It’s always a surprise what French cultural treasures Stephanie will share with me next. Tonight it was Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot singing Bonnie and Clyde followed by Brigitte Bardot singing Harley Davidson. She knew every word.

This Artisanal Cheese site looks pretty cool. Check out their CheeseClock.

It’s wrapped in bark:

Forsterkase is a classic “lumberjack’s” cheese from Canton Thurgau in Northern Switzerland. The wheels of Forsterkase are made from cow’s milk, washed in a white wine bath, and wrapped in fir bark.

Had this last night.

This looks like it could be incredible: Where the Wild Things Are

Apparently my co-workers are interested in starting a prank war:

We replaced justinsomnia’s usual Farm Fresh to You delivery (top) with our own not-so-fresh replacement (bottom) to see if he’d notice. He noticed.

I actually called FFTY to complain…

Scary: Wikileaks.de domain-owner’s house raided over publication of secret government censorship lists

To try next time I’m out by Mount Diablo: Bo’s Barbecue

Still looking for that $1500/month SF mortgage…

In some U.S. markets, prices appear to have fallen enough to make buying cheaper than renting. Mix that with mortgage rates that are near record lows and renters who want to become buyers are rejoicing.

Still thinking I’d rather travel than settle…

That can’t be good: Moody’s Investors Services and Fitch Ratings lowered California’s credit rating to the lowest among 50 states

So kawaii! AT-ATs: not just for xmas

What a heart breaking story: Broken Trust Shakes Web From Farmer to Cow

That’s ironic: Suicide bomb blast kills 23 at funeral in Iraq

This is hot: nudes painted on skateboard decks

Cool Vespa lamps: Lamponi’s Lamps (via Stephanie)

I think this is what you call change: Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

If I’d ever used punchcards, I’d probably find this awesome: Use this cardpunch emulator to create a PNG or JPEG image of a punched card

Question:

You’re a troubled media dinosaur struggling to find your way on the Web. What steps can you take to actively discourage people from linking to you, thus reducing your pageviews and revenue?

Answer:

Send out DMCA takedown notices to popular blogs!

Some days it astounds me how much transparency the internet engenders: Wikileaks reveals secret blacklist behind proposed Great Firewall of Australia (and how clueless some people are about its power)

Wow: IBM Signals Strategy Shift With Talks to Buy Sun

Stop-motion tilt-shift (seems to be one of the best reasons to get a Canon 5D): Bathtub IV

This is super-neat, especially if you know the original song: MGMT tune played by iPhone orchestra

An altogether different kind of scanner art: Scanwiches

This is such great news: Artists buying cheap houses in Detroit (expect Detroit to become a new center of cultural innovation)

Wow, weird: Who owns Colorado’s rainwater?

according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom’s property is not hers to keep.

You stay classy, Benedict: Pope visits Africa, reaffirms ban on condoms

This hit a little too close to home: SuperNews: Twouble with Twitters (the first part, where they fly into the twittersphere)

Dammit Derrick, you are a young, hip, tech-savvy 20-something, and I will not let you turn into my father.

If I had a band I’d name it Gutta-percha

It was sick watching how good Stephanie was at Looptastic after just 5 minutes fiddling with it

I got home from a weekend out-of-town and discovered the whole internet talking about Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable. Since it’s right up my alley, I figured I’d link to it too. Here’s one choice excerpt if you haven’t read it yet:

The newspaper people often note that newspapers benefit society as a whole. This is true, but irrelevant to the problem at hand; “You’re gonna miss us when we’re gone!” has never been much of a business model.

*Jaw drops* How to write like an architect and How to letter with lead (people are so amazing)

Next up: Confit?

I think I just found a reason to get an iPhone (no, not Twitter): Eliss

Turns out I know someone who works at Aardvark

Man, I’d hate to get vertigo on the can: Trompe l’oeil ski-toilet mural

Oh this is just freaking brilliant: iDaft

Dear god, how many fake-me twitter accounts are there?! fakejustinsmnia

And there goes Sarah Palin’s last shred of credibility: Alaska Gov. Palin’s daughter’s, boyfriend break up

I thought it strange that my Niagara Falls post was my most requested post today. Oh: Man survives 180 foot plunge over Niagara Falls

Scroll down to and click on the toboggan run photo: First Ride of a Warming Season

It never fails, I’m pondering a DSLR and a sexy point-and-shoot catches my attention instead: Panasonic Lumix LX3/Leica D-LUX 4 (especially its 24-60mm equivalent lens with f2.0-2.4 maximum aperture—compared to my Ricoh’s 28mm/f2.4)

Too funny book title/cover: Yummy!

Perpetually in the market for a DSLR, I found this article (and the comments in particular) illuminating: Where are the portrait lenses?

In the Big Picture today: Cambodia and its War Tribunal (I recently imported my photo galleries from Cambodia into my blog. Here’s my post with pictures from The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields.)

Sam Ruby’s classic first tweet Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn

My Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies, a brief history post gets featured nicely on Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn blog

Do I do it because I can blog it?

People will choose what activities they do in the physical world based on how it will appear to their friends in the virtual world via their Twitter/Tumblr/Flickr/Facebook/etc.

My new favorite song: George Washington

My new favorite single-serving site: Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something aka youshouldhaveseenthis.com (via Andy)

The Household Debt Vs. GDP chart referenced in This American Life’s Bad Bank episode

File this under “working groups I need to get on”

A United Nations working group on near-Earth objects (NEOs) met last month to discuss drafting international procedures for handling the asteroid threat.

OMG, dogs dream!? Sleeping Dog Runs Into Wall

Cleaning with water, imagine that! el liquido milagroso (aka electrolyzed water—sounds like Gatorade)

An omen?

“All the things that we used to be sending into space, those kinds of broadcasts are ebbing. Everything is through wires now,” Abumrad said. “If you were an alien watching the planet, you would see that the earth is gradually going quiet.”