Today's Mighty Oak


So many points to a great volunteer who had today’s title on his facebook earlier this week.

Let’s see what we have, first up:

Lifehacker has a cool post up about using paper bags as a floor covering.  I also like the idea in the comments about adding old maps mixed it.

They also cover how to make an emergency bracelet that conceals fishing equipment.  A nice hack on something very trendy right now.

Thank you, Bill Nye:

Kind of like the meme of placing photos in their real world space, this does the same with album covers, pretty cool.

This is so very, very true:

Wow, image heavy post today, but here’s one more for you:

That’s it for now, have a great one!



Another fun update for everyone, hope you enjoy!

Amazing XKCD wedding cake:

XKCD web comic wedding cake 

And some other cook cakes from Nerdist.

I’m not sure if this is somehow connected to the book about the Subway system, but there is an indy documentary about the font “Helvetica.”  I need to find a way to see this!

Lifehacker has a good article about how to protect you stuff.  I especially like the idea of setting up a fake porn folder with your contact and reward information on a flash drive.  Genius!  And here is their article about free apps, check it out.

This is scary, there are squid that can jump out of the water.

Hardcore Gaming, which is a strangely very static, web 1.0 type of site, ran an article a while back about Myst.  Check it out if you’re interested, and haven’t heard enough about it from me before.

Here’s a cool video about what if Mozilla made a cell phone:

Need to mix up your board games?  This book will help.

Here’s the projected timeline of the death of newspapers around the world.  We’ll see how this plays out.

And finally, a week without Facebook?  MSNBC tries it out.



And I’m back!  Enjoy some of this awesomeness as I continue to go through my e-mail, back logs of links and find all kinds of stuff from around the Net for you to enjoy:

Lifehacker takes you through the steps to disable Places on Facebook.  As with anything regarding privacy on Facebook, the steps necessary are long and involved (or at least, longer and more involved than they should be), but I did them this afternoon, so they aren’t impossible.

Did you know that the Old Spice man wants to be a superhero?  Check out his transformation here:

And in other amazing video, watch this deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, available on the soon to be released Blu-Ray versions.

I came cross a new blog, Better Book Titles.  A personal favorite (and what has turned into my white whale):

(It’s really Infinite Jest, which I have started and gotten about 100 pages in at least four times now…)

A Chinese mall has a new “rage center” where women can go in and smash items that were going to be thrown out anyway.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

This article is just blowing my mind a little bit:

Intel announced Tuesday that it had made the first chip that sends and receives information using beams of light…And the company expects to make one eventually that can transmit a laptop’s hard drive in one second and the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in less than two minutes.

One of the designers of the U.S. State Quarters has released a couple parodies, including this wonderful one of New Jersey:

 

China is planning huge buses that run on rails (so I guess it is a mix of light rail and bus) that cars can drive underneath.  Amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-iIIMco46A

Sharpie is developing a new pen that can be erased for up to three days before becoming permanent.  Crazy!

Check out historical events, if they had Facebook status updates.  My favorite is Issac Newton, way down at the bottom.

This has been floating around for a bit, but here’s the trailer for the movie adaptation of The Oregon Trail (not real):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHps2SecuDk

And finally, for the D&D kids out there, here’s t-shirt designs for D&D inspired sports teams.  I love the gelatinous cubes (because who doesn’t love to say ‘gelatinous’) and the Displacer Beasts:

That’s it for now, but I should be back tomorrow, have a great one!



Back for more, thanks for reading!

Need a handy reference chart when discussing Sci-Fi?  Check this out.

Or maybe you’d rather take some time to get your finances in order, Lifehacker has you covered!

I posted the first one before, but here is the fully sick rapper again:

Synaesthesia is really weird, especially in how many different forms it takes, and I’m pretty sure I fit into at least one, and possibly two categories.  I don’t watch Dr. Who, so I’m not going to call myself a Time Lord, but how cool would that look on business cards!

Here’s an interesting article about the current state of the GOP.  I’m always excited when Buckley is discussed, since I actually know a little about him (and his son, one of my favorite authors).

Do you love Dr. Horrible’ Sing Along Blog?  Of course you do!  Do you miss 8-bit video games?  Of course you do?  Check it out:

Would you like to make prank calls…as Tiger Woods?  Again, of course you would!  Slate has your soundboard here.

This is making its way around the internet, guerrilla bridge building:

Astoria Scum River Bridge from Jason Eppink on Vimeo.

 

Andrew Sullivan has been talking about a giant statue of Mary, and here’s a follow up post about the area around the statue.  The image reminds me of a combination of Er’Cana (from URU) and the beginning area of Myst V.  I know, I’m a huge nerd.  This shot also reminds me of some of the areas in “The Great and Secret Show” and “Everville.”  As much as I want to post it over here I won’t, since it only has to do with the book.

This is a cool graph, and I think shows one of the reasons I love podcasts so much, I can multitask with them.  And I listen to free ones (well, all but one).

Are you upset by the Catholic Church?  How about trying to get excommunicated?  One Seattle writer tries it, I’ll keep you posted.  The letter is gut-wrenching and heartfelt, here’s a snippet:

I demand to be excommunicated because I do not believe women are second-class citizens. I demand to be excommunicated because your missionaries are informing impoverished citizens of third-world countries that birth control is a sin when it is in fact the single most important thing they could do to gain some small amount of control over their economic situation and health. I demand to be excommunicated because your church has become a hate group as virulent as any this world has ever seen, one that is unnaturally obsessed with the sex lives of good men and women across the planet. I demand to be excommunicated because I do not condone child rape or the concealment of child rape.

And my mind has been blown in like eighteen little pieces from trying to understand this link.  I heard this elsewhere recently and I’m trying to remember where, but for the life of me I can’t.  Maybe that’s because we’re exploding backwards from a white hole!

A guy has made a computer program called Jarvis, and integrated it into his apartment, as well as his GPS phone and his friends phones.  It can tell when they are coming home and turn lights on, turn lights on and off for the dog and all kinds of other things.  Here he is showing how it helps him out in the kitchen.  Very much a bachelor, and I do think the paper towels so close to an outlet and the George Foreman grill may be a safety hazard:

Thank goodness Ginny commented on this picture, I had seen it that morning in the PG and screamed a little inside.  Sometimes I love Harrisburg:

That’s it for now, have a great one!



Hello everybody!  Big ole update for you today, enjoy the links and all the fun things!

I saw Alice in Wonderland last week, and I enjoyed it, although the 3D was totally unnecessary, and I would suggest you save the money and see it in normal 2D.  One entire section of the movie is the classic orange/blue contrast (Alice’s dress and the Mad Hatter’s hair), which was cool, but kind of overdone.  And strangely enough, every singe preview before the movie was for a Disney movie.  My brother and I both noticed it, I hope that does not become a trend.  Disney however, did do a cool thing and pull the original Alice out of the vault for an ‘unanniversary’ release.  And finally on the subject of Alice, check out what Disney did with $700,000 dollars:

The Wrap discusses the blurring of the line between news and advertising and the journalistic integrity/ad revenue debate that always rages on.  Do I like te ad?  Not really, I don’t think it made much use of the medium.  Do I think readers realized it was an ad and knew to turn the page?  Yes.  Do I think it probably annoyed them?  Yes.  But then again, those are just my thoughts.

Also in ad news, Copyranter has coverage of an awesome McDonalds ad:

Copyranter also links to a spot for colon/rectal screening, pretty clever:

Queen of the Nerds, Felecia Day will return as Little Red Riding Hood on SyFy (I feel dirty just typing that).  I’m very excited, hopefully it turns out well.  Now to wait for The Guild season 4!

Also in nerd news, BrentalFloss’s first CD is coming out soon:

Speaking of nerd type things, you should read Sex Advice from a DnD player, including this gem:

I’ve been dating someone really great for a few months, but he’s never referred to me as his girlfriend. How do I take it to another Level?

While the obvious answer is “Accomplish a story task in the boyfriend track for XP equal or greater to your next level threshold,” I get the feeling you might be hinting that you want to descend into the fetid labyrinth that festers beneath his ancient wizard’s tower. In that case the stairs are in quadrant M23, behind the Throne of the Kobold Hetman.

During the Oscars, I was really interested in the winner of one of the short film categories: Logorama.  Check out the entire film (16  minutes) here.

I know it’s been over for a while, but this is one of the coolest things to come out of the Olympics: Water usage (specifically dealing with toilet flushes) during the gold medal hockey game.  Pretty awesome!

Here’s a cool video made entirely from a flatbed scanner:

Memoirs of a Scanner (Pillows Edition) from Damon Stea on Vimeo.

 

XKCD is one of my favorite online comics.  Toby Dave and Ian explain it here, and Jocelyn explain Toby, Dave and Ian explaining it here.  Wow, so meta!

I missed it (due to date and the fact it was in Washington State), but even though I’m horribly afraid of any kind of public protest, I might have gone to a protest for Pluto:

ATTENTION ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS!

A horrible injustice has occurred! Aghast astronomers, intrepid interstellar adventurers, and many others have joined forces to protest one of the darkest days in recent solar system history. Pluto—the smallest and most distant planet—has been removed from the planetary pantheon.

We refuse to bow to this outrageous decree and declare: PLUTO IS A PLANET.

It’s been stirring for a while, but here are some of the letters that have been send to the Itawamba County School Board, in response to their cancellation of prom and then trying to blame it on one of their students.

And speaking of, here is a great, great editorial piece written in response to it, here is one of my favorite paragraphs, which is a little out of context, so I would encourage you to read the whole thing:

What happens is that some Protestants cherry-pick edicts out of the Bible that support their prejudices and then, in a neat bit of mental judo, spread their arms wide and claim their religion is under attack if anyone contradicts them. “What about tolerance for ME?” they cry. It’s as if I seized a copy of the Bible and began beating someone over the head with it and, when you try to stop me, I accuse you of failing to respect my faith.

And some more old news, check out Jon Stewart discuss the Massa/Beck interview:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Sour Gropes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Cool video showcasing monsters/aliens taking profile pictures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcbZ0v8Mpvk

Here’s an interesting article about how to put together a useful online news room, some great ideas, although I would probably pick and choose a couple of things, depending on the situation of course.  And Nathan discusses some of his favorite online tools.

Remember those old Choose your Own Adventure books?  How about choose your own adventure blog?  Pretty cool stuff!  I can’t wait to read through it!  And here’s the Twitter version.  Speaking of Twitter, have you ever wanted to see Tweets illustrated?  Of course you have!

I saw this on Slog, and I think a couple other places, but here’s a cool video about possible future kiosks that will work with tablets:

Penguin Books is going to be releasing cloth bound, hard cover classics, the design is very old, but impressive (especially the cloth).  Here is what the first and second sets will look like.

Apparently one of Tiger’s mistresses has released the contents of her text messages with him.  Apparantly we already knew half of the conversation, so Slate put together their own version:

Joslyn: Sent: 04:02 PM 08/28/2009:
What would you say to Carlsbad Caverns if you were there right now?

Tiger: Sent: 04:06 PM 08/28/2009:
I want to be deep inside you

Joslyn: Sent: 04:12 PM 08/28/2009:
LOL. I love spelunking.

I don’t see what all the fuss is about!

And an absolutely, positively must watch clip:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Conservative Libertarian
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

And here’s an awesome video from Colbert about the Census:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
United States Census 2010
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

And in scout news, the Girl Scouts (who are surprisingly more and more progressive, even if their paperwork or organization doesn’t really work or make any sense), even (denying and then admitting) to putting out a sex-positive, realistic pamphlet.  The PR is kind of a nightmare (denying it, then making up lies, then saying that it was yours all along).  And the story is at a conservative site that uses a boy scout merit badge sash by the way.  And over on the other side of the gender gap, an Eagle project had to be changed from a volleyball court to bocce due to noise concerns.  It doesn’t make any sense to me at all, but that is part of the process, working with the community. I will add though, that when we play bocce at camp, we are generally pretty loud, it’s because we’re having fun!

The Kill The Gays bill in Uganda debate rages on, Andrew Sullivan covers it, here’s a quote:

The anti-homosexuality bill, simply put, is a backlash. A backlash from a group that, in the long run, is losing the battle of ideas.

Andrew also recently had a great entry about his marriage:

Even though we have been together for six years, shared a household for five and a half years, pooled our finances for five and a half years and will be celebrating our third wedding anniversary this summer, we are total strangers as far as the federal government is concerned. And if the federal government recognized our marriage, I would have been an American citizen three years ago. In fact, if I had married a longtime female friend 20 years ago, I would be a long-standing citizen right now. (Yes, a heterosexual marriage would have voided the HIV ban automatically for the past 22 years.)

What does the federal government call a legally married man who has paid taxes for twenty-two years and has a PhD, and a job? A faggot.

I almost forgot, Healthcare finally passed!  Here’s some reaction to it, as well as how it will affect you (three versions here, here and hereAnd here’s some reaction and some answers to common questions (a very good read) as well as Slate’s ideas for the Republican party.

Here’s a great, if asshole-ish series of e-mails, the greatest quote:

Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus have a sword fight.

Ben Folds sings to Chatroulette users as his new alter ego, Merton, live during a concert.  Check it out:

Here’s a really cool evaluation of Flickr images throughout the seasons (click through for the whole article):

Lifehacker covers how to make cheap and effective screen covers here.

In college we read a book called The Influentials, and this made me think of my friend Teri, who most certainly was an influential on our campus.  I’ll have to alert her to her changing status…

I don’t have anything to add to this trailer, it’s just awesome:

And finally, here’s a cool montage of movie endings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOqSXHtk0s

That’s it for now, have a great one!

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