unique and interesting: 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Where there is pain, I wish you peace and mercy.
Where there is tiredness, or exhaustion, I wish you understanding, patience, and renewed strength.
Where there is fear, I wish you love, and courage.
When you're down, I wish you joy.
When things seem empty, I wish you hope.
May the dawning of this New Year open up new horizons and bring for you promises of brighter tomorrows.

May you have a great New Year.

Presurfer's Top 10 Most Viewed Posts 2007

These are the 10 most viewed posts on The Presurfer of 2007.

On September 19:
Train Runs Through Bangkok Market
You got to see it to believe it.

On August 21:
Bullet Proof Baby
A controversial post because I didn't know whether this was true or not. In the end, it turned out to be a marketing act. Some readers even thought I was in on the scheme. I still think it's a case of bad taste.

On May 25:
500 Years Of Women In Art
Morphing video of 500 years of female portraits in western art.

On December 26:
The Evil Eye
A cute little baby can give the evil eye on command.

On July 2:
Ethan Haas Was Right
An interactive game with a series of very difficult puzzles.

On March 30:
Do Fairies Live At The Bottom Of Your Garden?
Don't be silly! Of course they don't! Or, do they?

On November 25:
721 Claps Per Minute
Kent French, record holder for most claps per minute.

On July 19:
Simpsonize Yourself
Turn a photo of yourself into a Simpsons character.

On Ocotober 9:
Amazing Audio Illusion
When this video is done playing, replay it to hear an amazing audio illusion. It sounds like the tune is continuing to 'creep-up.'

On August 19:
Salad Alien
A digital image of Alien made out of vegetables.

Deep down, you know it's true. The war. The economy. Your job. Your relationships. This button sums it all up.

You really can't get more negative than this button. In one short phrase, it condemns an entire new year to the trash heap.

Be the first in your neighborhood to recognize 2008 for what it is... one mess of a year. Have a nice day.

According to the site, the BUPA World Personality Test is based on the symbolism of shapes and colors and has been developed under the guidance of a leading psychologist of the British Psychological Society.

Having studied psychology myself, I know the human brain responds to shapes and colors in unique ways for each person. And yes, since the 1960s, psychologists have speculated about the appeal of certain color combinations for different personality types.

The BUPA World Personality Test is, however, just like any other online personality test. It doesn't really give you an insight into what makes you tick but it's fun and well presented.

Humanoid Robot Drawing Portraits

When the robot recognizes a face in its field of view, it first grabs a snapshot of this face and extracts the relevant features and contours characterizing it.

The Google Privacy Channel

The Google Privacy Channel on YouTube keeps you informed about their privacy policies. How they treat your personal information, and about how you can protect your privacy while using Google.

Home Schooled

Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson.
Co-writing by Silas Jackson.
The Presurfer will feature a Home Schooled cartoon every Monday. This is an absolute exclusive cooperation between The Presurfer and Ash Jackson.

Home Schooled is more or less a reflection of the wacky and occasionally interesting adventures of the artist, Ash Jackson, himself, with the aid of his friends, family, and other cohorts.

Title: Kitchen Nightmares.

click on the picture for real size

Nils Olav Gets Promotion

Last Wednesday, Nils Olav received a promotion to Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Norwegian Guard. Major Egelien from the Norwegian Royal Guard Association said:

Colonel in Chief because all the reports speak about his very, very good behaviour.

Here's a photograph of Colonel-in-Chief Nils Olav inspecting the Guards.

Ah, the good old days.

Ass Is Not A Nice Word

Highway Speed-To-BPM Calculator

The Highway Speed-to-BPM Calculator will determine what speed you should drive to match a song's rhythm with the approaching stripes on a highway. The federal standard for interstate highways is 40 feet between the front of two stripes. This varies by area, but is generally around that distance.

For example, if the beat per minute for a song is 140, you should drive 63.64mph to match the rhythm of Linkin Park's 'Bleed It Out.'

The most common excuse for not doing something is usually a lack of time. Adding one hour in the morning can make a huge difference in your life.

How to Wake Up Early is about self-improvement for early risers. How to sleep well, wake up early and what to do then.

Glubble is a free tool for the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser. It permits each member of the family to have their own custom environment, so that when kids use it they only see the very best parts of the Internet based on selections made by their parents or supplied by trusted family brands.

Glubble enhances Firefox to make sure kids can't see the whole World Wild Web. Instead they can only see family friendly parts of the web. Glubble gives you the peace of mind to know your child can only see web sites that you trust for them.

The Origami Now Folding Station with Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander. Learn Origami, the art of paper folding. Select a model to begin folding and watch how it's done.

Santa's Gone

Yes, Santa is on his way back to the North Pole but before he went, he wanted to show me something. Sort of... um, an extra present.

You can see it here.

Make your own Santa tattoo.

Dominating the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia's far north-west, it is believed to be the world's tallest wooden house, soaring 13 floors to reach 144ft. The house that Nikolai Sutyagin built is also crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict's (he spent 4 years in prison on racketeering charges) eccentric 15-year project.

Building began in 1992 and was two stories high, but he soon added three floors. He was not happy with the outcome and he added more floors and just kept goin.
Now penniless Nikolai Sutyagin lives in four poorly heated rooms at the bottom of his wooden log cabin with his wife and daughter.

Peel microcars were built in Peel, Isle of Man, in the 1960's by Peel Engineering. Owner designer Cyril Cannell and his workforce led by George Gelling created these cars in premises close to Peel harbour.

Peel Engineering was at the forefront of glass fibre ad plastics moulding technology, famous for its motorcycle racing fairings and boat-building expertise.

(via Grow-A-Brain)

Spellify

Spellify is an automatic text field spell checker and also available for download. Type or paste some text into the text field on the site. No need to press the enter key. The spell checker automatically checks the text when you're finished.

Spellify comes in 10 languages: Danish, German, Finnish, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish.

The Death And Life of Ice Cream

Whatsitscolor is an image-color processing utility that will evaluate an image and give you the image's primary and complementary dominant colors of an image, how many visually unique colors are in an image, and the top ten visually unique colors in an image.

Extremely useful when creating any type of designs around an image. Results will display your image on the best suited background for that image. Images are deleted off the server 10min after upload, renamed during the upload process so no other user can view them and copies or image information is not collected by Whatsitscolor.

Sleevefaces

Sleeveface is the art of one or more persons obscurings or augmenting any part of the body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.

Cluster ballooning is an uncommon form of ballooning in which a single balloonist is attached by a harness to a cluster of relatively small helium-inflated rubber balloons. Unlike traditional hot-air balloons, which possess vents for easy altitude control, cluster balloons rise uncontrollably, expanding as they go.

Cluster balloonists must periodically cut balloons loose to maintain altitude and descend. Bottled water is a common ballast, and can be partially emptied to slow descent.

(via UniqueDaily)

Funny And Outrageous News Moments

The Future: A Retrospective

Description of 250 consumer products found in a book called 'Future Stuff.' It was published in 1989, and it was about products that 'should be in your supermarket, hardware store, pharmacy, department store, or otherwise available by the year 2000.'

It was based on interviews with the people who were working on these products. It made concrete predictions, with dates and estimated prices. The predictions were more or less wrong.

Darth Vader on Acid.

A team of historians has been trying to solve some historical 'cold cases' - old crimes in which the guilty ones walked, and even more insidious crimes where a whole village may have been complicit.

There are other mysteries too, about unusual cases from the Viking age to the Klondike Gold Rush.

In 'Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History' your goal is to finish the history and create your own analysis using the same methods real historians do.

Delineations of noted personages rendered in splendid chiaroscuro, brought forth for your edification and amusement from the hand of James G. Mundie.

A curious collection of anomalous humans. This congress of oddities awaits your intimate and learned inspection.

Top 100 Horror Movies of 2007.

Mouth Eyes Photoshop Pictures

A kind of creepy Photoshop contest. Famous people who've had their eyes replaced with smaller versions of their mouths.

(via Boing Boing)

Day Of Birth

Day of Birth basically tells you the day of the week that you were born on. It also tells you other pointless but fun things such as: your star sign, how old you are, what season you were born in, how long until your next birthday, and how many days/hours/seconds you have been alive.

The site also provides links to other websites, so you can find more information such as famous people or events that share your birthday.

Shooting At The Monitor

Some Ukrainian technology show tested the Asus LS201 LCD monitor with a crossbow to see if the Crystal Sapphire Panel LCD Protection was resistant. Apparently, it is.

The world is full of day-to-day challenges, seemingly common problems, which in some cases defy obvious solutions.

Overpopulation, difficult traffic situation, shortage of finances and most basic tools - all contribute to the over-the-top, wild spurts of creativity, super-energetic ways to achieve things, often with mixed success.

Visual artist Jennifer Gooch from Pittsburgh, USA, started a website called 'onecoldhand.com' in an effort to reunite dropped gloves with their mates.

It's a project that connects the Pittsburgh community through one unfortunate event - the loss of a glove. The site creates a method for dealing with the conundrum of finding these lost articles.

50 Most Loathsome People In America, 2007

From 'The Beast' comes the annual 50 Most Loathsome People in America. From Nicole Richie to Dana Perino and from Bill O'Reilly to George W. Bush.

Sharon Mount makes simple, yet beautiful, tiny buildings from business cards, cardboard packaging, and other nice papers.

(via Dump Trumpet)

2008 Is the International Year of the Potato. The potato has been consumed in the Andes for about 8,000 years. Taken by the Spanish to Europe in the 16th century, it quickly spread across the globe.

Today potatoes are grown on an estimated 75,000 square miles of farmland, from China's Yunnan plateau and the subtropical lowlands of India, to Java's equatorial highlands and the steppes of Ukraine. In terms of sheer quantity harvested, the humble potato tuber is the world's No. 4 food crop, with production in 2006 of almost 347 million tons.

(via escape)

The Evil Eye

A cute little baby enjoying an ice cream cone can give the evil eye on command.

Santa is one of those stars that won't go away, he comes back every year and just seems to get hotter and hotter.

The kind of guy that makes even the North Pole sound cool. So enjoy this Santa Claus extraordinaire.

Eyewitness To History

Eyewitness to History is your ringside seat to history - from the Ancient World to the present. History through the eyes of those who lived it, presented by Ibis Communications, a digital publisher of educational programming.

Kwout

Kwout is a way you quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map. To use this service, all you need is to add a bookmarklet to your browser. Click the bookmarklet on a web page you wish to quote, and the screenshot of the entire web page will be popped up.

By dragging a mouse on the screenshot, select an area you wish to quote, and click the 'Cut Out' button. Then the area you selected will be cut out as an image with an image map. Finally, the embed code, which is used to post the image to your web site, will be displayed.

Here's a 'quote' I took from this website.

Linkdump

Money Faces

2008 Web Predictions

Pictures of Writers

The Meaning of Japanese Sound Effects

Four Hands Guitar

Jerry's Breakdown composed by Jerry Reed, played by Antoine Dufour and Tommy Gauthier on a single guitar.

(via J-Walk Blog)

Dopplr

Dopplr is an online service for frequent business travellers. Dopplr lets you share your travel plans privately with a group of friends and colleagues whom you have chosen. It then tells you when people you know will be in the same cities. It also reminds you of people who live in the places you're planning to visit.

Dopplr works on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks. You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007 is 'w00t!' The word first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of what is known as l33t ('leet,' or 'elite') speak - an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters.

Although the double 'o' in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for 'we owned the other team' - again stemming from the gaming community.

Number 2 in Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2007 competition was 'facebook' and number 3 was 'conundrum.'

Airstream Trailer Light Show

Airstream trailer light show choreographed to Trans Siberian Orchestra's 'Wizards in Winter'.

(via Neatorama)

Researcher Melissa Bateson of the School of Biology and Psychology at Newcastle University found that people were more prepared to dig cash out of their pockets when they were under the gaze of a picture of a pair of eyes, instead of a picture of flowers. People coughed up almost 3 times as much cash into a donation box when they were being 'watched'.

It's a way of making people behave more honestly in an experiment that could aid strategies for tackling anti-social behaviour. Now, armed with this insight, police are trying a new technique to combat crime.

By putting posters of watchful eyes in crime hot spots, they hope to make would-be crooks think twice.

It's Just A Myth

They are the universal pearls of wisdom that explain some of the more puzzling things about the human body and help people live healthy lives: don't read in dim light, drink eight glasses of water a day and don't use mobile phones in hospitals.

The problem is: there is no evidence to suggest that these gems of advice are actually true.

Did You Know: The Human Body

You would think he was made out of stone, the man who sits, hours on end, on the red fire hydrant on Western Avenue, just north of Lawrence, pigeons by the dozens perched on him.

Pigeons on his head. Pigeons on his shoulders and right down his arms. Pigeons poised on each palm. Pigeons clinging to his chest. Pigeons on his lap. Pigeons on his thighs. Pigeons, of course, perched on each foot.The pigeons peck and coo, occasionally flutter their wings. Sometimes even scatter. But not the man, the man is motionless. You might mistake him for a statue.

Joseph Zeman, 73, commonly known as the Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square, can sit for hours, barely flinching a muscle.

(via Grow-A-Brain)

Merry Christmas

Space Shuttle Attacked By Giant Spider

Space shuttle Atlantis has had some setbacks lately. NASA delayed the launch until January due to a fuel gauge failure on the external tank. But that's not all. Now, a giant spider invaded the space shuttle while on the launch pad.

A lot of people struggle to draw convincing facial expressions. Here's a Facial Expressions Chart to give you an idea of the characteristics of most of the facial emotions.

At Christmas, children open presents.
It's a good thing it's not the other way around.

(via Sketchblog)

Biodiversity loss is one of the world's most pressing crises and there is growing global concern about the status of the biological resources on which so much of human life depends. It has been estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be.

The Red List of Threatened Species was first conceived in 1963 and set a standard for species listing and conservation assessment efforts. For more than 30 years the Species Survival Commission has been evaluating the conservation status of species and subspecies on a global scale - highlighting those threatened with extinction and promoting their conservation.

Home Schooled

Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson.
Co-writing by Silas Jackson.
The Presurfer will feature a Home Schooled cartoon every Monday. This is an absolute exclusive cooperation between The Presurfer and Ash Jackson.

Home Schooled is more or less a reflection of the wacky and occasionally interesting adventures of the artist, Ash Jackson, himself, with the aid of his friends, family, and other cohorts.

Title: The Thing About Beards.

click on the picture for real size

Gotta Digg

How To Spot A Cylon

Do they ask questions about classified subjects? Have you seen them before, but you know it's not the same person? Do they seem to hear music that no one else can hear? Does their spine glow red when they get, um, excited?

It's a Cylon! Be aware! Be vigilant!
And report immediately!

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas,
Only a hippopotamus will do.
Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy,
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

The Stray Shopping Cart Project is a system of identification for stray shopping carts. Over the last several decades, the stray shopping cart has quietly become an integral part of the urban and suburban landscapes of the industrialized world.

Until now, the major obstacle that has prevented people from thinking critically about stray shopping carts has been that we have not had any formalized language to differentiate one shopping cart from another.

Top 6 Bizarre Online Gaming Incidents

People stabbing each other (in real life) for magic swords (inside an online game); men kidnapping a top player to steal his game password; a girl that dies after playing her favorite multiplayer game for several days in a row.

It is a crazy (virtual) world.
Here are the 6 most bizarre online gaming incidents in history.

This 5 story 'haunted' building in the GuangXi province of China has scared most of it's owners away. Anyone who ever lived in the house, heard horribly spooky sounds coming from somewhere in the house. In 10 years, the house has been sold to four different owners, and soon after each moved in, they moved out because of the haunting.

Two brothers bought the house and tried to find where in the house the noise was coming from. After numerous nights of searching, they figured out the noise sounded like something flapping in the water and it came from the bathroom pipe on the first floor.

Santa Claus is a recent feature of Christmas in Japan and sometimes a few details get lost in translation. Sometimes a lot does. Here's a list of the Top Ten Strange Santas from Japan.

Space Age Pop is a general and loosely based term for a music genre associated with certain American composers and songwriters in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s, from the dawn of hi-fi to the arrival of the Beatles.

The music is not limited to a single style, and it is not always easily categorized. There are several styles that can be recognized as an influence; classical composers like Ravel and Debussy; the big bands of the 40's, and different exotic styles, such as samba, latin, and calypso jazz. Some of the music in this genre is also known as lounge music or exotica.

Dogs In Costumes

For all you dog owners, these are your dogs.
And this is what they are thinking!

(thanks Linda)

Arthur Benjamin's Mathemagic

In a lively show, 'mathemagician' Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares in his head, performs a massive mental calculation, and guesses a few birth days. How does he do it? He'll be happy to tell you.

(via Think or Thwim)

Here's a nice addicting game.

Pick up your hand bells and give Hand Bell Hero a whirl. Keep an eye on the scrolling scale in the middle of the screen. As the notes pass, hit the corresponding key (a,s,d, or f) to play the song. The more notes you get right, the happier the scene besomes. The more you miss, the more havoc is wreaked on this winter wonderland.

(via Ursi's Blog)

The 12 Days Of Christmas Cutbacks

Effective immediately, these economizing measures are being implemented in the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' subsidiary.

A collection of all Bart Bonte's point and click games as well as a top 10 of his personal favorites.

Bristlebot

The BristleBot is a simple and tiny robot with an agenda. The ingredients? One toothbrush, a battery, and a pager motor.

Paying Back Musicians

Many of us own music that we didn't pay for. We don't feel guilty about shafting the record company, but what about the musicians themselves? Here's how it works:

Pick a musician, write them a letter, scan or photograph the letter and send it to 'Dear Rockers,' mail off the letter along with $5, and enjoy your new, guilt-free life.

Dear, Mr. Rose, I'm sorry, I hope you won't invite me to 'get in the ring,' but I downloaded some of your soon-to-be-finished songs from the soon-to-be-released Chinese Democracy.

It made me feel good, it made me feel cheap and it made me feel guilty. So in return, I wanted to give you back the $17, one dollar for every year you have spent polishing this gem in the studio.

Smoking Point

Michael Windisch, from the German town of Goslar, puffs a cigar with his head and hands stretching out of holes on the wall of his restaurant.

He got the idea of a 'smoking point' in one of the walls of the restaurant after the state government issued a smoking ban in public.

Bendito Machine

Bendito Machine is a short animation by Jossie Malis. It's the story of two rival villages on either side of a hill. At the top of the hill is a god-like machine that gives profitable gifts to both villages.

Soon, one greedy village hatches a plan to crush the other and take all the wealth for themselves. But how long will their prosperity last?

100 Great Christmas Bummers

Tired of traditional holiday cheer? Try Prince's 'Another Lonely Christmas,' Joni Mitchell's 'River,' or William S. Burroughs', 'A Junky's Christmas' on for size.

A list of the top break-your-heart Xmas songs.

It looks like a circus performance as the man reaches up to cuddle an 8ft-tall grizzly bear. But amazingly, this is not a trained animal but a wild beast that could kill 68-year old Charlie Vandergaw with a single swipe of its huge paw.

The retired schoolteacher risks his life every day to befriend grizzly and black bears. Charlie is convinced the bears - which weigh up to 500lbs when fully grown - are his friends.

(via A Welsh View)

Linkdump

The Road to Success

Science Tattoos

Lists: 2007

Top 25 Life-Improving Christmas Gifts for Under $10

7 Craziest Conspiracy Theories

A coat with a black and white polka dot pattern and a color-changing RGB LED into the center of each of the spots.

When the coat is first turned on, the lights are synchronized for a while (going through a slow fade of red, green, blue, gold, aqua, pink).
Over time, the individual lights go through their changes independently and out of phase, for a nice random color changing effect.
(via 7 Gadgets)

The Alliance To Rescue Civilization

The mission of the Alliance to Rescue Civilization is to protect the human species and its civilization from destruction that could result from a global catastrophic event, including nuclear war, acts of terrorism, plague and asteroid collisions.

To fulfill its mission, ARC is dedicated to creating continuously staffed facilities on the Moon and other locations away from Earth. These facilities will preserve backups of scientific and cultural achievements, and of the species important to our civilization.

What might be the missing evolutionary link between whales and land animals is an odd animal that looks like a long-tailed deer without antlers or an overgrown long-legged rat, fossils indicate.

Hans Thewissen, Professor of the Department of Anatomy, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, has announced the discovery of the missing link between whales and their four-footed ancestors in the prestigious British journal Nature.

Scientists since Darwin have known that whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on land, and in the past 15 years, researchers led by Dr Thewissen have identified a series of intermediate fossils documenting whale's dramatic evolutionary transition from land to sea. But one step was missing: The identity of the land ancestors of whales.

Lingerie 4 Men

This is wrong. This is so very wrong.

Established in July 2007, Lingerie 4 Men is New Zealand's only lingerie brand designed specifically for the male figure. All our lingerie is made from quality fabrics and is available in a wide range of sizes to fit the modern man

(via Grow-A-Brain)

Mister Sandman

Phreetings is 'Photo and Greetings'. Type keywords to find photos, then drag and drop them into the top rectangle. Type your own greeting in the bottom rectangle. Finally, send your greeting to whomever you want.

(via Dump Trumpet)

The ice worm is a creature most people think is a myth - if they've heard of it at all. But ice worms really exist. The first ice worm species were discovered in 1887 in Alaska, on the Muir Glacier. These glacier ice worms can also be found on glaciers in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.

When ice worms are exposed to temperatures as low as 5°C, their membranes melt and the worm itself liquifies. Ice worms are several centimeters long, and can be black, blue, or white in color. Ice worms come to the surface of the glaciers in the evening and morning.

NameLab

Find the right name for your baby, read fun facts about your own name and get to know some of the wackiest celebrity baby names. Read about the meaning of your surname and discover your name's origin. Track the rise and fall of naming trends over the years, and see where your favorite names rank on the list.

Do you and your name go together like a black suit and brown shoes? Find out what you should have been named, based on your personality traits. I did that last one and found out that, based on my personality traits, I shoud have been named Festus.

Amazing Chain Reaction

In 1987 Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss built an enormous, precarious structure 100 feet long out of common items. Using fire, water, gravity, and chemistry they create a mind-blowing chain reaction of physical and chemical interactions and precisely crafted chaos.

Pull the lever on the Holiday-O-Matic to create a delightfully random holiday greeting. Then send your greeting to that special someone. For each holiday greeting you send, a donation will be made to Rotary First Harvest.

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Monday, December 31, 2007

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Friday, December 28, 2007

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Monday, December 24, 2007

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007

Wednesday, December 19, 2007