I don’t do this every year, but in past years I’ve picked a few of my favorite free products or services and donated to them. This Year’s Donations Let’s Encrypt – Free SSL certificates. This is game changing when you manage a lot of web sites, including numerous subdomains. HeidiSQL – An easy to use, […]

Futility Closet posted a great quote from a Boston newspaper in 1865 declaring a guy trying to sell telephones a criminal. This was especially interesting to me as I’m currently reading How to License Your Million Dollar Idea where he discusses the process of licensing your new inventions. I read in another book that a […]

The FBI is using widgets to enhance their search for the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The widget shown below is by ClearSpring. I know very little about these men or their crimes, but I find it interesting that these men are on the list. Given the high number of murders in say, Chicago, murder alone […]

Typealyzer claims to be able to determine someone’s personality type from what they’ve written on their blog. I tried it out with my blog along with several others from the blogs I follow. This blog, along with Cameron, JD (of Get Rich Slowly), Dave Barry, Gina (of Lifehacker) and Steve Pavlina were dubbed ISTP – […]

Want to improve your luck? According to Richard Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor and the man behind the search for the world’s funniest joke, it’s something you can change. First, open your mind and be on the lookout for good fortune. Adding variety to your life helps too. Second, always consider the upside, or […]

In Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Peter Lovenheim sleeps over at over half of his neighbors to get to know them better. The reason? A neighbor shot and killed his wife and then himself but after a few weeks the only indication anything had changed was the “For Sale” sign on the lawn. A family […]

The New York Times created a chart that provides a fascinating look at how we spend our money as consumers. It comes as no surprise that the largest increase is in gas. It’s interesting to see a visual depiction of our spending. You can even zoom in on a section to get an even more […]

“Heading home for the weekend!!!” “C1 Build Failed.” “Is this thing on? Blustery day in Albuquerque. Making some progress on a few loose ends at work.” “Why oh why do I keep watching Smallville?” “I wonder if anybody interesting was born” The above quotes are from Twitter, a site where people write whatever pops into […]

This assessment of our carbon footprint was a bit sobering. Our footprint is 25 tonnes of CO2 per year. Ouch.

I hadn’t seen this video before, but it’s already at version 2.0. It provides some sobering and surprising statistics about the economy and the world. (via Joel Dehlin)

Prepare to be shocked.

Nicky Taylor spent almost $4,000 a year on beauty products and still felt disgusted with herself, so she did what anyone in her situation would do. Okay, maybe not. She went cold-turkey on beauty products for six weeks by not bathing, showering or brushing her teeth. After the experiment she was told her teeth would […]

The New York Times has a neat tool about classes – not the ones with teachers and students, but the ones with dollar signs and prestige. (via JD at Get Rich Slowly)

Wellington Gray used the data from this BMI chart categorized by country from Wikipedia to provide a startling illustration of America’s obesity epidemic.

If you’ve ever read Black Like Me, you know the experience a man went through by changing his skin color to experience life as a black person. Norah Vincent chose to do something similar – she became a man for 18 months. The ordeal eventually led her to check into a hospital with severe depression. […]

The pictures above are from a South Park episode about World of Warcraft. On the left is the guy in real life (at least in South Park), on the right is his avatar. The BBC compiled similar photos of 10 real life gamers next to their avatars. There’s a remarkable similarity between South Park’s and […]

I just read an article that claims generic praise doesn’t work. Telling kids they’re smart or a natural can actually reduce their performance instead of enhancing it. The key is to praise effort, not natural intelligence. Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control […]

The typical sources of advertising come in the form of TV commercials, radio commercials, billboards and online ads. Paul Bausch wrote a review of The Consumer Trap and in his review, he described how big business marketing plays a central role in our lives, shaping our choices, thoughts, feelings, and even our culture. JD at […]

After seeing the video below, you might be inclined to believe that no one could be as bad a driver as this woman (it’s also shocking how calm the two guys seem to be, as if this happens all the time). There seems to be a general consensus that women are bad drivers, but guys […]

The best stuff in the world lists the “best stuff” in the world: whether it be an inspiring song, a favorite Indian restaurant or the best explication of Kantian aesthetics. As people share the things they think are best, you discover what other people think are cool. Be forewarned that there are a few R-rated […]

I followed a link on Jason Kottke’s links to a post saying public acceptance of evolution is low and the US is second to last. In the comments, someone noticed a potential reverse correlation between the happiness and evolution acceptance lists. A map of happiness was created for a study, and I just recently found […]

I used to think Organic food was for hippies but after watching these two videos, I’m starting to see the point. Store Wars The Meatrix (via lazy way)

WikiBios. Our belief is simple: you don’t have to be a famous celebrity to have a life worth documenting. That’s why we created WikiBios, a place where your friends become the storytellers of your life. It looks pretty weak so far, as if high school kids are talking about their friends. In fact, many of […]

A few months ago a lunch discussion at work centered around bullies and nerds in school. The group consisted entirely of engineers and it seemed that all of us had been picked on in school, to one degree or another. This article in Wired Magazine provides insight into Why Nerds Are Unpopular. The main crux […]

American Rhetoric has compiled a list of the top 100 speeches, and most include links to audio and transcribed versions. The #1 one speech is Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream, which deserves its position, but one of my favorites is number 8, Ronald Reagan’s Space Shuttle “Challenger” Tragedy Address. There are several […]

Michael Suileabhain-Wilson has written about 5 geek social fallacies that he has observed. I wouldn’t say I’m an über geek, but I can see myself having some of these tendencies and it’s interesting to have them articulated and open to analyzation.