In a gentle, wandering style, Philip Greenspun discusses some of the interesting features of life on our planet. It's all good weekend reading, but the last paragraph had a neat factoid that I never knew:

We humans have managed to speed up the Earth's rotation enough to shorten each day by 10 microseconds by impounding water behind dams in rich countries, which tend be at high latitudes. The dams pull water away from the the equator, where it was spinning with a high linear velocity. By conservation of angular momentum the Earth is forced to spin a little bit faster when the mass of water is pulled inwards, just as ice skaters spin faster when they pull their arms in.

Everybody, to the north pole!

Should you wish to say goodbye the only proper way, over soul-igniting Mexican food and brain-tingling margaritas, come out to my last supper at Los Dos Molinos next Tuesday. RSVPs are requested.

• Probing the Power of Corked Bats: "The boost a slugger gets from a corked bat is highly overrated."
• Hit or Stand Blackjack Strategy Game and Trainer: Learn how to be smart about losing money.
• Let's get to the bottom of this, once and for all: "How crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice?"
• It looks like cell phone numbers will be portable by November. Sweeeeeeeet.

• The Hook Online: Tips for Hookers Escorts. Why must I change my name?
• Pill Culture Pops: Manhattanites swallow the red and blue pills. Why cope? There's a pill for that.
• Beverage Blog: Two guys who know how to write focus their energy on that which quenches. Ahhhhh...
• PwC UK fires 2,400 via text message. Beep-Beep-Ouch
• NYT: Grads Face Tougher Job Market; oh, you knew?
• NYT: Video Game Killing Builds Visual Skills

Not much can shock Howard Stern. But Steven MacKay did. McKay stuck his tongue out on Stern's radio show two years ago. It wasn't the act itself that stunned Stern, who had MacKay on the show to promote his band. Rather, it was MacKay's tongue, which was forked like a snake's.

Read the whole story.

Joshua Allen gives a 20 point breakdown of his month long stay in a less than stellar motel. It's funny without trying too hard and it includes the right details to give the reader a bit of perspective.

The Japanese have been innovators in many industries and feel they have found a possible panacea for their economic troubles: hugs. Says a Japanese businessman: “Japan is suffering from deflation and I think there are a lot of people who want to be helped.”

Have we seriously come to hugs as a last resort? I find this disturbingly absurd, and pray we don’t see this in Bush’s next economic stimulus package…Perhaps a hug packaged with a bottle of Zoloft will do just the trick.

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New Castle Brown Ale Ice Cream. If someone understands the allure of beer flavored ice cream, please explain it to me.

A team of scientists trying to become super heros has figured out how to make humans stick to things. The final solution involved "tape". Lest you be disappointed, know that the tape used is very special tape. In fact, the tape mimics the micro hairs all over geckos' palms that allow them to stick to anything they damned please.

The scientists note that this technology could conceivably be used by humans wishing to climb buildings. The scientists go on to point out that this really would be more of a Geckoman than a Spiderman. You see it's because the underlying technology... oh forget it.

This is what happens when you mix an electronic geek and too much free time. Enjoy, and if you figure it out, invite me over for a beer!