Not all taco trucks are alike.

The Yum Tacos taco truck guide and news source for all things taco truck.

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• Wikipedia – the “Mother of all Wikis . . . and -pedias”.

• Uncyclopedia – like Wikipedia, but drunk.

• Conservapedia – like Wikipedia, but stupid and paranoid.

• Dickipedia – like baseball cards, about jerks.

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Last Fall, someone tried repeatedly to break into a neighbor’s apartment – windowscreens torn or pulled off, and attempts to pry open the window locks. I helped her to better fortify her windows and I decided it would be wise to protect my own.

I went with minor antipersonnel gardening: planter boxes beneath all of the windows, each filled with cacti. The project itself cost around $25 for each antipersonnel planter box, and it took an afternoon to do. IKEA (at the time) had sets of 3 small cacti for ~$5.00 and single large cacti for ~$5.00 each.

Some points to consider:
• This won’t prevent anyone from breaking in if they are hellbent on doing so. It provides ‘disincentive’ – making it uncomfortable or more difficult to casually approach and open windows from the outside. They provide a visual threat (I’ve considered adding poison oak to some of the planter boxes, also).

• The cost is relatively low.

• It is easy to do – Screw the planter box into the bottom of the window sill. I suggest you use BBQ tongs or pliers to handle the cacti when you’re planting them.

• It is easy to maintain – Cacti are low-maintenance and often only need watering on a monthly basis.

• It looks cool – every time I look out the window, it looks like I’m in Arizona.

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It goes without saying that there are certain things that white people love (usually because no one else wants to go near these things for good reason). Stuff White People Like is dedicated to chronicling the things that affluent white people go berzerk about:

• #74 – Oscar Parties
• #67 – Standing Still at Concerts
• #64 – Recycling
• #63 – Expensive Sandwiches
• #62 – Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
• #60 – The Toyota Prius
• #57 – “Juno”
• #49 – Vintage Clothing
• #47 – Arts Degrees
• #45 – Asian Fusion Food
• #44 – Public Radio
• #36 – Breakfast Places
• #28 – Not Having a TV
• #25 – David Sedaris
• #21 – Writer’s Workshops
• #17 – Hating Their Parents
• #16 – “Gifted” Children
• #11 – Asian Girls
• #10 – Wes Anderson Movies
• #5 – Farmers Markets
• #1 – Coffee

(via Susan)

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Check out The Gapminder World, which, for lack of a better description can be called an economist’s plaything. But for reals though, this site catalogs TONS of data about most of the world’s countries, from GDP and Child Mortality Rate, to newer, more unique statistics like Internet users per 1000 people and percentage of GDP dedicated to military spending.

Gapminder tracks the data from year to year and implemented a cool animation feature so you can see trends in these statistics and more. It’s simply fascinating, particularly if you want to understand more about global trends throughout recent history. Take, for instance, the average number of babies women in Niger, Pakistan, Ireland and the US have had, respectively, since 1975, versus income. Click the graph to enlarge:

(via Phil)

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Jorn Barger’s ‘Timeline of Knowledge Representation‘

This is impressive. A timeline of the recording of information, even by biological means.

Take a moment to browse through this.

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The modern American Santa Claus is the result of a huge mess of practices and figures that have collided at high speed throughout the ages. Here is a brief synopsis of the origins of the modern American Santa Claus, and a history of his evil assistant (who is all but gone in American culture), in an approximate chronological order:

Santa Claus:
Saint Nicholas – The 4th Century Bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey), he was known for giving to the poor. In particular, he was known for providing the dowries for three impoverished sisters – sparing them of a life of begging and prostitution. Saint Nicholas became (among many other things) the patron saint of children. Many cultures honor him on December 6th, weeks before Christmas.

(more…)

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