Recently in Miscellaneous Category

Hypochondriacs probably shouldn't read this.

One of my favorite journals, The New Atlantis, just unveiled a swank new web design featuring new weblogs and also posted their Winter 08 issue.

Red Dreher:

Michael Brendan Dougherty:

The coolest ultrasound picture you will see this year.

Do you have a toddler two toddlers who love horses and cowboys? You could do worse than to get "The Man From Snowy River." Nobody gets shot, there're plenty of horses, and, for our 3-year old who makes tow cables out of everything from shoelaces to Mama's headscarves, there are even a scene where ropes and knots figure prominently. And though there's some mildly rough language, it's no worse than the boys hear from their old man when he loses it and there aren't nearly the kind of problematic elements raised by, say, McClintock, which was our previous favorite cowboy movie.

I like the folks at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and I'm glad that they have a new web journal, First Principles, but how do you start a website in 2007 with no syndication feeds?

Jimmy Breslin, still plugging away...

Horse slaughtering was banned in Illinois this year. Has that spared horses the cruelty of being treated like... um... every other animal? Of course not! Now they're all crammed into trailers and shipped under grueling conditions to Mexico where the slaughterhouses (and the jobs!) went. Well, all except for the ones that won't yield enough meat to justify the increased shipping costs -- those are just shot. Congratulations PETA!

By the way, Catrin Einhorn is awesome. The New York Times should totally give her a raise. Tray ball!

Not very relevant to the season, but I had to swipe this from Rod Dreher.

If Sesame Street was more like that these days, I think I'd let the boys watch. How is Elmo better than THAT?

1. They light up too!
   I believe it's plainly obvious that our society/culture is completely batsh*t insane. But if you need proof, drive around your neighborhood and count the number of artificial outdoor snowmen. Yeah, think about it.

2. In other words, "Slow down, Poppy!"
   3 year old: "WOW! It's kind of like a racecar!

3. It's about 50/50
   3 year old: "Me and God... we know everything."

The sleep-deprived are more negative

Say what you will about Garry Wills, this NY Review of Books piece about newly restored 15th century bronze door panels from the shrine of John the Baptist in Florence is worth a click, and if you're in NYC it would be worth a trip to the MMoA to lay your eyes upon three of the ten panels.

NYT article on catastrophe insurance

Was it Warren Buffet who said there's no such thing as bad risk, just bad premiums?

A body pillow?

Sometimes, It's OK to throw it away.

Yuk.

This stuff is pretty neat. Back in college, my aero engineering roommate showed me a video of a crayon sitting on top of a sheet of aerogel thinner than a pane of glass with a blowtorch underneath. An enormous amount of time passed, and the crayon was unmelted. It was pretty neat. Back then, the challenge for home use was the bluish tint that would make it unappealing for windows. That and the fact that people who care about home heating costs don't have bajillions of dollars for space age insulation. I wonder if either of those problems have been solved.

Great news unless you just signed a mortgage last month. Arg.

First, some blogger, I cannot now remember who, directs us to The Redistricting Game - gerrymander your way to permanent job security!

Second, Ask.com has a pretty nifty new redesign.

I ran a search for Aramis Ramirez. The center of the screen gave a normal search result. The left sidebar gave a few different options: narrow search ("Is Aramis Ramirez married?" asked some enterprising female), expand search ("Chicago Cubs") and related searches ("Manny Ramirez").

But that wasn't it: after a few seconds, the left bar started filling out more, giving me more options. Now, I could narrow my search down to "Aramis Ramirez Jersey" or expand it to "Dominican Republic Baseball" There also appeared a column on the right side, where I could find images of A-Ram, his Wikipedia entry, and recent news and blog posts about him.

I'm sure google's not quite shaking in their boots yet. I think if I were searching for say, a specific page or article, I'd still use google. But if I were a blogger typing a post about, say, St. Boniface, this link puts on one page links to:

• several hagiographical entries,
• images I might swipe to put in my post,
• other recent blog posts about St. Boniface, and
• the story of the pagan oak tree.

Very neat stuff.

• Flying wind farms
• Giving sight to the blind - using computer chips

Where else can you find a bunch of lions attacking a pack of buffalo, knocking one of their young (calf?) into a nearby lake, dragging it out of the water only after playing a game of tug-o-war with a friggin crocodile, and digging into their meal only to have the buffalo come back about 100 strong to get their calf (who is still alive after getting attacked, yanked two different directions and feasted upon for a couple of minutes) and chase them off after goring one of them about 6 feet in the air.

Who needs Animal Planet?

Hat-tip: Assymetrical Information

Worldwide, traffic accidents are a leading cause of death for every age group from 5-24.

Guy Sorman has a feature in the recent City Journal that claims the 21st century will not belong to China, as is widely believed. It's a great piece, with excellent reporting on the difficult lives of the Chinese, but his conclusion simply isn't supported by the facts he reports.

Here is an excerpt from his conclusion:

Why? China is growing economically as more and more Western businesses are sending manufacturing jobs over there, and Sorman himself points out that radical social upheaval isn't likely, which means there is a practically endless supply of cheap, docile labor (not to mention a source of military conscripts should they decide to do a little empire building). Meantime the other major powers (except, arguably, the U.S.) are waning. What's to stop China from dominance?

Our only hope is to make our one export to China our educational system.

A great column from Roger Ebert. He's had multiple surgeries, first to remove and then unsuccessfully to replace part of his jaw that was affected by cancer of the salivary glands (which sounds excruciatingly painful). He is going to make his scheduled appearance at his annual "Overlooked Film Festival" here in Champaign, despite having a piece of his jaw missing and being unable to talk.

Cubbie hat-tip: Amy Welborn

The WaPo persuaded one of the best violinists in the world to play in a D.C. subway station. The write-up is a very enjoyable read.

A thought: subprime mortages are the new stocks-on-margin. Good people were enticed by profiteers to throw money they did not have at a booming market only to find themselves with nothing when the market took a downturn I don't think we're headed for another depression, but the psychology of incurring unmanageable debt based on the assumption that the investment will increase in value is pretty much the same thing.

If you really like the book, why oh why on earth do you spend the first 20% of your review blabbing about what bad books in that genre are like?

"Rambling?" "self-absorbed?" "All too often?" Agreed.

Maybe, just maybe, they use Americans' anger and anxiety about terrorism and politics as tools to gain viewers and make themselves rich. This is television we're talking about after all. Is it so hard to understand?

Oh how nice. The DI has an article about the robot race that was featured at the U of I Engineering Open House.

Funny thing about those engineers, though. You'd think they'd understand that when the program for the day says there will be robots from 9 AM - 4 PM, that people might just show up at, say, around 3 PM EXPECTING TO SEE ROBOTS. And by "see robots" I mean see them do robot stuff, not see them being packed up for the day and rolled out of the arena.

Jerks.

How to solve the Rubik's Cube

I can get the top two layers done, I've just never been able to get that bottom layer worked out. Now all I need is a cube.

Stradivariuses to visit Chamapaign-Urbana.

They'll be played at concerts on November 12 and 14.

This looks like it could be a handy resource.

Unless you've been to a Harold's Chicken Shack, you cannot grasp what it means that one is coming to Campustown.

Let's put it this way: every one I've been to has bulletproof glass between the cashier and customer.

Courtesy of Danielle Bean comes what may be the most evilest time-waster in the history of Internet time-wasters. The length of this post demonstrates that.

Go here (if you dare) for the 1000 most popular baby names of each gender since 1880.

Some notes:

• The dominance of Michael
  "Michael" has maintained an impressive hegemony on the boys' side. Though it was relatively popular all century (its worst ranking was 56 in 1926), spending much of the first third in the 40s and 50s, in the late 1930s, it suddenly surged into the top 20 and in another decade jumped into the #1 spot, which it held (excepting "David" in 1960) from 1954 until 1999, when it yielded to Jacob, which has held the top spot ever since.

• The rise of Christopher
  The mid-20th century saw "Christopher" go from obscurity to ubiquity. In 1933, "Christopher" was the 376th most popular boys' name. 10 years later, it was up to 184, another decade and it was at 61. In 1972, "Christopher" reached number 2, and for 24 years in the 70s , 80s and 90s, it held second or third place and was in the top 5 until 2002. Though it has remained in the top 10, it looks like it has been supplanted for the near future by "Jacob," Joshua" and "Matthew" (can't complain there) among others.

• Going "Old" school
  In 1905, you had to go down to number 30 (Samuel) to find an overtly Old Testament name on the boys' list and there were a total of six in the top 100. There were only seven on the girls' side, though "Ruth" at number five is higher than any OT names on the boys' side.

  By 2005, the boys' side had exploded with OT names: #1 (Jacob), #3 (Joshua), #5 (Ethan), #7 (Daniel) and 17 others. OT girls' names have not caught on quite so much, as in 2005 there were only six in the top 100.

• All about me
  In the year of my birth, my first and second names "Christopher" and "Jason" ranked third and second, respectively.

• Female volatility
  As with so many things feminine (**DUCK**), girls' name rankings are subject to sudden and severe fluctuations. The prime example is "Madison" which was not even in the top 1000 before 1985, when it debuted at number 635. In 1991 it cracked the top 200, Shot into the top 30 in 1995 and has bounced betweek 3 and 2 all millenium.

  "Jennifer," the ever-fair Mama-Lu's christian name, was similarly not even on the charts until 1938 when it debuted at number 987. It took 20 years for it to crack the top 100, and then rose rapidly to be number one for 15 years, including the year of her birth. It has since slipped, though it still remains a top 50 name.

  "Laurie" is another strange case. On and off the charts, never above 900 until 1934, then rapidly rising to #42 in 1962. Completely off the charts since 1994. This one is complicated by the existence of alternates (the slightly- more popular Lori and the much, much more popular Laura)

  "Ava" has had perhaps the craziest trajectory: It was around in the first half of the century, peaking at 376 in 1954, but falling off completely in 1973. It fought a mostly losing battle to stay on the charts for the next 20 years. In 1990 it ranked 952. Then watch what happened:

  1991 847
  1993 739
  1995 739
  1997 618
  1999 259
  2001 133
  2003 39
  2005 9

  All told, three of the 2005 top ten girls' names were not even on the charts 20 years ago.
  
  

• Where's Charlie?!!?
  I was very surprised to see that "Charles" isn't even a top-50 name anymore. Charles was a top 10 name for most of the century, but the 1950s saw the start of a long, slow slide that bumped it down to the mid-low 50s, where it's been since 2001.

• Throughout the 1970s, "Eric" bounced between 13 and 18. In 1980, it was at 16. It has since steadily declined to #67. I'll let my cousin weigh in on that if he wants.

• David has been pretty steady, being at or above #31 since 1905, with one shining moment at the top in 1960.

Did I mention this is a horrible timewaster?

...you hear is the simultaneous explosion of the heads of NEA officials.

Apparently, this man is not interested in his plan going anywhere. Education reform is rarely achieved by jabbing at teachers' eyes with a sharp stick.

He does make some good points, but I don't know if more institutional schooling is exactly what American children need.

Hidden camera catches mice on airplane.

OK, ick factor aside. here's the scary part:

How many ways can we make air travel terrifying?

Catholic author Regina Doman, who wrote our favorite gift for expecting parents, lost her four year old son yesterday. Please say a prayer for her family and for the repose of Joshua Michael's soul.

The proof:

1. Grilling your dessert.

2. Full-length songs from a new album from the Brand New Heavies - one of the greatest bands of all time. Though sadly the posted cuts aren't up to their early-90s standard. They sound kind of lazy and much more disco-y than jazzy, which used to be their main appeal.

Whoa, whoa, a 330 POUND TURTLE? What did I miss?

BBC News invited a man named Guy Kewney for a live news piece on an Internet downloading verdict recently handed down. The interviewer began by asking him if he was suprised by a recent verdict on a downloading case, and Guy expresses (in a thick accent) surprise, because "they told me something else," that he "got an interview." It doesn't quite make sense, but the interviewer picks up from there and continues for a minute and a half.

The surprise Guy was talking about was the suprise of being on television at all. You see, the gentleman interviewed was not Guy Kewney, he was Guy Goma, a man who had come to the BBC studio to be interviewed for an IT job. The producer went into the wrong waiting room and asked for "Guy." Guy Kewney was later found still waiting in a reception room.

Here's the video of the interview.

AP: Bears at Dutch zoo kill and eat monkey in front of "horrified visitors."

UPDATE: Picture!

Smashing Pumpkins working on new album.

The soap opera continues.

He gets it exactly right.

Bravo! RTWT, as the kids say.

is American automakers filling their pants:

Toyota rolls out hybrid Camry, will lauch promotion with Super Bowl commercial.

A tip to all proprietors of fringe websites:

If the second question in your FAQ has to be "Are you really serious?" you just might need to reconsider your mission.

Mercifully, I watch little enough television that I've yet to see any commercials for Brokeback Mountain. Discussing it with Mama-Lu on Thursday, I found out that Heath Ledger is one of the cowboys. Ack! I don't know if I can ever watch A Knight's Tale again!

A satirical hagiography from David Brooks circa 1983 transcribed for your pleasure by Sean Gleeson.

One of my least favorite words in this language of ours is healthful. I was about to write a diatribe against it when I came across this page which explains that the recent increase in the use of this hideous word is actually a return to the proper use. I still don't like it: almost every time I hear it used, the context is politically correct/sterile/manipulative. I put it in the same category as going forward, impact used as a verb and proactive. Unfortunately, in this instance I am beat; healthful is proper English.

The linked page also has some other interesting language tidbits, though most of them are already pet peeves of mine. One, however, was new to me: apparently the word prevalent was originally used pejoratively. So, "happiness is a prevalent emotion" is somewhat contradictory (unless you don't like happiness). "Cockroaches are prevalent in Chicago" would be a more appropriate use.

NRO has put up about a dozen flashbacks of Buckley's writings and speeches. My favorite: Buckley gives thanks for peanut butter.

From this Opinion Journal piece on homeschoolers and what they read:

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was interviewed on Tom Ashbrook's On Point about her new book on Lincoln. If you have the time and any interest, take a listen.

She also talked to Terry Gross about the book.

In the summer '05 City Journal, I found a piece whose subtitle says it all: Today's new baseball stadiums offer a lesson in smart urbanism.

It's a great piece, and the fact that it disparages U.S. Cellular Field doesn't influence my opinion at all.

If I recall correctly, the two Catholic schools mentioned here were the ones the U of I Newman students volunteered at for a few years in a row during spring break. Can anybody confirm or correct that?