the blog quebecois

Well, I don't seem to have a lot of time tonight and tomorrow and the weekend are looking kind of iffy, so I thought I'd assign a bunch of reading. There will be a quiz on Monday.

I really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel . . .

Let me rephrase that. I start to get cautiously optimistic about Iraq when I see columns like this appearing in the Arab press. You also might want to look at Zeyad's Healing Iraq, which I've blogrolled. He's a young dentist in Baghdad, and he's getting a lot of well-deserved attention.

Then for a change of pace, The Worst Album Covers of All Time, courtesy of Jonah Goldberg in The Corner.

And last but not least, a nice article in The Weekly Standard on bluegrass. I'm not much of an aficionado when it comes to country music (a true country music fan wouldn't use words like aficionado, for starters) but I've always loved bluegrass, with its high lonesome tone and blistering instrumental virtuosity.

And with that, I am outta here. Have a good weekend, y'all.

Alas, the day's ruminations have produced no coherent theme, so let us give gnotalex's Big Box O' Links a shake and see what tumbles out.

This looks like a parody, but the address of Georgetown Law School is for real, and so is the case, apparently. It's about some dryasdust patent dispute, but note the names of the litigants. (Via Oxblog.)

Automation rides to the rescue of HTML illiterates such as myself. The Strange Banana will construct an endless series of webpages, suitable for blogs or what-have-you. If you don't like the design, just reload the page and generate another.

Ever notice how cars in movies always burst into flames the instant they collide with anything? Our favorite is when a car falling from a high place explodes the instant before it hits the ground. It's as though its gas tank gets panicky and detonates at the mere thought of striking Earth. Fortunately, the physics are not so cooperative.

From the Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics website, which explains in layman's language why a lot of Hollywood's most beloved conventions just don't translate to real life.

Ya think? Informative and entertaining.

Maybe someone with more programming skills than sense should combine this
(via The Poison Kitchen) and this (via Colby Cosh).

To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler -- oooh! Stackable tables!

I've got quite the potpourri for your delectation (translation: a bunch of lame links I found).

First up, a collection of java applets that allow you to explore concepts in game theory, such as the "Prisoner's Dilemma," and "Rock-Paper-Scissors." Not terribly flashy, but interesting, sort of.

Second is a list of a gazillion satellites that you can click on and view the earth from. Unfortunately I get vertigo at any height beyond 1,000 miles, so I didn't explore them all.

Strike three: a rather dumb game where you bounce a ping-pong ball off a paddle.

Let me rephrase that. A really dumb game.

catch a four leaf clover
maybe we'll get over
try and love might come your way
here i am, on a cloud

erykah badu

Point your mouse left or right to steer; click and hold the left button while moving the cursor up or down to control the speed or reverse direction.

Keep going until you find one that looks like a kitten. Then you can try this fascinating exercise in pattern-recognition. If you find one that looks like a kitten, it's probably time to quit.

This commercial for American Express, featuring Andy Roddick, is from a while ago judging by the comments on the YouTube forum. However, it's just appeared on Canadian TV, in support of the Rogers Cup next month in Toronto. Pretty imaginative, if I do say:

Or you can play it as a game (press the keyboard "3" key for the 3D version).

Or you might remember this from a few days ago. The same guy gave Pong the pixilation treatment. (Yes, yes, he should have had the "paddles" on the sides, moving up and down, with the "ball" travelling horizontally. But he didn't. Flip your monitor on its side if you're such a purist.)

Here's an easy way to add a fully-functional Google map to your blog or webpage. Why you would want to do that I don't know. It's your blog, after all, and one day you'll have to answer to your spouse and/or God about it.

Click here, then on the red WikiMapia button at the upper right of the page, then on the "Map on your page" dropdown option. A box will appear that you can drag to the location that you want (you can zoom in to the maximum resolution and also resize the borders to whatever rectangular shape you like). Cut and paste the HTML code into your page and there you go.

It's unnatural, I tell you. If we were meant to study roofs from such a height, we would have been equipped with stilts. Warning: Music and sound effects. It's a quite large QuickTime file, so you might want to let it buffer for a few seconds before clicking the Play button.

Update: Hmmph. What it seems to do is duplicate my Google ads in an iframe box. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I can always use the extra exposure.

Odd. I've looked at a couple of other blogs using it, also with Google ads, and there doesn't seem to be a problem. I've also crossposted it at Dodgeblogium; again, with no problem.

Aw, screw it. I'm too tired to figure this out and I'm going to bed. Sorry to disappoint. I've heard, though, that if you click on those Google ads, wonderous things can happen.

Update2: Now it's working. Goodnight, already.