Wednesday, August 24, 2005

too many dollars, not enough sense

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wow!

there's not much more to say about this except that if he paid anything (and there's one quote that says it would have cost in excess of $200,000 for all the surgery and prosthetics) then he paid too much...

then again, maybe it's just me... maybe some people are comfortable with their environment but uncomfortable in their own skin - personally i'm the other way 'round... i can't get over how profound the ramifications of something like that would be...

Friday, August 19, 2005

more fun with the mighty potato

i knew it! i just knew that one of the many, many things you can do with the world's most versatile vegetable (aka the potato) was shoot it out of a gun.... here's directions how to do it:
MAKE: Blog: The Night Lighter - Spud Gun FREE PDF

Thursday, August 18, 2005

i like me some fireworks

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[special thanks to Putfile for being able to handle the animated gif - it was too big for imageshack]

that's just one of the things i found in this great Fark thread about fireworks...

there was also funny stuff, stupid stuff, and stuff you don't ever want to see up close...

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

file this under 'things i think you should know'

have you ever heard of the creative commons? do you know what it is and why it's important? if not, creative commons australia has an
animation explaining what's what...

[via Creative Commons, where else?]

Thursday, August 11, 2005

the world's most perfect food

you can eat 'em, you can drink 'em, you can shoot 'em, you can remove broken light bulbs with 'em, you can make car parts out of 'em and now you can power a webserver with them... that's right, i'm talking about the potato...

it's so useful, can there be a more perfect food than the spud?

[via MAKE]

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

rock star scientists

have you ever thought to yourself 'i wish i could have sat in on a lecture given by einstein or newton or some other big name'?

well, you can, of course... stephen hawking is still around - a few years back he was in toronto and a friend of mine was bound and determined to see him talk at convocation hall at the st. george campus of the university of toronto... i passed on the opportunity because, well, he's just not my preferred 'flavour' of physicist - i'm really more of a feynman fan... also because i'm not really inclined to get so excited about a person that i have to see them give a talk in real life...

even if i were, i'm never going to get to see richard feynman give a lecture in real life because, like einstein and newton, he's dead - but his lectures on quantum electro-dynamics live on in book and apparently also in
video form... now i read one of his books, "QED: The Strange Theory Of Light And Matter", back when i was a teenager in highschool and it was a good book, not just because it explained a great deal without being overly complicated but also because feynman himself seemed an engaging personality... in fact, i believe i've marked the book down as one of my favourites in my profile here...

anyways, the videos seem to be a video version of the same lectures that the book presents, only in the videos feynman does have a tie to look at (however it's a solid colour so you still can't count on it to keep your interest)... also, it's a much more visceral experience to watch him talk and draw diagrams, to see him crack jokes, and there's a Q&A portion at the end the videos where he answers questions from the audience (he gave these particular videotaped lectures in new zealand)...

hmmm... maybe i would have gone to see him talk, i don't know... definitely some good viewing, though...

[via MAKE]

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

edu-tainment at it's finest

y'know as a kid i loved watching jacques cousteau shows (? i don't remember the name of the actual show(s) i just remember he was in them) as well as a show called "struggle beneath the sea"...

this is kind of like that, but with a surprising twist - it's an octopus that eats sharks...

[via All Things Christie]

Thursday, August 04, 2005

it's official - my childhood was deprived

i mean really, what else can i conclude from the fact that these kids got to go to explosives camp and i didn't?

[via Fark]

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The World's Smallest Co-axial Helicopter

it's not quite like the mini-helicopters i've seen before, but that's ok - those other helicopters couldn't lift people...

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

also, those other mini-helicopters probably didn't cost $30,000 for the kit to build them...

here's a question though, didn't they have one of these on the flintstones? i seem to remember they did...

[via Red Ferret Journal]

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

you are now a ninja!

so you want to be a ninja... well now you can be in 7 easy steps...

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the thumbnail doesn't really do it justice though, you have to look at the full size version...

[via Populicious]

the japanese are at it again

i wish they'd invade and force their great ideas on the rest of the world...

great ideas like drawers in your stairs
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apparently those and other ideas are found in Space : Japanese Design Solutions for Compact Living...

[via Signal vs. Noise]