Geek Stuff

I've been asking this for YEARS, but still don't have an answer. Discover magazine provides something like one: Dude, Where's My Jetpack?

Thanks to Katie for the link.

My buddy Michael just got a new job, moved to a new state, got a new place, etc. So I got him a gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond. He got hisself a wicked cool new coffeemaker. Very sexy!

Too, too funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfNfDiqAF9Q

By the way, have you watched the wonder that is the new Doctor Who? Two seasons (plus) so far, two doctors so far, one (plus) kickass companion, all so far superior to anything that came before, it's almost indescribably wonderful.

All the recent chatter on library techie listservs about MySpace and whether libraries should have a MySpace page has been mildly interesting to watch. More amusing is this Unshelved comic from last week.

Thanks to the lovely and talented Jenna for introducing me to Monk-e-mail! Just in time for my best buddy Angie's birthday. Bwahahaha!

One of my favorite web developments has been meebo.com, where you can IM without all that pesky IM software, in multiple flavors (Yahoo!, AIM, MSN Messenger). As a small startup, they've grown largely through word of mouth. However, in order to do some more 'mainstream' advertising, they created a VERY clever and amusing ad and posted it on YouTube.

Meebo: Developers Wanted - watch for one of their favorite emoticons to show.

I was noodling around (no pun intended) with my bookmarks, cleaning out some dead links, and wandered into Reasonably Clever's Lego area. Turns out Chris Doyle has allowed himself to imagine--and build in Legos--what a Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster might look like.

From Bob S. on Library Underground:

http://www.stampandshout.com/shop/window-decals/frodo-failed.php

"Frodo Failed. Bush Has the Ring."

Want!

Peter the Pirate has just reminded me that today be Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Arrr!

I just found this...disturbing...to my concept of the universe:

For Now, Pluto Holds Its Place in Solar System

Pluto dodged a bullet today.

In the hope of ending years of wrangling, a committee of astronomers and historians has proposed a new definition of the word “planet� that would expand at a stroke the family of planets from 9 to 12 and leave textbooks and charts in thousands of classrooms out of date.

Update: someone responded with this, and it got me thinking: "Not to mention thousands of years of astrology down the tubes!"

Yeah, I mean, I know what happens when Mercury is in retrograde, but what do you do when Xena is on the rise?! (besides duck)

I seriously have this vision of all these astronomers in Prague next week skulking around cobblestoned corners, having secret meetings in coffee houses, taking sides for the Planet Revolution. Viva Le Pluto!

Via someone in my HP book club at church:

Potter No. 6 claims Thanksgiving '08

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth installment of the lucrative franchise, will come out in theaters on November 21, 2008. Now, Warner Bros. just needs to hire a director and confirm the cast. The fifth installment, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," bows in July. The "Prince" date will mark a return to the Thanksgiving period for the sorcerer series. Of the four "Potter" films to date, only the third installment, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," has been released during the summer.

Last night on The Daily Show, John Hodgman once again made the sticky world of politics a weirder and more wonderful place to be with his dead-on explanation of the Net Neutrality controversy. Oh, his pudgy wonderfulness! My favorite bit: "oh, a pneu mail!" Image is from YouTube.com

Via LISNews, this little gem from Weird Tech News Hub: Top 10 Worst URL Flops

I've taken to watching The Daily Show with pen in hand, as lately there have been more than a few zingers worth noting. A sampler:

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: In the Clinton administration, we served snacks.
Jon Stewart: Chocolate chip cookies--that's the way to do diplomacy! (May 2, 2006)

Stewart: "There's no 'magic wand'. There's no 'silver bullet'. It's like our President is just a Level Three Wizard." (May 3, 2006)

I can't explain why this sort of stuff excites me, but when I hear that scientists have found a missing fish-to-tetrapod link, I get all giggly. Not because it puts paid to some Creationists claims (though that has its charms), but because it increases our overall knowledge...and it's just cool! (link is to NY Times, requires signin)

In their report, the scientists concluded that Tiktaalik was an intermediate between the fishes Eusthenopteron and Panderichthys, which lived 385 million years ago, and early tetrapods. The known early tetrapods are Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, about 365 million years ago.

Tiktaalik, Dr. Shubin said, is "both fish and tetrapod, which we sometimes call a fishapod."