This is a Toyota: a Yaris, to be precise. Other posts tagged with Toyota have focused on the recent recall, mainly on the PR aspects. The Toyota in the photo did not malfunction. It functioned rather well, in that it protected its occupants during an impact with a much larger vehicle.

Reader, please wear your seatbelt, and follow other safety rules, such as: no cellphoning while driving. I posted on another blog about spring and safety, using the same photo. Cross-posting is something I usually avoid, so as to save it for important issues – such as safety.

And the pyramid of attention? I like the term as something to do with retweeting, blogging about, posting to social bookmarking services, etc. But I never did come up with a definition that would enable me to write an interesting comparison between the two pyramids (i.e. the economic pyramid scheme and the pyramid of attention).

While I was thinking about it, I looked for a suitable image. I found this one, which made available with no known copyright restrictions by the Brooklyn Museum. I liked the image so much I wanted to post it anyway. Perhaps the sphinx has views on economic and attentional pyramids: we will never know.

This isn’t a review, but it is a recommendation. Maria Doria Russell‘s prose is, as always, a pleasure to read. My main reservation about Dreamers is that I was enjoying her writing, rather than Agnes’, and the book is written in the first person.

So one perspective on the Middle East is that of Agnes/Maria. It might be more accurately called a collection of perspectives, since Lawrence and others offer Agnes their differing perspectives.

The second perspective is an Imperial History of the Middle East, in the form of a map. The map (which I found via reddit) changes over a minute and a half to reflect five thousand years of empires.

You don’t need to tell me that there are more than two perspectives on the Middle East, but most other comments would be welcome.

Of course, the first step was to do some internet research. I found an article at The Fun Times Guide to Household Tips, in which Lynette muses about size, style, and material, and prompts comments about color and other considerations.

Having decided that the toilet seat task and the article merited a post, I went to Flickr to find a suitable photo. I did not give serious consideration to using a photo of the incumbent seat (or of an incumbent on that seat). My thanks to Mark Blevis and his opthalmologist.

So most Americans would support bank nationalization? Not exactly: when Gallup used the n-word (nationalization) itself, support dropped to 37%.

If, in the search for political intelligence, we turn to our local Boston broadsheet, we find, in today’s Globe, new of Michelle Obama’s sleeves, or lack thereof.

It’s also been snowing in the land of my birth (UK), so here are reports from a couple of the places I lived in when I was there. In Nottingham, the BBC set up a webcam at “Slab Square.” The camera captured a four-letter word, which wasn’t snow.

Meanwhile, London pretty much shut down due to a snowfall that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary here in Boston. I found on Reddit a pretty good account of why London couldn’t cope with a scant few inches.

I wondered about the algorithms for assigning specific dates to these days. I should probably have known, and maybe most citizens do, but I didn’t. An article that popped up on Yahoo News today told me that the 20th amendment moved inauguration day from April 30 to January 20. There were technological reasons for the switch to the colder time of year. A senate committee put it like this.

Under present conditions [of communication and transportation] the result of elections is known all over the country within a few hours after the polls close, and the Capital City is within a few days’ travel of the remotest portions of the country.

That was in 1937. It’s somehow cool to juxtapose that with the thought that Obama is taking a train, rather than jet plane, to DC.

On the other hand, it’s somehow strange to see how white the world is this MLK day. I refer to the snowstorm that went on rather longer than the forecasters thought it would. MLK day is “observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King’s birthday, January 15″ (from Wikipedia).

I disagree with the post for three reasons. First, I don’t think that most of Dee’s examples stand up: I’m not a fan of fortune-making reunions, and I don’t think that three quarters of Led Zep, almost three decades after the death of John Bonham, would do anything to change my mind; and I think that The Age Of The Understatement is pretty good.

Second are side projects not mentioned in the post, such as Tom Tom Club and The Postal Service. Third, I think that Plant, Turner, and others should make the music they want to make.

Then it struck me that side projects are important in software. Linux was a side project for a student, del.icio.us made a change from work in equity trading, and so on.

I found the Guardian blog entry via Largehearted Boy, itself a side project of a sort. I find myself firmly on the side of side projects.

That said, I wish a happy and death-free Thanksgiving to all my readers, regardless of whether they celebrate Thanksgiving. We have a six-hour drive tomorrow, but there will a feast at the end of it.

Today it’s the turn of last100. To enter, leave a comment there (not here, I have no prizes to give out) “listing your top five digital lifestyle products and/or services.”

I found it difficult to pick just five. Then I reflected that there are satisfactory substitutes for many of the products and services I use. For example, I use Google search and Reader a lot, but wouldn’t be too upset if I had to switch to competing products.

In contrast, here are five products to which I’m attached in one way or another.

• WordPress: this blog lives at WordPress.com.
• Rhapsody streaming music.
• Flickr: here’s my photostream (or at least the public part of it. If you’re a regular reader of this blog or its feed, and like looking at photos of kids, please drop me an email).
• Canon PowerShot A540 6MP Digital Camera.
• Sandisk Sansa Clip 1GB MP3 player.

Each of the first three is a software product for which I pay, even in this age of free stuff. For example, I have a Pro account at Flickr. That is of course where the photo lives. It shows the Sansa clip, along with its friends, the ridiculously good value Koss KSC75 headphones.