Doonan and Gaiman, Static and Psychics. Nano!

1) Two days ago, I got the iPod nano as a surprise, bonus birthday gift. It is so very sleek and so very tiny. I'd been reading and watching promos about it, but I was actually shocked anew as I opened the smallish box and saw the much, much smaller device inside. I half-filled it with about 500 songs, and carried it with me yesterday. During my travels, I arrived at a place with painfully static-buzzed radio, and I could've (should've) used it. But I forgot I had it with me. Is it because it's so darn small, or because I'm not indoctrinated by the all pod- everyone pod culture yet? I'm trying to drink the Kool-Aid, but I haven't quite...Here's more on the nanostic greatness by the David Pogue of the NYT and the associated geeky video shows a few new ways to use it.

2) I wonder whether Doonan's contract is up for renegotiation, because he is everywhere. Here are his latest musings on the five fashion books one must own. His digs at today's glamour sadcats bring joy to my stone-cold heart.

3) Speaking of dressing, this Australian man paired the wrong fabrics and created a static charge of 40,000 volts that ignited a carpet fire.

4) Turns out that the Hollywood version of Beowulf I feared is being co-written by Neil Gaiman. Though I find that a more hopeful sign than the fact Robert Zemeckis is producing, perhaps not even Gaiman, interviewed here, can outmaneuver the Left Coast's inexorable lust for creating predictably insipid stories told poorly. (hat tip: Grumpy Old Bookman)

5) Reuters reports that an Italian psychic led authorites to a missing woman whose body was found in a lake. Did she merely persist in the most logical inference after others gave up, or was her inspiration something more? We don't yet have iron-clad corroboration of anyone solving these cases in modern times with any vision more specific than "she's near water", the kind of suggestion which is later interpreted to mean a lake, a pool, a rain gutter or damp basement as circumstances require. It interesting though. I hope she can find more missing people for the families now contacting her for help. Then we'd really have some proof to dig into.