I am a 25-year subscriber to both Playboy and The New Yorker
Some days you just need it to get through.
tin cans on wheels
remember when the circus came to town
“Speechless – Silencing The Christians”
“Thugocracy – Fighting the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy”
“Defunding Planned Parenthood”
“Activism and Conservatism: Fit to a Tea (Party)”
“The Threat of Illegal Immigration”
“Obamacare: Rationing Your Life Away”
“Marriage: Why It’s Worth Defending and How Redefining it Threatens Religious Liberty”
“The New Masculinity”
“Wait No More: Finding Families for Waiting Kids”
“Turning the Tide in Your Generation”
the most perfectly preserved woman in the world
A Chinese nobleman’s wife buried 2,100 years ago is the most perfectly preserved human in the world.
Lady Dai was a Chinese nobleman’s wife in her mid-50s when she died of a heart attack. She was overweight, had diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, liver disease, gallstones and her arteries were almost totally clogged.
Her family wrapped her in 22 dresses of silk and hemp, bound her with nine silk ribbons and covered her face with a mask. All the clothes filled the coffin and it was perfectly sealed, keeping air out. There were inner and outer tombs, like nesting boxes.
Cool!
Nearly 20 gallons of an unknown liquid were found inside the coffin. A thick layer of white pastelike soil was put on the floor and the tomb was nearly 50 feet below the surface. She was surrounded by massive amounts of food, wine, lacquered dinnerware and drinking vessels, 46 bolts of silk, more clothes, books, makeup and other symbols of wealth.
Gross!
All the action’s on this side
trifecta
A Texas congressman who wrote to complain that health care protesters had been failed by public transportation in Washington DC voted against funding the Metro.
Every House GOPer, of course, voted against the stimulus. Still, it’s a real head-spinner to bash a government-run system for failing to adequately serve an enormous anti-government protest after opposing government funding for it.
the coldest place in the solar system
The coldest place in the solar system is in craters within craters on the south pole of the moon.
Temperatures there were measured at 397 degrees below zero. That’s just 62 degrees higher than the lowest temperature possible.
Pluto is at least a degree warmer even though it is about 40 times farther away from the sun.
Your company? There’s an app for that.
In case you missed Jason Kottke’s piece on how the iPhone is a problem for technology and device-making companies, here is a teaser:
Once someone has an iPhone, it is going to be tough to persuade them that they also need to spend money on and carry around a dedicated GPS device, point-and-shoot camera, or tape recorder unless they have an unusual need. But the real problem for other device manufacturers is that all of these iPhone features — particularly the always-on internet connectivity; the email, HTTP, and SMS capabilities; and the GPS/location features — can work in concert with each other to actually make better versions of the devices listed above. Like a GPS that automatically takes photos of where you are and posts them to a Flickr gallery or a video camera that’ll email videos to your mom or a portable gaming machine with access to thousands of free games over your mobile’s phone network. We tend to forget that the iPhone is still from the future in a way that most of the other devices on the list above aren’t. It will take time for device makers to make up that difference.
Raptorex, the miniature T. Rex
Spoonie Luv places a personal ad
Imogen Heap – Wait It Out
Dan Brown’s 20 worst sentences
18. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 4: He could taste the familiar tang of museum air – an arid, deionized essence that carried a faint hint of carbon – the product of industrial, coal-filter dehumidifiers that ran around the clock to counteract the corrosive carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors.
Ah, that familiar tang of deionised essence.
17. Deception Point, chapter 8: Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes.
It’s not clear what Brown thinks ‘precarious’ means here.
3. Angels and Demons, opening sentence: Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own.
The comments in the article are something really special.
Second Guessing
Sometimes while typing I will second guess the appropriateness of the word I’m trying to use. I’ll stop to search google for “define:word” to double check myself. To date I haven’t found any justification for my doubt.
Does anyone else do this?
Edoardo Pasero – On Permanence
To compliment Kelsey’s post I got to thinking about Edoardo Pasero’s series called On Permanence. He also has his own site if you have an interest in his work.
Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia
Hey, Deron!
Remember that ACORN bit? Thought you might get a kick out of this (via):
Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity were all over the latest video release in the self-concocted ACORN “scandal” they’ve been pitching all over the cable and airwaves the past week. This time, they supposedly caught an ACORN volunteer named Tresa Kaelke giving them advice on how to set up their pimping operation.
Now, you’d think they would clue in that they were being put on when the woman talked about having killed one of her ex-husbands, but no. They proceeded apace — and then splashed it all over Fox News this week, credulously.
one thing at a time
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Click to enlarge, more at The Monolinguist.
I hear Alberta looks much like this.
Dear Clusterflock
What are your essential Mac apps?
Texas, you are still crazy! (I love you so much)
Hearings at the Texas State Board of Education concerning replacing Cezar Chavez in history textbooks with Newt Gingrich began with:
I’m 56 years old and I’m a virgin.
can you get me a coffee, your highness?
Peggielene Bartels lives in Silver Spring and works as a secretary. When she steps off an airplane in Ghana on Thursday, arriving in the coastal town her family has controlled for half a century, she will be royalty — with a driver, a chef and an eight-bedroom palace, albeit one in need of repairs she will help finance herself.
“I’m a big-time king, you know,” said Bartels, seated at her desk at the Ghanaian embassy just off Van Ness Street NW, where she has worked for almost 30 years.
Move over Geddes
Update: Oops. The image is from this studio. I’ve been trying to get the Tracy Raver site to load for a week on account of I wanted to post one of her photos with the category below, but all the traffic after the Today Show hubbub made that all but impossible.
Networks in order of complexity
(via marginal revolution)
Days of Yore
I still have my Mac Plus in my bedroom/office; although, I think the monitor is dead. (via)
