Tuesday Stuff

A Wet Dream for Nerds Everywhere. More than a century's worth of issues of Popular Mechanics, available free online.

The College Gravy Train. Earlier this year, I caught Ohio State president Gordon Gee's presentation to Akron's version of the Cleveland City Club. Sure enough, the subject of his pay came up (he's among the highest paid college presidents in the country, and the highest paid among public universities, at more than a million dollars a year). He dealt with it mostly by deflecting the question, which he no doubt hears often. But with higher education budgets now under pressure everywhere as never before, how do these folks defend their ridiculous pay levels? After all, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that at least 21 states have implemented cuts to public colleges and universities, resulting in faculty and staff cuts, and tuition increases of 5 percent to 15 percent. Don't you think it's perhaps time to share in some of that larger pain, dear presidents?

Here's An Interesting Idea...Borrowing a device from movie promotions, someone is promoting the idea of making video trailers for new books. It couldn't hurt.

Half Geek, Half Scribe. My friend Dan Hanson, a.k.a. Great Lakes Geek, held his annual holiday gathering last week, an event at which he gathers his unique assortments of Cleveland characters. The Chinese buffet was good, and the company even better. You can check out the photos here.

Finally, we end as we began, on a wet note, as we bring you this heartwarming story, about teenage KFC employees using sinks as hot tubs. It's sure to cause Colonel Sanders to turn over in his grave.