check out this zoom in on a piece of steel down to the atomic level.
http://www.dailymotion.com/Weird_Weird_Science/video/x4mva0_zoom-into-steel_tech

a little general information on social classes in the US. it's interesting to look at the bigger picture and see where you fit in when it's not normally something you think about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_States

new pictures for y'all, finally had some free time.
http://www.bryanzimmer.net/pics/
there's an rss feed there too to make your lives easier.

babe the pig has come to life. a rancher raised a pig to herd his cattle. so they're not exactly sheep, but i bet there's some similar code phrase to get them to behave.
"moo bull cow, to your breed, your milk, your clan be true."

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/08/squeaky_the_wonder_pig_1.html

could this be another hobby for me after i retire? it combines my childhood love of trains, my present day love of fixing mechanical things, and my lifelong dream of being a hobo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/travel/escapes/08RAILCARS.html?ex=1375934400&en=c156556996af8545&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

scroll down the page a little less than half way. the part about santa cruz starts with "Traveling up the coast of California..."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=71376
who knew chuck was a religious man? i guess you'd have to be in order to live with the guilt of killing thousands of people with your bare hands.

If you're into mining large data sets from security logs, check out the graphs at http://www.secviz.org/category/image-galleries/graph-exchange

They're from a new live CD distribution called DAVIX, and there's going to be a talk about it at Defcon on the 10th. The CD has a bunch of tools for visualizing large sets of data to help sort through and make sense of it all, which is especially useful for IDS, firewall, netflow and security logs in general. I met one of the main guys on the project at Defcon a couple of years ago, and he just wrote a book on security visualization:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321510100?ie=UTF8&tag=securitvisual-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0321510100

There's another well-regarded book on the same topic:
http://www.amazon.com/Security-Data-Visualization-Graphical-Techniques/dp/1593271433/ref=pd_sim_b_njs_5/002-6573084-9031226

And just for fun, here are two books on security metrics and assessing risk. I strongly believe both topics are critical for obtaining and effectively using security funding.
http://www.amazon.com/Security-Metrics-Replacing-Uncertainty-Doubt/dp/0321349989/ref=pd_sim_b_njs_3/002-6573084-9031226

http://www.amazon.com/Information-Security-Risk-Analysis-Second/dp/0849333466/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217906012&sr=8-6

i recently got a copy of hall & oates' "rock n soul part 1: greatest hits" on vinyl at an estate sale. (side note: i love estate sales.) after listening to it all the way through several times i've determined hall & oates have gotten a bad rap recently. it seems like mainstream america shuns them because they were associated with the 80's, while hipsters love them ironically in typical hipster style. i actually like them as a good band. they had a bunch of number one hits, and i had forgotten most of them until i listened to the album. sure, you can look back on 80's bands and dismiss them with a wave of your hand like you might a pair of legwarmers or members only jacket, but there are some good bands if you can get over the heavy 80's aftertaste.

brain surgery while the patient is awake. they poke the brain around the tumor to see if it affects the patient to make sure they don't cut anything important.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/08/01/gupta.awake.brain.surgery.cnn

i think the cavemen were right, there is something deeply disturbing about seeing the sun blotted out by a big black ball.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-54612