I can’t decide whether the problem with this logo is a figure-ground issue or something else. If I try hard, I can see it as the designer probably intended, but the initial impression is very penetrating.
Update: crap, the page has been pulled. I’m sure someone has a copy somewhere, but my cache no longer seems to have it.
More update: Ah, BoingBoing has come through

The "Family Research Council," a religious political extremist outfit, now believes that the minority’s right to filibuster presidential nominees should be removed. Seven years ago, the mouth was on the other foot.
If you’re feeling strong, and your blood pressure isn’t susceptible to dangerous increases, I heartily encourage you to check out more of Media Matters for America.

Despite my misgivings, David Tennant will be the new Doctor. I’m loving the Eccleston series (even the darkness) enough that I’m optimistic about Tennant.

A story on NPR this morning about synesthesia and synesthetes got me to wondering whether sun sneezing is simply a more common form of synæsthesia (I’m varying the spelling to attract more search engine traffic). So, if you’re a synesthete, please drop me a line and let me know whether you also sneeze in bright (or dim) sunlight. I won’t do anything with your email address except possibly ask a follow-up question. Nothing personally identifiable will be published in my summary of results.

TheBarqsMan (see also here) has given me the bad news regarding my earlier quest for a local source of caffeine-free Barq’s. He says

the only distributor of Caffeine-Free Barqs [is] Swire Coca-Cola in Salt Lake City, Utah. They distribute to all of Utah, Northern AZ and a few places in Idaho and Washington.

And checking their territory map leads me to the sad conclusion that they don’t bring the stuff any closer than the Tri-Cities.
Thanks, TheBarqsMan!

As you can verify using YaGoohoogle, for high-hit topics such as finger waves and Saint Sarah, Yahoo thinks much more highly of our Collective efforts than Google. If I hadn’t stubbed out rds.yahoo.com in my hosts file (to kill a bunch of Yahoo ads), I’d probably switch to Yahoo search myself.

Ever since the other person who lives at my house told me about it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the arrow in the FedEx logo. It’s genius, or maybe just inevitable:

Update: here’s an interview with the creator, in which he answers several of my questions.

The BBC has a rundown of five actors deemed likely to play the next Doctor. Here’s my take on their picks:

David Tennant: too fey (or maybe it’s just the photo they used)

Bill Nighy: too old

Richard E Grant: too famous

David Thewlis: no opinion (possibly too actory, but Eccleston seems to have done okay)

Alan Davies: could be

And what about my favorite, Eddie Izzard?

If Weird Al‘s math is right, on Ted’s 1275" tv, Robert De Niro’s mole would be only about six feet wide.

Bobby Fischer, paranoid recluse and former world chess champion, has been granted Icelandic citizenship (presumed to be a show of gratitude for Fischer’s role in drawing international attention there in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavík), leading to his release from Japanese detention.