Here’s the official list of the sorts of people New Zealand wants- do you have what it takes to be a Kiwi?

Menus through history from the Puget Sound region in Washington State, collected at the University of Washington.

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, […]

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 […]

A loyal reader, late of Iceland, recommended the book Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook. One of the tips the book contains is to keep grains by for sprouting for when “live foods” are at a premium in your circumstances. In the significantly older book (from 1866), The Market Assistant, comes the much […]

Unfortunately, we probably wouldn’t be able to tour it, but the Adult Swim Factory sounds like a cool place. I guess I’ll have to settle for watching its product, when I remember. It’s a shame the reviewer is uninformed about things, though: since when does any network (much less Fox) have "24 hours of airtime […]

NYT reports “a precipitous downward trend in book consumption by Americans and a particular decline in the reading of fiction, poetry and drama,” citing a study finding that “fewer than half of Americans over 18 now read novels, short stories, plays or poetry.” What the hell is wrong with reading non-fiction, short essays and instructional […]

I got bored before finishing the article, but there could be some interesting findings in research showing that fooling your body by feeding it sweet things with no calories might make you prone to over-eat. Regardless, the most stunning breakthrough is pretty early in the piece: "Based on the research, Davidson and Swithers suggest paying […]

Arg, it looks like I may be forced by exclusive licensing agreements to go to Sheets, Shats & Shit.