When I buy a house someday, I will have to seriously consider purchasing a Hobbit Hole. How idyllic would that be? Also check out the links to other creative housing solutions (both utilizing many recycled products) at the bottom of that page. [via Anita's LOL]
If the Lego madness from a couple of days ago wasn't enough, try on this guy who built a Beretta 9mm pistol out of Lego with partial, functional firing mechanism or his more extensive H&K MP5 sub-machine gun. I'm awed. I dislike guns, and I am still awed. Simply amazing. [via Larkfarm]
Retro fun! AtariAge is a weblog of atari and other classic video games. Check them out to keep up to date on new games being developed for the Atari, classic machines for sale, and other nostaligic goodness. [via PCJM]
Netscape users are people too! But then why does Google only make the Google toolbar, integrating Google searching into your browser toolbar, available to Internet Explorer users? And for Windows only, to boot! We all love you, Google! Give us back some love....
Quote of the day: "Whoa! These space invaders don't even bleed!" -- Jason, Foxtrot, 1.21.02
A couple of small design tweaks here and in my portal just to move around my links to other parts of this site and incorporate the referer lists from Link Feedback. I tried to work an image up there too but it kept looking awkward. My photo displays will have to restrict themselves to my right-hand column features for now.
new office plants
Of 3471 votes, when I looked, and two days after the game, 44% say they "have been upset ever since the game", and 37% were "disappointed, feeling sad at the time, but [have] gotten over it now". Obviously, there's plenty of bias for people who are involved in football to bother to answer, so I'm not surprised at the number reporting some emotional response, but for so many to still be upset?
Also linked was a discussion of why fans' emotional states are linked to team successes (fans identify so closely with the team it is an extention of them, affects their self esteem, and so on...), but also argues that this is good for their mental health because it connects them with others.
Again, if you like watching a sport and rooting for a team - go ahead. But to liken watching a team to being part of a family or a religion encourages a notion of group identity with no obligation on the part of the individual to the group. If one's identity and self esteem is, to some degree, shaped by your membership in a religious group, or any group with a purpose, you are given concrete guidance is how to improve the group and possibly even yourself. One is able to take both control and responsiblity - notions that sadly seem lacking in too many people. The positives to self esteem and mental health in those cases seem clear. But an excessive linkage of one's self esteem to a team - that you are not involved with - seems to take only the passive, feel-good bolstering of a group dynamic without equiping an individual for the realities of both successes and failures.
But at least the Pittsburgh angst over the Steeler's loss has produced the amusing Perfect 10: Reasons not to watch the Super Bowl. Hee - making fun of John Madden is funny....
Lego creativeness run amuck: Lego Death features gruesome lego scenarios. Everything is better when you do it with Lego. Be sure to click the arrows to get full views. [via PCJM]
What surprised me most in this very nice ode to Gene Hackman is that he's 71 years old. I would have guessed upper 50's. I like his work, generally, and reading over this article makes me just a little more impressed.
More evidence that moderate alcohol consumption is good for you, this study broadening the beneficial effects to reducing risk of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.
By the end of the study in 1999, 197 of the participants had developed Alzheimer's or another form of dementia. Those who fared best were people who had one to three drinks a day. They had a 42 percent lower risk of developing dementia than the nondrinkers.
Another weblogger return, though the currently posted entries are slightly more journal-y in style -- my friend JenB has restarted Divinest Sense. I'm jealous of all of you D.C. folk who get to hang out with her now. *sniff* Definitely check her out!
The next play at the Cornell Theater is Waiting for Godot, and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it. I love theater, but I've read this play, and I've even worked up a scene from it in a performance class, and I still can't tell you what it's about. Well, you know, except for waiting. But, that's what they web is for, right?
- The full script of Beckett's "tragicomedy in 2 acts" is online. Skimming the beginning again, I've concluded this is definitely a play one must see performed rather than read.
- For background info, try The Samuel Beckett On-Line Resources and Links Page - source of the script just linked, this NY Times review of a performance that gives a reasonable synopsis, and a number of other essays.
- If you're really interested in the play, here are some very extensive program notes, analysis for actors, and other information one might need to put on one's own performance.
- If you're looking for the fast and easy guide to Godot, ClassicNotes on Waiting for Godot looks reasonable.
- Or, just pass on all that commentary and play the Waiting for Godot interactive adventure game (very slow to load).
This cute little web tool posts links to the last ten referrers to your site on your page. I thought I'd try it out in an entry and see how I like it - I'm thinking of adding some basic linkage stuff to a sidebar or title bar and maybe this will show up there...
Hmmm - I can't tell if it's working yet 'cause nobody has visited the site yet. *pout* [via Anita's LOL]
An interesting public-domain publication question was mentioned on Book People this week - the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is in the public domain, and thus can be made freely available online, but the owners of the current Encyclopedia Brittanica are concerned about being put online without at least clear annotation on all pages that this is an old, dated, and possibly innacurate edition. As they correctly point out, a web search on "Encycolpedia Brittanica searchterm" could easily being a user to an interior page of the old edition on the searchterm topic, and without clear indication that this was not the current edition, the flaws in the entry - whether out of date or even racism - could be held against the reputation of the current edition.
In the current case, the online version of the 11th edition, because of this concern, doesn't label itself as the Encyclopedia Britannica (that being the correct label for the current edition), which seems like a fine solution for everyone involved. But it brings up an interesting concern as to what happens when old encyclopedias, dictionaries, or textbooks which run through many editions over many, many years under the same name are easily avaible and deep-linked into without clear annotations of the source and edition required. Another example of the necessity of checking your sources...
We now learn that nothing raises testosterone like the adventure of a chess match, as psychologists find that:
"...the game attracts sensation-seekers with a thirst for action and adventure on a par with skydivers, scuba divers, mountaineers and skiers. When men win a game, the experts say, the rise of testosterone levels in the blood is just the same as that experienced by people who go in for risky sports."I particularly like that chess players score highly for both unconventional thinking and paranoia.
Not only do I like this collection of photos of Lord of the Rings acted out with Lego but I love that the Nazgul appear to be adapted Lego Darth Vaders. Very cute. [via #!\usr\bin\girl]
Oooo - a quiz! In today's installment, find out what pre-1985 videogame character you are. I'm the Breakout paddle/bat thing! Woo! [via PCJM]
Today's web humor is The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning-Man, the diary of the unfortunate stick figure in warning signs across the country. [via #!\usr\bin\girl]
Soon, it will finally be over - this will be the X-Files' last season. Not that Chris Carter won't take every remaining opportunity to string us along, including hinting that we may get Mulder back in the final two episodes.
I actually hope that he does agree to do the final episodes. It is such a great series, that it would be nice (and probably garner him additional fan support) to let it come to a satisfying end.
I don't understand the current March of Dimes commercial about folic acid preventing birth defects if you start taking it before you get pregnant. The commercial shows a stork walking through a health club and some of the women are trying to catch it while others are running away, but all of them are being recommended to take folic acid. Do they really think women who don't want a baby will take a nutritional supplement just in case they have an unwanted pregnancy? Wouldn't they expend that extra effort on birth control? It seems like a very odd advertising campaign to me.
Quote of the day: "Two hundred channels and nothing but cats." -- The Simpsons
Note to self: after current deadlines pass, skim over these National Academy Press publications on teaching mathematics: Knowing and Learning Mathematics for Teaching, Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology, Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics, and Investigating the Influence of Standards: A Framework for Research in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education.
"What they're doing in that whole program is taking English-like structures and putting the words or parts of words of other languages in those structures and then discovering that they're just like English".
Mulder's freelancing as an archaeologist? Seriously, an "Iceman" from 5,300 years is speculated by one archaeologist to have been ritually killed. Obviously, I'm no expert and haven't seen the evidence, but I'd think you would want more than just one body found dead in an unusual circumstance to conclude something like that.
I've been working from home a lot lately, but being in the office offers its share of entertainment as well. Today brought the door-to-door speaker cart, offering free speaker upgrades to anyone lucky enough to be in their office when they knocked.
Tax Tip: bartering income is taxable, so if you trade services or goods, you need to report their market value as income. The document sited focuses on individuals trading servies they would normally receive cash income from, but I found it through Girlhacker's comments on Ithaca Hours and related community currencies - she notes that income under these systems are taxed as well.
Google has done it again! They have indexed over 600 mail-order catalogs and made them searchable online. Just on its own, it is a great listing of catalogs, but after playing with it a bit it also seems like a good tool for comparison shopping and finding the range of products out there. It's a beta version, and they're still adding catalogs, but I already like it a lot.
I don't understand, though, why the front page of Google only provides a link to their catalog section every couple of reloads. Are they trying to keep traffic down while they debug the beta system? Go to Google and hit reload a few times to see what I mean...
It's making the weblog rounds and I'm an "l", so I'll post my Blogger Code too: B9 d-- t+ k s u f- i o e l c-
I'd prefer to interpret "d--" as "haven't found the perfect domain name yet", though.
In the Ebay Survivor auction bidding the high bid still goes to the immunity idol, which has dropped to $22,100 and the coveted "Empty cans on a rope" are down to $429. However, they are beaten out for low bid by some new items, including a cast signed ostrich egg for $15.50 and a Diane signed tank top for $1.04. The torches are all up for bid now too, with Ethan's going for the most at $8,101 and followed up by KimP's for $3,250 and Teresa's for #3,050. Low bid is for Diane's at $580 and then Linda's at $650.
I think I forgot to announce my previous update, and it's been moved to its archive page now, so if you missed me talking about clocks, the Survivor auction, and my new quilting hobby, go back and check it out...
