- The new Doctor Who season finale is really good. The whole season was top notch: acting, writing, probably directing too but I didn’t notice. If you’re looking for (13*42/60=) 9 hours of light sci fi, including time travel and Britishness, I highly recommend it. This is season 5 (post-2005-reboot), and it’s about as good a place to start as any.

- The Vocal Joystick is really cool. (2 min youtube; summary: controlling a mouse pointer or a robot arm with your voice. Vowel sound and volume are both factors.) This is what I was trying to do with Whistle Weasel, times 1000.

- Thai food remains my new favorite. Recommendations welcome (restaurants, recipes, whatever)!

- I like how the World Cup has gotten big enough to absorb even little old not-caring-about-sports-me into its fold. Also I like vuvuzelas.

- On this comic, the first panel seems good, while the second and third seem bad. I’m not going to try to generalize about this, because generalizing is apparently all I do all the time now.