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 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009 3:41 am |
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| RECENT POSTS: | |
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• For lovers and haters of "Twilight" November 20 • These food blogs are making me fat November 19 • Math is beautiful. ‘The Wire' is ugly. November 18 • What to do with abandoned newspaper boxes November 17 • These photos are for the birds November 16 |
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For lovers and haters of "Twilight" Since it seems like you'd have to live at an Antarctic outpost to avoid the frenzy about "New Moon" (which is sure to make fans swoon, says movie critic Robert Horton), here are two things both lovers and haters of the series can enjoy. First: A spoof exploring what would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer went to high school with Edward Cullen. (There's an unintentional Easter egg in this video for Harry Potter fans: A shot near the end was swiped from "Goblet of Fire." Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward in the Twilight movies, also played Cedric Diggory.) Second: Mystified about the allure of the whole "Twilight" thing? This Washington Post story is a look at how -- and why -- even some women who thought the books were inane and anti-feminist found themselves unable to stop reading. I found this point by the author, Monica Hesse, particularly interesting: "Men feel perfectly comfortable slathering their chests in greasepaint and screaming like half-naked ninnies at football games, but women too often over-explain their passions, apologizing for being too girly or liking something too trashy." And now for something not "Twilight"-related: Last week, I promised further suggestions for sites where you can get holiday gift ideas. This week's pick is Three Potato Four, which sells a variety of quirky and cool, mostly vintage stuff. Wander around the site on your own, or head straight to the gift guide. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
These food blogs are making me fat I have an addiction. An addiction to food blogs. I find the most delectable things on them. Recently, we told you about Tres Leche Cake that was straight from heaven. Since it's been so lousy outside lately, my attention has been turning to indoor activities, like cooking. Here's a few ideas if your stomach thinks it's time for a treat. Chocolate banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Chocolate peanut butter cake. Itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookies. 12 recipes for grilled cheese. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Math is beautiful. ‘The Wire' is ugly. OK, math nerds, this one is for you: It's a 3D examination of the Mandelbrot set, a mathematical term named after Benoit Mandelbrot, a French American mathematician, best known as the “father of fractal geometry,” according to Wikipedia. If you're not a fan of math, maybe you loved "The Wire,” elaborately honored in all its ugly grittiness in this 10-minute quote reel video compilation. While I could do with fewer gratuitous F-bombs and would love some longer stretches of dialog, it's a nice retrospective for the long-gone, critically acclaimed HBO show. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
What to do with abandoned newspaper boxes If you love newspapers, the sight of empty boxes for out-of-print newspapers like the Seattle P-I may make you sad or angry. Even if you don't like newspapers, those abandoned news racks are eyesores. That's why this guerrilla art project called Print After Parties is so refreshing. One of the folks behind the Print After Parties has another project called Other interesting ideas for old newspaper boxes came up after the P-I's print edition disappeared on the journalism blog 10,000 Words and a post from SeattlePI.com's The Big Blog. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
These photos are for the birds The title for the new book by photographer Andrew Zuckerman says it all: "Bird." The marketing campaign for the book includes a stunning Web site and a series of videos about how the photos were taken. BIRD Behind the Scenes from Andrew Zuckerman Studio on Vimeo. ... [Read More]E-mail | Print | Comment
Cake and presents My fellow Midday Snacker Jessi has been perusing a lot of food blogs lately, which is how she found this recipe for a Tres Leches (Three Milks) Cake. After we stopped drooling on our keyboards, we began plotting a date and time when we could bake one of our own. Given the sheer quantity of eggs, cream and sweetened condensed milk, we were pretty sure we wanted to make it for a large group of people so there wouldn't be too many leftovers around to tempt us. So we made it for a party, and friends, we were not disappointed. It was divine. Divine. I mention this because Thanksgiving is coming (as though you hadn't noticed), and if you're looking for something a little different in the dessert department, this is the way to go. It was easy and, despite the quantity of dairy involved, surprisingly light. Best of all, the pictures with the recipe make it simple to figure out if, say, you've beaten your eggs enough. Allegedly, it keeps well in the fridge, but we wouldn't know -- the whole thing was scarfed up in minutes. Speaking of the holidays, apparently the shopping season has begun. So, every Friday for the next several weeks, I'll post a few offbeat gift ideas or neat sites to get ideas, starting with one of my favorites, the shopping blog Mighty Goods. Margaret Mason, who runs the site, wanders the Web looking for all manner of useful, unusual, amusing and beautiful things. The site also has two spinoffs, Mighty Haus for all things home, and Mighty Junior, which focuses on kids. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Happy birthday to Sesame Street After being treated to a film version of "Where the Wild Things Are," this week presents another chance for adults to relive a childhood favorite. Sesame Street marked its 40th anniversary on Tuesday. To celebrate, Rolling Stone put together 40 clips of classic music moments from the show. They're all worth watching but here's one with Latin jazz great Tito Puente that made me smile: ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Edible bacon lamp! Need we say more? Check out the crazy invention detailed in a step-by-step slideshow on Flickr. Delicious? We can't tell. Do you actually eat it or just enjoy the novelty? ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
A map of a different kind Map fascinate me. So I was really excited when I came across Strange Maps. Strange Maps showcases some really fascinating ways of looking at the world. My favorite is probably a map of the United States, showing the distance to the nearest McDonalds. Turns out the farthest spot from a McDonalds is somewhere in South Dakota, where you would have to drive 145 miles to get a Big Mac. Here's another map, of a very different kind. This impressive creation maps the interactions of the characters in "The Lord of the Rings." (The map is huge, you'll have to scroll to see it all.) I love seeing the whole story set out so perfectly in visual form. Makes a geek happy. (If you scroll down, there are also maps for Jurassic Park and the original Star Wars. The Lord of the Rings one, though, is the masterpiece.) ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Informational eye candy I'm a big sucker for beautiful infographics that can make hunks of mind-numbing data into something comprehensible. So my eyes almost fell out of my head when Wired Science tweeted about this graphic by Bryan Christie showing all the missions to Mars and whether they succeeded or failed. And they almost fell out of my head again when I saw this National Geographic map of human spaceflight mentioned at kottke.org. If this sort of thing appeals to you, also check out Information is Beautiful, a blog full of infographic eye candy. Also, if you are at all interested in any kind of science and you aren't following Wired Science on Twitter, you should be. I can't recommend it highly enough. Some of the cool things they've pointed out: a vegetarian spider and a great white shark catching air. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Add some color to a gray day I always love National Geographic, but it's making me especially happy today. The magazine had gathered photos in a collections of various colors. Green is my favorite. You can also make any of the images into a fantastic wallpaper. This cute little green tree snake is my desktop wallpaper right now. If green's not really your thing, maybe you'd prefer blue, purple, red, yellow, orange or brown. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
If you need a day brightener in the face of H1N1 paranoia, pending bad weather and the lameness that is hump day, here's one for you. Meet Miga, Quatchi, Sumi and Mukmuk! They're the incredibly adorable 2010 Winter Olympic mascots and you can read their mythological stories, watch their videos and just generally cheer up here. Miga is a young “sea bear” — part orca, part bear — who lives in the ocean and loves surfing and snowboarding. Quatchi is a young, fuzzy sasquatch who comes from “the mysterious forests of Canada” and is obsessed with hockey. Sumi is an animal spirit who “wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.” His hobbies include alpine skiing and flying over the mountains. Mukmuk is a small and friendly Vancouver Island marmot, who appears to be a big Olympics fan, a sort 12th man everyman. You can even buy mascot pins, T-shirts, accessories and plush toys here! Yay! For now, here's a video overview of the little guys ... ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
The Twinkie as survival food I happened to catch a rerun yesterday of the Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls" episode featuring comedian Will Ferrell. Ferrell manages to hold his own in the harsh environment of the Arctic Circle, while still cracking jokes and hamming it up. In one of the show's funniest moments, Ferrell scarfs down a Twinkie that he was instructed to save for "emergencies only." Putting aside the myth that they have an indefinite shelf life, I don't know if I'd rely on Twinkies as survival food. But they made for one of the best TV moments I've seen in a while. More fun with Twinkies:
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Walk on the Wild Side The BBC is brilliant. Take a look and listen to these clips of hilarious wildlife with British accents. It's a preview for a BBC show called "Walk on The Wild Side." I won't try to explain it further, just watch. I don't get the BBC at home, and I'm suddenly very, very sad about it. Here's hoping these critters show up eventually on Netflix. If you like them, you'll find a whole bunch more on YouTube. Well, cheerio, then! ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Halloween: It's about to get ugly. Here's a bit of Halloween inspiration for you: It's a lovely young blond woman turned into a zombie with loads of makeup (and skill). Amazing. Creepy. Motivating? You decide. Note: Don't share this one with the kids until you've watched the whole thing. Hot Chick Zombie Time Lapse - Watch more Other Funny Stuff ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
A whale of a tail A simple whale-watching trip turned into an amazing experience for these boaters. Curious whales put on quite a show for the passengers. And, while we're talking about the amazing natural world, check out these crazy, glowing mushrooms. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Oops As we've all learned from watching blooper reels, mistakes may not be funny when they happen to us, but it's frequently hard not to laugh when they happen to someone else. So today, we revel in other people's oopses. Baking oops: Cake Wrecks celebrates the horrible and hysterical things that professional bakers sometimes deliver. Oops at Flickr: Driven over the edge Dropped the phone If pandas could blush Maintenance has been called Forgot something Also see the "uh-oh" group. Plus, an oops waiting to happen: ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment |
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