Plurib.us

NASA's Mars lander, Spirit Rover, just successfully landed and has sent back pictures.

marstoday.com/viewsr.html?pi...

(I had no idea any of this was in the making.  I am a bad Mars enthusiast.)

Metafilter (metafilter.com) is a great community weblog.  The new feature, Ask Metafilter (ask.metafilter.com) is even better.  People ask questions, and other people answer them.  If you like information you weren't expecting, this is the site for you.

People try to draw various corporate logos from memory:

monochrom.at/markenzeichnen...

Freshen up on current public sentiment.  Most popular Google searches of 2003:

google.com/press/zeitgeis...

It didn't make Google's list, but "Kazaa" was apparently Yahoo's most popular search.

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

(via miladus.typepad.com/etech/)

To jobs whose function is known, to a new year of witlessness:  Happy New Year!  (CST)

Literal translations of various Finnish surnames:

teppo.tv/names/index.ht...

Kompa = Mr. Trick question
Kunnaton = Mr. Without municipality
Varovaara = Mr. Beware of danger

Using science to create perfect techno:

museumoftechno.org/resedu/perfect...

. . .according to Kelly's Grand Unified Theory, the perfect form of music is an infinitely long, totally consistent 140bpm abstract kick with offbeat high-hat.

How to build a Scanning-Tunneling electron microscope:

sxm4.uni-muenster.de/stm-en/

It doesn't look good for the Beagle 2 Mars Lander.  (But not all hope is lost; they will try again tonight.)  The orbiter, however, proceeds without a hitch.

spaceref.com/news/viewsr.ht...

Having been compelled recently to cook from recipes by Martha Stewart, I have a burning desire to cook things a tad bit more . . . harmful.

pointlesswasteoftime.com/recipes.html

Soros opposes voter brain-washing with $12M.

dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?pa...

If Americans reject the president's policies at the polls, America can write off the Bush Doctrine as a temporary aberration and resume its rightful place in the world. If American voters endorse those policies, the US shall have to live with the hostility of the world and endure a vicious cycle of escalating violence.

The gamut of the paranoid logic against Soros:

cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.a...
washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20031124...

I added new site functionality.  You can now attach extra links onto any entry.  Click on an entry's date to view the entry by itself.  The rest should be self explanatory.

Powerpoint makes you stupid:
wired.com/wired/archive/...

The Gettysburg Address as a PP presentation:
norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld...

Supersonic flight was achieved by a private company for the first time today.  Here is an entertaining mission run-down:

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

New creative commons flash movie.  Pretty cool.  Apparently, it's so new, it's not up yet.

lessig.org/blog/archives/...
via lessig.org/blog/ & waxy.org/links/

So far, my only use of these is on my Transformers reviews site (at the bottom):

unicron.com/reviews/item.p...

A photo of Mars taken by ESA's Mars Express on 1 December from 5.5M km away.  On the 19th it will launch a lander (Beagle 2) which is planned to land on the morning of the 25th.

mars.esa.int/export/esaCP/S...
Mission URL: mars.esa.int/export/SPECIAL...
  (Don't miss flash "Where is Mars Express Now" on the right.)

Also, NASA's Cassini is 111M km from Saturn and approaching.  It also took a snapshot of its destination (set to orbit and take pictures).

spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht...
Mission URL: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Bizarre Howard Dean supporter tales.  Despite my more reasonable judgement, I think I am inspired.

nytimes.com/2003/12/07/mag...

(Kind of long.  I recommend skimming parts.)

The death penalty is more expensive to administer than life in prison.  Shocking.  Here is a decent overview:

floatingbabymoses.bloghorn.com/85

Should ICANN, or ITU govern the internet?  There seem to be some strong international divides.

theregister.co.uk/content/6/3416...

Also, a more technical examination at all the useless crap flying around TCP/IP.

theregister.co.uk/content/6/3422...

The Internet being what it is, I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that there's a huge industry-site dedicated to pomegranates.  But I am.

pomegranates.org/home.shtml

I am very sorry for a nagging bug on the Shrub of Consciousness;  it appears that until now (possibly in certain browsers, in certain situations) it was intermittently registering new thoughts as skipped thoughts.  I believe the issue is fixed now, so go on playing the Shrub, or feeding the Shrub, or fertilizing it, or whatever one does.

plurib.us/shrubofconscio...

This is a characteristic essay by George Soros (extremely rich philanthropist).  [Found via Mitch, via Agnry Arab.]

theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12...

The quest for American supremacy qualifies as a bubble. The dominant position the United States occupies in the world is the element of reality that is being distorted. The proposition that the United States will be better off if it uses its position to impose its values and interests everywhere is the misconception. It is exactly by not abusing its power that America attained its current position.

AT - I'm thinking that the resistence of gay marriage is just as compatible with this economic bubble analogy also.

Some nice, unrelated weblogs...

blogs.salon.com/0002393/
vladsi.net/
adrants.com/
shadowfoot.com/blog/footprint...

Young children are asked to review various songs by bands like Barcelona, the Strokes, and Yo La Tengo:

devan: that's disgusting! miss allen, you should not be letting little kids listen to songs about a boyfriend. that's dirty.

amanda: it's not dirty! it's only dirty if they say the word "booty."

balgavy.com/music/sarah200... (multiple pages, via metafilter)

Hate to be so predictable, but ...
Two unrelated articles on the core of Microsoft (It is good to remind ourselves of the phenomena at hand), and then a Linux initiative in Thailand (Not very detailed, but it is half a world away, and just starting out).

pbs.org/cringely/pulpi...
theregister.co.uk/content/4/3396...

An astonishingly detailed guide to shooting rubber bands.

hometown.aol.com/morganbolt/ind...

Calvin Trillin lists a series of questions he'd like to ask at Bush's next press conference:

Zen question: “Sir, if the ability of the Star Wars ABMs to hit a nuclear missile is imaginary and the nuclear missiles in Iraq are imaginary, does that mean a Star Wars ABM could hit an Iraqi nuclear missile?”

newyorker.com/shouts/content...

Soros's Foundation Moscow offices sabotaged.

busrep.co.za/index.php?fSec...

Consumerism necessitates containers: Despite my best eco-friendly intentions, I (and everyone I know) has a huge bunch of grocery-store plastic bags, which is slowly growing and threatening to overpower me.  Luckily, there are neat things to be done with them.

bagbed.com

(via metafilter.com)

I don't know...
What do you think?

tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/I...

It is much easier to cling to alternative media outlets that take our side than carry the fight on to popular radio talk shows, local TV and radio outlets and the letters columns of our newspapers. We need to engage the mainstream, not retreat from it.