk)

Pictured: The 20-stone sumo girl... aged just 14 - Girls just wanna have fu’un! (wedgies are fun, right?) Amazing size for one so young.

ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans - I often tease my family members and friends who are very pro-privacy (eg. they don’t use grocery discount cards, prefer cash, and hide their bridge-toll detectors in foil when not going near a toll) as I often use and can understand the reasons for wanting to collect such information. But the phone-tapping by the NSA is way way way over the line. Hasn’t The Dark Knight taught us that this is bad bad?

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret - I could have used this function during my jet-lagged mornings and nights after returning from Sweden. Doh!

Berkeley Breathed says goodbye to Opus: 'I'm destroying the village to save it' - My favorite long-running comic is gone... again!

Revealed: Plans to build the world's tallest building at 1km high - So, I”m speaking at a conference in Dubai next March and I’m looking forward to seeing all of the crazy skyscrapers that already exist there, but this one... this one is breathtaking!

Topless Robot - Doctor Who Has No Idea What You're Doing Here - Can’t believe I watched the entire video. More to remind myself what all of the Dr. Who characters looked like (why did they get younger with every iteration? Is this like a Mork from Ork thing?)

Topless Robot - Rock Band Needs "The Touch" - Maybe you’re impressed? Maybe you’re just embarrassed, but I sing this song out loud every once in the while when I hit a few buttons to make things work and, of course, while striking a Saturday Night Fever pose.

Can’t Open Your E-Mailbox? Good Luck - NYTimes.com - This actually has me very nervous. Do NOT let someone take over your gmail account. I’ve got redundant accounts just in case this happens, but I hope I never have to deal with it. Be afraid!

OK, it’s been a little over 2 weeks, and we’re back. While I was overseas I didn’t stop collecting links, but I’m using old technology and can’t update this blog until I’m back home.

Technology/Science

Astronauts Return Safely to China - NYTimes.com - Did any of you know about this?

Private Company Launches Its Rocket Into Orbit - NYTimes.com - What about this?

Science News / Snapshot Of A Planet Beyond The Solar System - Or this? Clearly I’m getting excited about the future of space!

YouTube - end of the world?, the Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ) - Educational and entertaining video of what the LHC actually is. Yes, I miss physics, but am happy to be on the outside.

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the earth yet? - related to the above for those of you who want to stay on top of things.

Health/Psych/Personal Improvement/My Job

How to Overcome Resentment | ThinkSimpleNow.com - In case you’re in a resentful kind of mood, here are some pointers to get through it (though when really resentful, do we want to get over it?)

A New Epidemic - YouTube - This is related to my research. Fascinating subject - the idea of disease mongering. Nice BMJ article about non-diseases and how most anything normal these days is treated like an ailment or disease for many reasons, but often to sell drugs/remedies as well.

New study proves that pain is not a symptom of arthritis, pain causes arthritis - Interesting new article on osteoarthritis. Yes, more shop talk, but strange to find an arthritis article on a physics web site.

Going Big - Harlem Renaissance - This American Life - I was recently asked what podcasts I listen to. If you’ve gone through my blog, you’ll only find mention of RadioLab. But I listen to NPR regularly and greatly enjoy This American Life. This week covered a man and his effort to reduce poverty in Harlem and how it led him to teach mothers how to be better parents by talking and reading to their babies. How just the increase in the number of words used and interaction could have such a great impact long-term. Seems also appropriate as a friend told me she thinks anyone who uses corporal punishment on their kids should be locked away. I disagreed and commented that people made too big of a deal about this, but that a quick spank or something to get a kids attention wasn’t so bad. But the more I thought about it, the more I questioned how I would be as a future-father. Let’s just say that I’m not so rigid in my beliefs.

The Incredible Podcast Episode 1: What online gaming parents know that you don't - Sent from Katie. Maybe you’ll all start playing more online games now?

Medicare Drug Premium on Rise - WSJ.com - Grandma, be sure to check out what your new rates will be. You may want to change to something better for you.

UNMC Today Headlines - Dr. Michaud awarded Arthritis Foundation New Investigator Grant - This was top of UNMC daily paper while I was away. I got so much “press” after it, even though I got this grant last July. What a difference some PR makes. Oh, and lots of comments on the new, cheesy smile picture.

Religion: why do people believe in God? - Telegraph - Thought provoking article, but clearly short and overly simplistic (but therefore quick digestible for a mid-day snack )

Politics

Don't Vote - CollegeHumor video - More for the younger peeps (?), but entertaining vid of lots of famous actors trying to get you to vote.

The Great Schlep - More Sarah Silverman trying to get us to get our family members in Florida to vote Obama. Funnay!

Experience 101 - Dick Cavett - Opinion - New York Times Blog - So many articles about the debates and the election, but enjoyed this fellow Nebraskan’s take from a few weeks ago.

Movies/TV/Sports/Games

Wehastrouble - Don’t view picture unless you’ve played any of the Settlers of Catan or CATAN games.

ESPN - There's no argument where the best QBs live: the Big 12 - Columnist - The Big XII in college football has shown it’s got great teams. Now they start to cannibalize each other in the coming weeks. Still, fun games!

Spore’s Piracy Problem - Forbes.com - the biggest computer game to arrive in years has gotten lots of protests from users due to its new copyright management. Revenge of the nerds!

Film - Disney Prepares to Use Its Marketing Magic to Bring Back the Muppets - NYTimes.com - I’ve had several comments about upcoming Muppet events planned and now I see it’s all part of a larger strategy of Disney, but I am concerned since the Muppets were more for adults, their edgy comedy. ABC put them with mindless kid-fare sitcoms back with Muppets Tonight (which was brilliant, btw) in 1991 or so, and it didn’t do well... I’m curious to see how much the brand is altered to make them appealing to the current-day kids.

Geeky Movies' Top 10 Coolest Kids | Geekdad from Wired.com - What happened to SpyKids? At least our geek from Real Genius made the cut.

South Park protest in Russia - remember when I mentioned that Russia wanted to ban South Park, well, some Russians aren’t happy about that. Check out the pics!

Ranking The Films Of The Coen Brothers | Movie Crunch - So many great movies by these guys. Though I haven’t seen their worst two on this list (or the new one).


Misc

Spippo's deviantART Gallery - These aren’t the My Little Pony ponies that we had - I like them even better!

YouTube - Ninja cat comes closer while not moving! - Hilarious cat video!

NIN Dazzles With Lasers, LEDs and Stealth Screens - They’re in town next month and I plan to attend (which is a big deal since I’m not a fan of most concerts, let alone hard alt rock ones).

Hallowindow - Mark Gervais - Amazing video this guy projected on his house’s windows for Halloween. Hmm... giving me ideas.

Enchanting Essentials - a new web site for my cousin’s, Summer’s, soap/care products company out in Oregon.

Wow, maybe I have more time on my hands (no) or just that a lot of interesting things have been happening lately around the world. But after 10 days, here’s a long list for you!

Business/Ecomonics/Politics

Can Diesel Ever Become Fashionable In The U.S.? - BusinessWeek. My family has owned a diesel van of some kind since I was a little kid. You can always hear it coming, but it got relatively good mileage. Here’s a good article about the hurdles of getting the good diesel cars more popular and available in the US. (plus, check out the great Honda diesel commercial narrated by Garrison Keillor!)

Lots of commentary regarding the Freddy/Fannie bailout this week. I’ve heard the pros and cons and believe we needed a bailout but with more serious consequences for the shareholders and decision-makers of the companies. I’m not a fan of having more welfare for the rich, once again. (or is that just a poor perception, Jay? You being 1 of 2 economists who read this blog. )
A $75 trillion fright fest: 8 megahorror debts chilling the U.S. - MarketWatch
US Is "More Communist than China": Jim Rogers - Financials * News * Story - CNBC.com

I was surprised there wasn’t greater coverage of all of the arrests at the RNC last week. Here are a couple interesting videos - one showing how this was reported in Russia (how the rest of the world was hearing about martial law in US, while here it didn’t make much of a splash at ABC).
YouTube - Martial Law at the Republican National Convention (Russian Times)
Political Radar: Police Clash with Demonstrators, Make Arrests at RNC (ABC)
Minnesota Independent: News. » Best of the RNC, outside the ‘green zone’ edition

Op-Ed Columnist - The Resentment Strategy - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Angry Amateurs - Swampland - TIME
Well written articles, but I still can’t get over the “Drill! Drill! Drill!” from the RNC. Can’t imagine a sweeter chant to hear by all of the countries that we’re at odds with (Ven, Rus, Iran, etc).

Sarah Palin Gender Card | The Daily Show | Comedy Central - and on the lighter side. A must-see video.

Science/Physics/Tech/Health

The most “important” event this week - CERN’s LHC is up and running! (as of today) Lots of press on it, but here’s a few you may have missed.
Hawking bets CERN mega-machine won't find 'God's Particle' (Update)
AP: This ain’t no jive, particle physics rap is a hit
YouTube - The Large Hadron Rap
xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe (it’s good to dream of a place where such a line could work - I’ll try it tonight before it’s too late. )

Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos | Wired Science from Wired.com- good to have on reserve.

Ok, this may be more appropriate in the politics section, but three related articles on science policy by the 2 main parties.
Cocktail Party Physics: physics politico
Physics Today Campaign 2008 - Where do they stand on science?
Sciencedebate 2008

Looking for Love In All the Right Alleles | Wired Science from Wired.com - waiting for the time when online dating sites will ask for blood to find your best match.
Single Men Want a Child, but the Relationship Can Wait - NYTimes.com - on the same theme - I’ve often wondered since my quest to find a life-partner has not had success, if I would ever choose something like this... probably not.
When sex becomes an addiction - CNN.com - due to Mr. X-files recent newsmaking.

Autism and Vaccines: Why Bad Logic Trumps Science | LiveScience - title explains all. Can’t tell you how many times I was told vaccines caused all of my health problems.

Important work can be done while daydreaming - The Boston Globe - yeah, I knew I was getting important work done!

You may have heard about Google’s new browser. I can’t use it, yet (not for Mac), but two good links among many:
Google Chrome - A nice comic from Google illustrating why they created a new browser
Why Did Google Abandon Firefox? - GigaOM

Why Disasters Are Getting Worse - TIME - another article discussing geography more than climatology.

Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History | Wired Science - Impressive creature!


Entertainment/Sports/Misc

10 Movies Needing a Muppet Remake | Geekdad from Wired.com - Keeping the muppets theme alive and well.

Bid to ban extremist U.S. cartoon | U.S. | Reuters - We tried banning South Park in the US years ago, interesting to see if Russia does the same (and they’ve only aired through season 3, there are 12 of them so far!)

The curse word 'Battlestar Galactica' created - CNN.com - FRAK! (What about Farscape’s “Frell” and their many words for other private words? Though I still like the made for TV editing of Breakfast Club, “FLIP YOU!” - as we all shouted it out loud at the recent 80s party. )

Topless Robot - The World Is Now Higher Pitched - great little video of the best voice in movie trailers. Farewell Mr. Don LaFontaine.

YouTube - How Lord of The Rings Should Have Ended - one of many hilarious little Youtube videos showing how so many popular movies should have ended.

Believe! — Bernard Pollard Fan Club - Red tee - It’s still a little raw and my NY Giants fan-friend (living in Boston) is walking a fine-line as she mocks the Pats fans, but still, this shirt is funny in it’s bad-taste. Besides, it’s on a Steeler’s fan site. Go Chefs! :-P

A Lingerie League of their Own - SPIKE - Lastly, seems so wrong in so many ways (though of course I’ll have to check it out on TV next year). I alway thought there should be a co-ed or female football leagues, but this wasn’t what I had in mind (clearly I lack imagination/daydreaming). Enjoy the pics!

Whoa, long trips and bad local-only blog software make keeping this up to date hard! Here’s an unloading of the “best” links from the past month (after they make it through the K filter).

The Guinea Pig Olympics - Telegraph - so... darn... cute... can’t resist.
Lupin/Cavy Related: Pet rabbit saves owners from fire.
TB’s long lost cousin? 40lb cat needs a home!

Nice graphic of how US men are predicted to die in 2008 (from Men’s Health, copyrighted pic, so may not be around long)

Interesting research on IQ, evolution, sex and brain size. General Intelligence Factor (Scientific American), Social brain theory (Science), Fluctuating asymmetry and intelligence (journal) (Thanks, Stacie)
Related: Police reject candidate for being too intelligent.

Bernie Mac in the news - he is missed!

Death Star (and other SW ships) over San Francisco - cool video!
Other invasions in the world: Why Russia’s response to Georgie was right. (commentary-Financial Times)
In-depth article of the double life of Karadzic, an infamous Serbian fugitive (NYTimes)

I really enjoyed Firefly (and Serenity, too!) but was disappointed with what they did with Shepherd Book’s character. Now his backstory is coming out in a new comic book.
7 Biggest a-hole computers in Sci-Fi. We all know #1, but what about the rest? (also, we must fear what we don’t understand, right? How about just respect? )

It’s taken me a while, but I’m now following the olympics a bit. Still, America, What About Handball?!
This is now out of date, but reasons why this is the biggest, baddest olympics ever.
The gender trap - issues with women close to losing olympic medals for not being woman-enough.

Desperate climates call for desperate geoengineering? (physics today) - scary and interesting stuff.
Signals travelling faster than speed of light? - never know what’s real in these pop-science articles, but still interesting!
SLAC is being renamed? Ugh, seems ridiculous.
More fabulous Hubble pictures!

CUIL - the Google killer. Um, at least was in the news for a couple days, anyone really use it?

I’m celebrating the 80s this month. How about this: Top 10 delicious extinct candies from the 80s

Chemistry of Sex Drive (health)
Aging is an accident of evolution - says Stanford researcher.
7 Common dreams and what they mean (Divine Caroline)
and 14 reasons you’re not sleeping (Forbes)

When in Japan, drink the “beer” for kids! (really crazy video)

For those who watched Batman - THe Dark Knight (which is now #2 top grossing movie in US all time - just passed Star Wars!), you may have been intrigued by The Watchmen trailer before it. Here’s an intro to that comic book from the 80s. Looks cuil!

Study reports that most corps don’t pay US income taxes. (Reuters)

For an inspirational talk - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: achieving your childhood dreams

Thank you for your support!

A shorter list today, but maybe with greater quality?

FORA.tv - Paul Roberts: The End of Food Listened to this 1-hour talk by Paul Roberts, author The End of Oil and The End of Food. Well done and while pessimistic at times, I enjoyed the big-picture view of food, oil, economy, global-warming, etc.

3 Ideas That Are Pushing the Edge of Science | Gadgets | DISCOVER Magazine

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom | Threat Level from Wired.com Old news, but still quite troubling.

Poll: US taxpayers want more funding for scientific research About time!

The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency | Election 2008 | AlterNet In case you had forgotten, here's a reminder.

Midwest Teen Sex Show Recommended by local pediatrician - surprising funny AND educational. Good for folks of all ages, though probably not safe for work.

CrunchGear » Archive » AT&T’s text messages cost $1,310 per megabyte I have been planning on getting the new iPhone, but two big issues: 1) range of service here in Omaha is questionable & 2) increase in rates including text messaging - may be enough to save money and not switch over this year either.

Funny t-shirts, Funny shirts, t-shirts, shirts, Cool t-shirts, Cool shirts, tees A funny site by itself, but also a great selection of funny t-shirts. Torsopants.com!

Uno and only -- chicagotribune.com New cross between Segway, motorcycle & Star Wars vehicle.

nsf.gov - Discoveries - Not a Quirk But a Quark ... a Quark Star! - US National Science Foundation

Science News / Citizen Astronomy Story about many astronomy amateurs finding new astronomical findings (that was awkward)

Roberts' record on high court defies '05 pledges of centrism -- chicagotribune.com I have respect for both Obama and McCain, but the latter, similar to Dole in '96, has changed in ways I don't like as he leads his party (actually, so has Obama). Not a fan of Scalia, Thomas and now Roberts and McCain has said he would add others similar to them.

Eppendorf International - It's called epMotion Very funny and real boy-band advert for a machine to do automated Eppendorf pipetting. So many (including myself) have spent so many hours pipetting that the humor and need for this would ring true - enjoy! (especially Kim Smith, Stacie, and the BoxerLab gang) Though the critic in me thinks they could have added a more pertinent 2nd verse.

George Carlin died a few days ago. He was one of the first celebrities I ever met. I had been at college for just a couple weeks and CPB brought him to perform. Great show, great guy and he was on one of my first dorm room posters - the one that had hundreds and hundreds of bad words/phrases on it. I learned how so many phrases could be innuendo for something else that day. But it is something to have a comedian that is so entertaining also be a decent human being when off the stage. His routines have been used to spread anti-government, anti-religion and anti-business by a plethora of groups (some respectable, many not) - but the reason I always enjoyed his humor was that it made you laugh and question things at the same time. The usual "Oh yeah, that's funny, cuz it's true" combined with "does it have to be like that" or "it's sad that it's true" thoughts. No matter, I'll miss him.
Comedy Central Early Tribute
Recent one on America (used by those groups listed above)


Physics/tech links:

Phoenix Mars Mission (great that this project, led by U of Arizona, has gotten so much attention. They've done a good job managing it and setting up PR - maybe a sign that future projects should be outsourced from NASA?)

Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave - tech - 19 June 2008 - New Scientist Tech (I hate it when headlines mislead readers on the science, but it's still cool to see)

IBM's Roadrunner breaks petaflop barrier, tops supercomputer list | Tech news blog - CNET News.com (People wonder what IBM does these days since it's no longer in the PC business... here's one thing it still does well!)

Colliding with nature's best-kept secrets - CNN.com (never heard of this guy before, but it's interesting to see how the scientists get attention)

Earth Will Survive After All, Physicists Say - NYTimes.com (another story on CERN)

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete (curious take on the subject)


Health-Science/Sex links:

Adventures In Science: The Incredible, Inedible Egg (fascinating first-time ever pictures of a woman's ovulation - this should just disturbing enough that the following links about sex won't be as scintillating)

Can’t Find The G-Spot? You’re Not Alone: The Science of Sex (curious - still have a lot to learn about women)

I've had the G-shot...and YES,YES,YES, my sex life has never been better (UK paper)

ABC News: G-Shot Parties: A Shot at Better Sex? (see a theme, yet?)

AskMen.com - The G-Shot (last one, honest)

Baby born with eight limbs takes her first steps after life-saving surgery (whoa! Amazing pics and story)

Morbid thoughts make you reach for the cookies | Health & Fitness | Reuters (this somewhat explains my purchases from the month of less sleep from shoulder pain)

Books - 2 Books on Illness and Wellness Give Opposite Advice - Review - NYTimes.com (Nortin Hadler is a unique rheumatologist. I have his previous book and can usually appreciate his somewhat cynical view of the health system.)


Potpourri:

Re: Neck of the woods. (In Paris I used the phrase "In my neck of the woods" with a Portuguese doctor. I realized after a second that she had no clue what that meant, and then I thought of how those words together didn't make any sense to me, either. Well, this link cleared it up, but I'll have to work harder on not being so difficult to understand. )

Nintendo Wii Fit women and the $41m damage bill | The Daily Telegraph (who knew the Wii could be so expensive after all!? )

Daily Herald - Crazy Horse monument turns 60 with no end in sight (hope this gets completed in my lifetime)

A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE (on sale at Christies - I love this line "Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used." How cool is that?! Gamers of the ancients? )

Lego Death Star Exclusive High-Res Pics: 3,800-Piece Death Star Diorama Is Coolest Star Wars Lego (meh, I stil prefer the recent huge Millennium Falcon - though I own none of these!)

Airplane Pilot Shares His Thoughts | Your America | Reader's Digest (tell it like it is!)

Picture of trends in CEO pay from NYTimes. (I could imagine BJ saying that CEOs need to be paid this much to encourage them to do what they do well, etc., but isn't this ridiculous?)

And the fun video to end on - Matt is back with his new higher res video of dancing around the world! Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) on Vimeo

When shoulder pain has you down, look to the web for distractions!

YouTube - Title Of The Song (fun a cappella generic romance song)

What to do when you're pulled over by a cop while driving (mostly obvious stuff)

I'm a fan of this - making a game out of protein folding. Use human brain power to do what computers can't.

A woman who can literally remember everything (really a curse?).

This one hit home a bit: 30 years of Man's Life disappear in Mysterious 'Kansas Rectangle' - at the Onion

New free album from Nine Inch Nails: The Slip

Barenaked ladies have a new kids album that just came out - actually really fun, it's called Snack Time and you can listen to it free here, temporarily (scroll over to it). I like "The Ninjas" and others - all very short, but here's the first video (cartoon) called "7 8 9".

To my friends getting married this year, a toast from xkcd (an eclectic online comic)

Has anyone used the software SuperMemo? You can get it here. Read a lot about it in Wired and will use it to learn/remember something useful (like French for when I go to Paris next month?). You can practice/learn anything with it, just needs a library to learn from.

Ars technica article entitled "Evolution: what's the real controversy?"

This Scientific American article got me a bit sentimental. The LHC will finally get activated this summer at CERN (in Geneve, Switzerland). Here's initial pics of it on the initial internet web page - something I was using at Fermilab back in 1994 and I actually worked on simulations of the hadron calorimeter in 1995 - only 13 years later it'll finally get activated!

This time I'll keep them organized by theme since there are so many good ones!

Science:
Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint | Wired Science from Wired.com (go Omaha! )

How Deja Vu Works (seemed appropriate with this month I've been having)

Scientists Now Expect to Find Gravitational Waves (part of LIGO - was once recruited to help with this 11 years ago!)

Physicists model how we form opinions

The $25,000,000,000 Eigenvector (ie. Google's)

Stephen Hawking calls for Moon and Mars colonies

Does the Earth's magnetic field cause suicides?

Recent Events (ie. politics/tech/misc):

NPP INCOME TAX CHART | National Priorities Project (good to be reminded where the US taxpayer money goes)

Expelled Exposed (it's the new Intelligent Design documentary - haven't seen it, but not happy of the messages it's portraying and I've lost all respect for Ben Stein)

On topic: YouTube - Why do people laugh at creationists? (part 22)

Was disgusted by the questions asked at the Penn Democratic debate. Guess I wasn't the only one: MoveOn.org Political Action: Enough Distractions

From friend who recently returned from Africa: Islamic schools lure African boys into begging

Banks meet over £40bn plan to harness power of Congo river and double Africa's electricity

Sub-prime fallout metrics US map (NYTimes)

Nebraska High School Project on Genocide Was a Portent of Real-Life Events - New York Times (similar to my reaction in college when studying Weimar republic of Germany - couldn't we have predicted and done something to prevent the travesty?)

How to Win the War on Global Warming (Time magazine)

Superheroes in Real Life - City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul)


Game related:

Mr. Jack. Wonderful 2-person board game that you can play for free in your browser. Feel free to invite me to a game - I'm "Kadorus".

The Best Videogame Stories Ever (not that I fully agree with this, but it does highlight some amazing games from the 90s and more recent - especially loved Planescape: Torment).

Ikariam - The free browser game - haven't played it, but friend recommended it (she's on planet Iota) and says it's similar to a massive multiplayer Civiliation

Grand Theft Auto IV: Dystopian Liberty City - New York Times (don't know if I'll ever play any of these games, but this one definitely has had the buzz the past week/year!)

Humor:

YouTube - Flight of the Conchords Ep 4 If You're Into It - Hilarious short song on this HBO tv show, very catchy!

An Engineer s Guide to Cats on Yahoo! Video (can't forget the always entertaining kittehs!)

Funniest Valedictorian Speech Ever video - probably funnier when thinking back to high school. Ah, those were the days... of mental incarceration.

Sex, Pop Culture, and Misc:

WNYC - Radiolab - back for another wonderful season. Listen to these podcasts! (I know, belongs more in Science)

ABC News: Christian Sex: Holy and Hot!

BBC NEWS | Health | Masturbation 'cuts cancer risk'

Men, women, sex and confusion : Booster Shots : Los Angeles Times - my friend was amazed at this, but every guy told her it was true.

Song about relativistic plasma jets (plus trippy visuals!) Blogs Scientific American - again, another not quite science link

YouTube - We_Are_The_Strange - Don't watch this here, it's trippy and doesn't work in small Youtube format, but you at least get an idea about the fuss. I think this will make a great backdrop to game night.

Six Diseases You Don’t Want - humor and medical science

Guillermo del Toro Chats with TORN About ‘The Hobbit’ Films! - Yes, I'm very excited about the upcoming movies!

Life-changing books: Recommendations from 17 leading scientists

And lastly, the one I've been saving for several of you: Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium - yes, look on in surprise, envy, awe and disgust!

That's it for April - let me know what you think!

I was having a nice conversation with a friend on the phone last night when all of a sudden I lose the connection, my phone reboots and then takes me through the setup. I had lost everything! Mind you, I don't have a home phone and this one had been having trouble synchronizing with my computer since Feb 15. The store couldn't fix it. Now I have no idea what's on my now-blank calendar (or what was added like bdays, appointments, weddings!, etc) nor what I did on record since Feb 15. Ugh!

So, with that in mind, everyone back up your hard drives, phones, & mind now!

And here are the links that I've neglected to put up over the past month, so quickly, before I lose them...

Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos (from Wired)

While looking to create a blueprint of my remodeled basement, found this great free graphic program called gliffy!

Commercial for Wendys that they never used.

Blog entry about Oklahoma passing a new law that allows religious views to substitute for science answers.

You may have seen the original video this is based on, but clever advert from the UK.

Amazing story of a baby being "flushed off a train" in India.

South Park has done it, they've put ALL of their episodes online for viewing for free! I have a few favorites - I still recommend the Emmy winning "Make Love Not Warcraft" episode.

Old op-ed about the costs of the Iraq war - may be more worthwhile to check out the latest book on it.

My colleague, Ted Mikuls, just got two big awards at the university. Big ceremony and seminar. Was very cool!

NYTimes article about our new local art-house theater.

And just for kicks, CBS article about why sex is good for you.

Too much to combine this time, its own post!

How Good People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib - interview

Some complicated mazes you can either solve or just read about.

I have 20+ links related to home theaters for my recent research, but will keep only this one, audiovideointeriors.com, for examples of the uber rich and/or just the creative have down to create their own home theaters.

There have been a lot of hilarious pics this last month on ICanHasCheezBurger.com, but this one has been on my wall for a wall - so damn funny! (OK, here's another for reference to one of my fav Beatles' songs)

NASA baffled by unexplained force acting on space probes (new force drawing them toward the sun or just wrong wrt gravity or just nothing?)

Some amazing pictures of parts of earth from space. Some false color is used at times, but still breathtaking.

More cool pictures, this time of the nanoscale level.

New NIN uber album, Ghosts I-IV, that you can get cheap or first 9 songs for free!

Hilarious Maki Lemur video w THX theme (original was removed by THX, but u get the jist from this)

So I'm finally starting to feel better! Yesterday I slept in until 11:30am (12 hrs sleep) and was still a wreck all weekend, but feel like I've broken through this mad cold sickness. Still have a nagging cough, but nothing slowing me down too much. Got a grant submitted last Friday afternoon (with 3 mins to spare) - no fun having to work while sick all week. I did celebrate by seeing Ladysmith Black Mambazo - and even though I was sick, it was an amazing concert. Inspirational, fun and just a great site for the ears! But due to being sick, I also missed the Nebraska Democratic party caucus on Sat (I'm actually registered as independent, but I'm unsure if that would really stop me from participating). Was rare to have Obama here. Also Chelsea was here, too (wonder if she remembers me from Stanford? :-P ). I seriously think I've bruised one of my ribs from coughing so much...

I've been slow with my internet surfing of late. But here were a few highlights.

NYTimes business article on the effective (Red) campaign for charity.

So I was sick for the Superbowl, but I did laugh out loud for a few commercials. Here were a few of my favorites:
Talking Stain ad for Tide
Contest winner for Doritos
Will Ferrell - Jackie Moon - for Bud Light - original, and a longer different one
Pepsi Stuff (extended) with Justin Timberlake (ok, here's the Chris Kattan Pepsi one as well)
E-Trade w baby and clown

And for a mix, here's Hollywood physics - they didn't put on some of the more horrendous refutations of natural laws (The Core, Real Genius, and Back to the Future come to mind ), but still some bad ones (and credit to 1-2 for doing it well!).

A good friend of mine is looking to recruit fellow math-geeks for a 1-2 year adventure of teaching in Kenya. See here for more details. She says the recent violence is isolated and has not affected expats or this group at all.

Here's to being healthy again! (and not catching up with mail, email, work... ack!)

I've got the cold from hell. It first arrived a couple weeks ago, climaxed on Sunday and Monday, and then just got better. Here it is a week later and a new one hits very late on Saturday, and doesn't let go. At least today my head is clear enough that I can think (ie. work), though I'm avoiding work and spreading my lovely cough. Seems that every winter I get a brutal cold that lingers for 10 days or so, but this one has been much longer. Woe!

I decided against putting up techee geek links like The Holographic Principle and M-theory, The Science of Sex: Does the Nose Know?, and an editorial Beware the Child-Man. Oops, guess I did it again!

Actually, there is something to the scent of another. But never would have guessed it could be linked to genetic variety. The scientist in me is aware of these differences, which may be related to my taste in dating partners - they really have no factor in common. Once my nose is working more properly, I'll be extra sensitive to report my findings.

Speaking of Child-man, I finally beat Bioshock last week. Great game! Word is they'll make it into a movie. Definitely an interesting and unique story of man's ego/drive gone awry. Next up is the highly acclaimed Mass Effect. FOX news had a brief show highlighting it for "full digital nudity and sex". It was amazing at how bad this news program was. But what is of note is the heavy backlash FOX and the psychology expert they brought received online afterwards. Here's a NYTimes article that covers the whole story.

The 4th undersea Internet cable was cut in the Middle-East this week. Friends in the area say it's all media hype, whereas others are predicting something dire is about to happen. I'm not sure what's going on and the trusted news groups have been less than helpful, but it's more than suspicious. Here's a more detailed ABC article on it.

The primary vote tallies are almost done. Google maps and Twitter teamed up for this interesting "live" take on it all. Should be more interesting in an hour or two.

Back to work!

A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks, but that requires many new pics, so for now I'll just catch you up on some of the web sites that have educated and/or entertained me recently.

I really like HD-DVDs, in comparison to Bluray Discs. The upconversion on regular DVDs are great (ie. play a regular DVD on an HD-DVD player on HDTV and it looks almost high-def). They're cheaper, easier to make and the technology is mature whereas the only current BD players that will work with the discs that come out next fall is the Playstation3. Plus, it's Sony being all proprietary again (which is why I don't own a Sony camera or TV). Anyway, here's a nice business article about BD winning by Sony buying out Warner and one about HDs price drops (I went ahead and got a few more for just over $10 recently).

So, for those that missed it, MacWorld had their Steve Jobs keynote recently (visit apple to view). Since the future of my HD-DVD player's usefulness is questionable, I'm more interested in downloaded HD video content. Here's a comparison on the main 2 consumer HD download movie rentals (xbox live & apple tv). Still happy with my xbox360. Plus, quick review matrix of MacBook Air. It looks very sleek!

Back to the home cinema theme - check out these! Some day... some day...

Is this (noca) how we'll be making all our future online payments? I would be happy to find a credit-alternative that has no fees for the seller.

News article on kite-powered cargo ship - fuel efficient shipping of the future is here now?

Interesting card-trick video. Something out of psych 101? View it & let me know if you figured it out!

OK, the next two links have a lot of foul language, so don't click if that bothers you.
The 5 most horrifying bugs in the world - while I had heard of all of these at different times, the humor of the article and some of the pics reminded me of the fun I was missing.
From the Onion, pho-editorial by Jimmy Carter called "I Got What America Needs Right Here". Wrong, but hilarious!

Continuing on politics, Legacy table of George W Bush's Presidency - what he started with, where things currently are. Yes, very sad, though biased & silly at places - but short!

Ex-US Congressman Mark Deli Siljander now charged in terror conspiracy (from Kansas City!)

Not quite related, but fascinating map of leading church bodies in the US. Since college I would tell others that in high-school we often differentiated each other by which church we attended. Now I see that KS does have quite the variety where we were!

Sad and long article about where and how Bobby Fischer is festering.

Bloomberg article about a free-sex brothel called Big Sister, that apparently is catching on big time.

Lastly, real-life love story of Chinese couple - man carves 6K steps for his wife.

Been busier with work over the past week than I had hoped to be in a long while. Late nights, weekends... reminds me of graduate school all over again, or that I didn't do much on the days I took off for the holidays and now I pay the price. Today's post is actually thematic, let's see if you can figure it out.

Some great quotes from Einstein - just ignore the blogger's interpretation of them. Though I can't help but think about Einstein and so many other geniuses did their greatest work in their 20s...

Been playing more rock band, but hoping to reduce the loudness of playing the drums this way. Bang your head!

Interesting and impressive application of magnets to create a working motor, reminds me of asymetrical fields I used in grad school to sort membrane proteins... ok, there is a similarity, but it's likely non-obvious.

Hilarious self-mocking video of Bill Gates post-Microsoft, something that gives Steve Jobs and others a run for their money in the humor and coolness department.

The Washington Post just put up McGovern's OpEd. Yes, something I, too, have questioned often as to how we could impeach Clinton and proceed for it with Nixon, but not the current Bush/Cheney duo.

Here's a list of 20 Super Brain Foods. Or, just made me feel good to know that I eat plenty of these. Now, where are the packaged/processed ones that supposedly are even better for the brain? Don't I drink a Coke Zero every afternoon for a reason?

Lastly, second thoughts on life, the universe and everything by the world's best brains. Not sure about world's best brains, but short and some interesting thoughts.

Let's start out with a more realistic plan for the world's largest building in Moscow - gotta put that oil money to good use!

And, as I look for more ideas for the home theater, how about this BatCave model?

With the holidays behind us, how about this huge collection of crying babies with Santa Clause?

Very similar to a murder mystery technique, but this was in real life - kiss of death.

Another link to zero punctuations videao game review - this time on Guitar Hero 3. I find myself stuck on the final 1-2 songs on hard level and they are currently impossible for my hands to beat. Very vulgar humor, but if you can get over that, you may be laughing a lot like me.

If you have access to the journal Nature, here's a recent article about scientists working over holidays. I myself took my first day off for 2007 yesterday (Dec 31) and only went to work for an hour and felt weird about it all still.

NYTimes article on the psychology of perfectionism. Something that describes many of us at different times...

A poster, Death and Taxes, that is a gorgeous way to show where the US spends its money. Adding it to my annual wish list now...

Continuing on this theme, Congress & Bush has done it again by gutting funding for Fermilab - where I got my second big start in physics research. Drives me nuts to see so many brilliant minds have to leave physics research due to lack of funding and have to deal with an up/down budget process. Oh the stories I have...

There's a wonderful site, boardgamegeek.com, that has reviews of every non-electric game that exists and a large supporting community for games. I've set up my profile on it, though not fully up to date, hoping to at least keep track of my games (so many, and so many I haven't played!). Let me know if you're on here, too!

Lastly, while my parents were here we looked at >100 pics on icanhascheezburger.com and cried with laughter with almost each one. This one isn't as funny, but still damn cute (yes, it has the bunny theme)!

AFI's top 10 movies of 2007. I've seen and enjoyed 4 of them and have the rest on Netflix.

Full review of the redone Blade Runner DVD release. (likely last link to Blade Runner, evah!)

Great fan art of the Simpsons - making them more comic book "realistic" (and her Futurama art, too)

It's finally official - Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh are doing 2 Hobbit movies for New Line Cinema! I often thought it would have to be way too long to get the full book covered in one movie, but where to split it at? Sounds like the first film will be the Hobbit and the 2nd will be the 80 years between it and the LOTR. And who to play Bilbo with Ian Holmes likely a bit too old.

An AP story stating Bioshock game of the year and The Orange Box as best deal & Rock Band best "off-sofa" game. I agree with all except for statement that Bioshock is available fore PS3.

And for the pop scientist in all of us, news about finding tapes by Hugh Everett from the 70's covering his parallel worlds theory which has gained popularity again. I wrote a class paper on this back in '93 - fun to think about. I also like the Eels (band) and Everett is the father of their lead singer - cool!

Giving Him The Business - great college game referee detail though apparently first used by a ref in an NFL game 15+ years ago.

Decent plan for establishing a playoff in college IA football, though we'd have to decrease total games or make it ok to have possible 16 games for a couple of teams! I'm a big football fan, but still find this aspect frustrating. The lower division playoff games have been more exciting than the bowl setup.

Disturbingly funny motion picture of a guy and a kitten...

Interesting direction NIH could take on future funding - I've been discovering the pain and "system" young faculty must go through in order to compete for grants. Got my first (of many) rejection letter this past week and what I got out of it was: don't apply for money for anything new and exciting, just do simple things that you've already done all of the work for. Seriously, damn frustrating.

I've made reference to how much I enjoyed playing Portal previously even for a 4 hour game, well here are a few articles that touch on different aspects of it. Very short, Why Portal is perfect; overstuffed but entertaining, Portal is the most subversive game ever; and while I love the end-song for the game, apparently it was written by Jonathan Coulton (I know him from his many songs including "Code Monkey" (an important namesake) and "Re Your Brains") and here is a live acoustic performance of it with scenes from Portal. Portal did pick up the Video Game Awards "Best Breakthrough Technology" award today and yes, I did notice that 3 of the big VGA winners were stolen from me (Bioshock - game of the year, Halo3 - best multiplayer & most addictive & Portal).

Some older science news about a huge body of water discovered underneath East Asia.

Here's something cute that you can go to everyday - the Human Calendar. Fun how it works! Let me know when you see this as a widgit or maybe put it in someone's digital photo frame.

With the upgrade to Leopard came some incompatibilities with my software. It's been fixed and now pictures are up where they belong and I also put up the mystery party. Hopefully will keep up this habit of writing once a week or so and getting videos up as well.

Had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Nice time with family and celebrating my sister's birthday. Ate lots, played lots of games (Wits and Wagers, Zooleretto, Werewolfe). Friday was a surprise birthday party for Dennis - played games of all types for 13 hours! Took a lot of Rock Band breaks - yes, my living room looks like a garage band hangout. Four of us created a new band... called "Frash". The name came in second to "Fresh Produce". The game is a lot of fun. We'll have to meet up and practice more this week.

Watched some football. Kansas played a good second half, but the first put them too far behind (couldn't make any field goals!). Hope Missouri will go all the way. Even though Nebraska was horrible, I did laugh out loud when Eric Cartman introduced the Colorado defense. Chiefs & Stanford lost, too - made it a perfect losing weekend!

Running behind. May be an all-nighter as I have an hour presentation to give in the morning on a subject I know little about and I have yet to start. Why am I here? Good question!

Halloween was nice - fun to have so many little trick or treaters come by for the first time as a home-owner. Though I was surprised of the number of toddler/babies (ie. Momma wanted some candy!) as well as undressed teenagers - or maybe it wasn't the number as much as these just stood out. I watched the Muppet Show (family friendly fare for kids to see in the window) for a bit, but still have too much leftover candy!

I'm obsessed with getting a nice metal DDR pad for my xbox 360 - hoping to get one made for it, or better yet, one made for PS/2 with an adapter for the 360 (I know, M$ would never agree to this, but thank goodness for the mod-crowd). Here's where I've been looking... mymybox, cobalt flux, bunker project (may be my best bet), and possible PS/2 adapter XFPS 360. Yes, I miss my 360 while it's being repaired, but even more I miss my DDR exercise (especially with so many sweets this past week!!!). Anyone have advice or want to help me mod one?

There have been lots of Halo3 videos this past month, this bug cracked me up.

Fan video of Batman, Joker and a little bit of AVP thrown in for spice (from 2003).

Looks like I'll have my hands full with GH3 & Rock Band this holiday season. My living room will look like a garage with so many "musical" instruments! Well, that's what I have a big closet for, I guess.

Impressive and expensive joystick for Xbox360. There are so many good new games for the Xbox 360! Mine got the 3-red rings of death last week and is being repaired down in Texas. If I wasn't leaving again so soon, I'd rent one for a temporary spell. Instead, got the old xbox working to watch dvds and maybe even try some old unplayed games... (ok, still only a thought, not a reality).

Something I've been "suffering" from for years now - phantom vibrations in my leg where my cell phone is. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where I can't tell if it's the real thing or fake and just put my hand down to see. I also hear my phantom ringing, too... ack!

This week is when the new Mac OS arrives - I get my copy tomorrow. Exciting! Leopard vs Vista and some impressions. Here's the main review, though, on ars tehcnica.

A friend showed me this interesting safari battle between water buffalo and lions and...

And this one, of Matt, dancing around the world. If I could be like Matt...

Impressive transformation of an old missile silo in Kansas to a new-age tourist site/home. I could live there (though I may transform it slightly differently).

Oh yeah, and an amazing finish to a football game - never seen so many laterals!

We'll start and end with comedy. First, something that if you watched the show during the day, you'd probably do a triple take on this very short clip after The People's Court.

Myths and falsehoods about global warming

Make your xbox into a great media center (I collect this as I still have yet to do it with mine, but from my friends who have done it, it's amazing!)

On xbox theme, I did purchase more than my fair share of Halo 3 Mountain Dew, pre-ordered the game (comes out next week or so), but this is still another leap in great licensing. The Halo3 Pontiac G6.

The last take on computer games in humor form - the ultimate MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) - Outside! Which goes along nicely with the South Park episode, Make Love Not Warcraft, which won an Emmy last week for best animated short show.

Was in DC last week for a couple days (it's official and final). Was sick with a horrible sinus headache/infection/allergies this past weekend. First time I've been incapacitated with this in NE. No fun! Got new tennis shoes on Monday which made a world of difference in ultimate (I could run!) - though still need much work in stamina department. Can't believe I haven't owned tennis shoes in almost a decade! And football is here (which was perfect for being out of commission at home on weekend ) though my Chefs lost badly and Nebraska won.

This week's links to share (more techy theme):

Funny video review of main 3 video game consoles

Keeping the theme, amazing video of completion of the most difficult tetris level on arcade (invisible!)

Appropriate commentary on the iPhone early adopters (referencing the Apple Lisa!) who complained enough to get Apple to give them credit (I'll get mine next year or so)

On how to write a research paper (for students)

I played Uno online (xbox live) this past week as a very late break from work and kittens before bed. Had lots of foul language voiced my way (playing a "Draw Two" definitely isn't worthy of what I got) and it really turned me off, again, of playing online with people I don't know. My friend at MS, Ben, recommended this site, geezergamers, for a community of 30+ game players. It's really sad to consider myself a "geezer", but nice to have such a community. Mind you, I've had more positive experiences than bad, but the bad ones really stand out.

I won't go into all the details as to why France doesn't deserve all the disdain we have given it since 9/11 (as sometimes it's just fun to make fun of), but this nice story seemed to miss the newsfeeds.

In many ways I understand why it's not good to have a true democracy (ie. the will of the people is rule), but here's an interesting top 10 list of items most Americans want, but aren't getting through our government (and peace and pie aren't on the list, but universal health care is).

On the lighter fair, I'm a big fan of Christian Bale, and here's an article giving him some fun, macho praise (don't click on the first video link if you're faint of heart as American Psycho is very violent though it was his breakout role).

Lastly, a hilarious Japanese game show - human tetris.

Some cool links/articles to share.

Voice Coaching

Traveler's Dilemma (like Prisoner's)

Why Bush hasn't been impeached

Something funny and useless and requires speakers

Wonderful science news site, physorg.com, that a parent hooked me up with today. Best one I've seen so far!

Been very busy with work. Took a bit of a break over the weekend that was long overdue and has me in a crazy good mood, but still so crazy tired (can't you tell with the duplicate adverb?). Only 9 days until the ACR abstract deadline is here and then I can move on to other work. so it goes! Oh, and in more tech news, got my computer at the office today - at last! It's very nice and everyone is envious of the 30" screen. Thank you Apple.

A great mind of our time passed away today. Kurt Vonnegut. Nice article on him. I recall reading "The Sirens of Titan" in high school. Taught me to question what is fully meant by and justified in the name of "progress" - may even be linked to my strong interest in studying evolution of systems as well as trying to determine what's really important to me & us. So it goes...


(and to fully justify the tech tag, I have an Apple bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse that I don't use - let me know if you'd like to try or buy them!)

Wonderful radio program out of NYC. They don't have any new shows, but they've been playing shows from 2005 all this week on my local NPR station and I'm enjoying each one completely. Yesterday was about how we know who we are. Today's was about stress. Here's their home page. Enjoy! (I have!) (tech note, unfortunately Season 1 is only on RealPlayer, which I despise, but Season 2 is available as mp3)

So, buy a new house... what comes next? (if you ignore the washer and dryer and garbage disposal and furniture and vacuum and ... ack!)

I told myself I couldn't get a new car until I graduated. I kept my deep amethyst 97 Dodge Neon for almost 10 years and it's been fabulous, but I'm excited to announce the newest member of the gadget family: 07 Lexus IS 250! (Hau predicted this a month ago) It's currently learning the tricks of the trade in the garage with said Neon - it's a black saphire pearl color (ie. looks black, but the right light shows its deep blue insides). It's being leased for now so not too much to modify, though the first things are to get the windows tinted & get a true ipod adapter (aux audio is NOT the same!). It was frustrating that I had to educate the salesman and the manager of the dealership that I couldn't control my ipod from the car through the headphone jack (they didn't believe me until 2 days later when they spoke with their tech guy).

But it's almost max'ed out for an AWD. It's green in that it burns very cleanly, but it's a far cry from my original plan of Camry or Civic hybrid - hence the lease to wait for one like that in 3 yrs from now.

Here are the pics. Quite the presentation - I'm so excited!