Science Fiction Movie Infographic

I love infographics. Over at Pinterest, one of my most "repinned" and "liked" pins is a Shakespeare infographic. I was steered toward this infographic by a tweet on a completely different subject but as is often the case, I got distracted and started clicking around looking for other bits of information to amuse myself.

This is your brain on Twitter

I love trivia. My father collected it and at his death, I inherited his box full of notes for a planned book on Virginia trivia. (I was the only person in the family who could actually read his handwriting.) There isn't much of a market for trivia in real life, unless you write trivia questions for bar games (which I have done), although you probably rock at Jeopardy. One of the things I really enjoy about Twitter is that you can "follow" all sorts of Tweeps who offer daily tweets filled with interesting factoids. Most of this information is totally useless but it makes me happy to know all this stuff. It enters my imagination and churns around with everything else in there and sometimes it comes out in a story and sometimes it comes out in a conversation and sometimes it's just there for me to know and you to find out.

Some of the accounts I particularly enjoy are:
@TheWeirdWorld (weird hacks and facts)
@Factsionary (hidden facts)
@FactBook

and the great thing is that once you follow one of these Twitter accounts, the AI will suggest even more. I will NEVER again be without a supply of utterly useless facts at my fingertips.

Bad Wolf by Nele Neuhaus

Best-selling German crime writer Nele Neuhaus has a new book out today, Bad Wolf. It's the second in her series about a couple of detectives who have messy personal lives they need to balance as they go about solving murders. I reviewed the first book in the series, Snow White Must Die at Criminal Element last year, and my first look at the Bad Wolf is up on the site now. Read it here.

And yet another free ebook source

So many books!
This site is called Ebooks Grow On Trees, and is updated daily. Subscribe here.

Lady of the Harbor by Brother Sun

A little social commentary delivered in the sweet harmonies of Brother Sun, Greg Greenway, Joe Jencks, and Pat Wictor. From their CD "Some Part of the Truth," available here.

Sizzurp--who comes up with these things?

I once knew a guy who was addicted to cough syrup. He was a nurse and knew that his addiction could cost him his job, so he got help and got on with his life. When I first started hearing about "Sizzurp," i figured that was just edgoer slang for the same codeine-laced cough syrup that my friend had favored. But now, thanks to TMZ (yes, I read TMZ. Regularly.), I now know that it's typically codeine and promethazine mixed with Sprite and a Jolly Rancher."
And I have to wonder, who first concocted that particular cocktail of ingredients and decided to try it out?
When I was in college, a favorite party ption was Southern Comfort and 7-Up, which sounds disgusting now, but it was sweet and sparkly and the next step up from wine coolers. It would never have occurred to me to drop a Jolly Rancher into my glass.  (And what flavor is favored?)
These days, I don't drink anything harder than Diet Snapple Half 'n Half,which isn't all that good for me, but at least it's not going to trigger anti-social behavior. Or my gag reflex. Sprite and Jolly Rancher? Yuck.

A Deer of a Different Color

There's a surprising amount of wildlife in urban L.A. I've seen coyotes skulking about on canyon roads, and we have falcons in my neighborhood. But I have friends who live closer to nature and one of them sent me this picture of a deer that wandered into her yard this morning.