8 Ways to Cross the English Channel (without a boat)

When people attempt new ways of crossing the channel, they do it at the Strait of Dover, which is the narrowest point of the channel at only 34 kilometers between Dover and Calais. The cachet of crossing the channel is way out of proportion to its distance. There is something symbolic about making the trip, particularly if you do it in a new way.

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Fun Links

78 Stupid People Who Tattooed Celebrities Onto Their Bodies. (via Grow-A-Brain)

American Circus and Carnival Slang. If you've ever wondered what these guys were saying, now you can look it up.

What Campaign Ads Would Look Like if the Voting Age was 6.

Awaiting Your Correspondence -Important Business Matter. (via Everlasting Blort)

How neat is this? I got interviewed by Elite Choice as part of the Elite Blogger series.

The Geek Guide to New Fall TV. Science fiction is gaining a foothold in your cable lineup.

A Shadowy, Wet World of Squirt-Gun Assassins. StreetWars invades New York City.

A dog figures out how to open his own cage. When he breaks out, he goes back to free his buddies, too!

Information Links

Five Things You Didn't Know About the Accordion. Probably because it never occurred to you to ask.

This Won't Take A Minute.

Why it's dangerous to be a witch in a recession. Bad times have to be blamed on someone.

Pinhook Bog in Indiana has many unique plant species, including three that eat insects. It's not open to the public, because the bog itself can eat people!

Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math. New research suggests that math teachers might do well to emphasize the power of general reckoning.

Meet Dave, the Man Who Never Takes Out the Trash. Lucky for his family, he doesn't produce as much as most of us.

The new California Academy of Sciences has more environmentally-friendly features than you can shake a stick at. If you are really into shaking sticks.

Research on the "geography of personality" finds that certain regions of the US correlate with certain personality traits. Some of these traits feed into stereotypes; others don't.

Stop for a minute and admire the beauty of Scotland. You'll thank me after a few pages.

How to develop a taste for fermented horse milk. Ah, the joys of Mongolian cuisine.

My Dad the Crocodile Hunter

By Bindi Irwin. I wish my kids had such great memories of their father. (via Arbroath)

Goin Down to the River

Performed by Mississippi Fred McDowell. (via Metafilter)

Friday Fun Links

LOLfed is the image macro version of the current economic crisis. (via Metafilter)

A kitten and a remote control mouse. Tink is both funny and adorable.

Wario Land. Now THIS is an advertising! You'll enjoy it even if you never play video games.

The customer is not always right. Tales of stupidity from the retail business. I hope you don’t recognize yourself in these stories. (via Metafilter)

What it takes to legally immigrate to America. In easy-to-follow flow chart form. (via Boing Boing)

The fact that you're on TV doesn't necessarily mean you dress well. Take a look at dork couture.

Google map marker causes accident.

Cat vs. Printer

(via Arbroath)

Politics

Palin's performance for Katie Couric made everyone cringe. (via Simply Left Behind)

So MaCain had to pull out of Letterman. Oh yeah, he says it was about the economy, but we know it was damage control.

Letterman made hay out of the situation.

Obama drawing a crowd.

Why this lifelong Republican may vote for Obama.

Craig Ferguson recently became a US citizen. As such, he is taking his civic responsibilities very seriously.

The ABC News Match-o-Matic Quiz will test how your political views line up with the two major party presidential candidates. Just in case you haven't been paying close attention so far.

Fun and Funny Links

Ten Unforgettable Evil Twins. We've all had the fantasy of blaming our faults on the "other one that looks like me."

The show must go on... even if the studio is on fire! That's what you call dedication -or maybe attention deficit disorder.

A beam of light plays the piano. Short, sweet, and pretty darn cool.

The object is to click on the ball. If you do, it will change color. Honest. (via Phil's Phun)

Are You Man Enough?

How to Get a Free Haircut (from strangers). Worth every penny, too!

Ascension. An award-winning short film about a guy who walks in on a cult sacrifice.

The 6 Most Horrifying Ways Anyone Ever Got Rich. Murder, extortion, fraud, these folks took them all to the extreme.

11 Weird and Wonderful Wedding Rings

Once upon a time, wedding bands were plain gold, or more likely gold plated. Their value was in the symbolism. Today many who tie the knot want something that also symbolizes their individual styles, or rings to set this pair apart from other couples. These individualistic rings not only tell you who is married, they can tell you who they are married to.

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Information Links

Psychologist John B. Watson had a theory that humans are not afraid of anything until something causes us to fear. To test that theory, in1920 he went through the process of teaching an infant (known as "Little Albert") to be afraid.

Through weather and neglect, abandoned vehicles and structures take on a beauty of their own. Here is a gallery to prove it.

How to avoid convicting people for crimes they didn't commit. It happens all too often.

Experiments show that loud music in bars increases alcohol consumption. Scientific research can be such demanding work.

The History of Aerial Photography, from cameras lifted on kites to the moon missions. We once even had birds take pictures for us!

10 Extraordinary Tales of Extraordinary Twins. The overarching theme is the amazing and lasting bonds between wombmates. (via Euba)

10 Overused Words in Writing. I plead guilty! Forgive me!

People read screen text in a completely different way from print sources. This may explain why reading scores go down when computers are introduced into the classroom. (via Metafilter)

Friday Fun Links

Arrrr! It's once again Talk Like A Pirate Day! Enjoy some pirate kitties for the occasion, and check out the pirate jokes, links, pictures, and videos I've posted over the years. Also see some pirate songs and stuff over at YesButNoButYes.

Beavis and Butthead sell candy for their school. Well, not really, but they make a lame attempt.

Impossible Fractals. Really, they're only impossible in a three-dimensional world. They look great on the internet! (via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories)

8 Classic Movies That Got Away With Gaping Plot Holes. I had a couple in mind before I read the list, and apparently others wondered about those, too.

Awesome Guitar Tapping. This guy makes it look and sound like a whole new instrument.

How well do you perceive colors? Arrange these in order, and compare your score to others. Zero is perfect.

The 10 Best Celebrity Pratfalls. The bigger they are, the more views they get coming down.

The weirdest news stories of the week.

Spike Jones

The Odd, Odd Octopus

You know octopuses are strange creatures. They’ve always been part of our nightmares and scary stories, but that’s mainly because they look so odd. The more you know about them, the stranger they seem. How do they move around without bones? Why doesn't that hard beak cut into their flesh? And what's in that ink, anyway?

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Informative Links

In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm. Reported to be between two and five feet long, the deep-red coloured worm is said to resemble the intestines of a cow and sprays a yellow acidic saliva substance at its victims. Yeah, right.

5 People You've Never Heard Of Who Saved the World. Most never got any profit from their actions, either.

Leonardo, the mummy dinosaur, will be presented to the public next week. Meanwhile, scientists are studying his guts to see what his last meal might have been.

How and When to Cancel a Credit Card.

Read personal stories of Texans surviving Hurricane Ike, including the group of people who took shelter in a church along with a full-grown lion.

Instruments Not Found in Your High School Orchestra. Unless you are determined to field an orchestra with no budget.

Have you ever seen a giraffe sleeping? It's a strange site, as you'll se in this article about animals' sleeping habits.

Pictures of the Texas coastline before and after Hurricane Ike. Where did all those houses go?

Fun Links

Dali Clocks exist in real life (although they didn't before The Persistence of Memory). You can have one in your home, too!

The Word Fragments Game asks you so assemble parts of words. Your score will be measured in words completed, number of errors, and time spent; then you can see how your scores compare with others who have played the game. (via b3ta)

Ninja Cat comes near without moving. This will either creep you out or make you laugh hysterically.

The lyrics to Enter Sandman by Metallica illustrated by LOLcats. Much more clever and enjoyable than you would think.

Bible In a Minute. It's all there Not that you'll learn anything, but it's all there.

The Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. You know how they produce manuals and instruction sheets: They assign the most useless worker to write them, because they can't spare anyone who knows what they are doing. (via Metafilter)

Little Red Monkey. Music by Rosemary Clooney with Tony Mottola and his Orchestra. (via Everlasting Blort)

Why We Drink. The narrator's confidence and lovely accent obscure the fact that we don't know what he's talking about.

Inflatable... Slide

Whoever designed this must have thought they were running one past us. See a picture here.

12 Things You Can Do On A Segway

Early on, Segways developed a reputation for being useless and nerdy, but in the last few years people have found plenty of things you can do with, or on, a Segway. The personal transporters are becoming more popular as gas prices rise and more uses are found. Keep in mind, these are things you can do IF you have the skill and the balance to ride one!

read more | digg story

Information Links

If you avoid black and white movies, you're missing out on some serious art. And entertainment. (via Metafilter)

The Evolution of the College Dorm. This may explain some of the outlandish rise in tuition the last few years.

The World's Best Places to Live 2008. Hmm, maybe we could learn a thing or two from the many European cities listed. (via the Presurfer)

An eight-year-old weighed 420 pounds! But guess what -she lost 320 pounds at an obesity clinic.

Marrying a person who shares your attitudes about money might just be the smartest financial decision you will ever make. It will at least make the divorce settlement easier to negotiate.

12 money-management tips for college students. Assuming you've got any money left at all two weeks into the school year.

No more "Coffee, Tea, or Me?" Flight attendants don't have it so easy these days, as this undercover journalist found out.

See the very first photograph of a planet orbiting around a sun-like star that's not in our system. It's not easy getting a good picture from 500 light years away!

Too Much Exposure

(via Everlasting Blort)