Author: Harold
Delicious Links for 2014-02-13
- Evolution Door – YouTube
A new kind of door made of hinged triangles.
- The Food Lab: The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies | Serious Eats: Sweets
Thanks siderea for bringing this to my attention! This man spent a lot of time and effort exploring how each aspect of a chocolate chip cookie recipe contributed to its flavor, texture, etc… Good reading next time you want to make cookies.
- Tunnel vision: how an obsessed explorer found and lost the world’s oldest subway | The Verge
Neat article about the fight over the fate of an abandoned subway tunnel in Brooklyn. Also neat is the CSS trick they use expand a smaller image in the article to full size.
- LA building’s lights interfere with cellular network, FCC says – Network World
One more reason to find an alternative to fluorescent lighting.
- The Daily Dot – How the creator of ‘Vampire Diaries’ used Kindle Worlds to get back at her publisher
This is really kind of awesome. The creator and original author of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ series was fired by her publisher (it was a work-for-hire arrangement.) The same publiser later joined the Kindle Worlds program that lets fan-fiction authors sell their fanfic of certain series through Amazon, receiving some money while the rights-holders also get their cut. So the original author has created fan-fiction of her own original creation, is selling it through Amazon, and it’s currently topping the charts. She’s using the platform as a way to finish the story in the way she intended before she got cut loose by the publisher.
- How to Use Your Google Maps — Offline | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Thanks to andrewducker! A simple trick to store a section of maps for offline use. This’ll be great for when I’m using the iPod.
- Nightmare Before Christmas Live – YouTube
An extremely well-done liver performance of “Jack’s Lament” from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. The actor playing Jack has a great physicality that matches well with the movements from the movie.
- Flappy Bert
Flappy Bert. Of course. Because Sesame Street has turned into the spiritual sucessor of the original Muppet Show.
Protected: Running entry
Protected: Running entry for Tues. Feb. 11
Protected: Back from our “romantic week in the mountains”
Delicious Links for 2014-02-06
- Frankenfont | Fathom
A beautiful art project that printed the text of Frankenstein with characters and fonts culled from random PDFs found on the web. At the start of the book the most common characters are used, and as the book progresses less common characters are used more often so that by the end of the book entire words are composed of different fonts or even symbols for each letter.
- A Buffalo Artist Accidentally Tricked Locals Into Thinking They’d Uncovered a Past Relic – Mark Byrnes – The Atlantic Cities
An artist in Buffalo scanned in some illustrations from an old AM&A’s catalog, printed them in large-scale, and wheat-pasted them to the outside of the old AM&A’s building. The results looked so good that several locals were convinced that nearby construction had uncovered old ads.
- Mountie’s encounter with bear cub inspires web comic – Newfoundland & Labrador – CBC News
An officer of the RCMP encountered a bear cub, took a picture of it with her cell phone, and had her picture taken while she did. A couple years later that picture inspired the cute side of Tumblr to make the webcomic “Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles.”
- Miss Officer – Here and Now – CBC Player
A Canadian Mountie is flabbergasted to discover that a cute picture of her and a bear cub has inspired a webcomic.
- Scrub, scrub, scrub. Also, TARDIS Scarf pattern. | Perilous Puppet Theater
Saddened by the news of “Doctor Who: Worlds in Time” eminent closure, and inspired by Gill recently learning to knit, I tracked down this pattern by the talented artist and all-around great person Tilinka. When I get more strength back in my left arm I’ll have to give this a try.
- “Great,” Deep South Recipes…,: Oreo Frogs
Add green food dye to melted white chocolate, dip in pretzels and oreos, assemble into frog, add candy eyes and tongue. Looks like a great activity/snack for a teenager party.
- BBC News – Boulder smashes through Italian farm
A rockslide dislodged a couple of giant boulders that smashed through an Italian farm, destroying the barn and nearly flattening the house. Seriously, these are huge rocks.
Delicious Links for 2014-02-03
- ▶ The Cubli: a cube that can jump up, balance, and ‘walk’ – YouTube
This is pretty nifty: a series of flywheels on the faces of this cube enable it to move around by hopping up onto a side or corner and gently lowering itself down to the ground.
- Smith scores on himself with puck in pants – YouTube
What a Christmas present for the Sabres. Nearly fifteen years after a bad goal cost them the Stanley Cup another bad goal gave them a regular season win. Phoenix goaltender gets the puck lost in the folds of his shirt/pants on his backside, then slides into the net scoring for Buffalo against his own team.
- Ice Scraping 1 – YouTube
This is Gillian’s favorite commercial ever. Anyone who has lived in the Snow Belt instantly sympathizes with this guy.
- Velveeta Cheesy Skillets – YouTube
As described on “Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap” we have Velveeta’s failed attempt at their own version of the Old Spice Guy. I think the look on that lady’s face echoes the look on the faces of the American public when they watched this.
- Epic Halloween Prank by Tom Mabe – YouTube
I really like the fact that with advances in model airplane design you can now make a powered aircraft look like just about anything. I’ve seen superheroes, witches on broomsticks, Harry Potter on broomsticks, and even a lawnmower. This guy made his plane look like the Grim Reaper, complete with skull and skeletal arms and a tattered cloak, and flew it to unsuspecting people on the ground.
- Macklemore Grammy Performance Outrages Gays – YouTube
A video response to the criticisms of Macklemore’s performance at the Grammy’s and how allies are important in the struggle for equal rights.
- Doctor Who- First Doctor Intro (Backwards) – YouTube
If you’ve ever idly wondered what the Doctor Who theme sounds like backwards, just thank YouTuber user Wibbly Lever for reversing all of them in this playlist.
I don’t know why this stuck with me so much
I read this quote on Tumblr, having been reblogged by an author I follow:
“Cakes have gotten a bad rap. People equate virtue with turning down dessert. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the cake. No, really, I couldn’t she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is pressing a fork into that first tender layer looks at the person who declined the plate, and they all think, That person is better than I am. That person has discipline. But that isn’t a person with discipline; that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A slice of cake never made anybody fat. You don’t eat the whole cake. You don’t eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that’s safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what’s served on the happiest days of your life. This is a story of how my life was saved by cake, so, of course, if sides are to be taken, I will always take the side of cake.”
― Jeanne Ray
and it got me to thinking. On the face of it it’s a wonderful sentiment – enjoy the little moments in your life. One piece isn’t going to harm you.
But if you read further it’s basically the speaker condemning the person abstaining from the cake without any knowledge of why they did it. The speaker is really saying “I know more about your situation than you do, so I’m entitled to judge you.” The quote presents the abstainer as the smugly superior person when really it’s the speaker. And for some reason it infuriates me. What if I were to flip this around, change the subject of the quote?
“Alcohol has gotten a bad rap. People equate virtue with turning down a drink. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the wine. No, really, I couldn’t she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is raising thier glass for that first sip looks at the person who declined the drink, and they all think, That person is better than I am. That person has discipline. But that isn’t a person with discipline; that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A single drink never made anybody drunk. You don’t drink the whole bottle. You don’t drink a whole bottle every day of your life. You take the wine when it is offered because the wine is delicious. You have a glass of wine and what it reminds you of is someplace that’s safe, uncomplicated, without stress. Wine is a party, a birthday, a wedding. Wine is what’s served on the happiest days of your life.”
Really, if someone decides they don’t want to share in a food/drink that you enjoy, who are you to judge them for that?
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