There's no end. There's nothing we can do. I've never experienced a winter this long. It just doesn't stop. It doesn't give up. It snows. That's what it does. That's all it does. It will not give up until you are dead. No, that's the Terminator. Too bad; eventually you can get rid of a Terminator with a drill press. This . . .I don't know. I just don't.

So. Anyway. Whatever.

Need some beauty? Here, via Coudal, some Antique Radio Tuning Dials. Pretty.

Sigh. That didn't help, did it. We think we're going to be playing games out doors by now. Although I suppose this qualifies as "playing games outdoors," too:

Anyway. Maybe this mesmerizing sight will help: "the most detailed picture of the Internet ever." The means by which the image was generated were not particularly legal:

The high-resolution version is here, and you can stare at it for hours. There's one dot in the middle of Greenland that makes you wonder, doesn't it? Let's take a look on the Google satellie view.


View Larger Map

Yet there's someone there.

CANDY They changed the recipe on Snaps. I can tell, because I have a handful at the end of the night. Maybe ten. If they're fresh, they're delicious; if not, they're like eating ceramic, but you just make sure you get them fresh. When I was a kid they came in boxes that made razzing sounds if you blew through one end, a parental-torture device that was lost for good when they switched to bags. While eating a handful a few days ago, I thought "These are not only soft, but inordinately so." The next night I realized that the softness was almost unpleasant, and the taste was different. I checked the package. It used to look like this:

You will note that it is Original and Classic. This implies that nothing has changed, right? Well, now it says it's "Chewier." So it's not original and it's not classic. It's inedible. What happened?

Additional research indicated that the shortage of the product has fall had an explanation. From the company website:

I'm one of those madcap dreamers who thinks that the standard should be "NO LEAD WHATSOEVER," but you can't have everything. Including your familiar Snaps.

YOU THERE Today's lazy headlines that use the word YOU because it was a hip internet thing to do in 2011 but is really starting to annoy me. First, WaPo:

12 countries where the government regulates what you can name your child

Except that I don't live in any of them, so the article is irrelevant. Suggested revision: 12 countries where the government controls baby names. By the way, I love this:

Hands-on democracies! That's lovely.

Next, from habitual offender, Wired: "In Two Weeks, Your iPad Can Be Used on Military Networks." Really? My iPad? The one sitting right here on my desk? Let's read the story:

Oh. So it's someone else' iPad, not mine. That's a relief because I wondered if it had been drafted.

From BuzzFeed: "You Will Never Look At The CBS Logo The Same Away Again." Yes you will. No link. Trust me. One can go right on looking at the logo the same way for the rest of your life. Then again, that might not be too long:

From io9: "The so-called 'Health Foods' that are Probably Killing You."

Orange juice is one of them. Ask any medical examiner, and he'll tell you he's always putting "Advanced acute Tropacanitis" on the death certificate.

WHAT? This article made me wonder if I'd really missed something in my study of American culture between the Gilded Age and the post-war era:

Etc. Etc. Myth of a flat earth in the 20th century? The only flat-earth myth a hundred years ago was the belief that the medieval thinkers thought the world was flat. But even if was believed in a widespread fashion, how does it share a common bond with reports about the interface overhaul?

It's like anyone can say anything on the internet these days.

Okay, that's enough. I'm going to stare out the window and will the snow to stop, just to enhance the feeling of utter futility one has on days like this.

UPDATE: hey, it stopped! So that was all it took? Apologies to everyone.