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7 September, 2003

Merger News

From Humor Is Dead: Ctrl, Alt, Delete to Merge.

A three-way merger in the keyboard industry was announced today when Ctrl offered $2 billion in stock for the purchases of Del, as well as the privately held Alt.

Ctrl said during a morning conference call that they will close down the Del location, located in various places on the laptop keyboard, and expand headquarters next to Space Bar. Tilde could not be reached for comment.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Custom Text in Photos

This site has a few dozen images. Enter some text, and it will appear in a photo. Example:

Warning: a few of the images are a bit risque.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Communicating With The Dead

The World ITC site deals with Instrumental Transcommunication.

Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) means that the messages coming from beyond will be received and/or stored by use of technical means. ITC is the use of tape recorder, TVs, radios, computers, telephones, and other technical devices with the intent to get meaningful information from beyond in such forms as voices, images, and text.

The big advantage of ITC is the possibility to prove to others that something uncommon takes place. Not only the receiver of the messages, for example the medium, but also others could become a witness of these contacts. Almost everybody who is really interested in that phenomenon can get and with persistence will get EVP.

I like this quote:

There are two big obstacles facing ITC today: Most people have never heard about the research, and most of those who have, don't believe it.

OK, now I've heard of it. But the second obstacle remains.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Thug 4 Life

Thug 4 Life is an interesting blog.

This is the web log of Artist Tom Sanford's Thug4Life project. Since July 5, 2003, this white boy from Westchester has been going to every conceivable length to transform himself into, and thereby understand, the most iconic celebrity of our time, Tupac Amaru Shakur.

The photo shown here depicts his hair cut.

The First step in my nose piercing was to cut my hair. I have never had it as short as this before. Artist Becket Bowes kindly volunteered to meticulously shave my head using a bic razor - this took some time but I felt that the nose piecing was an important event, meriting a haircut.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Medicine and Health Images

Images from the Science And Society Picture Library.

Objects and artwork relating to the history of medicine throughout the world, ranging from iron lungs to Chinese acupuncture figures, plus a selection of images of twentieth century medical practice taken from our newspaper archives.

Shown here is a collection of phrenological heads from 1831.

Detail of some of the heads made by the phrenologist William Bally of Dublin, Ireland, to illustrate the theories of phrenology promoted by the Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). Gall proposed that the contours of the skull followed the brain's shape, with each region responsible for an aspect of personality or behaviour. Feeling the lumps was like reading the mind. He called his system organology, but it later became known as phrenology, derived from the Greek word 'phren' for mind. Phrenology never achieved the status of an accredited science, although the principle that many functions are localised in the brain is now widely accepted.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Fingernails On A Blackboard

Bill Beaty offers a theory...

Fingernails on blackboard or scraped across an old chalky car hood. Steel garden hoe scraped across a smooth rock. Tearing a ball of cotton. Writing with a nearly-dry magic marker. Trying to saw through a brick with a steak knife. Rubbing styrofoam across cardboard.

EEEEEEEURRRRRRRRT!!! Why is this sound to be avoided? How can a simple sound make you feel so awful? You want to make it STOP RIGHT NOW.

Just reading that paragraph made my skin crawl.

In a kind of related topic, this from MSNBC: Infrasound linked to spooky sound effects.

(via Jeroen's Semi Blog)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Post Card Art

Wonderful images at American Post Card Art.

We currently publish more than 72,000 museum-quality art prints in topics ranging from African Animals to Zeppelins. Each image is available on Kodak photogloss paper, canvas banner, or Lyson watercolor paper. We offer four standard sizes, but, because all our printing is custom, on-demand, we can make your print in any size you want...up to 5 x 7.5 feet!

(via Life in the Present)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Hurricane Photos

Phil Wells posted a large collection of Hurricane Fabian photos at his blog.

Hurricane Fabian scored a direct hit on Bermuda on the afternoon of Friday 5 September 2003 with sustained winds of up to 110 knots. These pictures show something of the preparation for and aftermath of the storm.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Optical Illusions

These are some great optical illusions by A.Kitaoka. They are all non-animated images -- but your eyes don't know that.

(via Love and the Happy Cynic)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Scrabblog

Further proof that a blog can be anything that you want it to be.  Check out the Scrabblog.

Scrabblog is an opportunity to practice your Scrabble skills. Every day, I'll be updating the site with a new set of 7 Scrabble tiles. Make the highest scoring words you can and post them in the comments.

(via Cloudal Partners)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Magic Eye

Back in the '90's, these Magic Eye stereogram images were all the rage. The image shown here has a hidden dollar sign.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

A Matchstick House

This Russian site has step-by-step instructions for building a small house from matchsticks. Smoke alarm not included.

(via Milk And Cookies)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Google is Five

Yesterday was Google's fifth birthday. I've spent more time using Google than any other web site. It's served me well. Happy birthday!

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Gluebooks

A gluebook, I guess, is a type of collage. Here's a great collection of gluebooks.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Decades of Fads

Crazy Fads has information about fads, grouped by decade.

From 1920 to 1990 we list all of the craziest fads that have come and gone. Go back a few decades and read about the silly to serious fads that helped change our society and create a pop-culture.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

The Sandwich Project

The Sandwich Project is in search of the ultimate sandwich.

The sandwich project's aim is to collect the world's favorite fillings between two pieces of bread (open top sandwiches are fine as well). This is the place to compare what you like in a sandwich with the rest of the internet.

So far, there are 858 entries in the sandwich database.

But what if you drop your sandwich? Can you still eat it? Check out the latest research on the 5-second rule.

Posted on 7 September, 2003

Your Inner Child Age

Take a short quiz and find out the age of your inner child. According to the quiz, my inner child is 45 years old -- just six years younger than my outer child.

(via Electric Venom)

Posted on 7 September, 2003

R.I.P Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon died yesterday, at age 56 (CNN story).

He faced death with the same dark sense of humor found in much of his music, including songs like "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," "Life'll Kill Ya" and "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead."

Zevon said he "chose a certain path and lived like Jim Morrison and lived 30 more years. You make choices and you have to live with the consequences."

His latest CD, The Wind, was recorded after he knew he was going to die. I bought it last week. It's killer.

Posted on 7 September, 2003