plurib.us

Electoral voting maps of every U.S. presidential election:

100bestwebsites.org/alt/evmaps/ele...

Sites like this make me want to be a stats nerd.

Charts and illustrations comparing presidential candidates' word use during the debates. 

mkweb.bcgsc.ca/debates/

Close analysis like this isn't a substitute for informed critique of policy, of course, but it's pretty neat in terms of looking at general rhetorical strategies and techniques.

An illustrated timeline of internet memes:

dipity.com/user/tatercake...

Paul Krugman was just awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of Economics.

In 1978, he wrote a 15-page paper.  From the abstract:

  This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting.  It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light?

princeton.edu/~pkrugman/inte...
(Warnings: PDF file; Total nerd-fest)

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain plays the theme to the movie "Shaft".

youtube.com/watch?v=PfK-Uz...

I really, really like music videos, mostly because they tend to be pretty weird -- they take place in this odd context-free zone which isn't really resolvable into well-defined statements of meaning.

Having said that, the video for the New Pornographers' "Mutiny, I Promise You" is the first music video to make me actually shout "What the @$#% ??" at my computer screen.

pitchforkmedia.com/article/downlo...

There's a page on Wikipedia of the problems solved by MacGyver

While being pursued by dirty CIA operatives at a strip club, MacGyver loads a confetti cannon with make-up powder and fires it at them as they enter a door, thus blinding the enemies with powder.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p...

Man, I loved that show.

The Love Poem Project, in which an arbitrary term is substituted for the word "love" in different poems:

Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and MTV. But the greatest of these is MTV.

youwillnotbelieve.typepad.com/ywnb_the_blog/...

Roger Ebert answers a stupid question in the same style:

rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...

Animations of various sorting algorithms:

vision.bc.edu/~dmartin/teach...

Totally nerdy, and totally awesome.

Astronomical distances, in condensed comic form.

xkcd.com/482/

My SVG goal for 2008 has plummeted to "I'll take what I can get."  Here's the latest, inspired by a few Apostle Island sailing trips we made this summer.  I hope to get out there again before the season is over.

plurib.us/1shot/2008/anc...

A Duluth MN file sharing case brought (and won last year) by the RIAA was the only trial of its kind of make it to court; and it set controversial precedent for what is considered a copyright violation.  (Namely, files exposed to a file sharing network would be enough.  Proof of files copied would not be necessary.)

Today, a mistrial was declared on that case.
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...

This guy keeps coming up with neat uses for the Mechanical Turk.  I badly want to try it.

waxy.org/2008/09/audio_...

Muppets on YouTube!

The Swedish Chef, Animal, and Beaker sing "Danny Boy":
youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA...

Muppet in early TV ad:
youtube.com/watch?v=4bfdaR...

Bert & Ernie on drums:
youtube.com/watch?v=InZNBc...

The author David Foster Wallace is dead, by suicide. 
latimes.com/news/obituarie...

I really don't know what to do with myself.

When bad things happen to cake:

cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

I've spent the day playing with Chrome, Google's web browser, announced yesterday, released today.  The jury is impressed.

google.com/chrome
Why?
wired.com/techbiz/it/mag...

Sioux City got an Olive Garden, and it's the biggest news of all time.

siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/...

It's like the reporter wrote the article on a dare.

A music snob (in a good way) takes a retrospective of the 80's.

npr.org/blogs/monitorm...

Telemegaphone Dale stands seven metres tall on top of the Bergskletten mountain overlooking the idyllic Dalsfjord in Western Norway.

When you dial the Telemegaphone’s phone number the sound of your voice is projected out across the fjord, the valley and the village of Dale below.

Sometimes, I love people.

unsworn.org/telemegaphone/...

You are hereby invited to draw a cow.

drawacow.blogspot.com/

A big buzzing 4-legged robot. 

In separate trials, BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, and carries a 340 lb load.

If you care about robotic movement and balance, the video is totally great. (via my dad.)

EDIT: In the comments, Brian pointed out that this has come up before.  In my defense, I was the first to link directly to the company's website. (The prosecution, though, is correct in its assertion that I am a moron.)

bostondynamics.com/content/sec.ph...

Robotwisdom condenced critique of BoingBoing & link blogs.

robotwisdom2.blogspot.com/2008/07/everyo...

Quality segment on Midmorning, on attention, distraction, and the science thereof.  (I heard most of this in the car the other day, and was really fascinated.)

minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/20...

Good synopsis of Phoenix Lander's achievements so far on Mars.

spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...

I am suddenly terrified.

That an act with millions of fans could escape the popular attention is more evidence of the digital fissuring of our culture. As we ensconce ourselves ever further in our respective demographics, personal and professional, we continue to drift apart from the people right next to us, until even an iceberg holding 4 million tweens can float by unnoticed.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/...

U.S. Citizens are being trained in the fine art of terrorist-detection. Please refrain from doing anything suspicious.

Taking photos or videos can be deemed suspicious because "surveillance is a precursor to terrorist activity," said Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Steve Garcia

Because, as everyone knows, observation is a precursor to destruction. For the sake of National Security, please do not look at anything. And if you need to take a picture, for the love of God, make sure the lens cap is on.

denverpost.com/news/ci_972507...

Neat visualization of US gov't land ownership.  (Though it's odd to lump "military testing grounds" and "national parks" into one categry.)

strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/291...

Businessbib: Because wearing actual clothes is just so much freaking work, sometimes.

businessbib.net/