I just took the ecological footprint quiz, and it says that if everyone lived like I do, we'd need 2.1 planets.

Hm. On one hand, this is comforting in comparison to the 2700 planets needed for everyone to live like Tom Cruise. On the other, I'm probably one of the most tree-hugging people I know, so I have to wonder: How many planets do we need for everyone to continue to live as they're accustomed?

As much as I love to hope that zillions of people will suddenly realize the personal financial benefit of re-using things (in addition to the less appealing ecological benefit), I'm not holding my breath. We'd better get to work on making the moon farmable.

In case one self-congratulatory screenshot wasn't enough for you, I'd also like everyone to know that I use less energy than most of Manhattan's concerned Personal Kyoto-using citizens. Which is kind of terrifying considering how pricey my ConEd bill has been this summer.

[via kottke (x2)]

Inconsistent array indicies (randomly implemented for the same task) have ruined my day more than once. But all my array frustrations were made worthwhile this morning when I saw Randall Munroe's awesome cartoon of the day and experienced the joy of understanding geek humor written by someone who makes robots for NASA.

Anyway, it was a brief moment of joy, after which I realized I have no idea who Donald Knuth is.

If you can't be a know-it-all, at least you can learn something.

St. Petersburg clusters on flickr

That's what Danny Sullivan's (generally) saying, armed with a great collection of screen shots, and I must agree that I can't see what I'd change about the small text field and submit button as the starting point for basic search—but when you get into advanced search fields there's a lot more to play around with, and sites like farecast are adding pretty nifty and useful tools to help users streamline results with additional criteria for more complex, specific searches.

But to stay on the topic of the basic search, I do think that clusters have some potential, despite the lackluster reception of clusty that Danny points out. I find flickr's new "clustery goodness" incredibly helpful, for instance, when trying to find pictures of my hometown but not of Russia.

And that usefulness is in no way limited to the (nice) visuals that flickr provides. Wouldn't clusters like these come in handy from a search for St. Petersburg? Sure, you could specify Russia or Florida, but, as with flickr, there's no reason you should *have to* from the get-go. Believe it or not, some people don't know there's a St. Pete in the US when they start researching their trips to the land of fancy roof domes. As long as clusters are an unobtrusive option along side of general results, they could help us make sense of it all.

ulcer-causing helicobacter pylori

Now that my mid-August/late-September family birthday season is nearing its end, I can provide a plug* for my new favorite thing to give people: GIANT microbes.

They've got all the oddly humorous pesky little cells you could ever want to give somone (and a few critters too), from bad-breath causing porphorymonas gingivalis to certain unmentionables to ebola. All these ailments look much cuter than you ever imagined—and they come complete with an edifying informational pamphlet on the maladies they represent.

Let's just say that 2006 was the year I finally gave my father the ulcer he always said I'd give him and my mother the mono she never expected.

*When I was putting this post together I initially had some snarky parenthetical here with the general gist that my plug was unsponsored but that if the nice people at GIANT microbes wanted to kick a few stomach-ache causing shigella cells my way, we could keep it quiet, wink, wink.

Then I realized they have an affiliates program, which I guiltily almost dismissed off-hand. But you know what? I have an obligation to kenspeckle.net readers to undertake important research into income opportunities for low-traffic bloggers. I do. Ad-heavy sites shouldn't be the only place to get such information. This is like a DIY MeCommerce and inquiring minds want to know if it'll do…um…anything at all for me.

So give your friends the flu already. I'll get a cool 10% (I'm planning my second home already) and report back on the outcome. I'm not holding my breath, but the results can't be any less inspiring than my brief experiment with AdSense.

initial report: They don't have tracked links for all the cells I wanted to mention, and their tracking code is unflexible and not instantly hackable (some sort of numeric representation of their products that I don't feel like parsing). So not all of my links will give me that awesome 10%. If you want to participate in my little experiment, try this one.

Last year, I bid you a happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day and recommended putting into action every silly idea that ever crosses your mind.

This year, I have to wish you Chag International Talk Like a Pirate Day because, well, there were Jewish pirates. Think of it as the festival of musing on the amazing power of the meme.

I promise not to blog about this next year.

Rania Hassan's Knit XVI

I like these nifty knitting paintings by Rania Hassan.

Craft magazine's blog has this interesting quote from Rania:

I am fascinated by the connections we find in our everyday experiences: from the isolation of communities on the subway, to the solitary experience of introspection […] My work is about the levels of connectedness we feel. […] I am also intrigued by the community I've found online with knitters from around the world. I think about how it links me to my mother, and her mother, and all the women that came before them.

Reminded me of something my thesis adviser was saying about the shared experience of the isolated activity of reading, which of course finds its logical conclusion in the various tools online readers have to share what we've been reading (or watching, or listening to, or thinking about, or, oh yeah, knitting). Ok, it might find its logical conclusion in book clubs, but that's not nearly as much fun for pondering.

amazing display of the periodic table at DePauw University

Is it wrong that a small part of me wishes I could get this amazing cherry-wood display of the periodic table by Theodore Gray and Max Whitby installed in my apartment when, really, I don't even have room for a couch?

Don't answer that, play around with the almost-as-awesome online version instead (you'll have to scroll down, it's at the bottom of the page).

Maybe when I'm a billionaire I'll commission a murphy bed version. Wait, no…when I'm a billionaire I'll have space.

[via boing boing]