I spend a lot of time on airplanes, usually asleep. Not because it’s restful but because I have long legs and going into a trance is the easiest way to cope with the discomfort.
On my way out to LA, I woke up to change the mix in my music player, and looked out the window:
I’m out in LA for a wedding and needed an appropriate present for the bride. So: 12″ acrylic lamp globe, $29 on ebay, 1/4″ ABS plastic cut plug, 1/4″ ABS plastic base piece, water, cosmetic mica, acrylic glue.
Since some of my comrades here on FTB seem to be posting pictures of birds, I thought I’d offer some footage from my bedroom window a few years ago. It started when the Turkey Committee chair convened the meeting, and rapidly got out of hand. I was on a conference call for about an hour and a half, and the turkeys kept up this level of activity the whole time.
I had a brainfart the other day, when someone said something about “the commentariat” over at FtB.
So I made the commentariat a logo.
Hugo Award-nominated surrealist poet/author and martial arts grandmaster Chuck Tingle live-tweeted the vice-presidential debates using his own particular spin on reality. It’s an improvement, though there’s a great deal of gratuitous wand-polishing. Actually, there was at the debate, too.
Adult surrealism below the fold.
Whenever rational people are making fun of the “Noah’s Ark” myth, it’s inevitable that someone points out that Zheng He‘s treasure fleet was cooler than the biblical ark, and had the virtue of actually existing.
What I didn’t know is that the Chinese don’t mess around when they decide to build a reproduction.
Making incense is fun and easy. It does, however, require a sacrificial grinder (so be forewarned)!
Whenever I make my incense I find myself pondering how the ingredients would be worth their weight in gold two thousand years ago. When the “three wise men” in the bible allegedly brought jesus frankincense and myrrh, they were bringing him valuable bling. Nowadays, I suspect it’d be an iPhone, bluetooth headphones with Swarovski crystals on them, Louboutins,* Louis Vuitton luggage, and a Lamborghini.
I am disappointed by America’s Test Kitchen Podcast. Not deeply, but slightly.
Listening to a few back-episodes there was a brief mention that the problem of making hard-boiled eggs that peel perfectly “is not understood.” These are the people who do experiments on all kinds of stuff – but perhaps the experiments they do in the test kitchen are all just a cover-project for eating lots of cake and spare ribs, or something.
After tackling this problem using science I wrote ATK a quick explanation, but I’m sure they don’t care. Because, if they did, they would have done some thinking and figured it out themselves. For the record: I don’t care either. I eat a lot of hard-boiled eggs, so it was an easy experiment to perform.
I’m going to give you a spoiler alert because I try to be a decent human being, not because there are any real surprises in this film. Spoilers begin below the fold:
A basic mistake like this in a headline? Really?