Big Pickles

This is what happens when you drop a gummy bear into molten potassium chlorate.

Labels: chemistry

This pic should remind you of a scene from Wayne's World. "Denied!"

It's funny because it's true. When everyone who walks into the store plays the same song, it can really get on your nerves.

My friend Lars and I somehow got roped in to working a Freshman Orientation booth at BYU in Fall 1995. It was some kind of travel theme, all of the incoming freshman had passports that they were supposed to get stamped at each station. Ours was karaoke, and after listening to kids sing the same blasted song for about the tenth time, we posted our own sign:

"No stamps will be awarded for "Love Shack."

Labels: music

According to this research, female tennis players' performance tends to deteriorate in critical situations, while men do not tend to play any differently as the stakes rise.

Then they go on to question whether this has anything to do with the gender-wage gap in the labor force, which is an interesting question.

Labels: gender roles, tennis

In this game, you try to break as many plates as possible with an invisible cursor.

Sounds weird, but it's pretty wild. 40 is my best so far.

Labels: fun, games

This guy, Eric Young, teaches a film class at Dixie State. Every year he has his students write a secret on a 3x5 card, resulting in something like PostSecret, but from a single demographic: college-age Mormons.

He has about 800 cards, and posted this sample on his blog.

Labels: secrets

Charles Darwin said it first: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." But Dunning and Kruger designed some experiments around the idea and quantified the Dunning-Kruger effect, which states that incompetent people tend to overestimate their level of skill, and that you actually have to have some degree of skill before you can begin to perceive your lack of it.

It might well be called the Dilbert effect, as much as Scott Adams talks about it. (Not to be confused with the Dilbert Principle, which states that companies intentionally promote incompetent people into management to limit the amount of damage they're capable of.) The one problem with the world, he claims, is that most of us are dumb about most things. Because of that, not only do we fail to recognize our own ignorance--and therefore inflate the importance of our own opinions--but we also fail to recognize the genuine skill and knowledge of those who aren't dumb about those particular things, and therefore we wind up discounting their opinions because they are usually different from our own.

Labels: dilbert, wikipedia

Perhaps you've heard that the Vatican has released its "Drivers' Ten Commandments," part of a 32-page document that addresses everything from road rage to "tramps" and "street children." It's all in the Document of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People: "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road."

Not to be outdone, the guys at Car Talk put out their own list of commandments (I count 17). Besides the obligatory "Thou shalt not drive like my brother," my favorite is "Thou shall keepeth thy 17-year-old son bound to the slowest and ugliest 1979 Volvo which hath presenteth itself on the list of craig."

Labels: driving

This may be the first picture of Harrison Ford on the set of the new Indiana Jones movie.

I don't know, guys, he looks kind of old. But I'm sure the movie will be awesome.

Labels: indiana jones

Another simple flash puzzle game, mostly I like this one for the music.

Labels: fun, games

What not do to if you get a strike.

Labels: bowling

Everyone's favorite free online game has hit the big time. Paul Preece, creator of Desktop Tower Defense, was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

What started as a hobby for Mr. Preece has blossomed into a full-time career.

Labels: games

Video demonstrations of 20 magic tricks.

Labels: magic

This article includes a map that shows the childhood mobility of three generations in a family. The great-grandfather was allowed to wander six miles from home when he was eight, while the current eight-year-old is allowed to stray only 300 yards.

Labels: kids these days

So Microsoft has this new technology that turns a tabletop into a touchscreen computer. A co-worker of mine was all excited about it, while I couldn't figure out what it would be good for. Like so much tech, it strikes me as a solution in search of a problem.

I think these guys are of the same mind.

Labels: tech

Ah, Wikipedia, always good for a laugh.

Labels: wikipedia

This web page seems pretty mundane at first, but as you scroll down it starts to become clear what it's all about.

Labels: islands, lakes