Sunday smörgåsbord

It's been about six weeks since I've done a smörgåsbord to clear out my stack of links, so there's lots to offer this morning.  While writing this up I discovered, sadly, that several links have already undergone linkrot; I need to do this at shorter intervals.  I wish I could feature some of these as full-scale posts, but there just isn't enough time in the world.  (With the Packers-Bears game just hours away, it seems appropriate for the header photo to use a selection of cheeses.)

At any given time there are 500,000,000 empty parking spaces in the United States, for 250,000,000 cars. ""Only in the last 5-10 years have we been giving some thought to whether there should be an abundance of free parking," said Chester. "Ninety-nine percent of automobile trips end in free parking and this has a major effect on people's choice of what means of transportation to take."

A large-scale investigation has revealed the extent to which medical patients, including Medicaid patients, are reselling their drugs to the public. "Often at no charge, the patients see a doctor, or several doctors, and come away with prescriptions for narcotic OxyContin and other pills they then sell to a dealer for as much as $1,000."... 65,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in New York and four other states had visited six or more doctors in fiscal 2006 and 2007 to acquire duplicate prescriptions for controlled substances.  The cost to Medicaid was $63 million for the drugs alone, excluding doctors' exams.

"A worshipper at a California mosque called frequently for violent jihad against the West.   This freaked out his fellow attendees so much that they took out a restraining order on him... and learned he was an informant planted by the FBI."

MasterCard and Visa will process donations for an organization that supports the KKK and which requires you to sign a statement confirming that you are a white racist.  But they will not process donations to Wikileaks.

Here's the study that shows airport backscanners cannot detect plastic explosives if they are formed to the body with tapered edges.

Ancient Peruvians ritually sacrificed children. Gruesome details at the link.

An essay at Mother Jones entitled "How the Oligarchs Took America" posits that "we are now a country run by rich people."

For those who don't live near New Jersey and are unfamiliar with the stereotype, this link has a picture of "guidos" and an explanation of their characteristics (about halfway down the discussion thread).

A bank has been implicated in a money-laundering scheme.  And not your everyday bank: "The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall."  It's the Vatican bank.  And the moneylaundering was for the Mafia.

Allegations that tiny letters and numbers are hidden in the eyes of DaVinci's Mona Lisa.

The incredible backyard of an over-the-top M*A*S*H fan.

An article at the British Medical Journal discusses the medical implications of having red hair.  TL;DR conclusions: "... Red hair phenotype may confer an increased requirement for anaesthetics but is associated with no greater operative risk than the remainder of the population. It would seem that the reputation of people with red hair for having increased perioperative risk is without any basis in fact and should only be used as an excuse of last resort by surgeons defending problematic bleeding or recurrent hernias"

An apparent eight-legged moose ("moosipede, spidermoose") GIF.

About twenty journalism school professors sign a letter of support of Wikileaks. "...while we hold varying opinions of Wikileaks' methods and decisions, we all believe that in publishing diplomatic cables Wikileaks is engaging in journalistic activity protected by the First Amendment. Any prosecution of Wikileaks' staff for receiving, possessing or publishing classified materials will set a dangerous precedent for reporters in any publication or medium..."

Warning: brutally gruesome photo of bullfighting incident.

James Burke has a channel on YouTube through which it appears you can access the entire "Connections" series.

A long article explains the nuances of pubic hair removal, including the difference between a French wax and a Brazilian, explains "vajazzle," and asks why on God's green earth do 12-year-old girls feel a need to get bikini waxes? The answer seems to be “Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just two to six sessions,” explains the web site for Wanda’s European Skin Care Center. “Save your child a lifetime of waxing … and put the money in the bank for her college education instead!”

An Aljazeera video examines the relationship between Hollywood filmmakers and the U.S. military.  "What does Hollywood get out of this 'deal with the devil'? Access to billions of dollars worth of military kit, from helicopters to aircraft carriers, enabling filmmakers to make bigger and more spectacular battle scenes, which in turn generate more box office revenue. Providing they accept the Pentagon's advice, even toe the party line and show the US military in a positive light."

A column at ScienceDaily discusses the new plant and fungal discoveries of 2010, including the world's longest known genome:  "...the largest genome of all living species so far -- found in Paris japonica, a subalpine plant endemic to Honshu, Japan. With a genome size of 152.23 picograms(9), its genome is 50 times the size of the human genome, and 15% larger than any other found so far -- it's so large that when stretched out it would be taller than the tower of Big Ben!"

The Washington Post details the revolving door intimacy between Washington lawmakers and the airport scanning industry -"About eight of every 10 registered lobbyists who work for scanner-technology companies previously held positions in the government or Congress, most commonly in the homeland security, aviation or intelligence fields..."

"Rubber rooms" were nicely explained in an episode of "This American Life" which I can't find at the moent, but this Chicago Sun-Times link explains "Roland Pierre was permanently removed from the classroom in 1997 after he was accused of sexually molesting a sixth-grade girl at a Brooklyn school. However, he must report daily to one of the system’s so-called “rubber rooms,” where teachers accused of wrongdoing or incompetence are assigned but do no work. Pierre has continued to receive full pay ­— $97, 101 — and fringe benefits, including health, pension and vacation, officials told the New York Post."

Deadspin asked readers to explain the unusual "side benefits" of certain jobs and professions.  The article itself and the comments below include some eye-openers.

An eight-year old New Zealand child was burned to death when he fell into a geothermal pool.

A photo gallery of cauliflower ears on rugby players.

In this video, a girl shows you how to throw a knife without rotating it during its flight.

Religion scholars discuss the Quran and the Bible with regard to allegations that passages in both of them promote violence and bloodshed.

The Innocence Blog reports on a man who spent 23 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. "...under Wisconsin law he is eligible for only $25,000 in total  compensation."

Dark Roasted Blend has the list of its best posts for 2010.  I link to them less often than I should; you ought to peruse this list for items of interest.

On the other hand, I probably link to Glenn Greenwald's columns more often than I should.  In this one he examines the "merging" of journalism with government.

Instead of asking for "mother" and "father," new passport forms will ask for "parent one" and "parent two."

Bacteria actively consumed the methane gas escaping from he Deepwater Horizon well.  I don't understand how they can do this in the presumably short time it would take a bubble to reach the surface.

ScienceBlogs offers its candidates for the best science blogposts in 2010.  Absolutely some wonderful material here just waiting for you to read.

One of the most famous (notorious) college football games ever was referred to as "The Toilet Bowl."  You can read about it at Oregon Expat.

Authorities in South Korea buried one million pigs alive.

Here's a snarky (but funny) Twitter response to Sarah Palin.  And here's another one.  And a related (but not Palin-directed) tweet from Michael Moore.

Each year Der Spiegel presents a "pub quiz" which asks about some of the most unusual news items of the year.   Thanks to my role in preparing items for this blog, I got 13/16 right.  See how you do.

The Library of Congress has announced the 25 important films that will be added to the National Film Registry this year.  You will be quite (pleasantly) surprised at some of the entries.

You've probably heard that an IBM computer will be taking on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a special episode of "Jeopardy."  A practice round has already been conducted (the computer won).  You can also read more about IBM's computer, Jeopardy questions, and the Wolfram/Alpha search engine at the Stephen Wolfram Blog.

The New York Times posts a proposed explanation of the dark matter of the universe: "My modest proposal is that the aliens are the cold dark matter that makes up 23 percent of the energy in the universe. Adept at cloaking themselves, they are invisible..."  This postulate comes from the "director of the Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory at M.I.T." (??)

An article in Asia Times reports on "Sodomy and Sufism" in Afghanistan, and how male pedophilia is deeply engrained in the culture there.

An ABC News investigation reports that "More than 1,000 young American women have been raped or sexually assaulted in the last decade while serving as Peace Corps volunteers in foreign countries."

A mansion in central France has just been opened to the public.  It was locked up when the owner died - a hundred years ago. "Louis Mantin, a wealthy gentleman from the town of Moulins, stipulated in his will that his house should be turned into a museum a century after his death."  Lots of garish furniture.

Many thousands of Indian "devadasi" girls are placed in their profession as a matter of "religion" - ("Stretching back for centuries, the original devadasi were trained in prayer, dance and music...) but nowadays it basically provides a forum for sexual exploitation by pedophiles.

Caligula's tomb may have been found.  (Or not).  Excavations are now beginning.

Wisconsin funeral homes are facing the economic realities of providing burials for paupers and unidentified persons.

The man who started The Big Picture at Boston.com is now moving on to The Atlantic.  I think that's a big coup for the latter venue.

And lastly a dynamic periodic table of elements.  You can mouse over individual entries, click on vertical columns, select metal and nonmetal groups, move a temperature slider to see states, and so forth.  Tabs go to even more specialized content.

Enough for today.  Now it's time for football.

Photo: Cheese market (Alkmaar, Holland)

Thanksgiving leftovers smörgåsbord

The bone disease rickets is becoming more common in middle-class children.  "It is thought extensive use of sunscreen, children playing more time on computer games and TV rather than playing outside, and a poor diet are to blame."

When President Obama admitted in November that the "had taken a shellacking last night" (in the mid-term elections), he was using a term that used to refer to getting drunk.  World Wide Words explains the etymology and current usage of the word.

There is an interesting argument in a Reddit discussion thread re agribusinesses patenting crops after manipulating their genes: "I guess I fail to understand how the removal of genes and the placement of them in other organisms counts as an invention or anything new.  It's like saying you've made a totally new brand of car by replacing the alternator with a different one from a different car.  'Isn't that really just a Toyota?' 'No way - the alternator is from an Audi.'"  Probably invalid argument, but thought-provoking...

During the midterm elections, a political consultant had a computer robocall thousands of homes in Maryland "suggesting that they "relax" because the race was over, even though polls were still open."  Details here and here.

111,111,111 X 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321.  Mathematically trivial, but interesting for children and others.

Scientists are offering an explanation for a "gigantic plague of rats" that happens on a cyclical basis in India.   It's caused by a 50-year cycle of the programmed death of bamboo forests...

A doctor in Miami is suing a restaurant for not explaining to him the proper method of eating an artichoke.  He ate the entire thing, and developed bowel obstruction from the indigestible leaves.   The restaurant asks "Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbecue ribs?"

Techdirt reports that members of Congress are exempt from naked scans and intimate patdowns when they fly on commercial airlines.  " The NY Times notes that Speaker of the House John Boehner (who does regularly fly commercial) got to walk right by security and go directly to the gate. In defending this, Michael Steel, head of the Republican party pointed out that this is true of all Congressional leaders."

Another item re the TSA body scans:  "Michael Chertoff, while he was the Head of Homeland Security under Bush, advocated and pushed for installation and implementation of these new full-body scanners at our airports. Once he was out of "public service", Chertoff's consulting company (Read: Lobbying Company) landed as a client (Surprise!), Rapiscan, the company that makes the scanners."

Want more?  "The CEO of one of the two companies licensed to sell full body scanners to the TSA accompanied President Barack Obama to India earlier this month..."

The Skidmore-Southern Vermont basketball set a bunch of NCAA records last week when the game went into seven overtimes.  The teams scored 133 points just in the overtimes.  More stats at the link.

Mathematician/poet J. J. Sylvester wrote “Rosalind,” a poem of 400 lines "all of which rhyme with the title character’s name.  [He] recited “Rosalind” at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. He began by reading all the explanatory footnotes, so as not to interrupt the poem, and realized too late that this had taken an hour and a half.  “Then he read the poem itself to the remnant of his audience.”

WTF screencaps from daytime television.

Kuriositas posts lots of interesting photo-rich articles.  Here's one about the Cave City of Vardzia.

The arsenic-based microbe in the news this week is called GFAJ-1.  The letters stand for "Give Felisa a Job."  The rest of the story is at The Wall Street Journal link.

Ron Paul's response to the Wikileaks Cablegate releases: "In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist. 

Photo found at Sweet Additions.

Sunday smörgåsbord

There are 200 dead bodies on Mt. Everest.  A bodybuilding blog has some photos and some inane comments.

Spider vs. millipede documented with serial photos, with a reminder that millipedes have the ability to secrete hydrogen cyanide.

Wordsquared is a massive multiplayer online word game.  It will take you a while to catch the leader, who currently has 155,000 points.

Videos and some transcripts of 32 famous calls by sports announcers.

A only-slightly-tongue-in-cheek observation that if you have no insurance and will require multiple CAT scans, it might be cheaper to buy your own CT scanner.

The iPhone "is now the Toy of Choice — akin to a treasured stuffed animal — for many 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds."

A new resistance factor is spreading rapidly in the microbial world and scaring the bejesus out of public health physicians.

Futility Closet has a card trick developed by Lewis Carroll that demonstrates a math curiosity rather than sleight-of-hand.  (Hint:  if you have difficulty arranging the deck by the method shown, just arrange it with four aces on top, then four twos, then four threes etc...)

The historical phenomenon of "sin-eaters" is briefly explained in a BBC article.

There's never an end of "best movie" lists.  The Guardian offers a list of best horror, romance, crime, comedy, action, sci-fi and dramatic films.

It turns out that some placebos have active ingredients in them, which sort of screws up interpretation of the results.

The ancient Romans recycled glass in the 3rd and 4th centuries.  (Addendum: an interesting anecdote offered by anon - "I was talking to a friend about the compartmentalization of knowledge and he told me an anecdote about two archeologists at a seminar. One was describing a new computer algorithm which automated the reconstruction of glass and pottery shards, but how he was having trouble getting useful results for a particularly difficult cargo of broken glass found on a Roman shipwreck. The other archeologist, upon hearing where the wreck was found told him that that town had been a center of glass recycling, and that the cargo couldn't be reconstructed, because it was broken to begin with.")

Deadspin explains that when football players have to pee, rather than leave the stadium they just pee into hand towels.

San Francisco has banned Happy Meals: "Under the ordinance, scheduled to take effect in December 2011, restaurants may include a toy with a meal if the food and drink combined contain fewer than 600 calories, and if less than 35% of the calories come from fat."

An odd photo from the ?WWII era, showing a woman or girl hanging from a headless statue.  ?suicide, or murder of a wartime collaborator? (update: a hat tip to an anonymous reader for locating the thread at the source to discover "she was a teacher hung in the town square during the German occupation of Russia during WWII."

A TSA official put white powder into passengers' bags and then told them they were under arrest.  WTF.  This guy should be prosecuted rather than just fired.

The Gulf of Mexico was closed to fishing for a while because of the oil spill.  Those who track fish populations say the number of fish has tripled after the fishing pressure was removed.

A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face prosecution for a hit-and-run accident, because prosecutors say it would jeopardize his job.

A gallery of pix related to Metropolis, which is currently airing on TCM.

Christchurch, New Zealand, recorded a significant fall in petty crime and antisocial behavior after the city began broadcasing Mozart in the streets.

A list of "intelligent YouTube channels."

A species of bush cricket has the largest ratio of testicle size to body size in the animal world.

A professor of nutrition was able to lose 27 pounds while eating a diet of Twinkies and other junk food, by limiting his caloric intake.  The implications of this have been widely misconstrued in the popular media.

The "Miracle Fruit" alters the human body's ability to identify sour tastes.  It's real.

It has been calculated that there are ten trillion stars for every human on earth.

The photo depicts stones that look like food: "Rare stones looked good enough to eat in a display at the International Rare Stone Festival in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, Thursday. Thousands of stones were on view. (Xinhua/ZUMA Press)."

Sunday smörgåsbord

Gotta hurry this morning; need to clean leaves out of the gutters, then a Packers game and a Vikings game...  Fortunately I haven't bookmarked much this week.

Why does a narwhal have such an immense and elaborate tusk?  To impress mates?  Acquire food?  Battle foes?  Fool unicorn believers?  Canadian dental researchers have discovered that the tusk is extensively innervated and is therefore probably utilized to detect gradients of temperature, pressure, and suspended particles in the seawater.  Isn't evolution amazing?

The chief scientist at Israel's Education Ministry has questioned evolution: ""If textbooks state explicitly that human beings' origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions."  He has been fired from his job.

The best optical illusion I have seen in months.  I can't embed it; you'll need to view it at the link (where you can fiddle with the parameters if you want to).  Trust me - it's worth viewing.

If you're not already tired of reading/hearing about bedbugs, an article at the Washington Post discusses the problem.  More useful is a brief video which explains how to examine your hotel/motel room for bedbugs.

Talk about ethical conundrums - a Canadian couple has discovered during the first trimester that the fetus is likely to have Downs Syndrome, and they are in favor of abortion; the fetus, however, is being carried by a surrogate mother.

The Image Error Level Analyzer claims to be able to detect Photoshopped and otherwise altered images by looking at the pixels more closely than you can.  Just paste the url for your suspect image and see the result.

TYWKIWDBI has been riding the "ban the disposable plastic bag" bandwagon since the beginning.  Treehugger says the movement is gaining momentum.  It has been so successful that there is now a "save the plastic bag" coalition.

A man used his Dell laptop to protect his head when a tornado demolished his home.  Dell gave him a new computer.

ESPN The Magazine reports on length on a thoroughly unpleasant but important complication of extreme endurance sports - involuntary defecation during competition.

Image: The Lancelot romance, France, 15th century

Sunday smörgåsbord

Google maintains a file of all of the logos they have used during the past ten years.

Bedbugs have become distressingly topical.  The Ark in Space has a gallery of photos of the critters, and also of what their presence looks like on a mattress.

If you're not squeamish, the New England Journal of Medicine has a report of ocular loiasis, with a link to a video of the parasite wriggling in the conjunctiva.

A post at The Consumerist ponders a request for pre-tipping at a coffee house.  Should one be expected to tip before receiving the service?

Physics Buzz explains how to create you own fire tornado.

Scientists needed to poison brown tree snakes in Guam, so they laced dead mice with acetominophen, and then parachuted them into the treetops.

At Slate's Moneyblog, an explanation of how millionaires and billionaires can incorporate or create partnerships to reap the tax advantages that are offered to small businesses.

Enceladus is a small moon circling Saturn.  It has jets of water vapor shooting into space, suggesting the presence of liquid water beneath several miles of ice on the surface.  It may be the most likely place in our solar system to find extraterrestrial life.

A discussion thread at Reddit explains the science and practical aspects of peroxide as a tooth whitener.

Some authorities are starting to crack down on texting - by lifeguards at public beaches.  Deaths have occurred because the lifeguards were not watching the bathers.

Here's a complete list of the movies in the Criterion Collection.  Many of the ones I have viewed have come with excellent optional overdubs of commentary by film critics or directors of the films; I'm not sure if that's true of the entire collection.

The Washington Post explains short sales of houses, in which a borrower sells a home for less than what is owed on the mortgage.  Being "underwater" is of course common nowadays; the new thing is being allowed to sell under those circumstances.

The annual IgNobel Prize winners have been announced by the staff at the Annals of Improbable Research.

The Economist explains why the burgeoning development of India will change the world. "Optimists predict that it will be the next China, only friendlier and more democratic."  Impressive graphs at the link, and a well-reasoned discussion.  I should make this a regular blog post.

The Norton Project is a video about two young men who secretely steal and then totally restore their father's vintage motorcycle.  The style of the video reminds me of This American Life.

Image credit: painting by Dutch master Lucas van Valkenborch, from the Silesian Museum in Opava.

Sunday smörgåsbord

A Hollywood plastic surgeon died when he drove his car over a cliff while texting a message about his dog.  The good news:  the dog survived the crash.

Manhole covers are flying in the air in Atlantic City.  "Fire Chief Dennis Brooks said he was giving an interview... when another of the 200-pound manhole covers on a sidewalk near him shot 10 feet in the air trailed by a yellowish-orange arc of electricity."  I didn't know manhole covers weigh 200# ??  It seems in the movies people always move them aside with one hand...

Some people feel I post too many Jon Stewart monologues.   So for his take on the Ground Zero "mosque" I'll just offer this Gawker link, where it's embedded.

If you've missed any of the "Simon's Cat" cartoon videos, they are all assembled at Simon Tolfield's website.

On Labor Day, one poster at Reddit asked "How bad are American labor practices?" and offered an analysis.  The discussion thread contains additional indictments.

A brief video of the Huashan plank walk.

A professional photographer's gallery of photographs of the striking karst topography of Madagascar's "Stone Forest" and the beautiful lemurs that live there.

Some people totally don't trust RFID tags.  NPR interviews a man who can remotely read the tags in your wallet. "...information on an RFID tag can be useful; the numbers that can be deciphered give away the state where the tag was issued, what type of card (credit card, social security, phone, etc.) it is. He claims that it is a start to build a database on a person."

This has to be one of the most remarkable hospital nightmare scenarios I've ever encountered. "A man who was hurt in a car crash but was misidentified as a cancer patient claims security guards at Prince George's Hospital beat him up when he tried to leave the hospital to avoid chest surgery he didn't need - "to have a potentially cancerous mass removed from his chest."  They apparently assaulted him because he wouldn't give them back the incorrect wristband.

Boston.com's The Big Picture has several dozen photos of the Russian wildfires and an even more tragic set of the landslides in China.

The Telegraph has photos of the twelve most common butterflies in the U.K.

If you rent a car from Hertz (and maybe from their competitors), don't sign up for the PlatePass service, which apparently is a total ripoff.

A baby Cyclops turtle has been found in Taiwan (videos at the link).

ABC News reports that an FBI investigation reveals that a North Carolina crime lab has been falsely reporting results for years.

Glenn Beck compared to Martin Luther King, side-by-side.

The BBC explains how Charles Darwin, Kew Gardens, and members of the Royal Navy essentially "terraformed" Ascension Island.

Electronic Village has a compilation of 102 Taser-related deaths.

Perhaps as many as 20,000 women a year are murdered to preserve their family's "honor."

The nation of Belgium may be broken into two parts: the Dutch Flanders and the French Wallonia.

When someone tells you "There is no 'I' in 'team," you should reply, "It depends on the font."

This week's smorgasbord has included an unusually gloomy set of links.  To finish on a lighter note, here is a "Midichlorian Rhapsody," combining the prequels to Star Wars with the music of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Photo credit.

Sunday smörgåsbord

For your privacy and security, directions on how to turn off geotagging on iPhones, Blackberries, and other location-specifying devices and applications.

Studies of CPR techniques suggest there is no advantage to providing assisted breaths over that achieved by chest compressions alone.

The Wall Street Journal is one of many websites explaining some of the new tricks and fees devised by credit card companies.

I've recently encountered two mind-boggling compilations of the names of colors.  Wikipedia has a bazillion colors listed alphabetically.  Coloria has another gazillion listed chromatically.

Guillermo del Toro will be directing a movie adaptation of The Mountains of Madness, based on the H.P. Lovecraft story about Antarctica.

An outbreak of the bubonic plague has occurred in Peru.

Here is a link to a dictionary of "heterodox" English (slang) from the Victorian era.

A union was upset about the hiring of non-union labor, and decided to protest with pickets.  Unfortunately, "For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else...", so the union hired non-union laborers to do the picketing for them.

The Big Picture has a gallery of 38 photos of the manual labor cleanup of an oil spill.

A good-natured rant about Olympic badminton, embedded at Kottke.

Radioactive wild boars are on the loose in Germany; they appear to have ingested and retained material ejected from Chernobyl.

Highly-rated librarian fired from her job for refusing to have her weight displayed on her i.d. tag.

13-year old struck by lightning on Friday the 13th.  At 13:13.  Link posted at Arbroath.

MAMIL is the acronym for Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.  The BBC ponders the implications of their increasing numbers.

Juggalos are defined by their fondness for scary clown makeup and their mayhem.  The Salon link explains whether you should be afraid.

By now everyone has heard about the epidemic of bedbugs in NYC.  Apparently it's so severe that they are even infesting subway benches.

There are many sites on the web that list and illustrate Alfred Hitchcock's cameos in his movies.  Mental Floss has compiled ten of them, including some YouTube clips.

From a Reddit thread about the vagaries of bulk pricing, I learned that at stores like Target, the same item may be priced differently at different places in the store.

I hope those will keep you busy for a while - I'm heading out for a hike.


Photo credit: Civilian Scrabble

Sunday smörgåsbord...

... on Monday because Sunday was our first day of autumn temperatures after weeks of brutal heat and humidity, and the outdoors beckoned.

There is no such thing as "cello scrotum."  There ARE entities called "horn player’s palsy, cymbal player’s shoulder, drummer’s digit, harpist’s cramps, clarinetist’s cheilitis, tuba lips, fiddler’s neck, flautist’s chin, guitarist’s groin and guitar nipple," but "cello scrotum" was a hoax.

The new Australian prime minister has affirmed that she does not believe in God (but has great respect for religion).

The winners, runners-up, and dishonorable mentions of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest.

A comment and a long discussion thread at Reddit regarding paying cash at small merchants to save them transaction costs.

A column at The New Yorker points out that the word "soccer" is not an Americanism used to refer to European "football" - it has an "impeccably British origin" ("The “soc” part is short for “assoc,” which is short for “association,” as in “association football...")

A rare mushroom - the "little white" - is causing an epidemic of sudden deaths (400) in China.  "We heard amazing stories about how people would drop dead in the middle of a conversation..."

A column entitled "Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning" has been linked everywhere in recent weeks.  I'll add it here even though it's not a "TYWK" because it is definitely worth knowing.  If you've not read it elsewhere, please consider reading it now.

Someone responded to one of my posts about the Gulf Oil Disaster by saying that the Torrey Canyon spill in the UK was worse, but it was quickly over with.  Not quite true.  This post at the Guardian points out that 40 years later there are still environmental problems from the spilled oil.

"Did Sarah Palin buy herself a couple of luxury items?"  Wonkette dishes the dirt...

Maggots fell from an overhead luggage bin on a passenger airline.

Links to 100 science-fiction movies you can watch online.

A video of the alternate ending of "Titanic."

The blog The Final Sentence is comprised of final sentences (or paragraphs) from literature.  English majors will enjoy browsing the site.

How cranberry juice fights bacteria.  It's not just an old wives' tale - there is a molecular basis for the interaction.  "...exposure to cranberry juice causes the fimbriae on E. coli to curl up, reducing their ability to attach to urinary tract cells..."

If Proposition 19 passes in California, the price of weed could drop by 80% to about $38/ounce.

In this remarkable photo composite, our sun is represented at the far left by a single pixel.  Click the pic to magnificate it.

There is a tumblr dedicated exclusively to Stephen Fry - 42 pages worth.

Pixcetera has assembled a collection of 50 photos to illustrate "The Decade in Pictures."  Predictably, not very many of them are happy ones...

A site called Arachnoboards has links for discussion boards for everything the arachnophile needs.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has charts and images showing the continuing decline of Arctic ice fields.

Timothy M. Weiner and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill advise that you should beware of flaming hairballs ("...the first reported association between trichobezoars and potential intraoperative fire...).

Those links should keep you busy for a while.  Time for me to get back outdoors for yard chores.

(Photo credit Chad Lindstrom)

Sunday smörgåsbord

(I wonder whether anyone else reading this blog will remember the names of Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson at WCCO radio)

James Joyce's Ulysses is summarized in cartoon on one page at "Ulysses for Dummies'

Add Caravaggio's name to the list of painters whose death may in part have been caused by (or accelerated by) lead poisoning.

Getty Images is now purchasing photographs from Flickr users.

Harbour seals reportedly use their whiskers as vibration sensors to detect the presence and direction of movement of fish.

Newsweek has published its list of America's top 1,600 high schools.

Mental Floss asks a logical question:  Why does bottled water have an expiration date?

In June, earthquake activity was increasing in Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull's bigger neighbor, Mýrdalsjökull.

A French prisoner killed his cellmate and ate his cellmate's lung (he fried it with onions, if you really want to know). 

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds before safety tests on them are completed.

A laser pointer is attached to the collar of a dachshund.  Video at the link.

Australian men have been shooting one another with air rifles "to see if it hurts."  Alcohol is presumed to have affected the decision-making.

In Oklahoma "Police tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance."

The highest score ever recorded in soccer was 149-0, consisting of 149 own goals.

Discovery News has photos of a 112-year-old wreck of a wooden steamship found on the floor of Lake Superior; the cold water has preserved everything.

King Tut may have been a sickler.

Wednesday smörgåsbord

I know it's not Sunday, but so many links have accumulated already that I need to get started.

An essay at The Telegraph celebrates the history of the English lawn, with a special acknowledgement of the contribution of Edward Budding, who in 1830 invented the cylinder lawnmower. "In the 18th century, lawns were cut by scythes-men, using made-to-measure scythes (adjustments to the height of the grass being made by strapping blocks of wood to the soles of their boots)."

The Smoking Gun offers an extreme example of drunken sorority girls trashing an establishment after a dinner dance.

The National Literacy Trust (U.K.) surveyed 17,000 schoolchildren ages 7-16, and found more of them owned a mobile phone than owned books.

If you have a blog, you can embed a counter that shows the total cost of wars since 2001.  Reading the previous sentence takes 5 seconds; during that time the counter increases by $20,000.

I saw Canada geese flying in a "V" this week.  It's a common sight here in the spring and fall, but it seemed unusual at this time of the year, until I read that geese migrate four times a year.  The current one is the "molt migration" of the giant geese that usually begins around Memorial Day.

Artifacts have been found which suggest that Amelia Earhart and her navigator made it to a remote island called Nikumaroro, where they died as castaways.

The Sunday Times reports that Japan has been bribing the small nations in the International Whaling Commission for votes allowing them to slaughter more whales.

I usually deplore "infographics," but this one depicting the earth's surface from Mt. Everest to the Mariana Trench is interesting because it includes the Deepwater Horizon drilling information.

It used to be called "The Learning Channel."  Now it's just TLC, probably because the content continues to deteriorate.  The latest addition:  "Extreme Poodles."  I sadly kid you not.

This photo looks like a set of USB cables.  It's actually a Google Map image of the Waubra wind farm in Australia. 

A Florida attorney was not allowed to visit her client in a jail because the bra she was wearing had underwires.  So she stepped into a bathroom and took it off.  Then they wouldn't let her visit her client because she wasn't wearing a bra.

A New York Times article explains the close correlation between cruelty to animals and domestic/interpersonal violence.

Have you read about "tests" on the man in India who "lives without food or water."  It's all baloney - debunked in this Guardian column.

If you're not already totally bummed out by the Gulf oil spill, the Los Angeles Times offers this tantalizing bit of information re the legal shenanigans to come: "The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico was built in South Korea. It was operated by a Swiss company under contract to a British oil firm. Primary responsibility for safety and other inspections rested not with the U.S. government but with the Republic of the Marshall Islands — a tiny, impoverished nation in the Pacific Ocean."  And the Marshall Islands outsourced their responsibilities to private companies...

A German woman was stopped by police because she was driving her car while nursing her baby.

A pet-waste-scooper found $58 in dog poop.  He cleaned it up and returned it to the dog's owner.

Image credit: 18th century, Anonymous (who comments on this blog a lot...) "Herr an einem reich gedeckten Tisch in einem holländischem Interieur, Öl auf Leinwand."

Sunday smörgåsbord

The Pentagon has a "26-page document laying out all the rules and regulations you need to follow to bake appropriate treats for our men and women in uniform."

Germany is experiencing a wave of bee thefts.  "According to the Hamburg-based insurance firm Gaede & Glauerdt, which underwrites apiarists, the number of thefts reported nationwide rose from 164 in 2007 to 306 in 2008."

Do you know what "demonyms" are?  (also called "gentilics").  One click will give you the answer, and a list of them.

I ran across The Food Timeline this week (can't remember where for the via).   It's a rather substantial compilation of info on foods, meals, dining styles, ingredients, and other food-related tidbits, much of it sorted by decades.  You don't need to be a foodie to find something interesting there.

There's always something of interest at Nothing To Do With Arbroath.  This week one curious item was the story of a man who died of uterine cancer (post renal transplant).

To items of note from Neatorama's Upcoming Queue.  First, a heartwarming story about courtesy and sportsmanship in high school sports (details at ESPN).

And a video from the Clio Awards (best advertising etc) that I can't quite describe.  Sort of humorous, sort of poignant, sort of sassy: "What It Feels Like" [to be a younger sibling].

---as always, more to come as I sort through the week's links --

Image: Krönungsmahl Ferdinand I. (Holy Roman Emperor) im Frankfurter Römer 1558, aquarellierte Federzeichnung, today Nuremberg Staatsarchiv Handschrift Nr. 182, fol 233

Sunday smörgåsbord

Let's get this show on the road.   As with all these linkdumps, the content may increase during the day as I sort through this week's links.

Blackadder's codpiece is up for sale.  It's expected to sell for thousands of pounds.

This set of photos depicts a latex vacuum bed (the images are NSFW-ish).   The purpose and psychology of the device are discussed in this Reddit thread.

NASA's Opportunity rover has now broken the (do you call it "world's"?) record for extraterrestrial longevity.  The little fellow, designed to last three months, has now been patiently crawling over the surface of Mars for six years and 116 days.  It's now heading for a different crater looking for more signs of former/hidden life.

Lots and lots of attention this week to Rand Paul's victory in the Kentucky Senate Republican primary.  A compilation of commentary and opinion on the subject is posted at The Daily Dish.  Linked here for possible future reference.  There is also an interesting analysis at Salon.

A column at Slate reveals that at least several of the Senators voting on the financial reform bill (which includes an amendment affecting ATM fees) have never used an ATM.  There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it's an interesting sociological observation.

Those of you who are musically inclined should definitely check out a music hack called "The Swinger" - "The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing.  It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half."  I particularly liked the "Money for Nothing" and "White Rabbit" hacks.  (via Neatorama)

A Wisconsin man was wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years.  The state is now releasing him, and will pay him compensation of... wait for it... $25,000.

When a woman in Florida renewed her driver's licence, employees at the DMV (?mistakenly) put "Eat Ass" in her address.  Lots of blogs commented on the (questionable) humor in this, but most have failed to note that "the couple went to the local DMV to get some answers. What they got was laughter and a quote for another fee if they wanted the license fixed."

If you have any interest in sloths (most people don't, but TYWKIWDBI readers are a bit different...), go to this post at The Amphibian Avenger to view the pix, and especially the third video: "Meet the Sloths."

Terri Schiavo's widowed husband is upset that Terri's brother and other family members are running the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation for their own benefit.  "In most recent IRS report that the Foundation filed for 2008, it shows the foundation took in $91,568 and paid Terri's dad Robert Schindler Sr., her brother Robert Jr. and her sister Suzanne Vitadamo $59,275, or 64% of the money they raised. Charity Navigator, a respected Charity Rating organization, says any charity spending more than 30 percent on salaries gets a zero rating. The foundation doesn't come close." 

Police in Corpus Christi, TX, removed several hundred "marijuana" plants from a public park, only to discover that what they had been uprooting were just weeds (perhaps a type of hibiscus plant per the comments at the link)(correction: the plants were horse mint, which doesn't even have compound leaves).

Those interested in fashion and design might want to explore the Ye Olde Fashion blog, which has a most interesting array of pix, with some relevant commentary.  I'd like to cite the blog for some full posts here, but sadly the blogger doesn't give any credits for the sources of the photos.

Another potentially interesting blog is Dolls from the Attic, which features "the dolls of the Renaissance, and the 19th and early 20th century."  I would like to have reposted some of the material here, but unfortunately, like the fashion blog above, it appears that this blogger has omitted primary source information for the photographs.

Asia Times has an article about the cost of the Afghan war, which reminded me about the CostofWar website.  The counter there is at $997,400,000,000 and rising.

All of the original BBC radio broadcasts of the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are available at this link.  26 episodes!!  You can download episodes and listen to them with iTunes or whatever while exploring the rest of this blog.

A link has been suggested between pesticides and ADHD.  "It's thought that exposure to the pesticides most likely comes from eating sprayed fruit and vegetables."

A photoessay demonstrates how to make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich that doesn't drip.

Credit for photo of 1941 postcard

Sunday smörgåsbord

I never knew that the Swiss stage "cow battles" ("Each year in the Swiss alpine village of Aproz, Herens cows 'fight' it out to find who the herd's leader is before the animals return to the upland pastures. During the combat the cows simply push, forehead against forehead using their horn").  Sixteen pix at the Telegraph.

The BBC reports the discovery of a "unique frog" on a remote mountain in India.   Posted only because it reminded me of a childhood joke - Q:  "How do you catch a unique frog?"  A:  "Unique up on him."  Some of you will know how to catch a tame frog.

If you have sharp eyes, you can tell whether a hazelnut has been eaten by a dormouse versus a wood mouse or a vole.  You have to examine the cut edge of the nut carefully.

One reason sea levels are rising is that North India is pumping so much water out of underground aquifers.  ‘‘We found that the 54 trillion litres that’s extracted from the ground in this region leads to a sea-level rise of 0.16mm. That’s roughly equivalent to the contribution to sea level rise from melting Alaskan glaciers which is around 5%."  That's a TYWK...

An Australian man has contracted rat lungworm disease, because he ate a slug.   ("... caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a parasitic worm that is carried in the pulmonary arteries of rats. Larvae are excreted in the rat's droppings, which are often eaten by slugs and snails.")  This disorder is a form of meningitis.

I suppose you could call this a "watch list."  It's a list of Guantanamo detainees who have been charged with possessing Casio watches.

Baby corals can actually detect the sound of reefs and swim toward that sound.   I had always assumed they were free-floating, and found (or didn't find) a habitat by chance.  Not true.  More details at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Bookride offers a list of the top twenty websites for book collectors.

An article at The Guardian examines why British women's breasts are getting bigger (Selfridge's now stocks a K cup).

A columnist at the Times Online discusses "austerity chic."  I've also heard it called "recession chic" in this country.   I recently spent some time reading David Kynaston's Austerity Britain, about frugality in post-WWII Britain.  I should think we will be hearing much more about this subject matter in the (decades) to come.

Image credit: Jacob van Hulsdonck - Breakfast piece with a fish, ham and cherries - 1614

Sunday smörgåsbord

With reports out today that ice is clogging that concrete dome over the Gulf oil leak, it's worth mentioning that one way the Soviets dealt with leaking marine oil wells was to detonate nuclear devices at the site. "The first happened in Uzbekistan, on September 30, 1966 with a blast 1.5 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb and at a depth of 1.5 kilometers. KP also notes that subterranean nuclear blasts were used as much as 169 times in the Soviet Union to accomplish fairly mundane tasks like creating underground storage spaces for gas or building canals."

This week there was a major water main disruption in Boston which left many people without drinking water.  The governor and local authorities made an effort to prevent merchants from raising the price of bottled water.  Boston.com has an interesting column entitled "What's wrong with price gouging?"  I've heard this argument before (during Katrina, I think), and there is some valid logic behind it.

Many websites have picked up on the story of the high school students who were ejected from the school campus for wearing t-shirts with the American flag to school on Cinco de Mayo. 

Another deeply controversial topic: female genital mutilation.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has offered an alternative which involves a "nick" to the infant's genitals (equivalent to a pinprick, and much less traumatic than a male circumcision), suggesting that it would serve the "ritual" function and be biologically insignificant.  Very strong reactions to this recommendation from various sources.

Apparently the Department of the Interior exempted British Petroleum from Environmental Review for the well that is currently leaking.  "Rather than subject the plan to a detailed environmental review before approving it as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, the agency declared the plan to be “categorically excluded” from environmental analysis because it posed virtually no chance of harming the environment..."

This has not been a very happy smorgasbord so far.  I'll try to find some more lighthearted fare before the day is over...

Photo credit to The Spinning Plate.

Sunday smörgåsbord

Sturgeon have returned to the lakes and rivers of Northern Minnesota, where the catch-and-release season has opened, with fishermen reporting catching specimens weighing over 100 pounds.  That's not as big as they used to be, but since they live >100 years, it will take some time to restore the population to its full magnificence.

"Boy Genius" has sold his blog for several million dollars.

There's a fascinating story in the Globe and Mail about studies of a family who involuntarily make "mirror movements" with contralateral parts of their bodies because the neural motor pathways for left and right are not fully separated, as they are in everyone else.

A four-year-old boy, blind since birth, has learned to navigate using echolocation; he accomplishes this using self-generated tongue clicks, not a sound-emitting device.

The Los Angeles Times has a list of America's 20 most-visited National Monuments (not National Parks).  I was surprised at how few of them I've seen.

An inventive young man in Hong Kong uses movable walls (like the ones that libraries use for space-saving of infrequently-requested material), to enhance his 340-square-foot apartment (video at the link).

Someone claims that he can predict your gender by analyzing your browsing history.  Based apparently on my visits to Google, Blogger, StarTribune, GuardianUK, and Reddit, it says I have a 67% chance of being male.  Via J-Walk.

Lena Horne's iconic rendition of Stormy Weather.

[More to come later today - still sorting out which links to put here and which to blog separately...]

Photo credit.

Sunday Smorgasbord

With baseball season underway, this is a good time to recall a Cincinnati Reds player who in 2004 hit a baseball into an adjoining state.

Our state has been besieged by meteorite hunters this week after one lit up the skies and crashed here.  Part of the interest is scientific, and part of it is financial, because meteorites can be sold for $2 - $8 per gram.

A split-belt treadmill has been developed; the left side and right side can move at different speeds.  It's not as crazy as it sounds; it was created for the rehabilitation of stroke patients who have a weak leg that doesn't take a full stride length.

Jerusalem Post reports that the week following Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day), Israel implemented a law requiring Palestinians to show their papers or be deported; some wags are calling this Holocaust Irony Week.

If you bank online, you are at risk from the Zeus banking virus.  It is a keystroke-logger that has infected about one out of every 3,000 computers.

An editorial at the Guardian expresses the somewhat-fringe(y) but widely believed opinion that the world financial meltdown was not the result of innocent accidental mistakes, but rather part of a global con game.

A concise piece on the SEC's case accusing Goldman Sachs of financial fraud.

A store in California was found to be selling food after its expiration date.  Way after the expiration date.  Way, WAY after the expiration date.  Some items had expiration dates from 10-15 years ago.  Note, this is NOT illegal.  Caveat emptor.

Several reports this week about a newly recognized fungus (a type of Cryptococcus) which is "thriving" in Oregon and spreading to other states.  Unlike conventional crypto, this one infects normal people.  Other reports suggest it is more of a curiosity than a threat.  Time will tell.

Some of you will remember when the Please Rob Me website was launched to bring to people's attention the risks they run by postiing their activities on social networking sites.  Now some insurance companies are indicating that they may raise homeowner's insurance rates for Facebook and Twitter users.

I believe I've posted the "Pale Blue Dot" video before.  Gizmodo has it now, along with full text of Carl Sagan's narrative.

Pepsico, maker of Frito-Lay potato chips, is redesigning the salt crystal.  Apparently they are going to make it plate-like rather than the conventional cubic shape, so that it will dissolve more quickly in the mouth and not be swallowed undissolved.  If that works, it may be possible to impart the same "saltiness" to chips while ingesting less salt overall.  More details at Popsci.

A brief video shows why ibex have curved horns.

Bohemian Rhapsody covered by P!nk.

Photo credit LandLearn NSW.

Sunday smorgasbord

You know the "five-a-day" fruit and vegetable recommendation that is so frequently quoted?   Know where the data for that advice came from?  Apparently someone just made it up.

There is an ongoing (and rather heated) disagreement about the best treatment for Lyme disease.  In Minnesota the state legislature has overruled physicians regarding what some consider to be unproven therapies (especially re long-term antibiotics).

Werner Herzog has been given permission to make a film about the remarkable 30,000-year-old paintings in the caves of Chauvet.  Two videos at the link. 

I frankly wasn't aware that Joseph Stalin had a daughter.  Not that it really matters anyway.  But I was surprised to learn that for the last 20 years she has lived in a small town not far from Madison, Wisconsin.  She offers some interesting insights re her father.

Karma is a bitch.  A drunk driver smashed his Chevy Tahoe into a Honda Accord driven by the judge who had excused the man from jail time for a previous DWI offense (granted, there was a long interval between, but still...)

The flicker of compact fluorescent light bulbs may be capable of remotely changing the channels on a television set.

A store clerk scanned the forehead of a girl with the LED light of a price scanner.  "Attorneys for Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl was sensitive to light and burned, and later developed post-traumatic stress and Tourette's syndrome."  And the case is actually going to court to waste the time of a jury.  Anyone can sue, but who lets things go this far?

Marilyn Monroe's xrays will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, including a pelvic xray with contrast.  It may be legal, but it's a low-class move, in my view.

A lot of articles have been written about the importance of having robust passwords.  If you're not familiar with the reasons why, read this article at Lifehacker.

When subsidies for generating "green" electricity are inappropriately high, it becomes profitable to buy solar panels and shine conventional arc lights on them and sell the resultant current back to the power company/government.

The "Double Bubbler" water fountain was explained at The Straight Dope 20 years ago.

Image: "Frukost under stora björken" av Carl Larsson 1896.