Thane Plambeck

Some possibly nonexistent people Google hasn't heard of, except perhaps on this web site, after it crawls it

Darlene Kaelker

Jesse Gilliss

Armando Hardwick

[found using the random person generator]

Note added later, 2 Jan 2005: It's working! Google's "I'm feeling lucky" takes you right back to this page.

Yet another note, via the yak: altavistincantation.

I've heard of RTFM, but what does STFW mean?

the yak answers

What is a comfort vegan?

The definition is marred by

"definately"

One of those "misspell it, and I'll hate you" kind of words.

Blue Spirits

Level of fame: niche

Don Knuth at the NNDB (wtf?)

At the bottom of the page:

Copyright 2004 Soylent Communications

So Soylent Green is people, after all.

This is not the Jan from the Brady Bunch that I remember.

Found Poetry Slam

alex [500K]
bob [356K]
cole #1 [350K]
cole #2 [481K]
gloria [218K]
kim [418K]
roxy [400k]
sally [519K]

New acquisitions

Tribute to a Mathemagician [that's where Mo Tu Uv came from]

Algebraic Theory of Machines, Languages and Semigroups [nice; recommended by Stuart Margolis]

The Divine Comedy: The Inferno/the Purgatorio/the Paradiso [Ciardi translation. Christmas gift from Dad]

Mo Tu Uv

Mo Tu Uv

"Lichtenstein Adult? That will be $15, please"

More on the secret decoder rings

Bruce writes:

i'm glad you guys liked the rings. it was an idea i had back in october. i wanted to buy a high grade decoder ring but googling for hours turned up nothing. contacting half a dozen "custom" jewelry shops was unfruitful - they all said "nice idea, but we can't/don't do that sort of thing".

finally, i went to jan's brother chris, who works at ideo. he set me up with a stanford classmate of his who runs a design/fabrication shop (www.unovo.com). i don't know what they do normally, but they totally grokked the project and we exchanged e-drawings of several designs (while i was on vacation in europe!). i've attached two pics that they sent me of the manufacturing process.

yes roger, there is a groove inside the silver part and two posts in the purple part to hold it together. the metal is anodized aircraft aluminum. the letters were laser etched. i don't know if extras were made; one set was produced and had to be scrapped because the letter etching didn't take into account the different ring sizes.

i'm just glad that i can finally wear mine to work :)

[Attached photos: #1 laser etch sample; #2: Aluminum in lathe]

Disneyland Map [1964]

link

The Evil Genius of a King

link. Also—The Seer, and The Enigma of a Day.

From one web site:

Giorgio de Chirico was the inventor of pittura metafisica (metaphysical painting), a unique and enigmatic style which served as the precursor to many artistic movements including Dada, Futurism, and Surrealism. His cartoon-like dreamscapes, featuring classical statues, Italian piazzas, sinister shadows, mannequins, geometric objects, and the odd artichoke or bunch of bananas, remind one of childhood drawings, but with a menacing edge.

[Google I'm feeling lucky; or search]

Gulf coast Christmas, the first snow since 1895

Greg writes

Believe or not, we had a white christmas on the Gulf Coast here in in Texas. We drove down Friday aftertnoon to be with Beth's Dad and it started snowing about 10pm—by morning we had six inches!

PDWJG UKQ BKN XAEJC W LANIQPA LWH

Bruce sent a secret decoder ring and cryptogram in a nice box.

The ring fits me perfectly. Thanks Bruce! And you're welcome!

[more (Google); also, this from the deep archives.]

Beat Cal Christmas cookies

Cole and Owen delivered them to the Andersons, across the street.

The 5-6 Cornhuskers

My dad may have finished the NYT puzzle, but he had trouble spelling NEBRASKA on a Christmas cookie.

He also made a cookie commemorating the 5-6 record of the 2004 Nebraska Cornhusker football team—the first losing season since 1961.

NYT crossword

My dad completes today's (Friday) NYT crossword

Astronomy picture of the day

archive

Join the NSA

Learn about:

Two-Letter Words and Hooks
Three-Letter Words
Four-Letter Words that can be made from Three-Letter Words
Short J, Q, X and Z Words
Vowel Dumps
U-less Q Words

Join the NSA

Gottesman-Knill

Note to self: read about this. Start with this.