Nice profile of John Callahan. Includes the news that his new animated cartoon will debut on Canadian teevee this week! (via aaronland.)

Salon's Brilliant Careers covers Matt Groening.

Wow, have I ever slacked here. Unfortunately, nearly all my online reading of late has been of interest to only the geekist of the species. (xml authoring for emacs anyone? perl templating system? voice xml?)

At least you were spared any of my speculation on IT.

The blues samples Moby used on Play (and lots more) are available at the library of congress. Too damn cool. (Via anil dash)

Fascinating article about the current state of oil production.

the world has burned about 820 billion
barrels of oil since the first strike at Oil Creek,
Pennsylvania, in 1859, and 600 billion of those
barrels -- almost three fourths of the total -- have
been burned since 1973. Yet the world's proven oil
reserves are about half again as large today as they
were in the 1970s, and more than ten times as large as
in 1950. It is as if using up oil has somehow created
more, although obviously that cannot be true.

All of us with wings - I'm revisiting old music and rediscovering it all over again. I'd almost forgotten how much I love Three Days by Jane's Addiction. Magic.

Quebecers angry taxes funded teen's breast implants

There was growing anger yesterday as Quebecers struggled to understand why the cash-strapped provincial health plan paid
for breast implants for a 15-year-old girl after her psychiatrist deemed them necessary for her mental health.

I wonder if the psychiatrist went home happy after writing that particular recommendation.

From the "payback's a bitch"
department: police warn rapists that their victim is HIV +.

I had read the first installment of Scott McCloud's Zot online comic, but hadn't continued following it. It's finished now, and I just read it from start to finish. You should too!

I'm a sucker for dumb facts. (via interconnected

I hope whoever did this resists the urge to claim responsibility.

Requiem For a Dream was - and I don't use this term lightly - a real mindfuck.

I am posting from a palm PC connected to a cell phone. All hail geek nirvana!

Observation: put enough drunk people on a bus at 3:00 am on New Year's Day and sooner or later Oh Canada will be sung.