i’m finally admitting to my crush on billy zabka. and this has cemented it.

danger! high voltage!

if weird al yankovic and they might be giants had an illegitimate love child, that child would be billy reid. in canada.

i think i’m in love.

back in the day (circa 1989 or thereabouts), i accompanied my mother to a conference. it was either APHA or PAA; the organization doesn’t really matter. what matters is that while i was visiting the exhibits and booths – for all conferences have them – one in particular caught my eye. it was a group promoting clean, uniform data.* the concept excited me to no end. “you’re doomed,” my mother said, rolling her eyes.

recently she sent me a link to a presentation by hans rosling, professor of international health at the karolinska institute, and founder of gapminder. even if you couldn’t give a fig about international health and development, rosling shows an amazing, dynamic use of data the likes i’ve never seen before.

so, you data junkies, you disseminators of information via graphics, put down your slide rules. close the excel datasheet. and please, PLEASE step away from the powerpoint. instead, paste your eyes to this. and enjoy!

* according to the relevant mother, the group was the u.s. census bureau. stands to reason, although there’s more political gain to be had in manipulating data than ensuring its accuracy.

she writes shit like this, you know?

to whoever it was who actually read my horrorscope and sent me m (and there are only two or three people who i figure it could be), i say, “thank you! thank you! thank you!”

mercy buckets! (and now i’m going to update my amazon info b/c it was sent to an old address, savaged by the post office, and reached me but yesterday in a very sorry package condition indeed. but the movie was untouched. yay!)

*swoon* bet you wish you had my toys, eh? (or maybe just my boys…)

i predict it’s gonna be a tad difficult to pry me away from my study for awhile.

…when there’s a video with billy idol and slash linked from warren ellis’ blog? hat tip: james.

gm is getting rid of the hummer. poor sales, apparently. and there’s this:

the entire Hummer group has been outsold this year by the Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid. A key member of GM’s board of directors has suggested that GM scrap Hummer altogether to save cash.

via crimlaw, a video project showing what happens when you obey the law. a must-see.