Monday, March 31, 2008

Pot o'Gold


1941 musical starring Jimmy Stewart and Paulette Goddard. From IMDb:
Jimmy, the owner of a failed music shop, goes to work with his uncle, the owner of a food factory. Before he gets there, he befriends an Irish family who happens to be his uncle's worst enemy because of their love for music and in-house band who constantly practices. Soon, Jimmy finds himself trying to help the band by getting them gigs and trying to reconcile the family with his uncle, an avid music-hater, all while winning the heart of the beautiful Molly! (via On the Other Foot)

Funny and Enteretaining Links

President Bush threw out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals. The crowd responded to his entrance with a resounding "Boooo".

This little robot scans the area to find a surface it can drum on! Can you say “adorable”?

The Ten Most Historically Inaccurate Movies. Hollywood never lets the facts get in the way of a good yarn.

A cat is delighted to find he can walk on water! But the ice makes it hard to reach the fish.

The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time.

25 Phrases Men Can’t Stand to Hear Women Say.

Life’s Little Mysteries, like why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? And why do (some) women wear high heels?

Everything in this world tends to even out. Explained in the way only Jack Handey could.

10 Things They Didn’t Teach You at School. If they did, school would have been a lot more fun!

GraphJam is a blog for strage flowcharts, Venn diagrams, and graphs of all kinds. They invite you to submit your own.

Design Coding


The Poetic Prophet, aka The SEO Rapper has a nerdcore rap about properly coding your html to optimize your website.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

YouTube Doubler

I can't believe this wonderful toy has been around for nine months! Play two YouTube videos side-by-side to compare them, or in this case, use the music for one to enhance the other.

Since these videos are on autoplay, which is necessary in this case to start the two videos simultaneously, I have moved them to another page.

Tower of Pisa


Possibly a set up, but still funny.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Information Links

Before radio was widely used, planes used “road signs” painted on roofs to find airports! Some of these signs may still exist; some survive only in pictures.

The signs of spring are coming earlier in the American west. Scientist say global warming is to blame.

Ten Ways to Raise a Green Baby. And hope he or she turns a more natural color before first grade.

Too Much Information? Study Shows How Ignorance Can Be Influential. The good Lord knows we have enough of it!

London’s Top 10 Hidden Teasures.

The political costs of primping. A woman running for president will spend an extra two weeks over the course of a campaign just getting ready in the morning, just because she can’t afford not to.

25 ways to simplify your life with kids. Great tips for new parents, although a few are impossible for a single parent.

The credit crisis is moving beyond subprime mortgages. Next on the agenda: home equity loans.

Seven Mysterious Disappearances. Read what happened plus the wild speculations of what might have happened to these people who were never seen again.

A look at some of the problems with a national service program. It may be a way to pay for college, but there should be a better way.

The Job



The Job takes your expectations and turns them upside down. A award-winning short by Screaming Frog Productions. (via Everlasting Blort)

Friday, March 28, 2008

Gulliver’s Travels



From Wikipedia:

Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released during the holiday season of 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt Disney's box-office hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Gulliver was the tenth animated feature film ever released, and the first produced by an American studio other than Walt Disney Productions. The story is based upon the Lilliputian adventures of Gulliver depicted in Jonathan Swift's 18th century novel Gulliver's Travels.

A Slow Slap in the Face


I’m awful. I had to laugh at this poor guy getting slapped just because he looked so funny. The video was taken at 4000 frames per second and slowed down for our pleasure. The things folks do to entertain you! (via Cynical-C)

Thursday, March 27, 2008

6 March Madness Tournaments (without basketballs)


The NCAA basketball tournament is exciting, but it’s not the only game in town. There are March Madness elimination tournaments of all kinds going on now at a website near you!

read more | digg story

Fun Links

Put down your coffee cup before you watch BigDog Beta.

Proposal in Zero Gravity. David asked Sarah to marry him as they were riding the vomit comet! (via Boing Boing)

10 TV Shows that Changed the World.

8 (More) Disturbing Delicacies.

Advertising Vs Reality - A Product Comparison Project. You know the food you get is not going to look like the picture on the package, but it’s disturbing to see so many comparisons together.

You know someone just like this guy. Like the Guy Manual says, don't ever admit guilt, even in the face of overwheling evidence.

Hello, I am Mr. Google.

50 Words Women Really Hate. Yes, we do. “Clitorectomy” is right there at the top of my list.

Magic sea anemone in the Philippines. Now you see it, now you don’t!

You may be tired of Linerider videos by now, but you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Transcendental. With 126,000 lines, it runs as smoothly as silk.

We Will Rock You


By Ooedo No Hikeshi with guest vocalists. (via Metafilter)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Help!



From Wikipedia:
Help! is a 1965 film starring The Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!.

An eastern cult is about to sacrifice a woman to the goddess Kaili[1]. Just before she is killed however, they notice that she is not wearing the sacrificial ring. It's revealed that Ringo Starr, drummer of the Beatles, has it, sent to him by the victim and her sister, who is also the high priestess of the cult (both of whom are fans of the Beatles), and it's stuck on his finger. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the woman, the great Swami Clang (McKern), the high priestess Ahme (Bron) and several cult members including Bhuta (Bluthal) leave for London. After several failed attempts to steal the ring without Ringo noticing, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he doesn't return the ring soon, he will become the next sacrifice. Unfortunately, the ring is stuck and he can't take it off.

Informative Links

The Stories Behind Four Exorcisms.

Trying for perfection can stall your productivity. Often, it’s better to get to the point of “good enough”.

It turns out that money CAN buy happiness, but there’s a twist: to be truly happy, spend it on someone besides yourself.

The Language of the Fan. A Victorian woman holding a fan cold send a message she wouldn’t dare speak out loud. (via Curious Expeditions)

It's only natural to think a person's attitudes and behaviors are directly related. Psychologists have found that the link between what they say and what they do is not always that strong.

Hypothetical intelligent dinosaurs. Quite a few scientists think about how things could have been so different in our planet’s development, and how future archaeologists may see humans as a historical blip.

A 30-year-old Frenchman received the world’s first full face transplant last year. A victim of neurofibromatosis, he now has a new life ahead.

Styrofoam cups sent into the depths of the ocean shrink to thimble size and illustrate the crushing pressure of the water. They also make nice souvenirs for divers.

A chunk of the Antarctic ice shelf the size of Manhattan has broken off. The larger chuck behind it is on thin ice, so to speak.

The cost of raising a baby in the United States is now $204,060. Have one birthday party at home instead of renting a skating rink, and you can save that $60.

Thriller on the Subway


See lots more interpretations of Thriller at YesButNoButYes.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

9 People Who Did It Anyway


When you tell someone they can’t do something, it often serves as a motivation to prove you’re wrong, and disabled people are no exception. Of course, that’s not the only reason they do exactly what they are supposedly not able to do. Inspiring read!

read more | digg story

Fun Links

30 Error Messages You Never Want to See.

Hamlet is back, and boy, is he pissed!

Artist Devorah Sperber renders her subjects in beads and spools of thread. Her subject is Star Trek. Together, that’s too cool.

Funny Things Sports Announcers have Said.

Virtual Sand. (via Bits and Pieces)

The early days of Saturday morning cartoons were experimental and therefore delightful. Take a video look back at the years 1960-1964.

A 1995 Newsweek editorial dismisses the internet as a “cacophony” that resembles CB radio. How many wrong predictions can you count in this article?

The Top Ten Jackie Chan Stunts. This makes me hurt just watching it.

5 Jail Hotels (Where You Pay to Be In Prison). For those times you want to spend your vacation seeing how the “other half” lives.

Cat in a Bottle (NOT the bonzai kitten). He gets in all by himself. And out!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Good Reads and Information

A new study is challenging the long-standing notion that the whole solar system formed from the same raw materials. They just don’t have the same chemistry, which is a classic brush-off if I’ve ever heard one.

If your name is similar to a name on the federal watchlist of suspected terrorists and drug dealers, you may have a hard time buying a car, using a credit card, or using your PayPal account. But now there’s a hotline to inquire about it.

In Most Species, Faithfulness Is a Fantasy. “Infants have their infancy; adults, adultery.”

Writers Who Suffered From the Sylvia Plath Effect. Luckily for me, serious mental illness only seems to affect creative and successful women writers.

People are driving less, so why do gas prices keep rising? The answer doesn’t make me feel any better about filling up.

“The most complicated thing that humans have ever built” describes CERN’s Large Hadron Collider ready to open next month. Here are some jaw-dropping pictures and statistics.

Sexual extortion in the US Immigration service.

How to find lost web pages.

9 Big Names Who Lived Above the (Tax) Law.

Scientists find giant marine life in a recent Antarctic sea survey. The 30,000 specimens collected include starfish that are 2 feet across and jellyfish with 12 foot tentacles!

Don’t Fight Monday


You won’t win. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Sunday, March 23, 2008

He’s Alive


I hope you get a blessing from it.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

2007 YouTube Video Awards















The winners of the 2007 YouTube Video Awards were announced yesterday. The best videos were named in various categories: music, comedy, inspirational, sports, adorable, etc. The awards were based on votes from YouTube users.

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park


Tom Lehrer does what he does best. (Thanks, Actor212!)

Friday, March 21, 2008

Jesus


The story of Jesus, from the Gospel of Luke.

Fun Links

When you need an instant cast for your movie, marshmallow Peeps will do just fine. Enjoy 12 cinematic remakes starring your favorite Easter candy.

The 8 Least Impressive Guinness World Records. If you can’t win a footrace or climb a mountain, maybe you can let snails walk on your face.

Never trust a badger trying to sell you a car. I swear I used to work with this fellow.

George Bush’s resume. After all, he will be unemployed a year from now.

25 Ways to Avoid All Future Social Interaction. Follow these tips, and no one will ever want to be around you again.

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation explain the subprime mortgage meltdown in a manner even I can understand. And enjoy.

Discardia (March 20-April 5) is a “holiday” invented five years ago. Funny, I’ve been participating in it since childhood under the old name of Spring Cleaning.

The Vernal Equinox means sunrise in the Arctic Circle and sunset in Antarctica, where the sun skims around the horizon. You’ll see that effect in the charming time-lapse video Antarctica: A Year on Ice.

The Politician’s Sex Scandal Cheat Sheet.

The weirdest news stories of the week.

Stop the Music!


This Polka Music is Strictly from Squaresville! Lawrence Welk joins the Beat Generation. Or something. This is from 1969. From 10 Zen Monkeys, where you’ll find more Lawrence Welk oddities.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Easter Egg Tragedy


















Thanks, Rich! All kinds of fun stuff for Easter is up at Miss Cellania.

Informative Links

Thousands of sheep died one night in 1968 in Skull Valley, Utah. Army officials got busy drafting a denial. They had been testing Cold War chemical and biological weapons, one of which was called VX.

Top 10 Badass Female Warriors. What? You’ve never heard of Fu Hao, Gudit, or Tri Tha Trinh? Now you have.

The biggest of the big cats is one that exists, but not in the natural world. The artificially-bred liger can grow up to 900 pounds, twice the size of a lion or tiger.

The story of the fig tree, the fig wasp, and the parasite wasp illustrates the delicate balance of nature. It also shows how parasites can be beneficial in ways we could never guess.

How to tip like a gentleman. Or a lady, since there’s no advice here that is gender-specific.

Some number crunching on the NCAA brackets. And some betting advice.

Salamanders can regrow limbs after they are torn off; why can’t humans do the same? The April issue of Scientific American looks at research that may one day lead to self-regeration of human body parts.

50% of College Students Think We See Like Superman. Increasingly obvious clues to the real process show that ingrained ideas are very hard to change.

Geeks are making the world a better place by doing what they do best. Engineers Without Borders equips off-the-grid villages with wind-generated electricity.

In the early 1800s, medical schools found corpses difficult to obtain, illegal to dissect, and hard to preserve. A student named Louis Auzoux developed and produced anatomical models made of papier-mache, some of which are still around today.

The Many Views of Abbey Road


It’s such an iconic image that whenever you see a group walking single file on a zebra crossing, you automatically think of Abbey Road. It’s been imitated, honored, lampooned, and recreated by countless artists. We’ll take a look at just a few of their creations.

read more | digg story

Fetch


Jerry doesn’t have to wait for anyone to throw the ball. He has a computerized ball-launcher he can reload himself!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Peep Show

First Spaceship On Venus


1962. From iMDB:

In 1970, debris from the 1908 Tunguska "meteor" are found which turn out to be recordings from a spaceship crashed there. The ship's origin is determined to be Venus, and an international team sets out with their spaceship "Kosmokrator" to visit the "Silent Planet", which is shrouded in clouds, and doesn't respond to contact attempts. While the "Kosmokrator" is in flight, the record is decoded and it turns out that the Venusians seemingly planned to invade Earth in 1908.

Based on novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. More at Wikipedia.

Fun and Funny Links

The Greatest George Clooney Story Ever. I honestly laughed out loud.

The Flock of Mullets. Just silly, but it made me laugh! Created by comedian Dan Allen. (via the Presurfer)

WebCrosswords. The easiest way to do a crossword puzzle, with a new one everyday. (via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories)

20 Insane Supervillain Schemes In Flowchart Form.

5 Botched Marriage Proposals. Some things shouldn’t be so public. (via Look at This)

Concuss Your Child With The Transogram Swing Wing!

Ten Signs that you are becoming a Grumpy Old Blogger.

Questionaut is a beautiful click game where you answer and collect elementary-level questions. If you’ve seen it you may have guessed it’s from Amanita Designs (yes, the Samorost people). (via Metafilter)

What’s you News IQ? I scored at the 76th percentile. (via Bits and Pieces)

The Top Ten Weirdest Rock and Roll Deaths. Or nine, really, since Cass Elliot’s entry was the rumor about her death.

YouTube Doubler

YouTube Doubler

Owl Threat Response



One owl has a repertoire of responses to different threats. He can make himself big, make himself small, or just ignore the enemy. Although he was in no real danger, I felt a bit sorry for the little guy. (via Everlasting Blort)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Interesting Links

Lacey Henderson’s right leg was amputated when she was nine years old due to a tumor in her kneecap. But at her mother’s suggestion, she tried out to become a cheerleader in high school. Not only did she make the team, but she worked her way up to captain. Now she’s 18 and cheers for the University of Denver.

In April, Dave Heeley will take up the Seven Magnificent Marathons challenge and run marathons on seven continents in seven days to raise funds for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Dave is blind and will be running with his sighted running partner Malcolm Carr.

8 Major Scandals from 8 Minor Sports.

How to keep the woman in your life happy.

Let’s see what happens when a hardcore Windows developer gets a Mac.

10 of the Most Shocking American Political Sex Scandals. I really wouldn’t call them shocking, but they were scandals.

Patrick may have been a saint, but he didn’t drive the snakes out of Ireland. For that, you can thank the Ice Age.

The U.N. Environment Program has determined that glaciers are melting at record pace. India could be particularly affected, since glaciers feed its rivers.

What happens when a students enters a woman’s college, and then becomes a man? Women’s colleges are more accomodating to transgendered people than you might expect.

How to tip like a gentleman. Or a lady, because there’s no advice here that is gender-specific.

The Audeo Voiceless Phone. Is that a contradiction in terms? Not quite.

An Honest R&B Song




There’s nothing here we don’t already know, but what fun for your intentions to be serenaded! Ooh Girl, starring Mike Polk of Runaway Box. More here.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Fun Links

Six Reasons the Irish aren’t so lucky.

Questionaut is a beautiful click game where you answer and collect elementary-level questions. It’s from Amanita Designs (yes, the Samorost people). (via Metafilter)

Eight Museums You won’t be Bored By. Why look at art when you can look at ...mustard?

The hazards of reporting on winter recreation include getting hit by sledders. At least he recovered with style!

Joel Haas and his brothers staged a play for their folks when they were kids. Now, my daughters do this sort of thing all the time, but they’ve never tackled MacBeth!

A planned proposal went awry when a man had the $6,000 engagement ring put into a helium balloon, then saw it blow away in the wind. (via Arbroath)

Learn just the amount of Spanish you REALLY need to know for traveling in Mexico and Latin America. (Thanks, PAgent!)

What’s you News IQ? I scored at the 76th percentile. (via Bits and Pieces)

Modern products inserted into vintage advertising . I loved Mr. Nokia’s patent mobile telephonic communicator (with MP3 gramophone).

How to talk like a physicist. The comments are full of further tips.

Misunderstood Holiday


Happy St. Patricks Day! There should be more uplifting videos today at Miss Cellania.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

How to Name Your Blog

Do not use the words Random, Rambling, Musing, Thoughts, or anything close to those words. You see blogs with those words in their names all the time, but do you remember which ones are which? Here’s a method that been done quite a bit, but the results are always memorable. Think of an adjective. It could be anything, but the best are words you don’t hear in everyday conversation. Write it down, then forget it. Then think of an animal. The animal should have nothing to do with the adjective, which is why you should forget it. Make it an animal you don’t hear about everyday. Then put the two words together. Viola! Instant blog title. Militant Platypus, Defective Yeti, Exploding Aardvark, and 10 Zen Monkeys are already taken. I would include Everlasting Blort, but I’m not sure what a blort is.

Elephants Love Snow!



A zoo in Rockton, Ontario has found that elephants have fun playing in the snow. Cheetahs, on the other hand, aren’t so excited. (via Arbroath)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Dog and the Door


The dog cannot be convinced there is no glass in the door, even when confronted with evidence. (via Bits and Pieces)

Sardoodledom



The kid at the spelling bee had never heard of the word, but neither had I. It is pretty funny! (via the Presurfer)

John McCain sings Streisand


From an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Neatorama Greeting for St. Patricks day

Happy Pi Day!



In honor of Pi Day (every year on 3/14), here is Hard N Phirm with Pi. The lyrics are here. If you just want to hear the robot recite pi again, YTMND has that.

For more pi fun, see The Joy of Pi.

And the song Mathematical Pi.

Informative Links

NASA’s Cassini space probe is set to collect dust and ice samples from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Scientists are excited about the possibility of liquid water, and possibly life, under the moon’s surface.

Characters and storylines in television shows often crossover to other shows with guest appearances, spinoffs, or interrelated stories. Here’s a huge graphic that explains how the 282 series are related.

How to Survive an Avalanche. It’s better to have the information and not need it, than need it and not know it!

17-year-old Shivani Sud won $100,000 in scholarships in the Intel Science Talent Search by researching how to improve colon cancer treatment. What did YOU do when you were 17?

What happens when an SUV meets a two-ton protected species? You don’t want to know, so rangers are trying to keep elephant seals down on the beach.

Moose have the ability to learn from their mistakes. Lately, they’ve learned that the safest place is near human civilization.

A DNA study suggests that 95% of Native Americans can trace their ancestry back to just six women. 20,000 years later, they should be proud.

A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Workspace. The beautiful desk you’ll see here may be hiding somewhere underneath all the junk you collect.

How Technology has Changed the Oldest Profession. Prostitution has become more accessible, more efficient, and more lucrative.

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time. And when they say big, they mean more money than you can imagine.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

6 (More) Restless Corpses

Many people are so fascinated with earthly remains that they want to view them long after death. To some, it’s a sign of devotion to the person who once inhabited the body. For others, it’s just plain morbid curiosity. And for a few, it’s something even stranger.

read more | digg story

What Were They Thinking?


Faceplants, crashes, and general idiocy. You've seen some of these clips before, but they are just as fun the second time around.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Thin Man Goes Home


Its classic movie about a detective Nick Charles, played by William Powell, and his wife, played by Myrna Loy, who go back to Nick's childhood home and visits his parents for his birthday when he gets involved in a Murder investigation.

Good Reads

How to defend your coffee habit. Of all the things you could be addicted to, coffee is one you can really argue for.

A paleoanthropologist goes on vacation find ancient bones of small humans in Palau. Some people just don’t know how to leave the office behind.

The Seven Smelliest Creatures in the World. Believe it or not, the skunk came in at only #3!

Tripadvisor’s 2008 Dirtiest Hotels in America and the UK. (via the Presurfer)

Requiem for Waldo, a wise cat.

PostSecret's Frank Warren brings tears to SXSWi crowd.

Humiliation TV. When does it cross the line from exhibitionism to violation of rights? When someone kills himself?

Photos of Agent Orange Syndrome. http://www.vn-agentorange.org/VanityFair_200608s.html

The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax. The father of Dungeons and Dragons developed the never-ending game in the early 70s and leaves behind legions of devoted fans.

Consumers are changing their spending habits. Some thrift is a good thing, but what is it saying about the economy?

Demolition


There’s more demolition videos at Web Urbanist, with explanations. They range from the awesomely entertaining to the downright scary.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Super Colon!

Fun Links

Instructables has a photo essay on the process of shipping a tiger to Canada. According to someone who does this a lot, the hard part is getting the tiger into the box. The author had a little trouble actually finding a tiger, due to their camouflaging stripes, but he got the job done.

Improv Everywhere targets a food court with a “spontaneous” musical number. Talk about added value with your Happy Meal!

How To Terminate a Terminator. You’ll need a pretty scary arsenal. Or a smelting vat.

A news anchorman and a reporter get personal on the air. I’d hate to be in their shoes the next day when the management comes in.

Satan’s Ice Cream Truck has the creepiest ice cream music ever. I thought I liked it, til it was stuck in my head all day long! (via Boing Boing)

Powerbocks are spring-loaded stilts that enable you to leap like lemurs! Is it coincidence, or is technology imitating mother nature?

A Pickle Sickle is just what you might think from the name -pickle juice in a popsicle! Have you ever tried one? (via Slashfood)

Mac Attack. Easy to play, hard to stomach. (via YesButNoButYes)

Orangutwang. Stretch your orangutan to reach the bananas, but avoid the spiders! (via Ursi's Blog)

Which was the best dinosaur? (Thanks, Bill!)

The Drug Song


By Hale and Pace.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Phantom From Space


From Wikipedia:

Phantom from Space is a United States science fiction film produced in 1953. The film was produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder from an original screenplay written by William Raynor and Myles Wilder. It was one of several films made in the early 1950s by the Wilder brothers, Raynor, and most of the same crew, independently on a financing-for-distribution basis with United Artists and, occasionally, RKO-Radio Pictures.

The story concerns the sighting of a UFO which appears to have crashed in the San Fernando Valley, after which massive interference with teleradio transmission brings FCC investigators to action. They, in turn, begin encountering reports from people of seeing what appears to be a man dressed in a bizarre outfit. Their investigation uncovers this is a being from outer space who, to escape capture, removes his spacesuit and proves to be invisible. The invisible being running loose sets off a massive manhunt and public panic.

Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern



Oh noes! Teh gays are “infiltrating” our city councils! It HAS to be a conspiracy to indoctrinate our children! Because all that gays care about is sex! Gay sex! No gay person would ever run for city council just because
1. They want to serve the public
2. They need a hobby
3. They want to advance their political career
4. They want to improve their community

No, those reasons are only for heterosexuals!

It’s only an issue if you make it an issue. My sexual orientation is a part of who I am, but it’s not ALL that I am. Homosexuality is a part of some people, but it’s not ALL they are. It’s only a big deal to the people who for some reason feel threatened over it.

PS: Kern is sponsoring a bill in Oklahoma that would force schools to give schoolchildren credit if they answered science questions with biblical information instead of what the class taught.

Good Reads and Videos

While you struggle to get up an hour “earlier” this morning, think of all the energy we save with Daylight Saving Time. Except we don’t.

Performance enhancing drugs are considered cheating when athletes do it. Is it any different when they enhance brain power?

A One-Way, One-Person Mission to Mars could be done, but NASA won’t touch it. Some would see it as a suicide mission; many would line up to be the first.

Figuring out just how old the Grand Canyon is has challenged geologists for 150 years. New information from the canyon’s caves puts the figure at 17 million years.

Can animals create art? Only if they intend to create art. You’ll still be impressed by the elephant that paints pictures of elephants.

The Collected Controversies of William F. Buckley. The famous conservative smoked marijuana, hated the Beatles, and worked for the CIA. (via Boing Boing)

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, high in the Andes mountains in Bolivia. In the rainy season when it is covered with a thin sheet of water, it reflects the sky, making it the world’s largest natural mirror.

The Ten Most Beautiful Bridges in the World. Not the biggest or the newest, these are just attractive in different ways.

Two Impressive Shiny Balls. A beautiful planetarium, L’Hemisfèric in Valencia, Spain and La Géode, a spherical IMAX theater in Paris.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Spring Forward

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tonight! Daylight Saving Time begins tonight for most of the United States and Canada. The expansion of the period we use DST is due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005; although studies show the effect on energy consumption is negigible, if not counterproductive. DST will last until the first weekend in November, which is almost two-thirds of the year. European Summer Time begins the last Sunday in March and runs til the last Sunday in October. Nations in the southern hemisphere who observe the practice have been on DST for months, and will soon go back to standard time as their fall approaches. Wikipedia has more on the history of Daylight Saving Time history and practices around the world.

Fun Links

Zebroids: On Beyond Zebra.

Beautiful women in the armed forces, from all over the world. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

How many ways can we alter the classic “rejected” ink stamp? Fark Photoshoppers have many ways.

Silhouette Masterpiece Theater. Wilhelm Staehle created Victorian scenes by superimposing silhouettes over paintings, and gave them subversive captions. (via the Presurfer)

The Kama Sutra Guitar.

3-Way Chess. The pieces move in the same way as normal chess, but that becomes a little weird in the center of the board, where six “squares” ajoin. (via the Presurfer)

The object of the game Whack Your Boss is to find all 17 ways to beat your supervisor up. Warning: lots of cartoon blood. (via Gorilla Mask)

The winning flavor for Ben and Jerry's Obama ice cream: Yes, Pecan. (via Grow-A-Brain)

The weird news stories of the week.

Are These Songs Related at All?

Janet Jackson’s new song Rock with U


Michael Jackson’s Rock with You from 1980

Friday, March 07, 2008

They Call Me Trinity


From Wikipedia:

They Call Me Trinity, (Lo chiamavano Trinità) also known as My Name is Trinity, is a 1971 spaghetti western movie starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. A sequel, Trinity Is STILL My Name!, was later produced.

This film took Terence Hill and Bud Spencer to the level of international stardom.

Good Stuff to Know

National Geographic currently has a movie playing in IMAX theaters called Sea Monsters, A Prehistoric Adventure. To go along with it, they have the Sea Monsters Interactive Timeline online. Click on a time period, then on dofferent areas of the world map to see prehistoric seamonsters, some with 3D views. (via the Presurfer)

Kiplingers has released a car buyer’s guide. Their picks are broken into categories (including used cars) and price ranges.

Flunking the Pepsi Challenge. The company has a long history, but do all corporations make this many missteps?

WR 104 is a binary star on the brink of exploding, possibly into gamma-ray bursts, which can send a narrow beam of destructive rays to far away planets. Here’s why we shouldn’t worry about it.

A new study shows it’s not always best to keep your options open. But people want to anyway, because it’s painful to loose one. (via Neatorama)

7 Insane Conspiracies That Actually Happened. If these plots were from the movies instead of history, you’d say they weren’t believable.

Does your computer or entertainment system look like a chaotic spaghetti factory? Then read the Top 10 Ways to Get Cables Under Control.

Deliberate flooding in the Grand Canyon. After damming up the Colorado River, we have to artificially recreate natural floods to keep the ecosystem the way nature intended it.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has working circuit boards for their new business cards. See how they made it, what it can do, and how you can design one yourself.

The legend of Hermaphroditus doesn’t quite explain why some people are born intersexual, but it’s a gripping tale anyway.

We Are the World



A group of celebrity impersonators recreate We Are the World for a Japanese talent show. See if you can tell which ones know English and which ones are singing phonetically. Oh yes, put your coffee down before watching. (via Cynical-C)

Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Empire is Full of Baloney





















Thanks, Rich!

Fun and Funny

The epic story of how vodka became vodak at Fark. With pictures.

25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies. (via the Presurfer)

Video Compilation of Embarrassment: Classic faceplants, accidents, and general silliness. We never tire of this kind of thing, do we?

Easy Listening Songs From The 70's, Rewritten By The Artists After They Had Kids.

Details took a Craigslist ad and made it into a song, To the Guy I Caught Masturbating. Actually, two of them so far; you can also see Brush My Hair. They are taking suggestions for more, if you know of a bizarre Craigslist ad that would make a great song. Methinks there is an ocean of material available.

How To Stop a 500-Foot Monster. A two-part post advising the military about defeating Godzilla and his cohorts. (via Metafilter)

The Nine Creepiest Movie Villians. With video evidence, of course.

The Ten Best Names in Hockey. (via Look at This)

Ten Ways I Wish Some 70's TV Shows Were Different.

In the game 10 Gnomes, you’ve got ten minutes to find ten gnomes hidden in a panoramic photograph. Click an area to zoom in, and click near the bottom of the picture to zoom out. (via Militant Platypus)

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Melody



From 1971. According to Wikipedia:
Melody (aka S.W.A.L.K. or Sealed With A Loving Kiss) is a British film released in 1971. It's about "puppy love." The film turned out to be an enormous hit in Japan, and in some Latin American countries like Argentina.

Two first year secondary school youngsters, Daniel and Melody, announce to her parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future, but now. However, the adults try to dissuade them. Told from the children's point of view, they are determined to go ahead with their plans.

Mark Lester (Daniel Latimer) and Jack Wild (Ornshaw) had previously appeared together in the musical version of Oliver!. They were joined by the child model, Tracy Hyde in the title role. Other cast members included Kate Williams (Love thy Neighbour) as Melody's Mother, Roy Kinnear as her father, Sheila Steafel as Daniel's mother, with Ken Jones (Cuckoo Waltz and Porridge), and James Cossins.

This comedy featured music by the Bee Gees (In The Morning, Melody Fair, Give Your Best, To Love Somebody, First Of May) and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Teach Your Children).

Interestingly, this was the first screenplay by now-famous film director, Alan Parker. Because of its enormous success in Japan, the movie has been mastered in Region 2 format on DVD by Kadokawa Herald Pictures in Japan. The DVD of the movie is not available in the USA.

Informative Links

Universally Accessible Treehouses. Forever Young Treehouses wants to put one in every state!

The tiniest wildcat appears to blur the line between ferocious beasts and housecats. The Sand cat lives in the most inhospitable desert spots of Africa and Asia.

Astronomers have observed heavenly bodies that later vanished. Or did they? Read the stories behind Hypothetical Planets. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Of history’s most famous assassinations, who could have been saved by modern medical intervantion? Not many of them.

NASA released an image of the earth and the moon in one picture, as seen from Mars. Beautiful- you can even recognize South America!

An Amazon tribe initiates boys into manhood by subjecting them to ant stings that are many times more painful than bee stings. It’s a ritual they must do over and over.

Is there anything aerogel can’t do? It’s now showing up in a lot of consumer products!

What Everyone Should Know About Science. Not a list of facts, it’s an overview of what science really is.

How to protect your home from an avalanche. Not building it underneath a snowy mountain would be too obvious.

12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful. Follow these, and you’ll probably get more accomplished in the long run.

Women’s History Month




March is Women's History Month. So pay attention.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Links for Fun

The 30 Most Hideous Gaming Tattoos.

Kid Punked by his Own Family. Engadget to the rescue!

Food Fight is a video that reenacts famous battles from World War II through the present. But the actors are foods from each country!

Saul Bass designed hip animated titles sequences for many movies in the 60s. If he had worked on Star Wars, its look would have been quite different.

Fiery explosions, beautiful reactions, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about chemistry. Watch ten videos that will amaze and amuse even those who hated chemistry.

The Flickr Song Chart Pool is a collection of charts people have made to illustrate song titles. The best don’t give away the title, because the fun is in figuring it out!

The Farting Cow Clock of Edinburgh. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Proving there is a site for everything on the internet, here is Rainwear in Films. (via Metafilter)

After five years in development, you just might be able to see The Onion Movie this year.

Miss Cellania is Invisible today.

The US Presidents Song


From Animaniacs, apparently in the 90s. (via Metafilter)

Monday, March 03, 2008

The Invisible Ghost


1941. From Google Video:
Bella Lugosi stars in Invisible Ghost as Charles Kessler. Kessler is well thought of by everyone who knows him and when people are murdered on his estate, he is as shocked as anyone else, and when his daughter's boyfriend is accused of murder he tries his utmost to help the young man. There is another side to Charles Kessler though. A side that he is not even aware of himself.

Good Reads

The first subway in America was not a train, but a pneumatic people mover! Opening for business in 1870, the subway worked on the same principle at the pneumatic tubes we use at a drive-through bank.

Ten Tips for Women Who Want to Propose.

Where to get the best breakfasts in America. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, none of the 15 are in my hometown.

How to Manage Your Online Reputation. That is, if you are brave enough to follow the links and find out what your online reputation is... I’m not sure that I want to.

The History of the Hollywood Sign. (via Ursi’s Blog)

How to Create and Manage Your “Bucket List” Before You Kick. Start soon- you don’t have to be near death to redefine your life.

When Mr. Spock said something was (or wasn’t) logical, he gave us the wrong idea. “Logical” is not the same as “reasonable.”

Why Easter is so early this year. It won’t happen again for a long time!

Photographs of the midnight sun in Norway. These are just gorgeous.

Easy Ways to Improve Your Vision. Or at least slow the downhill slide.

"Your pee is making the fish turn female!" Endocrine disrupters in waterways are leading to intersexual trout.

Scientists have discovered a gene that is able to block HIV assembly and replication. The next step is to get it to work in people who need it.

The Quaranta is a solar-assisted hybrid car designed by Italian design group Giugiaro. Wired calls it ugly.