useless mental tidbits | How Ink is Made

Fascinating video -- it's almost 9 minutes long, but goes by in a flash because it's so interesting to watch!



Thanks kottke.

useless mental tidbits | APM: Actions Per Minute, as demonstrated by Korean gamers

ThreatWatch | Santa Claus' Family

useless mental tidbits | Domino Record Set

useless mental tidbits | fantastic lists

Here's another round-up of interesting lists.

10 Great Achievements of the Human Mind [listverse]
Top 15 Facts You Probably Don't Know. [listverse]
Top 10 Scientific Music Videos. [wired]
10 Fascinating Prize Challenges. [listverse]
Another 10 Curious Everyday Inventions. [listverse]
Top 10 Things You Should Never Discuss Online [listverse]
Top 10 Ancient Jobs that Sucked Big Time. [listverse]
10 Unabashed Quacks in Medical History. [listverse]
10 Failed Doomsday Prophecies. [NatlGeo]
10 Failed Predictions About the Future. [dotd]
Top 10 Worst Military Decisions in History. [listverse]
10 Heroic Last Stands from Military History. [listverse]
Top 10 Creepy Aspects of Victorian Life. [listverse]
10 Nursery Rhymes and Their Origins. [listverse]
Top 10 Geekiest Constructed Languages. [listverse]
Top 10 Extreme Genres of Music. [listverse]
20 Movie-Inspired Band Names. [spinner]
Top 10 Bad Messages from Good Movies. [wired]
25 Scariest Moments in Non-Scary Movies [ifc.com]
Top 10 Movies About Movies. [listverse]
Wired's Favourite Sci-fi Movies of All Time - Pre Star Wars [wired]
Wired's Favourite Sci-fi Movies of All Time - Star Wars and After [wired]
Wired: After Watchmen, What's "Unfilmable"? These Legendary Texts. [wired]
10 Fascinating Recently-Discovered Photos. [listverse]
35 Most Creative 404 Pages Around. [pro.blog.design]
20 of the Worst Designed Websites in the World. [manolith]
10 DC Comics Characters Deserving a Mass Makeover [wired]
Anti-Stuff Holiday Gift Guide [getrichslowly]
5 Tips for Tightening Your Budget. [nmom]
Top 10 Greatest Chess Players in History. [listverse]
10 Reasons Why the Quidditch World Cup is the Best College Sporting Event. [mental.floss]
15 Life Lessons from Sim City. [philltopia]
10 Bizarre Cases of Identity Theft. [listverse]
15 Uniquely Modern Umbrella Designs. [WebUrbanist]
Top 10 Notorious American Biker Gangs. [listverse]
10 Classic American Muscle Cars. [listverse]
Senior City-zens: Worlds 10 Oldest Still-Inhabited Cities. [WebUrbanist]
Top 10 Bizarre Cultural Disorders. [listverse]
15 Fastest Things in the Universe. [listverse]
10 More Amazing Wonders of the Natural World. [listverse]
Top 10 Incredible Funguses (sic) [listverse]
Top 10 Incredible Sharks. [listverse]

useless mental tidbits | fantastic lists

Great lists we've run across recently:

10 More Ancient Inventions You Think Are modern [ListVerse]
10 Truly Bizarre Scientific Studies [ListVerse]
10 Scientific Objects That Changed The World [NewScientist]
15 Amazing Science Facts [ListVerse]
Top 10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument [wired]
10 More Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument [wired]
20 More Ways You Know You're married to a GeekDad [wired]
Top Funny Science T-Shirts [teenormous]
10+ Places to Get a Free Education [jimmyr]
50 Most Useful Web Resources for University Students [educhoices]
10 Awesome Tools to Get More Out of Wikipedia [dumblittleman]
50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive [moskalyuk]
8 Powerful Career Lessons They Should've Handed Out on Graduation Day [ptb]
10 Busted Myths about Canadian Health Care: for Americans [TransGriot]
4 Ways to Make Life Lighter [ptb]
The Stories Behind 10 TV Theme Songs [neatorama]
45 Ridiculous Pictures of Boy Bands [buzzfeed]
10 Notable Grunge Bands [ListVerse]
10 Most Creative People in the Music Biz [FastCompany]
10 Memorable Web Series [cbc]



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10 Incredibly Memorable Movie Quotes [ListVerse]
Top 10 Most Evil Disney Villains [ListVerse]
Top 10 Survival Tips for People in Horror Flicks [ListVerse]
Ten Tips for Turning Your Kids into Trekkies [wired]
The Seven Types of Book Store Patron [RocketBomber] [via kottke]
Another 10 Books That Changed The World [ListVerse]
48 Best Classic Books to Read [LifeOptimizer]
25 Places to Read free Books Online [educhoices]
Top 10 Longest Novels in the English Language [ListVerse]
18 Challenges in Contemporary Literature [wired]
25 Awesome Cross-Platform Games You Can Download for Free [DLsquad]
10 Internet Memes You Can Share With Kids and a Bunch You Can't [wired]
Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders [ListVerse]
Top 10 Significant Historical Coup d'Etats [ListVerse]
10 Things to Know about the American Army in WWII [HNN]
Top 10 Incredibly Dangerous Sports [ListVerse]
10 "You Might Be A Redneck" Limos [Jalopnik]
20 Notes on 365 Days on 2 Wheels (Tips for Biking in Vancouver) [beyondrobson]
Canda's 10 Most-Visited Tourist Attractions 2009 [forbes]
15 Fascinating Facts about Toilets [ListVerse]
35 Tip Jars Designed to Make You Want to Give More [TopCultured]

useless mental tidbits | Star Size Comparison

headspace | Heavy Metal Name Flow-Chart

useless mental tidbits | Shakespeare vs. 1,000,000 words

As has been widely reported, the Global Language Monitor is predicting the one-millionth word to enter the English language will arrive on June 10, 2009. [GLM@wikipedia] Besides having predicted this event several times previously (starting with summer of 2006), and despite several objections by several linguists on the veracity of this organization's collection and qualitative methods, it's still sort of fun to keep track of.

And while it's obviously not easy to predict when the milestone word will arrive, there are also predictions (reported mostly as fact) that the new word will be... NOOB.
[MSN] [Kotaku] [joystiq] [telegraph.uk]

It's estimated that a new word is created every 98 minutes (again, according to the GLM), due to the proliferation of text-based online technology. There hasn't been this explosive of a word-creation period since Elizabethan times, when William Shakespeare was at work. His contribution to the English language is widely known (if equally widely debated). [wikipedia]

So here are a few items of interest over the last while regarding Shakespeare.

A new portrait of William Shakespeare, perhaps the only one painted during his lifetime, was discovered and unveiled. [time] [nyt]



And for the record, the words above the portrait, Principum amicitias! have started a debate of their own. With apologies to Dan brown (I'm sure), it's been dubbed The Shakespeare Code. [nyt] (The links in the NYT article are fascinating, including the before and after photos of the portrait to show a "hair restoration" operation that was made on the portrait some time after the portrait had been completed.)

And here's a link to a BBC video story about Shakespeare's first theatre. [BBC]

And finally... if you haven't already gotten your tickets, the 20th anniversary of the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival runs from May 28 through September 26, 2009 in Vanier Park in Kitsilano. [kits.ca] [bardonthebeach]

[UPDATE] After much speculation, the word declared to be the 1,000,000th of the English Language was... Web 2.0

Here's a good article about the whole issue. [nyt]

useless mental tidbits | fantastic lists May09

The list of lists...

10 Scandalous Facts about Historical Figures [ListVerse]
Earthcam's 25 Most-Interesting WebCams of 2008 [CBC] [EarthCam]
Top 10 Ways to Save Money in a Recession [Lifehacker]
List of Translations for The Hobo Code [AContinuousLean]
10 Fascinating "Only-Existing" Photos [ListVerse]
11 Useful Tips for Setting Goals and Accomplishing Them [ DumbLittleMan]
How to De-Clutter an Entire Room in One Go [ZenHabits]
10 Privacy Settings Every facebook user Should Know [AllFacebook]
Ways to Save on your Water Bill [NotMadeofMoney] (Ed.: And enviro!)
7 Major "Missing Links" since Dawrin [NatlGeo]
Libraries using Different Web 2.0 Technologies [KraftyLibrarian]
15 Influential Early Works of Apocalyptic Fiction [ListVerse]
Financial Literacy Compendium [GetRichSlowly]
5 Ways to Stay Disciplined in Your Savings [NotMadeOfMoney]
50 Side-Businesses You Can Start on Your Own [SimpleDollar]
100 Really Creative Business Cards [WebdesignerDepot]
30 Most-Controversial Album Covers [NoiseAddicts]
1001 Rules for My Unborn Son [1001Rules] (Ed.: Great blog idea!)
Top 10 Incredible Time Capsules [ListVerse]
10 Most-Frequent Titles submitted to Virginia Quarterly Review [VQR]
11 Most-Endangered Historica Sites in U.S. [NatlGeo]
Top 10 Renewable Energy Sources [ListVerse]
Top 10 Hidden Images Found in Cartoons [ListVerse] (Ed.: Disney is Pervs)
15 Housing Projects From Hell [oobject]
100 Geeks to Follow on Twitter [wired.com]
10 Fascinating Angels and Demons [ListVerse]
10 new Sitcoms meant to cure the Recession Blues [nyt]
7 Webotainers Worth Watching [wired.com]

Pay the Ones You Love: Because the folks at ListVerse are so great at coming up with so many fascinating lists, please drop by this Amazon page and pre-order a copy of their Ultimate Book of Top Ten Lists, which is scheduled for publication in November, 2009.

And finally: Top 10 Star Trek Techno-Babbles:

useless mental tidbits | The Elements of Spam

Thanks to kottke for this one at McSweeney's. With apologies to Strunk and White, here are The Elements of Spam.

useless mental tidbits | Stories Behind Hollywood Logos

The fine folk over at neatorama put up a fantastic collection of stories tracing the history of Hollywood studio logos. Like the kid fishing while sitting on a crescent moon, from Dreamworks? The logo was hand-painted, and the model of the kid was/is the artist's son. And there have been five lions playing the "leo the Lion" part in MGM's famous opening sequence. [neatorama]

useless mental tidbits | fantastic lists

There's something about a good list that captivates my Collector Instinct. I've been keeping links to different lists with the idea that "one day" I would be able to use parts as a jumping-point for blog articles. Riiiight. I'm learning that I'm the sort of fella that likes to gather information, and can gather and gather until there is nothing left to gather... hint: there is always something more to gather...

Few do the list-thing quite as well as the fine folks at ListVerse, so here's a list of my favourite lists on ListVerse.

Top 10 Myths about Ninjas
Top 10 Misconceptions about Vikings
Top 10 Medieval Urban Legends
10 Christ-like Figures that Pre-Date Jesus
10 Gunslinging Outlaws of the American Wild West
10 More Books that Changed the World
Top 20 Wise Quotes from Confucius
10 Great Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Novels
Top 10 Interesting Jack the Ripper Suspects
Top 10 Fascinating Secrets Taken to the Grave
10 Weird and Wonderful Oddities of Nature
Top 10 Signs of Evolution in Modern Man

The group at wired also know how to put together interesting lists.

Apocalypse Then: Wired's Favorite World Expiration Dates
10 Best Geeky Last Words
7 (Crazy) Civilian Uses for Nuclear Bombs
Bongs, Virginity & Other Stuff You Can't Sell on eBay
Top 10 Celebrity Rants Caight on Tape
Top 5 Most Extreme Exoplanets
Top 5 Bets for Extraterrestrial Life in the Solar System

And for the Variety-Pack...

NYT Tech Columnist David Pogue's Top 10 Cocktail-Party Questions
BrainzDotOrg has the 10 Most Revealing Psych Experiments
New Scientist lists the Top 10 Bizarre Experiments
TelegraphUK lists the Top 10 Greatest Experiments of All Time
kottke lists Spread the Word's survey of Top 10 Books People Lie about Reading
PopCrunch has a great list of Celebs That Look Like Animals
DumbLittleMan lists 15 Simple Changes that will Improve Your Health

Blatent PostWaste Series Experiment #70 | Xylopholks at NYC Subway Station

Jessica Pressler posted this on her Daily Intel blog on the "New York Blogs" section of New York Magazine...

useless mental tidbits | 1984 was the dawn of 1984

After showing its iconic 1984 commercial during the Superbowl two days earlier, the first Apple Macintosh computer became available for sale 25 years ago today.

The Macintosh on Wikipedia.

useless mental tidbits | History of the Internet

"History of the Internet" is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.


History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

useless mental tidbits | Immune Cell chasing bacterium

Archival footage of a neutrophil dancing through red blood cells to destroy its bacterial enemy.

Where do I put my mark on this shard of broken pottery...?

With Vancouver's 2008 civic election campaign coming to a close in a few hours, and considering the seemingly-unending months of election-stuff we've been fed over the last 18 months, it may be time to look at this concept we call Democracy. A few random thoughts and diversions, I mean...

Democracy is a form of governance where ultimate power rests with the people, under a free electoral system. (wikipedia) Even though there is no universally-accepted definition of democracy, two principles are always included: all members of society have equal access to power, and all members enjoy universally recognized liberties and freedoms.

But let's get back to the beginning, and check out the Greeks. There are some great articles on N.S. Gill's Ancient History Blog. Aeschines (389-314 B.C.) was an ancient Greek writer that was in favour of democracy. (NSGill) Yet Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), one of the most influential ancient Greek philosophers, was not exactly a fan of democracy. (NSGill) And an interesting tangent, I didn't know there's some question as to whether Greek citizens were required to vote, and if they did not if they were deemed idiots.

Here's an interesting table that compares the words and deeds over the first 100 days of office for each U.S. President going back to Roosevelt. (Good)

Since we're dealing with nothing more than an idea of how civilized society is to be organized and governed, like all ideas it is under constant threat to remain relevant. Any intellectual construct can be replaced. And though we dismiss many threats as no more than the delusional spouting of conspiracy theory crackpots, we must not forget that conspiracies have existed, and likely do still exist. Here's a list of conspiracy theories. And if you think all conspiracy theories are crackpot, let's take a glance at one that turned out ot be real... the Business Plot: the plot to overthrow FDR in 1933...

To run through some quick "possible threats"... let's quickly start with something close to home... the "sleazy" threat to democracy in North Vancouver. (VanSun) And here's a new issue that is on the rise: dog owners demanding more off-lease parks. (CBC) I have to say that I agree with Erik V's rant on Kitsilano.ca about "one-issue voting." (kits.ca) And I don't have either a child or a dog. (Ok, maybe this is not really a "threat" to democracy, but it's my opinion that strategic voting related to party-politics is another of those slippery slopes, of which blind one-issue voting is a cousin.)

Let's touch on a couple of other perceived threats: Like the legends of the Illuminati that arose in the 19th century, today technology brings the possibility of the Numerati, a shadowy group that data-mines your personal information, and bends the world to bend your will.

There is also the danger represented by Corporations. Political and Economic theory are dangerously interlinked. The regulatory failure that resulted in the current economic crisis could be seen as a dangerous step toward a slippery slope. An essay in the New York Times describes an interesting view of what happened during the last crisis, The Great Depression, and how it re-aligned power in Western civilization. (NYT)

And here's a link to the first part of Zeitgeist. If you're marginally interested in conspiracy analysis, start here. (youTube)

Plus, there's The American Conspiracy.

re:place Mag examines Vancouver's North-South streets

This examination of Vancouver's north-south running streets is accompanied by an amazing Erick Villagomez map to illustrate just what he's talking about. (re:place)

An interesting tidbit from this article: the stoplights at Oak and 70th are the last set one hits along the west coast until Tijuana, Mexico, since the street turns into Hwy 99 in Richmond and Interstate Hwy 5 after crossing the border.