Crazy glue

The history of the 'toy'

Hysteria begins in the womb, or so thought the medical scholars of the 1610s, who named the condition after the Latin hystericus, meaning “of the womb.” Those who’ve studied the Victorian era, or read The Awakening in high school, may know that the go-to prognosis of the time for just about every female’s symptom from the occasional hissy fit to chronic seizures was a pesky wayfaring uterus. The condition was thought to be caused by sexual frustration and cured by intercourse or pelvic massage, the latter often performed by physicians and midwives. When doctors finally got fed up with the tedious task in the late 19th century, the personal vibrator was created to take their place.

The things you learn from reading...

Courtesy mentalfloss.com

True facts about the angler fish

By Ze Frank.

The best part comes in just around the one minute mark.

Not so sanitary

I love this xkcd comic.

Scott Adams on privacy

"Realistically, you can't lose your privacy to Big Brother because you already lost it decades ago. What you do have is the right to be boring and law-abiding at the same time. It just feels like privacy to you."

I think by 'honest' they meant delirious

Want to see what they're teaching in some schools in the US? This is a real page from a real creationist 'science' textbook.

Muppet meth

Life of Pi (remix)

Things I learned this week 14 Jan

• When Google comes to install Google Fiber at your home, they promise to give you a time and not make you wait for hours during an 'appointment window'.
• Google Fiber costs $120 per month for normal cable TV and internet access that is 100X faster than what your cable TV provider would give you. Internet access alone is only $70 per month. Only in Kansas City - for now.
• Computers have been getting smaller and closer to our faces since their very beginning. First they were in big rooms, then they sat on desktops, then they sat on our laps, and now they're in our palms. Next they'll be on our faces. Ever heard of Google Glass? You will.
• AC/DC finally agreed to sell their entire catalogue via iTunes.
• Humans were not around for 99.9999% of cosmic history.
• 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on earth are now extinct.
• The most expensive residential property for sale in Quebec in 2012 is Celine Dion's mansion on Ile Gagnon, which listed for just under $30 million.
• A Subway sandwich artist was fired for refusing to put ketchup on a customer's Philly Cheesesteak. Oh yeah, plus he came from behind the counter and threatened the customer too.
• On Dec. 21, 2012, a customer in a Winnipeg Tim Horton's drive-thru line decided to pay for the order of the next vehicle. That caused a chain reaction, as customers then paid it forward for 3 hours and 228 orders. It didn’t stop with the drive-thru — customers inside Tim's latched onto the idea when they heard what was going on outside and did the same thing.
• Google may be bringing Google Fibre to New York City. Huge news for the big apple.
• It's gotten so hot in Australia, they had to add a new colour to the temperature maps. The forecast for Monday, 14 January was 52C.
• In the US, fewer than 1% of rapists face jail time as a result and that's partly because more than 90% of rapes go unreported.

Speed dating (geek style)

There is no nation of Holland

The difference between Holland, The Netherlands and a whole lot more than you bargained for.

Knitted knight

Check out this made-to-order knitted knight's helmet on Etsy.

The mouth guard even swings down!

10 word movie review for Hunger Games

Never be able to look at squirrel the same way.....

Siri-ously

The story of copyright simplified

I love how this video explains copyright in very simple terms. I especially love how they deconstruct exactly what is wrong with current copyright law.

For all of my Toronto Maple Leaf fan friends

No mixing science and religion in Louisiana schools

Well, it seems as though Louisiana gets it:

"No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach any aspect of religious faith as science or in a science class. No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach creationism or intelligent design in classes designated as science classes."

How high?

Imagine being a window cleaner on the world's (currently) tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

Nope, I couldn't either.

It takes 3 months to clean all 24,000 windows.

Latest photos from Mars

Filmography 2012

It's like the best trailer ever made.

It's of movies released or made in 2012.

Great editing.

Candy craft

Watch this Chinese cotton candy maker at work.

Beautiful stuff.

Things I learned this week 6 Jan

• In fiscal year 2012, WalMart registered $444 billion in sales and has 2.2 million employees worldwide. Their CEO earns more money in one hour what most employees earn in an entire year. ASDA stores in the UK are really WalMart stores under another banner.
• The Great Wall of China is not really visible from space.
• The reason Coke stayed priced at a nickel for 70 years is because of Coke's unwillingness to double the cost to ten cents. The vending machines took nickels and Coke felt the jump to a dime was too much - they even asked the Treasury to issue a 7.5 cent coin. That didn't happen. But Coke finally hit the ten cent mark in 1959.
• The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States didn't have the words 'under God' officially until 1954.
• The 2012 Honda Civic is bigger than the 1984 Honda Accord.
• There's an Apple store employee named Sam Sung. For reals.
• The Helvetica font is poised to dominate online use due to it's easy reading characteristics (can you say sans-serif?)
• Frito-Lay introduced Cracker Jack'd Power Bites, which contain 70mg of caffeine, equal to a one ounce shot of espresso or 2 twelve ounce cans of cola.
• In Mac OS X, if you can't access the Utilities application to fix a problem because your hard drive is pooched, you can access it via the internet on bootup.

The metric world

Skydiving cats

I kid you not.

I don't care if it's fake, it rocks my world.

Relating to a psychopath

The following graphic indicates those most and least likely to be psychopaths.

Number one on the left list is most likely. Number one on the right list is least likely.

Beaucoup de neige

This is how they remove snow from the streets in Montreal after a big snow storm.

This was shot after the record-breaking snowfall Montreal received Dec 27th.

It's dumped in the river, in case you were curious.

Spiderman!

Watch as a 3 year old gets a real-life Spiderman for Christmas from Santa.

Henri 5 - The Worst Noel

"The holidays are just another excuse for the world to intrude on my solitude."

Distracted driving

A new study employing eye-monitoring equipment has revealed that drivers spend 18% of their time behind the wheel not watching the road at all.

The study found motorists using navigation devices were even more distracted, with 22% of their time not watching the road. They have their eyes fixed on the display for 12% of their journey time. Drivers using satnav also spend 6X longer watching their device than oncoming traffic.

The average driver takes their eyes off the road every 9 seconds.

The average driver spends only 3.2% of the total journey time checking their mirrors while, on average, drivers spend 7% of their time gazing at clouds and scenery and 0.8% of their time observing ads. 2% of their time is spent actually looking at oncoming vehicles and 0.6% observing road signs.

54% of those surveyed change music while driving; 47% eat, 47% drink and 16% send texts from a mobile phone. 6% admitted to using apps on a smartphone or tablet, updating their Facebook status or tweeting.

Motorists are easily distracted by others. 35% admitted to being distracted by children or other passengers and 20% said a good looking person made them take their eyes off the road.

Siri New Year