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I've always seen myself as a bit of an information pimp although mostly pimp emeritus at this point. Scholarship is too much work as much as I admire that bent. Hell, expertise is too often out of my range. But I do like to graze in the information fields, snuffle out a juicy bit.

My new growing addiction is to thebrowser. There's a bit of everything here. Don't let the Anglofocus frighten you away. You'll find profound infobits like:

Time Really Is Speeding Up
Christopher Caldwell | Financial Times | 1 January 2010
It is particularly discomfiting to play this game with cultural products that are supposed to be, by definition, new, fresh and youthful, like rock music, for instance. The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks (1977) is closer to the second world war than it is to the present. The Beatles’ release of “Love Me Do” (1962) is closer to the first world war than to us. Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock (1954) is as close to the Spanish-American war (1898) as it is to us. There is nothing hipper than hip-hop, but the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), the first rap song, is closer to Al Jolson’s last hits than to the songs in the rap charts now.

Scary! Scary! Scary! What are the chances that I'd google "Jolson" and "Sugerhill Gang" together and find this?

(I have a crateload of New Year's resolutions this year. One is to switch even more attention to the interhighway for news and information. How many resolutions do I have this year? I started them in November! THAT'S how chock full of resolutions my new year is: I had to add months if I hoped to achieve them.)

Here's another tidbit of a sciency sort:

On The Origin of Tomorrow

Carl Zimmer | Science | 3 December 2009

Each baby's DNA carries about 130 new mutations. Most of them have no effect on our well-being. People can pass these neutral mutations down to their offspring without harm, and over time, a small fraction of them will end up spreading across entire populations, or even the entire species, thanks to random luck.

I guess that random mutations are more unsettling than regular old mutations. Here's to having a prehensile tail in the near future! Also by Mr. Zimmer:

Whales: The Origins Of Big

Carl Zimmer | The Loom | 24 November 2009
Evolutionary rationale for size of whales. Tyler Cowen calls this "one of the very best short pieces I've read this year"

This led to:
I once wondered aloud if scientists had tattoos of their science. The answer was yes, and this ever-growing collection is the evidence.

I had planned on writing a post of unsurpassing beauty but was once again distracted. Since this wasn't a resolution, technically I can wait another day.