Used books often gain value from forgotten paper -- paper money, for example; the Strand's staff rakes in lots of that. They haven't yet found a "hell scene with fish monster," as Cristiana Romelli did two years ago at Sotheby's in London. The original Hieronymus Bosch sketch fell out of a client's old picture album and sold for $276,000. A few years earlier, her colleague Julien Stock found a Michelangelo stuck in a 19th-century scrap book. In 2001, that one brought its owner $12 million.

The Strand did buy a $15 doodled-over book of drawings by the Renaissance artist Ucello. The doodler was Salvador Dali. Fred Bass, the Strand's owner, once opened a book titled "The Bill of Rights" to find it was hollowed out. The bottom of the inside was signed, "Boo! Abbie Hoffman." Mr. Bass says he learned later from Mr. Hoffman that he had hidden a tape recorder in there during the Chicago Seven trial.

Link.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

You are William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, the Fifth Duke of Portland!

Sometime Marquis of Tichfield, Earl of Portland, Viscount Woodstock, Baron of Cirencester, co-heir to the Barony of Ogle and renowned as the finest judge of horseflesh in England, you took the tradition of aristocratic eccentricity to unprecedented heights. Having inherited the stately home of Welbeck Abbey, you proceeded to construct miles of underground tunnels and a ballroom, in pink, beneath it. The ballroom was complete except for one small detail. It had no floor. Despite this vast home, you lived exclusively in a suite of five rooms, each one also pink.

Having been turned down by your opera singer objet d'amour, Adelaide Kemble, in your youth, you suffered a broken heart and never married. This did not stop you from caring deeply about the wellbeing of your servants. Occasionally you would even help them muck out the stables. However, you did not neglect discipline, forcing disobedient underlings to skate themselves to exhaustion on your subterranean skating rink. Servants were given strict instructions regarding conduct: if they met you in a corridor, they were to ignore your existence while you froze to the spot until they were out of sight; and a chicken was to be kept roasting at all times in case you felt like sneaking into the kitchen for a snack.

You became ever more eccentric with age. You built another tunnel, this time to the railway station, through which you would ride your carriage. When you reached the station your carriage, with you inside, would be hoisted up onto the train in its entirety.

Upon your death, your multitude of titles passed to your cousin, who was obliged to delve into your curious domain to find your body once the servants had reported your absence. Entering your private rooms, he found that, aside from a commode in the centre of your bedroom, the only objects in the whole suite were hundreds of hatboxes, each containing a single brown wig.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

Rat Bastards is an interesting, while disturbing, site about a guy who went to extreme measures to rid his house of rats. If you don't want to see pictures of dead furry animals, don't go here. You can go there if you don't want to see the pictures, just don't click on the My Kills part. If you do like seeing helpless animals cut down in the prime of their life, what the fuck are you still reading this for? Go to the site already!

I've been meaning to do a random links collection for a while, so if this kind of stuff interests you (not necessarily the dead animal thing), stay tuned.

Somebody buy me an mp3 player, I want one.

I've been looking into getting the shell of a muvo2, since people take the 4GB microdrives out of them for digital cameras and such. I did some research, and 512MB seems like enough for now, it's not a huge amount, but I could have a couple albums. Every mp3 player is crazily expensive.

"He asked me if I wanted a drink, and I said 'Sure,'" she recalls. "Then, out of nowhere, he puts his hand up my dress and, not even knowing me, sticks his finger in my asshole. I didn't even flinch, though, because I knew he was just trying to get a reaction out of me. And right there he said he knew I was his girl."

Link.

So I've been trying to lose weight (sorry, I mean fat) lately, and I thought I was doing an okay job at it, until yesterday in judo class.

I'm working with my 6'3-4", 250lb sensei, when he says: "You know, you're a big guy."

Thanks for the 'ol confidence boost there sensei. It's bad enough that I have to be referred to as "re-pete" because HE is "Pete". I think he's just blaming his deficiencies on me.

Last week I had my first tests in compilers and ethics, conveniently one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. I figured I did pretty well on the ethics one, since most of it was just memorizing the characteristics of certain stances on issues. Most of the difficulty came in writing the responses coherently enough while trying to get my point across. I got an A+. The hippy kid who sits in front of me who talks like he's some great philosopher got a B-. Sweet, sweet shadenfreude.

The compilers test was not as good however. There were only four questions and we only had an hour also so you didn't have time to read long passages from the book. This means that if one question doesn't make a lot of sense for you, you're screwed. The first two questions were pretty easy and I finished them both in about 20 minutes. The third question I knew how to do, but I wondered about a clause he put in the question, so I asked about it and ended up more confused then when I started; that took about another 20 minutes.

When I got to the last question, fear was put into my heart; I didn't know how to do it. It was almost exactly like a homework problem we had to do, and I had skipped that one because I finished up the homework at about 3 am and didn't feel like doing it. I searched vainly in the book for something similar but didn't find it. I scribbled down some stuff for the parts I knew how to do, but it was far from finished. I got a 14/20, with the average being a 15.

Maybe I should just be a philosophy major instead...

Sorry to all one of you that read this page, but slashdot wasn't letting me post last week. I've actually already tried almost this exact post 2-3 times and each time it would give me an error. I'm pretty sure it wasn't on my end because I tried from school and home, and neither worked.

So if you see this, I'll probably post more stuff soon.

Stephen Wolfram is a pretty smart guy. He's the guy behind Mathematica, the computer math software, and Mathworld, the site that has tons and tons of interesting and useful math information which isn't really good for concrete stuff, but it's usually a good starting place. Plus it has cool java applets of 3d shit.

Anyways, he put his book, A New Kind of Science, online for free a few days ago. I haven't read it (and probably never will, because it's over 800 pages) but as I understand it, he basically says that most physics, chemistry, etc phenomenon can be explained with something similiar to cellular automata, which is a system that has very simple rules governing its evolution that can provide very elaborate results. This is the kind of book I would read if I didn't have a job or school or whatever (I'm talking to you, Jon).

So I didn't get the Idaho Transportation Department job. I wasn't qualified for the interview questions they asked me, but the job sure sounded easy on the flier I got from the computer science department!

This is seriously the funniest comic strip I've ever seen. It's kinda sad that I identify with it, but I do, and I still think it's hilarious. I've read all the comics in the archive and while I don't think I've ever done anything quite as embarassing as the stuff they have listed on here, I think it's the sense of embarassment permeating the stories that I like. I don't know. Just go read it all ready.

I guarantee you'll like it, because if you're reading this you probably know me, and you're a fucking dork just for that. Sorry to break it to you.

Carl Weathers is the man. I knew him as Apollo Creed in Rocky, Dillon in Predator, and Chubbs in Happy Gilmore.

I didn't know, however, that he got his first starring role in Action Jackson playing, oddly enough, 'Action Jackson'; I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen it spoofed on MadTV so it must kick ass. He was also an NFL football player who quit to become an actor. Actually, it says he played in the Canadian Football League for a few years so he probably became an actor because he sucked.

I don't know exactly why I'm writing this, but I've just always liked his personality from the Rocky movies (he carried those fucking things in my opinion), and I always thought he should have been in more shit.

From The Obscure Store:

"During proceedings in the rape case Monday before the prosecutor and defense attorney, Stephenson looked at a photograph of the battered victim and said, "Why would he want to rape her? She doesn't look like a day at the beach," according to a transcript reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel."

Link.

A pretty big day today, for somebody who doesn't do very much; I had an orthodontist appointment and an interview at the Idaho Transporation Department.

I wouldn't normally mention something as trivial as an appointment, but the technician who worked on my mouth before the doctor got there said I was an excellent brusher. She also told me that this was a suprise because most guys are horrible brushers, and that my mouth was "a breath of fresh air". I'm sure she wasn't talking about my breath, since that's probably pretty stank.

Do you think rape is funny? Playboy does.