Wiki

So I was browsing through the very very cool Wikipedia (which, fyi, is a free open source user-edited online encyclopedia) when I noticed a side link to Wiktionary, which is a sister dictionary project. I haven't used Wiktionary due to the large number of dictionary resources available online, but I noticed something cool in their logo.

See it? The next word is 'Wilco', which was originally a term used during WWII radion speech to mean 'OK' or 'Roger.' But it also refers to the band Wilco, who recently established themselves as advocates of peer-to-peer file sharing and the open source movement. Read this Wired article for a better idea of how they got into that position. I couldn't help but wonder if the inclusion of the word in the logo isn't a tip of the hat to the band. Well, in the absence of any proof, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

no thanks

This crazy/stupid guy launched a flare into his own parachute, causing it to go up in flames.

oh my word

"In-Souls™ inserts are designed to provide a tangible support to assist Christians to literally "walk in the word of the Lord." Worn in the right shoe, each one provides a related scripture and affirmation. To enhance the spiritual walk with God, the inserts help one to "stand" on His Word, meditating on it day and night. Inserts may be alternated daily to help cultivate the word of God in your life. Look for other In-Souls sets to cover a variety of topics – from trust, obedience, patience and redemption to marriage, work and body image."

no nickel required

Public Domain MP3s here: Popular Victor, Edison, Columbia recordings from 1900-1930.

get high

Here's a direct link to the video of the landing of a helicopter on top of Mt. Everest.

heil

When in doubt, compare your opponent to Hitler.

lol

quote of the day

"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining."
--Jef Raskin

can I go? please?

Acting legends ponder the Appalachian Trail
First, it was Wyatt McGuire and Joe McMaster.

Now, Robert Redford and Paul Newman?

Redford and Newman, who comprise one of the most famous acting duos in film history, are planning to reunite for one final movie, according to Times Online. Redford is negotiating for the movie rights to Bill Bryson’s non-fiction book “A Walk in the Woods,” which chronicles the author’s attempted thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, the 2,175-mile footpath from Georgia to Maine.

According to Times Online, the 67-year-old Redford would take the role of the author, while 80-year-old Newman would play his friend. Redford and Newman starred in the blockbusters “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969 and “The Sting” in 1973.

“That might be something for Paul Newman and me, if we’re not too old,” Redford told Times Online about “A Walk in the Woods.” Added Redford: “That’s if Paul can hang on long enough and we can get him on the Appalachian Trail before he gets into a wheelchair.”

The judges weren't biased at all

A Slovenian TV program that tried to prove top models were brainless bimbos was scrapped after a beauty queen turned out to have a higher IQ than a nuclear physicist.

Hey...you. Yeah, you.

so true

REAL LUXURY IS TIME & OPPORTUNITY TO READ FOR PLEASURE.
--Jane Brody

(so quoteth the bibliovixen)

venii

There really is nothing one can say.

I am now Dr. Phil

I just have to put this out there, wholly without context in true blog-style randomness. Thinking is the act of rearranging prejudices. Let me back up--as it is past midnight, the Quotes of the Day have changed, and I saw this little tidbit:

Well, isn't that true? I mean, isn't being exposed to a new idea simply a process of supplanting one idea with another in the heirarchy of thought? Our 'prejudices' simply consist of the methods with which we value some ideas against others. I guess my reaction is really against the negativity of the quote. I think you could say as well that the act of thinking is the process of rearranging our preferences or our... values.

No joke, for a great read about what it means to be exposed to new ideas versus rearranging your existing and arguably unchanging ideas, read this book.

hmm

A Computer Geek's History of the Internet. Not bad.

Is it me, or is there something wrong about this?

oh

"This graphic comes from a dynamic asset allocation problem in railroads. The system, which is now in production at Norfolk Southern railroad, is the first production implementation of a stochastic, dynamic programming model in freight transportation. The model is based on the Ph.D. dissertation of Huseyin Topaloglu (now a professor at Cornell University) for stochastic, integer multicommodity flow problems. The original research was modified to handle multidimensional attribute problems, with millions of asset types."

why yes

Yo you gots to get some solid-gold spinnaz fo' yo teeth.

um

Aargh, it's kittenwar, where only the cute kittens survive.

Join the anti-dime movement

Dimes are the stupidest form of currency ever invented.

The March of Dimes may have cured Polio, but a march of Quarters would have cured it 250% faster.

glad I'm in Alabama though

It's the live penguin cam!

don't swim here

This shortfin mako was captured by hook and line during the Yarmouth Shark Scramble off Nova Scotia, Canada by a sports fisherman. According to Dr. Steven Campana, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, the mako was a 24 year old mature female weighing 1,082 pounds (492 kg) and measuring 10' 10' (330 cm) in length.

William Burroughs, circa 1975

(Click to enlarge)

Um, holy shit.

bad table!

whew

Historians working in Germany and the US claim to have found a 60-year-old diagram showing a Nazi nuclear bomb.

very interesting

"Ars moriendi ('The Art of Dying') is the name of two related Latin texts dating from 1415 and 1450. It offers advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death and on how to 'die well', according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages. It was written within the historical context of the effects of the macabre horrors of the Black Death 60 years earlier and consequent social upheavals of the 15th century. It was very popular, translated into most West European languages, and was the first in a western literary tradition of guides to death and dying."

in case you're looking at this site on your head..

Check out this Ambigram generator. Ambigrams are words or phrases that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, most commonly right-side-up and upside-down. Can you read this?

bard by any other name

Shakespeare's identity is once more in doubt. Although Francis Bacon has long been a candidate as the actual author of the plays, the new theories point to Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. Ye critics, the play's the thing.

ad zealotry

Sometimes gmail cracks me up. When I click on the "Spam" folder in order to delete the dozen or so messages I have from "Rheubarb T. Pancakes" or "Slimbody F. Lovelies" the little advertising bar just above the messages actually tries to sell me something related to--spam!

Ridiculous.

read this

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries.