Stuff we're reading / watching / listening to

[Digit]

Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

[Laser Jock]

Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

That's one of my favorites.

[Katya]

Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

If You Could Hie to Kolob!

[Katya]

Pivot Point, by Kasie West

[bobtheenchantedone]

We watched Braveheart last night, and then I had Parcel of Rouges stuck in my head for the rest of the night.

[Marduk]

We watched Braveheart last night, and then I had Parcel of Rouges stuck in my head for the rest of the night.

Oooh! I love Steely Dan!

[Imogen]

My choir's Christmas CD is on iTunes!! Everyone should go buy it! The album is "A Cathedral Christmas." If you just want my favorite songs we sing each year get the Gloria, "Lost in the Night," "Arise, Your Light Has Come," "Carol to the King," and "Deck the Halls." BUY OUR MUSIC IT'S REALLY GOOD!!!!

[Digit]

Wow. Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader Rachel Washburn traded in her pom poms for an M4 carbine to be First Lieutenant Washburn in Afghanistan.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

My choir's Christmas CD is on iTunes!! Everyone should go buy it! The album is "A Cathedral Christmas." If you just want my favorite songs we sing each year get the Gloria, "Lost in the Night," "Arise, Your Light Has Come," "Carol to the King," and "Deck the Halls." BUY OUR MUSIC IT'S REALLY GOOD!!!!

I totally would! Except that I don't iTunes. And it's only two days before Christmas. But remind me at like Thanksgiving next year, and I'll totally buy it.

[Portia]

Spatial Analysis Blog out of the UK. Found it via a surname distribution poster. (I write about how to make posters. That's the interesting thing about a writing job: you get to learn about things you never would have.)

[Portia]

I'm enjoying Fathom.info as well. Really interesting design projects on MLB team salaries vs performance, SNPs, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein composed of different fonts.

[Portia]

All this iTunes talk inspired me to sign into my account. The address on there is one from spring 2008. And a very old phone number. Wow. I have $0.09 and 21 albums in there.

[Katya]

That's the interesting thing about a writing job: you get to learn about things you never would have.

Cataloging has the same perks.

[Whistler]

cool sites

[Portia]

Thanks. I want Frankenfont for my birthday! B-)

[Digit]

Wow. Ferdinand Waldo Demara successfully pretended to be a ship's doctor, a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. The doctor impersonation is impressive:

After ordering personnel to transport these variously injured patients into the ship's operating room and prep them for surgery, Demara disappeared to his room with a textbook on general surgery and proceeded to speed-read the various surgeries he was now forced to perform, including major chest surgery. None of the casualties died as a result of Demara's surgeries.

After being exposed, the Canadian Army chose not to press charges.

[Katya]

The History of Future Folk which is now on Netflix and is utterly charming.

[Digit]

Average inheritance of Americans: $177,000. That is a surprisingly large number to me. I assume by "average" they mean the mean, which is widely skewed by the ultra-rich leaving their heirs hundreds of millions. If I'm correct, the median would have been a better measurement.

[SmurfBlueSnuggie]

Average inheritance of Americans: $177,000. That is a surprisingly large number to me. I assume by "average" they mean the mean, which is widely skewed by the ultra-rich leaving their heirs hundreds of millions. If I'm correct, the median would have been a better measurement.

Not for sure. Are they counting liquid asset inheritance only? If so, probably. But if the average includes the value of non-liquid estate items such as homes and cars, that would raise the lower end of average quite noticeably. Many who pass away don't leave much in bank accounts, but do leave a house and one or two cars.

[Katya]

I'm watching an old episode of Law & Order and it has Emily Deschanel (of Bones fame) as a rape victim, which is really odd because she's playing a meek victim instead of an unemotional scientist.