It does help to be a rocket scientist if you want to build one. A Real Rocket Bike – Popular Science

With geeks like these, who needs the NSA? Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists | Applefritter

Jeremy Zawodny points out that Gmail’s spam filtering has gotten pretty good. (Using Gmail as My Spam Filter (by Jeremy Zawodny)) Combine its spam filtering with the ability to download your Gmail messages into an ordinary mail client (like Thunderbird) via POP, and what you’ve got is a pretty kick-

As bloated as I’ve gotten on christmas cookies and candy over the past few weeks, I’ve started yearning for a better snack food. OK, honestly, I’m not all that bloated, despite the huge quantities of delicious treats that our many loving friends and family members sent to us. It’s just that I can’t

“It is time we conceded a basic fact of human discourse: either a person has good reasons for what he believes, or he does not.” Sam Harris: Science Must Destroy Religion

It’s a bummer when the hard drive containing all your memories crashes. The man with the perfect memory – just don’t ask him to remember what’s in it

Alan Turing: “intellectual activity consists mainly of various kinds of search.” Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson

The Blog | David Rees: What Would D. Boon Do? | The Huffington Post (via Scot)

Mr Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious! YouTube – SNL – The Chronic of Narnia Rap

Clara has been completely enchanted by The Nutcracker for the past several weeks. She first heard the music at preschool, where they’ve got two different CDs of the ballet, and the teachers reported about two weeks ago that she was requesting these CDs and listening intently to them for long periods

Actually, I thought the Circus Chimera was charming and a bit quaint, but Neal Pollack has a different take

Wired News: Passion of the Spaghetti Monster