Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Yes, I changed my mind and signed up for Twitter, after pondering somebody else using my name and creating a Fake Jeff Duntemann. (Thanks to Bob Fergert for prompting me to imagine the unimaginable--and I'm a good imaginer.) More on this a little later. I have yet to post anything due to lots of top-priority projects here, but I'll get to it within the week.
• Dietary saturated fat is not related to plasma fatty acids. In other words, it doesn't matter how much saturated fat you eat; your blood levels of fatty acids are controlled by other factors. What other factors? Care to guess? Are you reading this on Contrapositive Diary? Is the Pope from Argentina? Is the atomic weight of ytterbium 173.04? It's the carbs. Wow. Whodathunkit? (Thanks to Jonathan O'Neal, who was the first of several to put me on the scent.)
• There is actually a prize for the worst sex scene in literary fiction. It is not a coveted award, and I guess is seen as a sort of booby prize among literary writers. The WSJ recently posted a brief guide on how to avoid writing such scenes. (I avoid writing really bad sex scenes by not writing sex scenes at all. Works amazingly well.)
• Two people in my circles who don't know one another have independently recommended Ting as a cell carrier. First impression: Sounds too good to be true, and sheesh, they were created by Tucows. (That said, Tucows is no longer what most of us grayhairs remember it being.) Any other opinions? Getting new phones and a new carrier is my next big tech research project.
• I'd also like to hear some early impressions of Lollipop, if anybody's got it or is about to get it.
• Here's something you don't see every day; in fact, I don't think I've seen it even once, ever: A square flat-panel monitor, with a 1920 X 1920 resolution. Assuming these survive their launch (not a sure thing by any means) I'd be sorely tempted. As the story says, "Enough of the ultra wideness already."
• I wasn't sure whether good technical books could be created as reflowable ebooks, but Yury Magda is doing it. He has five self-published Arduino-related titles now, and what I can see in the samples looks damned good. I'm going to buy a couple, less for the Arduino content as for how he does the layout. (Thanks to Jim Strickland for putting me on to this.)
• Gizmodo/Sploid has a very nice short item on the XB-70 Valkyrie, certainly the most beautiful and possibly the second-scariest military aircraft ever built. Do watch the video of how the second prototype crashed--and if you're ever within striking distance of Dayton, don't miss the other Valkyrie at the Air Force museum there. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)
• Barðarbunga is emitting over twice as much sufur dioxide every day as all of Europe's smokestacks put together, and the volcano is still hard at it. SO2 is well-known to be a powerful cooling factor in the atmosphere. Combine that with a quiet Sun, and nobody really knows what might happen.
• Best video illustration of how tumbler locks work that I've ever seen.
• For that special, short, hairy, ironic someone in your life: You can get a genuine Flying Nun-inspired Weta-made Bofur winter hat, shipped all the way from New Zealand. Not cheap and not sure if it'll arrive before Christmas, but if this winter keeps going like it's going, you'll be all set to face dragons, ice ages, or both.