I mentioned before that I bought some new Michelin Energy Saver All-Season tires for my Toyota Prius. The advertising materials from Michelin claim that using the tires will achieve up to an 8% increase in fuel economy.

Anecdotally I have been able to achieve about a 47 MPG average for combined mileage, approximately a 2-4% improvement versus my previous average with the original tires. Having driven about 1 month (1,500 miles?) on the tires this modest improvement in my Prius mileage doesn’t save a ton of money but I am impressed that the tires really have made a difference in the car’s fuel economy.

Nmap.org has a new webpage that maps the favicons of the top 288,000 websites based on their Alexa rating. The higher the site is on Alexa, the bigger their icon. It has a handy search feature and it’s fun to browse around in general!

Favicons of the Internet’s most popular websites

At work, one of our favorite “weird news” stories of all time involves a young man named Bryan James Hathaway of Wisconsin. Back in 2006 the story surfaced that Hathaway was being charged with bestiality because he had sex with a dead deer. Since the story is a few years old it is hard to find some of the finer points that make this story so entertaining. I am recounting these details from memory because it’s funnier in memory.

Hathaway was “caught” because he was biking on his way to a parole meeting for a previous crime in which he killed a horse with the intention to have sex with it but he chickened out and did not do the deed with the horse he killed. While on his way to parole he saw a dead deer on the side of the road, dragged the deer carcass away, and proceeded to have sex with it. After accomplishing his mission he continues his trip to the parole meeting. The parole officer notices that Hathaway is covered in deer fur and blood at which point Hathaway confesses to being disappointed in himself and that he had sex with the deer he found on the side of the road.

Some follow up from The Smoking Gun