Recently in Cool Stuff Category

The Big Picture's Barry Ritholtz is right: seeing global statistics updated in real time (at www.worldometers.info) is very cool.

The Language Log's Geoffrey K. Pullum notes a grammar grouch who writes to the Economist to complain about a columnist beginning sentences with conjunctions.

SIR -- And I thought that The Economist followed its own "Style Guide". But Lexington set a new record for the number of sentences starting with conjunctions (November 7th). But only 12. And I suppose some people appreciate such puerile prose. But not I.
MARC RIESE
Berne, Switzerland

At some level, I have to respect the style of this objection. Even if it is not clear to Pullum that The Economist's style actually bans such usage.

I admit it is something I try to avoid. Pullum discusses whether we avoid this for good grammar reasons (unlikely) or because of grade-school zero-tolerance grammar conditioning.

Michael Panzner at the Big Picture links to PNC Financial Services' annual Christmas Price Index, which computes how much the items in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" would cost each year.

Since the PNC index began in 1984, interestingly enough, the price of the items in the carol have risen only 69 percent, much less than the doubling in the headline consumer price index over that time. (And much less than the real inflation rate, which the headline CPI measures mask.)

So, you may want to head out for the partridge and the pear tree, etc.

Earlier this week Matthew Yglesias linked to this outstanding illustration of the Eisenhower Interstate System represented in a format similar to the London Underground map.