First, these freaks:

The longest foot race in the world is 3,100 miles, long enough to stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Those who run it choose a different route: they circle one city block in Queens -- for two months straight.

The athletes lap their block more than 5,000 times. They wear out 12 pairs of shoes. They run more than two marathons daily. In the heat and rain of a New York summer, they stop for virtually nothing except to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.

Then there's Floyd Landis, the winner of this year's Tour de France... he has a disease that is destroying his hip. His solution: work harder, to "wear a useful groove in the bone and cartilage of his damaged joint". (h/t Neddie).

I consider myself a fucking champion when I manage a 5 mile run on the weekend.

Steven Pinker, noted psychologist, linguist, congnitive scientist, and prolific author, is also a rather good photographer.

Even though I'm in the middle of The Big List, which should be enough music for anyone, I'm going to carry on this tradition, damnit. And so, this week, the brand new iPod starts off with:

1. White Stripes - We Are Gonna Be Friends - 4 stars
2. David Bowie - Moonage Daydream. 4 stars
3. The Breeders - Invisible Man. 3
4. Belly - Dusted. 4
5. White Stripes - I'm Lonely. 3
6. The Breeders - I Just Wanna Get Along. 3.
7. Thelonius Monk & Sonny Rollins - Nutty. 3
8. Mudhoney - In n Out Of Grace. 4
9. Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. 4
10. Beck - Hell Yes. 3

Weird mix.

There was a break-in where I work last night. They stole my iPod.

I ordered a computer off Dell's website Monday morning, standard shipping. It was on my porch Wednesday when I got home from work. Wow.

I've ordered many Dells in the past, and they used to take weeks. Now I get it in two days. Again, wow.

This is fucking awesome.

Via The Straight Dope, Econ 101, aka The government doesn't create money. Private banks do.

Here's another little mental game I like to play. Take a look at this table:

It should be obvious that "Wh-" is a prefix that asks a question: "when" = "what time?", "who" = "what person?" (forgive the semi-recursive definition); and "Th-" is a prefix that points to an answer: "there" = "that place", "then" = "that time". So, the game is to find a pair of Wh-/Th- words with a common suffix, and then figure out what the suffix meant in Old/Middle English. And, of course, you don't want to use a dictionary to do this.

So, are there any others? I've taken care of "who", "what", "where" and "when", but the other two big questions ("why" and "how") don't seem to have obvious "th-" complements. The "th-" answer to a "how" ("in what manner") question is never "thow", it's "thus". But, how do "how" and "thus" come together ? And what about "why" ?

Lovely.

The Vietnam War, that is.