Zetetical Society Meeting Notes

One of those cultural oddities that you just don’t expect: the emergence of cuteness in Japanese culture was driven by a cute handwriting craze. That explains all those Hello Kitty pens and diaries. That girl in my junior high who did all the bubble writing with her rainbow pen with the hearts over the i wasn’t adequately merchandised to or else she could have come up with Pokemon and Tuxedo Sam. Here’s an academic paper on it: Cuties in Japan.

Not to just repost waxy links, but here’s an interesting article on Japanese fear of the Internet: http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/

Wired has a very entertaining story about two guys trying to drive from New York to LA in under 32 hours: The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory

The gear is all bought and loaded. Twenty packs of Nat Sherman Classic Light cigarettes, check. Breath mints, check. Glucose and guarana, Visine and riboflavin, Gatorade and Red Bull, mail-order porta-pissoir bags of quick-hardening gel, check.

Randolph highway patrol sunglasses, 20-gallon reserve fuel tank, Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars fitted with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer, military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars, Hummer H1-style bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera and LCD dashboard screens, front-and-rear-mounted sensors for a Valentine One radar/laser detector, flush bumper-mount Blinder M40 laser jammers, redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units, preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners, ceiling-mount Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna. Check. Check. Check.

It’s the exact opposite of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas*, but still proof that a well-equipped car can be the start of a cool story.

* The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab.

Someone has finally created a blog that is uncannily about all the things that I’m all about:

 Stuff White People Like

As a huge fan of jingoism, entertaining facial hair and bayonet fights, I have to say that Boy’s Own Adventure is my new favorite blog.

This is an important page if you’ve been wondering about islands on lakes on islands on lakes on islands.

http://www.elbruz.org/islands/Islands%20and%20Lakes.htm

And if you’re on Linked In, this is a great take on their default email invite:

 http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2007/11/28kennedy.html

Since you are a person I can honestly say I feel could keep a secret with regard to the sales conference in Miami, and who I think will back me up in the face of any resulting problems in my personal relationships and home life, I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

The reviews on the JL421 Badonkadonk are great. Hopefully Zipcar will stock one in my neighborhood so I can finally take on that base of Tusken Raiders up on 93rd and 2nd.

http://www.amazon.com/JL421-Badonkadonk-Land-Cruiser-Tank/dp/B00067F1CE

“I’ll admit it. Shopping for a personal tank can be a bit daunting. Many times in the past I’ve purchased overpriced, so-called “battle tanks”, then driven them into battle only to be wrecked in ten minutes by the first blow off of some insurgents home-made morter.”