Strong Bad invents a new word

Closimonies - (n) the closing ceremonies in the 2007 Strongbadiathon competition.

Homestar Runner games now on the WII

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Homestar_Runner_Games_Now_Available_on_the_Wii

Plus, yet another reason for me to buy Guitar Heroes II.

The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

 

The Fundamentals Of Retailing
Edited by Brett Nelson 01.09.07, 6:00 PM ET

Of all businesses, a retail shop might be the most basic. You buy inventory, mark it up and sell it at a profit. Simple.

Source: The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

Is it the wetsuit?

Over the last year I have read two books on extreme achievements that stick out in my mind, and both revolve around the Amazon. Paddle to the Amazon, by Don Starkell & Amazon Extreme, by Colin Angus & Ian Mulgrew tell true stories about unbelievable travels and achieving the unimaginable.

Paddle to the Amazon documents extreme adventure pioneer Don and his sons as they travel from Winnipeg to Brazil in a canoe in 1980.  Yes, that is Winnipeg, Canada.  Yes, that's over 12,000 miles and two years worth of canoeing.  "With minimal supplies, depending on their wits and the good will of strangers", Don has no sponsor and risks his life (and his son's) to achieve his dream.  Afterwards, Don canoed the Arctic, among other places.

Amazon Extreme is no less an amazing book, as three guys substitute two years worth of canoeing with five months of white-water rafting from the beginning to the end of the Amazon.  In typical To-The-Extreme MTV Generation fashion, without sponsors, with limited planning, an underfunded, undersupplied and unprepared journey was successful.  Even though they almost died hiking to get to the river before they even started.  Guys, especially extreme guys, don't ask for directions.

Now what if any of these guys decided to ditch their boat and just swim?

That would be insane.

Meet Martin Strel.

According to Martin, "As a young boy, I was beaten a lot by my parents and schoolmasters. This no doubt contributed greatly to my ability to ignore pain and endure..."  Evidently this included numerous blows to the head.  He has decided to swim the Amazon, from the start near a mountain in Peru to the finish on the coast of Brazil.

Not that this impossible.  If a piranah can do it, why not Martin?  He has millions in funding.  He swam the Danube river twice, the Mississippi river, the Parana river from Iguazzu Falls to the Rio de la Plata, and recently the toxic, multicoloured Yangtze river in China.  After swimming the biohazard that is Yangtze, he probably has superpowers and webbed feet. 

Swimmer Martin Strel has dedicated this swim to the preservation of the rainforest, to raising awareness for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and to promoting telemedicine as a valuable tool in bringing modern medicine to remote areas

It is for some great causes, he has tons of sponsorship, lots of world records and Jacques Cousteau's old boat tagging along.  He's gotta do it.

His swim starts February 1st, 2007.  Find out more on his web site.  

Let Us Now Praise Crazy Mofos.

Is it the shoes?

DEAN KARNAZES WAS SLOBBERING DRUNK. IT WAS HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, and he'd started with beer and moved on to tequila shots at a bar near his home in San Francisco. Now, after midnight, an attractive young woman – not his wife – was hitting on him. This was not the life he'd imagined for himself. He was a corporate hack desperately running the rat race. The company had just bought him a new Lexus. He wanted to vomit. Karnazes resisted the urge and, instead, slipped out the bar's back door and walked the few blocks to his house. On the back porch, he found an old pair of sneakers. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up the shoes, and started running. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

more...

 

I don't think this was the old pair of sneakers he found, but these are what he's wearing now.

 

Buy them here

Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

"There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love -- 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been.' That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much." Huge, huge applause, standing ovation.

Source: Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

 

Sure, the iPhone looks cool, probably works well, and may win a bunch of design awards, but it still isn't as cool as having this:

 

 

The FY8850 cell phone is a fully functional redesigned replica of a 1980's cell phone but with 21st century technology. Features 1980's look and feel complete with huge battery and long external antenna. Includes color LCD screen, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, speaker phone and long battery life. True to its root, this cell phone does not have headset, USB connection or car charger jacks. This phone is unlocked so it can be used with any GSM carrier using 900, 1800 or 1900 frequency bands.

Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

 

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Source: Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

 

On Saturday, at 401 Richmond's Red Head Gallery, artist Robin Pacific began giving away her entire personal library of 1,670 books in a conceptual art installation called "Shelf Portrait." If you heard about this over the last couple of weeks and it occurred to you that a well-publicized giveaway of free, interesting books in downtown Toronto on a Saturday might draw a bit of a crowd, well, you were right. Torontoist is happy to report that the same thing also occurred to the show's organizers, and they were well prepared for Saturday's mob scene. They distributed tickets with times printed on them -- 50 tickets per half-hour interval -- sparing attendees from having to wait in line all afternoon. (I showed up at 1:30 and snagged a 3:00 ticket.) Pacific also imposed a 4-book-per-person limit, ensuring that the show wasn't cleaned out by the end of the first half-hour.

Source: Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

 

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation
• Biological Engineering
• Biology
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Comparative Media Studies
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Engineering Systems Division
• Experimental Study Group
• Foreign Languages and Literatures
• Health Sciences and Technology

• History
• Linguistics and Philosophy
• Literature
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Media Arts and Sciences
• Music and Theater Arts
• Nuclear Science and Engineering
• Physics
• Political Science
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sloan School of Management
• Special Programs
• Urban Studies and Planning
• Women's Studies
• Writing and Humanistic Studies

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

52 game ideas

 

Every week in 2006 I posted a new original game idea. If you like, you can read all about the challenge I issued myself. By the end of the year it was quite cumbersome to sift through the site for find them all. So here’s all 52 game ideas in one easy list!

PublicRadioFan.com

 

Welcome to PublicRadioFan.com

PublicRadioFan.com features schedule listings for thousands of public radio stations and programs around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.

Getting started: Set your time zone, then use the main menu in the left column to navigate the site. Station names (with color backgrounds) link to online audio. Follow the  link next to any station or program to search for schedule listings and information. For more help, see our new user info page.

Customizing: You can customize the design of this front page (basic design, advanced design, custom design) and many other settings.

Podcasts: Our public radio podcast directory has grown to over 800 podcasts.

Source: PublicRadioFan.com

wavesmash (n) - this blog's author

wave

(v) : to move back and forth repeatedly; to wave one’s hand in greeting or departure

smash

(v) : to break (something brittle) violently; to hit extremely hard

"the demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble."

A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja

Tesla's wireless electricity comes to market

http://www.wildcharge.com/solutions.html

WildCharge is the first--and as yet the only company--to provide a universal solution: a solution that actually works for virtually any mobile device. This is ideal for mobile professionals who can now trade in their multiple chargers and adapters for one streamlined package.

Tesla under rug swept

Interesting site (link here) about a 3rd & 4th grade schoolteacher who has provided over $120,000 worth of $6000 busts of Nikola Tesla to various universities, libraries, and institutions... except the Smithsonian.

 

"This is a photograph of our finished bust we offered to the Smithsonian. Dr. Bernard S. Finn, (Curator of the Division of Electricity and Modern Physics) refused us, claiming he had no use for it.

We could not understand why the Smithsonian would have no use for a $6,000 bust of such a great American and eminent scientist."

More info on Tesla at Wikipedia

Merry Christmas

What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log

It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."

Everyone wants a log
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log
Everyone needs a log
log log log

*whistle*
LOG FROM BLAMMO

Download of the Day: Any Video Converter

The program supports just about every video format known to man, including AVI, DivX, FLV, RM, and VOB. It also comes with output profiles for devices like the iPod and PSP, though you can easily create a custom profile with the audio and video specs of your choosing.

Not enough fish in the sea

3. What is the state of fishery resources?

3.1 The quantities fished in seas and oceans increased from 1998 to 2000, and stabilized at a slightly lower level since 2001 (84 million tonnes). This slight decrease is mainly due to lower catches in the Southeast and Northwest Pacific, but trends vary greatly between regions. Tuna is the single most important exploited resource in the high seas, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. More...

3.2 In many areas, traditional stocks have been depleted and less valuable species are being targeted by fishers. About half of all monitored stocks are now fully exploited and another quarter are overexploited, depleted, or slowly recovering. The remaining quarter are under- or moderately exploited. Available data leads to the conclusion that the global maximum potential for marine capture fisheries has been reached and that restrictive management measures are needed. More...

3.3 Fishery policies and management have usually focussed on single fishery stocks. Growing concerns about ecosystems have prompted a call for increased research into processes that affect, or are affected by, fisheries. Much more needs to be known about interactions with habitats, aquatic communities, land-based activities, climatic changes, and so on. However, the current state of fishery resources and their ecosystems allows little room for delay in management actions that should have been taken in the last three decades. More...

3.4 Fish stocks in inland waters are more difficult to monitor and very few countries can afford to supply complete data. Inland fishery resources are often undervalued and under threat from unsustainable fishing activities as well as from habitat alteration or degradation. Many river basins, especially in developing countries, support intensive fisheries, and in many cases catches are increasing. Inland fish are considered to be the most threatened group among all the vertebrates used by humans. Nevertheless, efforts have been made in many areas to enhance fish stocks in inland waters. More...

 

Start with a charity in your own backyard.

nepalese backwhack

nepalese backwhack is a Google Whack. I dug this one up on my 3rd try, right after I finished watching Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, probably the funniest video I have seen in a long time.

Dave Gorman, whose 15 minutes of fame include trying to track down all the Dave Gormans in the world and meet up with them, decides to take on a bet by his friend, also Dave Gorman, to start a chain. It would be a chain of Googlewhacking that would take him around the world a few times, spending his book publishers advances on a quest to get 2 Googlewhacks from every Googlewhacker.

All these mentions of Google whacking should either get me banned or put me in the first page of search results on Google.

Here's a link to his book that I will probably try and pick up soon.

Another book Amazon suggests customers ultimately buy after viewing this item is:
8% buy The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs $11.20

So instead of buying Dave's book, they picked up AJ Jacobs? I really enjoyed his book, it was another one of those quirky, hilarious, idiotic but strangely purposeful reads. AJ decides to go about reading the dictionary, turning it into an obsession and ultimately a book.

I think I have a similar obsessive personality trait to these two... at one point early this year I was asking everyone I knew 3 ways they thought they could get rich. This was most likely because of the books I was buying at the time: Pay Yourself First, Grow Rich Slowly, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Eat The Rich, and Homemade Money (not a book on counterfeiting) to name a few.

Most people suggested playing the lottery, marrying wealth, or selling real estate. Since I was married and didn't own any real estate, the answer was to buy lotto tickets. I didn't go crazy and spend all my money on quickpicks and scratch 'n wins, but I did use some of my pocket change to pick up tickets on a regular basis. How much did I win?

$3 I think.

I didn't measure how much I lost, which really didn't matter to me that much. It was the fact that so many people think the lotto was the way to gain wealth, and it isn't.

Another obsession of late has been the stock market, which is the king of all gambles. Like the casinos, banks and brokeragehouses all have the upper hand and whether you win or lose they will make money. It is only when you step away from the table that they really do lose.

According to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, "Gambling offers the near-certainty of completely losing the original stake over the long term, even if it offers regular wins along the way."

The "get rich slowly" way, according to all the other books I have read that don't have "rich" in the title is this:

Start your own business
Work hard
Fail, sometimes many times
Get noticed
Become successful.

This seemed to play out well for those with the Youtube view of things. Youtube probably would have been sued into Napster oblivion if it hadn't been for Google coming by with a chunk of change. Google set the trend and opened the coiffers of many venture capitalists who were once-bitten twice-shy about the dot com craze.

Quoting from the story Google's Abject Failure

"In its 21-month life, YouTube has created value at the rate of $80 million dollars a month, sending every venture capitalist and smart kid searching for the "next big thing" in Web 2.0 "

November has seen a huge amount of Web 2.0 sites trying to capitalize on the craze. Remember the Million Dollar Homepage? There's a bunch of copycats. One red paperclip? There's Swapace. Web 2.0?

Well, what really is Web 2.0, but Web 1.0 with less clicks? Youtube's success was probably moving the play button from the toobar to the middle of the screen. The television's success was the remote. The computer's success was the mouse.

Simplification of great ideas and bringing them to life could be the way to success.

New Rules

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.

All right, New Rule: If you forgot to buy Halloween candy, just say so. Don't hand out random crap from your kitchen. Last year, there was a guy on our block who was handing out batteries and mini-packets of soy sauce. I got so pissed, I had half a mind to poke him in the eye with my fairy wand. [photo-shopped photo of Maher in fairy costume]

-- Bill Maher

Scott Adams gets his voice back

The day before yesterday, while helping on a homework assignment, I noticed I could speak perfectly in rhyme. Rhyme was a context I hadn’t considered. A poem isn’t singing and it isn’t regular talking. But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.

Darwin Search

This site contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important works for understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available.