oh yeah

"…there are around 350 different types of pasta, and probably approximately four times as many names for them…"

magnificent data-based take on the several Americas, from Facebook profiles

astounding possibilities buried herein

yeah, you probably should watch this

a better way to look at the world

methinks I hear the Ring of Truth

cartographic self-abuse?

yes or no?

(reprinting Greg Palast's memoir)

(from Gizmodo. I'm just a bit dubious about cooking in plastics, but sous vide is certainly an interesting culinary thread to follow)

(well worth a careful read, as is everything I've seen at Registan.net –a sense that THESE are the folks who know what they're talking about re: things Central Asian)

(a whole new genre rears its head)

An interesting take, pretty persuasive: "…as frustrated as I was with the restrictions, those exact same restrictions made the New World device a high-performance, high-reliability, absolute workhorse of a machine that got out of my way and just let me get things accomplished… The iPad as a particular device is not necessarily the future of computing. But as an ideology, I think it just might be."

"Apple has created a computer that's entirely locked down. The only applications that will run on the iPad are those that have been approved by Apple. And this is one of the first computers where the user will be entirely unable to access the file system. I understand why this is possible from a design standpoint: file systems are arcane things, and most people don't understand them or want to understand them. But this means that Apple has a complete lock on how media gets into your iPad: you're tied into an Apple-approved mechanism. The user of the iPad, like the user of the iPhone, is directly tied into the Apple economy: your credit card on file with Apple not only lets you buy apps and media, but it will also allow you to buy internet connectivity…"

and the bookstores aren't winning, alas… (interesting to note that Canada is included)

a lot of wisdom here, starting with "It will be the best showcase 'content' ever had, and will be a wholly owned proprietary channel" and concluding with "the market’s ecosystem includes both the vertical silos and the horizontal landscapes on which those silos stand, and where all kinds of other things can grow"

It would probably be better NOT to pay attention to Cassandras, but Kunstler is sorta addictive, and I don't have to work hard to convince myself that his analysis is pretty much right-on. Consider the phraseology here: "My guess is that Geithner is about to be tossed overboard like a feculent weiner…" I mean…