From Psychology Today, research on given names and child development: "Parents may be further empowered to christen their children idiosyncratically given that names aren't the rich source for taunts they once were. 'Kids today are used to a variety of names, so it is almost too simple for them to make fun of each other for that. Cruelty is more sophisticated now'."

Sculptures made from incredibly intricate cuts on sheets of plain white paper. The snowballs were a personal fave. [via svn]

William Chace, current professor and former president of Emory University, has an odd little opinion piece in the New York Times. "When I was a college president, I was never able to give incoming freshmen the honest talk I wanted to. But had I done so, here’s what I would have said..." Bill, as I am fond of calling him, also published a book last month, One Hundred Semesters.

Looks like some folks need to brush up on the whole "managing sensitive information" thing: a Google search for [confidential "do not distribute"].

Some good tips on breaking the omnipresent writer's block, along with links to tips elsewhere: "Writer’s block is a sham. Anyone who wrote yesterday can write today, it’s just a question of if they can do it to their own satisfaction. It's not the fear of writing that blocks people, it's fear of not writing well. Consider this: Have you ever been blocked while playing Frisbee? Eating doughnuts? Dancing naked in your living room? Those are joyful things and there's nothing at stake: if you fail, who cares?"

Here's a sweet photo of the moon. The colors are accurate, but the image was tweaked so that the colors are more saturated.

A cool collection of photos of books, almost like good portraiture. [via mefi]

A new book about Nazi-era humor.

A couple years back, I got interested in the ideas of voluntary simplicity and the downshifted lifestyle. My readings eventually sent me on a side-trail to the book Your Money or Your Life. Since then, about 14 months ago, I've been tracking every cent I spend on everything. Usually if I have any receipts when I get home, I place them on my desk and take care of those every day or two. Any bills I pay get recorded that same day. At the end of each month, I'll add it all up, sort it, categorize it, graph it, and see how I'm doing. Really. It's made a huge difference for me. Not only does it appeal to my Excel-loving nerd streak, but it helps me keep my wallet plump. But even more important than saving money, I create a whole new level of awareness. I used to blow all sorts of wad on thrift store clothing--it's cheap, right? Or then there's the $75 I lost all those times when I kept forgetting to buy groceries and had to buy my lunch at work. Pennies add up to dollars. The anal-retentive tracking gives me clear answers to the "Where did it all go?" question.

It's a matter of perspective. I can answer, with authority, how much I work to pay for my car-related expenses. I can know exactly how much I have spent on social outings. I can tell how much I've been buying impulsively . Basically, I can determine if I've been spending according to what I value--and that sort of conscious living is so important to me.

Another side benefit is the geeky historical perspective. I've kept some metadata on some purchases like gasoline--gallons purchased, cost per gallon, total cost, day of the week, etc. It's kind of cool to look back and see the ebb and flow in gas prices I paid: . So maybe it's not really all that practical, but it's cool for curiosity's sake.

But from all the data I can also get more useful information, such as learning that I can buy the cheapest gas during the first half of the week. There's a bit of bias in the graph because I ended up buying a lot of Wednesday and Thursday gas during the recent spike, but the general trends are accurate.

There's also some personality that comes out in the numbers. Not that I needed it, but I've got the data to prove that I like books more than music: . As the bars on top indicate, I spend a pretty steady amount for books. There are some spikes here and there, but still a more regular baseline. Note that the book figures do not include all the stuff I bring back from the library, which would help even out that data even more. On the bottom side, you can see that music shopping is really more of an irregular binge thing.

Novelties aside, there is a lot to learn from this sort of exercise. I'm really glad I started doing this, and at this point I can't really imagine not continuing. Once I developed a system to keep the records, it's like clockwork. And when I can put it all down in ink... there's a sort of calm satisfaction to have at least one part of my life in order.

So here's another guy, Noah Kalina, that has photographed himself every day for more than 6 years and made a video out of it. See my earlier post for a similar film and an annual family photo timeline. And here's a selection of similar photography projects.

A list of Biblical Horror Movies at McSweeney's.

The BBC has a photojournal of life inside a Bolivian jail. "There are no guards, no uniforms or metal bars on the cell windows. This relative freedom comes at a price: inmates have to pay for their cells, so most of them have to work inside the jail, selling groceries or working in the food stalls. Others work as hairdressers, laundry staff, carpenters, shoe-shine boys or TV and radio repairmen." That's just amazing. As the later photos and commentary indicate, it's not heaven--but it's certainly completely different from prisons in the US. It brings to mind Robert Murphy's brief speculation on prisons in Chaos Theory. [via LvMI]

My latest distraction has been the Google Image Labeler. It's sort of a dynamic folksonomy game. Operating under time pressure, you and a random internet partner try to match labels for photos, earning points along the way. I worked my way up in rank to the low 400s. It's a good use of my time... no, really...

A particularly clever bit of telemarketing revenge: transfer the salesman to a recording. Should be cool to see how it turns out.

String theory isn't the golden child it used to be, but you can still learn about existing in ten dimensions.

Two more additions to the first three links in my Scalar Series: A clock depicting the last 4.6 billion years of history in one hour and a project in visualizing enormous numbers with pennies, from one to one quintillion. [via svn]

One-minute vacations are short sound recordings of various places on the planet. Some 240+ recordings in the back catalog.

Rembrandt painted almost ninety self-portraits in his lifetime. Jeanne Ivy discusses what artists find when they search in the mirror.

If you miss the original Zelda, you can get help. Zelda Classic reconstructs the old NES version. "Beyond that, Zelda Classic allows the development of new quests that can use either the traditional graphics or enhanced graphics, as well as new enemies, items, and challenges...If you can imagine it, you can create it (provided it's in 8-bit color)." This is awesome. It's been so long since I sought the Triforce, but it's hard to believe it's been almost 20 years since its release on the NES.

A brief article on Librivox, which provides free, user-recorded audiobooks for works in the public domain. "If you think a recording is done badly, then please do one, and we'll post it as well."