- Entire Dog Lost, Delta Offers $200 Credit. That figure has apparently gone up to $600 (plus the cost of the vaccinations), but it’s still a pretty horrific story, and Delta’s initial attitude seems pretty callous. If I ever need to travel with an animal, remind me to drive. [via]
- Can we strip Joe Lieberman of his citizenship? (Then, I dunno, drop him off somewhere in Arizona?) [via]
- Arrested for not Tweeting fast enough? [via]
- Today in weird celebrity news: Stephen King to guest on Sons of Anarchy. And Michael Jackson used to prank call Russell Crowe.
- And finally, China Miéville’s weblog is a weird assortment of stuff you should be reading. That is all.
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Thursday various
- I’ve been having a lot of fun using my iPad this past week, but it’s never occurred to me to embed it in a kitchen cabinet. This is simultaneously a ridiculous and very cool use of the device.
- Also at the crossroads of the ridiculous and very cool (with a little bit of creepy thrown in): Dinseyland’s new Living Character technology. There is a little “Uncanny Valley” action going on here, but none of the children in the audience seem too perturbed. [via]
- I was glad to hear that author Peter Watts will not be serving jail time for an incident that happened at the US/Canadian border back in December. But I’m still ashamed that this is the way we (sometimes) treat our visitors in this country. [via]
- Of course, we are the nation that gave the world Justin Bieber, who doesn’t even know what the word ‘German’ means.
- Then again, we did give the world Ricky Jay via]:
Wednesday various
- White Castle aromatherapy candles? I’ve never eaten there, but this doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. [via]
- Stephen Hawking says: don’t talk to aliens. But what if they offer us candy? Space candy! [via]
- Digital Domesday book unlocked, underlining the dangers inherent in digital archiving. [via]
- By now you’ve seen Jon Stewart’s interview with Ken Blackwell, right? If not, you really should. Mostly, Stewart just has to let Blackwell talk.
- And finally, I got a kick out of this Super Mario Bros. clone: Enough Plumbers. [via]
Tuesday various
- Thinking of the Past or Future Causes Us to Sway Backward or Forward [via]:
University of Aberdeen psychological scientists Lynden Miles, Louise Nind and Neil Macrae conducted a study to measure this in the lab. They fitted participants with a motion sensor while they imagined either future or past events. The researchers found that thinking about past or future events can literally move us: Engaging in mental time travel (a.k.a. chronesthesia) resulted in physical movements corresponding to the metaphorical direction of time. Those who thought of the past swayed backward while those who thought of the future moved forward.
- Gene Roddenberry’s original pitch for Star Trek (PDF). [via] I keep meaning to finally watch the original series, now that it’s on Blu-Ray, since I’ve never seen more than bits and pieces. (That way, I’d also get to read Zack Handlen’s reviews. He’s had some interesting things to say so far about The Next Generation.)
- Erotica for the blind? [via]
- You’ve got to give Sita Sings the Blues director Nina Paley credit for sticking to her anti-DRM guns.
- And finally, Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Game [via]
Monday various
- Snapple Iced Tea Ingredients, depicted graphically.
- Crayola Thanks the Tea Partiers. The video was pulled from YouTube, even though it’s clearly parody. Sound familiar? [via]
- Speaking of Crayola and parody… [via]
- I got a real kick out of these Gashlycrumb Losties. Huge spoilers for past episodes of the show, it should be said. Personally, I don’t really have much of an opinion one way or another about Zoe.
- And finally — finally — Asimov’s enters the late 20th century and starts accepting electronic submissions.