12 March 2014

The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

Over the years I've posted 69 linkdumps, and have always struggled to come up with appropriate titles for them.  This time I've used the last lines of two different famous novels.  I won't identify them; English majors can gloat smugly.

The "Soda Ninja Swipe" is a party trick that allows you to open a shaken bottle of soda in dramatic fashion without the contents spilling out.

Matched real estate ads show six castles in Europe that sell for less than apartments in New York City.

The Don Martin Dictionary offers an alphabetical listing of all of the expressions created by that famous Mad magazine cartoonist.

Train vs. minivan.  Train wins.  (A BBC PSA)

A fish leaps out of the water to catch a bird.
"...during their time at the lake, the researchers saw as many as 20 successful fish strikes on barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) every day. These ranged from pursuits by fish at the surface, followed by leaps, to direct attacks from deeper water."
Nine minutes' worth of highlights of Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson.

An optical illusion gif of rotating white crosses.  Or black ones.

An inflatable bike helmet.

The image at right is of a grocery list compiled by Michelangelo.  Components deciphered and translated at Reddit.

The full moon always rises at sunset.  And the new moon at sunrise.  The first quarter moon always rises at noon.  And the last quarter moon at midnight.

The seemingly paradoxical phrase "have your cake and eat it too" is discussed at length in a New York Times' On Language column.

What ever happened to the "ghost ship filled with cannibal rats" that was supposedly "headed straight for Britain"?

"Bad Lip Reading" visits the National Football League.

Psychoactive plants in the Bible.

The therapeutic use of LSD has been studied and reported for the first time in 40 years.

"Double Stuf" Oreos aren't.
Since everyone is talking about Mega Stuf oreos and how great they are, as an exercise in applied consumer mathematics, high-school teacher Dan Anderson of Queensbury, New York, had students do some measuring, calculating, and reflecting. What they found will shock and disturb you. The Double Stuf Oreos had 1.86 times the stuf of regular Oreos...
Some college athletes are demanding a union because the NCAA is "like a dictatorship."

Photos from a compilation of the world's scariest hikes (several of which have been featured in videos posted here at TYWKIWDBI).

An op-ed piece at The Guardian argues that the Nordic countries are not the utopias that they are often described as.   The writer goes on to diss Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland.

Hillary Clinton has not driven a car in almost 20 years.  Is that a problem for her?  What does it say about our Secret Service expenditures?
Former presidents and first ladies have Secret Service protection for life after leaving office, which means they have very limited opportunities to drive... George W. Bush often drove his pickup truck, but only within the confines of his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Pope Francis has referred to the internet as a "gift from God."  "While praising the internet for the “immense possibilities” it offers to encounter people from different backgrounds, he also warned that the obsessive desire to stay connected can actually isolate people from their friends and family."

Choate is not the opposite of inchoate.  Don't use the word during a presentation at the Supreme Court. "Scalia stopped Barnhouse cold. “There is no such adjective,” he declared."

A German tourist survived two weeks in the Australian Outback by eating flies.  He even maintained control of his insulin-dependent diabetes.

5 comments:

  1. "A German tourist survived two weeks in the Australian Outback by eating flies. He even maintained control of his insulin-dependent diabetes."

    I understand Dudzisz (said tourist) has been offered the role of Renfield in a new remake of _Dracula_.

    Lurker111

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't know that Obama gave presidents life time secret service protection again. At least they still don't get paid forever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_Presidents_Act#Secret_Service_protection

      I consider it a manifestation of the imperial presidency.

      Delete
    2. I didn't know this either. Good to know, and to be slightly bothered by oncemore.

      Delete
  3. At least Scalia is philosophically consistent in his prescriptivism

    ReplyDelete