Stuff from April, 2006
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on April, 2006.
Genius on Paper
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on April, 2006.
Photorealistic murals - Amazingly realistic. More at John Pugh’s site.
Amazing 3-D Sidewalk Drawings - I love the one where it looks like he lifted out part of the walk-way and set it somewhere else. So cool.
The Rusty Nail - Trying to decide what my first drink ever should be. This one is interesting.
Droste chocolates from Germany.
This image is the spectrum analysis of an LCD monitor, using a mini spectroscope. You can make your own here: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Mini Spectroscope Instructions.
The Full World News Tonight Theme Song - “Awesomely funky” to describe a news theme song. This is such a crazy download.
Poison gas pictures from WWI - These images are, to me, rather powerful. Particularly “British infantry advancing through gas” and “British 55th (West Lancashire) Division troops blinded by tear gas.”
Experience is food for the brain.
— Bill Watterson
As I write this, the kid who lives next to me is singing along to a polka. It’s a long but very uptempo tune. He’s really getting into it; I can hear him through the wall quite well. He also laughs quite a bit when there is no one else in his room. At least he is happy.
Dorm life can be very surreal.
Huge Block Of Ice Falls From Sky In Oakland - My favorite part is from the end of the article:
“Big balls of ice sometimes fall from the sky without any real explanation.”
For the more prolific tumbledryers amongst you (I think it would be cool if that nickname for us caught on), opening many posts on which to comment on has been a nightmare. Even when you copied the letters in the security image very precisely, the code still said “nah nah nah try it again.” So, I have a gift for you (especially Dan, who was having commenting problems) - I have fixed some very pesky bugs in the commenting system that popped up when you tried to open a bunch of tumbledry pages and comment on each one. These were strange bugs - usually I work through them by coding on-the-fly, but I actually had to leave the computer and just concentrate hard on the problem to map it out on my head and figure out a fix. Hopefully, things are working better now. An outline of the patches/bug-fixes/thank-Gods follows.
Calvin and Hobbes - More! - Look at this: the Calvin and Hobbes on my birthday in 1993. Just start messing around with the dates in the URL, and you can find quite a few comics in this link. With a name like “transmogrifier.org,” that’s not surprising. A rather hidden archive of Calvin and Hobbes.
Great idea, great photoshop - This great picture flawlessly merges images of an iPod and Swiss Army knife to give the appearance of a great idea: an iPod with flip-out multi-tools on its sides.
Today in quantitative chemistry, the lecture topic was the difference between detectors in common spectrography equipment. One detector (the photomultiplier tube) is extremely sensitive, while the other (the photo diode array) is significantly less sensitive (but cheaper). So the professor proposed the following question:
From: Micek, Alexander J.
Sent: Tue 4/11/2006 11:50 AM
To: Dr. West
Subject: Lab Schedule
Hello,
Just checking - we have no lab this week, but lab next week (I’m in the Thursday afternoon lab), correct?
These will be used to record my piano at home, I am learning how to us them in the meantime.
Jesus may have settled down in Japan - I must stress the use of “legend” in this _opinion— column. I think the most interesting aspect of this story is Jesus as a traveler, who knew many cultures. Thank you, wise Sagert Sheets, for your link to this. Japan truly is awe-inspiringly strange sometimes (I speak of their blindingly bright packaging, etc.) I would love to visit.
I think these perfume sample cards have some great examples of graphic (and material) design. Very succinct, yet impactful branding. Plus, they get the bonus of having the product sprayed on them - very good selling tool. These were used in the quest for Katy’s birthday gift.
Mentos in Diet Coke Explodes - An NPR investigation with video and a scientific explanation for this strangeness. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an experiment to do now.
Credit to Jimmy Eat World for these lyrics. On their newest (amazing) EP “Stay On My Side Tonight” (recommended by tumbledryer Nils) is a great song called “Closer.” The lyrics follow.
Every day I get a little closer dear
Will you love me darling when I get there
I’ll need sunshine
I’ll need rest
Pour us whiskey, water, kiss
My best title for an image yet.
In the grand Tumbledry tradition, I bring you another round of “5 Questions.” Five questions is presented here on a very irregular schedule; that is, whenever I think of it. It is a tumbledry feature, just like “Food at the Binz” or “boring posts about my life” (the latter category receives many many entries). For those of you who are new to the game: the first five questions asked of me via the comments attached to this post will be answered. Plain and simple.
Man caught changing traffic lights - This guy was changing traffic lights for two years with something called an Opticon, and was only charged $50 when caught. I would think it would be way way more.
Panopticon - When researching that previous link, I ran across the panopticon, a prison designed by a philosopher (sounds interesting already) that would: “allow an observer to observe all prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell if they are being observed or not, thus conveying a ‘sentiment of an invisible omniscience’.”
Trading up from a paper clip to a house - Over the course of about 10 trades, this guy has gone from a large red paperclip to a year’s free rent in Arizona. He’s looking to continue trading until he gets a house.
Britain’s worst driver was behind bars last night after being banned from the roads for nine lifetimes plus 109 years - Can’t beat the sound bites from this article: “In 2000, Williamson was branded the worst driver “in Scotland, if not the UK”, after earning his sixth life ban.”
I’m not exactly sure why, but there is a granite circle inscribed in the ground near the memorial honoring women who served in the World Wars.
I wonder how far in the air this guy is - “Don’t talk trash about male cheerleaders, they can throw you further than you think.”
Apparently some sort of spice was pulverized when the chicken was breaded a couple of nights ago, resulting in green chicken at the Binz Refectory. It was not a particularly bright green, but a rather sickly green - almost the color that people turn when they are very sick. We were assured by Mary (she is the sandwich lady, who is a very nice person — her son actually goes to school here) that the chicken was normal. This wasn’t anything remarkable, though it does merit note, especially given Food at the Binz’s remarkably long silence.
Cool word of the day: cowling - Impress your friends!
Heidi Klum and Seal buy a Giraffe - And then drive away with it in their Lamborghini. What’s not to love?
12 nails into his head and he lives - Here we go: this guy was on drugs and shot twelve nails into his head with a pneumatic air gun. He lived.
It actually reminds me a news story in the area a couple of years ago where a workman was coming down a ladder with his nail gun pointing straight down, and it tapped a guy on the top of the head and unloaded a nail into the guy. Apparently the nail missed important blood vessels by millimeters (blood is poisonous to the brain). Chance is such a funny thing.
Oh, even better. The Kid Next Door is now singing in falsetto along with the song “Time’s A Wastin’” by June Cash and Carl Smith. The lyrics can be found on CowboyLyrics.com:
The cakes no good if you don’t mix the batter and bake it
And loves just a bubble if you don’t take the trouble to make it
So if your free to go with me, I’ll take you quicker than 1, 2, 3
Let’s go
Times a wastin
I was going to take the time to write up a longish post with regard to the following incident during my chemistry studying last night, but it’s probably best to keep it short. I consumed warmish rancid milk with sugar and oats in it. The carton said “May 1,” but apparently this milk was not about to stay fresh up to that date … it smelled vaguely of yogurt when opened, but I thought it was OK. It then tasted a bit like flowers (and yes, I have eaten flowers, though I was much younger), with some weird yogurt flavor mixed in for good measure. It took me a good 24 hours to get the weirdness out of my stomach. Oh, the exciting life I lead.
Yes, there is a Gatorade blog now - This is by the same author of that book about the history of Gatorade that I linked to a while ago. Furthermore, I hear this Gatorade Rain is pretty good — not as intense as regular Gatorade.
Found Magazine - Here’s an interesting concept: people find things on the ground (generally, personal notes from what I can see) and then send them in. Submissions are sometimes poignant, sometimes intensely personal, but always quite thought-provoking.
Ryouko - These guys mix break dancing with karate, etc. to make this incredible art form; as first seen in this wonderfully entertaining video of amazing flips, jumps, nunchuck work (!), and dance moves.
Unbelievable crime - A group of people in China faked AN ENTIRE BRANCH of NEC, producing products using its name, manufacturing new ones not officially recognized by NEC, and … the list goes on. This is diabolical.
This render looks like a photograph - The line between real and unreal is being blurred further.
We ought to do good to others as simply and naturally as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
— Marcus Aurelius
Ice cream cone turner - This is almost as bad as the “bugle emulator,” which allows a guy to hold a bugle to his mouth at a military funeral, and have “Taps” be electronically played. Technology is so stupid sometimes.
Order of the Garter - Cut to a scene of guys in Medieval England saying “we need an emblem for our ultra-exclusive order of chivalry.” Moments pass. “I’ve got it … a garter!”
And today, they only have 25 full members? Ridiculous. However, the paintings with their emblem in it are rather cool. Thank you, Wikipedia.
Firefox Commercial - I love the Internet Explorer “wheee hahaah …”
