It’s been a long, long time since my last post. I do have lots and lots of pictures to share, and a few stories as well, but for some reason I haven’t been bitten by the writing bug in a while and so those things may have to wait. But that certainly doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. I am definitely in the camp of people who believe that the internet is not a bad influence in the literary lives of our younger generations, and while I certainly watch a whole lot of video clips online, I’m just as likely to be reading any of several dozen blogs or news sources, or watching one of the fantastic TED or Google Talks.

In that vein, I wanted to share a comprehensive (not exhaustive – there’s a lot I left out, amazingly) collection of my links and bookmarks – everything from news sources to my friends who blog to stupid YouTube video aggregators. Some of these may be familiar, some not, but all are worth a look (all links open in a new tab or window).

Recent Finds:

Best of Craigslist – from novel-length explanations of why you should or should not be cruising the personals section looking for Mr./Ms./Mrs./? Right to where to get a duck egg that someone’s cat brought home for cheap. Always entertaining!

Best of Wikipedia – Twice a day, here you will find bizarre things on, or recently removed from, Wikipedia that you had no idea existed (today: “Triboluminescence“). Archiving this junk is exactly why the internet was invented. Except for porn that is.

Racialicious - Thoughtful, varied blogging on race issues and non-issues in contemporary culture.

News and politics:

The Daily Dish, by Andrew Sullivan – Hands down the most important political blog out there, and winner of the “Best Blog” category at least this year and probably previously. Written by a self-described “conservative” British expat who is homosexual, HIV-positive and married to an American. Thoughtful, exhaustive discussions and debates span the gamut of politics, religion, culture, war, civil rights and more.

Wonkette - A hyper-savvy political satire blog. Skews left but leaves no political misdeed unexposed, usually with a Blingee-enhanced picture attached.

Freakonomics - For when I want a fix of off beat economics-related wool-gathering. I highly recommend the book as a great way for those a bit intimidated by “the dismal science” to get initiated, and I am certainly convinced by their thesis that incentives (positive and negative) drive most of our behavior.

Climate Progress – I will refrain from listing the half-dozen or so “green” blogs (Green, Inc. being the first stop) and sites that I attempt to keep on top of, but this one is worth mentioning as a premiere source of climate change related no-holds-barred political commentary, backed up with studious scientific analysis. THE place for talking points when attempting to educate the flat-earth (aka climate change denial) crowd.

Also see: NYT, The Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones, Reuters AlertNet, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Al-Jazeera English.

Arts and Culture:

Boing Boing – A directory of wonderful things that is one of the best sources of information for our wired, connected lives. Used to really capture the zeitgeist, but its writers are beginning to show their age and predictable patterns emerge. Thankfully they get an incredible variety of guest bloggers, from my buddy who helped launch the fantastical Atlas Obscura to a couple of Muslim bloggers who turned me onto All Things Pakistan.

Judith Warner – Blogs about women, motherhood, feminism and politics for the NYT. Good because it’s authentic.

Vice - Dirt dog takes over the mainstream. So played, and yet who else is there?

Consumerist - Look here before you buy anything. Also teaches you how to get results from any customer service rep in existence.

Things You Wouldn’t Know If We Didn’t Blog Incessantly (TYWKIWDBI) – Lots of interesting posts, from rare butterflies to old-timey photos.

Also see: Jezebel (and all of the other Gawker sites), Losanjealous, Buddyhead, Arab Parrot, This Isn’t Happiness

Comics:

Penny Arcade – About video games and stuff.

The Fart Party – About a whiny chick in Brooklyn.

Alien Loves Predator – Playing with dolls.

Foreign:

Pink Tentacle – Weird Japanese stuff.

Pestiside - Hungarian gossip in English.

PUFFF.hu – Hungarian electronic music site.

Funnies:

FailBlog - A guaranteed dose of “no matter how shitty I feel about my life, there’s always someone that’s more of a jackass than me.”

Fuck You, Penguin – Buy the book!

Item Not As Described – As described.

Dickipedia – A wiki of dicks. People, that is.

Also see: Passive Aggressive Notes Dot Com

Media:

The Big Picture – Awesomest mainstream photo blog I’ve found yet.

Pandora - Make up your own damn radio stations.

SomaFM - Groove Salad is the best ambient background funk around.

KCRW - One of the best NPR stations in the world.

Nations Photo Lab – Where I get prints done. Great prices and fine quality.

Today’s Big Thing – Viral videos.

Useful tools:

Flip - Makes your text uʍop ǝpısdn.

TinyURL - Makes a long link short.

Google News Timeline – Expresses news stories from a variety of selectable sources in a timeline that goes back decades.

GapMinder.org – Statistics about the thorny issues out there.

Good Guide – How environmentally and socially sustainable is your shampoo? How about your toothpaste?

Friends:

Curious Expeditions

Japandroo

YellyElly

Second Skin

Working Definition

Whew, that was a long list! You can see I sort of petered off there at the end. Probably I should get back to looking for a job now. Post your favorite links in the comments!

Via The Daily Dish, somebody with a lot of time on their hands (or not?) has tapped into a fascinating little game:

Newest mental toy:

1. Go to Google.
2. Type in the beginning of a common phrase (e.g., “how do I..”, “where are…”, “is barack…”)
3. Look at the drop-down list of suggested searches.
4. If appropriate, laugh riotously.
5. e.g.,

Try it yourself, and add any fun results in the comments. Or if you want to send me a screenshot for a later post, email it to me at info [at] what-what [dot] com.

A beautiful and thought-provoking video/animation from Bruce Branit of a future I am certain will be accessible:

No, the title of this post does not refer in any way to this blog, it refers to the latest novel by Dave Eggers (“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”), which tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. It’s a novel, as opposed to autobiography, because while Deng’s story is told in the first person, it recounts experiences of both himself and others, the effect being to illustrate the general plight of the more than 27,000 young male refugees from the Second Sudanese Civil War who attempted (and to some degree, succeeded) to escape the violence by going to Ethiopia, then Kenya, on foot. This is an interesting facet of the story, as it perhaps reflects a cultural identity as being group-like in nature, as opposed to our western idea of the sole individual path. But I’ll leave those thoughts for another time.

The book was given to me by my uncle, though it has been recommended by others, and he said I’d be hooked almost instantly. I’ve only read about 40 pages, and can already tell you that he was right. However, the reason I’m writing about it now is that something in particular jumped out at me from the first chapter. At this point in the story, Deng has been living in the U.S. for a few years, and although he has been warned about theft and violence in the low-rent community where he lives, he naively opens the door to some strangers and is robbed and beaten. After being intially pistol-whipped and subdued, he begins to take stock of what they might steal:

Lying here, I begin to calculate what they can take from me. I realize with some satisfaction that my computer is in my car, and will be spared. But [Deng's roomate] Achor Achor’s new laptop will be stolen… The records of all the meetings, the finances, thousands of e-mails.

For a victim of civil war, who for years has hidden, been shot at, seen friends killed by planes, soldiers, disease, starvation, even taken by lions, has walked hundreds if not thousands of miles through harsh terrain, then been transplanted to a new and mind-bogglingly different place, a laptop computer is the first thing that he thinks of.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clever video, mainly for geeks.

Even though this video doesn’t explicitly say so (and even references a “third way” in operating systems), I am not necessarily a Mac person. I think Macs are great, but they’re sort of a status symbol. You can do anything on a PC that they can, and if you’re at least semi tech-savvy you won’t get any viruses. Anyway, I’m not trying to start any beef – just watch the video.

UPDATE: The masses (well, a measly 22 of you – God this is pointless, isn’t it?) have spoken! The What-What favicon winner is ‘Glasses Stencil’! It should appear in your browser/favorites menu shortly. If not, you may have to clear the browser cache (a.k.a. ‘Delete Temporary Internet Files’).

“Hi, I’m the What-What dot com favicon!”

Previously:

So it’s long past due for me to add a “favicon” to this site. What is a favicon, you ask? A favicon is the little icon that appears next to the web address of a website, as well as on your favorites list. It adds a small visual distinctiveness to an otherwise cluttered mess of text-based links.

See some examples of where favicons go by clicking here and here.

I have gone through a lot of my photographs from over the years and come up with a few ideas, all of which I feel describe myself and/or this website in some way. Vote for your favorite, or if none of them really mean anything to you, suggest a concept in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.

Here are the candidates:

“He-No” face – a Japanese way of drawing a face using hiragana

“Rebel stencil” – from Kuta Beach, Bali

“Glasses stencil” – from above the tunnel in Budapest

“Lenin Sun” – from Statue park, Budapest

“Lotus” – from somewhere in Japan

“Fish graffiti” – from Padova, Italy

“Peace rap” – from somewhere in Romania

One thing to keep in mind is that a favicon is displayed usually at 16×16 pixels, or one-quarter the size of what you see here. That’s the reason I’ve kept them so small.

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