Link roundup

1. Absolutely bizarre story about parasitic albino redwood trees (they can't make chlorophyll, so they instead suck all their energy from another tree like a vampire). Via.

2. Tuition at Stanford Law, plus room and board, is over $70,000 per year.

3. How to remove personal information (such as location) from a photograph.

*Buy digital cameras at eBay.

Link roundup

1. How does the Huffington Post draw so much traffic? Well, for one thing, it's the third result on Bing for "sex." Via.

2. Free downloadable rules for transforming Scrabble, Clue, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit into Valentine's Day-themed games.

3. Useful tip if you have horizontal blinds - - paper clip just a few of the top ones together to allow in more light, while maintaining your privacy.

*Buy board games at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Any ideas what my book club should read next? Ideally a novel that's not science fiction or fantasy. (In the past, we've all liked Bonfire of the Vanities, The Time Traveler's Wife, and I Am Legend, which we just finished.)

2. Useful advice from OK Cupid: "Among all our casual topics, whether someone likes the taste of beer is the single best predictor of if he or she has sex on the first date."

3. How to "Fix a Stripped Screw Hole with Toothpicks."

Link roundup

1. How to stay safe at a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

2. And How to Secure Your Smartphone.

3. I've been working my way through Michael Piller's unpublished book about writing for Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Insurrection. Really good so far. Via.

*Buy Tribbles at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Vice Magazine sneaks into the world's largest trade show for selling military-grade weapons.

2. You might want to remove your personal information from Spokeo.

3. Photo of the sun tracing an analemma through the sky over the course of a year. Via.

*Buy News, Nudity & Nonsense: The Best of Vice Magazine Vol. II 2003-2008 at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "Vimeo Video School is a fun place for anyone to learn how to make better videos." Via.

2. Great Q&A with J.C. Bradbury about baseball, including an explanation for why salary caps don't improve competitive balance. Also, he offers a guess as to what makes Scott Boras different from other agents:

But Boras has also been able to convince his clients not to sign long-run contracts before they hit free agency. Players, who have all their value tied up in a single fragile asset (their bodies), have to fear that an injury might prevent them from collecting a big free-agent payday after their six-year indenture is up. Teams have used this fear to sign young players to long-term deals at below-market rates. Players trade some salary in the future in return for long-run security. For example, Jay Bruce recently agreed to a six-year, $51 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds that buys out two years of would-be free agency, when he would be paid much more than the salary he’ll receive. I have long wondered why Boras is so successful at convincing his players to resist the temptation to sign discounted long-run deals as insurance. I have a theory that Boras sells his own insurance to players by promising players a minimum salary in return for waiting for free agency. This way, players get insurance against injury, more income if they reach free agency in good health, and Boras gets a bigger cut.

Via.

3. Less people are hunting and it's really starting to hurt conservation efforts - - because hunting licenses and other related fees support government efforts to conserve and restore wildlife habitat.

*Buy baseball cards at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Lifehacker says, "Ge.tt is a clever, instant file-sharing webapp that makes sharing files simple and fast."

2. Los Angles police officers are giving away steering wheels locks (clubs) to people in an area with a high number of car thefts.

3. Free shipping and $6 off t-shirts at Zazzle today with the code JINGLESALE82, so it's a perfect time to design your own featuring a certain chimera mascot.

Link roundup

1. "A former Ford engineer charged with stealing trade secrets worth $50 million has pleaded guilty, and was apparently caught with the evidence on his laptop when he was arrested in Chicago in 2009. The man worked for Ford for 10 years before quitting the company to accept a position at a Ford competitor -- Beijing Automotive."

2. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a new version of HTTPS Everywhere, a security tool that offers enhanced protection for Firefox browser users against 'Firesheep' and other exploits of webpage security flaws." Via.

3. Interview with Jordan Schwartz, who landed a Lego internship right out of high school.

*Buy Lego minifigs at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Duff Goldman is opening a Charm City Cakes in Los Angeles.

2. China is aging much faster than the USA.

3. Popular Mechanics: We mailed a bunch of sensors on an epic journey to find out which shipping company is the most careful with your packages. Here's what we found. Via.

Link roundup

1. The iPod Touch is $20-$30 off depending on the model at Amazon.

2. "How to Verify if an Email Address Is Real or Fake."

3. Creepy Blade Runner animated gif.

*Buy Blade Runner posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "If you're looking for a simple drag and drop solution for converting videos for on your iPod, PS3, or other portable device or media center, Hamster Free Video Converter is a no-fuss video conversion tool." Via.

2. Gabe Delahaye on Will Smith's daughter's song Whip My Hair: "this song isn’t actually that bad (probably because it was written by an adult and sung by a computer)." She's awfully stylish, too.

3. Scooby-Doo/Batman team-up. Also, Spy vs Spy vs Batman. Via.

*Buy Scooby-Doo toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Chupacabras are apparently just coyotes with mange.

2. Elie Mystal on the claim that Justice Clarence Thomas likes pornography and large breasts:

As we just mentioned in Fame Brief, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is fielding more allegations about his sexual preferences today, as former girlfriend Lillian McEwen made some “explosive” statements to the Washington Post about her time with the Supreme Court Justice.

I put “explosive” in scare quotes, because really all we’re learning from McEwen is that Justice Thomas likes (or liked, she dated him a long time ago) boobs and porn. Is that really such a big deal? Hey, quick question, would you rather be reading this article about Clarence Thomas and Lillian McEwen right now, or doing something that involved boobs and porn?

3. Five gigs of free storage in the cloud courtesy of Amazon beginning November 1. Via.

*Buy chupacabras at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Lifehacker recommends this site for easily downloading and converting youtube videos.

2. I think this is mostly just confirming what was believed at the time, but, "Pakistan's powerful intelligence services were heavily involved in preparations for the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008, according to classified Indian government documents obtained by the Guardian." Via.

3. Nissan's North American head of marketing on Nissan's new electric car:

"I'm not advertising the Leaf to sell Leafs. We're sold out. I'm doing it to build the brand," Mr. Carolin said. "We are not regarded as a strong brand. Our mission in life is to improve that brand opinion."

Relatedly, Nissan marketing people, please stop posing as regular readers and sending me excited emails about the "cool" new Nissan "viral" videos.

Link roundup

1. James White is holding an art contest.

2. What it was like for the trapped Chilean miners:

And they were not confined to the “rescue chamber,” the size of a Manhattan studio apartment. (The first drill bit reached the chamber in August and the miners attached a note to it saying that all 33 were alive.)

“They had the run of the mine,” said Jeffery H. Kravitz, acting director for technical support at the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration. With half a mile of tunnels open, he said, “they had places to exercise and to use for waste.” One miner ran several miles a day.

“They even had a sort of waterfall they could take a shower under,” Mr. Kravitz said. “They requested shampoo, and shaved for their families.”

3. This site allows you to opt out of Yellow Pages. Via.

Link roundup

1. WizardRSS supposedly turns a partial feed into a full feed. Via.

2. From an article about Herschel Walker, who is 50 years old:

He eats once a day, skipping breakfast and lunch. After a long, intense day of training, he eats salad and bread for dinner. He doesn't care for meat or fuss about getting enough protein. Walker's a vegetarian.

"It's a mindset -- something I've been doing for a long time," he said. "I don't worry about protein. I don't worry about all that. I'm from old school. I grew up in south Georgia. They didn't worry about cholesterol or protein. They went out and worked and lived a long time, so I don't put a lot of worries in my mind. I just get it done."

Sometimes, Walker doesn't have an appetite and will go through seven hours of wrestling, kickboxing, sparring and practicing jujitsu without having eaten for three or four days.

"It's just unbelievable," said Mendez, who trains Walker at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California. "He shouldn't be able to do what he's doing. I don't think it's possible to eat as little as possible and work out the way he does. There's no way. He's an unbelievable athlete."

CNN should have to report that they followed him around for several days before reporting those claims as truthful.

3. A look at the new Green Lantern and Young Justice cartoons.

*Buy Green Lantern toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Timothy Lim and Mark Pellegrini have a new comic strip - - It's a good life.

2. Tomopop is giving away another Dunny.

3. Goog-411 is ending, but you can replace it with Bing-411 (1-800-246-4411).

*Buy McBess Dunnys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. How to turn your Twitter stream in an RSS feed.

2. A New Zealand elementary school has been criticized for holding a possum throwing contest. Via.

3. Excellent collection of Las Vegas Weekly covers by Benjamin Purvis. Via.

Link roundup

1. How to make a Luke Skywalker pinata.

2. What to do if a body part falls off (like an eyeball, or tooth, or toe...).

3. Use a pen to rethread a drawstring.

*Buy The Star Wars Craft Book at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Crayons work great on dry erase boards.

2. KOTOR is $2.50 at Steam today.

3. Latest edition of Drew Magary's mailbag.

*Buy Darth Revan toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Elephants are afraid of ants, but not mice.

2. If you're looking for something to watch online, the here's Fast Company's picks for good webshows.

3. How to Turn Your Flash Drive into a Portable Privacy Toolkit.

*Buy flash drives at Amazon.