- What are the Windows A: and B: drives used for?. Well, questions like this are used for making people like me feel old. (See, also, this video of French children playing with vintage technology.) [via]
- Nuclear bomb photo archives. Exactly what it says on the (likely radioactive) tin. [via]
- The Meaning of Dog Barks. Take the interactive quiz! [via]
- There’s something utterly charming about the idea of fifteen-year-old John Updike writing a fan letter to the creator of Little Orphan Annie.
- And finally, Choose your own Night of the Living Dead adventure
various
Wednesday various
- The real real Ghostbusters?
- You know what you need to do with the endearingly low-key, sleeper-hit of a musical? Turn it into a big-budget Broadway spectacle.
- “Kazran, trust me, it’s this or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver.” The sonic screwdriver for the Nintendo Wii. That seals it, I’m buying one.
- Remember that Udo Kier interview I linked to last week? Here’s audio of his absolute best line.
- And finally, octopuses or octopi? [via]
Tuesday various
- Third Triplet Born 11 Years After Her Sisters. It’s not as incredible as it sounds — frozen embryos, in vitro fertilization — but still. [via]
- Meet the woman without fear [via]
- Ricky Gervais on why he’s an atheist [via]
- “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa…in 3D!” (Though I guess it’s no sillier an idea than The Great Gatsby 3D…)
- And finally, Polite Dissent runs down The Best (and Worst) Comic Book Medicine of 2010.
Monday various
- How Jason Segel met the Muppets:
But it’s performing with the likes of Gonzo, Sam the Eagle, Beaker, Bunsen Honeydew and Rowlf the Dog that excites Segel. “It’s really, I must say, a childhood dream come true,†he says. “When Kermit comes out of his little box and all of a sudden he comes alive, it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of.â€
He’s not shy to say that he actually cried during the first reading of the script with Kermit, arguably the most famous creation of the late Jim Henson. “We had to stop and take a two-minute break.â€
Yep, that’s why I like Segel.
- Bad news for Jenny McCarthy: that study linking autism to vaccinations? “An elaborate fraud.” [via]
- What next for famed film composer Ennio Morricone? Composing cell phone ring tones apparently.
- I’m Only Really Happy When I’m Writing, Or When I’m Having Lots Of Fun With My Friends And Family
- And finally, three words: Zombie Doctor Who.
Thursday various
- A fascinating story about a young writer who disappeared. Although it’s arguably a story that has precious little to do with her having been a child prodigy and more the difficult circumstances of her life following her parents’ divorce. [via]
- With New York bracing for more snow tomorrow, I think it needs to be said again: Bloomberg and the rest of the city really botched it two weeks ago. [via]
- Meanwhile, New Jersey wants to seize your unused gift cards. I honestly don’t know enough about how gift cards work to know whether or not this is a terrible idea, but they’ve already been struck down in court. I’ve always been led to believe that stores view unused gift cards as essentially free money — they get the giver’s cash, but then never have to part with merchandise in exchange — but again, the bare-bones economics might be different. [via]
- Meanwhile, Virginia revokes what may be the greatest license plate ever. Won’t somebody think of not eating the children? [via]
- And finally, Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness. A fascinating article — and I think not just to folks like me who happen to work in the field of mental health publishing — about the battles being fought over the forthcoming DSM-5.This exchange is particularly revealing:
I recently asked a former president of the APA how he used the DSM in his daily work. He told me his secretary had just asked him for a diagnosis on a patient he’d been seeing for a couple of months so that she could bill the insurance company. “I hadn’t really formulated it,†he told me. He consulted the DSM-IV and concluded that the patient had obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“Did it change the way you treated her?†I asked, noting that he’d worked with her for quite a while without naming what she had.
“No.â€
“So what would you say was the value of the diagnosis?â€
“I got paid.†[via]
