The winners of the 5K

The winners of the 5K Award have been announced. Interestingly, an ecommerce site won top honors. My favorite entry, The Logical Fallacy of Being, did not make the cut in any of the categories.

What makes people use different

What makes people use different smiley constructions? In the group of people with which I regularly correspond, the compact and faster-to-type “:)” is used, but “:-)” seems to be a popular choice for other folks. Is “:-)” Laurel to “:)“‘s Hardy? Does the nose serve a purpose that warrants the extra two keystrokes (shift-colon-right parenthesis versus shift-colon-dash-shift-right parenthesis)? Here’s a simpler question:

Or you can view the results without voting.

So, why didn’t anyone tell

So, why didn’t anyone tell me that Radiohead’s OK Computer was simply fabulous? Well, people did tell me, and the critics seemed to like it, but why didn’t someone sit me down and force me to listen to it? I hadn’t heard the album at all until about three days ago because I’d pretty much given up on rock music entirely. Now I’m not so sure.

fitter happier reminds me of the Cluetrain Manifesto and the opening monologue by Renton in Trainspotting. Same style, similar message.

You can make yourself look

You can make yourself look like Bender from Futurama while you are playing Quake 3. I’m definitely going to try this one out…it says it even has custom sounds. Now, if there were only a Dr. Zoidberg skin….

A very interesting article in

A very interesting article in the Science Times section of the NY Times about The Human Family Tree. Using DNA from various sources and some assumptions (some of which are better than others), scientists have been able to genetically trace the migration of homo sapiens from Africa to pretty much everywhere else in the world. Interestingly, their hypothesis includes one woman and one man from whence all humanity sprang….perhaps there’s hope for the Bible’s account of things after all.

One odd phrase near the end of the article had me puzzled though: “fearsome Neanderthals”. I don’t know that scientists have much of an idea how Neanderthals behaved…they may have looked scary and strange to modern eyes, but who’s to say they didn’t have love in their hearts?

The thought is that by

The thought is that by talking about my (potential) Webbys’ acceptance speech so much, I’ve jinxed myself out of winning. It’s all part of my plan to spirit Metababy to victory.

Today is off to a

Today is off to a good start. I noticed that the lilac bushes in my backyard are starting to bloom.