Hence, horrible villain, or I’ll spurn thine eyes like balls before me; I’ll unhair thy head, Thou shalt be whipp’d with wire, and stew’d'in brine, smarting in lingering pickle. (from Antony and Cleopatra)

And (while it lasts; does Craigslist poof items after a bit?) please do read this gloriously hilarious posting from a Seattle bike shop.

Bureaucracy can be amusing. At least in the hands of these creative people who’ve provided a site to allow one to funnel those messy events like, er, liking someone, onto the proper form. No word if triplicates allowed.

Such a small thing — helps. I still don’t know the significance of the phrase “three cups of tea”; I supposed I’d need to read the book (which, happily, is at my local library). But it’s lovely to have found this group (which I did via Nicholas Kristof) which provides education in an area where it’s hard to get (Afghanistan, N. Pakistan) to a population who’s least likely to receive it (girls).

Ah, Ireland. goddammit. Oops! Would that land me in prison? A great write up on Ireland and — yes — a blasphemy law. It’s more interesting than you’d think. The convolutions, the weaving of threads …

Since we’re strictly through-the-air TV now, we miss out on the pontifications of these “smart guys” — oh, please do watch. It’s cathartic.

So I’m finally cracking a smile as I catch the Daily Show. Thanks for saving my mind, Jon Stewart.

30 unforgettable opening movie title sequences (videos)
A reference to Fairytale Of New York in Andy Ihnatko’s blog. That’s a fave song. Especially poignant as Kirsty died a few years later (while Shane is still trooping along; go figure)
A site about the art of foley. Y’know, making noise in movies.
Bartleby.com looks to be a huge reference for book lovers, readers. I can actually search for a section of text in a lot of classic books.
A video bicycle tutorial site. Bike repair. Cool.
Learn a lot of obscure stuff about your birthday. What happened on date, various esoteric bits of info.
The ever popular BMI site has a BMR calculator (basal metabolic rate).
Four links about braceros.
The bubble calendar. You love to pop them. Do it every day.
Louis Wain was an 19C. artist who drew/painted cats. He developed schizophrenia and his art changed. (video)
If you want to buy your cat entertaining DVDs, here’s the place.
Change.org – ideas for change in America
If you always forget what Chinese New Year it’s going to be, check here.
One of the best cartoons I’ve seen in a while on my profession. (How to kill a web designer in 6 steps)
This post on shower power was tweeted and I replied that I’d long (2004, 2006) had an idea for a whiteboard in the shower. Someone already patented it.
The scientific angle on exercise and health. Note to self: remember this.
A lot of cool hemp products. Hemp is a terrifically sturdy fabric/thread and it’s ignorance and bias that keeps American farmers from a useful crop.
Why Google is the best way to download MP3s. (video)
Self-chosen top “most Canadian” songs.
Because I can’t put this on my business site: 20 signs you don’t want that web design project (real examples) from Zeldman
A recent sideways turn in an iChat brought me a-cappella.com and the Kings Singers with lots of madrigals I used to sing.
WSJ (!) editorial by Ethan A Nadelmann: Let’s end drug prohibition. Too commonsensical for the ideologues.
A fantastic compendium of millions of historic photos from 1860s forward through the decades, from Life magazine, hosted by Google
A list of unusual words beginning with B. I’d been looking for a good alliterative mate.
A most unusual artist, Ashleigh Talbot: Madame Talbot’s Gothic Lowbrow
Movie-O examines the historic truth of “based upon” movies
Mukhtar Mai is a brave and admirable Pakistani woman. Read this to get some perspective. I wish I had the dough to send her school tons of my books.
Don’t look now. Non responsive tuberculosis could be sitting nearby.
A few very interesting thoughts on what’s “fair”.(context: the bailouts) Note to Detroit: You’re history.
Paul Krugman’s depression economics – how it works (Salon)
Because I always want to know where to find that photo of soldiers returning from World War I to Prohibition, bearing the sign “We want beer”
Retro-food.com could be the source of a lot of great recipes
The Right to Quiet Society.
The way to save (native) squirrels in England may be to consume the invaders.

The way to mulitply numbers in your head. Pretty cool. (video)
Spirals. More spirals. If it’s spiral and it’s not here, it’s not really spiral. Gallery of photos.
Learn Lord of the Rings elven languages.
An interesting idea that didn’t work out. Sort of a lottery. The Eleven Dollar House.
Change is come today. The country’s new robots.txt file
Steampunk Workshop. I just find this stuff fascinating.
Love it. Hate it. Pick it apart. Feel renewed by it. Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.
WSJ on Walmart and the shopping death. I have my opinion.
The Beguiling is Canada’s finest purveyor of comics, graphic novels, etc.
What do women want (sexually). It’s not simple.

(*They’re actually in alpha order by web page title, but that’s pretty meaningless in this context.)

A “Lethal Weapon” espresso machine? It gets odder from there.

24: the unaired 1994 pilot episode

This is to precious to miss. Please watch.

Learning from (Stephen) King and (Joss) Whedon : can you hear the creaking of a shift?

Joss Whedon is now in the new media entertainment space. Stephen King is, too. If we snag Steven Spielberg, I reckon a great many eyes will open, a great many hands will slap against foreheads, and we’ll see some much-needed mainstream movement towards using the ‘Net as a viable platform to deliver original content to audiences.

Pandora on the verge of collapse

Why is this happening? Last year, web radio giants were hit with outrageously ridiculous fees by a federal panel for every song that would be played on their stations. This caused a lot of services to either shutdown, or go through what Pandora has been experiencing for the past year.

Random.org

RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs.

10 Likely events in 2008

Posted in January, would be interesting to read in December. (Business Week)

The Web Time Forgot

And you thought you knew the history of the internet. (NY Times)