Big Pickles

The 2007 Periodic Table of Elements Printmaking Project.

For example, here's Potassium:

I though it would be fun to show the element in a more different way, as to where it is found (bananas) and what the element was classified as : metal... so I thought that making a structural banana with plates jumping into the foreground and informing the viewer some basic data, the atomic number and name of the element.

Labels: art, science

I just received notice that Jeanine has a blog, so I've updated my links to the right.

The announcement came with the details of the birth of her son, Clark Vance Marshall.

Labels: babies, blogs

Have I posted about the Edge before? Every year, they pose a question to a bunch of scholars, mostly scientists, and then print up their answers in a book. This year's question is "What have you changed your mind about?"

(Check out the questions from past years as well, if you haven't before.)

I liked Richard Dawkin's explanation of how changing one's mind is frowned upon in politics but encouraged in science. It's something I've tried to explain more than once recently.

I can think of two things I've changed my mind about in recent years. One is my opinion of the virtues of free markets. I used to default to the pro-capitalism side on any issue involving privatization, deregulation, unionization, etc. I'd still say I'm a capitalist, but I no longer reflexively think that free market forces are the cure to all ills.

Another is my optimism about the world in general. I used to take it as given that the world is getting worse and worse all the time, and it would continue to do so until we eventually destroyed ourselves, but I no longer believe that. In many ways, it's getting better all the time. Whether we're talking about technology or ethics or international relations, as bad as things sometimes seem, you can almost always argue that things are better now than they have ever been.

Labels: answers, questions

ThinkGeek never ceases to amaze.

They have a WiFi alarm clock that you can set up so that it will donate real money to an organization you hate every time you hit the snooze bar. Awesome.

I've heard of this ploy used as a motivation tactic before--my dad had a life coach who used it. I don't remember what behavior he was trying to reinforce, but he gave the guy $1000, and every time he screwed up, the guy would send $100 to Hillary Clinton.

This is the first time I've seen the tactic implemented in an alarm clock. "But," you ask, "what's to stop you from just lying in bed and listening to the radio?" You could just switch it to the oh-so-annoying buzzer. Or, in keeping with the spirit of the thing, tune it to a radio station you loathe.

Labels: sleeping with the enemy

Hey, remember Man vs. Kids? If you're like me, you're reminded of it every time one of your kids punches you in the kneecap.

Well, like Inigo and Fezzik, it's wise to know your limitations before going into battle. Find out how many five year olds you can realistically take on at once by clicking here.

It could save your life someday.

Labels: ...leaving twenty for me...

I just finished Portal. Part of the Orange Box, it's been out on PC and XBox 360 since October, and was just released on PS3 this month. If you have access to any of these platforms, I strongly urge you to do what you must to acquire and play this game. It is fun.

It's not a long game, 19 puzzle-like levels, and I probably finished it in about 3 or 4 hours. All I can say is that on about the second or third level you begin to realize that you're playing a game like no other before. And that feeling only intensifies throughout the game, up to and including the closing credits.

Which is my real reason for posting. Have I mentioned Jonathan Coulton before? Oh yes, here and here. I read several months ago that he had been asked to write the music for a video game, which I thought was awesome. Then I learned that it was only the music for the closing credits, which seemed less awesome. So I forgot about it.

When I finished Portal, I was impressed by the song at the end, but it didn't jog my memory. It was only when I played the game again with the developer commentary turned on (that's another thing about this game, it has built in commentary like a DVD--how cool is that?!) that I learned that it was Jonathan Coulton, and then I was all, oh yeah...

ETA: And Portal sweeps the WRAs!

Labels: the cake is a lie

These guys are awesome.

Labels: audio, radio star violence, video

You know the drill. You type in a word, and then R2-D2 translates it into his language.

Labels: astromech protocol

I've seen several studies cited recently that show that kids perform better in school when they are taught to focus on effort rather than talent. A recent article in Scientific American reaches the same conclusion.

The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with little regard for learning. They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a sign of low ability. They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well.

I wouldn't say I had "little regard for learning," but I can definitely identify with the disdain towards effort. In my high school, all of us smart kids knew who the "workers" were, and how many of them had usurped our rightful places at the top of the class. In fact, the ultimate betrayal was when, around sophomore year, one of our own became a "worker," instantly shooting to the top spot with his unstoppable combination of effort and talent.

Of course, the "workers" were the ones that got into med school.

Labels: gifted, talented

I'm no singer, but I'm guessing this guy has a well trained falsetto.

Labels: audio, little mermaid, video

In Back to the Future, Dr. Emmett Brown said to Marty McFly:

I'm sure in 1985 plutonium is available at every corner drugstore, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.

Turns out he wasn't that far off.

Be sure to read the reviews.

Labels: mail-order radioactive chemicals

...for a lawyer.

Labels: funny names

"And that's why I hate Christmas."

Labels: christmas, tech

Handy infographic which illustrates several different baseball pitches. Have to remember this for next season.

Labels: baseball

Here's an interesting article on what, exactly, makes Guitar Hero so great.

Jack White gets some love at the end.

Labels: games, music, music games

After watching Melissa run her 5K I got motivated to start running again. Along with that I've been trying to eat better and lose a little weight.

I found two websites that are pretty useful if you're wonky like me about this kind of thing, and like to keep track of all your calories. FitDay will let you get as detailed as you want as far as nutrition and exercise, but the interface is a little bare bones. It sure beats the Excel spreadsheet I was using before, though. Sparkpeople is probably just as detailed, but it's a bit more user-friendly and community oriented. It will tell you exactly what to eat every day if you want it to. It reminds me of the online nutrition and workout plans you get with some gym memberships, but it's free.

These sites will track all your exercise info as well, but I use other sites for that. I log my bike riding at My Cycling Log, and my running at Log Your Run. (Both sites will track both activities, as well as others, but I like each for the one it specializes in.)

Each of these sites have cool modules that allow you to plot your routes on Google maps to determine mileage. Or you can do the same thing at Gmaps Pedometer.

And finally, I'm using a training program from Cool Running, (I'm doing the Intermediate 5K), and the calculators at Running for Fitness. Active is also useful for looking up local races. It has other sports, too, so check it out if you're looking for a local volleyball tournament or something.

Labels: exercise, nutrition

First, watch the commercial to get the jingle stuck in your head. I'll wait.

Now then. In the mid-eighties my parents bought my little brother one of these things. I don't know that he ever got all that attached to it, but he seemed to like it enough. What I do remember about My Buddy was that my older brother and I beat that thing mercilessly.

I still don't know what it was about that toy that caused David and I to succumb to violent tendencies we never knew we had. We never abused any of my sister's toys like that. (Sure, Super Grover spent more than his fair share of time up on the roof, but he was supposed to fly.) All I can tell you is that there was nothing more cathartic than grabbing My Buddy by the ankles and smashing his head into the metal bunk bed frame. Over and over and over...

I'm sure it started as a way to annoy my little brother. You punch his toy in the face, he gets mad, a good time is had by all. But it grew into something much bigger. Maybe it's because he really was indestructible--and he was the perfect size for such manhandling--so we took it as a challenge to see if we could really damage him. (I don't think we ever did.) Or maybe there was just something about his face that provoked our wrath.

Anyway, I was reminded of all of this by a blog post that claimed that My Buddy was for kids whose parents thought GI Joes were too violent. I had plenty GI Joes, but they never once inspired the kind of blood lust that My Buddy did.

Labels: nostalgia, violence

Trouble At' Mill will be another thirty-minute film like A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers.

Wallace and Gromit have a brand new business. The conversion of 62 West Wallaby Street is complete and impressive, the whole house is now a granary with ovens and robotic kneading arms. Huge mixing bowls are all over the place and everything is covered with a layer of flour. On the roof is a 'Wallace patent-pending' old-fashioned windmill.

No word yet on when it's expected to be released, but Nick Park has said that he's using faster production techniques now than he has on his other films.

Labels: gromit, movies, wallace, wensleydale

This comic at Salon.com traces the rise and fall of a hip, ironic catchphrase.

Labels: comics

Someone out there has a blog devoted to anthropomorphic food characters. Huh.

Anyway, if you don't recognize the Del Monte Country Yumkins, it's probably because your mom fed you generic canned green beans instead of the good stuff.

Don't feel bad, I'm sure they were just as healthy.

Labels: nostalgia, plush collectibles

This movie looks awesome.

I do love me some Jack Black.

Labels: movies

I've blogged about Jonathan Coulton before, but he rates another mention. Probably several more.

This is the video to a song called "Flickr," which is really just a bunch of random phrases strung together about random pictures people put on Flickr. Trust me, it works.

Labels: audio, pictures, video

His acceptance speech is long, but very good. He can't resist rhyming and using cliches, but he's so sincere, you love him anyway.

(Originally the video cut out some of his remarks about torture, but in the end it appears that the level of irony involved in censoring a Liberty Medal recipient was too much to bear.)

Labels: video

Did you see this video during combined PH/RS meeting yesterday?

Melissa did. She wasn't sure if it was a church-wide thing or if it was done on a local level, but she told me that she won't soon forget hearing the voices of Chris Parnell and Amy Poehler in the chapel.

They also showed this FedEx commercial.

Labels: church, tv

This blog post fascinates me.

Here's a guy who doesn't want to bother calculating the tip on his restaurant check, even though he probably has a palm pilot or laptop or cell phone out during dinner (judging by the importance of wifi access) and could easily use the calculator in said device.

So he rounds everything to even dollars, only to realize that he could be using those precious cents digits to communicate a wealth of information to himself about each meal. Simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication are too much to bother with, but binary/decimal conversions are de rigeur, apparently.

No less remarkable is his discovery that restaurants seem to be pretty lax about the total you write on your receipt.

Labels: math

Melissa finally accomplished her goal to run the annual Mansfield 5K.

Here are the race results.

One caveat: Melissa accidentally switched race numbers with her friend Shauna Steenbakkers, so their results are switched. Her time was 33:18.

Yay, Melissa! She's looking for another 5K to run in November or December.

Labels: running

Only In China.
Only In Texas.
Only In America.

These pictures attempt to sum up the entire world. You'll see what I mean.

Labels: pictures

I guess they probably don't keep stats on things like this, but I'll bet it's never happened before.

It's one of those things that, given the number of at-bats in baseball history, was bound to happen sometime.

Labels: physics, sports

Did you ever wonder what Super Mario Bros. would look like in the style of Stalinist Soviet propaganda? I know I have.

Labels: fun, games, video

Another addicting game that's difficult to describe, takes minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master!

Labels: fun, games

My kids love Word Girl.

First they found her on the Internet.

Then they found her in 5-minute shorts at the end of their PBS cartoons.

Then they discovered that she's getting her own full-length show this fall.

Then I found her on the Internet.

It's a vicious cycle.

NYT on Word Girl

Jim Lehrer Interviews Word Girl

Labels: fun, kids, tv

It looks like an old card game from the 60s, and it really ate up my afternoon. Just place cards on the board in such a way that your guests are sitting next to people they like.

Labels: fun, games

MICHAEL: Hey Dad, if you want to get some more information about something, you should check the Internet.

ME: Thanks for the tip.

Labels: kids these days

ME: Hey, Michael, I heard they're coming out with a new Zelda game for the DS.

MICHAEL: You mean Phantom Hourglass?

ME: Um, yeah, that's the one. How did you hear about it?

MICHAEL: I saw it on YouTube.

ME: Oh. That's right, I guess it's already out in Japan. It's not going to be released in the US until Christmas.

MICHAEL: Yeah, maybe Santa Claus will bring it to me!

Labels: games, internet, kids these days

So I signed up for some Facebook. Everyone else needs to sign up now so I can have some friends.

It's a pretty slick interface, far superior to MySpace, as far as I can tell. I'm still not sure about the whole social networking thing, though. It's clearly geared toward kids who are still in school, so I find myself thinking about old friends I haven't contacted in years.

Still, Steve was asking me about a way to aggregate everyone's blogs, photos, videos, etc. this summer. Something like Facebook would be very useful in that regard.

Labels: internet, nostalgia, social networking

Okay, it's a toothbrush with a concave back that is designed to redirect a stream of water just like a drinking fountain. So you don't have to use a cup (or other less sophisticated means) to rinse after brushing.

What will they think of next?

Labels: design, tech

This is so two years ago, maybe I even linked to it before, I can't remember. It's "Since U Been Gone" covered by Ted Leo. Something reminded me of it today, and now my brain is craving it like heroin.

I've been thinking we need some new music at our house. Maybe Ted Leo and the Pharmacists is just the thing.

Labels: music

Melissa, you need to show the boys this video.

Labels: video

"You come to me as Beginners. When I'm through with you, you'll be Experts!"

Labels: fun, games, movies

You type in words, and then they sing it for you.

I could play with this for hours. It's fun to see how many songs you can recognize from just one word.

Labels: audio, fun

Paul Graham has some excellent articles.

This one is about Stuff. I feel like I've been saying this stuff to myself for years. And yet I keep accumulating more stuff.

"What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will."

Amen, brother.

Labels: material goods

I have been looking for this for a long time, a way to play the old Oregon Trail game that we all played on Apples in elementary school. I've download stuff and tried to get it to run with no success. There are more modern versions available which are no good.

Now someone has set up a Virtual Apple II emulator that lets you play Oregon Trail on the web. I think you have to have Windows and Firefox for it to work.

(By the way, I found the link at MentalFloss, another highly recommended site.)

Watch out for dysentery!

Labels: fun, games, old school

Yesterday we were talking about how we needed to upgrade our stereo system, and Melissa mentioned the Bose store we saw at the mall.

I told her that Bose sucks.

She was incredulous, so I offered to post a few links. It's a lot to read, but by the time you're done you will be amazed at the sheer power of marketing.

What about Bose? (short)

Why Bose Sucks Review Resources (long)

Stuff like this always makes me wonder what else I'm assuming is good or true, not because I've examined it, but because some rich, powerful company or organization has spent a lot of money honing my perceptions.

Labels: audio, debunkification

It's a sport where you throw a ball at someone's face.

It strikes me as an office-friendly version of Crotchball.

I've seen the flickr group before, but I didn't know they had such a slick website. Be sure to watch the instructional video.

Labels: fun, sports

I've heard of people who stop by Ikea every morning for breakfast, and others who choose to simply hang out there on the weekends, but now you can elect to stay overnight if you just can't bring yourself to leave.

Labels: shopping

Some guy went to Dell's website and priced a PC with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.

Notice the price.

(Don't get the joke? Explanation.)

Labels: incredibly geeky humor

There's an article about Junie B. Jones books in the New York Times. Apparently, some parents object to Junie's grammar, afraid their kids are going to start talking like her if they read too many of these books.

I don't buy it. The arguments I thought of as I read the first few paragraphs show up on the second page: Mark Twain and Shakespeare. I think exposure to non-standard English, in either direction, can only be educational.

Labels: books, language

The boys at Car Talk recommend adjusting your mirrors to eliminate your blind spots while driving.

They say it takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's awesome.

Labels: driving

These lists pop up all over the place from time to time.

I thought the first three were pretty good.

Labels: lists

In 1947 Life Magazine asked some cartoon artists to draw their characters while blindfolded. The results are pretty cool.

Labels: art, fun

So the Asian kids are using their piano skills to play the guitar. They just crank up the volume and play one-handed hammer-ons (to use a term I recently learned from Guitar Hero).

And hey, since you only need one hand, that frees up your other hand to play ANOTHER GUITAR!

Labels: crazy guitar skills, music, simpsons

You enter your address at this site, and it tells you how walkable your house is.

Except, there's been so much traffic at the site I haven't been able to try it yet. The way it's supposed to work, as far as I can gather, is it counts up the number of businesses, schools, and other services within walking distance (1 mile) of your house.

I have to imagine that my address has a pretty good walking score. I think we have every kind of business imaginable within a mile of our house, plus two schools and two nice parks. Maybe we should start walking more.

UPDATE:

So I finally get in and find out that my house has a walk score of 35: Unwalkable. That's bogus, man. Actually, it didn't see a lot of the businesses in my area, so I might have had a better score had I been able to update the information.

Labels: maps, walking

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

I will definitely be putting this skill to good use.

It's not that I mind chip clips, there just never seem to be enough of them around when you need them.

Labels: snack food origami

Holy smokes, this is what my house needs.

Though we try to avoid it, at times our stairs become overrun with shoes. Because the stairs are right by the front door, and they are natural little storage shelves, they usually have at least one pair of shoes on them.

Too bad our stairs are carpeted. But I am definitely going to think about this.

Labels: stairs with drawers that will store your shoes

Have you ever noticed how fast Wikipedia updates? Whenever there is some breaking story in the news, you can usually go to Wikipedia to get the latest information.

Wikiclock takes that phenomenon to the extreme. It's a clock that runs solely on wiki technology. So far I haven't seen it off by more than 15 minutes.

Labels: internet, wikipedia

Traffic reporting while under the influence of cold medicine.

I hear this is getting a lot of play in Utah.

(Via dooce.)

Labels: audio, fun

When we were kids, and we would ask our parents if we were poor, the answer we always heard was that we had enough money to keep shoes on our feet. Obviously, that meant nothing to us. Of course we had shoes.

As I look through these colorized photos from the 1940s, the thing that stands out are all the barefoot kids. Especially this one. Even though I know that the kids with shoes are probably jealous of the kids that get to go barefoot, it's still kind of sad.

Labels: pictures

So tightrope walkers gather in Korea to walk across a rope stretched across the Han river.

Result: the greatest headline ever.

Labels: news

Have I mentioned that they know how to do TV in Japan? (Of course, I'm only seeing the highlights. For all I know their typical daytime lineup makes ours look like the Renaissance.)

Anyway, believe me when I tell you that you will enjoy this video of a secretary taking care of some routine paperwork.

Labels: japan, tv, video

Not me!

Labels: kids, video

We've all seen these before, but I thought this one was particularly impressive. My favorite part was the use of the cell phone.

Labels: fun, video

"There's no need to spell out why this waffle iron rocks harder than most."

Ha!

Labels: shopping, tech

So this guy wants to create a video of Michael Jackson's live performance of Billy Jean, that's just his white glove, right?

And instead of writing a program that looks at every video frame and isolates the glove, he figures it would be easier to get 10,000 or so people on the internet to do the work for him.

So if you want to help him out, go to White Glove Tracking, draw a box around a white glove, and click to submit the frame. Hey, do two or three while you're at it--it's fun!

Labels: fun, internet

Bond Girls are a cultural icon. They are often cheesy, over-the-top caricatures (just look at the names: Pussy Galore? Holly Goodhead? Xenia Onatopp? Sheesh.) so like everything else cheesy, sometimes they work and sometimes, not so much. And so I give you:

The Ten Best Bond Girls

The Ten Worst Bond Girls

Labels: film

There's no point to this, as far as I can tell. You just have to try and see what you can do. For some reason, it's fun.

Labels: fun, internet

I wasn't a big sticker collector or anything when I was a kid, but most of these are surprisingly familiar. In fact, I can almost smell them.

Labels: nostalgia

This is frustrating to watch--I can't imagine how nerve-wracking it would be to play.

Basically, it's a video of someone trying to complete one level in Super Mario Bros. that is so impossibly hard it can only be called evil.

E-Vil, like the fru-Its of the De-Vil, e-Vil.

Labels: fun, games, video

Who knew? The opposite of Absolute Zero is the Planck temperature, 10^32 Kelvin, the temperature beyond which the molecules of matter become black holes unto themselves, or something.

Some scientists believe that we, or at least our universe, have already experienced the Planck temperature, although it went by so quickly you may have missed it. It occurred at 10^-43 of a second after the Big Bang, the great cataclysm in which the universe was born. (10^-43 of a second, in case you're not hip to the notation, is an incredibly tiny fraction of time. Time enough to create the universe, but not, as a University of Chicago physicist was once at pains to explain, time enough to get off a disputed last-tenth-of-a-second shot against the Chicago Bulls.)

(I had no idea that Planck had so many units.)

Labels: science, wikipedia

So we have this hot tube that came with the house. We used it once or twice that first year and haven't bothered with it since. I've filled it up and cleaned it out a few times since then, in case we ever wanted to use it, but we just haven't.

So this week we decided to get rid of it.

Melissa suggested we list it on Craiglist and see if someone will come haul it off for free. I can't believe anyone would want it, though, so I decide against it. I figured it would take about $500 to get it all fixed up and usable at this point, and I can't believe anyone would want to put that kind of money into it.

Today I asked my dad about borrowing his trailer so I can haul it to the dump on Saturday, and he suggested Craigslist as well. This time I decide it couldn't hurt, so I go ahead and list it. I mean, if someone really wants to come take it off my hands, that would be great! I'm staring at a major project this weekend, and I'm even considering hiring some company to haul it away.

I posted the listing at 12:00 pm. It's now 1:26 and I've received 14 responses from people who want to come pick it up tonight!

Please, do me a favor and check out the listing. Have I failed to communicate what bad shape this thing is in? Or have I simply underestimated the demand for dirty, run-down hot tubs in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex? I'm baffled.

UPDATE:

I've taken the ad down. Too many responses. Plus, Melissa tells me that if you search Craigslist in DFW for "hot tubs," the listing right below mine is for a free hot tub removal service. Doh!

Labels: internet

This one includes an excellent quote from Schopenhauer: “A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills.”

I agree with Adams that an idea as simple as "We don't know as much as we think we know" can change the world. It reminds me of another of his posts from November, we he suggests that one way to magically solve all of the world's problems would be to simply "imbue us all with the knowledge of who is smarter than ourselves on any given topic."

Labels: general

Check out the new sport that's all the rage in Europe right now.

Parkour's founder and chief practitioner is David Belle. It supposedly stems from French military training during the Vietnam War era, which made extensive use of obstacle courses.

Free Running was started by Sebastien Foucan. He basically took Parkour and adapted it to a British audience.

While thy seem very similar on the surface, practitioners cite significant differences. Parkour is very similar to martial arts. It has the practical applications of escape and reach, and is also meant to be a kind of life philosophy. The goal in Parkour is to get from point A to point B in as fast and efficient a manner as possible, with an emphasis on problem solving and overcoming obstacles.

Free Running, on the other hand, is more like an extreme sport, with its emphasis on tricks and "going big." It lends itself more readily to commercialization and competition, and is more concerned with the beauty of a particular move than its usefulness or efficiency.

Parkour article in the New Yorker

Video of David Belle falling

Labels: sports, video

I assume this is some kind of swing dancing move.

Labels: video

I tell you, they know how to do TV in Japan. Why don't we have any reality shows called "Ninja Warrior?" I would watch that.

This guy is only the second to complete an obstacle course that can only be called insane. Five hundred others have tried and failed.

Labels: japan, tv

There are some awesome pictures of Antarctica here. I always thought the entire continent was covered in ice all the time, but I was wrong.

By the way, does anyone know if we treat Antarctica like space, in that no country is allowed to claim all or part of it as their own?

Labels: geography, science

This opinion piece was written at the U of U a few years ago, so maybe some of you Utah people have seen it. But it was new to me.

Basically, the author argues that pi should be the ratio of radius to circumference, rather than diameter, because that would make all the formulas look prettier. I have to agree that, once you get beyond elementary geometry, it's all radius, all the time. So why is this famous number based on diameter?

Labels: math

Melissa is a benevolent realist.

Labels: quiz

If the one of our nation's greatest classical musicians plays some of the world's greatest music on what may be the most famous violin ever built, and no one notices, is he really any good?

Joshua Bell will be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize tomorrow.

Labels: music

Most of us have probably taken our fair share of personality tests on the Internet, but this one had an interesting format. You give your responses by moving an arrow on a slider, plotting a point on a coordinate plane, and other analog stuff like that.

It felt like it was just the right length and asked things in several different ways, so even though I felt like I was contradicting myself at times, the results seemed to be pretty accurate.

Labels: quiz

I just bought this bike. It's on backorder, so it won't be shipped until May 5.

If you look at my profile, I'm sitting on the bike I just bought for Michael. It's a 20 inch Haro, compared to the 16 inch Huffy he's currently riding. It fits him, technically, but he's not as confident on it, and the smaller bike is just more fun for him right now. And let's face it, fun is what it's all about.

So I've been riding the bike I bought for Michael, leading Melissa to suspect that this was my plan all along. (I feel like I need to say something about a hockey stick here.) Anyway, it has always been my plan to buy a BMX bike to ride around with the kids, as the road bike just doesn't work well for that. I figured now was as good a time as any--Michael's new bike is really too small for me and I don't want to wear it out before he decides to start riding it.

Let's see, I need a link...

Here's a BMX video for ya.

Labels: bikes, video

About a year ago we had some sales people come into our office and give a presentation on this cool electronic whiteboard that would let you save whatever you wrote to a computer.

This was attractive to us because the financial planners use whiteboards a lot in their presentations, and this would allow the client to take home a copy of all the diagrams and notes and stuff. And it would be useful for other things in the office, too. I won't get into all of it.

Anyway, when I first encountered this website, I thought it would be a demonstration of this kind of technology.

Boy, was I wrong.

Labels: books, internet

A recent comment on Clark's blog made the following claim:

Brigham Young once commented on the weather in St. George with a statement something like this: "If I only had a house in St. George and a house in hell, I'd summer over in hell."

I've heard similar quotes attributed to various people, mostly about Texas (because I live here) but also about various other places. I suspected the comment had been made about nearly every state and city in the Southwest, so I googled "live in * and rent out *" (because that's the way I've heard it most often) with interesting results.

My favorites:

"...I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas/Arizona/San Antonio/Houston/Brooklyn/Vegas/Arkansas/Oklahoma/South Africa/Memphis/Louisiana/New Guinea/etc."

"...I'd live in California and rent out Heaven."

"...if I were a UN peacekeeping force and owned Bosnia-Herzegovina and Tombstone, I’d live in Bosnia-Herzegovina and rent out Tombstone."

My limited research indicates that the original quote was about Texas and was first attributed to General Phillip Sheridan in 1866, but I'm open to argument.

UPDATE:

It appears the St. George quote is most often attributed to J. Golden Kimball (Jeffrey Holland cited it once in a 1974 speech), which makes sense. Kimball was a GA from the 1890s until his death in the 1930s, so he could have heard the Sheridan quote and adapted it to St. George during that time.

Labels: general, geography

Pat Venditte of Creighton University is one of only a handful of ambidextrous pitchers to ever play the game. He uses a custom glove that fits on either hand so he can switch arms in the middle of an inning.

A switch-pitcher facing a switch-hitter could make a fine Abbott and Costello routine. Against Nebraska last year, a switch-hitter came to the plate right-handed, prompting Venditte to switch to his right arm, which caused the batter to move to the left-hand batter’s box, with Venditte switching his arm again. Umpires ultimately restored order, applying the rule (the same as that in the majors) that a pitcher must declare which arm he will use before throwing his first pitch and cannot change before the at-bat ends.

Scouts are considering him as a possible late-round pick in this year's draft.

Labels: sports

Yet another Flash game. This one is called Disorientation, and it's just what it says: disorienting. All you have to do is move your guy from point A to point B, but the board tends to move around in ways that make that more difficult than it sounds.

Labels: fun, games

Still using Google? Lame! Don't you know that these days, savvy web-searchers trust their queries to none other than Kevin Federline?

Actually, even if you choose to search with Kevin, you'll still be using Google. A company called Protege has made its "Search and Win" portal available to A-list celebrities while giving us all a chance to win prizes with every search!

If K-Fed isn't your cup of tea, you can also Search With Wynonna, Search With Meatloaf, or Search With Andrew Dice Clay.

Labels: internet