Links posted in January 2007
January 31, 2007
Another maverick texas woman dies. Another funny, political, frank woman. gone. [more inside]
From lunch:
- The word "dope" comes from the Dutch word "doop" meaning sauce or gravy. It has come to mean lots of things from aircraft wing lacquer to drugs and drug users to soft drinks (in the Carolinas, apparently).
- The word egregious (from Latin "rising above the flock") used to mean exceptional in a good sense. OED doesn't know when the meaning did a complete 180 and became remarkably bad.
- Lines from Alanis Morrisette's song Ironic, modified to actually make them ironic
- Wikipedia's List of unusual articles is all but guaranteed to sink upwards of 10 hours of your life.
- Every time wiepooh sees the GEICO Caveman ads he snorts milk out of his nose. Others have simple minds and the ads "frighten and confuse" them. Personally, I'm always a little saddened to hear Röyksopp's song "Remind Me" as the airport music (remix).
January 30, 2007
If you have ever taught Pre-med students before then you will really appreciate how anxious they got when the MCAT screwed up.
January 25, 2007
If you feel that the EPA should continue to regulate lead please click here. The link is to a petition from the Union of Concerned Scientists and is regarding a change in EPA policy to preventing them from having to regulate lead emissions.
January 24, 2007
Now Playing Austin -- Austin's Ultimate Guide to Arts & Culture.
One more example of god's fine work. Plus there's video of it swimming.
U.S. military has developed a ray gun. No, seriously. I think CNN's choice of title for this article is making me more alarmed than I should be. Also: "Technology is supposed to be harmless".
January 23, 2007
Wheelchair Backflip Need one say more? This one's for SG.
January 21, 2007
You don't know Feltron but you'll be fascinated by The Feltron Annual Report. Makes you wish you had recorded the number of times you ate at certain restaurants for an entire year.
My friend is the the dork at the very end of this commercial. Yeah, the one flying the RC plane. Good times. [more inside]
January 19, 2007
Chinese destroy satellite in orbit - revealing a major new military capability and generating a dangerous amount of political and actual fallout debris. Look to the Skies.
January 18, 2007
Check out the jeep waterfall from the Detroit auto show. It just waves at first but gets a lot better as you watch it. Seriously cool looking. Worth the time.
In recent Guitar Hero news (since I know so many of you are interested):
- The XBox 360 version of Guitar Hero II will have new songs, including Possum Kingdom (yay! but also BOOOO! for not putting them in the PS2 version)
- Development of GH3 appears to switch from Harmonix to Neversoft
- Guitar Hero: 1980's edition set for April?
- If you're willing to chip your PS2, you can work some kind of black voodoo that lets you put whatever songs you like in the actual game. Before you ask: yes, that does include Canon Rock and Journey's Don't Stop Believin'
Dangerous Criminal Brought to Justice - thanks to the police and the RIAA. [more inside]
This is much better than those "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac", commercial. The critics (Nanocindy) call it "awesomely awesome". [more inside]
January 17, 2007
Don't Let Faux-Klingons send Real Americans to War! A peace cry for the 24th century. Only it's in the U.S. House in the 21st. [more inside]
A Sierra Club list of the least environmentally destructive oil companies. You may be stuck using an automobile but at least you can support oil companies who have the smallest ecological footprint. BP and Sunoco are the best companies on the list. Exxon Mobile and ConocoPhillips are the worst.
Hey, doncarlo and mrflip, remember that one time when you had those AT&T Cellular plans? And your company got bought by Cingular and you held on as long as you could but eventually you were assimilated and had to buy new phones and switch websites and voicemails and everything? And then how you got used to your new Cingular plans? Well, I thought you should hear it from a friend first: "Cingular is now the new AT&T". Again. Or something.
January 15, 2007
A Tribute To Capt. Jean-Luc Picard A fitting tribute to one of my heroes. Enjoy!
Martin Luther King talks about Vietnam. Take some time off today and listen to his speech and think about where we are today.
UT Civil Engineering grad does good, finds a woman who had been missing 5 weeks, 2 1/2 weeks after the search for her had been called off. [more inside]
Some alternate terms for male camel toe in an informative video.
Aluminum boat floating on a very dense gas. Super cool classroom demo video showing the density of gasses. The coolest part is that they end up sinking the boat at the end by scooping invisible gas into it with a beaker.
Becky should do this demo..
Funny video of women from the waist up their first time... getting a brazilian waxing. Don't worry it's SFW and it's totally funny (unless you've been through it I guess).
Hilarious video of peoples reactions to being mobbed by 100 strangers. A flash mob of 100 harmlessly and suddenly goes chasing after various people in japan. Funny stuff.
January 14, 2007
Get down wit it! Because Bollywood is ALWAYS crazy man!!!!
January 13, 2007
In other douchebag news looks like cisco might lose that iPhone trademark dispute with apple because they didn't maintain the trademark properly. More importantly, it looks like Cisco is just squatting on the name to get some money out of apple.
January 12, 2007
David Beckham to play for the LA Galaxy Major League Soccer is making a $250M bet that people are going to watch if they can get the one soccer star who American names are going to recognize (or, since we're talking about a brit, maybe I should say recognise). Anyway, more at Deadspin.
January 10, 2007
I finally got around to checking out clearification.com which is an odd little site featuring Demetri Martin. The prominent logo in the corner seems to indicate that the storyline will result in personal "clearification" thanks to Windows Vista which looka to be the case. You'd hardly know it from the drolly humorous episodes and "sayings". Does this mean an epic battle between Apple's John Hodgman and Microsoft's Martin? We can only hope the hilarity escalates.
Lunch minutes:
The founding of Stanford University
The glycemic index and ketosis
The 40 acres
[more inside]
January 09, 2007
These have probably been posted before (?)
You don't know what they're selling till the end - but beautiful commercials nonetheless.
OK, this article ends on a pretty depressing note, but how could I not share the line, "though it might come in handy if I had a pet guinea pig that was really into bondage sex games"? (don't worry, the rest is SFW)
All the speculation is over, the iPhone is real! And it looks spectacular!
Well, Duh. Keep this in mind if you have a talk to give soon.
January 08, 2007
View of the earth from the edge of the solar system. Be sure to read the moving quote by the late Carl Sagan at the bottom.
The laserdisk was first marketed in 1978 meaning that, yes, my friend could have had The Care Bears movie on Laserdisk while I had it on Betamax.
The Big Apple did infact cut the cheese today. But no one knows how.
There is quite a big difference between Mickey Rooney who is so nuts that he is now being made fun of on Family Guy and Andy Rooney who is crazy but still has a job.
You can now watch a movie on basic cable that uses the word "fuck" 24 times in one song and features only the second song with profanity ever to be nominated for an academy award.
So I hope this brings everyone up to date on what happened at lunch today. I had fun!
January 07, 2007
What was the Tits the week you were born? I found this oddly addictive. [more inside]
Who gave out the most positive quotes to the worst possible movies in 2006? eCriticWatch.com has the scoop with their Top Quote Whores of 2006. You'll no doubt be saddened to hear that Earl Dittman fell to a measly 8th place this year.
Sad news: Momofuku Ando, Inventor of Ramen, has passed away at age 94. Cheap and makes you live long!
Strings in Esquire. A good read.
Puzzles vs. Mysteries - MUST. READ.
January 06, 2007
January 05, 2007
Hey hey hey, it's celebrity patent time. Pay close attention to Penn Jillette's patent for a, how shall I say, stimulating bathtub device for women and Hedy Lamarr's invention of spread spectrum (an idea fundamentally important for cellular phone technology).
January 04, 2007
This could only happen to a Bryn Mawr student. I feel bad for her, but damn, I can't stop laughing!
Collection of Product Teardowns If you're interested in seeing what your favorite electronic gadgets are made of, then this is the site for you. Warning: uber-geeky. [more inside]
MS paint stupid things you did when you were little The second to last one on the last page is my favorite.
"The Wolves of Kromer": Gay Werewolves in Love
Narrated by Boy George
[more inside]
January 03, 2007
Ytmnd.com has some fun with the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III
The Connecticut For Lieberman Party now has a new chairman--an outspoken academic critic of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman. And, since the party won the election in 2006, it gets a guaranteed ballot line in the next election. At least something funny came out of Joe's stupid made-up party.
Federline totally schools Cena with a smashing assist from Umaga. [more inside]
January 02, 2007
I changed a poopie diaper for the first time in my life... [more inside]
January 01, 2007
Top Ten Sex Toy Patents - "If you've ever had a great idea for a sexual aid, or wondered where new sex toys come from, you should check out some of the patents on file with the United States Patent Office. Here we've collected some of the best. With many of these items, you can discern their roots in household items and basement workshops and see the DIY ethic in action. Let them be an inspiration to us all!" [more inside]