Is it a holiday today or not? Well, if you’re a politician, a banker or a mailman, it is. Otherwise, not so much. But hey, it’s an inconvenient month for two holidays, so let’s just have the one where everyone gorges themselves and then goes to the mall to fill up their credit cards.
It’s officially “that time of year.” I stopped by Target, needing to pick up a few groceries and other sundries, and couldn’t avoid the Christmas decorations. I know the layout of the target store I shop at pretty darned well, and usually can weave my way through the minefields of plastic santas and fake trees, but they’ve been moving things around on me this past year, and that included some of the decorations. Plus I’ve been seeing Christmas trees in the ads I zip past on my TiVo. We’re still six weeks away from Christmas, and I’m already starting to be annoyed by the stores pimping it at me. I think this means it’s time to avoid retail as much as possible until January, but damnit, it’s getting tougher every year as they extend “the season.” And to top it off, I’m sure google will decide this post is going to attract people who want to start shopping now, so there will be ads for “holiday crap” over there on the right. [reloads] Yep. Crap.
But hey, I’m not entirely grouchy. In fact, I’ve got an extra-large order of links for you today, so knock yourself out.
- I’ve thought Eva Longoria was a cutie for a while, but to find out that she Hunts Wild Pigs For Tamales for the holidays. Man. I’m in lust. [fark!]
- A Japanese expert uses breast size to shape body character analysis. See ladies, we’re not just staring at your chest, we’re figuring out your personality.
- Speaking of breasts, and proving that for every geeky fetish there’s a website, leiasmetalbikini.com offers exactly what you would expect from the name. [boing boing]
- Mitch got asked what’s the big deal about living in the city? I like his answers, and most of them apply to me, too. And if you’ve got the time to scroll into the comments section there’s some nice rants in there. [mitch]
- On a more serious note, there’s a campaign afoot to actually make Congress Read the Bills they’re about to vote on. Sounds like a great idea to me, but do you think anyone in Congress would actually vote for such a thing? Naw, their staffers will tell them it’s a dangerous idea. [claire]
- Surl Patel is building a cellphone at home and blogging it. Cool. He’s currently taking a break (due to family illness) from gathering parts for the Linux-based GSM phone, but hopefully there will be more news soon. [boing boing]
- Wanna play Risk, but don’t have a handful of friends to play with, and don’t want to buy some expensive software? Try Risk via Google Maps v0.9.4. [boing boing]
- Is a common cat parasite linked to schizophrenia? Dr. Fuller Torrey thinks
there is a link between early exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cats, and schizophrenia
and is testing an antibiotic to see if it’ll clear up the schizophrenia. [fark!] - The Northfield, MN Police chief can’t get off secret U.S. ‘no-fly’ watch list. Apparently his name is a bad one. Does anyone actually think this list is making air travel safer? [press-patch]
- And since we’re moving into what some might call conspiracy theorist territory, some scientists at MIT have done an empirical study On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets. Turns out they won’t do the trick for some frequencies which are reserved for use by the government. I’ve been pretty sure for years that tinfoil alone wouldn’t do the job, and am kind of disappointed the MIT propeller-heads didn’t test alternative materials. I’ve suggested to the mythbusters that more research is needed. [slashdot]