Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I've been accumulating a stack of URLs and an even larger stack of open browser windows (taking up valuable RAM) while not feeling well enough to really concentrate on anything. So now I'm digging out, a little.

• Of possible use to my SCAdian and Marklander friends: "Medieval Marketplace is an online trading venue that provides the service of connecting purchasers with sellers of goods related to Renaissance and Medieval re-enactment and re-creation." Not a whole lot there yet, but if it catches on, it might provide an alternative to waiting until Pennsic to pick up some hard-to-find item.
• Thanks to vvalkyri, a story from the New York Times about a lesson for police recruits in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• Duct Tape Wallet "Made from Super Duct Tape (specifically engineered so that your wallet won't lift, peel, or get sticky)" I got extra bonus amusement value from seeing a friend of mine quoted at the bottom of the page.
• Rent-a-Negro.com, a reaction by an artist, to feeling like folks around her were treating her as some sort of cross-cultural emissary. "Supporting multiculturalism is an important part of building social clout. These days, it's on everyone's agenda. But how to start? Where do you find the people to diversify your life? What if you don't know any black people? You want to appear up to date, but just don't have the human resources. One public lunch with rent-a-negro and you'll be on your way to being seen as the most cutting edge member of your circle." Salon article about the site. Thanks to browngirl for the link, which she mentioned in her journal
• Tree That Gives Meat Instead Of Fruit (Weekly World News, 16 May). "'We take the genes from cattle that produce key proteins and splice them into the reproductive cells of grapefruit trees,' he says. 'When the seeds mature into trees, instead of producing ordinary citrus fruit, the pulp contains meat. You get the flavor, texture -- even the smell.'" The article is most amusing for its lumping together of vegetarians as though we've all got the same tastes and motives (gee, of course we're all pining for the meat we gave up, uh huh, sure) and the way it blithely ignores the different cell structure of plant and animal cells, but hey, it's been a long time since I've indulged in a peek at the WWN. (And for anyone unfamiliar with that publication, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. It's on Mars, and it leads to a volcano shaped like the face of Elvis.)
• I loved ST:TOS and I've been faithfully watching Enterprise (I kind of skimped on TNG and DS9), but I got a kick out of Happy Fun Pundit's Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek. And an even bigger giggle out of some of the followup comments.
• And then there are the Answering Machine Messages of the Star Trek Crew. "True warriors do not leave messages, but call back later. For it is a good day to dial."
• "The best way to think of the job of Release Engineer is to imagine a team of Mad Scientists, who are working together to build a better Monster. [...] The task of the Release Engineer is to put an entire Monster together, and try to shove it out the door to scare the townspeople." jducoeur weaves an entertaining metaphor. Go read the rest of it. cellio commented, "Wondeful! This is the best description of the release engineer's job that I have ever seen."
• Here's a traffic-signal I've never seen before, a U-turn light. Backtracking through the directories in the URL led me to this page which reveals its exact location (in Baltimore), so I'll have to drive around and look at it sometime.
• Adding an 18-cent coin to US currency would optimize change-making. Two people have sent me this URL and I've seen it cited elsewhere as well, so it seems to be a popular page. "In finding coin denominations that minimize the average cost of making change, Shallit assumed that every amount of change between 0 and 99 cents is equally likely. For the current four- denomination system, he found that, on average, a change- maker must return 4.70 coins with every transaction.
  He discovered two sets of four denominations that minimize the transaction cost. The combination of 1 cent, 5 cents, 18 cents, and 25 cents requires only 3.89 coins in change per transaction, as does the combination of 1 cent, 5 cents, 18 cents, and 29 cents." Adding a 32-cent coin and keeping the dime gives an even better result. It'd be interesting to verify whether all values between 0 and 99 cents are equally frequent in real-life transactions.
• Tiffany's Indie Music Reviews -- one-paragraph reviews of CDs by non-major-label bands at irregular intervals. (Supposedly one per month, but it's more sporadic than that.) Another place to learn about interesting music I can't afford to buy right now.
• This Ananova story about a ferret on a train left me wondering whether ferrets are supposed to pay full-fare or a reduced rate.
• Cracking smart-cards with a light bulb (Security Wire Digest, 19 May): "Using a light bulb to heat smart cards is part of a new attack that shows how physical errors in memory can be leveraged into a serious exploit."