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Columbia University Wiki

Columbia University has a wiki. Is this the first University in the country to do so?

Get Paid More

An article in the New York Times discusses the use of publicly available information in salary negotiations: “If information is power, then most employees who enter salary negotiations are holding pea shooters while the boss is encased in a Kevlar vest.” Smart employers and employees already use these sources of information to set competitive salary ranges for new openings. Hopefully better informed employees will help address the equity issues created by the dumb employers.

Running the Numbers

Running the Numbers is a compelling gallery of images focused on the intersection of art and statistics.

Lost Cities

Photos of ancient, abandoned cities. And the Fabulous Ruins of Detroit.

Norton Antivirus 2007

I decided to ditch this repugnant program from my computer entirely today, despite having some 240 days left to my subscription. It just wasn’t worth hvaing my system slowed down and I’m sick to death of hearing my hard drive churn under its burden. Norton Antivirus has become a bloated piece of crap and I can’t stand the damn thing anymore. I am looking for something better and lighter weight. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Extreme Eating

Every eaten 2,000 calories in a single meal item? You will. Elvis would be at home in today’s climate of gigantic calorie meals. If you don’t know the story of the Fool’s Gold Loaf, a sandwich consisting of peanut butter, jelly, and a POUND of bacon.

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time starts early this year (and in subsequent years.) Spring ahead, fall back, but exactly when: March 11th to be precise. Learn about the hows and whys of this strange invention.

Shoelaces

Ian is a weirdo, but a helpful one. He provides a myriad of ways to lace and tie your shoes.

Ride Accidents

After reading this site, I can safely say that I won’t be rushing out anytime soon to ride any carnival rides. Fairground Accidents apparently abound and the sense of danger is all too justified. Sadly, the victims are often children.

It takes a grim type of person to pull together this kind of information.  I recall that John Marr of Murder Can Be Fun fame put together an issue titled “Death at Disneyland” several years ago – it’s worth tracking down if you are into this kind of stuff.

Molecular Gastronomy, Part II

While I’m at it, I might as well point you to two very interesting molecular gastronomy source. The first is a collaborative recipe wiki, the FoodHacking wiki (nascent, but looks promising.) The second is a very nice set of resource links to various sites on the subject of molecular gastronomy, it’s practicioners, etc.

Molecular Gastronomy isn’t really something new, food scientists (or flavorists) have been doing weird things to our food for decades now. Seaweed and other assorted ‘gums’ seem to make a lot of appearances.