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Mental Health Break

In Stuff, Video on Dec-21-2008 with
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Every Commercial Flight On Earth In 72 Seconds

In Stuff, Video on Dec-14-2008 with
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Wired notes scientists from the Zurich School of Applied Sciences have built a video simulation that highlights the flight path of every commercial flight in the world over a 24-hour period, displayed in around a one minute video simulation:

When Blog Comments Get Bizzare

In Humor, Stuff on Jun-15-2008 with
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Well a copule days ago I mentioned that for many popular bloggers they often find the comment section is where some of the most thoughtful and interesting things happen. Jeff at Coding Horror said:

I don’t mean your average Fark level of strange. I’m talking about category 5 weirdness, the equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot combined. I’m talking about comments that feel like they were teleported here from another dimension.

He goes on to say he carefully monitors his comment and about once a year he will find one so “mind-bendingly bizarre and wonderful that it defies description.” Well here is his best one of the year thus far, an attempt to define what programming means.

Programming is all about knowing when to boil the orange sponge donkey across the phillipines with an orangutang gorilla crossed with a ham sandwich to the fourth power of twelve across the nile with an awful headache from the previous night when all of alfred’s naughty jalapeno peppers frog-marched the nordic elves across the loom-lined geronimo induced swamp donkey over and above the fortran fortified kilomanjaro fence past the meticulously crafted anti disgusting sponge cake scenario where all the hats doth quoteth the milk which is not unlike the super werewolf from the infinite realm of ninja-step. it’s hard to define, really.

Middle Ages Survival Tips

In Humor, Stuff on Jun-13-2008 with
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As Jeff Atwood mentioned the other day at Coding Horror often the most amazing writing on his blog “begins where the blog post ends” and the comments begin. Here is another example of this in spades. Tyler Cowen asked his readers:

I wanted to ask for survival tips in case I am unexpectedly transported to a random location in Europe (say for instance current France/Benelux/Germany) in the year 1000 AD (plus or minus 200 years). I assume that such transportation would leave me with what I am wearing, what I know, and nothing else. Any advice would help.

He got a number of thoughtful and funny responses, like this one:

Find someone who will take care of you for a few days or weeks and then look for employment in the local church. Your marginal product is quite low, even once you have learned the local language. You might think that knowing economics, or perhaps quantum mechanics, will do you some good but in reality people won’t even think your jokes are funny. Even if you can prove Euler’s Theorem from memory no one will understand your notation. I hope you have a strong back and an up to date smallpox vaccination.

You got to love the Intertubes.

[Found via Kottke]

Mother Nature Doesn’t Like Illinois

In Stuff on Apr-21-2008 with
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First it rained and rained. Then it rained some more. My basement flooded twice. I am now a sump pump and Rub Doctor expert. So early in the AM the other morning I am taking a shower and the house starts to shake.

I’m wondering if I am having a Grateful Dead related flash back or something. I hit the news and see we just had a 5.4 earthquake. This is a little troublesome, since I actually live on a fault line that makes the one in Southern California look like child’s play. In fact the last time (1811-1812) there was a major quake (actually four within a three month period) they were so powerful they reversed the flow of the Mississippi river. I expect locusts and frogs are in my near future. Oh and aftershocks that last for 20-30 seconds are a little unnerving to say the least.

Here are five great tips from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame on getting unstuck when you finding yourself procrastinating or you are just having a hard time getting things done:

Hack your way out of writer’s block: “Literally. Put five completely random words on

a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.”

Solve problems by writing a note to yourself: “Seriously, open up your email program, type in your own email address, then choose a brilliant subject line that perfectly encapsulates your particular problem.”

Do a fast mind-sweep: “And as long as you let that stuff accumulate as chunky deposits on the edges of your perception, it’s very unlikely it’ll get done since—well—they won’t get done until they’re been captured and properly started, right?”

Cringe-Busting your TODO list: “Per cringe item, think honestly about why you’re freaked out about it. Seriously. What’s the hang-up? (Fear of failure? Dreading bad news? Angry you’re already way overdue?)”

Patching your personal suck: “Every patch that fails teaches you a little something that might come in handy some day. Mistakes, as they say, can be a buddhist gift.

[Found via Boing Boing]

When Budget Cuts Strike

In Culture, Stuff, Technology on Mar-25-2008 with
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This is kind of sad. Budget cuts are forcing scientists at NASA to turn off Mars rover Spirit for the winter, with no guarantee that it will be operable again when Martian spring arrives. After passing it’s “90 day mission” 1,400 days ago, Spirit is to be done in by bean counters.

Update: NASA reverses course.

Maybe The Best Business Card Ever

In Culture, Humor, Stuff on Mar-20-2008 with
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[Found via Matt Cuts]

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