Category Archives: Random

zipdecode

Ben Fry made this neat thing called zipdecode that visually ‘decodes’ zip codes as you type them. It’s pretty neat because it shows you the logic that the post office had when assigning zip codes to different geographic locations. If nothing else, it’s something you could waste a couple minutes with. And it might be handy if you want to lookup where someplace is.

Tilt. Twist. Redeem.

I mentioned this before in one of my Link Dumps but I had to bring it up again.

I mean, how cool is this:

Tilt. Twist. Redeem.

A guy went and spent a good portion of his $2500 meal plan on bottles of Pepsi just for the free songs that Apple was giving away in their Pepsi iTunes Music Giveaway.

It’s too bad that he didn’t drink any of the Pepsi either. I’d at least go for the Diet—it’s definitely drinkable.

Orkut Geomap

I while back I wrote about a new website called Orkut created by some Google employees that aims to be a social service allowing you to list your contacts and create a web of people you know and their contacts.

Anyway, I’ve got about 20 friends signed up with the service right now. Yesterday I came across a website that would create a visual map of your contacts by locations and their friends.

Orkut Map
If you want to see your locality added to the map (ie, sign up for the website and add me as a friend) please send me an email and I’ll send you an invitation. (Just a note, the site is invitation only so the only way you can get yourself added is by having a current member invite you).

Squirrel Fishing

Leave it to Nick Stein to do crazy things like go Squirrel Fishing. As I understand, the concept is to bait the squirrel with a peanut tied to the end of a string, and then reel the squirrel in as if you were fishing. It’s quite bizarre and probably only works on the ultra-tame squirrels we have here at the U of M.

Squirrel Fishing

Honestly, it reminds me of those times at camp that we baited squirrels with peanut butter and captured them under plastic wash bins. It was quite amusing. Apparently some of the others transfered the squirrels into plastic garbage bags and hauled them out to the lake and dumped them in the water.

Instructional Shirt-Folding

Well, I ran into this video today that presents a neat way to fold shirts. I’ve got no idea if a lot of people fold shirts this way—as I’ve never had to fold more than a half-dozen shirts at a time in my life.

Shirt folding video

Needless to say, it’s pretty slick and easy to learn—although the directions are in Japanese.

Update: If needed, a local mirror is here.

War President

I came across this picture while reading some of the blogs I’m subscribed to. It’s pretty touching if you ask me, a nice tribute to a president who has managed to do so much wrong in so little time.

“Below is a … mosaic composed of the photos of the American service men and women who have died in Iraq. No photograph is used more than three times.”
War President
??Via: American Leftist??