Artistic Coffee and Other Links for Friends

• Of particular interest to the usual Coffee Crew... considering all the novelties this new year brings, I believe we should insist that henceforth our espresso must be this artistic! (via Hot Links)
  
  
• "The idea behind Prosper is a bit unusual today, but, as the site reminds readers, person-to-person lending—loans without a financial intermediary—has been around since 300 A.D. For those more used to the Internet age, think of it as eBay meets your neighborhood bank. Prosper is an online marketplace that allows lenders and borrowers to bid for loans—with fees and rates than can be much lower than those of a lending institution. Prosper uses credit scores to help its users gauge the risks of their deals, and easy-to-follow instructions on the site help clarify the details. (via Time.com Top 10 Websites of 2006, for Tony-Cannoli, Andri & Vippy Zippy!)
• "Tattoos: The Ancient and Mysterious History" (via Linkfilter, for tattooed Ming the Merciless)
• "NEWSVINE: This social news site comes with the tagline 'Get Smarter Here.' A bit blunt, but that's Newsvine's style: the site provides users with quick, undiluted and unedited access to news from all over the Web. Users can comment on stories and vote on stories' importance, add news articles they find elsewhere to the site and write their own blogs. Bloggers can even keep a share of the revenue ads on their columns produce, and make more money by referring friends to the site. Newsvine was founded by members of ESPN, Disney and other media organizations." (via Time.com Top 10 Websites of 2006) & 10 Kick-Ass Opening Credit Sequences (via Linkfilter, for Unca Bill & the Huf!)
• "Credit Where Credit is Due": "2006 Federal Excise Tax Credit - Wow, finally a reason to save all those old phone bills!" (via Hot Links, for legendary packrat Marky-J, tax expert Vippy Zippy & any other taxpaying Americans!)
• For the Scififridayers: Good news! "Number 6 is going to be in Playboy next month" (via Fimoculous)
• Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t - New York Times about "all the varieties of free will worth having..." (via Hot Links) and The Language of The Simpsons (via Kottke's Best Links 2006) and Bank the Nine (via Yahoo's Link of the Day) and also the "Phobialist" (via Really Magazine, for pool-playing, fellow "medical dictionary syndrome" sufferer and philosopher Marky-J)
• "Update your urban myths: someone actually stole a kidney from the 'Bodies' exhibit in Seattle" (via Fimoculous) and Scientists may have found Medici murder - Yahoo! News (for lil' ol' me & criminologist Ming)