Lee Freedman has waited a long time, but he thinks the moment is finally right to spring on the world the color alphabet he invented as a 19-year-old at Mardi Gras in 1972. For 35 years, Freedman has been working on Kromofons - an innovative alphabet in which the 26 English letters are represented solely by individual colors - waiting for technology to catch up with him.
And now, thanks to the Internet, the ubiquity of color monitors, Microsoft Word plug-ins and his being able to launch a Kromofons-based e-mail system, Freedman thinks he is finally ready.
It may seem confusing, but it's actually very simple, in concept at least. The letter 'a' is represented by a bright yellow, 'b' is a light blue, 'c' a pale pink, 'd'is grey, 'e' is orange and so on. Freedman pointed out that for the entire history of the written word, humans have been reading in black and white. Now, with Kromofons, he argued, people will begin to read in color, both in static words and animated phrases.
Kromofons
Beer For Kids
Japanese company Sangaria has been marketing non-alcoholic beverages to kids for years - as beers, wines, and cocktails in a variety of flavors and packages.
Sangaria's kodomo no nomimono is just one line of Japanese non-alcoholic beers - wine and sake are also available - marketed directly at children. It sounds unbelievable but I understand it is part of Japanese culture.
(via Neatorama)
Loose The Moose
I've been linking to Bart Bonte's games before.
His latest game is called 'Loose the Moose.' It's an 'escape the room' kind of game where you find yourself dropped in a strange room. Are you smart enough to open the door?
WikiDumper
WikiDumper, or the Wikipedia Knowledge Dump, is the Official Appreciation Page for the Best of the Wikipedia Rejects. 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.
WikiDumper is edited by Cliff Pickover of Reality Carnival.
Trulia Hindsight
Trulia Hindsight is an animated map of residential properties in the USA that allows you to see when neighborhoods and cities were built. Slider controls allow you to view a specific time range or drag through the timeline. You can also search for specific properties, areas or cities through the search box.
To get started with Trulia Hindsight, choose a point of interest from the map, browse around for yourself or use the search tool to get straight to what you're interested in. In addition to dragging and zooming, you can use slider controls to animate a specific time range, scroll through the years or adjust the brightness of the underlying map.
Keyboard Waffle Iron
The Corona-Matic is a typewriter turned into a waffle iron. It makes keyboard shaped waffles. There's and integrated stand for holding four jars of syrup. The Corona-Matic is a design by Chris Dimino.
(via Beancounters)
How To Draw A Head
What's the right way to draw a head?
A free class from the Academy of Art.
Click on getting started.
How to draw a head.
(via Information Junk)
Google Maps Street View
Google launched 'Street View' photography. Street View shows a panorama photo for certain locations on Google Maps. By clicking on the arrows on the panorama you can go to that direction. Take a look at this preview page and click on 'Street View.' Then click on a camera and you are asked to zoom in. Follow the instructions.
Currently Google Maps Street View only shows some regions in North America but other locations will added soon.
Dazzle Camouflage
Dazzle camouflage was a camouflage paint scheme used on ships. It consisted of a complex pattern of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other. At first glance it seems like an unlikely form of camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it.
Dazzle camouflage had a very specific purpose, however, which was to make it difficult to estimate the target ship's speed and heading and so disrupt the performance of the visual rangefinders used for naval artillery at the time. In other words, its purpose was confusion, rather than concealment.
(thanks Borse)
411-SONG
How many times have you heard a song and wished you knew who it was or wished you could get it before you forget it? Now you can! Whenever you hear a song you love, call (866) 411-SONG. Wait for the beep and hold your cell near the music for just 15 seconds.
411 SONG will identify the song and send you a text with all the song info (artist and song name) and a link to get it. There is no charge for your first ID. Subsequent IDs are $0.99. Or, get unlimited ID's for $3.99 a month.
Gallery Of Underwater Sculptures
Underwater sculptures by English artist Jason Taylor.
(via Dark Roasted Blend)
Heinz Ketchup Fountains
A commercial for the Heinz Top This TV challenge. This hasn't been done in one take which you can see by the obvious cuts. That's probably because they ran out of ketchup.
Theme Park Insider
Planning a trip to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World or Universal Studios? Thinking about a trip to Southern California's theme parks? Looking for insider advice on getting the most from an amusement park trip?
Theme Park Insider is a consumers' guide to the world's most popular theme and amusement parks, written by consumers themselves.
Doing Business Map
The Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 175 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity, and growth.
Take a trip around the world on the Doing Business Map to discover how easy (or difficult) it is to do business in 175 countries. Click on green, yellow or red placemarks to learn more about each country.
Dance Sister Dance
Wanna star in a new Scissor Sisters' video? Simply upload your best full-on head, and that of a friend. Then choose a sexy body, outfit and wig, and get down!
I created this video with two of the presidential candidates, Hillary and Barack.
Create your own dance video.
The Ames Room
An Ames room is a distorted room that is used to create an optical illusion. It was invented by American ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames in 1946 based on a concept by Hermann Helmholtz.
An Ames room is constructed so that from the front it appears to be an ordinary cubic-shaped room, with a back wall and two side walls perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the horizontally level floor and ceiling. However, this is a trick of perspective and the true shape of the room is trapezoidal.
As a result of the optical illusion, a person standing in one corner appears to the observer to be a giant, while a person standing in the other corner appears to be a dwarf. The illusion is convincing enough that a person walking back and forth from the left corner to the right corner appears to grow or shrink.
Here's a video of an Ames Room.
MaternaCord
Show mom you remember where you came from. Reconnect with your mom in a whole new way with the first after-market umbilical reconnection system. Nothing says 'I love you, Mom' quite like the MaternaCord umbilical reconnection system.
Made of durable, high elasticity material, the MaternaCord helps you recreate that conduit of love between you and your mom. It can even improve or strengthen your step-mom bond! MaternaCord - it's like being in the womb, but without the space issues.
Does Wi-Fi Kill?
Wi-Fi (WIreless-FIdelity)) is the popular term for a high-frequency wireless local area network and the consumer-friendly name for the 802.11b engineering standard. It lets home and office users create wireless local networks, which connect two or more computers to each other and a faster Internet line.
The BBC program Panorama warned last week that Wi-Fi may pose a health risk. The Government insists Wi-Fi is safe, but a Panorama investigation shows that radio frequency radiation levels in some schools are up to three times the level found in the main beam of intensity from mobile phone masts.
On the other hand scientists have said there is no evidence to suggest a link between the use of Wi-Fi and damage to health.
Flags By Colors
A piechart where each sector is proportional to the area of the color on the respective flag. Click on an image to reveal the flag.
Pictured here are the flags of the Netherlands, the USA, and the flag with the most colors, Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Register Of Known Spam Operators
Like viruses, spam has become a scourge on the Internet as billions of unwanted messages are transmitted daily to almost every e-mail recipient. In 2006, there were an estimated 183 billion spam messages per day in 2006 or 70% of all e-mail traffic.
Eighty procent of spam can be traced via aliases and addresses, redirects, hosting locations of sites and domains, to a hard-core group of around 200 known spam operations. The Register of Known Spam Operations database collates information and evidence on known professional spam operations.
Find out who are sending you this garbage.
1 Million Love Messages
It's a sympathetic idea. A weblog which gathers love messages from around the world. You can be part of the project by sending your and your better half's name, age, location, and your love message, to the site.
At the moment of writing this there are 99 messages so the project still has a long way to go before reaching 1 million love messages.
Women In Film
Last Friday I posted 'Women In Art,' a morphing video about 500 years of female portraits in western art. From the same author comes 'Women in Film.' 80 Years of female portraits in cinema.
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
Bowdlerize, soliloquy, gerrymander, moiety, ziggurat. These are some of the words the editors of the American Heritage dictionaries recommend every High School graduate should know.
They have compiled a list of 100 words not meant to be exhaustive but to be a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language.
The A-Z Of Modern Etiquette
Modern etiquette is all about hoodies, emails, religion and My Space. Here's an example:
M is for MySpace
The seven laws of MySpace:
1. Never join MySpace unless you are in a band and deluded enough to think that you might be discovered without a major record label building your page for you.
2. Never befriend anyone on MySpace that you would be embarrassed to send an (omega) email to in 'real' life.
3. Except for Tom.
4. 'Thanks for the Add' messages are not necessary.
5. Never accept invitations from girls you don't know with names like 'Nikkee' or 'Alexxxa.' They're not who they seem.
6. Never befriend defunct bands, or those featuring dead members, or both - such as Joy Division.
Chances are their pages were set up by someone else.
7. Lily Allen is not really your friend.
The A-Z Of Modern Etiquette.
(via Nag on the Lake)
37 Sources Of Inspiration
Did you ever feel lost in space, trying to gather your thoughts, get motivated to write for your blog, design a website, come up with logo ideas, find a perfect object for your photo shoot, simply be inspired to live your life to its fullest?
Here is your one in a lifetime chance to swim in the ocean of inspiration filled from 37 sources.
6 Billion Others
6 billion Others is a project by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, author of Earth from Above. The project collects testimonies of people from all over the world where they speak about what moves them. In 2008 you will be able to listen to the thousands of testimonies, and add your own testimony to the site.The idea came to me while we were taking the shots for 'Earth from Above' in Mali. I was waiting in a little village where I started to have a discussion with someone.
In the evening, by the fireside, the man I'd been talking to told me his entire life, his desires, his wishes, his ambitions - they could be summed up in four words - 'to feed my family.' That meeting changed me, it changed the whole way I see the world.
(via Ursi's Blog)
10 Disturbing Trends In Subliminal Advertising
Some of the biggest advertisers are taking their advertising away from full page ads and television spots and spending up on hidden persuasion. You won't find these secret messages in ice cubes or flickering film footage like they were in the sixties.
Subliminal advertising has gone mainstream - fake news, mind control scripts, propaganda and stealth voicemail are in wide use by corporations, government bodies, and industry groups. Have you spotted any of these?
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: What's 525,600 Minutes Times 2?
click on the picture for real size
The Circus in America: 1793 - 1940
The first American circus was presented on April 3, 1793 in Philadelphia, PA. President George Washington saw the show twice. John Bill Ricketts organized the first show, which included horses, an acrobat, a clown and a rope-walker. The first circus tent was used in America in 1825. Until then, the word 'circus' didn't mean the show. It meant the temporary wood and canvas building where the show took place.
The Circus in America: 1793-1940 surveys the history of the American circus over a 150-year period. It promotes serious scholarly research of the significant role the circus played in the growth of American society and popular culture.
Classic Tie Knots
The width of neckties has always seemed to change with the fashion of the moment. However, traditional style lends itself to neckties which are in balance with the size of the jacket lapels.
A necktie should be tied so that there is no collar space showing at the knot. The tip of the tie should end at the belt, and not above it.
Flickr Color Selectr
Flickr Color Selectr allows you to search for images on Flickr based on the primary color within the image.
All photos are Creative Commons licensed.
Disclose TV
Disclose TV is a new and fast growing video and photo sharing community dedicated to the mysteries, secrets, anomalies, conspiracies and other alternative or unexplained topics of this world.
Many of the videos uploaded on Disclose TV have been banned from TV because of their controversial and mind-boggling nature, and that can only mean one thing: Hours and hours of rare research footage that many do not want you to see!
Pistol Shrimp
The pistol shrimp snaps a specialized claw shut to create a cavitation wave that generates noise in excess of 200 decibels and is capable of killing small fish. This sea creature blasts bubbles at over 60 mph with a temperature comparable to that of the sun.
Lepidopterology
Everything you ever wanted to know about butterflies and moths. The latest stories concerning butterflies and moths on the World Wide Web, a searchable dictionary of terms used in lepidopterology.
A virtual museum with photos and drawings of real butterfly and moth specimens, interesting facts, library catalogue, butterfly and other bug icons, wallpapers, free butterfly greeting cards, poetry, online games, butterfly and moth books, field guides, faunas, taxonomic revisions, monographs, encyclopedias, etc.
Dome Of Peace
The Dome of Peace is a synthesis of the arts by the Austrian artist DE ES, an alias of Dieter Schwertberger. It is a house of inspiration in the service of the realisation of the dreams of humanity: worldunity, worldpeace and worldculture.
The Dome of Peace is an exhibition and performance center, as well as a hall of contemplation, congregation and celebration, dedicated to all planetary citizens.
(via Jaf Project)
Smile, Though Your Heart Is Breaking
What's that, officer? I'm being arrested?
Wow, that's great!
Not everyone looks glum when they pose for a mug shot. In fact, some arrestees are actually beaming when the sheriff's deputy says 'cheese.' The men and women pictured here were photographed over the past few weeks in police stations nationwide.
Ekranoplan
An ekranoplan is a vehicle resembling an aircraft but that operates solely on the principle of ground effect. Ground effect vehicles fly above any flat surface, with the height above ground dependent upon the size of the vehicle. Ekranoplan design was conceived by revolutionary Soviet engineer Rostislav Alexeev.
During the Cold War, ekranoplans were sighted for years on the Caspian Sea as huge, fast-moving objects. Some ekranoplans were over 330 ft long, 540 tonnes fully loaded, and could travel over 250 miles per hour, mere meters above the surface of the water.
(via Neatorama)
Boy Bags Wild Hog Bigger Than 'Hogzilla'
An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail.
If the claims are accurate, Jamison Stone's trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.
The Sarcasm Society
Sarcasm is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. It is strongly associated with irony, with some definitions classifying it as a type of verbal irony intended to insult or wound. Use of sarcasm is sometimes viewed as an expression of concealed anger or annoyance.
(via Miss Cellania)
How To Make A Peepmobile
Here's how to take your left over Marshmallow Peeps, add a few components, and make them into pimped-out peepmobiles.
(via Everlasting Blort)
The Visible Man
The US government mistakenly listed Bangladeshi-born American Hasan Elahi - a 35-year-old artist and Rutgers professor - on its terrorist watch list. To convince the Feds of his innocence, Elahi has made his life an open book. Whenever they want, officials can go to his site and see where he is and what he's doing. Indeed, his server logs show hits from the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President, among others.
He posts pictures on his website, sometimes a hundred a day. The rooms he sat in, the food he ate, the coffees he ordered. Poke around his site and you'll find more than 20,000 images stretching back several years. Elahi has documented nearly every waking hour of his life during that time. He posts copies of every debit card transaction, so you can see what he bought, where, and when. A GPS device in his pocket reports his real-time physical location on a map.
Hasan Elahi's website.
Jet Plane Birdstrike
A ThomsonFly jet hit a bird during take-off from Manchester Ringway International Airport. One of the engines appears to injest the bird and the whole thing was filmed by a plane spotter. The crew and air-traffic controllers dealt with the situation in a calm and professional way.
How To Catch A Lion In The Sahara Desert
I think I'll go for the 'magneto-optical method.'We plant a large, lense shaped field with cat mint such that its axis is parallel to the direction of the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field. We put the cage in one of the field's foci. Throughout the desert we distribute large amounts of magnetized spinach which has, as everybody knows, a high iron content.
The spinach is eaten by vegetarian desert inhabitants which in turn are eaten by the lions. Afterwards the lions are oriented parallel to the earth's magnetic field and the resulting lion beam is focussed on the cage by the cat mint lense.
LOLmaps
LOLMaps by Nikolas Schiller combines various historic maps and Nikolas' art, with popular image macro phonetics popularized by LOLcats.
It also combines some of the 'All your base…' text as well as some Latin words used in old maps. There are currently 49 LOLmaps with 143 different backgrounds which gives LOLmaps 7,007 different viewing combinations.
(thanks Sarah)
Mypetfat
Jay Jacobs is the original user and creator of the mypetfat program. Once morbidly obese, Jay has struggled with his weight for more than 15 years. While at his top weight of 380lbs, he committed to finding a way to get control once and for all.
He found something that has done more than help him lose 115lbs. He found a way to stay motivated and make those 'lifestyle changes' easy. He wants to share what he has created with everyone who wants help to make the diet that they are on now, be their most successful one.
Slow Wave
Slow Wave is a collective dream diary authored by different people from around the world, and drawn as a comic strip by Jesse Reklaw.
Deanna Molinaro's Not-For-Children Books
An Inconsolable Octopus.
Written by Deanna Molinaro and illustrations by Aaron Thedford.
Danica Is Ready To Rumble
Regular readers of this website know that I'm a big fan of car racing. Whether it's Formula One, NASCAR, Champ Cars or IRL, I love them all. This Sunday, with Formula One in the streets of Monaco followed by the Indy 500, it'll feel like I'm in heaven.
Especially now that the Indianapolis 500 will be broadcasted live here in the Netherlands. I'm a big fan of Danica Patrick. While becoming one of the country's most recognizable female athletes, Danica also had to deal with sexist remarks from fellow racers, who feel that auto racing is a man's sport.
Well, Danica Patrick is back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with something she hasn't had since she rocked the racing world by almost winning the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2005. A chance to win!
94 Ways To Keep Kids Busy For The Work At Home Parent
The good news? You can run a business from home no matter what age your children are. The bad news? The smaller your children are, the smaller your business To Do list should be. Plain and simple, until your kids are 3-4 years old, don't expect yourself to be super-mom. Kids this young just need too much attention and the business will have to fit in between nap times and play dates.
Home Business Productivity tips for all ages.
Strange Science
Few medieval people saw lions, panthers or elephants. To know what these looked like, they had to rely on descriptions and illustrations. Centuries ago, no one had cameras, cell phones, or an associated press service. But sometimes, scientists - the ones doing the descriptions and illustrations - goofed up big time.
Here is a collection of mistakes made by early scientists and artists when trying to represent extinct (and sometimes living) organisms.
How To Embalm A Dead Farao
Greetings! I am Anubis, the god of embalming. The ancient Egyptians believed that the body of the deceased needed to be preserved so that the soul could recognize it after death. Follow my instructions to prepare Seneb for his journey to the Afterlife. I will tell you how to embalm the body.
Coming soon: Brood XIII
It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it's actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest USA after spending 17 years underground. The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don't bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.
Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating. They don't harm humans, although they are clumsy and might fly into people.
Battle At Kruger National Park
This is one of the most amazing wild life videos I have ever seen. It's a battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park.
There's one thing I want to take away before you look at this video. The buffalo calf survives.
Weird But True
A German zoo has hired a clown to stop its monkeys getting bored. Berlin Zoo bosses got local entertainer Christina Peter to act the fool after vets said the chimps, baboons, gorillas and orang-utans in zoo cages were more often sick or aggressive when they grew bored.
Christina said she keeps the animals amused by making games and puzzles for them, using footballs, plastic bags, cardboard boxes or blocks of wood among other things. She said: 'And they seem to be enjoying it. They go wild when they see me coming because they know they're going to have some fun.'
The clown pictured here is not Christina Peter and the monkey is not a real monkey.
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)
Frank Sinatra - Free Singing Grammar
Frank Sinatra's voice and his clear diction are perfect ingredients for practising English, so this section provides wide possibilities for ESL students and teachers. Here you will find 50 best lyrics, together with audios, some videos, glossaries and explanations.
(via Grow-A-Brain)
Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait
A look at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper, 106,000 aluminum cans, and so on.
The images representing these quantities have a different effect than the raw numbers alone. This project visually examines the vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.
(via Reality Carnival)
The Gyros Experience
Gyros signs - the hand-painted pictures found at hot dog stands, pizza parlors and Greek fast-food joints - are modern-day icons, literally: devotional images produced by anonymous artisans to bring the faithful into communion with the object of their fervor.
Gyros signs are among Chicago's best street art. They come in many shapes and sizes, but the best display a loving devotion to one of the city's most intense fast-food experiences.
The Gyros Signs of Chicago.
Jellyfish Lake
Jellyfish Lake is a well-known dive site in the Pacific island of Palau. It is completely isolated, but in the distant past it had an outlet to the ocean. The outlet was closed off and the high jellyfish population started to feed on quickly-reproducing algae.
Over millions of years, it became an advantage for the jellyfish to lose their stinging cells, or nematocysts. Today, the very high jellyfish population are stingless, and tourists can enjoy swimming with them much closer than would be possible anywhere else.
Best Visual Illusion Contest Of The Year
Here is a novel illusion that is as striking as it is simple. The two images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa are identical, yet one has the impression that the tower on the right leans more, as if photographed from a different angle. The reason for this is because the visual system treats the two images as if part of a single scene.
This illusion was the winner of the 2007 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest.
(via Ursi's Blog)
I Got Clocked
For the first time ever you can actually become a fully functional timepiece. Your body will be realistically positioned between your arms which will never get tired of telling you what time it is.
Your own arms and body become the timepiece. More than just three-dimensional, you portray the time in a perfectly layered, anatomically correct, functional piece of art.
(thanks Jim)
The 100 Worst Cover Songs
retroCRUSH has a great article about the worst cover songs ever. Some of these covers were sincere attempts to make good songs, others are so inexplicably awful that you don't know what the hell they were thinking. Others are clearly meant to be jokes, but it doesn't make them sound any better.
The Surprising Truth Behind The Construction Of The Great Pyramids
Almost everyone in the scientific world embraces the theory that the pyramids were crafted of carved-out giant limestone blocks that workers carried up ramps.
Professor Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks.
000 Text
Sometimes you come across a very weird web site. 000 Text is one of the weirdest I've ever seen. I don't know what it means, I don't know what its purpose is, it's just plain weird.
Chinese Foot Binding
Foot binding, also known as kack put, was a custom practiced on young females for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century. In Chinese foot binding, young girls' feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so that they could not grow and develop normally; they would, instead, break and become highly deformed, not growing past 4-6 inches.
As the girl reached adulthood, her feet would remain small and dysfunctional, prone to infection, paralysis, and muscular atrophy. This was initially a common practice only in the wealthiest parts of China, particularly in North China. However, by the late Qing Dynasty, foot binding had become popular among people of all social classes except the poorest of peasants, who needed able-bodied women to work the fields. Today, it is a prominent cause of disability among elderly Chinese women.
Know Your Rights
Think you know your rights during police encounters?
Do officers have to read you your rights when you're arrested? Can you be arrested for refusing to identify yourself to a police officer? Do undercover officers have to admit they're police when you ask?
Answer 8 short questions, and see how prepared you are.
Rabbit
When a boy and girl find an idol in the stomach of a rabbit, great riches follow, but for how long?
15 Useless Or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths
Sitting too close to the TV will damage your vision. Reading in the dark will weaken your eyesight. Eating carrots will improve your vision. These were some of the things we learned when we were young. And even now some people believe these are true.
Knowing how to take good care of your eyes is the first step to protecting your sight for a lifetime. Here's the lowdown on some eyesight myths.
Michael Moore Rescues His Harshest Critic
Filmmaker Michael Moore has come to the rescue of his harshest critic. For several years now, Jim Kenefick has been railing against the Oscar-winning director on Moorewatch.com. Recently, Kenefick wrote about the difficulty he was having paying his wife's medical bills.
Someone emailed him and asked if an 'anonymous' benefactor could offer to pay his first year's premiums of $12,000.
Kenefick found out that his secret benefactor is none other than Michael Moore himself. Still, he doesn't sound especially grateful.
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: One Damn Dolla'.
click on the picture for real size
Carlos Diez Diez
Carlos Diez Diez from Bilbao, Spain, is a fashion designer. When I think of a fashion designer (which I sometimes do, really!) I immediately think of fashion shows, the catwalk, the models.
Ah yes, the models. Why they walk so funny. Why they always look so miserable. Why they are wearing animal masks. Huh? Animal Masks?
(via Everlasting Blort)
By the way, I do know why the models always look so miserable.
Read this article and you know it too.
Space Oddity Animated
Sam Miller is a student in Digital Animation at the University of Hertfordshire, England. For a college project he animated the song 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie.
Disease Mongerine Engine
Why let the drug companies have all the fun? You can invent diseases, too! Create your very own disease, disorder or syndrome. I created this one:
Create your own disease.
(via Nag on the Lake)
Relive The Wonder
Doug James Henning was born May 3, 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a Canadian magician, illusionist, and escape artist. He is credited with reviving the magic show as a form of mass entertainment in North America, beginning in the 1970s.
Henning changed the image of the stage magician when he rejected such stereotypical costume accessories as the tuxedo, top hat, thin moustache, goatee, jazz hands and short hair. He opted instead for long hair, a bushy moustache, and bright multicoloured casual clothes, which gave him a distinctively flamboyant image. Doug Henning died February 7, 2000 of liver disease.
If It Itches, Scratch It
Maybe you're in an important meeting and you don't want to fidget. So you try to ignore it, but the sensation grows - an irritating feeling that gradually occupies more and more of your attention. Finally, you can't take it any longer. You have to scratch the itch.
Scientists have long wondered why pain - for example, from scratching - relieves an itch. They are starting to look at the biological mechanisms that lie behind itching. As they do so, they are finding curious overlaps between itching and that different-seeming sensation, pain.
(via corsinet)
Talk Like A Pilot Day
I say old bean, are you familar with 'Talk Like a Pilot Day.' You know what? Tally ho, that's today! Want to know what all this malarky is about? I'm jolly glad I can tell you.
It's about talking like a pilot for a day, old chap. It's that simple. It'd be even better if you look like one too. Just think Biggles. Before he bought the farm that is. Or didn't he?
Anyway, today, Saturday May 19, 2007, is the First International Talk Like a Pilot Day. Chocks away!
All Words With Less Than Five Letters
The creator of this page calls it 'very interesting.'
I'll call it a waste of time.
But then again, sending you there is a waste of time too.
Old Creepy Ads
Sometimes it's really scary what the human mind can conceive for advertising. Strange, weird and creepy ads of the past century.
John Bracken
John Bracken is an independent candidate for the coming General Election in Ireland. He's married, has 5 children and is an auctioneer by profession. Nothing wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with his election song. I actually like it. I'm not sure if he sings the song himself.
Press the 'Play' button on his site to hear John Bracken's election song.
Chicken McNuggets Anyone?
Have you ever asked yourself what really is in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? No? I'll ask the question then. What is really in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget?
Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald's Chicken McNugget is 56% corn? And you know what else is inside? Tertiary butylhydroquinone, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to 'help preserve freshness.'
Sideshow World
Sideshow World offers informative, enjoyable and accurate information relating to all aspects of the sideshow. They attempt to preserve what is left of the remaining traveling sideshows and the shows of days gone by.
How Addicted To Coffee Are You?
Do you enjoy the occasional mocha or do you dive head first into a pot of drip every single morning? I like my coffee very much. Doesn't matter what brand or type or what time of the day. I never considered myself addicted to coffee but it seems I was wrong. I am addicted.
How addicted to coffee are you?
(via Miss Cellania)
Whooo! Whooo! Whooo!
A clip of William Shatner driving a race car. It's from the Celebrity NASCAR show on ABC called Fast Cars & Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race.
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)
Leonardo Da Vinci's Guide To Healthy Living
Leonardo's 'Prescription for Life' comes from the book 'Da Vinci's Kitchen: A Secret History of Italian Cuisine. Leonardo died when he was 67, which in 15th century Italy probably equates to 90 now, so he must have been eating very healthy. He says:
Do not eat when you have no appetite, and dine lightly.
Stay standing a while when you get up from a meal.
Make sure you do not sleep at midday.
These instructions seem pretty straightforward but it's an interesting comparison to see how each of his prescriptions translates to modern life.
Twittervision
Twitter is a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?
Twitter tells people what you're doing, thinking, feeling, observing… right now. It doesn't appeal to me but I understand that friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. And curious people can make friends.
Twittervision is a real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter.
Twittervision in 3D.
Mister Versatility
Ashrita Furman is the individual with the most Guinness world records. He has set 144 official Guinness records and is the holder of the most current standing records: 57, and counting! Ashrita has set records in all 7 continents and in more than 30 different countries.
Ashrita Furman, born September 16, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, first entered into the Guinness book by doing 27,000 Jumping Jacks in 1979. Other records hw holds are fastest 10-km sack race, most underwater rope jumps in one hour, greatest distance traveled on a pogo stick, the longest distance walked by a person balancing a milk bottle on their head, and the fastest mile, pushing an orange with his nose.
Eating Fish May Preserve Eyesight
A new study shows people who eat at least two servings of fish per week are less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration, aka AMD, a common cause of blindness among older people.
Researchers found that people who ate a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids - commonly found in tuna, salmon, and other oily fish - were nearly 40 percent less likely to develop AMD than those who ate little of this heart-healthy type of fat.
Shocking Pig Sty
A guy from England rented his place. People were living there and went away. When the host returned he saw this:
More pictures of this very untidy place.
Flickr Time
Flickrtime is a clock made out of photographs posted on Flickr. You can fill in two photo categories or, if you don't, the clock will be made out of random photos.
Wedding Ring Coffin
When a marriage dies, what should be done with the wedding ring? Until now, millions of wedding rings have been banished to remote corners of sock and underwear drawers. Now you can give these wedding rings the proper final resting place they deserve.Give a dead marriage its proper, final resting place. The Wedding Ring Coffin is the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one for bringing closure after a divorce. It's time to bury the past and move on to a new tomorrow.
Reality Sandwich
Reality Sandwich is an online magazine covering topics from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies.
Reality Sandwich is a forum for voices ranging from the ecologically pragmatic to the wildly visionary. Counteracting the doom-and-gloom of the daily news, Reality Sandwich is a platform for voices conveying a different vision of the transformations we face.
Life-size Works In Driftwood
English artist Heather Jansch gathers driftwood on beaches after high tides and storms. Then she turns it into life-sized pieces of art.
Sofa World Speed Record
This sofa broke the Guinness Book of World Records' entry for 'fastest furniture,' reaching a top speed of 92 miles per hour. Marek Turowski drove the sofa and said it was terrifying.
Rodney Smith
Rodney Smith is an American master of fashion photography who produces black and white images of a surreal nature.
Pictured here is 'Man with Pitchfork, 2004.'
Rodney Smith photography: Surreal.
Will It Flush?
Help Jo the plumber test the power of Kohler's Class Five technology. Click on various items to see if it will flush.
Tom McMahon's Philosophy of Blogging
Tom Mcmahon of the blog with the same name shares his Philosophy of Blogging with us.
* Every post should be of value. Not necessarily serious, though.
* People could stop posting new stuff to the internet right now and I'd still have enough to post here for a long, long time.
* I kind of assume most of you read J-Walk, Grow-A-Brain, and The Presurfer, so I try not to duplicate too many links from them. Or if I do, I try to put a new twist or spin on it.
The Philosophy of Blogging.
Gasmask Showerhead
Conceptual artist Chris Dimino turned a gasmask into a showerhead. Since this is a one-time project it's not for sale.Problem: Given a gasmask with its drab appearance as a point of departure, adapt it to fit aesthetic sensibility of our daily lives. Solution: A gasmask turned into a showerhead, morphing out of the tile wall.
I Am Facing Foreclosure
Casey Serin is a 24 year old 'would-be real estate mogul' from Sacramento CA. After spending around $30,000 on real estate 'guru' courses he bought 8 houses in 8 months in 4 states. But he made some mistakes. He tried this near the height of the housing bubble.
He also purchased the eight homes by lying on mortgage applications about his income. Now, he's trying to stop foreclosure, and he's still trying to repay everyone. He says he blogs about his adventures to help others in trouble.
I'm not sure this is all for real. He could be making this up. Why would he share his financial details with the world and risk being embarrassed, criticized, or made fun of.
The Wonderful World Of Larry Carlson
Larry Carlson is a visionary multi media artist. Working with computers he creates artwork that is completely mind blowing. G4Tech TV called him 'The Salvador Dali of the Next Century.' Working in the mediums of web art, digital art,animation, video art, collage and sound he presents us with the mystical dimensions of consciousness,coaxing us into sweet spiritualized epiphanies one moment then plunging us into completely bizarre surreal frenzies the next.
Visit Supreme OM, the gateway to other dimensions. Melt your mind in this technocolor dream land. Featuring over 98 interactive high voltage movies.
The Wonderful World of Larry Carlson.
(thanks Larry Carlson)
10 Totally Stupid Online Business Ideas That Made Someone Rich
Remember the Million Dollar Homepage? One million pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that's perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
Some more stupid business ideas that turned out profitable.
Quintura
Quintura is a search engine that allows you to enter in a search topic and then presents a split screen with a tag cloud on one half and search results in the other.
Neckpro Over-Door Cervical Traction System
The NECKpro offers simple, easy, effective and portable cervical traction. It comes completely assembled, ready to use right out of the box and is the perfect travel companion. This easy to use cervical traction device has many great features that separates it from the rest of the cervical traction devices on the market.
NECKpro Over-door Cervical Traction System includes NECKpro compression spring & racket assembly, head halter and overdoor bracket.
(via Random Good Stuff)
A Place Between Us
A Place Between Us is a website where you can search for coffee shops, or whatever, between two addresses. Just enter two addresses, and the type of place you're looking for.
Say, you live in San Francisco and your friend lives in Phoenix. You both like Japanese food. What would be a good place to meet each other half way and have a nice Japanese meal.
The map at A Place Between Us shows that would be at the Tokyo House Japanese Restaurant in Ridgecrest, CA.
Amphibious Tricycle
Steuart and a group of friends just finished a project at Southampton University, UK. It's a tricycle that can be used on land and water.
(thanks Steuart)
My Daughter Could Die Every Three Weeks
Sophie Perren suffers from the rare immune system disorder, cyclical neutropenia, which means that not only is she more prone to infections generally, but every two to three weeks she is at serious risk of catching an infection she will be unable to fight. Even a drink from a dirty cup could result in death within hours.
She has already suffered two bouts of pneumonia, four of septicaemia, numerous throat, ear and chest infections as well as a respiratory virus similar to Sars. Sophie has been hospitalised more than 100 times, resuscitated at least 30 times and been given countless courses of antibiotics.
The National Hollerin' Contest
Every year, on the 3rd Saturday of June, in an otherwise sleepy borough of southeastern North Carolina known as Spivey's Corner, some 5,000-10,000 folks gather from far and wide to take part in the festivities and entertainment in the day-long extravaganza known as the National Hollerin' Contest.
Hollerin' is considered by some to be the earliest form of communication between humans. It is a traditional form of communication used in rural areas before the days of telecommunications to convey long-distance messages. Evidence of hollerin', or derivations thereof such as yodeling or hunting cries, exists worldwide among many early peoples and is still be practiced in certain societies of the modern world.
The World Of Mr. Toast
Enter the World of Mr. Toast and his friends Mope the Onion, Sr. Cork, Shaky Bacon, Prof. Isotope, Joe the Egg, Space Duck and Drunken Carrot.
(via Everlasting Blort)
Backward Running
Backward running dates back to the 1970s, when forward-looking runners practiced it while injured. Doctors later recommended it as part of physical therapy and it's often used by baseball pitchers or track runners in preliminary warm-ups.
Backward running is a less natural motion, but can be accomplished with some speed with practise. It is better to start out backward walking which is relatively easy, and speeding up.
World Records for Backwards Running
(via Metafilter)
The Cultural Learnings Association Of Production
Here at the Cultural Learnings Association of Production, commonly known as The CLAP, we have dedicated ourselves to answering the most important statistical questions to plague the human race for eons, Ninja, Pirate or Gladiator?
The CLAP has been funded internationally by both private and government funding in hopes of creating a better world though the statistical analysis of human tendencies in striving toward Ninjas, Pirates, or Gladiators. The CLAP provides extensive chemical analyses and testing capabilities through a global network of analytical laboratories inorder to answer the ultimate question.
Preschoolers' Thoughts On Aging
What happens to people when they get old?
A photoset on Flickr from Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder.
The Truth About Food
Can eating like an ape save your health? Do aphrodisiacs really work? How do you get kids to eat their greens? Is there a healthy, pain-free way to lose weight? Can spinach save your eyesight? Are veggies weaker than meat eaters?
Answers from the BBC's 'The Truth About Food Video Player.'
Home Schooled
Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson.
Co-writing by Silas Jackson.
The Presurfer will feature a Home Schooled cartoon every Monday. This is an absolute exclusive cooperation between The Presurfer and Ash Jackson.
Home Schooled is more or less a reflection of the wacky and occasionally interesting adventures of the artist, Ash Jackson, himself, with the aid of his friends, family, and other cohorts.
Title: The Pants Supremacist.
click on the picture for real size
Meet The World's 10 Worst Mothers
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. If your mother is still around and you love her, tell her. In words! That's always better then the printed greeting card you bought just because you are too lazy to write.
But not all mothers are good mothers. Here's a list of the world's 10 worst mothers. And no, Britney Spears is not on the list. She is a model of maternity compared to these malicious mothers.
Sputtr
Sputtr is a refreshingly clean way to search the things that matter the most. You can save valuable time by having all the right searches on just one page.
Sputtr is simple, it's fast, it's a collection of all your favorite search engines all on just one page, and it's pretty.
Plastic Ocean
It happened on August 3, 1997, a lovely day. Sunny. Little wind. Water the color of sapphires. Captain Charles Moore and the crew of Alguita, his 50-foot aluminum-hulled catamaran, sliced through the sea. Returning to Southern California from Hawaii after a sailing race, Moore had altered his course, veering slightly north. This was an odd stretch of ocean, a place most boats purposely avoided.
Moore had spent countless hours in the ocean. He'd seen a lot of things out there, things that were glorious and grand; things that were ferocious and humbling. But he had never seen anything nearly as chilling as what lay ahead of him in the gyre.
It began with a line of plastic bags ghosting the surface, followed by an ugly tangle of junk: nets and ropes and bottles, motor-oil jugs and cracked bath toys, a mangled tarp. Tires. A traffic cone. Moore could not believe his eyes. Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap. It was as though someone had taken the pristine seascape of his youth and swapped it for a landfill.
How did all the plastic end up here?
Exaggerated Fruit And Novelty Postcards
For decades, novelty illustrations and photographs of big stuff have been used to promote fruit and vegetable products, farm and orchard country where they are grown, as well as sentiments of home, family, heart and hearth.
FruitFromWashington.com has come across some great examples of exaggerated farm products and other humorous old postcards with an agricultural, fruit, vegetable or berry theme.
(via Everlasting Blort)
Inside The Hobbit House
Asked to design a fitting repository for a client’s valuable collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, architect Peter Archer went to the source—the fantasy novels that describe the abodes of the diminutive Hobbits.
(via Boing Boing)
Other Hobbit Houses here and here.
The Longest Train In The World
The largest industry in Mauretania is processing iron ore. The ore is transported by train from Nouadhibou to Zouérat. These trains can be almost 2 miles long.
Statisfy
Statisfy is a unique website statistics analyzer that plots real-time traffic on a geographical map. With Statisfy you can see where your readers are coming from, in real time.
All you have to do is sign-up (it's free), tell them your site's URL and what Statisfy URL you would like. After that you'll get a code which you have to put in your HTML's header or footer.
Here you can view The Presurfer's stats.
Facial Flex Commercial
A freaky infomercial marketed on QVC in 2005. Facial Flex is a facial exercise and toning kit. But actually this commercial is all about people making fools of themselves.
(via Everlasting Blort)
Forest Life
United Paper Mills has a long tradition in the Finnish forest products industry. UPM's new web site takes you on a walk through the forest while you sit at home in front of your computer. You meet the different people who work in the forest or enjoy it for recreation.
You can watch as a trained operator precisely cuts and processes the tree or berry pickers gathering their winter vitamins. You can also take a bird's eye view to see the constantly evolving forest or you can go to the bird tower to watch the cranes doing their spring mating dance.
(via Ursi's Blog)
Favorite Fake Culinary Icons
Who do you think is the quintessential culinary icon that never lived? Ronald McDonald, Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker or someone else? Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink gives us some history behind these American icons.
You can use the comments on the Oxford University Press blog to let them know who your favorite is.
Apoteket Orchestra
Click on the people in the orchestra to activate them.
Or, use the menu at the bottom of the screen.
(via Grow-A-Brain)
The Horse Project
It all began with an artist named Scott Wayne Indiana. He knew about the horse rings in many Portland, USA, sidewalks and thought it was a shame that we don't tie our horses to them anymore.
Scott decided to change that and tied his first pony to a horse ring in the fall of 2005 in the revitalized Pearl District in Northwest Portland. After a few months, he expanded the Horse Project and asked for some help. Now these horses are showing up all over Portland.
Jockeys
Big Train was a surreal British television comedy sketch show created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan. It ran from November 1998 until February 2002. Following in the tradition of Monty Python, the comedy of Big Train is based on the subversion of ordinary situations by the surreal or macabre.
The Junkyard Sports Community
Junkyard sports are 'real' sports and games played with the 'wrong' equipment. Because the sports are made up by the people who are playing them, they offer a welcome alternative to the traditional sport programs.
Junkyard sports are based on sports that everyone knows. People play the sports in some unusual place with some wacky piece of equipment that has nothing to do with how the sports are supposed to be played.
At the Junkyard Sports Community, run by my good friend and 'funsmith' Bernie DeKoven, you will find support, tools, and ideas for bringing Junkyard Sports to your own community. I especially recommend the 'Hall of Fame' where you'll find dozens of Junkyard games and a list of the equipment needed.
Celebrity Soundboards
A soundboard is a device that plays many short sound clips. They generally take sound clips said by celebrities and combine them into one flash creation. Celebrity Soundboards currently has 126 soundboards available.
World's Top 10 Futuristic Luxury Hotels
The fast changing modes of travel would certainly one day make a big dent on the hotel industry. Only those will survive who have something special to offer.
Here are 10 futuristic hi-tech luxury hotels.
H.P. Lovecraft Archive
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) is widely considered the most important literary supernaturalist of the twentieth century.
He is one of the greatest in a line of authors that originated with the Gothic novelists of the eighteenth century and was perpetuated throughout the nineteenth century by such figures as Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, J. Sheridan LeFanu, and Arthur Machen.
Elect Susie Flynn For President
My name is Susie Flynn. I am running for President of the United States of America to help the nine million children who have no health insurance. This is a crisis. These children have been let down, yet the people accountable are doing too little to solve it.
By running for President, I intend to make everyone in America aware of the issue so that it will no longer be ignored. Under your next President, every child in America must get the health insurance he or she deserves.
(via Grow-A-Brain)
Encyclopedia Of Life
NASA's Encyclopedia of Life will ultimately serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described.
Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it. The Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike.
Beer Label Generator
Customize the text, colors, and graphics to make your own beer label.
More generators at my Generator Blog.
Weird Converter
Weird Converter is like a currency converter, but for completely unrelated items. Like how many NASCAR Winston Cup tires in an African elephant? Or how many kegs of beer in an Airbus A380? How many Shaquille O'Neals in the Great Wall of China? How many Giraffe's necks in the Weinermobile?
Play around, and suggest other stuff you want to see.
Alligator Eggs
Alligator Eggs is a puzzle game. The game represents the untyped lambda calculus. A hungry alligator is a lambda abstraction, an old alligator is parentheses, and eggs are variables. The eating rule corresponds to beta-reduction. The color rule corresponds to over-cautious alpha-conversion. The old age rule says that if a pair of parentheses contains a single term, the parentheses can be removed.
You still with me? I didn't understand all of this either. Maybe I should read the explanation on the Alligator Eggs site again.
HassleMe
Not eating enough fruit? Forgot to feed the fish again? Need a little help keeping your New Year's resolutions? Tell HassleMe what to hassle you about, and they'll nag you via email at semi-unpredictable intervals.
HassleMe is a tool which nags you. It nags you via email about things you know you should be doing, but which you'll forget. You set up a rough frequency, but it actually nags you at random times within certain parameters. It keeps you on your toes.
Belarusian Movie Posters
Some people call Belarus 'The last and only dictatorship in Europe.' Well today we have some posters from this unique country.
These are posters for Hollywood movies made for the cinemas of Belarus' capital city Minsk.
(via Nag on the Lake)
Get Your New Nose Now
Nose too wide? Embarrassed by your cavernous nostrils? Well, not any more with 'CoCo – Beautiful New Look of Nose'. Just leave this dainty clip tightly clamped on your nose at all times, and watch your face become more beautiful every day until you ultimately attain a 'Cleopatra Nose'. Your transformation could take place within days, or even months.
Don't worry about it clashing with the rest of your wardrobe, because it's now available in both pink and blue.
CoCo – Beautiful New Look of Nose is available at stores in Japan, Korea and Taiwan for only $7.50.
Are We So Different?
Are We So Different is a project of the American Anthropological Association.We expect people to look different. And why not? Like a fingerprint, each person is unique. Every person represents a one-of-a-kind, combination of their parents', grandparents' and family's ancestry. And every person experiences life somewhat differently than others.
Yet, are we so different? Current science tells us we share a common ancestry and the differences among people we see are natural variations, results of migration, marriage and adaptation to different environments. How does this fit with the idea of race?
Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people.
(via Ursi's Blog)
The Heaven Virus
The Heaven Virus is Cliff Pickover's new novel. Cliff is known for his excellent blog Reality Carnival which has been on my blogroll for ages.
The Heaven Virus blends tragedy, humor, psychedelia, sex, fear, and hope in an unforgettable meditation on the outer limits of our culture, evolutionary destiny, death, and inner space. The Heaven Virus will not only draw science-fiction fans, but also those who have wondered about their own passage from this existence into the world to come.
If you have an interest in afterlife, computers, immortality, science fiction, virtual reality, religion, Second Life, dreams, aliens, viruses, or future technology, The Heaven Virus will inspire you.
Were Do You Want To Go Today?
Tripbase is a travel website that gives you unbiased recommendations about where to go on your next trip based on what you like. Tell the Travel Generator what you like - nightlife, dining, shopping, nature, attractions - and a number of chosen destinations will appear.
Tripbase also lets you enter the duration of your trip, the departure city, the type of budget you have, and what temperature you're looking for.
Digital Archive of European Architecture
A digital archive of European architecture by Prof. Jeffery Howe of Boston College.
Pictured here is Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
(via corsinet)
World Obesity
An overview of the percentage of the population older than 15 with a body-mass index greater than 30.
Clothes That Repel Bacteria
The two-toned gold dress and metallic denim jacket, featured at the April 21 Cornell Design League fashion show, contain cotton fabrics coated with nanoparticles that give them functional qualities never before seen in the fashion world. Dipping the positively charged cotton into a negatively charged silver nanoparticle solution resulted in the particles clinging to the cotton fibers.
Silver possesses natural antibacterial qualities that are strengthened at the nanoscale, thus giving the dress the ability to deactivate many harmful bacteria and viruses. The silver infusion also reduces the need to wash the garment, since it destroys bacteria, and the small size of the particles prevents soiling and stains.
Hikers Against Doo-Doo
In 1985, parasitic pathologist A. Bern Hoff, M.D., while hiking in the Jotunheim Mountains in Norway, accidentally stepped on a steaming pile of human droppings in the middle of the trail.
While cleaning off his boot, Dr. Hoff had a vision... a vision of walking and hiking trails free of human and domesticated animal droppings. From this vision HADD - Hikers Against Doo-Doo, an international grassroots environmental action group, was born.
American Women Presidents
American Women Presidents is a national political action committee dedicated to electing women to the U.S. presidency. They're looking forward to electing America's first woman president on November 4, 2008, and to attending her swearing as President of the United States on January 20, 2009.American Women Presidents endorses New York's Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president in 2008. On January 20, 2009, Hillary Clinton will be sworn in as President of the United States, and former president Bill Clinton will become America's First Gentleman.
Click Click Click
They say it's the World's Greatest Click Game. I say it's another stupid waste of time to ruin your computer mouse.
All you do is click, click, click for your country. The country with the most clicks gets... well, the number one spot.
Currently Chile is number one with over 115,000,000 clicks. Second is Poland and third is Israel. My country, the Netherlands is on number 10.
(via Ursi's Blog)
Aerials Of Greensburg Tornado Damage
Last Friday night, a tornado ranging between one and two miles wide swept through Greensburg, Kansas, destroying 90% of the town and killing at least nine people. See some aerials of the devastation.
Mayonnaise And Beer
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar... and the beer.
A nice story about values.
British Schoolboy Uniforms
Great Britain is the birthplace of the school uniform and over the years schoolboys have worn a wide variety of official school dress. The traditional English schoolboy, dressed in blazer, cap and short trousers, and carrying a shiny leather satchel, is to some extent a relic of the historical past although the image lives on in films, cartoons and advertisements.
The time-honoured blazer with the school badge on the breast pocket is still worn by many pupils, but caps, short trousers and satchels are now mostly the preserve of the more traditional preparatory schools. These pages illustrate a selection of these uniforms and provide some details of their history.
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: Nobody Called For A Web Slinger.
click on the picture for real size
Universe
Universe is a system that supports the exploration of personal mythology, allowing each of us to find our own constellations, based on our own interests and curiosities. Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe presents an immersive environment for navigating the world's contemporary mythology, as found online in global news and information.
Each star has a specific counterpart in the physical world - a news story, a quote, an image, a person, a company, a team, a place - and moving the cursor across the star field causes different stars to connect, forming constellations. Any constellation can be selected, making it the center of the universe, and sending everything else into its orbit.
Fiendish Curiosities
Fiendish Curiosities was founded in 2003 by Prof. Burnaby Q. Orbax, aka the Great Orbax, in an attempt to combine the greatest passions in his life: sideshow, science, and monsters.
Using a combination of current special effects techniques, latex casting and molding, sculpture and modern taxidermy, the company create one of a kind works of custom art for the discerning collector. Fiendish Curiosities attempts to incorporate the sciences of zoology, anatomy, and teratology while devising their curiosities so that in many case, while not cute and cuddly, they do appear as they would had they been the result of natural mutation and adaptation.
Cuddle Party
A Cuddle Party is a playful social event designed for adults to explore communication, boundaries and affection. The event is designed to allow people to experience non-sexual group physical intimacy through cuddling.
Cuddle Party events feature: an entertaining Welcome Circle that gives you straight info on how to more effectively create what you want in your relationship life, introductory exercises to break the ice and get you into the habit of asking for what you want and saying yes and no honestly, a holistic social environment that attracts fascinating people and provides a wonderful opportunity for connection, learning and growth.
Cap'n Crunch's First Name Revealed
From megnut:From the May 2007 Saveur Magazine comes this great tidbit: the full name of Cap'n Crunch! His proper name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch.
The Horatio makes him sound British, which makes sense since his outfit looks like an English Navy get up (or something Napoleon would have worn). And the Magellan gives him an air of exploration. The Crunch is straight out of Dickens. He may be Capt. H.M. Crunch aboard ship, but he'll always be Cap'n of breakfast to me.