Links

Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.

80 days (Where were you, part 2)

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Time Magazine has a special issue out now where to celebrate their 80th anniversary, they pick eighty days that changed the world — their choice for the 80 most important days of the past 80 years. Very, very cool, and I think it’ll be worth picking up a copy of the magazine, in addition to pouring through the web version.

Going through the dates they chose reminded me a lot of my ‘Where were you?’ post from a little over a year ago. I might tie the two together at some point. Or maybe not. Who knows?

(via MeFi)

April Fools!

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Well, yeah, okay, so it’s the 2^nd^ now. In lieu of actually posting any sort of joke, a few fun April Fool’s links:

First off, two self-links (because my ego is just that out of control). Neither of these were April Fools posts, but they fit in with the spirit of the day — just me having fun.

  1. Hippies on Mars! Inspired by a photograph of Mars that, because of false-color imaging that made it look like a tie-dye pattern, I mangled a NASA press release. Groovy.
  2. Mars needs a facelift! After seeing some high-resolution pictures of the Cydonian “face” on Mars that effectively proved that it didn’t really look like a face after all, I decided that that wasn’t nearly entertaining enough. The end result is still one of my favorite pieces of inspired sillyness. I did my best to write the entire piece from the mindset of your typical conspiracy/UFO kook, and apparently pulled it off — one reader told me that until my giveaway lines at the end, he was convinced I was entirely off my rocker. High praise indeed, under the circumstances!

Other fun links:

  1. The top 100 April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time, from the Museum of Hoaxes. Some of these I’d heard of before, some I hadn’t. Quite a few are worth a giggle. (via /.)
  2. Also from the Museum of Hoaxes, the top ten college pranks of all time. The number one spot is well deserved, and the number ten spot has amused me for a few years, though I never knew it was originally an MIT prank. Learn something new every day! (via tbmaddux)
  3. The MIT Gallery of Hacks tracks the best of the infamous MIT hacks (“a clever, benign, and \” ethical \” prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community [and sometimes even the rest of the world!]”). People with too much intelligence and a sense of humor. (via i22y)

Bow down before the one you serve

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Woody wins!

Well, I conquered the world tonight. Twice actually. Now all I need to do is find someone who…

  • …has a Mac…
  • …runs Mac OS X…
  • …has a copy of iConquer…
  • …and is awake between the hours of 11pm and 2am, PST.

Might be a tall order there, actually.

Bada-bing!

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From the BBC this evening: Children “having sex at 11”

That’s nothing. In my day we had sex at 11 and 11:30.

Found this on Antipixel today, and it reminded me of this old joke I’ve had bouncing around in my head for years:

Celluloid factory burns down. No film at 11.

No substitute

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Well, here’s something that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone with a modicum of intelligence — spell- and grammar-checking software doesn’t always help, and can often hinder good writing.

How might you drag a good writer’s work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button.

A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software.

I’ve been ranting about this for years — most recently, back in September. Software checkers can only do so much, and there’s no substitute for a well-educated mind.