Lenny Cosmos

What if your city's mayor was truly eccentric?

We have plenty of wacky politicians, but none so colorful as he. From the article:

"He makes eccentric suggestions (a statue of Ukraine’s most famous poet should be erected in Africa) and staffing decisions (firing a zoo director for not finding a mate for an elephant), and personal gestures (offering to sell his kisses in a lottery)."

Happy Indian independence day

Let us celebrate the only way I know how: with links.

Turns out small town police aren't the only folks who have a hard time recognizing people; superstar Shah Rukh Khan was recently detained for two hours for having a suspicious name. The trouble was cleared up when an Indian MP got on the phone with customs officials and told them that they don't have to worry about terrorism, SRK wouldn't do that. It would be like if the Indian customs officials detained NPH because he shares a surname with a certain undesirable.

Also, check these guys out: bridges that are alive. Seems like something that you would find in Rivendell. Now I really want to go there.

Finally, if you are in the Philadelphia area, you can go to the Festival of India between 1:00 and 7:00 today. I don't know how well-advertised this is, since even though I knew that it was going to happen I had a hard time finding evidence online for it.

Paul Krugman: hyper nerd

Nobel-winning economist, New York Times columnist, and all-around dreamboat Paul Krugman is, as it turns out, a gigantic nerd.

At Worldcon he had a nice, long conversation with Charlie Stross about science fiction, technology, and all that good stuff. Audio isn't great but some interesting topics are mentioned. It's nice to hear about science fiction from an economic perspective; I find economic arguments for technological prognostications much more compelling than those of bright-eyed technophiles.

Moon walk explained

No, not that one.

Some folks at NASA started examining why astronauts walk so funny on the moon. It has to do with the pressurization of the space suit.

“Space suits are effectively reducing the gravity level by supporting part of the weight of everything that’s being transported,”

It might be a minor thing, but it's neat little look into one of the more prosaic challenges facing space travellers.

I'm Craig!

Hurrr derp derp derp.

News in Brief: what does Sotomayor bring to the table?

Once again, The Onion manages to alter the news enough to make me happy.

Time perception correlated to anger

I was cruising Boing Boing today, and found a neat little bit of psychology.

Suppose you are supposed to attend a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, but it was moved forward two days.

What day is the meeting on?

"If you think it's now changed to Friday, then you're someone who thinks of themselves as moving through time, whilst if you think the meeting is now on Monday, then you're more passive, and you think about time passing you by."

A clever trick indeed. It also tells you something about yourself-- how peeved you are feeling. Apparently.

It also works the other way around: if you think of yourself moving through time, you will become angrier. INTERESTING STUFF. Reminds me of that trick where if you make an expression that is related to an emotion, you will begin to feel that emotion. Our neural hardwiring is really a botched job, with all of these nonsinsical feedback loops. Damn you, Divine Watchmaker! Should have taken a few more classes.

Any thoughts on what else we might want to include in our caravan of wonders?

60 aerial photos

Some of these are really interesting.

Fallout game concept art

A sample for Thomas's character.

Chest Text Reads "The Amazing Mr Brain"

Bipedal dog!

It so crazy!

Killing me won't bring back your honey!

In part of his ongoing series My Year of Flops, Nathan Rabin deconstructs the filmography of the celebrated Mr. Nicholas Cage.

OH MY LORD

Gentlefolk, I believe I have found the best website in the entire interverse.

The vampire's timeless appeal

A speculative article on our perpetual fascination with vampires. Also touches upon the history of vampires in Western literature.

You don't have to agree with the whole article, but it's interesting nonetheless.