It is dangerous to be sincere unless...

Sobering words from William Deresiewicz: "To be an 'intellectual' today is merely to be monarch of the idiocracy." What set the man off? A call for youth of today to forgo college and become a "public intellectual," a blogger. Blogging has been called "citizen journalism" but after reading Deresiewicz' words I realize a more apt description is "reality journalism," using "reality" in the "reality TV" sense. Now, I am become Snooki, destroyer of words.

Can't. Look. Away. source

Most football players on BCS teams won't make it in the NFL. Their NCAA team has already profited from their athletic performance. So the most the player will get is a college degree. However, the graduation rate for the top 25 BCS teams can be pretty dismal. Texas A&M ranks 14th while Florida State hits rock bottom with a negative score.

Retro? Yes. Sophomoric? Yes. Funny? Yes. Baseball card vandals. (Of course, I never wrote on any of my baseball cards as a kid.)

There's nothing like a 12-month aged mimolette cheese. Unless it's 7,000 year old cheese, or at least evidence of cheese making. This article includes two notable statements: "Milk is a superfood" and "Neolithic Europeans were lactose intolerant." (As well as "most modern humans." Are "most" modern humans, meaning more than 50% of the world's population, lactose intolerant? If so, I'm buying stock in whomever makes Lactaid.)

no caption necessary - source

A remarkably quotable article on the decline of book books (of the paper variety) and handwriting (of the not typing variety). Actually, it's not an article so much as a review of two books on the subjects.

• "...there are people out there who aspire to pick your work apart electronically, “remix” it in the name of some democratic hippyish ideal."
• "...the open hand is the sign of divine calling, and so when reading, we call out and are called to. Books are also proxies for our hands: they hold things."
• "...for sharing to have moral worth, it should involve sacrifice – a cost."
• "...there is quite a lot of disgusting stuff about toilet paper, 'the fastest-growing sector in paper production'." (You knew poo would be involved eventually, right?)

More from the book review category: The reviewers of Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse Engineer the Mind fall victim to their own opening lament - they suck the life out of the topic like James Brolin playing the role of Paul Lynde in center square. Yet, the reviewer explains the author's premise that overturned expectations are the key to humor (while my inner demons want to believe the Freudian released tension theory.)

If you need a Bluetooth enabled toilet like the SATIS - in fact, if you need to use your smartphone at all on the loo - you're doing it wrong.

There are plenty of games on the CIA's kids page. That I can't solve. And Math Run is equally infuriating. All those numbers.

This micro photograph of a garlic floral primordia (whatever that is) only earned 19th place in the annual photomicrography competition. Can you imagine what got first place?

Sometimes things go wrong. The detonation of a 10 kt device nearly 300 meters below the earth's surface in 1970 unexpectedly (due to soil water content?) released radioactivity into the atmosphere.

Sacks of potatoes are a good approximation to the modern airline passenger, physically and mentally.

THANK YOU SCIENCE!!! Squeezing breasts can inhibit cancer.

I know a guy who likes astronomy and music. So his elevator should go all the way to the penthouse for this. Voyager 1's measurements of magnetic fields in interstellar space were converted, using a lot of number crunching, into music. Domenico Vicinanza gives us Voyager 1 Magnetic Field Sonification. (There are versions with and without percussion at the link.)

Still need a last minute gift for that special someone? Spin the Crap-O-Matic gift generator. (I gots me a fantabulous cheesehead fez.)

Coke, Andy Warhol, and Twitter. In other Twitter news, a new tool to download your entire Tweet history is being tested with a small number of users.

Mmmm, cake. Wait - what? (I'd so buy this.)

Who says engineers don't have a sense of humor. Check out NASA Johnson Style, a Gangnam Style parody.

Know your techie stereotypes.

Makes perfect sense. Google underwater.

If you listen to only one mashup this year, make it this one: DJ Earworm's annual United State of Pop 2012.

Help your child understand why he may pose a threat to national security. source

A beginner's guide to game programming.

Don't forget - I'm on Pinterest too. Some photos from here go there. Some photos only go there.

One of the most stunning photos of Saturn I've ever seen, this one by Cassini while in Saturn's shadow.

Make your own bacon pixie stix.

You too? source

Are you a recent college graduate? You might appreciate this list of 9 things you wish you'd known about life after graduation. (This one seems obvious: Work hard, be nice to people.)

Need a randomly generated fake name? I am now Germana Trgalovic, a Canadian woman of Slovenian ethnicity.

So let's say you weren't happy with last week's report of Pantone's color of the year for 2013. You could look up any color you want in this RGB Color Atlas.

I know the holiday season can bring on depression. So when you're feeling a little down use this emergency compliment generator.

...you are also stupid. ~George Bernard Shaw