ebelog

Hidden Message Found In Lincoln Watch

michael — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:43:59 +0000

Abraham Lincoln sent his expensive pocket watch to a watchmaker named Jonathan Dillion for repairs in 1861. Generations of the Dillion family heard the story about that watch. The anecdote said that the Civil War broke out during the time that the watch was being repaired. As he learned about the battle breaking out, the watchmaker claimed that he wrote a hidden message on the president’s watch. Through the years, the story came into question, but the family remained steadfast that it was the truth. Recently, the Smithsonian Museum decided to find out. They had an expert take the watch apart, and there on the back of the watch face was written “Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government.” It wasn’t exactly the quote he had remembered etching, but the hidden message was right where he said it would be.

Songs Represented By Graphs

michael — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:24:22 +0000

There is a fun growing trend among bloggers to make graphs which describe song lyrics. Most of them are easy to figure out, for example describing a Beck song by showing the number of turntables as 2 and the number of microphones as 1. The one I have pictured here is a good one, too. It shows “Once In a Lifetime” by Talking Heads which you probably recognize even if you didn’t know what the song is called. I found a few different collections of these, but I’ve seen some of them reprinted on multiple blogs, and I haven’t been able to determine the actual source. Even if I can’t give proper credit to the creator, I can point out that you can find some examples of popular music at the blogs Just Whatever and In Deference To My Idols. A hip hop version is also floating around and can be found at Jamphat.

Substituting Toys For Famous Landmarks

michael — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:22:52 +0000

People love to take funny pictures when they’re on vacation. I think every person I know who has been to Pisa, Italy has a picture of someone holding up the leaning tower. Michael Hughes is a 56-year-old who takes the concept a little bit further. He loves to take pictures of the world’s famous landmarks - perfectly blended with cheap souvenirs. Hughes started this hobby back in 1998 and has accumulated a rich collection of over 100 fun images. “I noticed coffee cups from a shop near the Statue of Liberty had the statue printed on it, so I poured my drink on the floor, and positioned it in front of the statue. Since then, taking the pictures has developed into a hobby and a passion to the point where I have been taking trips recently just to photograph a souvenir next to its landmark.” The story came from the My Modern Met blog.

Refrigerated Beach In Dubai

michael — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:49:44 +0000

Dubai is a place filled with excess, and soon the beaches will be no exception. Famous design house Versace is creating a beach with cooled sand so that it doesn’t burn the bottoms of guests’ feet. British website Times Online describes it as “the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days. The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface. The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.”

Let Me Google That For You

michael — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:01:27 +0000

Sometimes we forget that we live in the age of the internet, and people often ask questions which could easily be answered by a quick Google search. Any geek worth his or her salt will jump at the chance to gently remind less technical friends how easy it would have been to find answers on one’s own, and being able to do it in an elitist way is certainly a bonus. This is where the site lmgtfy.com comes in, an acronym for “let me google that for you.” Enter the simple query that you used to answer your friend’s question, and send them the link it creates for you. You can also use the convenient tinyURL button to obfuscate the URL. When someone follows the link, it will show them a quick flash tutorial about going to Google, filling in the search box, and pressing the button before finally presenting the results. I used this last week when a friend of mine asked about former Super Bowl MVP award winners. Let me Google that for you.

Did Google Ocean Find Atlantis

michael — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:21:36 +0000

Google has become so much more than a search engine. Google Earth and maps have made the atlas seem hopelessly outdated. Terrestrial documentation was not enough for the big ‘G’ however, and soon Google Space and Google Oceans were launched. Now Neatorama reports that a British man thinks that he may have found the mythical lost city of Atlantis using the latest Google tool. “Situated in an area called the Madeira Abyssal Plane, the grid was spotted by aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford as he browsed through Google Ocean. Bernie, 38, of Chester, said: It looks like an aerial map of Milton Keynes. It must be man-made.”

13 Year Old Father

michael — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:42:14 +0000

Baby faced Alfie Patten looks like he’s about 8 years old. He’s really 13, and it’s old enough to become a father. The British boy has a daughter named Maisie with his 15 year old girlfriend. British paper “The Sun” describes the scene when the parents brought their new baby home from the hospital. The four-footer — who looks no more than eight — said: “I know I’m young, but I plan to be a good dad.” As he went on the PlayStation with 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, he added: “I think we’ll be good parents. I’ll have to work extra hard at school.” Chantelle looked up from 18-rated action game Saints Row II to admit her first night out of hospital since having 7lb 3oz daughter Maisie had been tough and had left her “in a daze”. The original story and the follow-up are both available online.

MythTV Upgrade

michael — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:08:08 +0000

I’ve been using a Linux computer running MythTV as my DVR ever since I traded in the Dish Network receiver for basic cable over 2 years ago. After the tube TV finally gave out, I joined the digital revolution and bought a Sharp Aquos. My dad spotted a motherboard with an HDMI port, and that was enough to get me thinking about an upgrade. I downloaded the new version of MythDora, installed a new video capture card with a digital tuner, and spent a few hours using Google to troubleshoot the issues I had getting it set up. The details are too geeky to get into, but the end result makes it all worth it. The movies look great with the increased resolution, and having them all accessible at the touch of a remote is a dream of couch potatoes everywhere. By far my favorite features are the automatic commercial detection which does a great job of skipping the ads without me even needing to skip ahead by 30 seconds at a time. MythWeb is the other great feature, which allows me to log into a web page, see the schedule, and set up recordings from anywhere in the world. If you’re interested in tackling a project like this yourself, do your research first, because it’s not a simple task. My favorite resources are MythDora and the MythTV Wiki.

Vodka Infused With Skittles

michael — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:43:56 +0000

I like both Skittles and vodka, so I don’t see where one could go wrong with this combination. The folks over at the Mix That Drink blog take you through a nice tutorial about how to create your own, including nice pictures and descriptions of each step. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m so intrigued by the concept that I’m looking forward to the project. The comments reveal that you can find the cool bottles at the Container Store.

Dressed For Dinner Napkins

michael — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:33:05 +0000

For 10 minutes of fun at your next dinner party, invest in some of these Dressed for Dinner Napkins. Pick your favorite style, and then tuck it into the collar of your t-shirt for the ultimate in trailer park fashion. Expect to pay about $6 for a pack of 20. You can find them at Urban Outfitters and Wishingfish.