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Do you feel warm and fuzzy every time you look at kittens? Are sites like Cute Overload and The Daily Kitten just not quite enough for you?
Then check out the Random Kitten Generator. Each time you click a button, you get another photo of a kitten.
There are worse ways to spend five minutes decompressing when you get home from work.
Posted by Amy as Animals at 1:55 AM EST
Predictions and Hindsight is an entertaining site that is a compilation of wrong predictions.
Here are a few of the incorrect assumptions of days gone by:
• “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” - Associates of David Sarnoff, manager of an early US radio network, 1920s.
• Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons - Popular Mechanics, 1949.
• “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty.” - President of Michigan Savings Bank, 1903, advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.
The site also has links to other pages with similar predictions. It’s a fun way to pass some time.
Via Plep.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture at 1:15 AM EST
find your inner clothing style @ quizmeme.com
Posted by Amy as Fluffy Stuff at 1:22 AM EST
On this day in 1873, Enrico Caruso was born.
Still one of the most renowned tenors the opera world has seen, he was a superstar in his life. According to Wikipedia, his early life was difficult, though:
When he was 18, he used fees earned by singing at an Italian resort to buy his first pair of shoes. He is pictured wearing a bedsheet, draped like a toga, in his first publicity photograph because his only shirt was in the laundry.
I also learn from Wikipedia that he “had a repertoire of some 521 songs, ranging from classical to traditional Italian folk songs and popular songs of the day.”
Click here to hear him sing La donna è mobile or, if you’d rather hear him sing O Sole Mio, you can click here.
Posted by Amy as Music at 1:27 AM EST
I found a new site that’s a great way to waste time: Gaggle. It’s sub-titled “Surf Like An Asshole.”
That’s probably a little strong for what it does. The site’s creator explains it best:
Gaggle takes random words from the standard Linux English spelling dictionary, and performs a google search on them.This was my first Perl cgi project, spurred on by a a superbly illustrated llama and too much ground arabica. The idea arose independently of the nascent googlewhacking meme, but at about the same time. Many googlewhackers consider this sort of computer assistance to be sacrilege.
Whatever.
When I decided I would play as if I were feeling lucky (which is an option) and asked for three words, I got “honey” “transgression” and “Budweiser” plus the website for the short story “Ugly Shirt Universe” by Justin D. Warren.
When I decided to play as though I weren’t feeling lucky, I got the following websites:
• Dragon Bedding Comforter
• paginates mornings
• The Staggering Ox
• Invisible Adjunct
And for my next trick, I’ll create a poem based on those phrases.
Via Weblog V2.
Posted by Amy as Fluffy Stuff at 1:54 AM EST
If you’re a Star Trek fan, definitely check out Memory Alpha: The Star Trek Wiki.
According to the site, it aims to be the place to go for information on Star Trek:
Memory Alpha is a collaborative project to create the most definitive, accurate, and accessible encyclopedia and reference for everything related to Star Trek. The English-language Memory Alpha started in November 2003, and currently consists of 23,126 articles.
There are many featured articles on characters, cultures, the arts, science and technology.
By browsing through here I got to learn that the DS9 character Morn is a Lurian (which I didn’t know). I also found out that in the episode “Who Mourns For Morn?” Mark Shepherd, the actor who plays Morn, appeared “without the Morn makeup . . . as the customer whom Quark asks to fill Morn’s seat.”
The site also features bits of trivia such as the following:
• “Tim Russ is the only Trek actor to appear on screen beside four of the five series captains”
• “chroniton torpedoes exist in a constant state of temporal flux”
• “Deep Space 9’s Promenade was the largest standing set in Hollywood”
I’ll be revisiting this.
Via Humanyms.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Television & Movies at 1:42 AM EST
Well, I’m a little late with this, but what the heck: it’s the December 2006 list of 100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year.
Every year BBC news compiles this list, and it’s always a fun read. Here are some of the things that 2006 revealed to a startled world:
• “Urban birds have developed a short, fast “rap style” of singing, different from their rural counterparts.”
• “The Pope’s been known to wear red Prada shoes.”
• “The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.”
• “Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.”
• “Eating a packet of crisps [potato chips] a day is equivalent to drinking five litres of cooking oil a year.”
My life is somehow more complete now that I know this.
Via Neat New Stuff On The Web.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture at 1:30 AM EST
Here’s a fun little site: IP Spotting.
Your IP Address is your Internet Protocol Address (your computer’s address that other computers can read).
Here’s how it works: IP Spotting automatically reads your IP address from the connection you make with it (don’t worry—it’s harmless).
The results are instantly displayed, and you get to learn such nifty info as the following:
• what kind of poker hand you’d have with that address
• what phrase would be created from it (mine was “cross same now will”)
• whether a valid bar code could be created
You also get to see what your address looks like as a bitmap. Here’s mine:
Via The Presurfer.
Posted by Amy as Fluffy Stuff at 1:08 AM EST
Garret Vreeland at dangerousmeta! has written a brilliant post about the responsibilities of bloggers—the responsibilities of all bloggers to the blogging community, and the responsibility that longer-term bloggers have to newer bloggers.
He recounts how, when he first started blogging, good blogging behaviour was “gently” enforced. This is not possible now, however:
A good example is about the only tool with which we can teach, and because of this, many of the current crop of leading lights leaves me dispirited. There’s a responsibility with being popular, and linking other blogs … a responsibility to first and foremost, reinforce good weblogging habits.
There’s too much good stuff here for me to recount it; I just urge you to read his entire post.
Posted by Amy as Blogs and Bloggers at 1:01 AM EST
Here’s a good resource for music lovers: Music-Map.
Like its sister site (Literature Map), this is very straightforward: you enter the name of a musician you like and you’re given a group of other musicians who are similar.
So, for example, when I type in Lucinda Williams I get a cloud of names including The Be Good Tanyas, Rosanne Cash, and Emmylou Harris. When I type in Billie Holiday I get Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, and Norah Jones.
I’m not sure how entirely accurate this is. When I type in Tom Waits I get, among others, the entertainingly named Squirrel Nut Zippers (I have yet to listen to their music), David Bowie, and Steve Earle. Of course, Tom Waits really isn’t like anyone else, so maybe that isn’t fair.
But then I type in the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and although one name that I recognise seems bang on (Brian Setzer), one of the other names makes me raise my eyebrows. Much as I enjoy them, I just don’t think The Offspring have any swing influences. But maybe I’ve missed something.
Via Neat New Stuff On The Web.
Posted by Amy as Music at 1:47 AM EST
I’ve been doing some reading about Quakers (officially the Religious Society of Friends—the name “Quaker” came about because of the Friends’ practice of trembling at meetings).
There’s a good introduction to it in the Wikipedia entry here and there are many links listed to a variety of organisations.
There’s also a comprehensive source of information at The Religious Society of Friends. There’s no info on the site itself; it’s a list of links to many different aspects of the faith, from history to Quaker-run businesses to a Quaker lesbian conference.
For those of us who are blog fans and who like to learn about a topic that way, check out a listing of Quaker blogs at the blog QuakerQuaker.
For information about Quaker groups and activities in Canada, click here.
By the way, Quaker Oats is not owned by Quakers; it is one of a number of organisations that cash in on the group’s name. Check out some of the others that are unconnected.
Posted by Amy as Religion & Spirituality at 4:48 AM EST
Fans of the Hello Kitty! character know that the merchandise featuring her is everywhere.
I’m not sure anyone was prepared to see it on tarot cards, but now we’ve got it. They’re oddly charming, with the possible exception of The Hanged Man.
Click here to learn more about them and to see the deck.
Via Boing Boing.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Paranormal at 1:26 AM EST
If, like me, you’re a fan of crime dramas, you might like to check out the website for The CSI Effect.
The author of this site, Andrea Campbell, is an author of the book of the same name. The premise behind the site is simple:
Television shows such as CSI-Las Vegas/Miami/New York, Crossing Jordan, Bones and Law & Order, etc., have corrupted the jury system by raising viewers’ (victims’ and jurors’) expectation of forensic science—and criminal cases are being lost, dropped and rendered ineffective.
She goes on to give examples to clarify her meaning:
• Jurors may insist that more evidence should have been tested, even if virtually none existed.
• They are also upset with the length of time involved in processing evidence.
• These juror expectations have resulted in finding defendants not guilty—even with irrefutable DNA test results.
Well, I think we can all agree that this is a Bad Thing.
Then, for more surprises, check out the Armchair Detectives & At-Home Sleuth’s Quiz.
I don’t follow the science too closely on the shows, and I didn’t expect to do too well, but even so I was surprised to clock in at 40%.
I can see the difficulties that prosecutors face; not everyone will believe that there are indeed limitations on what information science can provide (or on the time it takes to be provided).
She also has a blog on this same topic; it’s also called The CSI Effect.
So if you’re looking for a CSI hit in between episodes, this might provide you with one—albeit of a slightly different nature.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Crime, Psychology at 7:38 AM EST
If you’re looking to learn a little more about dogs, you might like to check out the Dog Breed Info Center.
The site has some basic information about dog care (e.g. are you ready to have a dog in your life?) but it also has a terrific amount of information on the various dog breeds. In fact, I had no idea there were so many dog breeds.
Here are some of the ones that I hadn’t heard of:
• Alopekis
• Blue Lacy
• Carolina Dog
• Kerry Blue Terrier
This is a good site for browsing.
Posted by Amy as Animals at 3:06 AM EST
Valentine’s Day is here, and with it the card/candy/flower industries have their busiest day.
I’m more of a “Bah, humbug” person when it comes to Valentine’s Day, but I’ll unbend enough to take a silly quiz.
|
You Would Choose Money |
 You know that love doesn’t always last forever - but money can. Why bother with jealousy, petty fights, and hurt feelings? You rather just go shopping! And while marrying for money may be lonely, you’ll always be well dressed, well traveled, and well fed. |
O.K., I know I said I was “Bah, humbug” around this so-called special day—but I don’t think I’d go that far!
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Fluffy Stuff at 1:39 AM EST
Here’s an interesting website: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age.
The premise is simple; enter an age, click a button, and you get a list of what other people accomplished when they were that age.
Here are some of the things that people my age have accomplished:
• Benjamin Franklin conducted experiments with a kite and discovered that lightning is an electrical discharge.
• A Scottish surgeon, James Baird, discovered hypnosis.
• Golfer Jack Nicklaus became the oldest man ever to win the Masters.
• Alfred Eisenstaedt made his most famous photo, of a sailor sweeping up a girl in a kiss during a V-J day celebration in Times Square.
I don’t know whether to be inspired, demoralised, or entertained.
Via Plep.
Posted by Amy as General at 5:18 AM EST
Susan at I Buy Books has found a fun meme: 10 Things I Like.
There’s a twist to it, though; each thing that you like has to begin with the same letter. Those who want to take part get in touch with the person on whose blog they’ve found the meme, and that person assigns them a letter.
Susan gave me the letter C, so here goes.
1. Cats. If I could have only one animal to live with, it would be a cat.
2. Chickpeas.
3. Count Basie: whenever my spirits need a lift, Count Basie is a surefire cure.
4. Computers: writing, browsing the web, E-mail, building my own website, blogging. They’re almost my whole life!
5. Chocolate (that’s almost too easy).
6. Channa masala.
7. CBC Radio Two.
8. Christmas—especially the carols.
9. Comics and comedy.
10. Cute Overload.
If any of you would like to do this, leave a comment and I’ll give you a letter. Or, alternately, pick a letter yourself and go ahead and have fun!
Posted by Amy as Memes at 6:43 AM EST
If, like me, you are both a cat lover and a fan of comics, check out Hallmarks of Felinity.
Creator Brooke McEldowney has some very perceptive and witty illustrations that those who live with cats will recognise—and, if you’re thinking of getting a cat, you might like to check them out too!
Posted by Amy as Animals, Cartoons & Comics at 10:10 AM EST
If you like math, especially prime numbers, and if you like computer games where you destroy aliens or other images, you’ll probably like Prime Shooter.
The premise of the game is simple: a number is on the screen, and you reduce it by shooting it with the prime factors. You’ve won when the number is divided down to 1.
These games always are a little too aggressive for me, but there’s no question that it’s an innovative way to get people thinking about math and therefore boosts numeracy, which can only be a good thing.
Posted by Amy as Math at 1:46 AM EST
Here’s an unusual sight: the King’s Capuchins’ Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.
This location, a popular tourist stop in Palermo, contains the mummified bodies of numerous corpses of people who died from 1599 to 1920. Here’s the explanation from the site:
The catacombs date back to the 1599 when the local priests mummified a holy monk for all to see. They wanted to pray to him after death.In time the locals wanted their relatives remembered in this same way. Soon there were hundreds of corpses. Some of the deceased wrote wills, expressing the clothes in which to bury them in. Some asked to have their clothes changed over a period of time. Included in the catacombs are hundreds of coffins as well. Some contain the corpse that was buried in them. The side is sometimes cut to expose the deceased.
I find it interesting that this appears to be such a popular tourist attraction.
Via The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!
Via Hassenpfeffer.
Posted by Amy as Fluffy Stuff at 6:39 AM EST
If, like me, you’re a fan of maps, check out the Blog of Strange Maps.
Many of these maps are of imaginary countries, but that doesn’t detract from the interest. Previous posts have included the following:
• the land of Oz
• where Delaware met Pennsylvania: the 12 mile circle
• the world in George Orwell’s 1984
• how big is Jutland?
• Tatooine, Luke Skywalker’s home planet
I could spend all day here.
Posted by Amy as Maps at 1:46 AM EST
Not everyone is impressed with Valentine’s Day, and there’s now a great website out there to help people out with that: Be My Anti-Valentine.
The site says it all:
Stick two fingers (or one, if you’re that way culturally inclined) at any organisation with a vested interest which prescribes how and when to show your feelings. This year, don’t say it with flowers: say it with bile.
How to do this? Choose one of the anti-Valentine cards and send it to whomever. Here are a sampling of the messages:
• I love you blah blah blah hearts & flowers yadda yadda yadda kisses, cupid, etc.
• Oh, is there something special about today? I hadn’t noticed.
• Uprooted overpriced plantlife and fat-saturated caffeine and sugar blocks? You shouldn’t have.
They’re free, but you’re invited to make a PayPal donation to help with costs.
Posted by Amy as Popular Culture, Humour, Holidays at 5:27 AM EST
I’m a fan of photography, and I loved finding this post at Neatorama: 13 Photographs That Changed The World.
Most of them I knew, but a few were unfamiliar. Here are some of them:
• Federal Dead On The Field of Battle of First Day, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (1863)
• Murder of a Viet Cong By a Saigon Police Chief (1968)
• V-J Day, Times Square, 1945 (also known as The Kiss)
• The Hindenburg (1937)
• Einstein With His Tongue Out (1951)
There are also backgrounders that provide some fascinating information to go with each of the photos.
Via Plep.
Posted by Amy as Photography at 1:10 AM EST
If you know want to give someone a gift and they’d like you to donate to charity, here’s one to consider: Heifer International.
This charity allows you to set up a gift registry of items such as goats, honey bees, water buffalo, trees, and other items that struggling families in the Third World can benefit from.
Each item that you can add to the registry has an explanation for its use and the amount you can spend. For example, here’s the reason that llamas are included:
When resources are scarce, it’s important that livestock don’t use up land reserved for people. At home in rough, mountainous areas of Latin America, llamas are a blessing to families with limited pasture land, and they play a pivotal role in the cultural life of indigenous communities on the high plains of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.Women weave their llamas’ fleece into warm clothing to wear or sell. They load them up with goods for market and trek with them across rugged slopes at high altitudes. As they travel, llamas’ padded feet don’t damage the fragile terrain and their selective browsing doesn’t destroy sparse vegetation.
Llamas and their kin, the alpaca, provide Heifer families with invaluable sources of transportation, income and wool, which is prized for making blankets, ponchos, carpet and rope.
Llamas are remarkably disease resistant and require little care; they can carry small loads for distances over rugged slopes at high altitudes.
You can donate enough for the full cost of a llama ($150) or a contribution toward one ($20).
It’s a good idea; I’ve set up my own registry here.
Posted by Amy as Social Justice & Social Welfare at 11:58 AM EST
Valentine’s Day is coming up, and with it comes the potential for a lot of romantic gifts—or, for those couples where one person is romantic and one isn’t, a lot of disappointment.
Here’s an article that could save some heartache: Romantic Gift Giving For Pragmatic People.
Rafe Colburn has given the subject a lot of thought, and he is able to break down the issue in a solidly straightforward way:
For the longest time, I had no idea how to give a romantic gift, mainly because I didn’t understand what the word “romantic” means. I’m a guy who interfaces more with computers than with people, and who enjoys reading about economics and sports statistics. One day I was driving home from work and realized that the word “romantic” is an antonym of the word “practical” and suddenly a lot of things I had been missing became clear to me.
He gives three guidelines and one caution for romantic gift-giving, and they make good sense.
I remember reading somewhere about a woman whose husband always gave her things like a vacuum cleaner for gifts. Eventually she got smart and gave her husband a set of pots and some serving bowls. I don’t remember what she got the following year, but it wasn’t household stuff.
Via Rebecca’s Pocket.
Posted by Amy as Daily Life, Holidays, Relationships at 4:44 AM EST
Puppies Behind Bars is a great program: through it prison inmates learn how to raise puppies who go on to become service animals (helping the disabled or the blind; learning to detect bombs).
Before dogs can be trained to do any of the above, they need to be socialised, and this is where the effort from the prisoners comes in:
Socializing the dogs is actually the main component of a puppy raiser’s task, for socialization is what helps these dogs become confident. Confidence is the most important trait for a guide dog to have, but as it is not hereditary, it is the one trait which cannot be bred into dogs. Dogs become confident by being around human beings and by being introduced to a variety of situations at a measured pace. . . .
The pups live in the cells with their primary raisers, go to classes administered by Puppies Behind Bars once a week, and are furloughed two or three weekends a month to ‘puppy sitters’ who take the dogs into their homes in order to expose them to things they won’t experience in prison. These can be as simple as hearing doorbells or the sounds of a coffee grinder, and as complex as learning how to ride in a car and walk down a crowded sidewalk.
. . .
One of our particularly sensitive pups goes to several different areas of the prison: the sixteen- and seventeen-year-old inmates play with her; domestic violence classes use her to get the women to open up and talk; and she even visits inmates who are about to go before the parole board, for it has been found that her presence has a calming effect on the women.
What a wonderful program. The only down side would be the time when the puppy would have to leave the inmate—that would be very hard.
Posted by Amy as Animals at 1:56 AM EST
One year ago today I started blogging! It’s been a fun year.
I’ve read several places that most blogs don’t last past the 3 month period, and I have to admit that I wondered myself if I would persevere or if the blog would go the way of various New Year’s resolutions.
But here I am, still going strong, and still enjoying it. I’ve learned a lot about blogging and blogging software (I really prefer WordPress to Blogger).
I’ve gotten a more clear idea of my own interests, too. If anyone had asked me last year this time what I would blog about, I would have said history, cooking, animals, literature.
I certainly do blog about literature—so much so that I started another blog about it. But I’m surprised to find that I don’t blog about the others as much as I would have thought (considering how much a part of my life they are).
Instead, I’m way more interested in science and nature, SF television shows, and music than I had realised.
And, of course, I love silly quizzes. So here’s one to celebrate the blog’s anniversary.
|
You Are Sunrise |
 You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You’re often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be. |
Posted by Amy as Fluffy Stuff, Blog Housekeeping at 1:00 AM EST