Well, that was fast.

Great interview with Marco Arment, author of Instapaper. Posting this link mainly as an excuse to say: I wish Arment’s gyroscopic tilt-scrolling was implemented in nearly every app.

Excellent introduction to a difficult subject, as well as an overview of why our current private-market approach to this is a threat to nothing less than national security.

YouTube link

The RadioLab podcast is almost always excellent, but I challenge you to listen to the last story of the 1/25 show, “Lost and Found“, without tearing up.

MP3 download

Congratulations, Continental, on your ability to hire people who understand strictly typed variables.

Fewer Americans Filed Jobless Claims Over Past Month—Bloomberg News, January 6

Boehner Congress Already Turning Things Around—Wall Street Journal editorial page, January 7

I assume that this URL is a copyediting error, and not a comment on the relationship.

God help us when they figure out that urine is an ingredient of gunpowder.

During the busiest travel season of the year, travelers carrying thermoses or beverage cups – which could be used to conceal explosive materials – may be subject to extra scrutiny.—Christian Science Monitor

Plus, they’re unbreakable. They must be dangerous.

Dear TSA: liquid explosives have been debunked. Plastic explosives can be carried in many containers, including stomachs and recta. Dayenu already.

An oldie but goodie.

Gravity bends light, so we get to see some stars which are behind other objects—the light bends around those objects in a huge arc and hits us smack in the breadbasket.

Turns out, gravitational lensing has tons of other implications which I had never considered. Fraser and Pamela explain.

Fraser: Gravitational lensing is like Tivo for the universe.

Disturbing on just so many levels.

I’ve posted a few of these before, but this guy still cracks me up, especially “Let Me In”.

I just killed an hour watching YouTube, and it’s all the fault of Dann Sklarew and videos like these:

David and Lois Porten, Fancy Foods Show, Atlantic City 2002.

Dad is pointing at Mom because we all just had a serious giggle fit after she jammed that hat on his head.

You’d think that Penn would have alerted the alumni before moving to DC. Or going into the camera business.