Song of the Day: Bad Case . . .

"Apparently from a Japanese 'Learn to Speak English' show" - Link (via Jim Smash!!!). Here's some more of the same - Link and Link

Join Tommy's 12 Days Of Christmas

"This kitteny celeb-fest of a video brings you some of today’s biggest stars, all supporting Tommy’s 12 Days of Christmas." - Link

YouTube Roundup

Here's a few of my favorite YouTube videos that I hope I get credit for introducing you to. If you've seen them before, I still saw them first. How can I prove it..? Well, I can't. I just know.

Whale, Dealership Training Video, I Hate Drake, Jack Black on Piracy, Winnebago Man, What's It Gonna Be?, Not Funny Blood, Well Hang, Spiders On Drugs, War Zone, Phone Guy: Okay, Naturally 7, Exploding Whale

Brickshelf

In my mind's eye growing up with Legos, this is what I saw. Well, maybe not this exactly. The stuff that I created was better. Anyway, some very cool images here - Link

AT&T: Remember Your Satellite Receiver When You Flee Your Burning House

"When this Azola couple got back from their honeymoon, they had about an hour of matrimonial bliss before being forced to flee as their house was engulfed in flames. So you can understand they had some things on their mind other than the status of their AT&T | Dish receiver as they ran for their lives. When they called to cancel service, the customer service rep asked if they had "remembered to pick up the receiver" as they left the house..." - Link (via Consumerist)

A Tale of Two Decisions

"According to Higazi, the investigators coerced him into confessing to a role in 9/11. Higazi first adamantly denied any involvement with 9/11 and could not believe what was happening to him. Then, he says, the investigator said his family would go through hell in Egypt, where they torture people like Saddam Hussein." - Link

The Book of SPAM

"Quick: what’s a product that’s found in 99% of all supermarkets in the US, sells about 80 million pounds every year, has a 20,000 member-strong fan club, its own museum, and even its own Broadway musical? It’s SPAM, of course!" - Link (via Neatorama)

Climate Could Wipe Out Half of World's Species

"If present global warming trends continue, the number of plant and animal extinctions we've witnessed over the past few years could be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A new study to be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B has suggested that rising temperatures could spark a wave of mass extinctions, claiming close to half of all species." - Link

DirectTV Uses Illegal Telemarketing

"DirecTV is defending automated sales calls to Do Not Call List subscribers as 'informational,' and 'not telemarketing.' The satellite TV provider recently called customers to say: 'Because you are on our Do Not Call List, we can't call you with all of our super-awesome special promotions.'" - Link

Condoms and HIV Cocktails will give you AIDS

"The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately. Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected 'in order to finish quickly the African people'." - CNN Link (via Boing Boing)

Patriot Act Unconstitutional

"The critical legal issue was that in the Patriot Act, Congress amended FISA to change the language from requiring "the purpose" of the search or surveillance be to obtain foreign intelligence information to only "a significant purpose" of the search or surveillance." - Link

Candid Camera Surprise

A terrific hidden camera clip. - Link

Ultra-Simple Hovercraft

NEEDED:

1. BATTERY POWERED LEAF BLOWER (or gas powered), or use the type of cannister vacuum cleaner which has a blower outlet, such as older "Shopvac".
2. PLYWOOD, 3ft or 4ft square, 3/8in or 1/2in thick (or buy a 48in precut round tabletop).
3. PLASTIC SHEET, 1ft larger than the above wood (Avoid using 1mil thickness garbage bags, instead use a heavy 4mil or 6mil plastic dropcloth from a paint store, or 'Visqueen' sheet, or an old plastic shower curtain)
4. SMALL PLASTIC DISK, coffee can lid, or 6" disk 1/8in thick plastic or thin wood.
   
   • BOLT, 2in, 1/4-20, NUT, 1/4-20, FENDER WASHERS (TWO)
   • or instead use four small self-tapping wood screws
5. SMOOTH FLOOR (linoleum, ball court, or smooth concrete)
6. electric saber saw, drill, razor knife, staplegun, duct tape
7. Optional: lawn chair and clamps/screws to hold it down.
8. Optional: some sort of rubber bumper for the edge. Nail on some old bike tires? Just cover it with duct tape? - Link

Shopping Research - a few useful links

ConsumerAffairs

Consumer Reports

ResellerRatings

Consumer World

ThisNext

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Kelley Blue Book

Buying A Car

Buying a car - Consumer Reports

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Google Product Search

BizRate

Buy.com

Clipfire

PriceGrabber

Shopzilla

Shopping.com

Mpire

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Freebie Finder

Overstock.com

FatWallet

Pricewatch

The Bargainist

Techdeals.net

EnjoyDeals.com

Lastminute Auction

MrDealio

dealnews.com

PriceAmbush.com

Slickdeals.net

Techbargains

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Woot Shirt

Wists

Black Friday

Woot

Credit Cards

Jalopnik

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Alibris

AbeBooks

FetchBook

BookFinder.com

Bone Head/Alien Tattoo of the Day

"Last week a number of computers were stolen from our office in Vancouver, BC. One of those computers was a shared iMac with Flickrbooth, an app that automatically uploads photo booth shots to our flickr account, installed on it. Just this morning a friend called to tell us that there are photos of whoever has the computer now in our flickr stream! Obviously the guy didn't know he was uploading images of himself and his awesome tattoos." - Link (via Boing Boing)

Songs of Insects

"In a culture where knowledge of insect song is pale in comparison to the interest in the songs of birds and frogs, we are determined to bring singing insects into popular focus. We will accomplish this by sharing the resources we've collected and by communicating our passion for these marvelous fiddlers of the forests and fields." - Link

The Sponge Monkeys Like the Moon

"These characters come from a man named Joel Veitch, who makes television shows for Britain's Channel 4* (according to his Web site, www.rathergood.com). On his site, you can see these creatures in a January 2003 video clip, in which they sing about loving the moon, marmots, cheese, dirigibles, and several other nouns." - Link (via slate.com)

Make a Foxhole Radio - Weekend Project Podcast

"During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing simple radios to listen too. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry around in a big pocket. You can modify this design if you want to set it up so that it's tuneable too!" - Link (MAKE: Blog)

An Outhouse For Kitty Comment

Did anyone realize that this is simply put together using a modular wire cube shelving system? If you don’t have the time to buy a package of shelves for $30 on Amazon and configure it yourself, then I guess it makes sense for you.

FYI, the crate system pieces pull apart (Quick-lock connectors make assembly easy) and aren’t designed to be screwed or fastened together in any other way. Don’t count on this as protection against large outside predators for Mittens. Personally, I think the pictured item makes for a good mock up of what could be manufactured, not something that should be for sale. - Link (via The Uber-Review)

How To Shoot Heroin

"Despite all the lies you've probably heard from parents and other grownups, heroin is actually very good for you. It makes you smart and it feels great! All that stuff about ruining your life is just another lie they tell us to keep us from having fun and so they can boss us around and run and ruin our lives." - Link

Top 10 Most amazing facts about the Earth

"It turns out that in some places you will feel slightly heavier than others. A low spot can be seen just off the coast of India, while a relative high occurs in the South Pacific Ocean. The cause of these irregularities is unknown since present surface features do not appear dominant. NASA's GRACE twin satellites, launched in March 2002, are making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field which will lead to discoveries about gravity and Earth's natural systems." - Link

Up Butt Coconut

"Musician Parry Gripp (Nerf Herder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme) and cartoonist Nathan Mazur create an animated rendition of a favorite childhood taunt." - Link

Prank Call to Arms

"The following are transcripts from actual phone calls to military recruiters. The officers' names have been changed to protect the somewhat innocent. This is the first of a two-part series." -

The other thing, I'm a real clotheshound, and I gotta admit, I kind of like the uniforms, but I'm not into green for the most part.

Actually, we're wearing a digital pattern now, and it's blue and tan.

Can you spice it up with some yellows or reds?

No, you can't.

Is your underwear also camouflage?

No, that's pretty much up to you.

So you can go wild with underwear—and socks, maybe?

Yeah.

Good, 'cause I've got a lot of red and yellow stripes, I'm a huge yellow and red freak. - Link

Business Reply Pamphlet

"This small, sixteen-page pamphlet is produced to put inside the postage-paid, business-reply envelopes that come with junk mail offers. Every envelope collected is stuffed with the pamphlet and mailed back to its original company." - Link

GalaxyZoo

"Welcome to GalaxyZoo , the project which harnesses the power of the internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies. By taking part, you'll not only be contributing to scientific research, but you'll view parts of the Universe that literally no-one has ever seen before and get a sense of the glorious diversity of galaxies that pepper the sky." - Link

Invading Baghdad Would Create Quagmire

Truer words were never spoken. This guy is really on the ball. He should run for office... Oh, wait... the last seven years. - Link

The Best Geek Quotes

"There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't." "Windows has detected you do not have a keyboard. Press 'F9" to continue." "Well It looks like an ID10T Error." "What do people mean when they say, 'The computer went down on me?'" - Link

Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn

"A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn't watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance." Nice. Crime doesn't pay! - Link

Playgreen - Wiki Green Living!

"'We' are smarter than 'me'. The central premise of this assumption is that large groups of people ('We') can, and should, make a fantastic resource site to foster responsible consumption habits in our daily life, economy, industries." - Link

Tire Tote - Maneuverable Wheel Covers

"I've been using these Totes for more than a couple years now to store snow tires I swap on for only a fraction of the year. I also use one for the spare I keep in my trunk. They make moving the tires around really easy and the clean factor is definitely part of the attraction, for both the trunk and the garage." - Link

250,000 Mile Continuous Motorcycle Trip

"She has been traveling solo around the world on her motorcycle continuously for the past five years. She has logged over 250,000 miles on this trip and is still going. She has toured every continent, most countries, and has been hospitilized three times due to accidents, and yet she still keeps going. As of May 8th, she is in the South West U.S. and is now headed through Texas to Key West then up the Eastern Seaboard, across Canada to Alaska, then back down to California." - Link

The Origin of Everyday Punctuation Marks

"When early scholars wrote in Latin, they would place the word questio - meaning 'question' - at the end of a sentence to indicate a query. To conserve valuable space, writing it was soon shortened to qo, which caused another problem - readers might mistake it for the ending of a word. So they squashed the letters into a symbol: a lowercased q on top of an o. Over time the o shrank to a dot and the q to a squiggle, giving us our current question mark." - Link

ASCII Google Maps

"Google Maps in ASCII characters. Pure silliness for your enjoyment by the good people at Poly9 and the invaluable Markus Gebhard (whose software and timely help were put to good use)." - Link

Richard Ankrom’s Freeway Sign

"Richard Ankrom, 46, an artist in Los Angeles, Calif., planned his latest masterpiece, a combination paint and performance work, for two years: he altered a major road sign on the Harbor Freeway in downtown. He put up his work in broad daylight, but was unnoticed because he was dressed as a road worker. The audience: 150,000 motorists per day. The payoff: no one noticed, not even state transportation engineers. The plan was to announce the project a year later, but a friend tipped off the press after 9 months. The modification, done to exact Federal Highway Administration specifications, helps motorists navigate a complicated transition ahead. 'The experts are saying that Mr. Ankrom did a fantastic job,' said a Caltrans spokeswoman. 'They thought it was an internal job.' The agency plans to leave the modification in place, since it is in fact helpful to motorists. Ankrom says helping out motorists 'was the whole point.' (Los Angeles Times)" - Link

A Low Impact Woodland Home

"You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour)." - Link

There Goes An Asshole by Shank Bone Mystic

"A video of security cam footage of a guy stealing my bike wheels set to a song I wrote about what an asshole this guy is.." - Link

How to Build a Cardboard Castle

"Arrange your boxes so that four boxes stand vertically at four corners. These will be towers. Take three other boxes and lay them horizontal between the towers on three sides. These will be tunnels that connect the towers as well as form castle walls (they will not stand up until you attach them with rivets). The illustration below, right is a "bird's-eye-view" schematic." - Link

U-Haul Knowingly Rents Deadly Trailers

"U-Haul knowingly rents unsafe tow trailers that have the potential to kill customers. A yearlong investigation by the L.A. Times found that U-Haul's practices unnecessarily expose customers to the dangers of trailer sway." - Link

The Straight Dope

"Hello and welcome to the official Internet home of Cecil Adams, World's Smartest Human Being, and his famous syndicated column The Straight Dope.

• What is Don McLean's song "American Pie" all about?
• Where do hamsters come from?
• Which will keep you drier, running through the rain or walking?
• Whatever happened to the accusers from the Salem witch trials?
• Has anybody really "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge?
• In "The Flintstones," what was Barney Rubble's job?" - Link

Get Grandpa's FBI File

"Did Grandpa Joe run a gambling ring? Did Aunt Mary ever lead an antiwar protest? Did Cousin Gary smuggle booze during prohibition? Was Great-Uncle Fred a communist organizer? Find out now by ordering a copy of their FBI files and learn a bit more about your family history. Best of all, it's free! (Well, except for the cost of a postage stamp.)" - Link

Deep Sea Chestburster at JIM SMASH!!!

"Five Fingers sent me a link to this narly Deep Sea Creature that looks like a Chestburster! Awesome. Thanks, FF!" Ain't I so proud? I love JIM SMASH!!! and I'm blushing a bit with his praise. - Link

Muffin Films

"This page and the films within it were made by Amy Winfrey for her MFA thesis project at the UCLA Animation Workshop. All films are about muffins." - Link

Squirrel Relocator

This person has either too much time on his/her hands or strong feelings about fuzzy backyard neighbors. God bless 'em. - Link

You got weird mail “boxes”

"Collection of funny and unique mailboxes from around the world." - Link

Read the numbers on your fruit

"[T]he sticker labels on fruit: The numbers tell you how the fruit was grown. Conventionally grown fruit has four digits; organically grown fruit has five and starts with a nine; genetically engineered has five numbers and starts with an eight." - Link and Link or Link

Some interesting Islands and Lakes

"Here’s a webpage where you can learn what is the largest island, the largest lake, the largest lake on an island, the largest island in a lake, the largest island in a lake on an island, the largest lake on an island in a lake, the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island, the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake, and the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Which is Vulcan point in Crater Lake on Vulcano Island in Lake Taal on Luzon." - Link

Surprise!

I love nature. It's always full of wonderful surprises. - Link

Website of the Mr. Lee CatCam

"When he finally returns, I wonder where he was and what he did during his day. This brought me to the idea to equip the cat with a camera. The plan was to put a little camera around his neck which takes every few minutes a picture. After he is returning, the camera would show his day." - Link

How to Tie the 10 Most Useful Knots

"1: Overhand Knot 2: Figure-eight Know 3: Reef (Square) Knot 4: Sheet (Becket) Bend 5: Carrick Bend 6: Bowline 7: Clove Hitch 8: Timber Hitch 9: Taut-line Hitch 10: Sheepshank
footer shadow" - Link

Fluorescent Light Tubes Around Power Lines

"Richard Box, artist-in-residence at Bristol University's physics department, got the idea for Field (2004) -- 1,301 fluorescent tubes powered only by the electric fields generated by low overhead powerlines -- after a conversation with a friend. 'He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,' says the artist. 'He said it lit up like a light sabre.' Box decided to see if he could fill a field with tubes lit by the waste energy emanating from powerlines. Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, 'For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that's invisible and making it visible,' he says." - Link

A Tale of a Greedy Charity

"Apparently, $33 million wasn’t enough for the Salvation Army - it sued to prevent Greenpeace from its share of the bequest, arguing that the entity the Di Stefanos had left money to no longer existed and that the money should instead be divided equally amongst the remaining 7 charities! The rest of the charities stood to gain an extra $6 million, but no one wanted to come near Salvation Army’s lawsuit." - Link and Link

New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark

"A fully engaging, sensory experience for guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animals, life-sized people and dinosaur animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with misty sea breezes and rumbling seats. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy...Prepare to believe." Yeah! Awesome! - Link

WARNING: The Flying Spaghetti Monster
does not approve of this institution.
Visit at your own risk.

Online Optical Retailer

"Located in Miami, they manufacture their eyeglasses (all?) in Pakistan. They have a very limited lens catalog. For plastic single vision, you can get the basic CR39 lens for $13 (or as of 2/2007 they now offer both mid-index and high-index lenses at reasonable prices). They do glass lenses also. One nice feature is that their lens coatings are all included in their low lens prices. Frame price does NOT include lenses. Available FREE shipping worldwide puts another checkmark in the 'plus column'. " - Link

5-second Rule from CC Students

"You’ve heard of the 5-second rule: anything that drops on the floor and is picked up within five seconds is still safe to eat. Students at Connecticut College ran an experiment to test contamination of foods dropped on the cafeteria floor." - Link

Direct Loans to Fight Poverty

"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can 'sponsor a business' and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back." - Link

This Breakdancing Is Kick'n

This is a great breakdancing routine! I really love how they get the audience involved. - Link

71 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena

"These pages demonstrate visual phenomena, and »optical« or »visual illusions«. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye. When I find the time I will expand the explanations, to the degree that these phenomena are really understood." - Link

Terror on Wall Street

"At approximately one minute after twelve o'clock, the abandoned wagon's timer reached zero in the pleasant afternoon sun. A bomb consisting of one hundred pounds of dynamite packed with five hundred pounds of cast-iron slugs violently vomited red-hot shrapnel and destruction in every direction. A number of passers-by were instantly vaporized by the extreme heat and pressure. The blast sent a nearby automobile careening through the air as countless jagged iron fragments ripped through the crowd." - Link