Mssv

Matt Groening stands up for Futurama (and some stuff about the Simpsons).

There were two things that caught my attention today in lectures. The first was a list of symptoms of mania (an abnormal emotional state, the opposite of depression):
i. Unfounded elation
ii. Hyperactivity
iii. Talkativeness and “flight of ideas”
iv. Distractivility
v. Impractical, grandiose plans
vi. Inflated self-esteem
vii. Reduced sleep
…and I thought, ‘I wonder if I know anyone who has those [...]

Correction to an earlier post: It seems I made a common mistake when I said that the Barry Norman film night tune (I Wish I Knew) was first written by Nina Simone. It was in fact first written and performed by the Bill Taylor Trio. Thanks to Tom for pointing this out.

Gift of life for heart girl – exactly how do you donate a heart? They say that a donor came forward, but presumably the heart has to come from a deceased person of the same age.

I normally don’t participate in web memes, but dammit, when they’re this funny there is no other choice. The whole ‘Pirates vs. Ninjas’ debate first originated from the Real Ultimate Power ninja site, and quickly spread through the web like wildfire (because, let’s face it, the site is cool, and by cool I mean totally [...]

Lots of interesting ‘howtos’

Two sides to every story – a funny, touching and strangely familiar story. Once you’ve read the post, click on the link at the top to read the other side’s account (Ben and Mena are a married couple working on a piece of software called Movable Type).

A maglev railroad to orbit – ‘I’ll say this for your plan, it is not lacking in ambition. The last time I heard of something on this scale of imagination, it was called a Dyson Sphere – bravo!’

Reasons to be cheerful:
People on Metafilter liked my post about aerogel (inspired when I saw these pretty photos). I’m very pleased about this – Metafilter is being swamped with too much news culled from CNN, Slashdot, Kuro5hin and other web news portals these days, so I thought the readers might like a change and see [...]

A nice post in Metafilter about how asking people out is simply a numbers game (the page is huge and while your browser will jump directly to the post, it may take a few seconds to load up).