Saturday link clearing roundup

• Visual thinking from the 1960s
• Schelling and the Nuclear Taboo
• Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest - who says no one makes things in America anymore!
• The Pill makes women pick bad mates
• 'Peter Pan', 'Snow White' busted at Disneyland - People and their free time...
  

Thursday link roundup

• Bill Buckley and Hugh Hefner
• Town buys strip club to shut it down -

  The town of Lavonia shelled out nearly $1 million Tuesday to buy and shut down the strip club along I-85. Then, the city quickly burned the interstate signs advertising the club, which was popular with truckers.

  For those curious, that's $1,287 per household. Such a wise use of taxpayer dollars.
• Toby Keith opposed the Iraq War
• Quote of the moment (by Ben Franklin) "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle."
• Check out this Despair.com post, and the government reply - quite funny, and scary too.
  

Your saturday morning reading

• Dead Left - Jon Chair on Naomi Klein
• The Atlanta PD and their odd hat history
• Radley Balko and the non-existent presidential crime policies of the candidates
• American Murder Mystery - everyone should read this, it's about the current and future face of crime.
• Report: Rich Consistently Outearning Poor

  Armbrister stressed that it would be premature to draw any final conclusions from the 550-page report, cautioning that "much supplementary research must still be done."
  
  "Yes, we do need more data," she said. "But regardless, it is apparent that a severe gulf exists between rich and poor. And this cannot be mere coincidence. There is clearly an unknown mitigating factor at work here, and I strongly suspect it may be financial in nature.

  
  

Link clearing blog post

• Garet Garrett - an early libertarian writer, I just added his Atlas Shrugged precursor novel to my amazon.com wish list
• This story about a black widow who has just recently been revealed

Jeff Carstensen was spooked when he learned his grandmother planned to buy him a $100,000 life insurance policy -- and name herself the beneficiary.


"She told me that people of our stature have insurance policies on each other," he said. "That way, if something happens to you, you take care of me, and if something happens to me, I take care of you. It was all too suspicious. So I got out of there any way I could, as soon as I could."

Thursday rapid fire

• Zinger of the day - Cop's special treatment after DUI examined - it's the usual "How did this happen" finishing with "But he said he didn't anticipate any criminal charges against anyone involved in Stephens' release." Lame.
• Bike boxes
• John Templeton has passed away - he started his financial company in the 1930s! That fills me with awe for some reason, I'm not sure why.
• PublicDomain4U.com - cool stuff
  

Random links

• Joel Spolsky "If something seems possible, that's probably because someone is already doing it. When something seems that it can't possibly work, nobody tries it. Real innovation happens when someone tries anyway, overlooking an obvious flaw, and finds a way to make an idea work."
• Female Patriarchs in Albania - apparently they swear virginity, live as men, and take over the male role as head of the family. Very weird.
  

Saturday rapid fire

• Dean Kamen's Robot Arm - simply incredible. Why Kamen isn't America's most highly regarded public citizen is a mystery.
• The liberal media follows me around an takes notes - I had this conversation with some friends last week, it's an odd coincidence. I don't cry at movies but my the movies that come closes are The Virgin Spring and On The Beach.
• More HDR Photography
• Groupware is bad
• Russia's Hypermortality -

  Moreover, a large proportion of the Russian workforce may be too drunk to function. Almost one male death in three is alcohol-related. “The increase of alcohol consumption from 10 to 15 liters and an almost simultaneous increase in mortality suggests the central role played by alcohol to mortality, in average up to 426,000 per year in 1980-2001. Alcohol-related deaths total 29.6 percent of total mortality for men and 17.0 percent for women,” the report says.

• My next project is going to be something like this
  

Links to the sound of impacting bugs

For some reasons bumblebees have been smacking into my office window for the past hour. Here's some links for your reading while I'm uploading...

• Night Photography Tutorial
• Linq tutorial videos
• AskTheBuilder.com is a handy site
• I should probably be more outraged about this, but Planned Parenthood took a donation (later revealed to be a politically motivated prank) specifically for abortions for black women. All a part of the grand evolution I suppose
• The last doughboy - an era is ending and we're not seeing it.
• Free bricks to anyone in Atlanta
  

Friday links

• Everybody kills Hitler - quite good
• Interesting bit by David Friedman on public education
• Bob Barr might be running for the LP nomination, that would be strange
• The best cartoon I've seen in quite some time, everybody check this out...
• The ocean is cooling... - Global warming enthusiasts are sounding more and more like defense lawyers.
  

Tuesday morning link roundup

• Berkeley wants the Marines out - not surprising given their history. We're in the age when everyone delights in acting according to stereotype.
  
• More biofuel scams
• This looks cool
• I'll be attempting somethign like this soon
• Multiple video chat
• A brilliantly simple image stabilizer

Quick links while compiling

• A good NYT profile of Michael Yon
• The Reason-Ron Paul smackdown
  

That's it for now. Work has still been crazy...

Sunday rapid fire

• Living in three centuries - amazing photography
• Public defender suspended for using n-word - while quoting someone no less! Inoffensive language has become the new way to show social piety.
• A profile of David Simon, author of two of my favorite books, and creator of one of my favorite television shows. The Wire starts tonight.
• The evolution debate is strange. Ron Paul says he doesn't believe in some version of it, and an army of commenters jumps in to criticize. For something as trivial as the evolution-Creationism debate (trivial in the sense that being wrong does not affect the outcome) the level of vigor and venom is surprising. It would be interesting to know if belief in evolution was proportional in someway to having children.
  

Recommended viewing

The stuff of thought, an interview with Steven Pinker. It's a lovely interview with braniac Steven Pinker on the development of language. Not safe for work, surprisingly.

Your Friday links

As the implications of the Bhutto assassination are too scary to think about, here's some links for you.

• Via ZenPundit, check out this time lapse mural
• Jack Nicholson on Politics, he usually doesn't talk about it, and judging from the statements in this interview, he knows very little. It's nice when that happens.
  

X-Sql, welcome to the Blogroll

I have recently discovered that my friend Naim has recently started blogging about software matters and such at http://xsqlsoftware.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the blogsphere!

Tuesday links

• Iraq vets take lemons and make.... something.
• Delphine LaLurie - very creepy
• Time management
• I do believe I'll be building these bookshelves
• Ron Paul - comic book president
• Putting Bush on Mt Rushmore - be sure to read this one from Scott Adams
  

Friday morning rapid fire

• The rules on using the names Mohamed and Jesus
• How to hold a digital camera
• This collection of anti-drug commercials. It certainly makes me never want to cook.
• Film Noir Lighting
• The marines and laser guns, it has the memorable line - "Photoshop can quickly solve all engineering challenges."

Thursday rapid fire

• The Ron Paul Blimp - really!
• Chet Richards on Decision Cycle Speed
• An online chat with Reason Magazine editors about Ron Paul, notable ending quote

  And remember as we go into that dark night that is the American election season that you can't abort a fetus with nuclear arms

• An ergonomic way to set up your computer desk
• Ottok Photography
  

Tuesday link roundup

• Advice from your public defender (best of Craig's List)
  
• Why we should hang out: a mathematical proof, this sounds like something I would do actually
• Interesting post on academic taboos from David Friedman
• Another blog post about Sarah Stever, from one of my realtors actually
• Ron Paul Facts, my favorite -

  Ron Paul has been shot at more than a dozen times, but the
  

  "pro- 2nd Amendment" bullets refuse to harm him.

Friday link round up

• Intown Coyotes - They're in Oakhurst, which while wooded, is certainly not a suburban area in the traditional sense. I wonder if they make fun of the country coyotes and get weird tattoos...
• A profile of the last remaining WW I veteran, here is one who passed away last year at the age of 113. To quote from the article

  "Census records show that Mr. Hardy’s father was born in the 1830s and that both his parents were slaves, Mr. Young said."

  It's amazing that the past is that close in the human chain.
• Michael Yon reviews the combat cameras
  

Friday recommended reading

• On a funny note, the Ladder theory
• On a serious note, a short bio of James Stockdale

  When Collins asked who didn't make it out, Stockdale replied:
  
  "Oh, that’s easy, the optimists"
  

What I'm reading while uploading file...

• Monkey Attack!
• A long profile of David Simon, creator of the Wire, and Homicide, Life on the Streets
  
• This article and this one got a student newspaper pulled, maybe there's hope for this new generation.
• Advanced Flash techniques
  

Tuesday morning rapid fire

• Lincoln and the Jews - from the Federation of American Scientists
• The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk - the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe
• Two from Charlie Rose, specifically this interview with Petraus' main counter insurgency adviser David Kilcullenm and also with Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater.
  

Quick Links

• Latin Quotes, translated
• Microsoft wants your health data
• 19 Year old hacks 911 system
• Colbert in the New York Times

Morning reading

Check out Steve Chapman on terrorism and Arnold Kling on McMedicine.

Quick link roundup

• Geoengineering
• Economics as Super Power
• 12 Photography Tips
• Accused Mugger Licks Woman's Toes
• Ethanol is in trouble!
• Ron Paul has actually been getting funds
• A good code converter
  

Recommended Friday viewing

Check out this speech by Michael Sheurer.

Somethign work reading

From LifeHacker - 7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

Tuesday round up

• France is seeming warlike
• Personal Batwings!
• There's a site for everything it seems. Including celebrity heights. Fred Thompson is six foot six.
• More on the Atlanta BeltLine Scam. There is no definite plan, no construction yet, and taxes are already rising.

  the proposed 22-mile loop of park and trails ringing downtown will create a circle of wealth and an outer ring of concentrated poverty, warns the Georgia Tech professor who conducted the analysis.

  Atlanta is an unconscious conspiracy of real estate developers.
• From LifeHacker - 7 Thinking Errors
• Jane Fonda caused Global Warming! A massive overstatement, but it's sobering to think where we would be in terms of carbon emissions if we had continued our nuclear power pace from the 70s. Given cheaper electricity, we would probably be farther along with electric cars too.
• Zen Pundit on al Quaidastan
  

Friday round up

Sorry for the light blogging, work and the house hunting process have been quite draining on me.

Anyway, Here is your recommended reading for today

• The Economist has a great read Iraqi Kurdistan, or as it will soon be known, Kurdistan.
• The absolute minimum you should know about Character sets and Unicode
• Russia Tests "Dad of All Bombs". It's good they're keeping themselves busy. Money Quote: " Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment"
• Megan McArdle on why we haven't been attacked since 9/11. Personally I think it's a lack of talent/money/motivation on their part, plus a host of supporting factors
  
• The view from the top of the world
• I'm surprised this hasn't come back to life among the many Bush conspiracies.
• There's this from Craigs List

  Sushi Model: Willing to act as display showcase as sushi is displayed placed on body for patrons to eat off of.
  • Model preferable of Asian ethnicity
  • Height requirement: 5'6'' to 5'11''
  • Slim built; clean and body shaven
  • Will wear bottom with pasty/string bikini top or topless
  • Compensation: $200/3 hours

• Don't you just love it when support for Microsoft Products is done using commands only they know? Check this out (which did work for me)
  

Quick links while uploading

An assortment of things I've read while I've been uploading things today

• The golden age of Chicago prostitution - The Everleigh sisters are respoinsible for the term "get laid". An interesting read - the more things change...
• Rifle Robots!
• John Allen Paulos has a new book out soon, I think it's going to a more civil (and knowing Paulos well written and interesting) version of the recent Richard Dawkins screed. My favorite blurb from the Amazon page "A Lifelong Unbeliever Finds No Reason to Change His Mind"
• How to build your business without quitting your day job
• Firefox tune-ups
• Conan O'Brian hates my homeland - favorites

  Brazil
  Home to more than 800 species of unregulated breast implants.
  
  Burkina Faso
  In the traditional tribal language, that's Burkina for "land of" and Faso for "people who want to get the hell out of Burkina Faso."
  
  Colombia
  You'll come for the enticing beauty of the Caribbean Sea. You'll stay because you've been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a Dodge Dart.
  
  East Timor
  It takes a lot to admit you live on the bad side of Timor.

Quick link round up

• Long range acoustic devices
• The Agitator has a list of questions that should be asked of all presidential candidates, well worth reading
• Ward Churchill has been fired.
• Black straw lighting from the Strobist and Lighting Mods.
  

Sunday rapid fire

• The wealthiest Americans in history
• Lead exposure and crime - interesting if not convincing
• A preachy CNN.com article on vacations - and why some people don't like them. Evidently any deviation from the middle class norm is unhealthy
• The Battle of Omdurman by the War Nerd
  

Quick Thursday links

• The linguistic capabilities of the candidates
• A story about the old Pullman yards I explored a few months ago. Photo gallery here.
• ASP.net and Validation Groups - I can't believe I didn't know about this earlier.
• The NYT breathlessly points to a supposed new trend in econ departments. Intelligent Design is a new trend in biology in the same way I suppose.
• E-Prime is the way to go
• Austin Bay has seven possibilities for Iraq. Number one is the most likely I think.
  

3 random link

• Meaningful advances in battery technology
• A 24 inch monitor for $229. My, how the prices have fallen
• China executes ex-drug chief for graft

  China executed a former drug and food safety chief on Tuesday for corruption in an unusually swift sentence which will serve as a warning amid a series of health scandals that have stained the "made in China" brand.

  Can you imagine that happening in the US? I can't.
  

Quick Friday roundup

• E-Snailer - Write a letter on the internet
• High Trust Societies
• Fair and Balanced Radio - by Radley Balco
• Better and better car batteries. From Wired. We probably need at least one generation more of advancement before plug-in hybrids are feasible.
  

Friday round up

• A look at where the I-Pod is made, it's pretty much all of East Asia
• A nice look at Electronic Medical Records
• Coming Anarchy does math
• Get your postal mail over the internet! This would solve a lot of problems for me actually.
• 72 year old Marine beats crap out of 27 year old pickpocket.
  

Quick Friday roundup while uploading

• Cool new wind turbines
• A good article on insanity and Angela Yates
• Oil from Algae!
• 15 year old performs surgery in India
• The art of the doable to do list
• The greatest sidewalk artist ever
  

Quick roundup while uploading

• A nice article on the Golden Section in design
• China and Demography from Coming Anarchy
• Making engines more efficient - using steam of all things - very cool
• Cutting Edge Designers
• Prediction Markets - nice graphics
  
• Woman jailed for testicle attack

  Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
  
  She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

  
  

Monday link roundup

• Popular Science has a predictions market
• Global Warming makes you fat! Really! Or so say the environmentalists. For some reason we treat a virgin birth as a matter of faith, but the weather in thirty years is a scientific fact.
• Safari is now available on Windows, I'm not sure why.
• An-arrgh-chy - The economics of Pirates. HT: ZenPundit
  

Thursday link roundup

• Ala. Officials Probe 'Monster Pig' Saga

  State wildlife officials said Wednesday they want to know how the huge hog dubbed "Monster Pig" got into a fenced hunting preserve where it was chased down and shot to death by an 11-year-old boy.
  ...
  weighed 1,051 pounds and measured 9 feet, 4 inches from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail.
  ...
  Jamison was hunting with his father and the guides on May 3 when he killed the giant pig. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

• Are you a good liar?
• Microsoft Surface
• Popular Mechanics how to videos
  

Quick link round

• Puzzles and Mysteries from ZenPundit
• The Captain America Syndrome at the Washington Monthly. - They don't actually call it that, but that's what they're talking about.
• This seems dirty, but it's mostly medical. Quite funny though.
  
• Yet more Stirling engines
  

Thursday link roundup

• Hitchens has a sharp pen - Jimmy Carter is his particular target today.
  
• The economics of The Wire - I suppose I need to write one about the economics of the Shield to fully flesh out the crime show econ world.
• Top 100 website run by one guy - hopefully someone will be writing that about me.
• How to photography silhouettes
  

Random Thursday links

• How to fix the Microsoft Home Page
• Robert Conquest's 3 Laws of Politics

  1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
  2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
  3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

• More Stirling Engines how to guides - this one looks a bit better than the last one I posted. Here is another one.
• The top 100 web apps for freelancers - mine is not on it, yet.
  

Monday link roundup

• A useful post from CodingHorror.com on interface friction
• Al Gore, like Ann Coulter, seems to be a mac person
• A blog for women! And one of the editors might be someone I went to high school with.
• Kuler! The Adobe web color harmony tool - via this site
• Co-Mapping (mind mapping software) looks cool
• Properly bashing ethanol
• HiddenUnities and PurposeSlog have posts on the Wire and 24. I helpfully added the Shield in the comments. All excellent programs, though 24 is basically a commercial for the cell phone industry, not torture.
  

Wednesday round up

• 5 Techniques for Enhancing Contrast in Digital Photos
• "Breeding dysentery in the ranks" - the best misuses of the English language in the Sopranos
• What journalists need to know about economics - quite good
  

Monday link roundup

• It's Wiretap the Internet Day - what have we come to in this country. Sigh.
• Entrepreneurial Adages - All quite true. in particular

  Start with nothing, and have nothing for as long as possible -- small budgets give big focus

• Battlefield spy-bot - really cool
• Tribal Minds
• The indispensable Col. Patrick Lang has an outline of what a diplomatic solution to Iraq might look like. I would read all of it. Webbed version of the outline is here.
  

Tuesday Rapid Fire

• Networks, in Forbes
• Tin Can Stirling Engine - really cool, this would go nicely with the passive solar heating system that I blogged about last week.
• Global warming awareness reaches diminishing marginal returns, aptly explained by Instapundit. I'm still waiting for the Shotgun News green issue.
• Gauss vs Pareto, if you understand bell curves, you should read this.
• Robots, Robots, Robots, in Iraq and elsewhere
• An insightful article on internal migrations in the US. By Michael Barone
  

Random links

• Remove the web developer and the web gets developed
• Term of the day "Fever Swamp - A political website or mindset that is prone to wild accusations and is especially susceptible to conspiracy theories."
• An excellent post on conspiracy theories
  

The old round up

• Digital Camera crop factors
• 20 things not to do when starting a business - I stayed away from most of them
• More solar power
• via Marginal Revolution -

  The public's opinion of past wars improves as a new war approaches. Thus, after Vietnam most people thought the war was a mistake and this held true for decades until the beginning of the Iraq war when the opinion of war in Vietnam suddenly improved! Even more dramatically, a majority of people thought that World War I was a mistake until World War II approached when the percentage thinking it was a good war doubled.
  

• The worst school murders actually happened in 1927, though it did not involve shootings. It's a horrifying story.
  

Friday round up

• Crime Crews
• Where the Fortune 50 CEOs went to college - appearances by Georgia State and Georgia Tech, surprisingly little Ivy League.
  
• Government menstrual forms, really, to quote

  Women officers must write down their "detailed menstrual history and history of LMP [last menstrual period] including date of last confinement [maternity leave]," the form says.

  I like the use of the term "confinement" for maternity leave.
• Solar Power - I was wondering why companies like this didn't already exist. Essentially they install (and own) solar panels on top of your house, and you buy it from them them at the rate you're paying the power company. I met them yesterday at the Home Show at the World Congress Center. A good idea.