Finally, somebody has gotten serious about using a cool iPod gadget to broadcast the content of your choice to nearby FM radios.

I got me some Sanatogen Tonic Wine from a little grocery in Jamaica, and have thus stumbled upon the illustrious history of Tonic Wines. Check out the recipe for iron wine! And Sanatogen? Unless my bottle went bad (not impossible given the state of the grocery I bought it in), the stuff is pretty awful, so it must be good for you, right?

And can I have a shout-out to the grand British tradition of Christmas miscellanies? Also, a terribly entertaining story about appendicitis.

OKCupid is a fascinating place, attracting all manner of folks. Some are drawn by the way-cool matching algorithms, others by the trademark Personality test. They have a variety of other tests available, including the How Geeky Are You? test, on which I scored a 72. Fairly geeky, but at the hundredth percentile for people of my gender, orientation, and age range. I couldn’t be prouder.

The secret lyrics to Law and Order, revealed. I should transcribe the lyrics to the Angel theme song. And one must never forget that “The X Files is a show/ with music by Mark Snow.”

You are feeling very relaxed. Your head feels heavy. All your cares wash away. You feel a very warm feeling toward the proprieters of FP. You would love to buy them many gifts. You feel youself reaching for your credit card.

A photo-essay on the history of Ikea shows some of the affordable modern design that has come through the store. They really should bring back some of that groovy furniture from their early days.

Really, it’s not my fault; it’s my genes that make my hair unmanageable.

Punkasspunk.com is on blogdex today because of the Futurama Panoramas, but everything I checked out on the site was moderately entertaining. Snackin’ Jesus especially caught my eye and my fancy (though my first thought was the monolith from 2001 rather than a vending machine).

I want to know how to make these. Zori is the generic term for sandals, while waraji is very specific (the ones with extra go-faster straps for samurai speed). There are workshops in Japan on how to make them from old cloth, eco-zori— cool! But zori were always a re-use of industrial byproducts. Even some schoolkids make their own.

Good zori pix, and check out those boots!

From Scientific American, January 2nd, 1847

“Ingenious Mechanism
An Albany paper speaks of a squirrel cage, got up for a holiday present, and so constructed that when in operation, it puts in play a fountain, propels a train of railroad cars and other machinery. In connection with this subject it may be remarked that the squirrel — especially the red kind, — evinces a particular fondness for mechanical motion, and a capacity for timing with music. We once connected a revolving cage with a small hand organ, and were amused to observe that in less than three hours, the little operator kept time accurately with the music of the organ; and so pleased was he with his own performance, after finding the music so completely at his command, that he so wearied himself to exhaustion, that is was found requisite to disstract the machinery to give the squirrel a chance to rest.”