• ITEM: What does one trillion dollars look like?
• ITEM: I cannot visit New York right now, but reading a first-hand account of a subway adventure helps dull that pain. (Once again, yay for blogs.)
• ITEM: Obama's gift to Prime Minister Brown ruined by DVD region encoding.
• ITEM: "Brain decline" begins at age 27, sez a University of Virginia study.
• ITEM: Ray Ratto reminds us the present owner of the Oakland Athletics is a scoundrel.
• ITEM: If you are a "content person" or a "Web 2.0 person" you have already read it; now everybody who loves newspapers needs to read it, too: Clay Shirky's "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable"
• ITEM: The wise man was wise indeed: Frankincense relieves anxiety and depression.
• ITEM: Children with older fathers have lower IQs (and some health risks too). (And then again, IQ tests are shite.)

A typed note that Wallace left in his papers laid out the novel's idea: "Bliss — a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious — lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you've never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it's like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom."

A court in the city of Bitola found the bear guilty, and since it had no owner and belonged to a protected species, ordered the state to pay the 140,000 denars (1,726 pounds) [roughly US$3500] damage it caused to the hives.

"Harry, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just … let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or … two cups of good, hot, black coffee."

— FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper

• ITEM: James Joyce gets namechecked in this lovely report of snow falling in Baghdad for the first time in living memory.
• ITEM: How to Read The New Yorker in 10 Easy Steps
• ITEM: Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren't Reading (this list introduced me to the wonderful bookforum)
• ITEM: I wish this Ask MetaFilter thread on cooking for one were longer, but it's got some nice ideas.
• ITEM: Answers to the questions Cecil Adams refuses to answer. (Not bad!)
• ITEM: For the geeks: Richard Stallman gets flamed. From the comments: "On the whole, RMS comes off as the most reasonable participant in the discussion. For all his reputation of extremist dogmatism, he's not the one slinging ad hominems and resorting to hyperbolic fallacies. Indeed, his patience in the face of such is almost eerie." I would say "zen-like."
• ITEM: For the geeks #2: Mark Pilgrim switches his parents to Linux. (My parents are scheduled for a similar conversion this year…)

"Ka is a wheel."

— Roland Deschain, of Gilead

• ITEM: News so happy, I'm verklempt: New York's 2nd Avenue Deli finally reopens next week (just off 2nd Ave). Time to book a flight!
• ITEM: Jon Carroll's yearly pitch: This holiday season, won't you volunteer for the Untied Way?
• ITEM: Fan reviews of Tuesday night's Tool concert at the Civic Auditorium. It was, of course, an absolutely transcendent experience. We should be erecting statues of Maynard James Keenan in all the major cities. :)
• ITEM: You know how there's that stretch of road in our beloved East Bay that is both I-80 East and I-580 West, while the other side of the road is both I-80 West and I-580 East (all this despite the fact that the road runs mostly north-south)? Turns out there's a cracktastic term for this.
• ITEM: I worked a fifteen hour shift yesterday to help launch this … the new Macworld.com!

• ITEM: I ordered an XO laptop and cannot wait for it to arrive. Are you a geek? Perhaps one with a child in your life? Here's why you should follow suit (the Give 1 Get 1 program has been extended till 12/31).
• ITEM: John Carroll wrote two amazing columns this week. First up, his take on the rich fucktards in Seadrift who think they own the beach. (Are you a transplant to California? Then listen the fuck up: In this state, the people own the beach.)
• ITEM: John Carroll #2: At his funniest, on what can happen come a Tuesday.
• ITEM: Just another lie: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said "Israel must be wiped off the map."
• ITEM: Stanfurd 13-point favorites for tomorrow's Big Game. "I have a bad feeling about this." GO BEARS!

"Are you kidding?" he said. "We couldn't do that against air."

• ITEM: Blade Runner: The Final Cut, now showing in LA and NYC, arrives in San Francisco November 30.
• ITEM: Douglass Rushkoff on 9/11 "Truthers." I have just about had it with these people. (Seems Bill Clinton feels similarly.)
• ITEM: Mark Morford on the danger of progressive extremists. (He's absolutely right, and, happily, this piece is less shrill than most Morford screeds.)
• ITEM: Elementary school science: Nearly extinct. This is so depressing. By the time I have a school-aged child, will there be any public schools left worth sending him or her to?
• ITEM: New Orleans, two years after Katrina, in pictures. Heartbreaking.