Realizing that I've been a bit sour in my last few entries, it's time to plug some things I've found useful lately ...

• The podcasts at qdnow.com, especially Grammar Girl.  A weekly 5-minute segment on a sticky part of English grammar, done slightly tongue-in-cheek.  As an educator, I really appreciate how hard it is to teach and entertain at the same time.  (The site has a bunch of other podcasts; I'm trying out a few of them, but haven't landed on any other must-haves yet.)
  
  
• HowStuffWorks.  They have great articles which explain how common (and not-so-common) technological artifacts work, in everyday terms.  I just finished reading their article on aerosol cans ... it's amazing how simple the principles are behind this.
  
  
• IETab.  I use Firefox, 'cuz I like having my browser non-integrated with my OS.  But that means that every now and then, I end up looking at webpages that only work with IE.  (Grumble.)  With this plugin, one click on the magic icon and Firefox reloads the page using the IE rendering engine inside a Firefox tab.  Nice.

Here ends the commercial.  We now return to your regularly scheduled blog reading.