The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All Time. Sweet. They don’t make ’em like that anymore!
Category: Random Links
Links that I’m reading/watching/listening to/thinking about
-
CBBS
Wow. My mom was reminiscing to me a few weeks ago about the Blizzard of ’78, and how we’d gotten snowed in and the Fire Department had rescued her and me (as a baby) on the back of a snowmobile. Turns out that other people were being more productive with the enforced down-time. Two guys in Chicago came up with the idea for the first online community!
-
Roger Clemens
Ha. Roger Clemens has an entry in the Dickipedia. I especially like that it mentions the particular game that made me dislike him, the one where he threw a chunk of shattered bat at Mike Piazza.
-
Knitting Comics
I started a thread on Ravelry the other day about knitting-related comics, and people posted a few gems. I think this one is my favorite.
-
The Thinking Machine
This is awesome! I just discovered that you can read Thinking Machine stories online! I had a book of them as a kid. The “Thinking Machine” was a super-smart detective, sort of an American Sherlock Holmes. The author Jacques Futrelle hadn’t written very many when he went to Europe to promote the books… and arranged passage back to America on the Titanic. Yeah. So there aren’t any more. Anyway, I think these versions online may have been slightly edited in my book. There are details that I distinctly remember from the stories that don’t appear here.
The really glaring change to me is in “The Silver Box”. I distinctly remember that one of the clues was that the boss had originally given the secretary a gold box, which she’d asked to exchange for a silver one (because the silver one was high enough to lift the phone receiver). That little bit doesn’t appear in the online story at all! And hey, now that I think about it, calling the story “The Silver Box” is a really huge tip-off that the secretary had something to do with it, right?
-
Poker-playing robot
Hey Jenny: I’m interested to hear what my “cousin-in-law” Dave has to say about this poker-playing robot. I almost think it’s a flawed experiment to begin with, because the whole point of being a good poker player (as I understand it) is to read your opponent. The cards you get shouldn’t matter at all. But a computer just can’t (as far as I know) interpret the millions of subtle bits of body language that humans are capable of. And conversely, there’s no way for the human to get a read on his opponent’s game other than by the card’s he’s shown. It just seems like more of a stunt than anything.
-
A Decade
How much have you changed in 10 years? According to that quiz, I have changed 56%. Moving continents tends to have that effect.
You’ve done a good job changing with the times, but deep down, you’re still the same person. Your clothes, job, and friends may have changed some – but it hasn’t changed you.
(Link courtesy of crumpet.)
-
NFP is effective BC
Good to know. It appears that the Catholics may be on to something after all. German research has shown that the “symptothermal method” of natural family planning is as effective as the Pill. Huh. I would not have guessed that. (Link courtesy of Staci.)
-
A rumour I overheard*
The real reason Britney shaved her head is because K-Fed threatened to have her hair tested for drugs in their custody battle!
* Well, not so much “overheard” as “read on Kelly McMahon’s Google away message, which functions as her defacto blog.”
-
Harry’s Bum
Holy crap. Harry Potter’s bum.