Recently in Random Thursday Category

• Doing our part to stimulate the economy, we immediately spent our tax refund (and then some) on new bedroom furniture. We didn't need new furniture, but realizing that our old furniture was purchased in 1981 made it seem somewhat more justifiable.
  
  Anyway, we now have a spare set of bedroom furniture (and a media center/armoire that's a bit newer), and we figure we might as well try to sell it, giving us the chance to spend some additional money before finally giving up and donating it. And, of course, I immediately latched onto the idea of doing a website for the task. Interestingly, I was able to secure a unique domain name for a year, and a hosting account for one month, for the total sum of $8.06. Amazing.
  
  If you're interested in seeing the furniture, you can visit the site.
  
  
• This graph has been showing up in various places across the web, but in case you haven't seen it, it demonstrates the zeal with which Canadians follow their beloved sport of hockey. I think this phenomenon has also occurred during recent Super Bowls, except in inverse fashion, as people stay glued to the TV during commercial breaks, and use the game time to take care of, um, other business.
  
  
• And speaking of graphs, where was this when I needed it during Mrs. Hayter's trig class in high school? This is an inverse graphing calculator, and it generates a series of equations that, when graphed, result in the phrase that you type into the form. We did this back in the day in said trigonometry class, drawing by hand a simple illustration, and then producing the equations that would map it out on graph paper. I still remember mine: a train locomotive. And I couldn't graph it today if my life, and those of everyone I know, and everyone I don't know, depended on it.
  
  
• And speaking of lives depending on something else, if you're a bicyclist in Midland and want to use Google's new bike route maps, be forewarned that doing so could be hazardous to your health. I just tried mapping a route from northwest Midland to downtown, and Google's recommendation advises the cyclist to ride down the Andrews Highway, one of the busiest and least bike-friendly roads in the city. Google's new offering obviously wasn't designed with West Texas in mind (or vice versa).
  
  
• And speaking of design (yeah, I'm stretching here), here are some beautiful examples of creativity, combining art with typography. Margaret Shepherd is a calligrapher who has discovered that a letter or word can do double duty.
  
  
• Ending on a more serious note, Roger L. Simon questions why a couple of noted commentators are refusing to support Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician now on trial for "hate speech." I don't take seriously anything Glenn Beck says, but Charles Krauthammer is a different story, and the implications of mistakenly assuming that Islam and Islamism have little or nothing in common seems to me to be a mistake with deadly consequences. Krauthammer should know better.
  

• You may have seen Rube Goldbergesque stunts before, but I assure you that you've seen nothing like this video from the pop group OKGo.

• Here's a bit of local news you Midlanders might not have yet heard. The pastor of Midland's First Baptist Church, Gary Dyer, is leaving at the end of this month to pastor a church in Austin. Dr. Dyer has been at FBC Midland for about fifteen years; he was just the third pastor my wife and I have had since coming to Midland in 1982. FBC is, in my opinion, at something of a crossroads, and the choice of a new pastor will be critical in determining its future direction. But, I guess you can say that about any new pastor.
  
  
• I found out today that one of my high school English teachers passed away, just short of his 90th birthday. Mr. Skylstad was born in Norway and came to America as a teen. There weren't too many Norwegian immigrants in Fort Stockton. I remember him as having a great love of the English language and literature, and of teaching. I can't honestly say that his class represented a great turning point in my life, but I do believe that he reinforced a love of reading and learning that I was fortunate enough to acquire at an early age. He also tried to teach critical thinking, something that I perceive to be sadly lacking in some of today's educational tactics.
  
  
• The practicality of this gadget for a bicyclist probably depends on the traffic conditions faced by the rider, but it has possibilities. I never ride on the street without a rearview mirror, so the ability to monitor traffic behind me via a video screen isn't something I need. But, of course, when it comes to geeky toys, need is basically irrelevant. Plus, it allows you to record an accident, which should result in some new dramatic YouTube videos.
  
  
• I have never claimed to be a graphic designer, but in my line of work, I can't avoid tasks like coming up with color schemes for websites. Adobe's Kuler is an excellent tool for the job, but it's complicated and a bit of overkill. That's why I'm thrilled to discover Elvan Online, a color generator that provides sliders for varying the colors, and one-click generation of a wide variety of palettes derived from a single color.
  
  
• Finally, while dealing with color palettes is plenty intimidating, riding a dirt bike on a rocky 12" wide trail at the edge of a sheer cliff is downright nausea-inducing. Exhibit A:

There are a dozen places along this trail where I would have plummeted to my death (if I was fortunate), for the sole reason that I have never mastered the art of looking where I want to go instead of at what I want to avoid. And when I look at what I want to avoid, I inevitably ride straight for it. (You know, there's a Bible verse that seems to address this very phenomenon, although it probably wasn't originally intended for mountain bike riders.)

• I understand that Elin Woods was so taken with Tiger's contrition during his "public statement" last week that she's given him a present: a Toyota.
  
  
• Speaking of silliness, I for one am enjoying the resurrected Filet-o-Fish TV ad from McDonald's, the one where the guy gets an MMS text from the singing wall-mounted bass while in his buddy's car. I'd like to see those two (the two guys, not the fish...although that would be interesting as well) become the new spokesmen for Sonic Drive-In. When I shared this observation with my wife (a prime example, by the way, of the kind of intellectual content typical of our dinner conversation), she replied "Why? They don't say anything." I nodded and smiled knowingly, confident that I'd made my point.
  
  
• I do wonder, however, how Apple missed the exquisite marketing tie-in, as the ad prominently features a BlackBerry instead of an iPhone. I'll bet Steve Jobs is a big consumer of Filet-o-Fishes. Or is it "Filets-o-Fish"? Anyway, perhaps the thought of seeing a perfectly good iPhone tossed from a car window was too traumatic.
  
  
• Speaking of trauma, it would almost be worth breaking an arm or a leg in order to show off one of these. Well, to be honest, it would be worth faking a broken arm or leg. But what would be even cooler is if your Castoo revealed a Terminator-like framework under your skin.
  
  
• Of course, Terminators aren't afflicted by broken bones, so that would be a little silly.
  
  
• Speaking of movie characters, I plan frequent visits to the "That Guy - Character Actors" website. It's a visual database of actors who have appeared in many movies and television shows, but who are not exactly household names. Be sure to read the criteria for inclusion at the bottom of the page. I particularly like the "No picture on IMDB" qualifier.
  
  
• And, finally, if you've ever wondered what it would be like to pedal a 5-seat bicycle, complete with three daughters under the age of eight, from Kentucky to Alaska, you should check out the Pedouins (get it? Pedouins...Bedouins? Nomads? OK, anyway...). They're now in the Malibu, California area, on the last leg of their year-long journey. It's quite a picture of "relying on the kindness of strangers."
  

• Velocologne is not a body scent for cyclists, but a German manufacturer of recumbent bicycles. Their design is rather unusual, as evidence by the following video:
  
  
  
  
  
  Did you notice? The bike's pedals are integrated with the steering mechanism, so you can guide the bike with your feet. (If you look closely, you'll see that there are also underseat handlebars for more conventional steering.) This also means that the bike is front-wheel drive, with a very short and direct drive train, compared to most recumbent designs. The mechanical efficiency appears quite high, but I suspect it takes some getting used to. Makes for a nice, clean rear wheel setup, doesn't it? [Tip via Recumbent Blog]
  
  
• Codeorgan is a web application that goes conducts a rather complex and, frankly, arbitrary analysis of a website and then converts that site's code into music (or, at least, a series of tones and rhythms that might be considered music after a long day of, say, babysitting a roomful of two-year-olds). Here's what the Gazette sounds like. It's got a good beat and is easy to dance to, so I'll give it a seven, Dick. [Tip via Neatorama]
  
  
• Ever wonder about the "last meal request" rules for death row prisoners? I do, sometimes, if only because I once read a science fiction short story about such a prisoner who made a pact with the devil: in exchange for his soul, Old Scratch would ensure that his last meal and ability to eat it would be never-ending (OK, that is sort of illogical), under the premise that the execution couldn't take place until he finished the last supper. The twist was that the dim-witted prisoner couldn't think of anything to put on the menu except beans.
  
  Anyway, Slate ran an article late last year about the topic -- last meals, not infinite beans -- and it has some interesting anecdotes about those last meal requests. As it turns out, most prisons make what can only be termed as reasonable attempts to accommodate requests. If you request filet mignon in Texas, you'll get a steak hamburger; in Virginia, you're limited to whatever's on the 28-day rotating menu (sort of like spending your last hours in a Luby's, I guess).
  
  The article points out that Texas used to post last meal requests on a website, until 2004 when someone protested that the practice was offensive. (How internet times have changed.) But thanks to the apparently immutable law that holds that nothing ever disappears from the web, you can still peruse the old list.
  
  (Long-time readers of the Gazette may recall that I blogged about this list back when it was still a real website. That post was deleted during the last site facelift, but I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find an archived version. Surely you have better things to do.)
  
  
• Reed.co.uk is a British job-hunting website, and it's sponsoring a short film contest with the rather expansive and ambiguous theme of "Workplace." You can view the shortlist of finalists at the preceding link, but I'll save you some time and embed the best of the lot (in my humble opinion) here:
  
  
  
  
  
  This is worth watching a couple of times, just to catch the nuances of the acting and the script. It perfectly captures the basic dignity of honest work, regardless of where the job falls on an arbitrary social scale. I also recommend clicking over to the "director's cut" to see a slightly extended version, with an alternate ending.
  
  If you agree with my assessment, go vote for it on the Reed website (I just checked and it's got a slight lead over the competition).
  
  
• In closing, I direct your attention to this article at Archaeology entitled Should We Clone Neanderthals? Besides providing an intellectual framework for discussing the practical and ethical issues surrounding the re-creation of a primitive life form, it also allows the imagination to run free with all manner of political and social commentary. [Insert your own Super Bowl ad joke here.]
  

• So you think you're a font expert? Try your hand at this quiz, then, and let us know the results. Helvetica vs. Arial. Sounds simple, doesn't it? (I got 18 out of 20.)
  
  
• I've always been of the opinion that The Hobbit was a better book than any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I've been secretly miffed that Peter Jackson didn't film it before LOTR. But he's rectifying that situation now, along with Guillermo del Toro, and given the advances in CG effects, the wait might be well worth it. Anyway, however obsessed I might be with things Hobbitian, I'm a mere pretender compared to the author of this article, who has a very specific and thorough list of criteria to which the casting of Bilbo Baggins must adhere. Must adhere. And, apparently, Toby Maguire need not apply.
  
  
• If you've had trouble keeping up with who's doing what in the NBC Night Time Talk Show Fiasco, I think this will clear things up about as much as they need to be cleared up.

• If you think cats are hard to train, you should try tree shaping. Sounds like something from Lord of the Rings, doesn't it? But these folks have the technique - and the patience - for making it happen.
  
  
• Via Neatorama, this video should provide more than sufficient motivation for cleaning out your fridge on a regular basis.

• Of all the possible ways to motivate someone to return your lost camera, this may be the most likely to get a reaction. Now, whether that reaction will come in the form of actually returning your camera, I can't say. But the viewer will definitely have a reaction, even if it's just to think, "this is the funniest guy I've ever stolen a camera from." [Also via Neatorama]
  
  
• I'm thinking about relocating to a junglier environment so I can get me one of these bad boys. I'm not sure why they call it a "catcher," though, unless that's just a euphemism for "burn the bloodsuckers to a wisp of ash while hoping that the bed doesn't also catch fire."
  
  
• If the world didn't have Chuck Norris, it would have to invent him. And then create a website devoted to "Chuck Norris Facts." My favorite CNF, for today anyway, is "Apple pays Chuck Norris 99 cents every time he listens to a song." And if a healthy helping of CNFs aren't enough, you can design your own t-shirt (although with the understanding that it really belongs to Chuck Norris. As do you.)
  
  
• I recommend this post over at Freakonomics wherein we learn that LED traffic lights, while offering significant energy savings, much longer useful life, and improved safety due to their increased brightness, also have the unexpected drawback of not generating enough heat to melt ice and snow that sometimes accumulates in colder climes.
  
  While the author offers a number of thought-provoking points, the observations expressed in the comments section are just as interesting, and perhaps even more insightful. This one, for example, points out the problems that similar LED lights are causing for pilots on some landing strips, again because they don't generate enough heat to work well with FLIR flight instruments used in some airplanes for landing in bad weather conditions. I also like this one that suggests using the LEDs only for the green lights ("It doesn't matter much if you can't see a green light.").
  
  
• I'm generally not a fan of those year-end "top 10" lists. They seem to be an excuse for writers and editors to coast through the month of December. One exception is the "Top Ten Fonts of the Year" list put out by MyFonts.com. These are the best selling fonts of previous year in each of ten categories. Popularity doesn't always correlate with quality, but there are some classy picks in this year's list.
  
  
• Last, but certainly not least (I thought about devoting an entire post to this), check out Susan Mullally's photography project entitled "What I Keep." If you've spent much time in Waco, Texas, you know about The Church Under the Bridge, a non-denominational Christian ministry that has been meeting under an I-35 overpass (at 4th and 5th Streets) since 1992. Many of the congregants are homeless, under- or unemployed, and dirt poor. Mullally's project involves photographing individuals along with the one item that they try to carry with them wherever they go, and then letting them tell in their own words what that item means to them. This ongoing project has spanned three years thus far, and includes about sixty photographs.
  

• I'm not a "cat person" (science is on my side in that regard, by the way), but I have to admit that the "Simon's Cat" series of animations on YouTube seems to be a perfect representation of all that's intriguing about felines. Here's the latest example:

• Good Luck With This, Guys - The Wall Street Journal reports that two book publishers are planning to withhold digital versions of some of their upcoming titles for four months so as not to "cannibalize" sales of the [vastly more expensive] hardcover editions. This is yet another example of dinosaurs railing against the impending meteor strike/ice age/mammalian ascendance. There are many reasons this strategy is doomed to failure, but the one question I'd like to pose is this: who decided in the first place (and on what basis) that a hard cover book is worth $27 or more?
  
  
• Stumped for Christmas shopping hints for the family geek? Look no further than the Star Wars® Light Saber chop sticks from ThinkGeek.
  
  
• While they don't disclose this, I'm pretty sure that by using the aforementioned chop sticks, you will be able - with the resulting channeling of The Force™ - to negate the alleged ill effects of The 7 foods experts won't eat.
  
  
• Here's the next bicycle I'd like to have: the Surly Pugsley. I'd own one simply for the name, but it also has the most excellent feature of accommodating 4" wide tires.

According to the review in the current issue of Mountain Bike Magazine (said review not available online), the tires - which, incidentally, cost more than $100 each - can be run at pressures as low as 6 psi, which makes them ideal for floating over the sandy conditions we have around here. The report doesn't say, however, how they'll stand up against mesquite thorns. The bike is described as being surprisingly nimble, despite its hefty appearance (think Warren Sapp on Dancing With The Stars).

• We're all about the marriage of science and culture here at the Gazette, and in this regard we present you with the Evolution of the Hipster (2000-2009). This will be helpful to social scientists working in the field (think Audubon's field guide for a birder's Big Day).
  
  
• Finally, I have a bone to pick with the City of Midland's Transportation Department. Sure, the traffic light synchronization project has finally - finally - started to effect some improvements in traffic flow, notably along Big Spring Street (Garfield continues to be a mess, though). But it's now causing a new problem for me: I tend to arrive too early for appointments. After years of making schedule adjustments to account for the inevitable delays from stopping at multiple consecutive traffic lights, it's not easy to take that allowance out of my driving plans. I really think the City should be doing more to help drivers with this transition.
  

• This is pretty exciting. Local singer/songwriter/attorney (and fellow Aggie) Ron Eckert has a new Christmas song out just in time for, well, Christmas. (What are the odds?) The song is entitled The Wench Who Stole Christmas and it's available for purchase and download via CDBaby. The really exciting part is that Wench is one of the featured new listings today on CDBaby's home page (as of a few minutes ago, it's actually the first featured song on that website). Ron will eventually have a couple more original Christmas songs available, but Wench is the one that's getting some area radio airplay. Do him a favor and buy a copy. Better yet, call your local radio station and request the song, and if they say they don't know anything about it, give 'em the equivalent of a teen eyeroll. [Disclosure: Ron's is one of my website clients.]
  
  
• I see that the White House party crashers are now claiming that a dead cell phone battery prevented them from hearing the message that their names didn't make the White House guest list. I guess that excuse is the modern equivalent of "the dog ate my homework," and is only slightly more plausible than claiming they were the victims of alien abduction or sleepwalking. Actually, they might have had more credibility had they claimed that a sleepwalking alien dog ate their cell phone battery.
  
  
• Someone on Twitter yesterday put forth the notion that Tiger Woods should perhaps hereafter be referred to as Cheetah. *rimshot*
  
  
• I realize it's not a laughing matter, but I still get the giggles from a mental picture of Elin Nordegren whaling away on her husband with a 3 iron, and him finally making a clumsy Escalade escape, only to careen off various inanimate objects, with her in hot pursuit. I guess he's fortunate that he doesn't make his living as a big game hunter.
  
  
• We spent a very pleasurable evening at the Petroleum Club's Christmas Ball last night, courtesy of my wife's employer. The music, company, and food was all first-rate, as you might expect. However, because of where we were seated, we were among the last tables to be served, and the band had already begun playing by the time we started in on the softball-sized chunk of filet. When a particularly danceable song started, we adjourned to the dance floor...only to return to find that an overly efficient staff had removed our meals!
  
  To add insult to injury, one of the fellows at our table had been left with a solitary dinner roll on his bread plate, and as he reached for it (apparently noticing all the covetous glances from his tablemates), a white-coated server grabbed it from the table and made off with it. No bread for you!
  
  Fortunately, we had availed ourselves of plenty of appetizers and had put away enough of the main course that we weren't exactly deprived of calories. But you can bet that when the dessert arrived, we never let it out of our sight.
  

• Without meaning to brag, I think my wife and I are extremely reliable people. We fulfill our commitments; we do what we say we'll do. And so it is with great embarrassment that I confess that both of us forgot last night to attend a board meeting that has been on our calendars for weeks. Fortunately, we weren't needed to make a quorum, and neither of us had pressing items on the agenda, but it's still humbling to realize that all the organizational tools in the world don't necessarily compensate for the basic human shortcoming known as forgetfulness.
  
  
• I love these ads for Disney's Star Wars Weekends, which took place earlier this year. My favorites are the two that feature Darth Vader.
  
  
• I tried to be captivated by the technology demonstrated in the following video; I really did. But in the end, it seems to be yet another example of a solution in search of a problem. If the best they can do with it is create a billboard that looks slightly different through the transition of daytime to night, then someone went to a lot of trouble for not much payoff.
  
  The whole idea of making billboards more sophisticated mystifies me anyway. Some details simply don't matter; how many commuters on the freeway will notice, let alone care, that you've carefully selected Garamond as the font for the text instead of Bookman? [Via Geeks are Sexy]
  

• Would the Gazette be more compelling reading if it was formatted like this? (Yes, I realize that some things are beyond help. Thanks for pointing that out.)
  
  
• Via VideoSift, the following vid shows a Japanese men's gymnastic team doing a floor routine. The synchronized tumbling routine about 2/3rds in is nothing short of amazing. But what I'd really like to see are the outtakes from the practices.