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
  

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.
  

A mad scientist period

For some reason I'm going through a mad scientist phase right now. My current idea is pair a passive solar heater with a Stirling engine and see how much power is actually generated. Hopefully I'll have time to work on it in a few weeks.

Wednesday rapid fire

• Driving with Mr T.
• Poorly written and misleading article in Newsweek about poverty. To quote:

  The picture is clearest when you look at the number and fate of the world's middle- class countries (rather than middle-class individuals, although the story there is not so terrific, either).

  and

  The absolute income levels of the poorest may be creeping up. But with the notable exceptions of India and China and a few others
  

  Why is there no critical thinking anymore?
• Michael Jackson uses ladies room in Dubai
• Woman to marry man who shot her
• More on modded hybrid cars
• Solar power and Sterling Engines make the best chance for meaningful solar power I've seen so far.