A Targeted Miscellany

A Sunday link list, of things that made me think of specific people.

For my lovely wife, to share with her radical feminist associates, is the story of the most famous pirate of all time. Especially the bits about the pirate laws governing female prisoners. And the end of the story.

Also for her yet another story about people who got mortgages way, way higher than any sane person would have looked for, and how they are now screwed. I’m petty enough to admit that I’m enjoying some schadenfreude here, and will continue to do so until someone makes a plan where public funds go to bail out those people and institutions that made ridiculous choices. (Fortunately, some Canadian specifics, like requiring all homes to have mortgage insurance and minimum downpayments, mean that this is much less likely to occur than in the States where subprime bailouts are already on the table.)

For me (and a couple of other folks I know), there’s the story about the possibly forthcoming discovery of the hibernation diet. It combines three of my favourite things: science, sleeping, and losing weight.

For Kevin, we’ve got an atheist’s agnostigasm: Richard Dawkins reviewing Christopher Hitchens’ “God Is Not Great”. Especially the end section where Dawkins looks at the negative components of other reviews. You should probably also check out the piece The Hour did with Hitchens–start here and follow the YouTube links.

For Kira, we have some videos from the 13th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, particularly including the invited speaker presentation entitled “From Mining the Web to Inventing the New Sciences Underlying the Internet”

For Drake, who loves the pulps, we’ve got this enormous gallery of covers from the pulp era.

Dave, who’s almost as much of an Alan Moore nerd as I am, might be interested in the text of Micheal Moorcock’s essay on Moore for the Italian tribute book.

For Matt, who has the same ridiculous shelving problems I do, I present Ecolibris–essentially buying environmental offsets for your book purchases. I could easily go broke trying to dig myself out of that hole.

For Alex (if he hasn’t died), there’s a (highly suspect) Japanese milk commercial.

For Neil (and the other HGPA lads) we’ve got new scientific proof that there is no relation between beer consumption and gut size. The beer belly is a myth.

For Ralph we’ve got a story about the new Leatherman “Skeletool“, which looks pretty cool. Also: integrated beer opener.

For Gwenda, we’ve got a review of Ruff’s Bad Monkeys that is just as much of a 5-star rave as she (and I) gave it. (Matt, and Painless Fay, and any other Christopher Moore fans out there, should also both read this review, and book.)

For Roach, and all the other fathers of girls, I’ve got a video of John Mann (former frontman of Spirit Of The West and occasional American TV bad guy) singing a song all we dads-of-girls can relate to.

For Gentleman Farmer Biff, is this article on how to improve the flavour of the less choice cuts of steak. I know he access to the entire cow, but at some point surely you’ve got to do something with those less-than-premium cuts.

For Will, who has previously admitted to sharing my library fetish, this most recent roundup of photos of glorious libraries. (Philosophical/political homework: construct a society where you can get institutions like this without a massive class divide.)

Also for Matt: a review that backs me up on the whole “you really don’t need to buy Crooked Little Vein” thing.