The transcript of the Jonah Weiner’s interview with Louis C.K..

How Google and Bing are working against website owners. This is a ton of inside baseball, but it’s an interesting deconstruction of the market dynamics.

How the Navy freed Iranians from Somali Pirates. A great sea tale from the New York Times.

The air in Beijing is like standing downwind from a forest fire. It certainly was when I was there. The air had texture, density and smell. Not a great feeling. I can only imagine it’s worse 11 years on.

Correction: Apparently Lucy is wearing a Snow White outfit in Thursday’s picture, not a Cinderella one. I’m not ashamed that I failed to correctly identify the outfit. Call it a win for my last shreds of masculinity.

Vince Wilfork’s swimming routine. Big Vince has been a monster this year. Turns out that his offseason swimming routine might be the reason.

Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users. If you ever wanted to understand the economics of newspapers and their awkward transitions online, you must read this new article by Clay Shirky.

Congratulations to XKCD for making it to 1,000 comics. If you want to happily pass a few minutes, click on the “random” button under each comic. Or, if you prefer hard copies, do what I did and buy his book.

Good Whiteboard Friday from SEOMoz yesterday, discussing the basics of anchor text optimization. Their Whiteboard Friday series is brilliant; I’ve been telling every content site I’ve worked with for the past couple of years to emulate it.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finally has a leader, and they launched their nonbank supervision program. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Happy Thursday. I’m feeling good because tomorrow is a launch day for a project with a high likelihood of failure and embarrassment. Woo Hoo! On to today’s links.

Top 10 “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Repeal Lies that Never Came True. It’s amazing how the world hasn’t ended from allowing gay Americans to serve their country.

When Massholes park, they stay parked. Some pretty incredible pictures here. I love the totally deadpan Wellesley cop talking about how it happened and trying not to laugh.

For longer form video, I really enjoy ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, especially the Nostalgia Critic and his counterpart, the Nostalgia Chick. The bits are hit or miss, but they’re usually a pleasant way to spend fifteen minutes or so. I think that this is a pretty good model for pro-am video production.

Bad Cumbies. Cumberland Farms fires the cashier who got robbed because he had too much cash in the drawer. I’m glad that some of the loyal customers are now boycotting.

I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon with my Linky Goodness. Let’s see if I can get back in the habit of noting interesting articles (mostly finding me via Serendeputy or TweetDeputy) for everyone. I’d like to see if I can keep this Emacs buffer open all day and then post what I have before picking up the girls. It’s worth a shot.

How Doctors Die. Doctors tend to eschew extreme end-of-life care. I agree with them. This is a tough conversation to contemplate, but a useful one to have.

Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin. I was little too young to appreciate Steve Martin when he was a full-time comic, and I’m never really loved any of his movies, except maybe for Father of the Bride. But, this book is less about his material and much more about how he went about the creative process, how he was able to learn, practice and keep up the slog until 10 years later he turned into an overnight success. It’s a really good dissertation on the creative process.

By the way, I recommend you get this as the audio book instead of the printed book. The material obviously works better when it’s in his own voice.

TV Tropes is the best use of the next several hours of clicking around time. It deconstructs all the standard plot elements in modern entertainment. Addicting as hell.

Robert X. Cringely and John Battelle are doing their 2012 predictions. These guys are usually pretty good, so I’m paying attention.

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) writes a really interesting blog, including a lot of thought experiments. It’s worth checking in on every day or two. Right now, he’s quasi-seriously exploring what a presidential campaign from someone who just wants to make things work would look like.

For all your non-comic election needs, FiveThirtyEight is back in high gear, at its new home on the New York Times on the Web.

If you haven’t already, you should follow me on Twitter. If we’ve met in real life, feel free to connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn, whichever seems more appropriate.

All over the place these days. The joy of being triple-booked. Have fun:

Beware of Debt Cancellation
Be careful of this scam. If you wonder why financial products are regulated, this is another example of why.

100 famous guitar riffs in one take
This is pretty awesome.

Electric trucks may arrive before electric cars.
This may be the best way to start integrating electric vehicles into the mainstream. How long before some cities begin mandating electric vehicles for all deliveries?

What would a war with Iran look like?
I don’t like to think about these things, but it’s better than being caught unaware. This is a really interesting thought experiment, that might be able to show some of the thigns we should probably avoid. It’s going to take us a long time to dig out of the hole we’ve made ourselves throughout the world.

City of Angels
One of the things I love about my little site is that it leads me to writers I wouldn’t have otherwise found. Here’s an excellent piece from Burundi.

Wireless network cluelessness
Don’t leech off other’s wireless and then complain when they slap a password on it.

Home price map
Of course, Holliston has lost 20% of its value since 2005. When did we buy our house? 2005!

Personal Memory Device
H+ is another of one of my favorite new sites. Here’s an article on your personal-memory device. I look forward to the day when I can offload my memories and instantly retrieve them. Minority Report approaches apace.

Michael Lewis Excerpt
I learned all about the mortgage-bond market by reading Liar’s Poker in college. I’m amazed that the same song played almost note for note twenty years later. Here’s an excerpt from Michael Lewis’s new book.

38.5 billions dollars each year from the poor to the rich
How the banks systematically swindle the poor.

Preparing for a stressful flu season
I’m paying a lot of attention to this as I’m building out the h1n1 news topic on Serendeputy. I hope that we don’t have massive outbreaks this fall. I’ve already estimated that I’m going to be home with at least one of the girls for a week this fall. I hope it doesn’t get too bad nationwide.

Customers get mad, and get even online
Hooray for YouTube. You can’t quietly screw people over anymore.

Why I love my Gen-Y assistant
Interesting review of a Gen-Y assistant from a Generation X boss.

Reviewing Lost episode 1 from after season 5
A really engaging (warning: long, and assumes you know the story so far) review of what the Lost pilot exposed and foreshadowed. We just finished season two of our Lost re-watch. I can’t wait for January to come around again so that we can see how it all ends.

Afterhours DJ
This is what I’ve been listening to while working for the past couple of weeks. I was a little Mozart’ed and Beethoven’ed out, and I can’t really handle background music with words anymore. I found this on the iTunes radio applciation, and it’s generally been on ever since. It’s a good mix of Trance, House and DnB. Give it a listen.

Neil Patrick Harris feature
A really interesting long feature on NPH. I’m really looking forward to the premiere of How I Met Your Mother in a couple of weeks.

Translating Bill Belichick’s post-game interview
WEEI writer Dan Guttenplan translates Bill Belichick’s post-game comments, illuminating what the coach had to say about Tom Brady and his horrific hit.

Protecting your child’s privacy
At what point do the stories stop being yours and start being theirs? The New York Times’s Lisa Belkin discusses. I’ve been very careful with what I write here, so I hope that I’ll never have an angry conversation with Sadie or Lucy. I hope that Lucy will not be horrified by how much she enjoyed splashing in the mud…

It’s time to get it over with and declare American royalty
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald is not impressed with NBC’s newest hire.

Bush daughter Jenna Hager becomes ‘Today’ reporter …

They should convene a panel for the next Meet the Press with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it’s really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from. …

Just to underscore a very important, related point: all of the above-listed people are examples of America’s Great Meritocracy, having achieved what they have solely on the basis of their talent, skill and hard work — The American Way. By contrast, Sonia Sotomayor — who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in Bronx housing projects; whose father had a third-grade education, did not speak English and died when she was 9; whose mother worked as a telephone operator and a nurse; and who then became valedictorian of her high school, summa cum laude at Princeton, a graduate of Yale Law School, and ultimately a Supreme Court Justice — is someone who had a whole litany of unfair advantages handed to her and is the poster child for un-American, merit-less advancement.

7 Iconic characters they saved from the cutting-room floor
Cracked reminds me I’m glad we didn’t lose Jack Shepherd and the Joker.

Flying vs. Driving
Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has a (predictably) fascinating analysis about why Americans prefer driving to flying, despite its financial disadvantages. Well worth a read.

Especially interesting for me as I’m pondering doing sales trips down to New York. Should I fly from Logan, take the Acela from Providence, take one of the bus lines, or just drive. I think the winner right now for New York trips is the train, but for Washington trips it’ll definitely be the airplane. I try not to let my fear of flying interface with logic.

Things to do after you break up
This is another site I found in the midst of my librarian work. There’s some salty language, but it’s a really interesting read. Building a catalog of 5,000+ sites I personally like is doing a number on my productivity, though.

I’ve been doing a lot of librarian work this week, so the links have piled up a bit.

Chicken, Bacon, Cheese, Chicken
How insane is this sandwich from KFC. Make a bacon and cheese sandwich, then replace the bread with fried chicken. I believe this is the very definition of awesome.

Orlando is having some tough times
Live by the specialty, die by the specialty. Apparently, the federal government banned government conferences in Orlando. This is taking a toll on a city designed for one industry. “Central Florida, without any other true industry, now grovels at the government’s feet to restore itself into good graces and allow a National Park Service meeting to take place at the Ramada Inn again.”

Why Zack Grienke is the best pitcher in baseball
Joe Posnanski runs the numbers.

Watch out for ripoffs after you buy something
I’ve seen this a bunch of times. You buy something online and then see an offer for a “rebate” or “$10 off.” If you click it, then your credit card will be billed forever by these scam artists.

Traffic control in downtown Holliston
When are we finally going to put the stop light at the corner of Washington and Central Streets? We’ve needed for as long as I can remember. 1982, maybe?

McArabia
How McDonald’s is localizing its recipes around the world — Morocco in this case. If nothing else, it has to be better than the McRib.

Check those medical bills
Sometimes you get more than you expected. The Red Tape Chronicles takes a look at how to handle the inevitable billing mistakes. Don’t worry about your doctor hating you; they’re removed from the billing process and usually just as annoyed as you are.

Why Kind of Blue is so great
Kind of Blue was released 50 years ago this week. Slate analyzes what made this record so great.

I’m not a jazz geek, but I have a few of these records in rotation. If you haven’t already, you should check out:

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, Dark Magus

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme, Blue Train, Giant Steps

Thelonious Monk: Solo Monk

Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

If you like vocals, then you should absolutely check out these two records, two of my all-time favorites

Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingue Lovers

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

Flipping through Amazon to find all these links, I was delighted to have the yellow bar saying things like “You Purchased this item on February 8, 1999.” Shows how long Amazon has been around.

Barney Frank’s Town Hall
Barney Frank seemed to have a lot of fun at his town hall to discuss healthcare reform. This is a ridiculously slanted account of the night, but there’s some truth buried in there. Here’s a more nuanced coverage from CNN. Here’s the Barney Frank video

Consumer detox?
Can you try a couple of weeks or a month of buying nothing at all?

Is it now a crime to be poor?
“[T]he law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.”

Choosing how to build your own house
Scott Adams has some thoughts on how you could design a house to be as efficient, green and livable as possible. A. and I are highly unlikely to ever build a custom house, but this is still really interesting reading.

Everything that went into the Lost panel at Comic-Con
It was quite an effort to do the Lost panel at Comic-Con. A lot more than you’d expect.

What would the grownup do?
Interesting article throwing a parenting-book writer into a challenging family.

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version
What if you had the song describe what was happening in the video? Very entertaining.

Bomb exploded in Holliston
All sorts of excitement. Holliston Reporter has the pictures of the unexploded bomb that was found in a Holliston backyard. State Police and the Military Bomb Squad were called in. It ended up being blown up on Marshall Street.

What to do about the tweens/teens hanging out downtown?
Interesting article in the Holliston Reporter about how the kids hanging out downtown are impacting local business. Do we need a youth center here in town?

Looks like the new Holliston Police Station is pretty snazzy
Memo: Children: I do not wish to see the inside of this station in reference to anything you end up doing.

Update on the Congregational Church
I can’t wait to see when this is all done.

Don’t forget, Serendeputy can pull together and personalize all your Holliston news for you. Check it out! (Other towns are coming soon – I’m waiting to see how to do it well before I spread it out…)

Ok, 1984 was the best year in movie history
Some all-time greats in this list.

Five tips for riding a motorbike in Dakar
A Holliston teen is spending some time in West Africa and writing up her experiences. It turns out that it’s not that easy to ride a motorbike wearing a skirt.

What life will be like for Generation Z
I’ve always been fascinated by generational dynamics. I’m a Generation X’er, a fairly cliche one at that. Here’s Penelope Trunk on what life will be like for Sadie, Lucy and the other members of Generation Z.

I occasionally have generational confusion at the kids’ school. Now that Lucy’s hair is a little longer, we can put her hair in a little ponytail sticking straight up from her head. Unfortunately, the early-twenties teachers have no friggin’ clue what I’m talking about when I say we “pebbles ‘er up.” I guess the Flintstones isn’t in heavy rotation these days.

And, by the way, get off my lawn.

It’s great being a parent, suburbanite, etc., but sometimes I wish we had time to do some of the romantic things in this post. This may become my motto for the month:

When you’re really exhausted or hit the ocean, it’s time to go back.

Time to see if the babysitters are available anytime soon.

p.s., Might as well plug the site. I’d never really visited this site before, until it came up for me on my Serendeputy homepage. Private beta continues. Public launch coming Real Soon Now.

I’m doing a lot of librarian work for Serendeputy‘s beta launch. (Real. Soon. Now.) I’m coming across tons of new and interesting sites. I’ll drop quick links in here as I find them so that you can enjoy them too…

New Geography writes about the lessons of geography in understanding life in the United States. It’s actually much more interesting that that sounds — you should go over and give it a read. If you’re a combination data/sociology geek, you’ll spend hours playing with the information.

Recent topics include U-Haul prices as migration indicator, which shows parts of the country getting versus losing population. It looks like everyone’s moving to Charlotte and Austin. Detroit (unsurprisingly) is one of the biggest losers, along with Virginia Beach and our lovely neighbor Providence.

New Geography is showing up very high in my profile these days.

Consumerist has been running a series of articles about the evils of mandatory binding arbitration. It’s worth reading a couple of these pieces.

MBA is a pretty simple example of behavioral economics. Once a company no longer fears being sued, they can screw the customers over with impunity.

My target market for Serendeputy isn’t me, it’s “Jen” a Gen-X/late-boomer who uses the computer as a tool, not a toy. So, most of the things I’ve indexed are more in line with her interests than mine.

I’ve seeded the site with sites that will appeal to Jen, including a ton of sites focusing on fashion. One of those sites (with the great name of Shopping is my Cardio) led me to Antler Magazine, a beautifully put together online magazine. The technology here is pretty impressive. I’d love to see Alan Taylor’s Big Picture in this type of a format.

I wish the newspaper industry would focus more on making incredible things, and less on trying to turn back the clock. But, that’s a separate rant.

This reminds me, I should get back to putting together the linky-goodness posts. I haven’t done any of those in forever. Bad Jason. I’ll see if I can get back in the saddle for that. After beta.

Housing prices down in most of Massachusetts
Very exciting that Holliston is down 10-25% according to the graphic in the article. We undoubtedly bought at the top of the market.

State backs developer on Holliston 40B application
I can’t believe they’re actually going to do something with the old Bird property. It will be interesting to see if the housing market has rebounded by the time these units actually hit the market. Otherwise, there’ll just by 150 empty units on top of the dump.

You can always tell the parents by the stains
I am far more stained than I used to be.

50 most loathsome people in America
Not the most charitable of articles, but entertaining for a few minutes.

And, a couple more sites you should be checking out.

Global Post
This is a new Boston-based international-news site. It reminds me of reading the Monitor or the IHT. It’s always good to have another source of grown-up news.

Cookie Magazine
A really interesting magazine about parenting. Serendeputy knows that I’m interested in this sort of thing, so it keeps it coming.

It’s been a while since I’ve written up some good old-fashioned linky goodness. Now that we’re past the holidays and the baby seems to be mostly well, I hope to be able to do this more regularly.

Today’s list comes from research I’ve been doing for Serendeputy. I’ve been building up the library catalog, and I’ve come across a ton of good sites. Not the best for my productivity, but really interesting reads.

Holliston Reporter
I’ve done a lot of work on hyperlocal journalism, and I’m happy to find such a good example of it right here in Holliston. The design isn’t great, and they’re not shy with the ads, but the content is just what you would hope for.

Accidental Housewife
Best tagline: The place where I waste my law degree. Entertaining writing from the mother of three small children.

Wronging Rights
An extremely interesting blog dealing with human rights issues around the world (among other topics.)

Hiring Partner’s Office
An anonymous hiring partner at a law firm gives you the inside scoop on what you should be doing. Although the lovely A. is no longer in this world, it’s still pretty entertaining to visit.

If you have sites you’d love me to check out, please drop me a line. I’m always looking to improve my reading radius.

I love Consumerist. If you’re not reading it, you should be. For a sample, here’s their top 17 most-useful posts of 2008.

I note with interest Susan Hunt Stevens’ new blog over at BoMoms: Practically Green. Susan is doing tons of things to really live green at her new home in Newton. She’s writing about what it’s like to live on the edge of these new technologies and mindsets.

She’s gone far further than we have, although we are trying to green as we go (Grawgo) — installing the compact fluorescents, upgrading the furnace, buying a reasonably fuel-efficient car.

I look forward to reading more about how she’s doing it.