Hi-Res Wallpapers/Desktop Pics

At InterfaceLIFT. Some very good photography there.

Slainte!

Slainte was (is?) a phenomenal Celtic band from the late 90s, whose heyday was on the original mp3.com, where they were essentially international best-sellers, with over a million downloads. Our college roommates are probably still annoyed we played them so much. Their 2 full albums, Slainte and Cup of Tea, are available for free download at archive.org.

To pronounce the Celtic toast "Slainte," say, "It's a lawn chair," and you'll be close. Ironically, this works better after a few pints.

Funniest Book Review Ever

On The Bush Boom, Alice writes:

Finally! A book that proves the existence of an alternate universe. Obviously, a rip in the space/time continuum between this universe and the other universe where Bush is presiding over a 'boom economy opened up and this book fell through. Can there be ANY other explanation?

Wow. Just wow. via Big Picture.

What's the word?

The last event in Pope Benedict's itinerary for his US visit:

Sunday, April 20, 8 p.m.
Shepherd One lifts off from John F. Kennedy airport in the Brooklyn Diocese, heading east to the Eternal City.

Who talks like that?

Another Aggregator

Alltop.com. Mainly to find new blogs--news aggregators = info overload.

Be a Little Greener

We're highly skeptical of "green" products. Most have some hidden downside for the environment. (Slate covers this well in Green Lantern and Green Room.) Many do not have the quality we'd like--maybe their producers think the "green" cachet will compensate for poor performance. Nearly all cost more at the point of purchase, and although we'd love to rationalize spending more money up front by thinking it makes the world a little greener for our kids, the budget is tight now.

Seventh Generation gets props for dish soap that works and costs no more than petrochemical soap. The company web site offers coupons and proselytizes cheerfully. Be careful, though: their dish washer detergents, both gel and powder, are worthless. Pls leave recs for dish washer detergent and/or feedback on other Seventh Generation products in comments.

The Way Home from Iraq

Everyone should read this: The Things That Carried Him. And then read it again, 4035 times.

Spectrum Arts Festival

Spectrum Arts. Brought to you by BU, of all people.

The Wal*Mart Candidate

Wal*Mart makes a handshake contract with some guy to record video of corporate meetings. 20 years later, Wal*Mart director Hillary Clinton praises the company's efforts [to eradicate small businesses and run Mom and Pop out of town while turning most of middle America into a parking lot]. 30 years later, deal with the guy goes bad and corporate videos leak onto the web. Also, Hillary Clinton is running for president. Talk about your chickens coming home to roost.

Best Dustjacket Ever

Jordan Crane's four-layer creation for Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends. via BoingBoing.

Egalitarianism in the Early Days of the Web

was an artifact of the lack of organization on the Internet in the late 90s and early 00s. And it tricked webheads into thinking that the Internet was some kind of egalitarian utopia. Now that organization has come to the web, so has The Man. From the dustjacket of Access Denied:

The Web provides everybody with access to information. That makes those in power nervous. Transparency is the best defense against further narrowing of information access and the starting point for rolling back existing barriers. Access Denied provides the definitive analysis of government justifications for denying their own people access to some information and also documents global Internet filtering practices on a country-by-country basis. This is timely and important.

--Jonathan Aronson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Easy File Conversion

Dorky, but it scratches what itches: Zamzar. What it does is this: You send it a file. It sends your file back in any format you want. Lets you turn that weird guy's Word Perfect into Word files, etc. Also does every audio and image format we've heard of. Way more flexible than Adobe's pdf to text service. via Cool Tools.

W. on the Big Screen

Oliver Stone's biopic of W's life leaked the other day. Slate has highlights from the screenplay.

Jhumpa Lahiri: Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri is one hot writer. Her new collection of short stories--her stories have been consistently better than that novel was--went on sale last week.

PS: Brookline Booksmith: We missed her talk at The Coolidge because you did such a poor job advertising it and then, when we stop by your place this weekend, you have piles of her book but not one signed copy? We can think of two things you could do to turn around your failing little store right there.

We Want One, Too!

From Cult of Mac: a Mac Tablet.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare 10p?

The new British coins, designed by a 26 year old by breaking up the image of the Royal Arms of England--very cool. Compare with the new $5 bill, which pushes the familiar greenback imagery aside to make room for a big purple 5--very dumb.

Why We De-regulated the Banks in the First Place

From Andrew Leonard's archives at How the World Works:

The next time we have a Black Monday... Congress can stand around and wring its hands and give speeches about how awful it is that these bankers violated the spirit of the law, but once again, the money will be gone, the bill will have come due, and taxpayers will again be required to cough it up.

--Stephen Pizzo, in 1995. Why, it is like he saw the future!

Apple's 32nd Anniversary

April Fools' is also Apple Day. We were Mac kids before it was cool, and as soon as we're grown up, it'll be an iMac on the desk and a MacBook on the road for us. Nice roundup of Apple's high points at Ars, and for those who remember pre-OS X Macs, here's a shout-out to Clarus the Dogcow. Moof!