Cool! And also ewww!

“It’s only a flesh wound!”

Some of you might have noticed a slight decline in my blogging frequency of late. The following are not reasons for the decline. (I’m not saying they aren’t true, just that they aren’t causally related to the reduction of blog output.)

(1) I am deceased.
(2) I have been abducted by aliens.
(3) I have been abducted and killed by aliens.
(4) I have amnesia.
(5) I have been abducted by aliens, who have wiped my memory.
(6) I have grown a second head (possibly as a result of alien abduction), which has taken over my body and refused to let me blog.
(7) I have decided to eschew all technology and live off the land. In my case, this involves eating the oranges from the tree that overhangs my backyard.
(8) I have vowed never to write another blog until I can write it entirely in Swedish.
(9) The internet ate my homework.
(10) All of my time has been consumed with my other hobby, crocheting doggy sweaters for rescued Dachsund-Doberman mixes. And aliens.

To make up for lost time, I will now proceed to blog links to lots of really old web pages that everybody has probably already seen.

By the way, if there was any doubt, I am a dork.

Round is boring. Square is better.

Excellent store display in Wellington, Ohio

Eyeball jewelry, brought to you by the evil geniuses at the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery. Yes, that’s right. Innovative Ocular Surgery. Three words that have no business being used together.
(Dave, don’t click on either of those links. They’ll just upset you.)

I just read an ABCNews article about Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems. These are automated individual cars that run along monorail tracks, navigating directly to your destination station. (The cars pull off the main line into the appropriate station, allowing you to disembark.)

Apparently, systems like this are currently being tested out in Cardiff, Wales (ULTra) and Fridley, Minn. (SkyWeb Express). Both PRT web sites contain a lot of details about how the systems would operate. I’m sold… it sounds like a fabulous idea.

Don Melton’s blog just linked to a fascinating web site detailing (with pictures) a motorcycle drive through the dead zone around Chernobyl.

It’s called Ghost Town, and it’s an extraordinary read.

Finally, Dave has some help in his crusade against it’s/its confusion. Key quote: punctuation vigilantes are not nerds who should really get out more

Nifty keen moving wooden sculptures that range from graceful (Tangle) to strangely terrifying (Focus). The artist has created Flash animations for each one, so you can see how the patterns develop. Really slick. (Thanks, Chris.)