The most bizarre thing you will see this week, guaranteed

Life-like Ron Mueck figures on display at an art museum. These photos are pretty damn amazing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888_index_frames.htm?startat=1

More information at Wikipedia.

Bartering is still alive, at craigslist.com

So, I was reading this article at CNN about a guy who wants to trade his red paperclip for a free house. Apparently, he's well on his way. Right now he has a house in Arizona free of rent for one year.

His blog is here. His myspace page is here.

I had no idea that Craigslist had a "barter" section, so I moseyed on over there and found this little gem:

Contractor willing to barter. on small jobs

Reply to: sale-145922903@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-03-28, 4:13PM EST


'i live in the mount pocono area . ive been in home improvements for a good 23 yrs i do most anything BUT SEPTIC SYSTEMS.''your shit is your problem"... anyway i do roofing ,siding, windows, and doors , drywall, painting , wallpaper, all types of flooring, yes even tile and hardwoods. i have a new house and a full basement. im looking for a nice bar .. bust be over 10' also im looking for a full size pool table . and i just got a boat from this site so im looking for boat electronics( depth /fish finder ect.. i also have 3 kids ages 5,4,and 3, they wanna go to disneyland.........i have over 2000 referances.. have a good day"

Gotta love PA!!

• actual link here
  

Test your science knowledge

Why is the sky blue? Facts you should know

Think you know you know your science? Recently, several science gurus -- Nobel Prize winners, institute heads, teachers and others who spend most of their time thinking about science -- were asked, "What is one science question every high school graduate should be able to answer?"

Take their quiz and see how you do.

1. What percentage of the earth is covered by water?

ROBERT GAGOSIAN, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE

2. What sorts of signals does the brain use to communicate sensations, thoughts and actions?

TORSTEN WEISEL, ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK

3. Did dinosaurs and humans ever exist at the same time?

ANDREW C. REVKIN, NEW YORK TIMES SCIENCE REPORTER

4. What is Darwin's theory of the origin of species?

JONATHAN WEINER, 1995 PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR

5. Why does a year consist of 365 days, and a day of 24 hours?

LESLIE SAGE, NATURE MAGAZINE

6. Why is the sky blue?

ROY GLAUBER, 2005 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER; HARVARD UNIVERSITY

7. What causes a rainbow?

KIM KASTENS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

8. What is it that makes diseases caused by viruses and bacteria hard to treat?

HELLE GAWRYLEWSKI, JOHNSON & JOHNSON (AND THE AUTHOR'S MOTHER)

9. How old are the oldest fossils on earth?

PAUL NURSE, 2001 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER; ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE

10. Why do we put salt on sidewalks when it snows?

ARTHUR KNUDSEN, BRIDGETON, N.J., SCHOOLS

Extra credit: What makes the seasons change?

If this quiz wasn't as easy as you thought it would be, you're not alone. According to a recent National Science Board survey, 90 percent of Americans are interested in science, but only 15 percent consider themselves well-informed. In high schools, only 60 percent of students complete a general biology class, while only 40 percent complete a general chemistry class and a scant 27 percent complete a physics class, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Even if you did learn basic science in school, these questions might be tough to answer, according to O. Roger Anderson, professor of science education at Teachers College at Columbia University.

"People are so deeply involved in their family lives and professions," Anderson said. "How are they supposed to remember this stuff?"

Answers:

1. About 71 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water.

2. The single cells in the brain communicate through electrical and chemical signals.

3. No. Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Modern humans did not appear until around 200,000 years ago.

4. Darwin's theory of species origination says that natural selection chooses organisms that possess variable and heritable traits and that are best suited for their environments.

5. A year, 365 days, is the time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun. A day, 24 hours, is the time it takes for the earth to spin around once on its axis.

6. Solar radiation sunlight is scattered across the atmosphere by a process called diffused sky radiation. The sky is blue because much more short-wave radiation -- blue light -- is scattered across the sky than long-wave radiation -- red light.

7. Rainbows can be seen when there are water droplets in the air and the sun is shining. Sunlight, which contains all colors, is refracted, or bent, off the droplets at different angles, splitting into its different colors of red, yellow, blue, etc.

8. Influenza viruses and others continually change over time, usually by mutation. This change enables the virus to evade the immune system of its host so that people are susceptible to influenza virus infection throughout their lives. Bacteria mutate in the same way and can also become resistant if overtreated with antibiotics.

9. About 3.8 billion years; they're bacteria-like organisms.

10. Adding salt to snow or ice increases the number of molecules on the ground surface and makes it harder for the water to freeze. Salt can lower freezing temperatures on sidewalks to 15 degrees from 32 degrees.

Extra credit: Seasons occur because the earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. At certain times of year the top half of the earth leans to the sun and therefore gets more sun and has summer. When that same half of the earth leans away from the sun it gets less light and has winter.

via startribune.com

Exxon chief made $144,573 per day

And I just paid $54 to fill up the Highlander. How can that be tolerated?????

link here

Richard Petty Driving Experience

This was, without a doubt, the coolest thing I have EVER DONE. Ever. Ever. Did I say ever?

I was sitting at my desk tonight, and happened to look at this picture and had awesome memories of this trip:

-24 laps at Daytona International Speedway
-165 Miles Per Hour

This was my wedding gift from Becky. She bought the tickets, flew us down and watched as I drafted the instuctor around the world's most famous speedway.

Bald Eagle nest transmitted live

Hornby Island, Bald Eagle Nest -- Vancouver BC

Someone stuck a camera in a tree, hooked it up to an encoder, and pointed it at a wild Bald Eagle nest. Strangely captivating.... Probably the closest any of us will ever get to one of these birds ;)

Link here

Talk about addicting!

Are these images moving or not?

Pretty neat, huh? And NONE of them are moving. Love science.

Paige: If you go on the potty, you can wear Big Girl Underwear!

This is exactly how we found little Miss Paige today, dressed up in - go ahead and count: 7 pairs of Big Girl Underwear. You can tell she is trying not to smile while Beck and I are DYING!

Something to consider...

Make your own motivational poster here.

It's like you know EVERYTHING about me!

Take My Quiz - on - QuizYourFriends.com!

Check out the scorecard here!

Irish Diplomacy

"The ability to tell someone to go to hell so that he will look forward to the trip."






--
Thanks Shawn for the picture message!

Do you know how I know that I'm gay?

Because I just bought Kelly Clarkson's new CD.

(not that there is anything wrong with being gay.)

I also bought the Nickelback CD, does that offset Kelly Clarkson?

Sisters

 

Image burned into my retinas

I fired the decorator. She re did the entire blog - but it was too dark for my liking, and I'm not paying her either.

I felt like reading the light-colored text on the dark background burned the words into my retinas. I know you felt the same way - thanks for not making me feel bad about it.

UNAN1MOUS - on Fox

Saw a commercial for this today, and thought it looked really intriguing! Could go either way - with all the reality shows out there.

I also loved The Mole, so what the hell do I know?

"In a dramatic new television experiment, a diverse group of nine strangers are locked in a bunker, where they’ll remain until they decide who is worthy of a 1.5-million-dollar cash prize.

There is a catch, though, because the longer it takes to make a unanimous decision, the less money there will be to win. If they take too long, they will be left with nothing.

Upon entering their isolated living quarters, the nine contestants are cut off from the outside world, locked away, and presented the opportunity to win $1.5 million. The only thing standing between them and the money is a simple vote. If they are able to come to a unanimous decision about who should win the money, the game is over. If the outcome of the vote is not unanimous, the money clock is activated and the cash prize begins its countdown with potentially thousands of dollars lost every hour until the next voting period.

In every episode, each of the nine contestants, who include a minister, an atheist, a ladies’ man and a feminist, must convince the others to vote only for him or her. Before the vote, personal facts, secrets and lies are revealed, perhaps helping them decide who should receive the money. As the game progresses, contestants will be eliminated from winning the cash prize, but – in a television first – they will continue to live in the bunker and will continue to vote.

Will contestants’ greed for the money outweigh their desire to help someone potentially less fortunate than themselves? Who will lie and connive, and who will be truthful and sincere? No matter what, the final vote must be UNAN1MOUS."

What's that you say?

What kind of American Language (dialect) do you speak? This was a quick, fun little test.

Here are my results:

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

The Simpsons: They are a real family!

This is really well done! I wish I had the real start of the show to watch next to this.

Check it out.

A Fishing Tale!!!!

This is out of control! It's real!!!

Want a job at Google? Get ready to answer some pretty tough questions

Over at gamedev.net, one of the guys had a telephone interview with Google, and here were a few of their questions. Apparently, if you make it past this step - you sign a confidentiality agreement not do disclose any information.

Here are the questions:

Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

Q: "How would you find out if a machine's stack grows up or down in memory?"

Q: "Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew."

Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

What? The height of a nickel? Stack? Ok, I could do the database one. Gas stations? Ahh, a lot?

And remember, this is the PHONE INTERVIEW. Imagine the next steps! Love Google. They make me feel so dumb.

Ever play a word association game?

I say: "cold one"

You say: "beer"

I say: "April 15th"

You say: "taxes" (and Becky's birthday)

I say: "My Blog"

You say: click here to say something



Wonder what people said? Click here to see.