Link a Day!

Ok, so I realize that I'm a terrible blogger. I console myself with 2 justifications: 1) the fact that I'm a law student, which takes up a lot of time, and 2) that this blog has a readership of about 3 friends, who are probably not even that interested to begin with. Still, every time I come across a great link and bookmark it as "postworthy" and then fail to post it, I die a little inside. Not as much as when I endure my weekly Drano colonic, mind you, but it still hurts.

So, in an effort to appear like less of a worthless drain on teh intertubes, I'm going to try for 1 post per day. I know, I know, you're thinking "But asshole, you can barely manage 1 post per month! How in the name of Prince Adam of Eternia do you expect to put up 1 post per day? Especially now that you have to start outlining for finals! I call shenanigans!"

Well, firstly, go to hell. I don't blog quasi-anonymously on the internet so I can sit here and be insulted. Secondly, sweet 80's cartoon name drop, homes. Thirdly, simple; I'm taking the easy way out and mostly just posting links. So, in a way you're right, Mr. Anonymous Internet Person I Just Made Up. When it comes to substantive posts, I probably still won't be cranking out more than one or two per month. But I've been ammassing a hoard of links during the last few months, as well as a few interesting post ideas, so I should have enough to keep me going for a while. Let's hope I don't bitch out on this like I did with the espresso dealie. (In case you (Sniffy McTallperson) are still interested, I think I'm up around 290 at the moment. I've been supplementing my caffiene intake with these, so I've been needing less of the black stuff lately...)

So, to kick things off, here's a few winners to get the ball rolling:

Grooveshark
This is a music networking site which has been described as the offspring between Last.fm and Pandora (both of which are great, but have their setbacks). What makes Grooveshark so great is that it allows you to search for and play as much music as you want, as many times as you want. There's no restriction on skipping songs or being forced to listen to 'recommended' music if you don't want to (though you can if you so choose); you may listen to an artists entire discography (or as much as is actually hosted), as many times as you want for free. Plus, it even let's you embed music elsewhere on the 'net, if you wish. Witness:



Pictures Taken At Just The Right Time
There's a lot of these lists out there, but the people that put this one together obviously spent a considerable amount of time getting the composition of each shot just right, and it shows.

The Federal Budget
This is an interactive, graphical representation of each dollar that will be spent by the Federal Government in the 2009 fiscal year. It's very well done, but when you see how the budget actually breaks down, you'll probably wish it wasn't. For example, during the 365 days that this graph represents, we'll be spending $2.259 billion on the V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft with an already long, expensive history. Sure, in the grand scheme of things this may not seem like much (the total 2009 budget is $1.182 trillion, after all), but when you consider that we're only spending $1.2 billion on developing renewable energy technologies during that same time period (a 27% decrease from the 2008 budget), the gross inequity becomes clear. But at least that's a better military-nonmilitary spending ratio than the overall budget, which is $799 billion to $383 billion. Yep, that's right...America spends more than twice as much preparing to kill people as it spends on EVERY SINGLE OTHER THING IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. Just something to think about.

Enjoy!