Thursday, November 09, 2006

Another Reason Why I Love CraigsList

It's fun checking out some of the Best of CraigsList postings occasionally. You never know what people will post and some of it is simply hilarious. Take this gem from L.A. CraigsList ranting on Pringles potato chips. You have to read the whole thing to appreciate it. And if it eventually gets removed, I've also hosted a PDF of that post HERE so you can still read it.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Homer's Greatest Quotes

Just about every memorable Homer Simpson comment on one page at The Homer Simpson Sound Page. (Some I don't even remember ever hearing!)

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Our Troops in Iraq Send a Message to John Kerry

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

- John Kerry 2006

* And just so John Kerry knows these guys are for real, they're the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota National Guard, Sir!

Always ready, always there!

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Lewis Black on Candy Corn

Just in time for Hallowe'en: America's angriest comedian rant on candy corn as posted on YouTube.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Free Fonts Online

When Apple first came out with the Macintosh and the LaserWriter, typographers everywhere first thought that their careers were coming to an abrupt demise. They imagined that every Mom and Pop operation with such a relatively inexpensive desktop publishing setup would be able to knock out all of their own printed materials quickly and inexpensively. Well, fortunately it never happened; having the equipment was certainly no prerequisite to being a fantastic graphic designer or typographer. In fact, we used to have a not-so-nice term for some of the awful results that got churned out: The Ransom Note Effect. "Hell, I've got 50 fonts on my Mac. Why not use all of 'em on this client's brochure?"

Anyway, with that little bit of desktop publishing history, I'll segue right into the subject of fonts and the fact that you really can't ever have enough of them. Especially when you're looking around for that one font that suits a headline or presentation that you're working on. I just discovered a new site called NeatFonts. These guys have managed to collect hundreds and hundreds of free or shareware fonts from everywhere and loaded them up on one site that's reasonably manageable. Check 'em out HERE. They even have some spooky ones for that last-minute Halloween invitation you've been putting off!

Best New Application for Duct Tape

David Blaine Puts His Hand Through Glass

One of my favorite David Blaine Street Magic gags as posted on YouTube.

Time to Quit Smoking

Saturday, October 28, 2006

World Stats in Real Time

A full page of important global statistics that actually update in real time HERE. Some of the numbers are staggering.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Selling Microsoft Windows 1.0 (1985)

I'm sure this was done as a gag (at least I hope so) but like all things stupid, they have a nasty way of lingering around and then coming back to bite you in the ass. Guess Steve Ballmer didn't even have any hair back in those days either. This commercial is scary! (As shown on YouTube.)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

How Much Should You REALLY Weigh?

Tired of all the crap about BMI and all that other stuff? A more realistic way to calculate your proper weight should take both your frame size and your height into account. Check it out HERE at HealthatOz.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Add Your Name to the One-Mile Website

Pass this one on -- fun idea! Just type in your name and city to add another 5 cm (2 inches for the metricly-challenged) to a website that's trying to create the first One-Mile Website.

Skidboot -- Smartest Dog Around

You probably remember Skidboot the Dog. If not by name, then at least by his incredible intelligence. He's been on just about every show on American television -- including Oprah and Letterman -- over the past 10 years and he's won a gold medal on Discovery Channel. Here's an 8-minute video posted on YouTube that pretty much covers his amazing career.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Kids and Video Games

This slideshow on Flickr is both a funny and a sad statement. This family takes their little kid to these incredible landmarks all over the world -- and all the kid wants to do is play his GameBoy!

Just Some Silly Fun for the Kids Today

Farting Dog Harmonics from AmishDonkey.

Johnny Cash Sings 'Hurt"

Wow! This is a video of Johnny Cash doing a cover of Nine-Inch Nails' "Hurt." You can feel his sadness and pain come through in this final personal performance recorded after the death of June Carter Cash. (I originally posted this with a link to Google Video but it got dropped so here it is on YouTube.)

Ridiculous 20-inch Laptop from Dell

I can still remember those huge Compaq "Portable" computers of the 80's (Wikipedia reference HERE). These were the precursors of the laptops and notebooks of today. In fact, it was the first PC that I purchased when I began my first tech startup. I think it was a Thursday afternoon when I walked into the local ComputerLand and bought that computer along with a copy of WordPerfect (I actually still have the entire package complete with 5¼-inch floppy disk software!) and Lotus 1-2-3 Ver. 1.0B or something like that. I had the weekend to pull together an entire business plan and projections. Never mind that I also had to learn the software as well. Nonetheless, I managed and -- over the next 6 months - we managed to raise over $500,000 to start the company. The Compaq had a little green screen, a small hard drive and a floppy drive all built in with a detachable keyboard. It was encased in Lexan to make it virtually indestructible (and amazingly it was!). I remember the Compaq Portable was more lovingly known as the Compaq Luggable, weighing in at something over 25-30 pounds. If you ran too hard through the airport swinging this thing for balance, you were just as likely to shear off a kneecap (which I managed to do on more than one occasion). Nonetheless, it did serve me well and it kept working long after we'd launched the company.

So now Dell has decided to come back with bigger once again by introducing a stupid 2-inch (yes, you read that right -- 20-INCH!) laptop. I emphasize the name laptop because I personally can't believe you could call this monster a notebook. It's huge, it's heavy and it's probably quite useless as an easily-transportable computer. I suspect that it will have some limited appeal to those who need the huge display for presentations on the road when you want it all in one package. Other than that, I suppose it could be used for a mini-theater that several people could sit around and watch but... Anyway, this reviewer for c/net UK did a really humorous video to demonstrate the size of this thing and it's well worth watching for the laughs.

Friday, October 20, 2006

How Safe is Your Drinking Water?

The US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has a very extensive study on the quality of drinking water that covers most of the United States. Go to the site HERE and click on your state or region to get a more detailed report. (The picture attached here doesn't link BTW.)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

It's the Caffeine That'll Kill Ya!

Just exactly how much Coke or coffee would it take to kill you? Well that depends on how big you are. Like to find out? Check out Death by Caffeine HERE.

More Photoshop Touchups

Want to see just how good Photoshop can make you look? Check out what this picture looked like Before.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Crappy Halloween Costume

Literally. Would you let YOUR kid go out dressed like this?

(More costumes HERE.)

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words Part II

My Kinda Search Engine!

Forget Google, toss Yahoo!, quit Ask. Check out Ms. Dewey. I love her!

Monday, October 16, 2006

How to Lose Your Job on Live TV

Make sure you read below BEFORE watching this video clip.

It's from a real show in Holland... It's a video of a Dutch interviewer who is interviewing a man on a LIVE TV (Dutch version of 60 Minutes) on "Surgeries Gone Wrong."

This man had a surgical team inadvertently remove his testicles. I think the interviewer could have handled the facts but it was the man's voice that appears to have set him off. Watch a veteran reporter's career go down the drain in about 30 seconds.

It doesn't need to be in English to understand what is happening.

Medical Interview (Windows WMV file approx. 4 Mb)


Thriller Done to Benny Hill

A YouTube mix combining The Benny Hill Show theme song over the Michael Jackson Thriller video. Excellent!

An Oldie-but-Goodie for Monday Morning

The Story:

She spent the first day packing her personal belongings into boxes, crates, and suitcases.

On the second day, she had the movers come to collect her things.

On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay.

When she had finished, she went into each and every room and deposited a few half-eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the curtain rods.

She then cleaned up the kitchen and left. When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell.

They tried everything, cleaning, mopping, and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned.

Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting.

Nothing worked.

People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid even quit.

Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move. A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and eventually, even the local Realtors refused to return their calls.

Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.

The ex-wife called the man, and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely, and said that she missed her old home terribly, and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.

Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on a price that was about 1/10 of what the house had been worth, but only if she were to sign the papers that very day.

She agreed, and within the hour his lawyers delivered the paperwork.

A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home, including the curtain rods.

I LOVE A HAPPY ENDING, DON'T YOU?

Sunday, October 15, 2006

What Does She REALLY Look Like Under All the Makeup?

Dove the soap company has been running a very successful campaign for natural beauty. Some of their print ads have featured groups of women (don't know why they haven't included men yet; maybe it's the fact that most men don't use a beauty bar on their faces at night before going to bed?) covering a wide range of ages and sizes. None of the women are your atypical stick-figure model types that normally jump at you from magazine covers and billboards everywhere.

I like this campaign. Especially when you consider the fact that most women don't even closely resemble the glamorous models that show up evrywhere. But just how much makeup do they plaster on to make them look the way they do? And with digital imaging software like PhotoShop, they can re-touch the pictures even more to create an impossible vision of beauty. Dove has posted an incredibly well-done time lapse video of a rather frumpy model being converted over to a stunning cover girl. Check it out HERE.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Cannibals in the Workplace

Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity.

"You are all part of our team now," said the Human Resources rep during the welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any employees."

The cannibals promised they would not. Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard and I'm satisfied with your work. We have noticed a marked increase in the whole company's performance. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?"

The cannibals all shook their heads, "No."

After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?"

A hand rose hesitantly.

"You fool!" the leader continued. "For four weeks we've been eating managers and no one noticed any difference in production. But Nooo -- you had to go and eat someone who actually does something!!!"

Friday, October 13, 2006

Painting a Plane in Two Minutes

An amazing two-minute time lapse video on where else? YouTube. Painting a brand-new Virgin Airlines Airbus A320.

Amadeus Revisited

I suspect that with YouTube growing even more rapidly now that Google has bought them, more and more retouched clips like this one are going to be showing up. This one's childish but fun (probably funnier to the guys). As seen on YouTube.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Kim Jong Il Music Video

From the MADtv 12th Season Premier as shown on YouTube. Really well done.

Cute Italian Teddy Bear

Something to send all of your friends: A VERY cute Italian Teddy Bear (I think he must be from New York?).

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Election Ad Deemed Too Hot to Show

Although David Zucker wrote and produced this anti-Democrat ad completely with his own money for the upcoming election, even the most hard-core GOP decided it was wa-ay too hot to run. Zucker -- for those who are not horror movie fans -- made the Scary Movie series. The actress plays a great Madeleine Albright (who else do you recognize?). So it looked like it was going to get locked up in the film vault, never to be seen again. But as with all things video in the age of YouTube, here it is for your viewing pleasure.



BTW Zucker started off as a Hollywood Dem but got disillusioned with his party's attitudes towards national and international security. So he switched parties and voted for Bush.

Monday, October 09, 2006

A Tearjerker of a True Story

This was an article written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated (June 13, 2005 edition). Be sure to check out the Google video at the bottom.

Strongest Dad in the World

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."


Who Else Has Your Name?


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
50,209
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?


A new site popped up called How Many of Me that lets you type in your name to see how many other folks happen to have your name in the US. Based on the US Census data, this online app provides lots of fun when you start checking different people's names against that database. Try your friends and family and if that starts to get boring, start typing in what you think are weird names!

From the site itself: "There are 299,940,047 people in the United States of America. If everyone in the U.S. lined up single file, the line would stretch around the Earth almost 7 times. That's a lot of people.

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics tell us that there are at least 88,799 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in the United States. Some names are more common than others.

There are 49,531 people named John Smith in the United States. There are 1,048 people named James Bond, 113 people named Harry Potter , 503 people named George Bush, and 31 people named Emily Dickinson. However, Johnny Cash (39 people) songs aside there are, statistically speaking, no boys named Sue."

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Human Time

An unusual digital clock for your Desktop.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Cops Lose a Chase!

Normally when you see those car chases down the freeway with the cops in hot pursuit, the lesson they generally point out is that they will always catch you. Except in the case of this wild and crazy bicylclist. Man, now just where exactly DID Lance Armstrong retire? From Break.com.

For All You Shaving Freaks Out There...


and you know who you are... Go to Shave Your Yeti and try you hand!

Battle of the Bands (Covers)

Nice little piece of animation. How many of these old covers do YOU recognize? (or even dare to admit you own?) And even more films from the ad guys who put this one together.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Grossest Commercial of the Week: Burger King

And it's for their Triple Whopper (ugh!). Eat like a snake. Just for this commercial alone, I know I won't be touching one of these things for quite some time into the future. As shown on You Tube.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Take This Elevator Ride

Wow! Check out the floor on this elevator. More pictures HERE.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

From the Dopey-Ideas-Dept.

Well, many of us personally witnessed the rise and fall of the stupid CueCat, which garnered millions in venture capital from the likes of Forbes Magazine and Radio Shack among others. So along comes another really, REALLY STUPID concept (I won't even dignify it by calling it an idea!): The CombiMouse (dopey name too). Who thought combining a mouse and half-a-keyboard was a great product? Award-winning? My ass! Geez...

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

A Video Site I Can Identify With

Hey -- we all have to know our limitations. Me, I like to invent products, start companies, write, paint and draw. But dance? Fuggedaboudit. And this afternoon, I came across a page full of reasons why people who can't dance simply... shouldn't. It's aptly named WeCantDance.com. Thanks for the reminder, guys! To get you started, here's Elaine's Dance Video from an old episode of Seinfeld.

Monday, October 02, 2006

The Immigration Debate

Ha ha -- Why is it that cartoons often end up being able to express things in such a simple way when a million politicians, bloggers and any other opinionated hacks with an opinion can't? As posted on YouTube.

The End of the World in 60 Seconds

This Flash animation takes a while to load up but it's worth the wait. A cynical but funny look at how it'll all end.

Someone You Don't Like?

Hire your own hitman!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Commercial of the Week: VISA

Cute and really well done. As shown on YouTube.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

The Anniversary Present

Ed was in serious trouble. He'd forgotten his wedding anniversary. His wife became really angry. She told him, "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!"

The next morning Ed got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift - wrapped in the middle of the driveway.Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Ed has been missing since Friday.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Too Much Time on Our Hands

Some people think I have too much time on my hands (but it actually just takes me minutes to post to my blogs). Still, when I see guys like THIS, I gotta tell you: THIS guy has wa-ay too much time on his hands! A micro Happy Meal? Supersize this one please!

Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT! Episode on PETA

Penn and Tellers show BULLSHIT! covers the two faced foundation PETA.


part 2 of 3 sections


Part 3 of 3

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Weird Al's Top 10 Videos

I admit: I'm sick. But I really enjoy Weird Al's parodies of music videos. And this guy's got more holding power than most of the musicians he pokes fun at. S. Robbin has posted a Top 10 List on his blog HERE (I didn't even know he had as many as 10 videos!). My two personal favorites? Eat It and Like a Surgeon.



Who WAS That Little Guy?

Remember that Indian Tamil video that went around with what looked like a little kid dancing away to some old stop-action dance music? I posted it a couple of days ago HERE. It's apparently been viewed online well over a million times! Turns out he's a midget actor who's somewhat popular in India and Yahoo! Video has posted a short story on it:

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Cruelty to Animals?

What would PETA say about this? Cat in a fishbowl...

San Francisco in Jell-O

Check out this incredible portfolio of pics from San Francisco artist, Liz Hickok. Her portfolio shows a shots from her San Francisco in Jell-O project. It's one of those How-the-Hell-Did-She-Do-That ideas. Incredible! Hope Jell-O contacts her for promotions!

Thank Heaven for 7-11!

In a bold move announced this morning, 7-11 has officially dropped Venezuelan-owned Citgo as their gas supplier. Over 2,100 7-11 owned gas stations will be switching to a company-owned brand now that their supply contract with Citgo Petroleum has expired because of President Hugo Chavez' ongoing rants towards the US in general and President Bush in particular. Support your local 7-11: Go out there and buy a Slurpee today!

Dizzy Yet?

Ever since I was a little kid, optical illusions have always fascinated me. Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a Professor of Psychology Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan with a little more than a passing fancy in optical illusions. This guys spends his spare time creating some of the most incredible visual whirlpools I've ever laid eyes on. Most of it seems to be produced these days on computers using Adobe Illustrator. (His stuff is copyrighted but he allows you to show up to 3 at a time with acknowledgment of his ownership.) Check out his collection online HERE. I promise you won't get bored.

Commercial of the Week: Got Milk?

This one's for the guys; sort of...

Pit Bulls

Like a lot of other cities, many townships in and around Seattle are considering legislation to ban or limit owning Pit Bulls. FoxNews covers the debate in a pretty comprehensive piece entitled Pit Bull Ban Punishes Dogs for Bad Owners. (I agree.) The breed also gets confused with a lot of other dogs and there's a site called Find the Pit Bull to see how many you can identify. Still, I'd rather not have one living next door to me.

Another Weird eBay Auction

Want to buy that silicon-skinned FemBot from Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me? You have until October 1 to place your bids on the lovely Vanessa. Opening bid is $3000 and they'll include the original outfit from the movie! Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. (More pics on the auction page.)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Paul Allen's Brain Atlas

All I can really say is, "Wow! Thanks a lot, Paul!" A few years ago, Microsoft billionaire co-founder, Paul Allen, funded the Allen Institute for Brain Science with $100 million. Half the money was earmarked for lab research and the rest was to fund a sub-project called the Allen Brain Atlas. The Brain Atlas was just recently completed and is now up and running online HERE. Even more remarkable was that the project came in $9 million underbudget (!) and Paul Allen has put their entire project online for free access to everyone. The research is based on mice brains which turn out to be genetically similar to human brains. The site is absolutely a gem and I encourage everyone to take a look at this wonderful gift.

For those few of you who have been living in a cave somewhere on the outer borders of Pakistan and may not know Paul Allen, he co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with partner, Bill Gates. Here's his Wikipedia biography. In 1983, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, forcing him to leave the Company and pursue aggressive treatment. He eventually recovered but never really went back to work at Microsoft full-time like his old partner, Bill Gates. As a direct result of his personal life exepriences, some of Paul Allen's philanthropy has included a lot of generous funding for medical research and brain studies in particular. Looks like we're all about to benefit once again from his generosity.

A Short History of Search Engines

If you want a short read on how Search evolved online, Search Engine guru Aaron Wall has posted up a decent summary of the History of Search Engines on his site Search-Marketing. His piece covers the earliest conceptual ideas of building a central "clearing house" for information and knowledge to the rise of online search giants like Google that came out of the explosive growth of the Internet. Wall provides nice summaries on many of the core bits of search like Bots and how they work.

How They Make Aluminum Foil

Most of you know I'm a sucker for information, especially a lot of the How-to and How-Do-They-Do-That variety. I ran across this video this morning and found it fascinating enough to want to share it.


How To Make Foil - video powered by Metacafe

Monday, September 25, 2006

Why I Was Fired

For the last departmental picnic, management decided that -- due to liability issues -- we could have alcohol but only one (1) drink per person.

Geez. I was fired for ordering the damn cups!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Fun Flash Game after a Weekend of Carousing

The game is aptly named Aim Your Pee After a Few Dozen Beers. I know, I know -- it's childish. But it's a GUY thing, right? And besides, they added a chick's version, so there!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Super slow motion of a water balloon being popped

I have a soft spot for cool film work. A high speed camera captures a water balloon being punctured with a scapel.

The GoDaddy Commercial That DIDN"T Make the SuperBowl

From DIGG: Funniest Video of the Day

Bill Clinton Video Game

The name speaks for itself. An excellent video clip posted on YouTube (contains adult material).

Friday, September 22, 2006

Another Jesus Image Appears on Dog

Oh my Dog! A miracle! The image of Jesus appears on a terrier! Be sure to click the link on this website and watch the mysterious image appear.

Einstein The Parrot

I know this one has been circulating over and over but I never get tired of watching Einstein the Parrot. This bird is frickin' smart! From a February 2005 episode on The Discovery Channel.

Commercial of the Week: Cancelled Dodge Commercial

I actually remember seeing this commercial this past Spring and Summer. It's my pick for (occasional) Commercial of the Week.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Pass This On! An eBay Phishing Spoof!

I just got this very real looking e-mail that appears to be from eBay inviting me to join their PowerSellers. But you're told you only have 24 hours to take them up on this offer. And despite how authentic this e-mail looked, they still made a dopey grammatical error (Why you become a PowerSeller?).

When I hovered over the link in this e-mail, it showed a re-directed domain of PowerSellerOnline.com so I simply checked who it was registered with through GoDaddy. And it turned out in fact to be registered with their Private Domain services down in Scottsdale, Arizona. People use the Private Domains by Proxy service for a number of reasons: one is for the privacy of avoiding all the junk mail and spam you get by making your information publicly available. Another reason is to hide who you really are underneath a couple of layers and hope you can get away with something before they shut you down. Sure looks like the second reason in this case.

When I clicked to the link, sure enough it took me to another site that had nothing to do with eBay but looked exactly like the eBay sign-in page asking for my user name and password. So typing in GoFuckYourself as my user name and FuckYou as the password simply took me back to the same page again. If you enter your real user name and password, they'd be into your account by now and trying to access your PayPal account too. Beware! I'll be sending this one along to the local FBI as well. Bastards. Please pass this one on to everyone you can.

Pope Apologizes... Again!

Geez -- how many times does the Pope have to apologize for the Muslim misinterpretation of his comments?
And here's a recent speech (translated a little loosely, of course) from YouTube.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Oprah Pumps Her Own Gas

Truth in Advertising: Oprah REALLY pumps her own gas on her road trip with Best Friend, Gayle. This will leave you in stitches -- shades of Paris Hilton!

What Does Your Phone Number Spell?

A fun distraction for a rainy afternoon (at least here in Seattle!): Type your phone number on PhoneSpell and see if it spells anything easy to remember. Great for helping kids remember their phone number.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Why They Keep Re-Designing the Hundred Dollar Bill

I generally try to post quirky, odd beat or humorous stuff on this blog. There's enough political ranting out there already. But once in a while, I see a piece that catches my attention as something that coud be an interesting read for everyone.

This old article posted on the BBC News site made a lot of sense. Apparently, the North Korean regime has been running an ongoing enterprise (I don't know what else you could call something of this scale) to produce the most incredibly perfect counterfeit US currency. And if you go back and look at all the re-designs of our bills, you'll see some correlation with Kim Jong-Il's printing presses. Incredible. And keep in mind that Saddam (and Iran) have also been high on the known list of government-sponsored counterfeiters. So now I wonder if we're flooding their markets with counterfeit money in THEIR currencies to retailiate and counter their stuff? (You gotta wonder!)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Weird Al: Back at Last!

Weird Al Yankovic's brand new music video, White and Nerdy got posted early on YouTube (of course!). I still like Weird Al for being one-of-a-kind.

Just How Fast is Fast Enough?

The theory goes that if you're driving fast enough, a speed trap camera won't be able to catch you in that incriminating second photograph as you zip by. These Brits decided to find out if 1) it could be done and 2) just how fast you had to be going to actually beat it if it was true. As shown on YouTube.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Pythons Can Really Eat Some Big Stuff

A lot of you had some doubts that pythons can eat things like big dogs and little kids. For those of you Doubting Thomases (or Thomasinas) out there, here's a clip from Discovery Channel as posted on YouTube.

Night of the Living Dead Now Available FREE Online

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is an absolute cult classic. Originally made in 1968 on a budget of $114,000 (!), it first gained notoriety for its graphic gore and quickly became the gold standard by which Moms would judge gross movies. Unfortunately for Romero, his distributor forgot to post his copyright at the end after making changes to a title. As a result, Romero's copyright protection expired prematurely and several copies of his movie have already been distributed everywhere (it happened to be the way copyright law was written at the time). You can read more about George Romero and his unfortunate loss on Wikipedia. You can also watch the original Night of the Living Dead on Google Video by clicking on the movie window below. Or you can download this movie in several formats (from Google, YouTube, etc.) for viewing later by installing VideoDownloader available HERE.