via Making Light, Sydney Padua's Lovelace-Babbage comix

via Daniel, who keeps his eyes peeled for the unique

via Wrath of the Grapevine, and relating a truly bizarre odyssey (Only In America, etc. etc.) that I've known bits of since the day. The Jug Band in its pre-1965 incarnation was an important bit of Cantabridgiana, but the later Lyman story is quite beyond The Pale.

no cell phones, and I swear people look thinner

via WFMU's Beware of the Blog. Perhaps little-known fact: many years ago I studied Swedish (freshman year) and spent 6 weeks there in summer 1962… so I've been more or less following things Swedish ever since. This really is an odd take on Stockholm and Swedes, with a good many snorts and yuks sprinkled here and there in the text. I mean: "…a genuine-fake-maybe-real-but-probably-phony-except-for-real-but-you-never-really-know-these-days-anyway culturobstretrical organization with a life-changing mission: to build bridges of understanding between the American and Scandinavian peoples. And in so doing, heal the universe. To achieve this we use the power of Ultramultiscience, a new way of thinking that fuses multiple disciplines –sound, embalmery, competitive eating– into a gel that, when mixed with bleeding-edge scientificalism, unleashes transformational power not seen since Nutella met Bisquick…"

**WARNING** I’m not sure that I advise you to listen to the mp3 file linked in the text –might unsettle delicate sensibilities, if you still have any. On the other hand, maybe you’d be able to think of it as postmodernistical ethnography…

from Shorpy, of course. My sympathies are entirely with the burro

…and you'll enjoy exploring Dave Bollinger's photostream further, a bold and wonder-full use of Flickr

"…A typical use might be to determine when the sun will set along the axis of a mountain valley, or when a full moon rise will rise across a lake. The application uses Google Maps providing users the ability to select a location and determine the time and azimuth of sunrise or sunset for a given date or dates."

PowerPoint presentation, bulleted and factiferous but authoritative

a nice summary of Leonardo's "intellectual phases" via Bruce Sterling's Beyond The Beyond

via Lifehacker, a solution to a problem I encounter now and again, and a reason to use Windows Explorer (which I generally try to avoid…)

OMSFG, how can you NOT explore this trove? The accompanying videos are AWEsome

hmmm…