I'd love to see what this looked like at night when it's all lit up.

Hey Christian - UR = University of Rochester

;)

Hopefully she didn't have to pay for it to be made into a ring! I can see it now: "Honey, I know $400 is expensive ... but the pearl was free!"

Awesome! I need one of those so I can stop scratching up all my floors!

Sorry about the link - it's fixed.

My understanding about ceramics is that they have a lower density and "hardness" than gemstones, which is why sapphires and diamonds are used for precision cutting devices and ceramics are not.

I agree that ceramics are cheaper though, which certainly doesn't make me feel any less nervous about a potential strip search next time I travel. ;)

What I find funny is that this is categorized as "Art". Hopefully he doesn't finish his art project by getting women to get swim naked with dolphins inside the cube, although I'm sure the French (and American tourists) would go nuts for that.

redstripe - that's NASTY!

Some of those were pretty good - I liked the Scooby Doo/Shaggy impression the best.

I feel all warm and mushy inside.

OK, moment over ... that's a pretty neat little applet!

d.maile - I was just going to ask the same thing? How in the world do you practice for such a thing?

If you're interested in this type of thing, here's a related video from YouTube:
Animated History of Religion in 2 minutes

Anyone else surprised by the data represented on the atlas?

I was rather surprised that Russians had little religious affiliation 15 years after the USSR dissolved, and that only Western Chinese were predominantly Buddhist.

The second worst disaster (based on my limited scope of knowledge regarding molasses), happened just a few months ago. Mix a rambunctious 2 year old, a pint of molasses, and hardwood floors ... and you have a disaster in the making. Took HOURS to clean up.

Thanks Miss C. and RGS! Miss C., you were honestly an inspiration for my own site (you were one of the first humor blogs I saw and liked on the web). RGS - I just found you through Neatorama and have enjoyed reading daily.

Wow, I should be careful or the comments here will become one big hugfest. ;)

He runs exactly like my 2 year old! How cute!

I can see it now, some guy is going to see the can laying around and throw it in the recycling bin. Pepsi will have one happy garbageman somewhere.