Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Blimey, is it Christmas Eve already? Well, if you celebrate this Xmas thing I hope you have a marvellous time; if you don't, why not waste an hour looking through the stuff linked below. Either way, have fun, take care, and remember - a website is for life, not just for Christmas.
posted by Mark 7:27 PM
At last! I've finally found a source for the ultimate geek accessory - the propellor-head beanie hat! Expect me to be pestering you to buy me one of these for the next few months . . .
posted by Mark 7:20 PM
Katinka Matson makes beautiful digital images without the aid of a camera or a graphics program - she uses a flatbed scanner. If January's collection of 40 Flowers aren't enough to quench your appetite for flora, she added another 12 Flowers in June. I really like this work, and will no doubt be having a go as soon as I can get the machine upstairs to talk to the scanner again, but after a while I found myself wishing her subject matter was a bit more diverse. The fact that all the images are available in larger resolutions (suitable for, say, a desktop wallpaper) is a nice bonus.
posted by Mark 6:58 PM
Another huge collection of stuff for all you dedicated time wasters out there: Ron Wise's Geographical Directory Of World Paper Money has scans of literally thousands of banknotes from all over the world. I enjoyed bumbling about here looking at all the odd money, and I suppose it could even come in handy identifying all those odd bits of coloured paper you have left over from the last 15 years of holidays.
posted by Mark 6:34 PM
The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.
posted by Mark 5:54 PM
A while back I posted a link to Our Earth As Art, and at the time also meant to include a link to NASA's Visible Earth, a huge and fascinating collection of photographs of our home planet. But I forgot (hands up anyone who is surprised) so it's here, now, on it's own. I'll try harder in future, honest.
posted by Mark 5:40 PM
There are occasionally moments when finding out who was at war with who, when and where might be exactly what you need, and The War Scholar website exists for just such moments. The amount of work that has gone into producing these timeline pages is enormous, the sort of thing I'd start and then get bored with 5 pages in. I've looked at quite a few of the timelines, but haven't found a single year in which there wasn't a war going on somewhere which is an unsettling thought.
Earlier this week I was
Oh and if you're curious about who was in charge during these conflicts, you could cross-reference with the similarly impressive Rulers site.
posted by Mark 12:28 PM
If there's one thing I do like it's a pretty car, and the one I stumbled across this morning is, of all things, a Mercedes Benz SLR. While it's not in the same league as, for example, the Bugatti 16/4 Veyron or the Jaguar XK180, it's a damned fine looking machine. I'm already looking forward to catching sight of one in the wild (the chances of my ever doing that with the Bugatti are rather slimmer I suspect).
posted by Mark 11:13 AM
Saturday, December 14, 2002
So, you think you know your arse from your elbow do you? Prove it!
posted by Mark 2:24 AM
Friday, December 13, 2002
Another site for the when I win the lottery list - this time it's Private Islands for sale or rent (but no rooms to let, 50 cents). How the other 3% lives! I mean, shopping online for an island?!.
posted by Mark 2:29 AM
Sunday, December 08, 2002
The emperor, who was a devout Buddhist, invited a great Zen master to the Palace in order to ask him questions about Buddhism. "What is the highest truth of the holy Buddhist doctrine?" the emperor inquired.
"Vast emptiness... and not a trace of holiness," the master replied.
"If there is no holiness," the emperor said, "then who or what are you?"
"I do not know," the master replied.
This is just one of the excellent tales (parables? fables?) from this wonderful collection of Zen Stories to tell your neighbours. The site not only has many such enlightening/baffling tales, but also has a collection of peoples reactions to each story. A very satisfying read, all in all.
posted by Mark 3:17 PM
At 10 years old Richard Sandrak is one of the strongest humans in the world pound for pound, for which people call him "Little Hercules". Also, Richard is a 5th degree black belt level in the martial arts.
Scary child!
posted by Mark 3:01 PM
Our Earth as Art is a fascinating collection; pictures of the earth as seen from the Landsat-7 satellite. There are some truly stunning images to be seen here, and as an interesting side effect it demonstrates that, when viewed from a sufficiently distant spot, even ugly things can become beautiful - witness this Iraqi minefield and gun emplacement. There is probably a deep philosophical lesson in there for us somewhere, but I'll leave all that kind of thinking to Jim (with the green stuff).
posted by Mark 2:44 PM
For a fee of $10 per word (5 word minimum), our customers can have a telegram delivered to someone who has passed away. This is done with the help of terminally Ill volunteers who memorize the telegrams before passing away, and then deliver the telegrams after they have passed away. We call this an afterlife telegram.
posted by Mark 2:25 PM
Fed up with your dog stealing your sunglasses in summer? You need some Doggles.
posted by Mark 2:22 PM
I really like websites that explain things, especially when they do it in a way that even I can understand. The Neuroscience for Kids site is therefore almost perfect. It even has experiments, but unfortunately no Neurosurgery for Kids links.
posted by Mark 2:19 PM
If you really must wear a welding helmet, at least wear one that has a little style...
posted by Mark 1:35 PM
We all know about the Evil Government Mind Control Rays and how to block them with a tinfoil hat, right? Well what if that's not enough protection? For the truly deranged paranoid in your life I have the ideal gift - clothes with the shielding built right in to the fabric! Yes its true! You too can be the proud owner of a pair of conductive socks, silver-plated boxer shorts and a dress shirt woven with stainless steel fibres among the cotton ones. Wow.
posted by Mark 2:17 AM
Thursday, December 05, 2002
Just what you need if you do a lot of travellling - constantly updated catalogue of Entrances to Hell in and around the UK
posted by Mark 3:30 AM
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
If the pictures aren't worrying enough, check out the specifications for this amazing "car". A 3-metre long electric minibus that can do 180mph? Oh boy do I want one...
posted by Mark 3:18 AM