Heat Wave By Richard Castle

If you like Castle, the ABC show with Nathan Fillion and delicious Stana Katic, then head on over to the official site of the show. You’ll find Richard Castle’s novel Heat Wave, featuring Nikki Heat, the character based on Stana Katic’s character Beckett. A new chapter is posted each week.

How to Build Your Own DIY Word Clock

There is something incredibly beautiful about the QLOCKTWO, but we just can’t justify spending over $1,500 to get a simple clock, even if it is a piece of art. Luckily DIY-enthusiasts have been working hard on a homemade version of such a word clock.

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New Green ESL Bulbs Will Be As Efficient As CFLs and LEDs

In the race to finding the greenest way to illuminate our nights, a new company has come up with a new refinement of old technology to serve our needs. Will it be enough to save you even more money? Find out after the jump.

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Great-Looking Illuminated Speaker and USB Hub

When you work with your laptop, you tend to use a few USB hubs when you are on the go. It doesn’t really matter from what brand they are, as long as they work well. It’s also best to work with some kind of light while you are typing on your computer. When you are on your laptop, this isn’t always easy to find.

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Incredible Piet Indoor Stove Will Enable New Layouts

Above all, this object is really beautiful. It’s hard to tell what it is, but once the clean-burning ethanol fire is lit, you get the idea. This is basically a reinvented fireplace. Since it uses ethanol, there is no point in having a chimney.

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Faustine Poe by B. Romain

Beautiful bokeh portrait of Faustine by B. Romain

Empathy and Yawn Contagion

Primatologist Frans de Waal gives his opinion on empathy, and the lack of it. (via 3qd)

UCI to Phase Out Radios

The UCI has taken the decision to phase out radios in the coming seasons. I think that it’s a good idea. The race will be less controlled by the racing directors and more by the cyclists. Sure, teams are going to be annoyed, but if some basic precautions are taken, it should be really interesting.

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Astana pro license under scrutiny. It’s not looking good for Astana, which had it’s pro license revoked in 2008, enabling Spaniard Carlos Sastre of the Cervélo TestTeam to win the Tour de France because Contador couldn’t defend his title. The main concern is because of doping issues. Vinokourov has come back to Astana, and the Kazakh team was made for him. Lance Armstrong is already gone to his new Radioshack team. This leaves Contador on a team that’s going nowhere quickly. I think that Contador should join another team and have them buy out his Astana contract. Apparently, Vinokourov will also be the team director, which is just bad news all around.

This makes Astana a very unstable team. From being on the top of the world in 2007 with Contador’s win of the Tour de France, to having their pro license revoked in 2008 because of doping issues, to winning the tour again in 2009 with Contador and Armstrong getting #3, to once again possibly getting their team license revoked.

If I was on the Astana team, I’d bail ASAP.

Polanski Arrested In Switzerland

After having been on the run for 32 years, Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland. He plead guilty in 1977 for having sex with a minor, a 13-year old girl, whom he didn’t rape. The director has been living in France. He’s been a fugitive since 1978. However, even his victim has been saying that the charge should be thrown out. Personally, I think it’s wrong for adults to have sex with kids. It’s pedophilia, no matter what you say. It’s been so long that my guess is that if and when he gets extradited to the US, which isn’t sure since he is still in Switzerland, he’ll serve some token time.

6.6 Km Night Run

Tonight, I decided to go for another run. I was a bit sore from yesterday’s run, but I need to train, so I told my wife that I was going out. She said that she would join me. I was surprised, but liked having company.

We took the same riverside route. It was along the Xindian river until the Huajhong bridge. It took me 18:30 to get there and I completed 6.6 km in 35:07. It’s slower than yesterday, but I wasn’t surprised. It was hard keeping accurate time yesterday. Today, it was more focused. We took some breaks, but we did well. I felt that I was dragging more bulk along and that my legs were sore. Not very sore, but slightly sore. Cardio-wise, it’s not a problem. I don’t feel exhausted or winded afterward. That means that my bike training was worth it.