This video clip has to be fake...

Ananova reports that "A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it." Maybe I should keep some "emergency" beer in the trunk... ;-)

Check out these Jesus Inspirational Sport Statues. I'm speechless...

Check out this great Error Message Generator, complete with lots of icons and some customizing options.

Boing Boing has posted the awesome MP3 Whistler's Delight, a mashup by DJ Riko that mixes 22 whistling songs. Here's the list of songs according to DJ Riko's site:

Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers
Bangles – Walk Like An Egyptian
Credit to the Nation – Teenage Sensation
Brother Bones – Sweet Georgia Brown
J. Geils Band – Centerfold
Earl Hagen – The Fishin’ Hole (Theme to the Andy Griffith Show)
Bernard Herrmann – Twisted Nerve
Scorpions – Wind of Change
Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy
Muzzy Marcellino – 4:20 a.m.
Otis Redding – (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay
Roger Miller – Robin Hood
Air – Alpha Beta Gaga
Honky – The Whistler
The Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream
Rick James – Loosey’s Rap (Loosey’s House of Trix Mix)
Adam Ant – Something Girl
RZA – The Whistler
Guns N’ Roses – Patience
Dwarf Chorus - Heigh Ho
X2 – Trigga da Whistla
Handsome Boy Modeling School – Rock n Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2

Definitely worth the download; other mixes/mashups on his site are pretty cool too...

The Washington Post reports on Dick Cheney's remarkable lack of decorum at the recent ceremony at Auschwitz:

At yesterday's gathering of world leaders in southern Poland to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the United States was represented by Vice President Cheney. The ceremony at the Nazi death camp was outdoors, so those in attendance, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were wearing dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots. Because it was cold and snowing, they were also wearing gentlemen's hats. In short, they were dressed for the inclement weather as well as the sobriety and dignity of the event.

The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower.

There are more details on his "dressing down" in the article. What a moron...

For those of you with TiVos, a great new feature called TiVoToGo was unveiled last week. As Wired News reports, TiVoToGo enables you to transfer programs you've recorded on your TiVo to a computer or laptop connected to the TiVo over a home network, allowing you to view programs on the computer and eventually burn them to DVD (the rollout of this feature hasn't happened yet). The software upgrade that allows you to make use of TiVoToGo will eventually be pushed to all TiVo users, but you can place yourself on a priority list to expedite the process. I did that and received the software update in about three days, although the TiVo page said that even priority users may have to wait a week or two.

Besides the software upgrade, you need to download the latest version of TiVo Desktop software, obtain a Media Access Key, and choose a password for playback. Yes, unfortunately there is some DRM associated with this, but did you really think it would be that easy?

The transfer from TiVo to computer is relatively slow over a wireless network, unfortunately, since as far as I know TiVo doesn't support 802.11g yet. If I remember correctly, it took 15-20 minutes to transfer a 30-minute program recorded at the lowest quality (378MB if I remember right), so you will have to be patient.

Once I transferred the show via TiVo Desktop on my computer, I was able to view it with Windows Media Player after entering my password (annoying, but necessary). So far, I haven't had much luck with my usual player, JetAudio, although Media Player Classic is a much less obtrusive (and open source!) alternative that works.

I tried to see whether Nero could author a DVD with the video, but no luck yet, although it sort of played the video. Right now, it appears that TiVo is partnering with Sonic MyDVD in allowing you to record DVDs with TiVoToGo, although as I mentioned, it's not available yet. You can sign up to be notified once that feature is ready, though. I'm anxiously awaiting this feature and hope that it will be implemented in a way that actually allows you some flexibility in how you record programs. If no editing options are available, then I'll be pretty pissed off, although I'm confident that someone will figure that out if it's not enabled out of the box... ;-)

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of TiVo, and I think TiVoToGo makes it that much cooler. The DRM scheme (Media Access Key, password, etc.) is annoying but is probably a necessary evil for TiVo to be able to do this without the MPAA throwing a fit. I know that alternatives like ReplayTV or a home-built PVR don't have those issues, but there are cons with them as well. I just hope that TiVo doesn't take DRM and possible DVD authoring restrictions too far, because at some point the user experience will suffer to a point where it's no longer worth it...

The Rolls Royce flash video entitled Journey Through A Jet Engine does a very good job of showing how a jet turbine engine works, not only graphically showing the path that air takes through an engine, but also correlating that route with current rpm, temperature, and pressure values. Very cool...

The Smogbuster Fuel Disc is being promoted as a device that "significantly increases gas mileage and improves air quality" by emitting "holographic frequencies into the gas tank [that] change the molecular structure of the gasoline." The disc, about an inch in diameter, sticks to the bottom of the fuel tank and retails for $299. Now I don't know about you, but I'm flabbergasted that the SmogBuster turned out to be a hoax! OK, I'm actually more astonished that anyone actually paid almost $300 for a freakin' sticker! I mean, at least make it a magnet... ;-)

Take a look at "The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen Illustrated with Thirty-Seven Curious Engravings From The Baron's Own Designs and Five Illustrations by G. Cruikshank." Terry Gilliam's excellent 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was loosely based on these stories, and they're actually a lot of fun, although obviously a bit dated. ;-)

CNN reports that "Anheuser-Busch is pulling an advertisement planned for this year's Super Bowl that would have poked fun at last year's infamous 'wardrobe malfunction' that exposed Janet Jackson's breast during the halftime show." Budweiser's web site is apparently showing the ad, but I suggest checking out one of the links listed a bit down the thread at Metafilter. One comment in that thread makes the somewhat cynical but altogether plausible point that perhaps this is all a publicity ploy by Anheuser-Busch:

Step 1 - Create false controversy. "Free speech" and "censorship" are usually a good way to start.
Step 2 - Revel in the free buzz as people trip over themselves to defend you and attack the other side.
Step 3 - Profit!

Who knows... In any case, the commercial is pretty funny and not at all offensive, so I think this is much ado about nothing.

I had no idea, but apparently Matt Groening's Life In Hell characters were used in an Apple Macintosh ad around 1989. Check out a slideshow of the complete booklet.

Starwars.com has posted the opening title crawls from the entire Star Wars saga, including the upcoming Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

CNN reports that "An Oklahoma senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors." You can't make this stuff up... :-)

bloggingsundance.com predicts that the movie Murderball will be a winner after its debut at the film festival. What is Murderball, you ask?

Murderball is the story of the rivalry between teams of rowdy, “don’t feel sorry for me,” quadriplegic rugby players who create Mad Max-inspired wheelchairs and slam them into each with such force and speed that NASCAR fans would cringe. All of this carnage in an effort to get a ball—and two of the wheels on their wheelchair—across the goal.

Oh, and this is a documentary. Really. More details in the link...

I've mentioned Wikipedia a lot lately, mostly because I think it's a cool place to find information as well as just browse around. One interesting place to start is the Unusual Articles entry...

Google is previewing Google Video, which allows you to "search the closed captioning text of all the programs in our archive for relevant results ...[and] look through short snippets of the text along with still images from the show." There are more details at the About Google Video page...

Google has also raised the word limit in its search boxes to 32 (from 10), allowing for more complex and customized searches.

Update: I should have mentioned that Yahoo also released its own video search a couple of weeks ago. I haven't thorougly tested either one yet, so YMMV.

This post is a follow-up to my previous one in which I wrote about conservative organizations' condemnation of a video of cartoons featuring SpongeBob SquarePants (among others), claiming that it "promotes homosexuality in children." However, RobotJohnny.com has discovered a far more insidious threat that has obviously escaped these groups' attention: Bugs Bunny. ;-)

That someone had to even create that page as a satirical response is pretty sad, although it is pretty funny...

Slashdot reports that AOL is about to terminate access to Usenet. Let us all rejoice; the Eternal September has come to an end! ;-)

Update: Metafilter has some comments. Me too! ;-)

MSNBC reports that

The week he died, science-fiction humorist Douglas Adams was honored with an asteroid named after one of the characters from his classic "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" [asteroid Arthur Dent]. Now, almost four years later, Adams has his own name in the heavens as well — thanks to a campaign in which MSNBC.com played a part.

It was almost as if it was fated to be: the asteroid with the provisional designation 2001 DA42, which carries Douglas Adams' initials, the year in which he died, and the illustrious number "42," has now been renamed "Douglasadams." A fitting tribute to a gifted author who died before his time...

Most of you have seen Calvin and Hobbes' awesomely demented snowmen comics; if not, here is a good summary. Check out this "Snowy Tribute to Calvin & Hobbes" that has real-life versions of some of the comics. I think the car crash one is my favorite... :-)

For those of you that haven't yet heard of Wikipedia, it's a very cool "free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit." Jon Udell decided to examine the development of an entry, in this case the Heavy metal umlaut (links to page with embedded QuickTime movie). The movie not only demonstrates the genesis of a Wikipedia entry but also shows how various people attempted to display the umlaut over the "n" in Spinal Tap, among other things. :-)

At 8:29, the movie is a bit long-winded, but it does showcase the power of Wikipedia's collaborative nature. Here is the final entry in all its glory.

Check out Fast Times At Hero High, a great spoof of Fast Times At Ridgemont High that substitutes comic book superheroes for many of the roles in that film.

Johnny Carson died of emphysema yesterday at the age of 79. Johnny Carson was best known as the host of the Tonight Show for almost 30 years and is widely held as one of the best-liked TV personalities ever. Although his considerable talent is unquestionable, he is also responsible for starting the careers of many actors, comedians, and musicians, a legacy that will live on. This is quite a loss...

Update: The New Yorker has made the profile of Johnny Carson they first published in 1978 available online. It's a very nice article, going over his career up to that point as well as shedding some light on his usually private nature.

Update: Steve Martin wrote a touching letter to Johnny Carson for the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.

Check out the movie trailer for Fantastic Four. This looks pretty damn cool, although it appears that they're not totally faithful to the comic (don't get me started ;-). It's due out this July 4th...

Bunny Suicides is a series of cartoons that are a bit disturbing but still pretty funny. See for yourself...

The Beast lists its "50 Most Loathsome People in America" for 2004. The list includes each person's crime, a "smoking gun," and a suitable punishment. For example, here's an excerpt from one of my favorite entries:

23. Jerry Bruckheimer

Crimes: ... Master of the incoherent action sequence, full of unnecessary cuts and jittery close-ups. His rapidly multiplying CBS cop show empire is replete with ridiculously beautiful cops and scientists (and murderers and victims and witnesses) and impossibly stylish interiors...

Smoking Gun: Who brings a fucking Gatling gun to an asteroid?

Punishment: Made into shoes for Martin Scorsese.

I think a couple of them are a bit harsh, but for the most part this is pretty damn funny...

CNN reports that "Conservative Christian groups accuse the makers of a video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon characters of promoting homosexuality to children." This is just ridiculous. Although the premise of anything remotely suggestive in any of the cartoons mentioned is tenuous at best, a spokesperson for one of the conservative groups insists that "We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids. It is a classic bait and switch." (via Gothamist) Huh?

Vague inferences to cartoon character improprieties aside, the groups' actual complaint was over a single sentence in the "tolerance pledge" buried on the web site of the producer of the video, the We Are Family Foundation, founded by musician Nile Rodgers:

Tolerance is a personal decision that comes from a belief that every person is a treasure. I believe that America's diversity is its strength. I also recognize that ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry can turn that diversity into a source of prejudice and discrimination.

To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.

First of all, I know very few children who, after watching a video of cartoons, research the producers of the video by perusing their web site. Even if that were true, I just don't see the whole "brainwashing" thing happening from a single statement on diversity.

This made the national news yesterday, so I almost didn't post about it now that it's somewhat more "mainstream," but this just pissed me off. I was glad to see that the story on ABC News included an interview with Michael Medved, a conservative commentator, who said, "This kind of thing makes us look silly." Indeed.

While it's no substitute for MAME, Every Video Game is a very cool website that allows you to play a pretty decent selection of Nintendo, Game Boy, Sega, and arcade games via Java applets right in your web browser. Check it out!

Google's address in the Cook Islands is google.co.ck. OK, so this should only be funny if I'm like nine, but what are ya gonna do... :-)

Monday, January 24th, according to Cardiff University scholar Cliff Arnalls, who came up with an equation to calculate when the most depressing day of the year will be:

1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA. Where:
W: Weather
D: Debt
d: Money due in January pay
T: Time since Christmas
Q: Time since failed quit attempt
M: General motivational levels
NA: The need to take action

Oh, and "the fact that the most depressing day fell on a Monday was not planned but a coincidence." This really makes me look forward to returning to work next Monday...

A couple of months ago I mentioned that Google had bought Picasa, a digital photo management application. They have just released Picasa 2.0, which adds many very useful features to an already great application, including more retouching and editing tools; more file management options; the ability to automatically upload photos to popular online print services like Snapfish, Ofoto, and others; a "collage" feature that lets you make contact sheets and photo stacks; seamless integration with TiVo; and much more. Take the tour for a complete list of new features, or check out PC Magazine's review.

I've tried out many digital photo management applications, and I think that Picasa is by far the easiest to use and quite possibly the most feature-rich. The Timeline feature alone makes it worth it in my book, and the tight integration with Blogger is something that I have yet to use to its full potential. Best of all, it's free; download it now!

Engadget presents The Big Red Button (of Doom), begging for addition to your desktop. What does it do, you might ask? Why, it opens M$ Internet Explorer, of course! :-p

Speaking of ineffective goggles, check out Bill Gates' 1983 Teen Beat (?) photo shoot. Scary...

I'm not sure what to make of this Volkswagen Polo ad (page has embedded QuickTime movie). I can't see this being anything but a fake, but see for yourself...

Check out this great animated GIF spoof of The Lord Of The Rings...

I think Hot Links had the best comment about The Hasselhoffian Recursion: "The goggles! They do nothing!" Beware...

Just when I thought that Star Wars marketing could stoop no lower, I found this: Darth Tater. I must fight the urge to buy this, but I am somehow irresistably drawn to it. Damn you, George Lucas!

If you haven't yet seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, I highly recommend it. If you have, then you should definitely check out this Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard. Sweet! :-)

CNN reports that "The U.S. military rejected a 1994 proposal to develop an 'aphrodisiac' to spur homosexual activity among enemy troops but is hard at work on other less-than-lethal weapons." Other suggestions included "using chemicals that could be sprayed on enemy positions to attract stinging and biting bugs, rodents and larger animals" and "creating 'severe and lasting halitosis' to help sniff out fighters trying to blend with civilians."

So basically the taxpayers' money was used to fund research into creating flamboyant, pungent enemies... ;-)

MSNBC reports that "A federal judge Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution 'a theory, not a fact,' saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion." I posted about this a couple of months ago, and I'm very happy to see this decision. I only hope this sets a precedent that other school districts heed...

This Pac-Man shirt is pretty cool. Some of the comments are, um, interesting... ;-)

Recent photos suggest that W is an iPod user. Wonkette jumps on this opportunity to speculate on his playlist:

• "Brilliant Mistake," Elvis Costello
  
• "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," U2
  
• "Search and Destroy" By Iggy And The Stooges
  
• "Oops I Did It Again," Britney Spears
  
• "Party At Ground Zero," Fishbone
  
• "Give Me Another Chance," Big Star
  
• "If I Ruled The World," Nas
  
• "Long Distance Drunk," Modest Mouse
  
• "Kill The Poor," Dead Kennedys
  
• "World Of Fantasy," The Five Stairsteps
  
• "My Favorite Mistake," Sheryl Crow
  
• "Nice Work If You Can Get It," Ella Fitzgerald
  
• "I Looked All Over Town," Magnetic Fields
  
• "May The Man Who Has His Finger On The Button Have A Lovely Day Today," Bobby Bare
  
• "Ballad Of The Big Nothing," Elliot Smith
  
• "I've Got The World On A String," Erroll Gardener
  
• "Rock The Casbah," The Clash
  
• "Everybody Wants To Rule The World," Tears For Fears
  
• "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish," The Smiths
  
• "Sitting On Top Of The World," Howlin Wolf
  
• "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta," The Geto Boys
  
• "The Fightin' Side Of Me" Merle Haggard
  
• "Let The Idiot Speak," Old 97's

Wow, I think she pretty much covered everything there. Any suggestions? :-)

Check out Stereoscopic Vision In JavaScript, a page that demos how a "simple JavaScript program can dynamically generate [an ASCII stereoscopic] image on a web page." You might not want to try this first thing in the morning like I did, though, because now my eyes hurt... ;-)

The Washington, D.C. radio station 99.1 WHFS used to be a "modern and alternative" rock station. Now it has suddenly changed formats to El Zol 99.1, a Latino station. If you try http://www.whfs.com, you'll see their new logo, but I refuse to drive traffic to their site by actually linking to them.

WHFS was one of the few local stations where you could hear cool, interesting, unique music, a welcome change from the typical crappy Clear Channel programming omnipresent on other "rock" stations. It really blows that they're gone, and although abrupt format changes are apparently the norm in the radio business, the suddenness of this stings all the more...

Update: DCRTV has a nice tribute to WHFS that includes a short history of the station as well as interviews with personalities that worked there.

I've mentioned the Ali G Show before, and I will reiterate my assertion that if you haven't watched this hilarious show, you really should.

The show's purported Kazakhstani character Borat nearly got lynched in a recent appearance at a rodeo in which he was supposed to sing The Star-Spangled Banner. He began by announcing his support of the United States' war on terror, exclaiming, "I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards," and "And may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq." He ended his act by "[launching] into a butchered version of The Star-Spangled Banner that ended with the words 'your home in the grave.'" Needless to say, the crowd was just a little bit rowdy after that, and he hustled out of there before he got himself shot.

I so want to see this episode now... :-)

Update: The New Yorker interviewed Roman Vassilenko, the press secretary for the Embassy of Kazakhstan. In the wake of The Ali G Show, he obviously "wants to clear up a few misconceptions about his country:"

Women are not kept in cages. The national sport is not shooting a dog and then having a party. You cannot earn a living being a Gypsy catcher. Wine is not made from fermented horse urine. It is not customary for a man to grab another man's khrum. Khrum is not the word for testicles.

The mere fact that the show has actually caused confusion is pretty funny, although I guess I'd be a little chagrined if Ukraine was portrayed in that way. I'd like to think that I could have a sense of humor about it, but...

As most of you probably know, the hockey season has been delayed by a dispute between the NHL and NHLPA over several issues. ESPN has a nice summary of events contributing to the current lock-out. I'd like to think that they'll come to an agreement, but I think this season (and maybe even part of next) won't happen. I miss my fantasy hockey league... :-(

To follow up on czar's post of yesterday, here's another aviation sighting you (thankfully) don't see every day. Snopes confirms that passengers flying out of Hong Kong in August 1999 had the misfortune of seeing the wreckage of Mandarin Airlines Flight 642, an MD-11 which crashed upon landing and ended up adjacent to the runway. Any nervous flyers were definitely not reassured...

The Atari Times is offering a Quake 3 map of the Atari 2600 game Adventure. I would try this out, but I don't even have Quake 3... :-(

Metafilter reports that the "Library of Congress just published an online collection of approximately 2,240 Civil War maps, with information about the collection and a History of Mapping the Civil War." Very cool...

Let me begin by saying that I believe that there is a lot that we'll never know about what went on in Abu Ghraib and other detention centers. However, I was quite interested to read Reuters' report on the court martial of Charles Graner, the alleged "ringleader" of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. His lawyer's rationalizations beat any Chewbacca/Jackie Chiles parody of a defense:

A lawyer for Charles Graner, accused ringleader in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, on Monday compared piling naked prisoners into pyramids to cheerleader shows and said leashing inmates was also acceptable prisoner control.
...
"Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?" Guy Womack, Graner's attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist's court-martial.
...
Womack said using a tether was a valid method of controlling detainees. "You're keeping control of them. A tether is a valid control to be used in corrections," he said. "In Texas we'd lasso them and drag them out of there."

Even the Twinkie defense seems plausible after this...

My latest choice for MP3 Of The Moment is related to the post below about the man who called 867-5309 in every North American area code to see whether the phone companies really disconnected the number. Enjoy Tommy Tutone's 867-5309 (Jenny) !

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines donated an old 747 to an aviation museum near Amsterdam, but the plane was too big to land at the museum's airstrip. Not a problem, just remove the wings and the tail and float it all on a barge down the canals to the museum. Lots of great pix.

Most of you probably remember the 1982 Tommy Tutone song 867-5309 (Jenny). If not, you're going to make me feel old again. ;-p Anyway, when the song first came out, people of course tried to dial that number themselves, supposedly leading to phone companies not giving out that number anymore. Well, someone has taken it upon himself to see whether phone companies actually shelved the number for good in the web page Jenny, are you there? (867-5309). The site lists the results of systematic calls to 867-5309 in every North American area code, and although many of them are "out of service" or something similar, some calls actually connected to someone.

Those zany North Koreans are at it again! The BBC reports that "North Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest arch enemy - the wrong haircut," stressing the "'negative effects' of long hair on 'human intelligence development,' noting that long hair 'consumes a great deal of nutrition' and could thus rob the brain of energy." This is just weird even for them...
Slashdot

The Cassini-Huygens probe recently took some photos of Saturn's moon Iapetus. Hmmm... what does this remind you of? :-)

This Israeli McDonalds commercial for the "McShwarma" is a pretty good Pulp Fiction spoof...
Hot Links

Garrett Birkel has taken it upon himself to annotate and update Neal Stephenson's 1999 essay In the Beginning...was the Command Line, resulting in The Command Line In 2004. I think it's great that Neal Stephenson supported this endeavor...

"Google has fully integrated the past 20 years of Usenet archives into Google Groups, which now offers access to more than 800 million messages dating back to 1981. This is by far the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and a fascinating first-hand historical account.

[They] compiled some especially memorable articles and threads in the timeline" on their 20 Year Archive page. Pretty cool...

The 9.0 earthquake near Indonesia responsible for the tsunami that catastrophically affected so many countries in South Asia has caused some permanent, albeit minor, effects to the Earth as a whole. Australian National University scientists report that "much of the Earth was still 'ringing like a bell' two weeks after the December 26 earthquake" and that "hyper-sensitive gravity measuring equipment showed minute reverberations may continue for weeks." The movement associated with this oscillation could correspond to as much as a "millimetre of vertical motion of the earth." This observation correlates with the theory of other scientists speculating on the larger effects of the quake: "Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake... caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis." Furthermore, some geophysicists believe that the quake "permanently altered the map of Asia by moving some small islands up to 20 metres (66 feet)."

Update: Slashdot had a post leading me to a page with "synchronized" before and after photos of the tsunami's effect on different coastal areas. I've seen many videos and photos in the past couple of weeks, but seeing the comparison in this way highlights the devastation...

Update: ABC News reports that:

The South Asian earthquake that spawned deadly tsunami waves also shifted water levels by at least 3 feet in a geologically sensitive Virginia well some 9,600 miles away from the epicenter, researchers say.

The well near Christiansburg, which started oscillating about an hour after the magnitude 9 quake near Sumatra on Dec. 26, is particularly sensitive to movements in the Earth and is monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Update: "NASA [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters." There are some more exact figures in the article, along with some comparisons to other natural phenomena.

Fox Network's official Family Guy blog (!) is "the only place that you'll be able to see the return of Family Guy every step of the way along the production process." As many of you probably heard, the brisk sales of the Family Guy DVD sets and the popularity of reruns on Comedy Central have convinced Fox to "uncancel" the show. I am definitely psyched to see new episodes...

"To Fly is Everything..." is "a virtual museum covering the invention of the airplane." There is a lot to see here, including movie and photo galleries, links to simulators of early aircraft, QuickTime virtual reality models, early aviation patents, and more. Definitely worth a visit if you're into aviation (as I am, obviously)...

100 years after the publication of five of Albert Einstein's most revolutionary papers, The Economist has an article making the claim that "A century after Einstein's miracle year, most people still do not understand exactly what it was he did. Here, we attempt to elucidate." Although I'm at least somewhat familiar with most of his theories, I found this article very interesting and informative.

Coincidentally, I came upon an Albert Einstein action figure at ThinkGeek that's pretty fun... :-)

Do you remember The Beagle Bros? If you used an Apple computer in the early '80s, chances are you recognize one of their products or their logo. Check out The Beagle Bros Online Museum to see if anything jogs your memory. Although I was more of a Commodore guy back then, this definitely brought back some fond memories...

If you're a flickr addict like I am (or even if you've just started exploring there), then you'll love Slickr. Slickr grabs flickr images from a particular user, group, tags, etc., and creates a really nice screensaver. Very neat...