Links: Overly long, slightly outdated edition.

I can't count the number of references I've seen to this commercial for The Discovery Channel with comments that read something along the line of: "for some reason this makes me extremely happy."  If I wasn't so lazy I would make a connection between the visceral responses to this type of unabashed sentimentality, support for Barak Obama and the popularity of Judd Apatow movies.

Here's video of a "real world" advertising campaign for Google videos - I'm a sucker for this

 type of thing. (via)

Food porn filter:  Here's a very interesting post and great moment by moment run down of a trip to El Bulli.  This is bit from the restaurant's Wikipedia entry:

The restaurant has a limited season from April to September; bookings are taken on a single day in the previous October. It accommodates only 8,000 diners a season, with 800,000 people calling to try and book places — around 400 requests for every table. The average cost of a meal is €250; the restaurant itself has operated at a loss since 2000, with operating profit coming from El Bulli-related books, and lectures from Adrià.

(via)

Three interesting pieces on microfinancing:  as trend, commercialized, debated.  Update: here's some commentary on the last one via Chris Blattman.

The "open-handed gospel" of my former seminary president, who also blogs.  (Disclaimer:  I love this guy)

Can the "cellphone help end global poverty?" - long, but interesting throughout.  I haven't been to Africa in almost seven years now but even then cellphones were ubiquitous.  Asian companies were flooding the market (which often meant that the 85 year old grandmother in the bush had a more advanced cellphone than anything I had ever seen in the states a that time) and the amount of capital it costs to set up a cellular network as compared to a traditional land line is so disparate as to be laughable.  Its entirely possible that some of these emerging markets will never have a land based telecommunications infrastructure.  Crazy.  

Also overly long but equally interesting expose of Pat Robertson in the VQR.

Hmmm, pattern developing here . . . interesting, longish piece on abstinence clubs at Ivy League campuses.

Happy Passover.