Link roundup

1. The original Kindle was codenamed Fiona in honor of one of the main characters in Neal Stephenson's outstanding The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

2. Apparently the research indicating the health benefits of red wine was falsified. Via.

3. From Drew Magary's weekly football preview (which is mostly about why the "Patriot way" failed in Kansas City, and why Gregg Easterbrook's columns are nonsense):

My kid was taking her sweetass time getting ready for school this morning when I looked at the clock and realized she had all of four minutes to get dressed, brush her teeth, put on her shoes and jacket, and get to the bus stop. And so I made like Tom Coughlin and just started laying into the kid. HURRY UP! WE ARE GOING TO MISS THE BUS AND IF THAT HAPPENS WE WILL ALL DIE. So she's dressing as fast as she can and I'm jamming her jacket on and yelling at her to show some hustle, and the tension is building to unfathomable heights. It felt like we were racing to stop a ticking bomb. I get her out the door and we sprint up the hill to the bus and we get there jusssst as the bus is pulling up. SO MUCH ADRENALINE. From now on, we're always gonna be in danger of missing the bus. The rush is intoxicating. For me, THE ACTION IS THE JUICE.

4. Really interesting (and fairly gross) article about cultural differences in Afghanistan.

Link roundup

1. Futuristic mouthguards:

The football team at Stanford University has gotten a high-tech upgrade to its uniform.

This season, players have begun wearing mouthpieces lined with sensors that measure the force and angle of collisions, to help researchers understand what kinds of hits and body positions are associated with concussions.

2. CBLDF fundraiser includes lunches with Neil Gaiman, Frank Quitely, and more.

3. China:

For example, when Shang-Jin Wei, an economist at Columbia University, and Xiaobo Zhang of the International Food Policy Research Institute examined the size distribution of Chinese homes, they found that families with sons built houses that were significantly larger than those built by families with daughters, even after controlling for family income and other factors. They also generally found that the higher a city’s male-to-female ratio, the bigger the average house size of families that have sons.

Mr. Wei reports that many families with sons have begun to add a phantom third story to their homes, one that looks normal from the outside but whose interior space remains completely unfinished.

“Marriage brokers are familiar with the tactic,” he reports, “yet many refuse to schedule meetings with a family’s son unless the family house has three stories.”

Via these sites.

4. The Portal-themed iPad decals I posted a few days ago are now on sale.