The most valuable supply of worthlessness on the web
A quick little test of your typing speed. Interested in how I did? Well, here you go (click on image for full view). Post in comments how well you did – comments don’t require an account, so take a second to let others know how well you did.
EDIT: Added link – thanks Tim G.
[tags]Typing speed, Typing test[/tags]
Virtual keyboard: $130 – Get it in Japan in November.
LiveScience.com has this article on the mating habits of a certain spider species (Physocylus globosus, if you must know). “Now why in the world would this make you say men are wrong, Randy?” you might be thinking. Well, because much like everything else we males do, the females instruct the males in how they are mating incorrectly. And all you voyeuristic perverts can even watch the video and hear the audio of these 2 little critters getting it on.
While mating, female Physocylus globosus spiders emit high-frequency squeaks to let males know what they should be doing, a new study finds.
Science shows what women have said for centuries – men are dogs.
Stupid old Hitler thought he had the formula for the perfect race. He considered skin color to be one of the important factors in building the perfect race. Then came the 1936 Olympics, where Jesse Owens went on to win or be on the team that won 4 gold medals, the 4th coming on this date in 1936. This showed Hitler that either he was wrong about skin color being an important part of the perfect race, or that he’d selected the wrong skin color.
In 1931, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin. The choice was meant to signal Germany’s return to the world community after defeat in World War I. Two years later, however, Adolf Hitler came to power. He transformed the democratic German government into a one-party dictatorship, purged political opponents and suspected dissidents, instituted anti-Semitic policies, and began the remilitarization of Germany.
Hitler initially held the Olympics in low regard because of their internationalism but became an avid supporter after Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels convinced him of their propaganda value.
Continue reading “Today in History – Jesse Owens puts hole in Hitler’s theories of superior race”
As you’ve probably gathered from some of my recent posts, I tend to aimlessly wander around the intarwebbe from time to time. In those ramblings, I usually find nothing of note. Occasionally, however, I find stuff that I really think is worth passing on. The latest such finding is the site National Parks Traveler, which discusses various goings-on in America’s national parks. After reading a few days worth of posts there, I look to the sidebar and see what categories I have to look in on the site. Out of curiosity, I decide to see what the Missteps in the Park category holds. Among the lost tourist details is this little helpful hint on how NOT to behave in a national park.
So, what’s at play here? Are we talking communing up close with nature, or a building case of child neglect?
I’d opt for the latter. I mean, really, where are the parents and what are they thinking? Do they have a death wish for their kids? Any bets that if the kids wound up being gored, which they didn’t, that the parents would sue the National Park Service?
LiveScience.com has a guide for all you future evil genuises who are trying to figure out the best way to destroy the earth. And since I know I have some vil geniuses reading the site, I’ll help you out and get some of the details up here. I can clue you in up front that there is no mention of sharks nor frikkin’ laser beams.
Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.
You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.
Fools.
The Earth was built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you’ve had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.
So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do not think this will be easy.
(via LifeHacker)
In case any of you are leaving for college soon, here is a list of some of the things you need to take that you would otherwise forget or didn’t know you needed (along with links to other lists of stuff you need to take).
7. If you’re a drinker… Girl? No Alcohol. Guy? Bring Alcohol!
If you’re a girl, celebrate. It will probably be 4 years before you pay for alcohol ever again. Guys, we don’t have it so good.
[tags]College packing list[/tags]
Sometimes, we need to look back at the past and learn our history. I don’t really know why, but I hear that if we don’t, we’ll repeat it. Not, mind you, that I’d have problems repeating some of my past. But then, there are things from my past that I’d rather not repeat – mononucleosis ranks high on the I’d rather not repeat that part of my past list. Although I guess that’s not what people mean. But I digress…
So, let’s look at the information the January 1932 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine had to tell us about cartooning and how these magical mystical marvels of modern movement are made (yeah, baby – high five for decent alliteration there).
After years of a successful black-and-white career, animated cartoons are due to take on the additional appeal of color, thanks to the perfection of a process which is explained in detail in this article.
THE first of 13 one-reel animated cartoon comedies in color have just been completed in Hollywood, marking the beginning of a new era in this popular form of entertainment which has already made Mickey Mouse and his cohorts the highest paid actors in the movie world, although they draw no salaries. Ted Eshbaugh, a Boston artist, is the man who has at last succeeded in producing animateds in color. Making the colored comics duplicates the manufacture of black-white comics excepting the intricate application of color to the characters and transferring that color to the double negative that creeps through the recording camera a frame at a time. When you consider that 15,000 separate drawings on celluloid must be made by a staff of artists for a single reeler, composed of 16,000 frames, and that each figure or group of figures on each celluloid will display possibly six color combinations, you get some idea of the intricacy and tediousness of the process.
It’s a rather lengthy article, and in a rare showing of restraint on my part, I’ll pass on copying a large part of it and filling up my page with things you have to skip over if you aren’t interested in seeing. Instead, head over to the Modern Mechanix web site if you want to view the complete article and image.
[tags]Modern Mechanix, How color cartoons are made[/tags]
Another shot from Roswell. God, I love her hair in that picture. Does thinking that’s the best part of that picture mean there’s something wrong with me?
[tags]Eye Candy, Katherine Heigl[/tags]
Make your own 8×8 animated LED signboard.
