Tony Gwynn Retires! Long Play Tony Gwynn!

ESPN has a great article about Tony Gwynn, Junior and how he's come to play with the Padres. San Diego and Petco Park seem to have done him a lot of good. He's playing full time and his numbers are great (.300/.380 BA/OBP) and considerably up this year over his past career.

The Internet Culture Users Guide

I've thought for years about starting a class on internet culture, but I think this site may have already accomplished that goal: http://knowyourmeme.com

The beauty of a vibrator

Standing waves, created by matching the dimensions of a vibrating medium with the frequency of the vibration, are one of the easiest ways to demonstrate the connection between understanding science and creating beauty or art. They're the fundamental mechanism of any melodious musical instrument.

Once you grasp the concept, you can do other cool things as well, like creating a flaming music visualizer called a Rubens' tube.

It allows you to understand the mesmerizing patterns you can create just by shaking a steel plate with some powder on it.

Not so Nifty Link

Iran seems like a bad place to be at the moment. I've read reports of massacres.

Apparently, they're also sacking members of their national soccer team.

What goes up must come down

Going up:

Apparently, Intel employee and new Slashdot-celebrity (poor girl) Sarah Sharp is into open source rocketry. The stated point is to put a rocket into orbit. Most awesome.

Coming down:

A kid in Germany got hit in the hand a tiny meteor (which became a meteorite very shortly thereafter). He got a slight scar, but that's it.

Tank Man

It's been 20 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre and the taking of the iconic picture and footage of the man who stared down a column of tanks: Tank Man. PBS has a special on it.

As you're staring at the sun

My ridiculously powerful sneezes are often caused by stepping into a bright area from a dark area, usually caused by the sun. It turns out this is called the photic sneeze reflex.

It could be worse, I could sneeze every time I think about sex or when I'm full.

The Chemicals Between Us

In this video, Helen Fisher discusses her studies of the chemistry of love and lust. One interesting facet is that she warns that SSRI antidepressants tend to break the brain chemistry mechanisms for love.

Channelling Youtube

Two youtube channels here:

Lyrics for Video Games: Best one probably being Ducktales WITH Lyrics.

How It Should Have Ended: Best one I've seen is Ocean's 40.