I'm not sure why this caught my eye, but it did. About a mother and her daughter, and a father and his son, and a pool, and clouds and sunshine.

Back in 1992, 29,000 rubber duckies and other toys were lost at sea when their shipping container washed overboard in a North Pacific storm. Lost, but not forgotten, as oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer expects them to start showing up in Britain soon.

(Link by way of Metafilter.)

2285 words yesterday, giving me 162,015 since January 1. That's a total of 21,535 for July. Less than I had hoped, but not bad considering Semicon West and other distractions. To get to 300,000, I'll need to average 27,597 per month through the rest of the year.

For August, my goal is again a thousand words per day, aiming for 193,015 by the end of the month.

Whee! Spent the morning switching over to Google for the site search. It's just better.... Check it out, in the upper right of this and every page.

No, I don't know why the results page is blue. I don't seem to have control over it.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. The Defense Department has finally decided that Admiral Poindexter is too controversial. He is resigning under pressure.

(New York Times link, free registration required.)

3705 words since my last update, 159,730 since January 1.

Who do you trust for restaurant recommendations? Your local paper's food critic, or your friend who cooks meals to die for in between checking out all the new spots? That's what buzz is all about. Furthermore, as Fast Company points out, buzz is something you earn, not something you buy.

Just because Plutarch lived two thousand years ago, that doesn't mean he wasn't a careful observer. Recent research suggests that Plutarch's explanation of the Delphic Oracle might have been right on target. And was probably closer to the truth than modern explanations that dismissed the traditions of the Oracle as myth.

Funny thing about technology. Once it's available, it's hard to predict (or control) what people will use it for. A few hundred thousand or a few million users embody far more creativity than even the largest and most creative companies. The PC was one of the first products to prove the point. The most recent example may be cellphone cameras, which are finding uses for everything from instant reporting to helping contractors and real estate agents share images quickly.

2250 words over the weekend, 156,025 since January 1.