HOME |
RSS | 
Because the Lard Information Council says so, that’s why. Via Pragmatic Chef
We’ve featured Shift Happens, a neat little "Did You Know" infographic video clip by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, before – here’s an updated version: Did You Know 2.0. Very neat, highly recommended.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Patrick Lunsford! | Official Website
Before those "I’m a PC and I’m a Mac" ads by Apple, here’s this ad pictorial in the September 1996 issue of MacAddict: Link – via Crave, Thanks Aaron Larney!
For more Bizarro-goodness, check out Dan Piraro’s website: Bizarro.
Monoface is a fun website where you can "mix-n-match" by clicking the mouth, nose, head, and eyes to create a different face. And boy, can you keep on clicking – there are 759,375 different combinations!
Link [Flash] – Thanks T. Scott!
Comments Off
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Meet Frank "Cannonball" Richards, whose stunt involves having a cannonball shot into his big beefy belly!
The Human Marvel has more on "Cannonball" Richards:
‘Cannonball’ Richards steadily increased the level of distress he subjected his belly too. He soon allowed spectators to jump on his stomach. Following that he allowed himself to be struck by a two-by-four and then, later, he was able to endure repeated sledgehammer blows. From all reports and records, there were no gimmicks at work during these performances.
Finally, in a feat that ‘Cannonball’ Richards would forever be remembered for, Richards took to being shot in the belly with a cannonball.
Link – Thanks J. Tithonus Pednaud!
Colleen Doran of A Distant Soil blog was going through one of her cleaning binges when she came across this Wonder Woman scissors, circa 1978.
And I know what you’re thinking, you perv! It’s a pair of wonderful looking scissors, albeit a little naughtily designed…
GalaxyZoo is asking for your help to sort galaxies that no one has ever seen before – and here’s why they’re not using just computers to do the job:
Why do we need you?
The simple answer is that the human brain is much better at recognising patterns than a computer can ever be. Any computer program we write to sort our galaxies into categories would do a reasonable job, but it would also inevitably throw out the unusual, the weird and the wonderful. To rescue these interesting systems which have a story to tell, we need you.
Link – Thanks Forrest! (and all those people who did well in the real vs. computer graphics quiz, check out GalaxyZoo’s galaxy identification quiz)
Fogonazos has a neat article about The Sphinx Observatory on Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, which is the "Top of Europe" (literally!)
Link – Thanks aberron! (Image Credit: Pear Biter [Flickr])
Jim Tipton’s Find a Grave is an online database with 16 million cemeteries and burial records – you can find grave location of almost all famous people.
A neat thing about Find a Grave is that you can add virtual memorials and flowers on a loved one’s grave.
Link – Thanks Algonkin!
Here’s why you shouldn’t wear your iPod during a thunderstorm:
Doctors at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada said a 37-year-old jogger wearing an iPod was burned on his chest, neck and face after the man and a nearby tree were struck by lightning in 2005. The burns traced the path of the earphones, they said. [...]
The metal in the earphones helped channel the current and cause the injuries, they said.
"Although the use of a device such as an iPod may not increase the chances of being struck by lightning, in this case, the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient’s head," they said.
Update 7/15/07: New image by Dumidu – Thanks!
Yay for pollution! According to this Scientific American article, airborne particle pollutants are responsible for wonderful sunsets:
To get a red sky, you need aerosols, explains A. R. Ravishankara, director of chemical sciences at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. Aerosols are solid or liquid particles suspended in the air that originate from both natural processes and human activity.
Natural aerosols come from forest fires, mineral dust kicked up by sandstorms, sea spray and volcanic eruptions, among other things. Volcanoes, which have produced some of the most spectacular sunsets in history, can inject sulfuric acid droplets into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between 10 to 35 miles in altitude. These droplets can be swept across the globe, painting brilliant crimson twilights wherever they go. Following the 1883 eruption of Indonesia’s Krakatoa, brilliant sunsets appeared around the world, one of which is said to have inspired Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream.
Link (Image Credit: Eduardo Amorim [Flickr]) – Thanks Scott!
Did your mother ever say to you that junk food is so bad for you that it’s healthier to eat the cardboard box it comes in?
Well! A chinese pork bun seller took the advice to heart and began making steamed buns filled with cardboard:
The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork.
The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old furniture and cardboard on the ground.
"What’s in the recipe?" the reporter asks. "Six to four," the man says.
"You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?" asks the reporter. "Fatty meat," the man replies.
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
Comments Off 
SnowDays is a website where you can create you own snowflake, or just look at others as they fall from the clear winter sky.
This little reindeer calf joined up with Ainar Lie’s herd of goats while they were out to pasture and just followed them into their barn one night. When the farmer came to milk them the next day, there he was. Since then, he has been accompanying them to pasture and back every day. Aftenposten reports:
The goats seem to have accepted the little reindeer, which in turn has adapted to the herd’s hierarchy. Wildlife authorities contacted by Lie’s family have determined that the reindeer isn’t suffering in any way. "We tried to give it some goat milk from a bottle, but it didn’t want any," Lie said. "Instead, it eats the feed we have along with grass."
After spending beaucoup bucks on those tiki torches, why not go the extra mile and get yourself some colored flames (also available in candle version for the tiki-less crowd).
Colored flames! How awesome is that? Link
"That’s Alcohol" is an art installation / breathalyzer that uses puppets to tell you how drunk you are. Made by David Boardman, Roberto Pansolli, and Pete Knocke.
Link – via I.Z. Reloaded
Comments Off 
Todd Vanderlin was trying to catch a wireless router when it cut him, and leave this strange "nerd stigmata."
Definitely a sign from above
Many more photos of what can be done with the Volkswagen Beetle at Dark Roasted Blend: Link
Four hundred people dressed in gorilla suits ran in the first annual Great Gorilla Run in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco:
As if wearing a gorilla suit on a Sunday morning weren’t unique enough, outfits were heavily accessorized. There were gorillas in leopard thongs, hemp flip-flops, Elvis suits, sunglasses, wigs, bonnets and Viking horns. There were gorillas with hula hoops, gorillas dancing to "SexyBack," gorillas on rollerblades and gorillas pulling red wagons.
"I had wanted to be Al Gore-illa, but the Al Gore mask didn’t work over the gorilla mask," lamented Mike Nicolls of Palo Alto. He settled for a tight white Elvis pantsuit pulled over the gorilla suit. "I think the difficult thing will be running with the mask, as it’s kind of hard to see out of."
Link – via Information Junk
The original Bumblebee ’77 Chevy Camaro from the new Transformers movie is up for sale on eBay. Current bid: US $60,101.00
Link – via Geekologie
Cecilia Burman has prosopagnosia, commonly known as “face-blindness.†She wrote Face Blindness and Stones to illustrate what this condition is like, comparing her difficulty in facial recognition to the way a normal person would have trouble telling one stone from another, and some of the coping mechanisms she uses. Link -via Reddit
New York Magazine has an excellent article about just how much money people are making in New York. Included are highlights from a yellow-cab driver, a drug dealer, a sex shop, a financial firm, and more …
New York businesses live and die by the rent; if you’re a retailer leasing here, “making the rent” becomes the yardstick of solvency. The unofficial golden rule of restaurants dictates that the rent be made in a week and take up no more than a quarter of revenue. The bar version of the rule is even simpler: The rent should equal your Friday-night take. With each year, another company succumbs to the strange realization that where it sits may be more valuable than what it does.
This one above is the profit breakdown of private investigator Michael McKeever:
Most-Profitable Jobs: When a spouse becomes obsessive; McKeever spent more than 130 hours following an ex-husband for a current custody case.
Why Men Are Better Clients: They are nearly always wrong when they suspect a cheating spouse, but they often won’t believe it and will keep McKeever tailing. (Women are 90 percent correct when they suspect their husbands.)
Comments Off 
