The Week: February 17, 2012

The new blog design is up. The bugs are being addressed. I’ve eaten more than my fair share of cupcakes in the last few days. And to top it all off, it’s Friday. In short, things are going swimmingly.

I might eat one more cupcake in celebration of this. You enjoy these links.

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I was recently profiled in the Russian magazine F5. I can’t read Cyrillic, but I’ve gotten some delightful gems from translating the page in Google. “Blog: My way of fighting” might just become my new motto. (Also, there are some rather amusing inaccuracies in there. I never had braces. I had friends in high school. And I’d outgrown The Babysitters’ Club by then. Mostly.)

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Simply fascinating: What a bunch of old Jews can tell you about Living Forever (via the lovely Joanna Haugen of Kaleidoscopic Wandering).

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There is something delightfully awkward about these photos of rock stars with their parents (spoiler: Elton John clearly got his fabulous fashion sense from mom.)

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I’m positively geeking out over this Scale of the Universe project. It’s really worth the wait for the site to load. What makes it even more amazing: it was designed by two fourteen-year-olds. (via the amazing Jessica).

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I just drooled a little over this huge online repository of useless facts. “The” is the most common word in the English language? TELL ME MORE.

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This heartfelt letter from Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) to an existential-crisis-having fan is absolutely amazing. No wonder the man doesn’t speak while on stage: we’d all be too blown away by his words to focus on anything else.

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Photographer Seth Casteel takes pictures of dogs underwater. It’s weird, delightful, and all together awesome.

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This made me giggle like a madwoman: If your dad is a chemistry professor, asking “why” can be dangerous.

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Cheapskate that I am, I’m digging this list of 101 free things to do in Britain (via my pal Jonathan at Anglotopia).

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I’m equally creeped out and fascinated by this article of how big companies learn all our secrets (like how Target determines which of their customers is pregnant, before they’ve even told anyone).

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“TSA Forces Woman to Use Body Scanner Three Times because of “Cute” Figure.” (It’s times like these that I’m thankful I’m pear-shaped.)

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Hey … I just had a revelation! Do you think it’s possible I’m pear-shaped because I eat so many cupcakes? Ah, well. There’s no way of knowing. It’s not like I’m going to stop to find out.

Have a great weekend everyone!