Want a piano but don’t know where to fit it? Hide it in your dining table.
Via likecool, designed by Georg Bohle.
It makes your dining table singalongs a whole lot more classy.
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
Bringing back Pluto
A bunch of kids in third grade took exception to the decision to withdraw Pluto’s planetary status. So they did what people taking exception have done for generations. They wrote complaint letters. To the astronomer responsible. The curator of the New York planetarium.
There are more here.
Including this rather conciliatory missive.
Design by committee
Nobody likes design by committee. Except those for whom it is an opportunity to contribute above their payscale.
This article from Smashing Magazine about why design by committee should die contains a couple of terrific pieces of advice, including the practice of leaving a glaring error in your “final” design so that the approver feels like they can contribute something to the process:
“A photographer I know once said, “I’ll give the model a big mole on her face, and the committee focuses on that and are usually satisfied with the momentous change of removing it and leave everything else as is.””
…and this new buzzword that everybody should learn.
“Commidiot,” which is a committee member who has no idea what is going on in front of them but feels they have to say something of importance to justify their presence in the room.”
How Japanese knives are made
If I were to become rich and famous I would buy nice watches and nice knives. You can take your nice cars and put them in your nice garages… knives and watches. Cutting stuff into paper thin pieces and telling the time while looking classy. That’s what my life as a rich person would look like.
I’m not likely to become either, so I’ll settle for the cheapo knock-off fob watch that I bought in the Turkish Bazaar this week, and my Thai Kiwi knives bought over the internet for $7 a pop.
But Japanese knives are the cutting edge of knife technology. And this article shows how they’re made. In pictures.
“A piece of hard steel will provide the razor-sharp edge Sakai’s knives are famous for, and a piece of soft ferrite, containing more carbon, will prevent the knife from breaking. A combination not unlike reinforced concrete, where the concrete provides resistance to compression while the iron grid prevents the material from breaking when pulled.”
Knives made this way retail for $400 Euros a pop.
The inner workings of a bank robber
This is a fascinating account of the life and times of a successful bank robber from Wired. It’s fascinating. It’ll doubtless become a movie one day. Unless Oceans 11 is this guy’s story played by 11 characters (which it’s not, because it’s a remake of a rat pack movie).
Blanchard also learned how to turn himself into someone else. Sometimes it was just a matter of donning a yellow hard hat from Home Depot. But it could also be more involved. Eventually, Blanchard used legitimate baptism and marriage certificates — filled out with his assumed names — to obtain real driver’s licenses. He would even take driving tests, apply for passports, or enroll in college classes under one of his many aliases: James Gehman, Daniel Wall, or Ron Aikins. With the help of makeup, glasses, or dyed hair, Blanchard gave James, Daniel, Ron, and the others each a different look.
Over the years, Blanchard procured and stockpiled IDs and uniforms from various security companies and even law enforcement agencies. Sometimes, just for fun and to see whether it would work, he pretended to be a reporter so he could hang out with celebrities. He created VIP passes and applied for press cards so he could go to NHL playoff games or take a spin around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with racing legend Mario Andretti. He met the prince of Monaco at a yacht race in Monte Carlo and interviewed Christina Aguilera at one of her concerts.
Read the whole thing, it’s worth it.
Alien v Pooh
Some mash-ups are meant to be. Mashing up the Alien movie protagonists and Winnie doesn’t really fit into that category. But it’s pretty cool nonetheless.
Food lift: because food is heavy
Feeling less than robust? The Weak Shop sells products for the weak and lazy. Like this food lift.
This is honestly the dumbest product I think I’ve ever posted.
Office shock tactics
If you’re sick of being pestered by people wanting to borrow your stationery why not pick some from this range of office supplies loaded with electric shock devices. Just be careful not to give them to somebody with a pacemaker.
How to know if you’ve had too much to drink
If you start trying to give long dead animals mouth to mouth resuscitation it’s probably time to give up drinking.
Hopefully this guy in America learned his lesson.
Pennsylvania police have charged a man with public drunkenness after reports that he tried to resuscitate a long-dead opossum on a highway…
State police said several witnesses had seen Donald Wolfe, 55, tending to the roadkill about 65 miles (105 km) north-east of the city of Pittsburgh.
One reported seeing Mr Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a seance.
Another reported seeing him give mouth to mouth resuscitation to the carcass.
State police Trooper Jamie Levier said the animal had been dead a while, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Colourblind Clock the perfect excuse for tardiness
I’m slightly colourblind. It doesn’t trouble me all that much, because it’s pretty rare that one is confronted with one of those dot tests with obscured numbers.
But this clock, which takes the form of said dot tests, gives me the perfect excuse to be late for everything… the same way I have the perfect excuse to run red lights (ie. by the age of 26 I should know where the correct lights and numbers sit on the traffic lights or clock).
It’s worth just 35 pounds. A small price to pay.
Fontasic cookie cutter
Everybody’s favourite font (Helvetica) can now be everybody’s favourite cookie word. What would Cookie Monster say about that?
They’re from designer Beverly Hsu, who is researching mass producing them. They’ll probably use a lot of dough though.
Weapons for women
Being a woman is tough. You’re always vulnerable. Or you were. Until this book was published in days gone by. Now men are living in fear.
101 Weapons for Women: Implement Weaponry: A Unique Concept in Women’s Self-Defense
by Rodney R Rice
1991
by Rodney R Rice
1991
From Awful Library Books.
Here are some of the pages. Why you wouldn’t just go foot or elbow to the groin is beyond me.
Specialhero Toys: Almost better than the real thing
Cheap Chinese toy knock offs hold a special place in my heart. My GI Joe collection was bolstered by some quasi-equivalents from Fair Dinkum Bargains. So this little online repository warmed the cockles of my heart for a moment.
How Tetris helps you move house better
Gaming blog Kotaku spoke to a Tetris whiz to find some practical application (other than its documented benefits for your sanity) for the classic block arranging game. Most of them are pretty obvious, and the Simpsons once made a Tetris joke when Homer stuff his car boot full of stuff. But it’s an interesting exercise that you can try out on your parent/spouse next time they tell you you’re wasting your time.
Image Credit: Kotaku
Here are the tips.
- Take a glimpse at your next pieces (moving boxes in this case) to determine the best placement positions.
- If you have a box that doesn’t fit neatly, hold onto it and un-hold it when it won’t mess everything up.
- Stack as flat as possible. The even field will save you reaction time and give you more stacking options.
- Avoid creating unnecessary gaps to maximize space usage.
- Leave an empty column open for your long boxes, and if you don’t have any long boxes buy some.
- Don’t waste your long boxes! (Don’t use ’em until you need ’em to fit a space)
- Multiplayer will help you reach a faster time, so have some friends and family help you out.
Reflections on bad Christian music week
I think I’ve just realised, with profound clarity, why I find Christian cultural expression so horrid.
As Christians we’re called to be in the world, but not of it. Christian music, Christian television, and Christian fiction, indeed most Christian cultural expression tends to invert this notion – it ends up being of the world, but not in it.