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Saturday, June 21, 2003
Volcano Sites of the Day:
Start off with the lavishly illustrated Volcanoes of the World site, then head over to the Mount St. Helens Volcano Gift Shop, then finish off the day in your easy chair working on the Volcano Crossword Puzzle. And maybe wash up with Lava soap!
Will It Play in Peoria?:
The Peoria Pundit will be the judge of that. An eclectic mix of Fun and Politics from America's Heartland, along with Bill Dennis' observations on the Chicago Cubs, 1908 World Series Champions. (The Cubs measure their championships on a somewhat geological timescale.)
A Color-Coded, Easy-to-Understand, Truly Useful Map of the Stock Market:
From Smart Money magazine. A LOT of information in one glance. Be sure to learn the secrets of its use.
Aristotle, Sir Edmund Hillary, Henry Fonda, and Sherlock Holmes:
They were all celebrity beekeepers.
Atari TV Classic 10 Games with Joystick:
At Gamestop.com. Includes Asteroids, Adventure, Missile Command, Centipede, Gravitar, Yar's Revenge, Breakout, Pong, Circus Atari, and Real Sports Volleyball. Just add a TV for real retro pleasure. $24.99
Friday, June 20, 2003
Soviet Propaganda Posters:
The real ones. Time to start collecting these as a hedge against inflation/deflation/whatever?
How to Ruin American Enterprise:
Ben Stein in Forbes.com: "We're well on our way to squelching what gives this country an edge. What would it take to kill innovation altogether?"
Family Feud, Round 1: McMahon vs. Hemingway:
The Contest: Go to Amazon.com, perform a search for books with authors having the name "McMahon", then perform a search for books with authors having the name "Hemingway". The result: McMahon 742, Hemingway 315. I don't have a Black Belt in Statisical Analysis for nothin', ya know.
But Which Ones Were Used for Junk Mail?:
Stamps from the Confederate States of America.
The 7 Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives:
From Fast Company: It's not easy to become as disastrous a boss as Dennis Kozlowski, Jean-Marie Messier, or Jill Barad -- but you can, if you work at it. And here's the best part: Each of the qualities that you need to be a spectacular failure is widely admired in today's business world.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
The Great Boston Molasses Tragedy:
The True Story: A 2.5 million gallon tank. A sudden, thunderous sound. A wall of molasses, 30 feet high . . . .
For Well-Heeled Big Kids Who Wish to Re-Create the War of 1812:
From Wm Hocker. About $30 per each toy soldier. All metal, though. If you amortize it out, it's a better deal than the plastic toy soldiers. But is it as fun a casting your own lead soldiers and re-melting them back in the molten lead, complete with your own creative sound effects that always sounded a bit too much like the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of The Wizard of Oz?
A Palm-Powered PDA with a Built-in Keyboard:
The Alphasmart Dano. A good note-taking device for college?
Why Computer Geeks Like Leather:
Personal Computer pioneers Radioshack, home of the TRS-80, and Coleco, home of Colecovision and the Coleco Adam, both started out as leather companies. And while you're on this stroll down Memory Lane, why not visit the Obsolete Technology Website?
More Puzzles and Optical Illusions Galore:
Visit Archimedes' Laboratory. Did you know a square piece of paper cannot be folded in half more than 7 times?
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
A Daily Briefing of Fun:
I'm talking, of course, about Major FUN's Daily Briefings, a most wonderful web site. Recent briefing included the Flying Pig Gallery (Executive Toys for you to Make!), and the wonderfully weird Industrious Clock (evidently the Japanese DO work harder than we do!). Poke around the site to see what I mean, then learn more about the man behind the site, Bernie DeKoven.
The SAT Practice Question of the Day:
Here. Now get a life!
A Satellite Photo of My House from Space:
Right here. We're right below the red dot, in the house with the semi-circle sidewalk. You can see our little garden shed in the back yard, and the people behind us have a swimming pool. I'm glad the Soviets never got a hold of this info when they were in power. Or maybe this was taken with one of theirs, who knows?
MazeWorks Games and Puzzles:
Puzzles to test you and delight you, written in Java. Very nicely done.
A Virtual Tour of the Falkland Islands:
Start off the day at Falkland Knitwear, stop off at Shorty's Diner for lunch, and finish off the day with a rousing game in the Stanley Darts League. You can even check out this interactive map of Stanley, the capital city.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
The Ultimate Web Designer's Color Tool:
The Color Schemer Simple to use, I like it.
Online Art Museum:
Olga's Gallery: One of the largest and most comprehensive online collections. Over 8,000 works of art.
Hard America allows for the existence of Soft America:
Michael Barone: "A sensible society wants to keep some part of itself Soft: We don't want to subject kindergartners to the rigors of the Marine Corps or to leave old people helpless and uncared for. But a sensible society also understands--and the military has been driving home the lesson--that Soft America lives off the productivity, creativity, and competence of Hard America."
Seiko Epson Develops Power-Saving, Bluetooth-Controlled Micro Robot in Palmtop Size:
Yes sir, a big headline for this itty-bitty robot.
Monday, June 16, 2003
The Calculus Hater's Home Page
Sidney Blumenthal's Book:
AndrewSullivan: "It has the tone and manner and piety of one of those 'Lives of the Saints' books most Catholic schoolkids were once forced to read at some point or other. It's not a memoir; or a history. It's a Gospel. Its facts are assembled, as the facts in the Gospels were assembled, for one purpose only: to affirm the faith, to rally the flock, to spread the further glory of the Church. It is an allegory of eternal good and evil--a passion narrative with a scriptural past and a resurrection at the end, the first-person narrative of one saint who prevailed."
Label the Brain Anatomy Diagram:
From EnchantedLearning.com. I always confuse the Pons with the Corpus Colostrum. Or something.
The Bad Fads Museum:
No, you don't have to pack the kids in the car, 'cause it's online! What'll they think of next?
Rock, Paper, Scissors:
From Classic Games.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
50 Heroes, 50 Villains:
From AFI's 100 Years. What, no Pee-Wee Herman? No Sgt. Hulka?
Hello Boys!:
Do You Have Your Erector Set?
Intelligent File Size Compression for Microsoft PowerPoint:
NXPowerLite is fully customizable, allowing you to choose the ideal balance between compression and quality. Used consistently it can lessen the load on corporate communication networks, decrease the chances of oversized emails being returned and reduce bandwidth costs for people that regularly transfer PowerPoint presentation files over the web. And hey, it really works!
Great Hall Games & Distractions:
All kinds of hard to find games.
The Ultimate Root Beer Taste Test on the World Wide Web:
Interesting Ideas:: "Consumed in isolation, most root beers taste fine to most people. But things change in comparison tastings. Tried side by side, root beers reveal themselves to be an unregulated potpourri. A drink's 'root beerness' comes into focus, and the differences among brands can be substantial. "
