Yes, chicks dig guys who read. Or so Penguin would have you believe. The quiz is v. funny.

I’m stunned and amazed: sheep get smart.

Futuristic cars, yeah!

I briefly fancied that the Asperger’s tilt test might be related to nose-avoidance tilting, but no: it turns out babies who are likely to develop Asperger’s (or possibly other autism-spectrum disorders) tend to keep their heads upright when their bodies are tilted (I imagined that this was a back-and-forth (or maybe I mean side-to-side…) tilting, but the article doesn’t actually specify—maybe it doesn’t matter which axis the tilt is around). I rather would have expected a desire to keep the input system stabilized would be a good thing, but maybe it’s better to be able to adjust to different input orientations and understand that even though it’s been translated in some way, it’s still the same input.

Microsoft has just launched a competitor to Google News: I haven’t tried out Newsbot yet, but I’m hopeful it will allow the same access to WaPo and NYT articles as Google news, so I can search for that stuff without contaminating my Gmail cookie.

I thought I had mentioned this before, but check out Seattle Fabrics, purveyors of various heavy-duty fabrics and accessories.

A BoingBoing reader was (perhaps inadvertantly) directed to this part of a Florida TV station’s website while looking for Jesus (or at least the Jesus of Tru Value). I can’t figure out how one would normally get to this slideshow cavalcade of Florida misery/human interest, since every time I go up a level in the file system, it looks distincly both broken supposed to be password protected. This search is not helped by the standard TV website clutter and bright screaming headlines.

Prize to you if you can find where to get this horrorshow every day.

In a lovely exhibition of Ukiyo-e prints is a hint on the technique of flying:
“The subject of the print is Kume the Immortal, a renowned recluse who mastered the power to travel through the air at will. The sight of a young woman baring her legs while washing clothes caused Kume to lose his concentration and fall from the sky.”
also
“In a deified form, [Kitano’s] spirit is said to have flown to China to learn Zen, paying for his lessons with a sprig of flowering plum.”

I’m suddenly less enthusiastic about the new Dr Who, after reading in this piece that Mr Eccleston wants to ‘concentrate more on the part’s “melancholy side.”‘ Ugh. I’m prepared, and happy, to believe that the Doctor has an inner emotional life, but I don’t think it will enhance my enjoyment to see evidence of it. Rather the way I prefer the calm Wash of “Serenity” to the panicky Wash of “The Message.” They’re both shit-hot pilots, but calm Wash does what he needs to do without a lot of fuss.

I would so like to believe that this story of Nigerian credulity is due to a scammer-scam, but the evidence just isn’t there.