Thought on photography Feb 7, 2008
Ken Rockwell, a guy with an extensive website about photography and equipment, has this to say about nature photography: 
"I'm not trying to reproduce nature. I encourage people to be creative. I personally use any sort of artificial anything I can to create the look I want. I'm expressing my imagination, not trying to duplicate reality."
I think the idea applies to more than just nature photography.  But it depends.  Sometimes, a good picture simply reproduces what the eyes see, whether it's a person, an animal, a building, or whatever.  Other times, a picture enhances or improves what the eye sees, either by adding something like lighting or color, or by taking something away like background noise or ... color. #entertainment
Aggregation Feb 7, 2008
I have a little theory:  Every person is an aggregator, collecting and passing along certain specific subsets of information for their own enjoyment and for the potential benefit of their readers/listeners. 

The internet is one giant aggregator.  It gathers information about everything and displays it for people to find, read, watch, and listen to.  Any website that collects and shares links (which is pretty much every website) is an aggregator.  Boing Boing collects and distributes "wonderful things".  Kottke finds and shares "fine hypertext products".  Lifehacker, Consumerist, Neatorama, TechCrunch.  All these websites collect information about particular topics and subjects and pass everything on to interested readers. 

The news industry is the same.  CNN has people that look for newsworthy stories covering a range of topics.  Similarly, the job of the local sports writer is to find information about local sports and pass it on to his/her readers.  It's all about collecting and distributing, gathering and passing on. 

In the same way, people are aggregators.  Everyone has their own personal interests and hobbies.  Some people collect and distribute information about politics.  Some people do it with jokes.  Some people know everything about Apple products, and their knowledge gets distributed as desired (and sometimes when not desired).  Essentially, anyone who has conversations is an aggregator of sorts.  They know some facts or opinions about certain topics, and they share these facts and opinions with other people in the form of speech.  If you watch the news, read the newspaper, read the comics, read magazines, read books, watch TV, watch movies, or do anything else that consists of gaining information with the possibility of passing that information on to someone else, you're essentially an aggregator. #psychology
Sandwich regulation (2) Feb 7, 2008
In what may be described as Hillary Clinton's most important contribution to the universe, she pointed out a disturbing fact about the wasteful and overlapping government agencies that inspect and regulate food production: 
"A ham and cheese sandwich on one slice of bread is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which inspects manufacturers daily.  But a ham and cheese sandwich on two slices of bread is the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects manufacturers about once every five years."
All kidding aside, she actually made a good point in saying that the government has a lot of agencies that enforce a lot of rules, and the system could be made a lot simpler and more efficient.  Either way, it's funny that ham and cheese sandwiches are regulated by the government. #food
Antarctica facts Feb 7, 2008
Two facts I learned from a Snapple cap and later verified with Wikipedia: 
  1. In addition to being the coldest and windiest continent, Antarctica is the driest continent.
  2. Antarctica is the highest continent (has the highest average elevation).
Unfortunately, both sources of information are incredibly difficult to verify (aren't some Snapple facts false?), but like most things on Wikipedia, these facts sound believable and there's really no reason for them to be false.  Either way, quite interesting. #science