Well it's a punky reggae part-ay, and it's tonight...  (sorry, just can't get Bob out of my head :)

We had a great party over here this afternoon / tonight; thanks to all of you who came.  Sitting around BSing with friends has to be the ultimate fun in life.  Why would this be?  Don't know - need to think about this...

So, it's fourth down and inches.  What do you do?  If you're a conventional football coach, you punt.  Wrong!  At least so says David Romer, in a terrific and scholarly analysis of the probabilities involved.  Greg Garber of ESPN has the traditional contra response.  I love this stuff - reminds me of the book Moneyball, about how Billy Beane and the Oakland As have turned baseball inside out by challenging conventional wisdom with facts.

Steven Den Beste followed his fascinating biological study of cross-pollination with another from the point of view of culture.  Excellent stuff - along the lines of Susan Blackmore's terrific book The Meme Machine, but with a political bent.

We've been talking about "eyetop" displays, but what about plain old big screens?  Like all red-blooded American males I am coveting a plasma display, but John Robb reports Sony's latest projector is really great.

Wired laments Chilly Forecast for Smart Fridge.  Of course "smart" refrigerators haven't taken off yet...  the thing they really need is RFID tags on each product, so the fridge knows what's in it.  That will make smart fridges a smart product.  Stay tuned!

Dan Gillmor is doing his part against the phone company monopolies: Why I Buy Internet Phone Calling.  This is an interesting meme which is picking up steam; there are now a number of companies offering voice-over-IP phone systems.  They are cheaper than analog phones, and competitive on features and quality.

CNN reports Felix Baumgartner has become the first human to fly across the English Channel.  But Bigwig claims this isn't flying, it is merely falling with style :)  Either way it is cool.  Personally I want one so I can just fly around...

Speaking of flying, check out this jet.  Nicknamed "Beluga", it is used primarily for flying around pieces of other jets.  Absolutely amazing.

For extra credit: one of my favorite interview questions is: "how would you weigh a 747?", with the follow up "how would you guessimate how much it weighs?"  So how would you weigh this, and how much do you think this weighs?

Dave Winer discusses how to name a product.  Very apropos for me; I'm trying to figure out a great name for Aperio's image pattern recognition tool.

Okay this is nerdy but cool: Adrian Holovaty has customized RSS feeds.  [ via John Robb ]  This is interesting; it would surely help cut down the "aggregator glut" afflicting those of us who are enthusiastic blog readers, but how will you know exactly what to filter for?  The serendipitous discovery of something interesting you didn't already know about is the charm of blogsurfing...