News You Can Bruise for 2009 December 28

Mon Dec 28 2009 10:49 Today's Pictures: From 2009, Sumana's March trip to England. Mostly nice stereotypical pictures of Cambridge punting, but also has nice shots of the two Rachels.

And from 2008, the election night party at Professor Biella Coleman's place. A short gallery, but it includes a Kermit the Frog cookie cutter and Karl Fogel's dad.

(1) Mon Dec 28 2009 17:14 Nostalgiathon 2009: Best of Links July-December:

Peculiar Voyage: Escape From Cute, a fun Shiren the Wanderer homebrew clone for the DS.
Remember fresh berries? A tip to keep them fresh.
A tiny Starfleet strike force. Not the Defiant as seen in "One Little Ship".
The Game Crafter does print-on-demand for board games. Has anyone I know used this?
A labor of love: charts of all the Nintendo Power game popularity data 1988-1994. Really needs to be put into a spreadsheet.
For an excessive sum, you too can own a Shinya Arino-style Famicom controller business card case.
A recreation of one of those crazy Futurist dinners I've been telling you about for years. (Not constantly, obviously.)
100 Days in Glacier National Park.
The Twitter account "douchesFollowMe".
Perhaps H.P. Lovecraft's least chilling work, "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson".
The Crummy.com Symbol of the Year.
Could the TV Tropes Story Generator make it possible for TV Tropes to help a writer get work done? No! Don't fall for it!
We all know what Werner von Braun thinks of the disposition of rockets once they go up. But before they go up, he's downright fussy.
In 1997 I read a science fiction story by Rob Malda of Slashdot fame, about a Tamagotchi-like Perl script. I thought it was a really good story, and it was also notable for being good SF despite not having any fantastic element--it was technically possible, even in 1997. I can't find the story itself, but I did find this 1999 summary of the story, so I know I'm not making it up. Does anyone remember this? Anyone have a copy? Update: Michael Yount found it by the clever trick of going to Rob Malda's homepage.
If it's the end of the year, it's time to dust off this excessive, cheesy New Years strata. The recipe for it, I mean. (Substitute fried mushrooms for prosciutto to make it vegetarian.)