Category: Quickhit

[Forgotten films of great directors](http://dailyfilmdose.blogspot.com/2007/08/he-directed-that.html). Most of these are pretty good films, of course. But not the kind of thing the director usually made.

[Conmen in India set up a fake Government office to collect money](http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/faux-indian-gov.html). Taking the ‘taxation is theft’ thing a little too far, I think.

[US restaurants are looking to phase out the main dish](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/dining/05entr.html?ex=1354510800&en=736022725bf3ca47&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss). Amazingly enough, reading this was the first time I’d learnt that in the US the main is called an entree…

[The Sci-Fi Sounds quiz](http://www.shegoddess.com/q/sf/index.aspx). Missed one, so clearly I need to go back to watching SF movies for another few days.

[Mail-order custom furniture](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/09/19/ponoko-mailorder-cus.html). Send the company your plans, and they’ll mail you back the pieces laser cut from their factory. The fundamental problem here for me is that I’m not actually a very good furniture designer, so I think I’ll stick with the pre-made stuff. But it’s a clever idea.

[*The Department*](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3833875541020589090&hl=en). Ah, Academic Politics. They’re only so vicious because the stakes are so low.

[DARPA is developing a nasal spray to remove the negative consequences of not getting enough sleep](http://gizmodo.com/338459/darpa-developing-sleep+replacing-nasal-spray-opens-the-door-to-20+hour-workdays). Very happy to volunteer for the clinical trials on this one…

[A blanked that warms or cools your bed](http://gizmodo.com/336850/chilipad-regulates-bed-temperature-you-supply-the-hotness). Astonishingly expensive, but I need to get one of these *right now*.

[This Blog has decided to officially endorse Ralph Wiggum for President of the United States](http://www.thesimpsons.com/wiggum/). I believe I can safely say he’d be better than a lot of the people currently running.

[The complete text of *Applied Cryptography*](http://www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/index.html). Not for the faint-of-math.