A professor at the University of Georgia performed a study on why people put Darwin fish on their cars. He found cars in parking lots that have the fish and left surveys under their windshield wipers. He received back a wide range of responses: Some people did it as a joke, some did it to spite Christians, and others just wanted to state their beliefs, not intending to insult anyone.

I would put a Darwin fish on my car except I don\’t want to come back to a windshield covered with Jesus pamphlets.
[ From GirlHacker\’s Random Log ]

William Gibson\’s newest book Pattern Recognition is reviewed by, uh, some guy from Slashdot. The reviewer notes that \”Pattern Recognition is also Gibson\’s first novel since Neuromancer to follow a single point-of-view throughout the entire book.\” Thank god, I was getting tired of the multiple-plotlines he was running in the last 5 books. He would alternate plotlines for each chapter, and invariably one plotline would be better than the rest so I had to plod through the others. Bleh.

So when\’s Neal Stephenson\’s next novel coming out?

DPReview takes a quick look at the upcoming Nikon Coolpix SQ (which was leaked to the web last week). The 3 megapixel camera is their smallest so far, yet still has the twisting lens design from the older models. It looks really cool from the front view, like a cutaway model or something.

The new Gameboy Advance SP looks really slick. The clamshell design goes a long way toward making it smaller.

As Man Lay Dying, Witnesses Turned Away

After the shooting, one witness — who was just feet away from the gunman — looked for a moment at Price\’s body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying by the pump. Police have not found that customer.

For the next few minutes, the camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station\’s manager is seen approaching the body.

Note to self: Don\’t get shot in Washington D.C.

These home-made Simpsons figures are so cool. I like Monorail Homer.
[ From Boing Boing ]

Not only can you buy booze and porn from Japanese vending machines, now you can buy Lego too. If I were the Lego corporation I\’d sell them brick by brick, just to spite people.
[ From Antipixel ]

Woohoo! The House passed a national do-not-call list. Telemarketers have to check the list every 3 months and could be fined $11,000 for each violation. About freaking time too, 75% of my calls are telemarketers.
[ From Slashdot]

CNet has an article about upcoming mp3 players that rival the iPod with more features. Competition rules.

The first episode of the Animatrix, the animated short films set in the Matrix universie, is available online. More episodes are coming each month too. Hopefully they\’ll keep me sated till May.