link potpourri

Here are some sites I have up in my browser window right now which I've been meaning to post here:

Revealed: What mosquitoes hate about humans. First of all, I just want to say that if I had been a participant in this experiment, the mosquitoes would have flown to me every single time. Mosquitoes love me. How much do mosquitoes love me? Here's an example: during the semester I spent in Singapore in college, I went with a group of my fellow exchange students on a weekend trip to Malaysia. The one night we spent in a hotel, I had trouble falling asleep because I kept being bitten by mosquitoes while my roommate, a girl from New Zealand, slumbered peacefully nearby. When we got up in the morning, I had upwards of 30 bites on my face (the only part of me I hadn't been able to cover with the bedsheets - I tried to fall asleep completely under the covers, but I couldn't breathe), while my roommate did not have a single bite. I looked like I had contracted a sudden case of chicken pox. It was awful. So, my second point in linking to this article: as soon as they make a truly effective bug repellent using this research, I will be first in line to buy it. Damn mosquitoes.

Some thoughts on language:
Food for Thought: The Language Police and the Quesadilla - the whole "English only" thing pisses me off. Ever since I learned that the US doesn't have an official national language, I've thought that lack of specification was such a cool thing. There is strength in our flexibility.
An interesting corollary to the above article: Au revoir, freedom fries.
Also, Suck It Up: a defense of the much-maligned word from Slate.

I don't know if this link still works, but here is the Virginian-Pilot story about Mr. Adams winning the Douglas Southall Freeman Award from the American Lung Association of Virginia. Mr. A says the picture with the story is goofy, but I think it's cute. Anyway, mucho congrats to him!

Have any of you ever heard of Tippy's Taco House? I hadn't until I got a Where's George hit with a user note saying they'd gotten the bill from a Tippy's location. It's a regional DC/Northern VA thing, as far as I can tell. I'd like to check one out sometime - even if the food turns out not to be the best, at least they've got an entertaining name.

I watched TV the other day (this is a rare event for me), and I saw that new Levi's ad, where they have some random guy singing Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." "Who the hell is this guy they got to sing this song for this ad?" I thought - so I searched for the answer online. The only relevant thing I found was this chica's livejournal, where, in this post, she wondered the exact same thing about the dude singing in the ad: "Who's the indie rock douchebag singing 'I Walk the Line' on the Levi's commercial?" Sadly, so far, neither of us have the answer. If you know, please do let me know.

I never did mention that Rani & Joy named their baby, did I? His name is Nikash, he was 6lbs 3oz, and he is the first baby I've ever known who has an e-mail address. Here is a pic:

This pic just makes me laugh because the poor thing has the most exquisite expression of suffering on his face! Like, "What the hell is going on here?? What happened to that nice, warm womb I was just in? This really sucks!!" Poor kid. But so cute.

Well, it is looking more and more like we're not going to be moving to Miami - at least not anytime soon (I will probably have more to say on this point in future posts). But if we did, I wouldn't mind living in Miami Lakes. The website makes it seem a bit Stepford-like, but really, it's the New Urbanist town design (and relatively low crime rate compared with Miami proper and some of its other less-savory suburbs) which makes Miami Lakes appeal to me. Check out the town's map on its website - it's kinda neat.

The weather is moderating, and I am so excited about that. It's supposed to be in the 70's for the rest of the week!!! I can move around the house without feeling like I am about to suffocate! I'm not covered in sweat all the time! I can actually get things done during the day because it's not so hot I can't move! Woohoo! 'Cause I was starting to feel like cooking breakfast on my laptop or baking cookies on my dashboard were less like jokes and more like viable options. (The cooking-on-a-macbook link is, in fact, a joke - the dashboard-oven story, however, is not.)

And speaking of fun with food - if you haven't seen this one particular Diet-Coke+Mentos video, you really do need to watch it. **Edit: OK, so apparently Coke made them take the video off YouTube (it wasn't Mentos that did it, because they have a link to the video up on their site and are now running a Mentos Geyser video contest. I tell you, I am less of a Coke fan every day), but it's still up at EepyBird.com, the site of the fine fellows who made it. Plus, there's tons of info on how they made the video and why the technique works in the first place. Excellent.