When you are handcuffed to another prisoner and you try to escape, make sure you don't run to opposite sides of a light pole.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Bird Of Paradise Without Wings
This particular 'bird' has no wings and will never fly. However, people around the world will stop and gawk at its flightless beauty.
Take a look at this bird of paradise without wings.
(via Robert-John)
West Virginia Hot Dog Map
I've been told that a true West Virginia hot dog is a heavenly creation that begins with a wiener on a bun. Add mustard, a chili-like sauce and top it off with coleslaw and chopped onions.
However, coleslaw is not a standard topping at hot dog joints everywhere in West Virginia. The food culture is diverse and influenced by many factors such as predominate ethnicities and a melding with cultures of surrounding states. This West Virginia Hot Dog Map project attempts to document this diversity.
However, coleslaw is not a standard topping at hot dog joints everywhere in West Virginia. The food culture is diverse and influenced by many factors such as predominate ethnicities and a melding with cultures of surrounding states. This West Virginia Hot Dog Map project attempts to document this diversity.
The Kh(aX)n Machine
The Kh(aX)n Machine is a little application to graph Google queries as you increase the number of times a letter recurs.
Remember William Shatner's 'Khaan?' Or was it 'Khaaaaaan?' You can do the same with any word. I tried it with my first name. Here's the graph.
Remember William Shatner's 'Khaan?' Or was it 'Khaaaaaan?' You can do the same with any word. I tried it with my first name. Here's the graph.
Transforming Toyota Truck
After graduating high school, three Japanese buddies decided to follow their dream of a year-long cross-country road trip, from the northeastern island of Hokkaido to the southwestern one of Yakushima.
But before they set out, the trio built one of the coolest road trip cars ever conceived, from a decrepit mid-80s Toyota Toyoace.
Generations Online In 2009
Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the 'Net Generation,' internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online.
Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).
Here's the Generations Online In 2009 report as a pdf document.
Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).
Here's the Generations Online In 2009 report as a pdf document.
Interview With A Cannibal
On the afternoon of June 12, 1981, Issei Sagawa walked into the woods in Bois de Boulogne, France, carrying two suitcases. The postgraduate student at the Sorbonne had shot and killed female Dutch exchange student Renée Hartevelt the day before. After eating portions of her body, he tried to dump the corpse in a remote lake. Witnesses saw him and he was soon arrested.
French psychologists found Issei Sagawa to have been legally insane at the time of the crime and, therefore, unfit to stand trial. He was subsequently exempted from prosecution. He returned to his homeland, where Japanese authorities tried to put him on trial for murder. French justice officials refused to hand over the necessary documents to carry on and he was again set free.
(thanks Rory)
Save The Words
Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the dictionary. Old words, wise words, hard-working words. Words that once led meaninful lives but now lie abandoned and forgotten.
You can do your part. Help save the words! If not for yourself, then for generations yet to come. One day they'll be grateful.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Today, 60 years ago, Mohandas Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla House in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.
Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon total non-violence which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Two Hundred Sit-Ups
If you are serious about increasing your core strength, follow this six week training program and you will soon be on your way to completing two hundred consecutive sit-ups.
Think there's no way you could do this? All you need is a good plan, plenty of discipline and about 30 minutes a week to achieve this goal.
There's also One Hundred Push-Ups.
404 Error Pages
A 404 error page is an HTTP error message returned to the browser by the Web server when a requested Web page is not available. The error occurs because the page no longer exists or is restricted.
Here are some examples of beautiful and original 404 error designs.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
You're So Vane!
They are everywhere around us, but sometimes we don't take the time to look up and see them. Here we present the bizarre world of the weather vane.
Whether or not those responsible for them will put their hands in the air and own up is anyone's guess. What is obvious, however, is that there is certainly truth in the old saying - vanity, vanity, all is vanity!
(via Robert-John)
The Most Extravagant Dinner Parties In History
Before you splurge on that Super Bowl Party, or make arrangements for that lavish Oscars Dinner, keep in mind that you can go too far in your quest to impress friends and neighbors.
Here are ten examples of historic hosts that got caught up in the excitement of party planning and may have suffered just a touch of remorse the next morning.
(thanks Ken)
The Best Complaint Letter Ever?
This is a letter recently received by the Virgin Atlantic customer complaints team and is currently being hailed on several blogs as possibly the funniest customer complaint letter ever.
Yahoo! News called the Virgin Atlantic press office and they confirmed they received the letter and that Richard Branson himself called the author to thank him for the feedback.
(thanks HicksianGirl)
Yahoo! News called the Virgin Atlantic press office and they confirmed they received the letter and that Richard Branson himself called the author to thank him for the feedback.
(thanks HicksianGirl)
Who Has the Internet's Biggest Ego?
There's famous, then there's Internet famous, an honor that is only slightly more glamorous than being on the homecoming court of a really big high school.
Men's Lifestyle Magazine Asylum has outed the people with the biggest, most ridiculously dramatic over-the-top egos ever discovered in the history opf the Internet. And now they're counting on you.
Tell them who has the biggest ego of them all.
(thanks Alex)
Radio Aporee Maps
Radio Aporee Maps is an open project about the creation and exploration of public sonic layers. It collects and organizes sound recordings from daily surroundings and living spaces all over the world and puts them onto Google Maps.
The sounds are organized within a mashup system of mapping software, databases, telephone networks and the Internet.
(via Google Blogoscoped)
Ten Simple Things We Should All Say More Often
How many words do you speak during a day? The average figure is 16,000 words. Even then, much of what we say can be meaningless chit-chat, brisk, necessary exchanges or even angry rants.
Here are ten things that we could all do with saying more often. The positive impact they will have on your mood and your day is pretty dramatic.
(via geekman)
Here are ten things that we could all do with saying more often. The positive impact they will have on your mood and your day is pretty dramatic.
(via geekman)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Make Yourself A Happiness Pie
An animation of Ray Noble and The New Mayfair Dance Orchestra playing 'Make Yourself A Happiness Pie', recorded New Years Eve 1930.
(via Everlasting Blort)
(via Everlasting Blort)
Airline Meals
Airline Meals has over 7000 pictures, showing meals and full meal details from up to 350 different airlines, sent in by travellers from every corner of the world.
First class meals, business class meals, economy class meals, but also crew meals, vegetarian meals, gluten free meals, children's meals, or just a bag of peanuts.
Ring Finger Length Linked To Success
A study by Cambridge University scientists of highly pressured London traders, whose jobs requires risk taking and quick responses, found the most successful had long ring fingers in relation to their index fingers.
Not only did traders with long ring fingers make on average six times more money, they survived more years in a cut-throat world which weeded out the weak and unprofitable.
(via Reality Carnival)
20 Wildest Reactions To Obama's Victory
America went a little crazy last Tuesday night, finding a diversity of wild and wonderful ways to celebrate or to protest Obama's historic victory.
Art-O-Mat
Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. There are 82 active machines in various locations in the United States (and even one in Canada).
(via The Thinks I Think)
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Biggest Movie Event Of The Year
Entertainment news program Red Carpet revealed the biggest movie event of the year, starring me!
(via The Thinks I Think)
I Hate The Media
The goal of 'I Hate the Media' is to point out all the bias and the blindness. All the lies and the lunacy. All the fakes and the phonies. All the morons and the myopic.
Day in and day out, we're bombarded by blatant bias. Insulted by idiot anchors. Harangued by Hollywood halfwits. Aurally assaulted by so-called singers.
Television. Radio. Newspapers. Magazines. Films. Music. They all deserve to die slow, painful deaths. Oh, what's that? They are dying slow, painful deaths? Well, in that case, it appears that life really is fair.
The Fantastic Floating Islands Of Titicaca
The Uros people of Lake Titicaca have a unique way of life - they build their own islands, float them on the lake and then proceed to live on them.
Here is a glimpse of their world, where their home made 'islands' are truly 'in the stream.'
(via Robert-John)
The Neatorama Upcoming Queue
My friends over at Neatorama have launched The Neatorama Upcoming Queue. It's basically a hybrid between social networking media (like Digg) and a traditional blogging platform.
Do you have a blog and would like it featured on Neatorama? Have you ever found something neat/funny/weird on the Web and would like to share it with all of Neatorama's readers? Now you can.
The Upcoming Queue lets you vote good posts up and bad ones down. Posts that gather a lot of positive votes will then be promoted to the blog's front page. More information on Neatorama.
Do you have a blog and would like it featured on Neatorama? Have you ever found something neat/funny/weird on the Web and would like to share it with all of Neatorama's readers? Now you can.
The Upcoming Queue lets you vote good posts up and bad ones down. Posts that gather a lot of positive votes will then be promoted to the blog's front page. More information on Neatorama.
Twenty-Five People At The Heart Of The Meltdown
The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.
The Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis.
5 Things You Didn't Know About Human Hair
Human hair is a simple thing made of keratin and dead skin cells. Its function is to prevent heat loss from a person's head, yet it also causes women to weep, men to buy Porsches and people to spend billions each year on its upkeep.
Such a simple thing as human hair leads to all kinds of complexities. Here are examples in which hair is more than just a dandruff jungle, so check out these 5 things you didn't know about human hair.
(via Neatorama)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Text-To-Movie
If you can type, you can make movies. Xtranormal's mission is to bring movie-making to the people. You type something; they turn it into a movie. You can start making a movie by doing the following:
Click the Make Movies tab at the top of the page. On the page that appears, chose the style and number of characters you want to use. The movie maker appears. You can change the set, actors, and background music.
Start typing the dialogue for your actors. You can drag many actions directly into the text blocks such as camera angles, sound effects, facial expressions, and character animations.
The First Nonsmoking Nation
If you're a smoker and you're indignant that your boss just shut the smoking room and outraged that you have to leave the bar to light up, take heart. Life could be worse.
You could be Bhutanese.
The 9 Most Extreme Places On The Planet
Imagine living in a place so remote the mail only comes once a year. Or reaching the summit of the highest place on earth… which isn't Mount Everest.
The 9 most extreme places on the planet.
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: Comedy Is All About the Delivery.
click on the picture for real size
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: Comedy Is All About the Delivery.
click on the picture for real size
Obama: BlackBerry User-In-Chief
After facing down his top security advisors, President Obama won the right Thursday to be the BlackBerry user-in-chief.
Under an arrangement with security aides, Obama will get a new BlackBerry loaded with software approved by U.S. intelligence officials that lets him communicate with friends, family and close associates without fear of hackers reading his e-mail.
American Red Cross Posters
Since World War I, the American Red Cross has utilized posters to raise funds, recruit, promote, and expand awareness of its activities. Be it supporting the War Fund, recruiting nurses or Junior members, promoting health and safety programs... posters have often been a 'first contact' with the general public.
American Red Cross Posters will take you to a number of photographs of American Red Cross posters from different decades. Information includes the artist, year of issue (if known), the size, and if the poster was paper, carboard, or both.
(via Everlasting Blort)
Kisai Tenmetsu Watch
Tenmetsu, the dynamic design from Kisai combines precision lines, stunning contours and three bold LED tones to form an outstanding wrist watch.
The time and date are shown in sequence by color. Red LEDs indicate 15 units, amber LEDs indicate 5 units and green LEDs indicate 1 unit, a combination of which present hours, minutes, months and date.
(via The Awesomer)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Slingshot Man
The story of Rufus Hussey, a man who makes slingshots and shoots them like an expert marksman.
A 1,474-Megapixel Photo Of Obamas Inaugural Address
Photographer David Bergman made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama's inaugural address. To do so, he clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from his photo position.
Comprised of over 220 images, the incredibly detailed panorama is filled with pieces of information that you previously weren't able or bothered to see. Some are just obviously cool - nearly being able to read the sheet music on performers stands, seeing the comically varied expressions in the VIP area behind the President as he speaks - but others are more subtly awesome.
(thanks Cora)
Stories Behind 10 Famous Food Logos
You don't have to go far to find fascinating stories behind some of the world's most famous logos. Just take a look inside your kitchen cabinets.
Microsoft Songsmith: 'Roxanne' By The Police
Here's what 'Roxanne' by The Police would sound like if they'd used Microsoft Songsmith.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Obama Is A Ninja
Barack Obama as a ninja. One of the many Obama toys from Gamu Toys of Japan. The dolls are 1/6 scale figures produced by the Hong Kong based DID Corporation.
(via Boing Boing)
Henchman's Helper
Henchman's Helper includes 42 live webcams from around the world, 9 constantly updated weather graphics, and a large, ominous-looking infrared satellite image of North America.
Designer Joel Friesen says: When you have to be evil, at least have a cool lair to back it up. With a wall of monitors it would be impossible not to. Something to do for fun… and evil.
Our World May Be A Giant Hologram
The German-British Gravitational Wave Detector team has been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, the detector has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described.
If this doesn't blow your socks off, then Hogan has an even bigger shock in store: If the detector result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram.
The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level.
If this doesn't blow your socks off, then Hogan has an even bigger shock in store: If the detector result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram.
The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level.
The Obameter
PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on their Obameter.
We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.
Unapologetic
Unapologetic is a site where authors can tell mini stories that deal with failed relationships. But each story can only employ one vowel and the narrative has to make sense.
(thanks T.D.)
Bacon Watch
The irresistible allure of bacon has crossed over into the world of fashion!
The bacon watch has a round clock face and straps that look like delicious slices of bacon. Vinyl strap, metal casing. Batteries included.
(via Everlasting Blort)
9 Minimalist Japanese Homes
Modern architecture and design is all about bringing out the best with the minimal possible effort and usage of materials. Economy and beauty are the two parallel components of minimalist blueprint that most homes use today.
This wonderful collection of minimalist Japanese homes illustrates how creative thinking merged with revolutionary use of building techniques can give shape to soothing and spectacular abodes.
(thanks Yaw)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
10 Must See President Obama Websites
The wait is over and the 44th President of the United States of America has been inaugurated.
Here are 10 of the most memorable websites featuring the new POTUS, hopefully something for all tastes.
(via Robert-John)
Extraordinary Uses For 16 Ordinary Household Items
Your friend brings back your DVD scratched to all hell? Use toothpaste to smooth it out. Or, the screws in your medicine cabinet keep coming loose? Dab a little nail polish on it. If you are perpetually breaking the outdoor lights on your garage when you try to remove them, coat the threads with petroleum jelly.
Here's are 81 surprising things you can do at home with things you already have laying around – saving you money and making you feel a little more kick ass when you show off your MacGyver-ing skills.
(thanks Annie)
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