unique and interesting: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Olympic Pictograms Through The Ages

Very funny video from The New York Times. Designer Steven Heller traces the evolution of the tiny symbols for each Olympic sport since their appearance in 1936.

Devo Color Study

The Devo Color Study is being conducted by Devo Inc. for the purpose of leveraging aspects of civilization that appeal to the greater majority (everybody.) Take the Devo Color Study an find out your Devo Color.

It seems my Devo Color is blue, which happens to be my favorite color.

(thanks Daniel)

A hen from Ipswich, UK, has laid an egg four times the size of a normal egg. Matilda the hen has only ever produced four eggs in her life, according to her owner, so it must have been a shock when she laid one which was approximately four times bigger than the average chicken egg. The egg is about 9cm (3.5in) high and has a circumference of 21cm (8.3in).

It's not the largest egg ever laid by a hen. The largest hen egg was a five-yolked egg measuring 31cm (12.2in) around the long axis, 22.8cm (9in) around the short and weighing nearly 340g (12oz).

Get ready for a little kiss and tell. From the smooch that changed a law to the peck that launched a religion, these are the most powerful kisses in history.

Skoda Glass Harp

An advertisement for Skoda Auto featuring Petr Spatina playing on 597 Schott Zwiesel crystal wine glasses shaped like a car.

(thanks Cora)

New York Heritage is a research portal for students, educators, historians, genealogists, and others who are interested in learning more about the people, places and institutions of historical New York State. The site provides immediate free access to more than 160 distinct digital collections that reflect New York State's long history.

These collections represent a broad range of historical, scholarly, and cultural materials held in libraries, museums, and archives throughout the state. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, newspapers, books, and more.

Truck Accident

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Or, if everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

(thanks Cora)

How old is the average Twitter or Facebook user? What about all the other social network sites, like MySpace, LinkedIn, and so on? How is age distributed across the millions and millions of social network users out there?

To find out, Royal Pingdom pulled together age statistics for 19 different social network sites, and crunched the numbers.

Bodybuilding is the process of developing the musculature of the body through specific types of diet and physical exercise, especially for competitive exhibition. Bodybuilding competition grew largely out of 19th century European strongman theatrical and circus acts.

The use of steroids to enhance performance, though generally forbidden, has long been common among bodybuilders.
Here are the Top 5 Most Extreme Bodybuilders.

(thanks Ben)

Here are the best comedy movies of 2010.

(thanks Sheridan)

100 Incredible Lectures From The World's Top Scholars

No matter what school you attend or what field of study you are following, it is easy to learn from some of the top scholars when you watch their online lectures. From words of wisdom on business, literature, science, technology, psychology, and more, you can hear what professors and experts from prestigious colleges and universities have to say.

Take some time to check out these lectures in the quest to expand your knowledge.

(thanks Kaitlyn)

Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside homes, indoor public spaces and office buildings.

Through studies conducted by NASA, scientists have identified 50 houseplants that remove many of the pollutants and gases. These plants are rated for removing chemical vapors, ease of growth, resistance to insect problems, and transpiration (the amount of water they expire into the air).

A Rainbow In Your Hand

This book is just like a flipbook, but rather than seeing animation, it creates a 3D rainbow in your hand.

image credit

The Black Swan has become a byword for a theory explaining why high-impact and unexpected events happen - the Black Swan Event. Why did this come about - and what of the real bird behind the theory?

(via Robert-John)

The people behind Nanocrowd created an application available for the iPhone, Facebook, and an online version. It's called 'Will I Like It?'

Consumers want an easy way to decide if they are going to like a movie. Everyone has experienced the disappointment of watching a movie that was highly recommended, but just was not right for them. Will I Like It? gives consumers a fast and easy way to find out if they will like a movie before they get it.

You enter the movie title you want to watch. You are then asked whether you liked, disliked, or haven't seen the movies from the 'Movies Most Like' list that Nanocrowd generates using technology they developed called Reaction Mapping. You then decide whether the descriptions of their movie in the 'Nanogenres' and 'Movie in a nutshell' are appealing to you.

In less than a minute, Nanocrowd delivers a prediction of how likely it is you will like the movie.

Top 10 Most Valuable Comic Books In The World

This week a copy of the first comic to feature caped hero Superman has been sold on the internet for $1,000,000.

Here's a list of the top 10 most valuable comic books in the world.

(thanks Ben)

Future Mechanic

Take a look at the mechanic of the future.

(thanks Cora)

Presurfer reader Ezra Montemayor from the Philippines has a photo blog. She says it's her dream to become a 'decent photographer' someday. I think she already is!

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark

It doesn't matter if you're a veteran teacher or a newbie just now taking college courses - finding new ways to get students engaged in the classroom is always a great thing. One way many teachers are reaching out is with the multitude of material found on the web, allowing them to turn everyday lessons into a multimedia experience.

You can find a great amount of helpful material on these sites, including videos to augment your lessons, lectures to inspire students, documentaries to show them how things work, and loads of additional videos to help you become a better, smarter teacher.

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All over the world, bridges serve as connectors over valleys, bodies of water and many other things. Womand's Day wanted to recognize the biggest and the best standing, those magnificent in both structure and design.

From China's unique spiraled Nanpu Bridge to Turkey's continent-linking Bosphorus Bridge, have a look at these 16 impressive bridges.

(thanks Jessie)

The Seed

An animation by Johnny Kelly. A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.

(via Everlasting Blort)

A World War is no place for half-ass machinery, and motorcycles are no exception. The bikes our grandfathers rode while in the service were not only incredibly functional, but also some of the most stylish vehicles around.

Here is a look at the gnarly motorcycles of World War II.

Take a look at these beautiful food miniatures.
They are created by Kim Burke and are extremely well done.

Kim Burke's Flickr page.

Friskies 'Adventureland'

An advertisement by Friskies, a brand of cat food. Friskies wet cat food unlocks a magical world of sensory stimulation for your cat.

(thanks Cora)

100 Best Places To Appreciate Art Online

While seeing art in person always offers that special something that pictures just can't, sometimes you just can't travel around to see all the famous works you want. Not to worry, however, as there are numerous places to see and learn about amazing art without leaving the house by perusing the web.

Here are 100 sites that offer a wealth of culture and aesthetic appeal so you can get your fix of beautiful art and an online education without the budget to travel the world.

(thanks Gracie)

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When a tree is growing, and it encounters something that gets in the way of it's growth, it can do three things: stop growing, grow away from it, or grow around it. Is it possible there are items entirely consumed by trees that we don't know about?

Here are 22 examples of trees simply absorbing obstacles.

(thanks Nickl)

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According to the U.S. Parachute Association, Americans make over 2.6 million jumps annually. But some thrill seekers fall much harder for the extreme sport than others, and keep on keepin' on - throwing themselves off high bases and out of airplanes until they break a national record or, at the very least, make their own personal contribution to the sport.

Check out photos that best relay the elevated height of excitement for this extreme pastime.

(thanks Jessie)

The auto industry's finest creatives can always be counted on to give an interesting vision of the future of transportation. Here is a look back in time at these concept cars of yesteryear.

Breakdown Of The Blogosphere

Everything you need to know about who makes up the blogosphere, what and why they are blogging, and how much time is being spent doing so.

What do you see when you look in the mirror? According to Chinese medicine, your face is a window to your health. Your forehead, nose, chin, right cheek, left cheek: each of these five face zones gives you clues to what is going on inside your body - if you know what to look for.

Decode what your face reveals about you.

A Great Dane from Arizona, USA, has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the tallest dog ever on record. Giant George, owned by David Nasser, stands 43in (1.09m) tall paw to shoulder, and weighs 245lb (111kg).

Guinness officials said that the adjudicator was sent after controversy over conflicting media accounts of the tallest dog. Giant George - who has his own website - consumes 110lb of food each month.

Giant George website.

A copy of the first comic to feature caped hero Superman has been sold on the internet for $1,000,000. The 1938 edition of Action Comics No 1 - which originally sold for 10c - was sold by a private seller to a private buyer, neither of whom was named.

Frog Fail

A dragonfly escapes a frog attack.

(thanks Cora)

Around the globe there are lots of myths about sea monsters. Marine monsters are sea-dwelling creatures like dragons or sea serpents, but they always tend to be gigantic.

5 Stunning Sea Monster Myths Around The World.

100 Web Tools Business Students Need Now

For undergrads and MBA students alike, knowing how to use the latest technology to the greatest advantage is becoming par for the course in the business world. That's why it's more important than ever to start learning how to use the web for marketing, networking, and even your studies before you ever graduate.

These web tools will help you augment your business career, do better in your courses and even start your own business while you're still in college - helping you stay on top and in the loop.

(thanks Emma)

Throwing eggs is a great way for the Joe public to get back at politicians or other famous people who annoy them. Here are 9 of the best famous eggings in history.

(thanks Danny)

The Annoying Orange

The Annoying Orange annoys the hell out of an Apple.

The Annoying Orange YouTube Channel.

Instant Chan! Or, when that's not enough, instant Chan! Chan!

(via Everlasting Blort)

The centerpiece of the United Kingdom Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo site will be the Seed Cathedral. The cube-like construction is covered by 60,000 slim transparent acrylic rods, which will quiver in the breeze.

Link Bait Generator

Link bait is content within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. It's anything interesting enough to catch people's attention. Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature. Now you can create your own link bait with the Link Bait Generator.

Some examples:

* Why Avatar should scare you more than Osama Bin Laden
* 5 of the most horrible Tiger Woods quotes of all time
* 10 insane but true things about The Presurfer

Why did your Mom marry your Dad?

* My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
* She got too old to do anything else with him.
* My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

What Kids Think About Moms.

Top 10 Courtroom Movies Of All Time

Courtroom movies hold a special ability to provide mystery, suspense, and a good story that almost always reaches a neatly packaged conclusion, making this genre of movies appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

Here are 10 movie recaps (including plot spoilers!) that span the entire 20th century, with black and white dramas, more modern dramas, and even a comedy and a documentary in the list.

(thanks Carol)

A NASA research document came to the conclusion that 'house plants can purify and rejuvenate air within our houses and workplaces, safeguarding us all from any side effects connected with prevalent toxins such as formaldehyde, ammonia and also benzene.'

Here are 15 plants that could clean your air for just the price of a few drops of water each day.

(thanks Danny)

It's true that colleges occasionally become dissatisfied with their mascots and swap them out for a new one. Ordinarily, schools go straight for another conventional college mascot - but could Admiral Ackbar, the squid-like Star Wars character, be poised to become the new mascot of Ole Miss?

The University of Mississippi - the school with a slaveowning plantation owner as its mascot. Will the undergraduates of Dixie cast off offensiveness for absurdity? Is a Rebel Alliance admiral a match for a Confederate colonel? Would the Millennium Falcon defeat the Merrimac in a battle?

(thanks Robert)

Meet Or Die

Company meetings are boring. Why? Because of the old guy that's been there too long. Or the ad agency clown, the marketing jerk, or 'No Deals McGee,' who's just a big mouth co-worker. It's a waste of time and money.

Tell 'Goolah' what industry you work in, how many employees are in your company, how long the meeting is going to take, and who is attending.
Goolah will then tell you how much money you wasted with your boring meeting.

Don't have kids but want all of the profits that your co-workers have?
With The Office Kid kit, you'll soon find that exploiting the joys of parenthood have never been easier. With one simple kit, you can do as your co-workers with children do. Make excuses, miss work, and blame it all on your kid.

When you receive your kit all you have to do is name your kid, and then display a picture of a child and work of children's art. The kit also comes with a list of suggested excuses.

Flyfire

Flyfire, a project initiated by the SENSEable City Laboratory in collaboration with ARES Lab, aims to transform any ordinary space into a highly immersive and interactive display environment.

In its first implementation, the Flyfire project sets out to explore the capabilities of this display system by using a large number of self-organizing micro helicopters.

(via PopSci)

College is supposed to be the time of one's life. With all the partying, learning, studying, friendships, and drama that come along the college path, it's definitely a memorable time in anyone's life.

When you think of college, you might think of a huge campus, packed with a lot of young college kids to the point that it almost seems overcrowded and busting at the seams. Even if you don't think of some bustling college, you probably think of some location that has a fair amount of students that study there, not some desolate spot.

Here is a list of the 10 least populated colleges in the U.S.

(thanks Stanley)

image credit

In the Lambeyeque Valley in Peru, there lies six adobe pyramids known as the site of Tucume. The Lambeyeque people, as well as the Chimu tribe, considered this site sacred.

(via Lauren)

Why People Don't Buy Their Movies

According to the law, piracy is illegal. But not everybody sees copyright infringement as a problem. Some see it as a natural evolution of society in conjunction with the rise of the internet, which fundamentally changes the way society operates. However, it is not hard to see why some people turn to piracy.

If you are a pirate, this is what you get:

But if you are a paying customer, see what you get.

(via J-Walk Blog)

Home Schooled

Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson and co-written 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, which started on May 16, 2005.

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 PUNCH Line.

click on the picture for real size

Visit the Home Schooled Webcomic.

Nothing puts a damper on a road trip like having to stop the car, pop the hood, and check the engine - unless of course you're just checking to see if your pork tenderloin is done.

Engine-block cooking is a tradition going back almost as long as the automobile itself, and now that gasoline prices are at an all-time high, it's never made more sense to ask your engine to do more than just get you from point A to point B. Start your engines and get ready to carbecue!

'Chocolate Shoppe' by Sniper Twins Featering Rob Collier

Sniper Twins is a creative duo based in New York City. Here they show you how to get chocolatel in the Chocolate Shoppe.

(thanks Ali)

This is supposed to be the successor to the Bugatti Veyron, designed by John Mark Vicente, a design graduate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada.

The design concept is known as Bugatti Renaissance but it's not sure whether Volkswagen (who own the Bugatti name) will bring the car out.

(via 2leep)

Frederick II, Catherine the Great, and Joseph II all based their ideals upon or representative of ones own opinions, founded upon their enlightened wisdom or righteous way of thinking.

All three rulers based many of their attempted reforms on the ideals of the philosophes who sought reason as their main lawmaker. However, in the case of serfdom, there was only one ruler that was able to abolish it and that was Joseph II. He did meet great opposition, especially when the nobles and the church became alienated by this new establishment.

(via Lauren)

Flash animation represents the cutting edge of Internet animation. Here are ten of the best flash driven websites you will find on the net at the moment.

(via Robert-John)

This Peanut Butter Maker is a new and original product that allows you to create an old family favourite. Peanut butter from scratch. Simply add shelled nuts to the nut bin and turn on the machine and out comes warm delicious healthy nut butter.

Codeorgan

The Codeorgan analyses the 'body' content of a web site and translates that content into music. The Codeorgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synth style, and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content.

What does your web site sound like?

Unusual Taxis from Around the World.

This Wikipedia list of common or popular misconceptions corrects various fallacious, misleading, or otherwise flawed ideas that are described by multiple reliable sources as widely held.

A common misconception about cattle is that they are enraged by the color red. This is incorrect, as cattle are red-green color-blind. It is not the color of the cape that angers the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge.

It is a common misconception that sleepwalkers should not be awakened. While it is true that a person may be confused or disoriented for a short time after awakening, it is actually quite dangerous not to wake a sleepwalker as they may injure themselves if they trip over objects or lose their balance while sleepwalking.

Maybe the semester has passed and you forgot to sell back your text books, or perhaps you just held on to too many books over the years and now you need to figure out what to do with all of them.

You don't want to throw them away, so what is left to do with them all? Here are 80 awesome ideas that will have you realizing that books aren't just for education.

(thanks Gracie)

10 Helpful Websites You Have Never Heard Of

It's easy to get lost on the internet among the millions of useless websites and the couple dozen or so good ones.

Unfortunately, some of the few good ones go way under the radar, and you've never even heard of them, let alone visit them. Ranging from practical and educational to just plain fun, these are sites you'll want to bookmark.

You may have a high-level picture of how web apps work and what kinds of technologies are involved: the browser, HTTP, HTML, web server, request handlers, and so on.

In this article Igor Ostrovsky, a software developer, takes a deeper look at the sequence of events that take place when you visit a URL.

10 Photos That Look Exactly Like Paintings

image credit

In actual fact, they are all photos from some amazing photographers and I recommend you check out the rest of their work by clicking the links.

(thanks Danny)

One Man Saw

From the Red Green Show.
How to use a two man saw with just one person.
Hilarious!

(thanks Cora)

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In the 1880s, at a time when most Europeans were denied access to the Japanese interior, Italian photographer Adolfo Farsani managed to capture many images of Old Japan.

These were then beautifully and realistically hand painted and serve as a remarkable record of a world long since disappeared.

(via Robert-John)

50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First

Not everyone who's on top today got there with success after success. More often than not, those who history best remembers were faced with numerous obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others.

Next time you're feeling down about your failures in college or in a career, keep these fifty famous people in mind and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.

(thanks Katina)

The Mariana Trench is the deepest known part of the world's oceans, and the lowest elevation of the surface of the Earth's crust. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands.

The trench is about 1,580 miles (2,550 km) long but has a mean width of only 43 miles (69 km). It reaches a maximum depth of about 36,200 ft (11,033 m) at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern end.

The Mariana Trench in perspective.

In movies, music is used intensively to set the stage for a dramatic appearance or a sad goodbye. Just imagine Pretty Woman without Roy Orbison, Waynes World without Queen, Robin Hood without Bryan Adams, Men in Black without Will Smith, or Kill Bill without the entire soundtrack. These movies wouldn't be the same.

Music can be entertaining, bring back memories, trigger strong feelings, distract, and comfort. Music creates moods because it betrays your brain and you can use this little trick in your favor. Here are the 5 best websites that play music matching your mood or the mood you desire.

For years, Campbell's researchers asked consumers whether they remembered an ad and whether it made them more likely to buy a product. But a 2005 Campbell analysis revealed that, overall, ads deemed more effective in surveys had little relation to changes in Campbell sales.

For the past two years, researchers studied microscopic changes in skin moisture, heart rate and other biometrics to see how consumers react to everything from pictures of bowls of soup to logo design. They combined these biometric tools with a different type of deep interview to more accurately gauge which consumer communications worked better.

(via Boing Boing)

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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Friday, February 26, 2010

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Monday, February 22, 2010

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010