A hypnotic look at religion and war.

So I'm making good headway on the history podcast I wrote about recently (and which you all fueled with some great ideas and support). One of the major goals of the podcast will be to describe huge, epic changes in history without getting bogged down by details.

That's definitely a strength of this incredible piece from a site called Maps of War. Enjoy! (Oh, and be sure to check out this one too.)

Do you secretly long to help out a Bulgarian dairy farmer?

Bear with me for a second here. (Especially Karen's relatives who think my blog drifts entirely too far from interesting stories about our lives...this post likely will just prove your point.)

Many moons back, I heard an NPR interview about the emerging concept of "micro-lending," which more recently got a ton of international attention when the idea's pioneers won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I instantly loved the concept, which is to give small loans to impoverished entrepreneurs in developing countries or struggling communities. The loans (often as low as a few hundred dollars) are generally for tools or equipment that can help the entrepreneur get started or expand a small business.

Here's the strange part. When the micro-lenders won the Nobel Prize, I remember thinking how great it would be if I could help out on a project like that. But how do you get individuals in America connected with needy businessfolk in Asia or South America?

Well, I obviously wasn't the only one thinking that. Yesterday, Mental Floss posted a blog item about the Web site Kiva.org, which lets visitors lend money to countless specific business projects across the globe.

(And yes, I'm sure I shared some of your same concerns about keeping the money away from scammers. There's a ton if info in their FAQ, if you're interested.)

Anyway, just passing this on because I know many of you, like me, have little to give and are reluctant to hand money to a faceless charity. If we set aside enough to try one of these micro-loans, I'll let you know how it goes.

Be sure to browse the profiles of the entrepreneurs seeking money. There's some amazing stories there.

UPDATE: Noah's back, this time with Hasselhoff.

A few months back, I wrote about the guy who took multiple years' worth of self-portraits and made them into one compelling video.

Today, I saw that he has a new project: Taking a portrait of his same blank expression, alongside random celebrities.

It's worth a look if you're having as boring of a between-holidays work day as I am.

If I don't own a talking stuffed animal of some variety by this time next week, you will understand my crippling depression.

Just one last note wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas. I'll likely post again before the New Year, but this is as good a chance as any to thank you all for being such great friends, relatives and lurking strangers.

Cheers!

Good times at upward of 30 mph.

I've posted even more photos to Flickr. This time from loyal Asterian Emily's high-velocity, technocolored birthday bash at the bowling alley. (Here you can see her in just one of her many star poses from the evening. Be sure not to miss the "money shot."

So happy birthday to Emily and big props to our man Nimish, who bowled like a 420 or something.

Fun note: The alley's machines measure the speed of your throw, which added a great new element to the game for those of us who can't aim. Greg also proved he could roll a ball at 1.1 mph and not have it stopped in its tracks by the pins.

I hear the cool kids are "pod-casting."

OK folks, I'm quite seriously thinking about starting a regular podcast in early 2007. I've talked to some of you about this, and you've seemed receptive, although the idea is still a bit vague.

But before we talk about the point of the podcast (which will, I assure you, have a point and not just be an audio version of ye olde cafe), I wanted to pick your collective brain.

1. For those of you who listen to podcasts, what do you find you like or don't like? Do you have any pet peeves, or anything that draws you back to listen again?

My only true podcast addiction has been Tim Gunn's recaps of Project Runway. When I ask myself why, I think it's because he hits a mean podcast trifecta:
• Cool voice that's easy on the ears.
• Fun background stories on something I'm already interested in.
• Sly humor and earnest personality (ie, no obvious script).

2. Have any of you tried making a podcast? If so, I don't think I've ever heard it. But let me know if you tried, what equipment and software you used, and how it went for you.

Well, I guess that's really it for questions. I've mostly been probing the Internet for tips on free or cheap podcasting software to try. I also watched this free seminar from Apple about how to make a good podcast. It wasn't quite as helpful as I hoped (shockingly, it mostly pimped the power of Mac's own software), but it had some good tips.

Oh, and I don't want to seem I'm being coy about the nature of my podcast. It'll be about world history, somewhat following in the tone of my occasional trivia quizzes. I'm just hesitant to explain it thoroughly and put it out there for your review before I actually decide on the format and such. But rest assured, I'll keep you posted.

Elephants: The new godless killing machines?

On the off chance you read that George Orwell elephant-killing essay I linked to the other day, you might remember that he had to shoot the elephant because it had "gone must." I didn't think much about this, assuming it was just some sort of elephant crazies.

Well, kinda. In a strange coincidence, the Mental Floss blogs today posted a piece from their archives about "musth," which is like a male elephant PMS that only comes up once a year.

So there you go. The Floss again lives up to its goal of filling our heads with random but occasionally useful information.

The free-goodie train keeps rolling.

I pounced yesterday on this offer but refrained from posting about it because I feared it was a one-day-only deal. But apparently, you can still get John Hodgman's book, "Areas of My Expertise" for free on iTunes.

It's about 7 hours of good listening, so you can't beat that with a stick.

Two notes:

1. Continuing the small-world coincidences that always revolve around John "I'm a PC" Hodgman, you'll find that this audiobook features a theme song and occasional commentary from musician Jonathan Coulton, who was recently highlighted in this very blog!

2. Although it's a free download, I saw a $1 charge appear on my bank register. It's still a pending charge, though, so it might vanish later. Either way, one buck is a good deal for this much road-trip fodder.

How/when/what/where/mate with Pygmies?

I hate to harken to Slate.com articles two days in a row, but there's a classic today. As they continue to wrap up the year, Slate's "Explainer" feature listed some of the questions they didn't answer in 2006.

Here are my favorites (with parenthetical notes from me):

• Why do train whistles at night always sound lonely and mournful? Not so in the daytime.
(Seriously...isn't that true?)

• Is it possible to collect all the cookie dough in Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream and actually bake cookies from it?
(My guess was no. A little Google sleuthing proved I was right.)

• Can you tell me how long it will take if you eat rat poison to see if it is going to affect you? Please e-mail me back. Because my niece ate some.
(In an anthro class, I once learned that some monkeys will risk their lives to save their nieces and nephews. However, the professor did not say how quickly the uncle monkey would jump on the case.)

• I have noticed that a lot of mainstream movies feature men peeing. Are the actors really peeing?
(I actually remember someone asking Ebert whether Jodie Foster was really peeing in "Panic Room." Ebert said that stuff's always a sound effect added later.)

• PYGMIES: How/when/where/still in existence/do we mate with them?
(This one's solely here for you, Britt.)

Oh, and for those of you who read "The Know-It-All," you might remember that writer AJ Jacobs repeatedly mentioned that kids like to ask how far down dirt goes. For fun, I poked that into Google and found the answer the same place he probably did...in an article from Esquire, where Jacobs is an editor.

Ten feet or less. In case you care.

Just don't ask me to make you one.

I apparently missed the frenzy over Slate.com's article on the secret existence of Starbucks' short cappuccino. (The article was included today in a list of Slate's most popular stories from 2006.)

This excerpt pretty much gives you the gist:

Here's a little secret that Starbucks doesn't want you to know: They will serve you a better, stronger cappuccino if you want one, and they will charge you less for it. Ask for it in any Starbucks and the barista will comply without batting an eye.

A few points from my perspective at the Starbucks cousin that is B&N Cafe:

The article is dead-on right that a short cappuccino is as good as it gets, flavor-wise. More volume than that, and you're really just drinking a foamy latte. But a good barista can make a tall cappucino pretty well. I wouldn't get it bigger than that.

But, as I've told many a customer, we don't have a short at B&N. It's one of the very few things Starbucks doesn't equip us with (probably for economic reasons outlined in the article). In case you're curious, the other big differences are that we don't have sugar-free hazelnut syrup or a bean grinder. And for the love of god, we don't take Starbucks cards. *Sigh.*

I wish we did have a short. Partly, it would be nice just to calm people who get worked up that "tall" is our shortest size. And "grande" is not the biggest size. People, you've had a decade or so to get past that. Suck it up.

But I also just think Starbucks is going to reverse course in the coming years and quit pimping the venti. (Which, by the way, is Italian for "20," even though the cold venti holds 22 ounces. Go figure.) I just don't think we're doing our customers any favors by pushing them toward 20-ounce (or 22-ounce) mochas, much less peppermint mochas or eggnog lattes.

Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe we'll just keep making people buy more and more fat, until we're have to resort to dropping a few slices of bacon into the cup. I can already see how we'll sell it: "Would you like to try that pancetta affumicata style today?"

Somewhat late, but worth the wait.

Finally got around to posting a Flickr gallery from the Halloween festivities at Boo 2006. So if you missed the fun, or just want to relive it, it's all yours.

The killing is justified if the elephant's in your pajamas.

Today's news report about the death of a terrorist/serial killer elephant in India reminded me of a George Orwell essay called "Shooting an Elephant."

A grizzled columnist Karen and I worked with in Fort Wayne would read the essay to schoolkids every time one of those "month of reading" kind of things came around.

Anyway, it's a great essay about Orwell's strange time as a police officer in Burma. (And coincidentally for you non-Hoosiers, Fort Wayne has the world's largest population of Burmese outside of present-day Myanmar.)

Orwell's intent is to give an insight into the minds of British imperials and the pressure they felt to always remain cool in front of "the natives," even if it meant doing something they didn't want to do.

But what I always remember the graphic conclusion, which is like something out of a nightmare.

I don't want to post that ending, because you should read it yourself in its entirety. But here's a quick taste of Orwell's stark and visual style:

I rounded the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant had come suddenly upon him round the corner of the hut, caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and ground him into the earth.

This was the rainy season and the ground was soft, and his face had scored a trench a foot deep and a couple of yards long. He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony. (Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.) The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit.

At least it was quick.

Remodeling Cafe Asteria, but not too much.

I've been tweaking the look of this blog today, so pardon any wackiness you experience while I'm trying to get my Mac to get along with Blogger and its various new design tools.

If you've seen a cool feature I should steal from another blog, or if some new piece drives you crazy, let me know in the comments of this post. Thanks all.

UPDATE-A-ROO: Some of you commenters might notice a little wackiness on the blog. With the new Blogger moving out of beta status, I think they're doing away with the old system of Blogger IDs. Now, if you have a Gmail account, Blogger will likely still use that to log you in. I'm sure you can change your display name somehow, but for now, we have to live with the sadness that Claypits Jackson has been demoted to "Valerie." (See comments.)

Let's all thank the Internet for free songs about zombies.

The Black Keys were great last night, as expected. Slim turnout by my friends, but Bill and Dawn drove down from Huntsville for the show, and Emily came out despite not knowing much about the band. I'm pretty sure she walked away impressed.

On a vaguely related musical note, a few people have pointed me to a song called "Re: Your Brains" by Internet phenom songwriter Jonathan Coulton. Here's a video someone made for the song using screen captures from "World of Warcraft." The video doesn't match perfectly with the song, but that actually makes it even funnier:



Coulton's an interesting case study in what I think is the future of emerging music: give it away for free and just ask for donations if people like it. The days of paying for a cutting-edge band's CD is drawing to a rapid close, as Coulton argues quite effectively.

Here's my favorite line from his Frequently Asked Questions:

I think there are times when free music and file sharing can greatly benefit an artist. Believe me, I spent many years making music and not sharing it with anyone, and that didn’t get me anywhere.

You can do it. I'm living proof.

You're looking at the last, snipped remnants of my consumer debt. I called and canceled our last (and really only) credit card today. We hadn't had a charge or payment in more than a year, so I figure we're safe. (And it was surprisingly easy...the only rebuttal I got was, "Are you aware we're offering holiday promotional rates?" Wow. Persuasive.)

Debt's a funny thing, as I was reminded today. I felt I needed a witness to this big moment, so I walked into a co-worker's office with my scissors and card. Her reaction: "That's a bad idea. It can really hurt your credit."

First of all, having a huge, unused credit line is a big liability for credit, not some glowing beacon of financial savvy. Ever seen your credit report? Everyone's surprised to see all those credit lines (that couch you bought five years ago and paid off right away, etc.) are still open. That adds to your total potential debt, and that's a number that can make financiers nervous.

Second, I hope to all that is holy that my credit rating will never matter again. We got our mortgage, and our loan processor practically swooned over our credit score, so I'm guessing that helped. But from here on out, seeking new debt sounds about as good as elective prostate surgery in a training hospital.

But back to my co-worker's comment, which is similar in tone to the warnings Karen and I have heard since the day we decided to bust our collective ass to escape debt forever.

I've heard how dangerous it is not to have a predatory lender waiting to help me in case of emergency. I've heard I'm losing out on magical tax breaks that justify paying massive wads of interest for home equity lines and such. (Though I'll happily enjoy the tax break on my mortgage interest while I'm paying it.) I've heard that it's silly to pay extra principal on our house because the dollars are inflation-adjusted...or it'd be silly because you could invest the difference better....or it would be silly because of tax benefits or because of....oh christ already, just read this article or one of the thousands like it and admit to yourself that paying off a home early is one of the single smartest things you can do in your lifetime.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to preach. I know most of you have debt and couldn't have gotten where you are today without it. I know I've had more than my share of help and lucky breaks that made it possible to pay off everything, and I'm thankful every day to my parents for setting aside savings bonds throughout my life to help cover what scholarships couldn't for college. Similarly, Karen's parents had tremendous foresight in their savings for her education, and their example is one we hope to follow with our future offspring.

But if this does, in any way, motivate you guys to focus on paying off debt, then I'll be glad. All I can say is, be prepared for more than a fair share of derision. Debt is the standard for our society, and I've had quite a few people tell me it's just part of life. Fight that urge, and brush off the comments from armchair experts about how it's smart to plummet into a bottomless debt spiral. If you do nothing else, please please just read this book.

Gratuitous plugs, concluding with a German threat.

• Need free money? Online bank ING Direct has resumed their bonus payments for new savings accounts. The interest rate on one of those bad boys is currently 4.5%, which I can safely assume blows away anything you're getting from your bank. Karen and I have had one of these accounts for years now and love it, and we've referred quite a few of you who also seem to be happy with it. Transferring money to and from your bank account is simple, though there is a delay of a few days.

Today, ING announced it's gone back to giving you a $25 bonus if you're referred to open an account, and the referrer (me, for example), gets $10. The only catch is you have to make an initial deposit of at least $250. So if you want to make an easy $25 and kick me an easy $10, drop me an e-mail.

• Are you on Netflix? If so, why aren't you my friend? I only have two or three of you linked as "friends" on Netflix, and I'd like more so I can pry into what you're watching/liking/hating. So use my e-mail to connect with me on there.

One of my favorite features is the percentage rating of similarity you have with your friends. My closest link is with the Greg/Claypits Jackson couplage. They match opinions on movies 87% with me and Karen. Strangely, I feel in synch with longtime friends Bill and Dawn, but we officially only match 69%. After they rate all the Battlestart DVDs, that might change.

• Anybody still need a Gmail account? I can't believe it's still in Beta and invite-only, but it is. So if you'd like an invite, let me know. I have 98 left. I like it a lot, mainly because it links up with blogspot and...

• Google Reader. Anybody using this? Greg let me know about it the other day, and I'm stone addicted. It's an RSS reader, which I've avoided dealing with for years because it just couldn't sound less sexy. But you just tell it which blogs you want to subscribe to (like this one), and sends all the new posts to one place, so you don't have to keep clicking on a site to see if it's updated. It's a little problematic sometimes, but still nice.

• In closing: Long ago, my sister and I developed a theory that if you praise something to the point of sounding like a commercial, you should quickly toss in some blatant obscenity to make up for it. Since I try to keep this blog PGish, I'll just leave you with this holiday greeting from our friends in the Rhineland: "Ich haue Dir gleich eine in die Eier!" (Alas, while Babelfish's translation is quite humorous, it doesn't quite catch the idiom. Cheers anyway.)

Rejoice, my follow kitchen nerds!

Logging into Blogger today to post about something completely unrelated, I saw a notice from Google that they've hooked up with Harold McGee for a cooking blog.

Wait, you ask, who's Harold McGee? Only the author of the most badass cooking science book ever, that's who! His opus, "On Food and Cooking," is the definitive text on kitchen science. It's not a light read (for that, I'd recommend this one), but it's a milestone in ushering in an era of food science that debunks centuries of kitchen myths.

(You'll also see it pop up often in episodes of Good Eats when Alton Brown is consulting his library.)

Anyway, check out McGee's blog, Curious Cook to get your food learnin'.

At least it wasn't a lightning storm.

Strange find on YouTube:

You'll never be so thankful that you're not a drum kit.

Live near Birmingham and have at least one ear? Then you need to be at Workplay on Wednesday, Dec. 13, for The Black Keys concert.

Most of you I think have heard The Black Keys, and the rest of you should slap yourself and buy tickets now before they sell out.

Seriously, you need to go.

New Alabama Arts videos!

Our December featured artist in The Year of Alabama Arts is Maestro Justin Brown of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. If you haven't already (and most of you haven't), sign up for a free YouTube account and subcribe to our channel at youtube.com/AlabamaArts. It won't bug you with e-mails or anything...it'll just show you new videos we've posted when you log in.

Anyway, on to the new clips: