This is what greeted me when I woke up.
Condensed knowledge for 2007-05-06
Here’s the good stuff:
- Want to watch cheese mature? A company in England wanted to show the process and time involved in making good cheese, so they installed a web cam next to aging cheddar. That hunk of cheese has now become an Internet star.
- Escape the Meatrix! Watch this movie to find out what it is and how to join the resistance. 🙂
- Neatorama has a great post on three animals we ate into extinction. Oh, the poor dodo bird, it never stood a chance, even if its meat was gross.
- This toothless old man from Russia has a really elastic face (and a really long tongue as well). The video is slightly disturbing, and it begs the question, why would you want to lick your own eyes? I can see him now, scaring little kids in his village. The parents, shuddering, will tell their kids, “See, this is what happens if you don’t brush your teeth!”
- Have you been wondering why no one reads your blog? This post may have the answer.
- This bird, called the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, has got to be one of the funniest looking animals I’ve ever seen! 🙂
- Oh, how I wish I were a boy once more (sans school and homework) and got “The Dangerous Book for Boys” as a birthday present!
- A fire burned through the historic Eastern Market in DC recently. This Washington Post article has photos.
- Ever wondered just how our sense of smell works? Well, wonder no more, because Wondermark has the answer.
- Apparently surgeons have started to perform abdominal surgeries through the mouth (and in women, a certain other orifice)… The advantage is that there’s no external scarring, and the recovery time is much, much better. The patient can go home the same day. Still, I’m pretty grossed out by the whole thing. I would not want bits and pieces of my appendix or gall bladder or other such thing pulled through my mouth. It’s just plain weird.
- A couple of days ago, I started my browser in the morning and saw that the logo on my Google Home page had changed to iGoogle. For a moment, I thought Google and Apple had merged, but later found out the real explanation.
- A physician from France wrote Linux drivers for 235 web cams, particularly bargain ones made in China, with no proper drivers and no support whatsoever. And he did this all for free, unrecognized, working from his own home. That’s just plain cool!
Condensed knowledge for 2007-05-05
Getting right to the links:
- English Russia has photos of some amazing cakes made by a baker from St. Petersburg called Zhanna. They’re completely edible and very creative. I can’t even begin to imagine the work that goes into making them, but I’m sure it’s not easy.
- The police have started to arrest children and treat them as adults. Just plain weird, and not right. It’s one thing to scare them by taking them to the police station and going through the motions of that whole process, but it’s quite another to actually create arrest records for them. That stuff will haunt them throughout their adulthood.
- How does Google rank your blog? You might want to read this and find out.
- Check out the pessimist’s mug.
- This is by far some of the best advice I’ve read in a long time. A kind fellow has put together a list of things you can do to ensure survival during hard times (occasions such as natural disasters, wars, food shortages, cold weather, etc.). It’s most definitely worth a read, but make some time first — it’s going to take 15-20 minutes to get through it.
- ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) is an amazing polymer that is finding its way into some pretty innovative modern achitecture. Have a look at this BusinessWeek article, and also see the photos.
- Here’s how to see EXIF data right in your Mac’s Finder.
- The Daily Show has a great video segment of Bush debating Bush on the Iraq war.
- ASIFA has a wonderful post on why you should be original and not copy others. Great stuff!
- Shorpy, my favorite 100-year old photo blog, has transcribed a typed letter used in one of the episodes of “Leave It To Beaver”. It was supposed to be from Mrs. Rayburn to Beaver’s dad.
- It’s a blog post like this that lets me know I’m right for being pro-choice.
- Did you know some credit card companies will penalize you for paying your credit card on time and in full? If you’ve had this happen to you, I say it’s time to ditch them.
Condensed knowledge for 2007-05-04
Here’s the good stuff:
- Ten Things Your Restaurant Will Not Tell You is the title of this must-read article.
- Do you like chess? Then you’ll love this comic.
- When Wikipedia rules the world, stuff like this might happen…
- Here’s a list of the world’s most corrupt countries, as classified by Transparency International.
- Meth is making inroads among the yuppies, not just the white trash. After you read this article, I hope you’ll be as disgusted as I am with the whole mess.
- Here’s how to get a pre-sliced banana, without peeling it.
- Dan Heller wrote a darn good article about photo keywording and photo searches.
- Boris Yeltsin, now called the father of Russian democracy, has died.
- Want to start your own podcast? Host it yourself with Loudblog, the easy-to-use podcasting platform. (I use it and recommend it for the ComeAcross podcast, which is currently in hiatus.)
- A macaw has managed to teach a boy with severe learning disabilities how to talk. Wonderful stuff!
- I like this simple but great tutorial from Rick Sammon on basic photographic techniques. Check out Part 1 as well.
- This obelisk patio furniture is great. It comes apart into chairs and a table, then stacks back up into an attractive column.
Raoul Pop 