Once we get past stories about subprime mortgages and whether or not rising interest rates will sink real estate even lower, is there a way to bring the market back? Commentator John Vogel has a plan.

My Dad was on Marketplace today!

Marketplace: We need a 'Last Chance Mortgage' fund

A 12 point presentation on the similarities between the Pirates and Star Wars (original!) trilogies. Of course we could go back to Hero of a Thousand Faces, but... clever.

Summary of their points:

* Jack == Han (swaggering wildcard)
* Will == Luke (simple honest hero)
* Elizabeth == Leia
* Female courted by and drawn in both
* Movie Three starts with an improbable rescue of wildcard
... etc.

Why 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Is the New 'Star Wars' - Moviefone

Baynham & Tyers offers an advertising service using a new type of advertising technique: Marketing Virals. In short, these are small creative videos which can be easily downloaded and emailed and therefore reach a very large global audience incredibly quickly. For more information see Marketing Virals.

As undergraduates we completed a project that attracted 100,000 downloads in the first weekend, and a projected audience of 5,000,000.

Amazing videos of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions. Every transition makes me happy.

Baynham & Tyers Innovation Business Consultants, Product Design, Concept Creation, Problem Solving for Small, Medium and Large businesses, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

This 40 story tall tower just outside Seville, Spain is actually a new solar thermal power plant. Operated by Sol�car Energ�a, the facility uses 600 mirrors on the ground to tightly focus the sun's rays on water pipes at the top of the tower. The heat converts the water into steam that drive turbines to generate electricity. It's the photo of the reflected solar rays hitting the tower that really impresses me though.

It really is gorgeous...

Boing Boing: Solar power plant looks heavenly

Excellent.

xkcd - Map of online communities

The body traveled back and forth between Tegal and Jakarta before a janitor told the family he had been unable to clean one lavatory because the door was locked, the report said.

Clerks, anyone?

Dead man travels unnoticed on train - Yahoo! News

• Jones admits misrepresenting academic degrees when applying to MIT in 1979
• Jones did not receive degrees at three schools as claimed, MIT found
• Jones is a recipient of MIT's highest award for administrators

MIT dean resigns in lying scandal - CNN.com

David Savageau, who has been compiling the "Places Rated Almanac" since 1981, said he was hoping that this year's edition would have a surprise No. 1 that might create the kind of buzz the 1985 rankings did.

"I was kind of shocked," Mr. Savageau said last night as he unveiled the new rankings. "I thought that Pittsburgh would always be up there, but I was looking for a newcomer. And it just didn't happen."

Mr. Savageau is marketing this year's publication as the 25th anniversary edition. Over the years, there have been several publishers, including Rand-McNally in 1985, when Pittsburgh finished first.

"The country was aghast. Including some people in Pittsburgh," Mr. Savageau said. "Thank God we had Rand-McNally behind us or people wouldn't have taken it seriously. That story went on for years."

For an "average" expectation of livable, I can not disagree that Pittsburgh is up there. The top 10 are an interesting mix; other than Rochester and Madison, and probably DC, I have considered living in all of them. And Rochester isn't bad.

What is curious is that each has a significant ultimate community...

Pittsburgh rated 'most livable' once again

The Morningstar Market BarometerSM provides an at-a-glance perspective of the U.S. equity market, allowing instant analysis of performance trends. This analysis helps identify investment opportunities and explain the long-term benefits of diversification.

Really good information design.

Morningstar Market Barameter Five-Year Recap 2002-2006

When the February issue of Wired Magazine debuted with a new logo, we explained inside the magazine that it “obeys the Law of Optical Volumes.” We were being coy –many readers went scurrying to Wikipedia and Google to investigate this curious law, only to find … nothing.

The Underwire - Wired News