Blog Posts John Farrier Likes

Stained Glass Chess Set

This is a one-of-a-kind handmade chess set. Game designer KnowNothing_JonSnoo received it as a birthday gift from his father, a stained glass artist.



You can just imagine a game of chess where the only light source in the room is the board itself. For now, it stays on a high shelf when he's not playing with it. He says it will have its own dedicated table when his sons grow up enough not to wreck it.


Dreaming Baby Hippo is the Cutest Thing You'll See Today!

The cuteness, it burns! This YouTube clip is only 20 seconds long, but that's enough to convince us just how cute Cincinnati Zoo's baby hippo Fiona is when she's dreaming. The hippo, born prematurely 9 weeks ago, is probably dreaming about something yummy to eat seeing how she licks her chops like that!

Take a look:

Then head on to the Cincinnati Zoo's Fiona page for more cuteness. Oh, okay, one more video:*/p

Continue reading

Colorado's 419.99 Mile Marker

Every American driver is familiar with those boring mile markers on the side of the freeway. In Colorado after marijuana was legalized, the mile marker 420 was stolen so frequently though, that the state had to stop replacing it. So they came up with a clever workaround -a mile 419.99 marker. Even so, stoners still make a pilgramage out to the mile marker and here and there people still steal the sign, but with much less frequency than before.

You can see more pictures of mile 419.99 over at Atlas Obscura


Claw Machine Master Won 15,000 Stuffed Animals Last Year

Psst, want to learn how to win at claw machines? If there's one guy that can teach you, it'll be claw machine master Chen Zhitong of Xiamen, China. Last year, he won over 15,000 stuffed animals from those infernal claw crane game machines!

From Great Big Story:

There are two types of claw machines. With one, you can win with your skills. The other kind is programmed. No matter how good your skill is, you are not going to win ...

There are several key parameters to winning.

First is the claw's holding capacity. It needs to be tight enough.

Second is the angle of claw rotation.

Third is the layout of toys.

View the YouTube Clip:

Continue reading

Sister Act

(YouTube link)

Colleen Jordan recorded her two-year-old twin daughters Maddie and Scarlett acting out a scene from the movie Frozen as they watched it on TV. You think these little girls have seen the movie a few times before? They may grow up to be Hollywood stars! -via Tastefully Offensive


Rayna Meets a Robot

A discarded water heater got a few accessories for decoration. The resulting "robot" isn't very talkative, but that doesn't matter here at all.  

(YouTube link)

Redditor shadeogreen recorded his daughter Rayna's adorable reaction to the robot. She wuvs that wobot! -via Metafilter


Escalator Etiquette

This escalator spells out the rules for you. If you are going to stand still, stay on the right. If you are walking, keep to the left. The discussion at reddit is split between people who assumed everyone knew this, and people who did not know this. It's most important in cities, especially subways and airports, where some people are in a real hurry. Some things I learned from the comments:

People in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore are very good at following this rule.

In Australia, you stand on the left and walk on the right. Unless those guys are pulling our legs.

Some people in rural areas have never heard this rule, because they only see escalators in department stores and malls, where no one is in that much of a hurry. And escalators in rural areas are often too narrow for passing. Some people from cities think that's because rural people are fat and lazy.   

In the District of Columbia, people on the escalator will scold you for breaking the rule. That makes sense, as they have a lot of tourists who get in the way of commuters.  

Several commenter told stories of getting angry over people standing in their way, and then finding that the offender was blind, deaf, or missing a limb. Lesson learned.  

While studies have shown that standing is more efficient overall, the etiquette remains. So even if you're from Wyoming, stand on the right, walk on the left, and do watch your step on an escalator. And remember, if the escalator stops, you can use them as stairs. Also, there's no need to make fun of people who don't know things.  


The Peak Age for Everything

There's something great to be said for every age. According to research, people are most satisfied with their lives at age 23, but after a lot more experience, they are  very satisfied again at age 69. The best age for learning a new language is seven, but that doesn't mean your chance is gone if you don't. You reach peak muscle strength at age 25, but your math skills will peak at 50, and 51-year-olds are better at understanding emotions. Of course, these are averages, so your mileage may vary. The section on marriage is understandable, but not definitive.

The peak age to settle down is 26.

The 37% Rule of statistics says that at age 26 you'll have met enough people to have some solid options without waiting so long that they start pairing off without you.

And according to one recent study, divorce rates are lowest for couples who married between the ages of 28 and 32.

Check out the peak age for all kinds of things at Business Insider. Each conclusion has links to the research that produced it. -via mental_floss


Making Up For It

Redditor CircleAddict works at Starbucks and had a customer encounter that didn't go quite right. He said, "A woman came through the drive through yesterday and got a little irritated with me because we didn't have drink carriers. Today, she came back and handed me this." In case you can't read the writing, it says:

Greetings Starbuck Barista! Yesterday at your drive through we had a less then cheerful encounter. At no fault of yours, you were out of carriers & said you could not take my empty cup (trash). I was less then understanding and my manner was curt.

I need to apologize. The thought of leaving a trail of unkindness like that is so not the path i want to reflect. Not for you, Not for me. You are a young man, clearly working hard to build a future & you should be commended. Keep up your attitude of cheer & hope. Stay hopeful no matter what kind of people cross your path (or drive thru :) )

Surly, God has good blessing in store. You taught this ole lady something yesterday about, Kindness, Compassion & staying humble. I thank you! Debbie

God Bless you today & all your todays.

Debbie was most likely affected by other things going on in her life, but she realized that didn't make it okay to lash out at a stranger. Good on her. The discussion below the post was full of commenters who were sorry about ruining someone's day and stories of strangers who went out of their way to apologize for rudeness. The world could use more of that.


Man Working From Home Names His Dog "Employee of the Quarter" Every Quarter

Working from home can be lonely -sometimes all we have to keep us motivated, entertained and cheerful is our pets who have no idea we're even working. That's why telecommuting Accuride employee Michael Reeg decided that his dog Meeka should be named "Employee of the Quarter" every quarters. He even gave her furry friend an appropriate plaque to celebrate the occassion.

Michael claims Meeka really earned her title:

“I try out my sales pitches and presentations on her. She’s not easily impressed or swayed. All she hears is ‘blah, blah, blah, Meeka’—but she likes to hear my voice and I love that she pays attention.

You can read an interview with Michael over at The Dodo.

Via The Daily Dot


Six Dots: The Story of Young Louis Braille


Surely you knew that braille is the alphabet and writing system used by blind and visually impaired people, but did you know that it was invented by a fifteen-year old boy who was accidentally blinded at a young age?

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings wrote a fantastic review of Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant. With lovely illustrations by Boris Kulikov, it is a children's book about how Louis Braille went blind at the age of three due to eye infection after an accident at his father's workshop, and how he went on to invent the writing system that is still in use today.

... the turning point in [Braille's] life came when he was three. His father was a leatherer specializing in horse tack in a small town near Paris. One day, while playing at the leather workshop, little Louis disregarded his father’s admonition not to toy with the sharp tools. ... Trying to imitate his father, he set out to puncture a piece of leather. But the awl slipped from his tiny hand and stabbed him in the eye.

Continue reading

Late for School? Get to Dad's Chopper!

Late for school? Don't ask mom for a ride in her minivan ... ask dad to drop you off with his helicopter! (See, choppers aren't only good for running away from alien monster ... )

Passersby spotted a chopper land in front of a school in the elite Lipky district of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Moments later, a schoolboy jumped out and ran inside. The boy is reportedly the son of former Deputy Minister of Sports Andrey Palchevskii.

The incident sparked a debate on social media: is it an extravagant gesture of the elite, or is it just a boy desperate not to be late for school?

This puts a whole new spin on "Helicopter Parenting." View the story and video clip on Metro.


World's Scariest Wedding Invitation

Matt and Nancy are getting married in May. Matt happens to be the sheriff. When the wedding invitations went out, the recipients were startled, and some of them probably hyperventilated before they read the fine print. The bride's nephew EXSUPERVILLAIN shared the themed invitation with some rather sloppy redaction. With a username like that, he was probably more startled than anyone. -via reddit


Hiding A.1. Steak Sauce Bottles in the Library


Jill Ralston of the Avon Lake Public Library shows off more than two dozens A.1. Steak Sauce bottles left hidden in the shelves. Photo: Bruce Bishop/Chronicle

It's a whodunit of the rarest of degree ... a real meaty mystery with high steaks: someone very saucy has been hiding bottles of A.1. Steak Sauce throughout the Avon Lake Public Library in Ohio, and nobody knows why.

Dan Cotton, the library’s page supervisor, said 28 of the 10-ounce bottles have turned up since he found the first one Jan. 11 hidden among the library’s newspapers.

No one has been spotted hiding the bottles, but it’s become almost a game among library staff to locate the bottles, which are typically left lying on their sides behind books on the shelf.

“It became something everyone wanted to find,” Cotton said. ...

“We mapped the first 12 to see if we could find a pattern, but we couldn’t find a discernible pattern,” Cotton said.

Brad Dicken of the Chronicle-Telegram has the nifty story. I propose a steak-out to find the culprit!


How a College Student's "C" Paper Led to a Constitutional Amendment


Gregory Watson, photo by Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon/KUT

In 1789, James Madison proposed an amendment to govern how members of Congress could give themselves salary raises.

The proposed amendment was sent to the states for ratifications but was largely forgotten until a 19-year old student at the University of Texas at Austin named Gregory Watson wrote a paper on the subject in 1982.

Watson noticed that the amendment, though almost two centuries old, didn't have a deadline on it, so he proposed that it be revived and ratified. He turned in the paper ... and got a "C" on it because his professor thought that it was "unrealistic."

[Watson] didn’t know what to make of it. He was sure it was better than a C.

He appealed the grade to the professor, Sharon Waite.

“I kind of glanced at it, but I didn't see anything that was particularly outstanding about it and I thought the C was probably fine,” she recalls.

Most people would have just taken the grade and left it at that. Gregory is not most people.

“So I thought right then and there, ‘I'm going to get that thing ratified.’”

Read this fascinating story by Matt Largey over at KUT of how one man's not-so-great grade on a college paper started him on a decade-long quest that ended up with The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.


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Profile for John Farrier

  • Member Since 2012/08/04


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