Plurib.us

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I finally wrote down my experience of using an rss reader for the first time.  As big as the internet is, I can't find a single web page that explains (very well, at all) why someone should use rss (not that mine qualifies).  If anyone knows of others, I'd like to hear about them.  I'll link out to them.

briansverymiscellaneousblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/gettin...
Time to say your final goodbyes to Netscape Navigator.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...
Because I am in Idaho right now, and because the new year is almost upon us, it is my duty to alert you:

2008 is the International Year of the Potato
potato2008.org/en/index.html
Some icons I recently made for an open source bulletin board project still in conception...

plurib.us/1shot/2007/one...
Since my earlier music site idea, I've been furiously building a new music recommendation site (with the help of certain plurib.us readers).  It's about feature-complete, and I now recommend that you all use it.    IMHO, it's fantastically useful.

plurib.us/musicrecommend...
Google street view for Minneapolis & St. Paul.  (Haven't tried 'em much yet.)  Whatever you do, don't post your favorite landmarks in the comments!

blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-1...
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&h...
Never look directly into the Mandelbrot set!

youtube.com/watch?v=2tRdLD...
We have baseball history fans in the audience?  Here's a perplexing document from 1898.  (via Eric)

s210975194.onlinehome.us/blog/?p=41
Friends, I had an idea (rather technical) about listening to music.  This time, I wrote it down.

briansverymiscellaneousblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/lets-l...
True words, about music.  (I'm nearly in love with this blog.  Is it in a league of its own, or am I just oblivious to music blogging in the modern day?)

npr.org/blogs/monitorm...
Quinoa is possibly the most theoretically ideal food.  Perhaps that's why it's the first ingredient in The Ultimate Meal.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
ultimatelife.com/eFoodCombining...
A few days have passed, but I can't get this dino comic out of my head.  I'll take that as a mark of a good issue.

qwantz.com/archive/001117...
Congratulations Lori!  We Minnesotans welcome you.

nujournal.com/News/articles....
newulmlibrary.org/
Happy Thanksgiving!

plurib.us/mp3/Tryptophan...
You're probably familiar with Easy Cheese.  Probably somewhat less familiar with the analogous product for pancakes:

batterblaster.com/
I'm falling behind a bit on my one-a-month SVG drawings, but I claim to be a little distracted lately.  I offer you the latest, Sine Tree.  (As usual, comments are welcome.)

plurib.us/1shot/2007/sin...
Haunting dunes on Mars, taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_005514_136...
hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTRAS/RDR...
The precise rules of the Jeopardy! buzzer device has a complicated history.  I had no idea.

oddchange.com/jdoc/evrules.h...
Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) is writing a music weblog for NPR.
I guess I should add that I probably won't stay on the topic of music.

It's very likely that I'll contradict myself.

I wear the same thing almost every day.
npr.org/blogs/monitorm...
While spending time at home, I've taken up the project of scanning all my photo negatives, for longevity.  Here are some of my public-consumable photos from Gustavus, post-tornado.

picasaweb.google.com/brian.lukis/19...
picasaweb.google.com/brian.lukis/19...
picasaweb.google.com/brian.lukis/19...
Tutankhamun's face revealed to the public (for the first time, [not a pretty sight]).

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
If only English class could have been this Fantastic.  (Google reader now reminding me to read Dino Comics.)

qwantz.com/archive/001104...
Mirah Joy Lukis, born October 28, 2007. 7 pounds 6 oz.

picasaweb.google.com/brian.lukis/Mi...

Congratulations, Brian and Lisa!
Long, emotional, and depressing as heck, but raises tons of great questions about music labels, distribution, and fans of music.

demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/w...
FEMA staged a televised-live news conference in which all of the "reporters" in the room were FEMA employees.
"We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent," Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA's deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.
I don't quite know where to begin with this.
chicagotribune.com/news/nationwor...
The Superest:  Every new superhero has powers specifically designed to defeat the previous opponent:

thesuperest.com/
Have I mentioned how much I like funny pictures of food on the internet? 

thesneeze.com/mt-archives/00...
(via... Peter...  I have no shame.)
Failures in contextual advertising:

ineedawriter.com/blog/2007/10/c...
The Dutch invaded England in 1688.  And took the throne.

bbc.co.uk/northernirelan...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_...

I should have been informed.
Reminded, recently:  One of my favorite weblogs is run by an Ad firm, coudal.com/index.php .

They do not take themselves seriously.  Consider: coudal.com/cghfilm.php

Also, Subway Sandwiches once wanted an ad.  Agency.com submitted this: ifilm.com/video/2760631

Coudal submitted coudal.com/unsolicited.ph...
The EDGE World Question Center asks, "What is your formula? Your Equation? Your Algorithm?"

edge.org/documents/arch...

My favorites:
edge.org/3rd_culture/se...
edge.org/3rd_culture/se...
edge.org/3rd_culture/se...
edge.org/3rd_culture/se...
edge.org/3rd_culture/se...
Amazon's infamous 1-click patent is rejected by US patent office.  (Infamous for being so obvious and unpatentable.)

igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2007/10/amazon...
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
Best Buy's currently prominent spokesperson is named Brian Lucas.  (This took me by surprise on the radio today.)

news.google.com/news?hl=en&...
It's probably time to learn a whole lot about ham.
No food in colonial Anglo-America declared gustatory adequacy at the world table more forcefully than ham. Travelers to the English territories, such as Rev. Andrew Burnaby, declared American pork superior in flavor to any in the world. With the establishment of the republic, the ingenuity of a population of artisanal food producers fixed upon improving the most estimable of American products, ham.
  common-place.org/vol-08/no-01/s...
"The Future of Reputation", fascinating exploration of how the internet culture can destroy people's privacy, and lives.  (Is this one of the unanswered questions of our times?  I certainly don't know what to think about it.)

blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-1...
Happy (belated) Ecological Debt Day.

earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/2...
I tube, you tube, we all tube for YouTube!

youtube.com/watch?v=Wffwg7...
Simple test for right-brain left-brain dominance?
howithappened.com/2007/10/clockw...
Refreshing thoughts about sharing music and DRM, from Yahoo Music's Ian Rogers.
blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-1...
The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced:
LITERATURE: Glenda Browne of Blaxland, Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the" -- and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order.
ECONOMICS: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, of Taichung, Taiwan, for patenting a device, in the year 2001, that catches bank robbers by dropping a net over them.


improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinn...
Meteorite burned in Minnesota sky last night.  (via Eric)
startribune.com/462/story/1463...
Neat evolving "how much does this look like a face", based on user input.  (Programmers, note 2nd paragraph.)
blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-1...
Detailed article on licensing artwork under open source licenses made for software.  It's a topic dear to my heart, having made an icon set for a GPL program recently.

linux.com/feature/119212
recap: plurib.us/entry.php?entr...
Sneaking it in just before the month ends, "Clay Cups", some of my favorite cups, in SVG.
(And now the gallery page has dates, image titles, and is sorted newest-on-top.)

plurib.us/1shot/2007/cla...
Oxford English Dictionary took the hyphen out of 16,000 words.  (Though, they remind us that it's common usage that's changed.)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/m...
Velociraptors probably had feathers (rather definitively).  Time to shake that scaly hunter image.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
Canadian $ blips past American $ in value today, for the first time since 1976.
canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5...
Former pro-wrestler Ric Flair would like to lend you some money.

And with new-home prices dropping like they've been hit with a chair, you'll want to get a jump on building equity. . .FROM THE TOP ROPE.

ricflairfinance.com/
Google Reader moves out of Labs/Beta.
blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-0...

Thunderbird org architecture (and development roadmap) is about to get an overhaul.
linux.com/feature/119270

Next Winamp will have a new feature that will bring music listening a bit closer to the 21st century: outbound streaming of mp3s.
last100.com/2007/09/17/win...
The Northwest Passage opens for the first time in recorded history:

esa.int/esaCP/SEMYTC13...

(via slashdot.org)
Custom contact lenses.  They were designed for actors, but there are certain situations where these would really come in handy. (Eg. those interminable meetings at work where we're consistently advised to "leverage our business partners to achieve synergy.")

9mmsfx.com/lenses.html
Teddy bear kills 2500 fish.

practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item...

There are a number of remarkable things concerning this link.
Ask Metafilter question: What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?

ask.metafilter.com/71101/What-sin...
I'm officially recommending this distraction-blocking Firefox extension, for those who are handy with such things (more detail in the blog):

rip.mozdev.org/
briansverymiscellaneousblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/rip-fi...
My personal experience at Best Buy, needlessly published to the world.

briansverymiscellaneousblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/anothe...
Not everything I read on the internet is something I'm ready to post on Plurib.us.  So I've started a page where I can post everything I read (with some qualifications) without a writeup.  That place is here:

del.icio.us/blukis/linkblo...

Some of these posts grow up to be plurib posts when my brain has time to do more than just absorb, but mostly this helps me feel like 90% of my time spent reading the internet is not a total waste.  (It's gone so well, that I recommend the practice to all readers.)
Nice comic site (misc favorite linked):
pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF043AD-...

Interview with the author:
10zenmonkeys.com/2007/09/04/sec...

(These seem familiar, but I can't find any old links from plurib.us yet.)
MarkG's post made me think again about music-propagation on plurib.us.  After a series of frustrating failures, I managed to make the "Radio" link above work again.  (It's a flash-based mp3-player, from which you can right-click files to save them) 

The songs on there now are taken from the following bands - albums:

The National - Alligator
Akron/Family - Love is Simple
The 1900s - Cold & Kind
Kanye West - Graduation
Andrew Jackson Jihad - People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World

(Parental Advisory: Language, Extreme Awesomeness)
New Earth-based telescope system can reportedly take space pictures clearer than Hubble.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
Dust storms on Mars are no good for the 2 rovers.  A dramatic progression of sun pics, from a rover:

news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug07/...
The latest Google Earth has a hidden flight simulator.  (Anyone tried it?)

marco-za.blogspot.com/2007/08/google...
One of the stranger flash game reviews I've ever read.

Lonely House-Moving is more than just a simple run, jump and dodge game, it's a meditation on love and what a person is willing to do for that love.  The setting sun that marks your progress through the game implies a subtle sense of loss, like the sun has set on the relationship, while simultaneously all the junk that imperils you gradually lightens the truck. ...


jayisgames.com/archives/2007/...
I can finally post this without jinxing the project.  I've been creating a new toolbar icon set for an open source FTP program, FileZilla since the beginning of the year.  Here's a presentation page for the set:

plurib.us/1shot/2007/fil...

Or, you can try it by downloading the latest "beta" (3.0.0rc2), and change the theme in the settings menu.  But unless you're an FTP junkie, better just stick to the web page.
Disappointingly unscientific, but I read this a few days ago, it's been on my mind, and it came up in conversation.  How Sleep Works:

health.howstuffworks.com/sleep.htm

There are other insightful studies about sleep, to do with its relation to memory that aren't described in this article.  Maybe they are elsewhere on the internet.
No one can agree on what personal information should be available about domain owners:
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...

All my personal information:
whois.net/whois_new.cgi?...
It is Friday.  Behold:

flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...
Novel image resizing algorithm (demonstrated as video).

youtube.com/watch?v=c-SSu3...
Vertical wind turbine design wins sustainability award in Britain.  (Neat looking design, but it's not clear how it actually spins.)

treehugger.com/files/2007/06/...
bsi-global.com/en/About-BSI/N...
First Sale, and EFF's court case about those labels on promo CDs, "promotional use only, not for resale".

eff.org/deeplinks/arch...
Windows update crashes Skype, because of so many restarting computers.
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
Announcing the next in the series of [so far] monthly SVG drawings, Spring Tree.

plurib.us/1shot/2007/spr...
The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (aka The Hays Code):
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code...
In my quest to become an educated user of open source programs and copyright, I've discovered many fuzzy lines.  The one I found most recently is this:
If you integrate GPL'd code into your own, how integrated to they have to be before you are forced to GPL the whole result?  Here are the places I found the "answer":

ask.metafilter.com/27014/How-much...
gnu.org/licenses/gpl-f...
Not the first of its kind, but here's a slick "idea generator", for when you're drawing blanks.  With ideas like "battery operated nuclear exersize machine", or "pre-fab neon garden", how can you go wrong?

tdbspecialprojects.com/
Internet barometer:  here's a study that indicates people are using the internet more for "content" and less for "communication".  (2nd to last paragraph throws a hole in the whole thing, though.)
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...

Over 1 in 3 people can't wait a day before responding to emails.  (This has been my personal email advice for years.)
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/69...
The Perseids meteor shower, long, spliced exposure:
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070812....

I hope some of you enjoyed this weekend's show.
Tactile, and very watchable, electric musical instrument ["ReacTable"] has the heart of your average synthesizer.  Demo and Bjork live performance videos included.

wired.com/entertainment/...
Neat photos of trees, with giant white sheets behind them.

lensculture.com/myoung.html
Mars update: Spirit and Opportunity rovers are weathering a dust storm, the latter in danger of running out of juice:
spaceref.com/news/viewsr.ht...
spaceref.com/news/viewsr.ht...

The next lander mission, due for arrival in May 2008, just took off:
spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...
I-35W bridge over the Mississippi collapses.  I walked under that bridge for 3 months, on the way home from work.

flickr.com/photos/adamwol...
cnn.com/2007/US/08/01/...
minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/20...
startribune.com/10136/gallery/...
wcco.com/topstories/loc...
My co-worker Danny makes little twisty-tie guys for all occasions.  Recently, he has begun experimenting with using them in stop-motion photography.  If you watch these videos sequentially, you'll notice an apparent progression in the direction of "Totally Awesome."

youtube.com/results?search...
The decline of cork in wine bottles threatens many species that thrive only in cork harvesting forests.  (Who knew?)
earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/2...

Also (and unrelated), The Shrub of Consciousness has been out-done by the Human Brain Cloud.  (The similarities are astonishing.)
humanbraincloud.com/
A day on Digg:

I never thought I'd see the day when GIMP gets a single window interface like in this test screenshot.  That day might actually come.  (Maybe I'm the only one who cares about this.)
venturecake.com/gimps-major-ui...

Surprisingly cool vintage Polish movie posters.
agrayspace.com/posters/

Captivating "kaleidescope painter".
permadi.com/java/spaint/sp...
Search engine only searches ".us" top level domain.

lemmefind.us/search.php?t=p...
Neat image of what may be the new earliest prosthetic body part ever.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/69...
I added my 7th and latest SVG image, "Open Window", to my SVG Art Gallery.

plurib.us/1shot/2007/ope...
Fill up your car with ammonia, not hydrogen.

interocitor.com/archives/00065...
On July 17, our president submitted an executive order:

whitehouse.gov/news/releases/...

If anyone says you're against the war in Iraq, we own your stuff.

Furthermore:
Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.


If you are against us, we find the constitution to be useless.

This is what's going on.  Believe it.
Take away all street signs and lane markers, streets become safer.  (Maybe "make it idiot-proof / they'll build a better idiot" can work in reverse?)

radicaltrust.ca/2007/07/08/tra...
I need to reiterate my recommendation to use DVD+R for backing up important files:

Life expectancy:
forums.torrentspy.com/archive/index....
Media and format:
adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/3...
Neat exploration into old file formats and archival:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...

Ms Ceeney said: "If you put paper on shelves, it's pretty certain it is going to be there in a hundred years.

"If you stored something on a floppy disc just three or four years ago, you'd have a hard time finding a modern computer capable of opening it.
GPL 3 is officially released.  (Hasn't been updated since 1991.)
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
Dude.

lawoftime.org/home.html
Great discoveries occur because the time demands them. The more urgent the need, the more necessary is the discovery. The Law of Time was unearthed to facilitate an unprecedented shift in human consciousness. Only by such a shift can the global crisis be resolved and surmounted.

By 2012, according to the Law of Time, we must be ready for this shift, the unparalleled transition into the next stage of our evolution, the noosphere. This signifies the attainment of a unified field of planetary consciousness.
Vice-President Cheney says that the Vice-President is not part of the Executive branch of the US government.
Already under fire for his secretive ways, Cheney has refused to comply with an order governing the care of classified documents; his office concluded that the order does not apply because he is not "an entity within the executive branch."

That's quite opposite the argument Cheney made in 2001, when he said that a congressional probe into the workings of his energy task force "would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch."

Presumably, he did not do so well in grade-school social-studies classes.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content...
Bald eagles are no longer endangered.

nytimes.com/2007/06/28/us/...

This makes me really happy, for reasons I can't explain at all.
On finding the "minimum number of moves it would take to solve [a rubik's cube] from even the most difficult of its more than 43 quintillion possible arrangements".

boston.com/news/globe/hea...
New York Times dedicates Science section to Evolution for a day.  A review:
scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/200...
"EMI says DRM-free music is selling well", and others may be following suit.  Hallelujah.

arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
Bad Spock Drawings. "Artist are asked to make a Bad Spock drawing!"

badspock.blogspot.com/
This site seeks to quantify something seemingly unquantifiable: World Peace, by country.  The site is 10% numbers and 90% justification of their careful methodology.

visionofhumanity.com/
Creative Commons licenses allow you to specify how you want to be credited, but practically no one does.

spinflow.org/2007/02/06/how...
Announcing my 6th vector drawing of the year: "Grapefruit".  And with it, I think I have enough to justify compiling all of them into one page.  (I'll continue announcing new images here, though.)

plurib.us/1shot/2007/gra...
plurib.us/1shot/2007/svg...
Boy makes add-on to software; boy wins award from software company; boy gets cease and desist letter for add-on.

news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9...
Status report on two space projects: New Horizons has sent all its data from its recent Jupiter fly-by (mission accomplished); and scientists are still interpreting the data we got from the Huygens probe that landed on Titan 2 1/2 years ago.

spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...
spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...
James, my roommate, has a weblog documenting his Master's thesis (Architecture) in Biloxi, Mississippi.

upyourarchitecture.com/

Archives start here:
blog.lib.umn.edu/whee0113/archi...

His thesis involved the use of 40' shipping containers as the basis for utilitarian structures:
The building block for the conceptual basis of the thesis, it has been called many things in the history since its inception. At its most basic, it is 20’ or 40’ x 8.5’ x 8’ and comprised of aluminum or steel usually containing a wooden decking. At its most detailed it is the single most responsible reason for the global economy as we know it today.

The question that this thesis will continue to pose is “what else can it be”? This includes the re-engineering of the shipping container to include a possible second life of housing or infrastructure. The next question that gets asked is “why a shipping container”? Perhaps a better question is “why not a shipping container?” but I wanted to investigate why someone would view something of a more traditional character in a more positive light.

What can you do with a pre-manufactured house that you can’t do with a shipping container?

If you see James around, give him a high-five.  He's a remarkable guy, with a remarkable vision.
Funny story of how the 2nd HD-DVD decryption key was leaked.

boingboing.net/2007/05/31/ama...
Radical web application framework by Google announced.  Pretty technical, but this could be the foundation of future mainstream stuff.

blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...
Hidden, Google face search:
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...

iTunes embeds user name in your downloaded files:
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
National flags as pie-charts of their component colors:

shaheeilyas.com/flags/
Heinz realizes the big problem with free, user generated content.

nytimes.com/2007/05/26/bus...
Dell is now offering Ubuntu Linux on some systems.  Apparently (but not easily apparently), it does knock some off the price compared to a comparable windows system.  (about $50.)

digg.com/linux_unix/Del...
linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/05/25...
"The mystery of the daytime idle"  Who are all those people out in the city all day?
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...
Mark Shuttleworth (founder of Ubuntu Linux) on the future of software patents.
markshuttleworth.com/archives/118
Start getting excited now for the live action Transformers movie.  (This new trailer thrills me to no end.)

movies.yahoo.com/feature/transf...
You'll probably want to have your inkjet printer cartridges refilled by Cisterian monks:

lasermonks.com/
A little background of what's going on with the Google home page.

blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...
Bad trends in congressional hairstyles:

radaronline.com/features/2006/...
Stunning origami, complete with diagrams of the crease patterns:

design.origami.free.fr/Diagrams/cp.ht...
Dark matter not really observed, but computed and visualized so we can observe it.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070516....
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
Rodney Smith:  B/W photography.  Awesome.

edelmangallery.com/smith.htm
The Canadian Cheese Encyclopedia:

dairygoodness.ca/en/consumers/p...
Pictures of knock-off Chinese brands:

hemmy.net/2007/04/29/chi...
Another svg drawing I've been working on.  I think it's ready for public viewing.

Teal Square:
plurib.us/1shot/2007/tea...
Hubble's successor announced:

"Clearly we need a much bigger telescope to go back much further in time to see the very birth of the Universe," said Edward Weiler, director of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre.


Works for me.  Image at bottom - this is one of the more odd looking things we've planned on sending into space.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/...
Prospective site Encyclopedia of Life to catalog every known species.

nwfdailynews.com/article/4865
eol.org/
Chipmark: not quite a protopage replacement, but on the right track.  Allows quick, unobtrusive bookmark sharing; it's open source, and made at the University of Minnesota.

chipmark.com/
The internet is optimized to be the perfect medium for displaying and distributing pictures of astonishingly gross food.
consumerist.com/consumer/unacc...
Cool visualization of music artist popularity over time (bottom, wiggly histogram).

megamu.com/lastfm/
San Diego Zoo got pandas to mate, through careful environment planning.  (Pandas are apparently finicky about zoo life.)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
If you started going in a given direction (great circle) around the earth from where you are, what places would you cross?  Here's a Google maps mash-up tool to find out.

map.talleye.com/
"Jesus appears in Samsung Flash memory chip"

theregister.co.uk/2007/05/02/fla...
Patent law takes a subtle shift, thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling.  It's complicated, unfortunately.  These are the best descriptions I could find.  (That is, they fill out some of the context around the issue.)  You decide.

arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
techdirt.com/articles/20070...
Wireless WEP encryption now only makes setting up a wireless network more cumbersome, without much added security.  (Time to upgrade my router.)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...
One of the neater human powered vehicles of all time: Unwheeldy.
kineticbaltimore.com/KSR/2005Pilgri...

Also, some intriguing aglow oil paintings.
damgoodespresso.com/images/gallery...

(Both oddly, found via Google image search for "road".)
Bhutan is about to embrace democracy, by orders of the current king. And they're having practice elections beforehand, with fake political parties. I love Bhutan.
Elections, he said, have been embraced, albeit reluctantly, by the citizenry, because this is what the king wanted.
He sat on the patio of a bar, cupping his beer can in a napkin, because this was Friday and alcohol sales were prohibited on the day before the election. "It's a big compliment to the king that no one's very enthusiastic."

Another patron in the bar, Kesang Dorji, 36, said he was puzzled by the royal order to vote, but intended to obey.

"We have to stand fast to the wisdom of our monarch," Dorji said. "He knows what's best for us. Any normal person would think, 'Why this, when everything is okay?"'

iht.com/articles/2007/...
I am heartily impressed with my freshly installed [k]ubuntu 7.04.  I am similarly impressed with its founder, leading by example recent discussions on trademark practices in open source projects.

linux-watch.com/news/NS6581540...
Unremarkable image of a remarkable prospect: the most earth-like planet outside of our solar system (ever discovered, to date).  Found myself gazing into this image for longer than I would have thought.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070426....
Nice year-to-date summary of what's been going on in the world of console video games.

arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) launch brought its own web site to its knees.  (I'll be installing this in my kitchen.)

theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/ubu...
kubuntu.org/
Disorienting image resembling the Earth and Moon.  This goes out to our  Pantheon loving readers.  (I know you're out there!)

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070420....
Google spreadsheets now have charts:
blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 e-mail program is released.
mozillazine.org/talkback.html?...
Artificial megnetospheres to protect astronauts and spacecraft from solar radiation, to mimic Earth's magnetosphere, on a smaller scale.  (Worth it for the top graphic alone.)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
Short, inspiring interview with Bill Watterson, author of Calvin and Hobbes.

andrewsmcmeel.com/calvinandhobbe...
Cell phone signal radiation could be the cause of bee disappearance epidemic.

news.independent.co.uk/environment/wi...
"The Most Frustrating Super Mario Mod Ever".  And nearly as painful, just to watch!
quixoticals.com/2007/04/most-f...

Unrelatedly, Google buys one of my least favorite companies.  (I know nothing about doubleclick.net, but get your darned cookies off my browser!)
theregister.co.uk/2007/04/14/goo...
I'm a sucker for simple, interactive eye candy sites like this:

neave.com/imagination/
Kurt Vonnegut, dead at 84.

nytimes.com/2007/04/11/boo...
Holy Obscene-Gerund Profanity.  The RIAA is pushing legislation to use federal education money to prevent file-sharing at colleges.
WASHINGTON – The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has lauded the introduction of legislation by Congressman Ric Keller (R-Fla.) that would allow schools to tap into existing federal education funds for the adoption of technological solutions to the epidemic of illegal downloading on college campuses.
riaa.com/news/newslette...

Seriously.  Their business model is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and they're trying to loot schools to prop themselves up.
Had some more fun with Google Trends today.  Thought I'd share some results...

briansverymiscellaneousblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-f...
I've been sitting on these for far too long.  It's time to get them out the door.  This time, two new vector images, of my own creation...

Moon:
plurib.us/1shot/2007/moo...

MN Sky (Pines and Tower):
plurib.us/1shot/2007/mn_...
Power companies report no energy savings from Daylight Savings Time shift.

today.reuters.com/news/articlene...
The label EMI has announced that they will sell non-DRM songs on iTunes for $0.30 more.  What's more, the non-DRM songs are higher-quality files.

investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articlein...

Finally, a major label gets it right.
Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Words of Four or Fewer Letters:
What this says is that you can move as fast or as slow as you want, and rays will go by you at c all the time. You can have a pal run past you and when you both look at a ray go by at the same time, you will both see the same ray go by at c! That is a bit wild, no?
muppetlabs.com/%7Ebreadbox/tx...
Novel way of viewing the solar system: large image of everything in it over 200km diameter, in order of size.

kokogiak.com/gedankengang/2...
Some people see 4 colors, instead of just the usual 3 (red, green, and blue).  Computer screens must look so boring to them!

post-gazette.com/pg/06256/72119...
This site will let you figure out how much caffeine you're having per day.

energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-d...

(Weirdly, the commentary it delivers on my standard regimen is, "DO YOU LIKE THE ER?")
I am not afraid of heights.    Ladders, however, worry me.    These specific ladders make me want to hide:

fresh99.com/ladders.htm
The novel "The Human Document" partially obfuscated and redirected to provide a set of new smaller stories.  Seriously, this is great.

humument.com/gallery/index....
Neat big-person tricycle concept.  It's a complete rethink of the bike.

treehugger.com/files/2007/03/...
"A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table", and other goodies.

newyorker.com/humor/2007/03/...
Neato picture of moonset and Earth weather, seen from ISS.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070320....
Kevin Federline would like to help you search the internet.  Furthermore, if you use this site to search for things, you might win valuable K-Fed merchandise.

searchwithkevin.prodege.com/

(For bonus points, win tickets to his birthday party after searching for "Brittney Spears."
Many, many people draw a sheep.  Click on one, and you can watch how they drew it.

thesheepmarket.com/

(Thanks, Andrew)
Instrument on Mars Express, ESA orbiter orbiting since 2003, maps enough water (as ice) on the south pole to have covered the whole planet 11 meters deep.  That is a lot of ice.

nasa.gov/mission_pages/...
Google is addressing some privacy concerns (about things being known about you by your searches), but there are still some qualifications.  They still will store the last 2 years of info, and even longer if they're required by law.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...
blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...
On the nature of really really big numbers:

scottaaronson.com/writings/bignu...
"The Inverse Power of Praise." - Surprising and enlightening studies on Failure, Success, Praise, and Reward.

nymag.com/news/features/...
"Supreme Court Debates Patentability of Software"

betanews.com/article/Suprem...

Immediately, Justice Steven Breyer interrupted. All this discussion implies that the Supreme Court believes software is patentable. But the Court has never actually ruled this on its own, Justice Breyer realized. "I take it that we are operating under the assumption that software is patentable? We have never held that in this Court, have we?" he asked."

No, answered Joseffer. "So what should we do here?" Breyer continued. "Since it's never been held that it's patentable in this Court, if I were writing something, should I say 'on the assumption that it's patentable?' Since the issue isn't raised?"
In the future, Brian will wield this mighty weapon:

roland.com/products/en/FR...

If you don't already fear him, now would be a good time to start.
Windows for Warships Nears Frontline Service
"The real blue screen of death"

(linked mostly because of the headline)
theregister.co.uk/2007/02/26/win...

Also, Deep Purple album (re-)released, Deep Purple say "Don't buy", album recalled.  Let that be a lesson to you all.
theregister.co.uk/2007/02/27/dee...
Current landscape of audio file formats, (mp3, ogg, wma, acc) with some meditation on the future, instigated by a Microsoft/mp3 lawsuit outcome.

wired.com/news/culture/m...
Find your closest Fallout Shelter:

nuclearcover.com/
Three-letter airport codes demystified:

skygod.com/asstd/abc.html

Kind of weirdly fascinating.
The cutest flash game you'll ever play.

ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/be...
Next time you see this symbol, remember, it means Get the Heck Out of Here.

infosthetics.com/archives/2007/...
Startlingly futuristic bionic eye will be tested (in people's eyes) in the next 2 years, and possibly commercialized soon after.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
Yesterday was Valentine's Day.  Here's a nerdy how-to for love, complete with electrical diagrams:

Smart Guys Date in Parallel.
bitquabit.com/2007/02/14/sma...
Mid-century print advertisements:

plan59.com/main.htm

Notice their gallery of the unsettlingly happy:

plan59.com/galleries/tooh...
The Museum of Food Anomolies:

hanttula.com/exhibits/freak...
Methods for destroying the Earth:

qntm.org/destroy
An accessible story about Tor, from a university professor.  (I would try to explain what Tor is here, but I would just start spouting out technical jargon - something this story does not do.)

chronicle.com/temp/email2.ph...
Crazy indescribable clothes mosaic "explorer".  Click "Uniqlo Explorer", and then click around to your pleasure.

uniqlo.com/us/
Wikipedia is for the weak.  Uncyclopedia is for the strong.  Case in point, their entry for AAAA:

uncyclopedia.org/wiki/AAAA
In accordance with my new year's resolution, I made more art in the form of a vector image, specifically of a blue travel mug.  I present it here.

plurib.us/1shot/2007/tra...
Pat Boone regurgitates previous complaints against Darwin:

wnd.com/news/article.a...
Technical mumbo jumbo at this point, but this looks like the beginning of Microsoft support for OpenID.  We'll have to wait to see what eventually becomes of this, but the future looks bright.

brad.livejournal.com/2287909.html
identityblog.com/?p=668
Now on BBC: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...

(OpenID solves the problem exaggerated here:)
uselessaccount.com/ [note: references OpenID, before the above announcement]
Just-feels-right theory about how the brain tells time.

scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2007...
What the search engine (google) of the future will do for us, from an AI perspective, thought out to logical conclusions 3 times over.  Search Engine 3001.

blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps pic of Jupiter from Mars orbit.
spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...

Also, Opportunity captures nice animation of Martian clouds.
jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/i...
Long, but skim-able interview with a Wikipedia Germany old-timer, admin, and board member.

blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-0...
I know too much about the "hobbit" skull to not follow the stories.
- They're starting another expedition to the original cave soon.
- The debate is over whether these are a new species or not.  (If they are, it would upset current theories about human evolution.)
- This scientist has some evidence that they are a new species.

theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/flo...
No one can explain why Saturn is so hot.

theregister.co.uk/2007/01/29/sat...
A long list combining book titles and band names:
The Modest Mouse and the Motorcycle
Horton Hears The Who
Motley Crüsoe
The Agony and the XTC
Everything but the Girl Is Illuminated

coudal.com/bookingbands.p...
Here is an SVG image I've been working on in my spare time.  I like to think of it as "art".  I was wanting to write some things about general browser support for SVG, but that will have to wait until a later date.

plurib.us/1shot/2007/squ...
Hmm... genetically modified crops could help to reduce "world hunger".
earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/1...

I've always been a little skeptical about the electronic waste problem.  However, this map shows the US has 1 computer for every 2 people!
earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/1...
Holy cats.  The US executive has now decided that they should have some sort of judicial oversight re: warrantless wiretaps. From a letter from Gonzales:
In the spring of 2005-well before the first press account disclosing the existence of the Terrorist Surveillance Program-the administration began exploring options for seeking such FISA court appeal.


They were tapping phones with impunity starting in 2001, and now say that 4 YEARS LATER, without external pressure, they thought that maybe they should try to follow the rules? 

Moreover, the new court providing "judicial oversight" is secret.  Sweet.  No longer will your phones be monitored at the whim of the Executive--now, a nameless responsibility-free secret court must approve it.  Awesome.

talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/nsa-doj-s...
apnews.myway.com//article/20070...
cbsnews.com/stories/2007/0...
Eight-year time lapse of stars orbiting the center of the Milky Way.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070114....
Roomba is releasing a Roomba without the vacuum, for robot hobbyists.
robotgossip.blogspot.com/2007/01/irobot...
Giant unappealing flower evolved from tiny flowers.  (w/ pic)
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...
There aren't many websites this extreme:
worlds-highest-website.com/

Except for this:
plurib.us/1shot/2007/wor...
Canadian dollars found with embedded radio transmitters.  Spy technique?

theregister.co.uk/2007/01/11/can...
Hypothesis for microbial life on Mars.

spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...
Watch It Shred: Movies of objects run through an industrial shredder:

ssiworld.com/watch/watch-en...
Via J-Walk, some information on goats who like to stand in trees:

blog.moment.ee/2007/01/viljad...
the-tree.org.uk/SpecialBranch/...

I am going to have to revise my opinion of goats.
Amazon founder reveals his spacecraft with first launch video.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog...
Full text of every State of the Union address:

stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net/texts/index.ht...
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