7 Quick Takes, Take 11
(As always, you’ll have a much better time reading the original Quick Takes stream at the Conversion Diary site.)
Seven quick takes … GEEKY RANDOM WEBSITE EDITION. The following are seven old, old items I’ve kept bookmarked in a Safari folder called “Cool junk”.
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First it was a short film, which I saw sometime in junior high or high school (infinitely better than most “educational” films shown in schools, such as, say, A Supply Schedule for Wumpets). Then there was a companion book. Now there’s this handy site that lets you zoom in and out on the universe, magnifying or demagnifying each step by a factor of 10. It really doesn’t take that many steps to go from quark level to the whole of the known universe.
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You’ll never see another timepiece like this one.
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I try not to get snippy about the errors I notice in discussion forums and blog posts. My grammar, spelling, and punctuation certainly aren’t perfect. At the same time, though, I can’t agree with those who say that such things should never be pointed out. With more and more reading taking place online, allowing such mistakes to stand and propagate will only lead to more of them. In any case, this site lists hundreds of common problems in spelling and meaning, along with clear explanations of each.
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Finding the Speed of Light With Marshmallows
Come on — how could you pass on an offer like that?
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“The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote.”
Worth it just to hear little Jeffy say “I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.”
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Improv Everywhere attacks Best Buy
A horde of young people bearing an eerie similarity to Best Buy employees enter a store and sow confusion and dismay by standing quietly, politely around the aisles.
Some of the other videos on the site are also quite entertaining.
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Evolve a better poem. A current sample:
where fall and farther and
yes the wanderer can own
what shared to idiot curse strangely in dream
is and was again
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2 years ago