Twas the night before Christmas

We have not tried this yet, but it may be funny: CrazyLibs before Christmas

Shrimp Running On A Treadmill Video

I did not know that you could build a Treadmill for shrimp.

You may also have some time to Elf Yourself.

My gift list

This needs more work, but in honor of Black Friday, here we go:

Blue crocs, r/c fighting helicopters, world peace, clothes for Elizabeth, a hip for Dorothy, low potassium bacon for Jimmy, Sling box solo, school supplies Manolo shoes for Sherry Lynn, horseshoes for Hector, ...

[Updates to follow ...]

Happy Holidays, Mark
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ThinkGeek :: PlusDeck 2c

ThinkGeek :: PlusDeck 2c: "A Cassette Deck for the PC: Use it to archive your old cassette tapes of 80s bands into digital files on your PC. "

WOTD: Pangram

from The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog - Wikipedia

Pangram of the day: Portez ce vieux whisky au juge blond qui fume. [French for "Bring this old whisky to the blond smoking judge"]

FYE: Power Strip Space Saver Price: $2.99 & USB squid

[from http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/9713/ ]

"As a gadgets junkie, you surely know about those big ugly AC adapters
that power just about all your electronics. You also know that those AC
adapters can be pretty annoying when trying to connect more than two or
three into a single power strip. Outlets get blocked and you end up
needing three or four power strips to connect all your devices. Is this
any way for a geek to live? We think not. The Power Strip Space Saver,
from Philips, is the perfect accessory for power strips that don't have
enough space to fit all your bulky AC adapters. Each flexible 7"
extension cord can easily accommodate the AC adapter and the pass
through outlet will still give you access to the power strip outlet.
Problem solved, gadgets happy."

USB Squid:

Spelling: This is weird, but interesting!

"fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the
olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it"
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Daughters' Craig's List Ad Asks For Kidney For Dad - News Story - WNBC | New York

Daughters' Craig's List Ad Asks For Kidney For Dad - News Story - WNBC New York

Appendix Not So Useless After All? - Health News Story - WNBC | New York

Appendix Not So Useless After All? - WNBC-NY: Who knew?

Are you smarter than a 2 yr old?

Geography Genius Baby watch! youtube.com — This 23 month-old baby can barely speak, but she is able to correctly locate most countries on a world map!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43yCiKlbCo

Vote Early & Vote Often: Mass. Woman Fined 4K For Voting In Conn.

From wnbc.com POSTED: 8:29 am EDT September 24, 2007:
GROTON, Conn. -- State election officials have fined a Massachusetts
woman $4,000 for voting in Connecticut with an absentee ballot that tied
a primary race in Groton, forcing the race to be decided by a coin toss.

The state Elections Enforcement Commission fined Alicia Primer, of
Weston, Mass., who has a home in Groton and had been registered to vote
in both states, officials said.
Primer was fined for causing last year's tie between Elissa Wright and
Rita Schmidt in the Democratic primary for state representative from the
41st District.
Former Democratic Registrar of Voters Allen Palmer filed the complaint
months after the August 2006 election after he discovered the person who
cast the tie vote, Primer, should not have been allowed to vote.
This summer Primer told an elections enforcement official and The Day of
New London that she thought she could vote in Groton because she owned
property there.
"The Commission considers registering to vote and voting in more than
one jurisdiction at a time to be a serious offense, but is utilizing its
civil authority due to what it perceives as the lack of intent on the
part of the Respondent to commit a crime," the commission said in its
decision.
When the votes were counted last August, Rita Schmidt had one vote more
than Wright. But when the mandatory recount was completed, state
officials advised Palmer to count one more absentee ballot, the one from
Primer. The absentee voter in question had presented an acceptable form
of identification when registering to vote in person at Town Hall. But
the state registration system had not recognized the person's Social
Security number, and the absentee ballot did not contain another form of
identification. So the ballot was put aside.
As part of Palmer's investigation into whether to count the ballot, he
had to confirm that the person was indeed a valid voter in the town. He
verified that the voter, Primer, was on the list of registered voters,
and counted the ballot.
The August 2006 Democratic primary was decided by a coin toss, which
favored Wright. Wright went on to win the general election. She
successfully got a new law passed that got rid of the practice of
breaking of a tie in a primary "by lot" and replaced it with a runoff
election.

USS Grunion (SS-216) - Wikipedia

The USS Grunion (SS-216) was recently found off the coast of Alaska. It was a Gato-class submarine like the Growler and Harder.

Word of the day: Utahns - people from Utah.

YouTube - Gizmo Flushes

You have to see this: YouTube - Gizmo Flushes

and then checkout BJ & Cognac in CatFight!

Mark'llfixit

I fixed a 1920's slot machine. It was fun working with the old style levers and gears; the insides were like an old cash register, with the effect of keeping the change 92% of the time.

BTW, the Fig Newton will be interviewed on radio and webcast on http://www.2dorks.com on Tuesday at 10am ET.
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Featured Maps - Yahoo! MapMixer

Yahoo! MapMixer allows you to overlay your own art over their clickable maps.

Also seen today: A cellphone for your dog. PetsMobility also makes PawTRAX™ an online tracking system that lets users to track their pets via the Internet, monitor their temperature surroundings and more.

FYI: Help find Steve Fosset.

This site is using tools from Amazon and Google earth to load fresh
satellite images and allow people to help look for Steve Fosset from
their computers.

It's a pretty interesting use of technology that may have better chances
than the SETI@home project.

On Monday, September 3, 2007, Steve Fossett
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett> , the first person to fly a
plane around the world without refueling and the first person to fly
around the world in a balloon went missing in Nevada. An airplane he was
flying failed to return. No one has any idea where he is. Through the
generous efforts of individuals at several organizations, detailed
satellite imagery has been made available for his last known
whereabouts.

http://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=9TSZK4G35XEZJZG21T60&kw=Flash

Google Maps: NoBeBoSco

We used to go camping at Camp NoBeBoSco, also featured as Camp Crystal Lake in the Fritday the 13th movies.

A Cincinnati company is requiring any employee ... to be implanted with a microchip.

A Cincinnati company is requiring any employee who works in its secure
data center to be implanted with a microchip.

The video surveillance company CityWatcher.com
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.citywatcher.com/> injected
two of its employees in the triceps area of the arm with the VeriChip, a
glass-encapsulated RFID, or radio-frequency identification, tag,
according to Liz McIntyre, co-author of "Spychips: How Major
Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID."

Mark from IT

Today's clipboard

[Draft]
- Vatican has started a low-cost airline service: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6965124.stm
- combo sink and toilet.

[More to follow]

"We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. 'At least,' as one man said, 'there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.'" - Erwin N. Griswol
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Giants tickets available

From time to time I can get extra Giants tickets, like this Saturday. Drop me a comment here if you'd like to get on my mailing list for extra tickets, or call me if you'd like some for this weekend.

The schedule is at http://giants.com
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Here's the tricky part...

I finally found the old commercial that we have been looking for: Fig Newton We were also looking at the old Honda Accord ad.

We're also experimenting with the WikiScanner

and just in time for the 4H Science Fair: (see right)

Touring Long Island

So I gave myself a tour of Long Island the other day and finally saw the The Big Duck.

I also rode the Point Orient ferry to New London: The MV Cape Henlopen particiapted in the D-Day invasion, formerly known as the USS Buncombe (LST-510)

Golfing by Satellite

We were playing golf the other day and the scorecard did not have a map of the hotels because the members "knew the holes" and did not need a map, making it tough for the guests. To compensate, I took out my trusty blackberry and opened the google map satellite view of the course.

It was helpful to review the course from space. Next time, I have to remember to print out 2 copies the nite before and bring a waterproof map pocket.

Since we're busy visiting Jimmy at the Cape, here's a quick link: Apple Ridge.
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Inglish

I am a proponent of simplifying language to make it easier for universal understanding. Proper English is too complicated:

1) Can we make Inglish phonetic like German? (Eg, thoro, thru, Inglish, filosofy)
2) We need a 2nd person plural that's different from the singular (eg, you'all vs. you'un.

PS: lookup this on wikipedia:"buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo" Kevin has me thinking about it, but I can't get the 6th useage to work in my head, it needs an -ed somewhere, but I have not had time to think it thru.

PPS: I am using texter from lifehacker.com. It really simplifies my day by allowing keyboard macros for phrases that I repeat often. I have not figured out how to get it to run programs yet, but you can read the source code.

PPPS: we're on vacation at the cape, but we're confining the cats to the basement because of all of our cat allergies. They keep staring at me like they are planning a prison break.
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ThinkGeek :: Hydrodynamic Building Set

We were discussing the NYC flooding the other week and how the same amount of water falling really fast could cause a flood, while if it fell over the course of the day, no flood. To see why, try the Hydrodynamic Building Set.

WOTD: URL squatting

WOTD: "URL squatting"
from PC World - Google Mistakes Own Blog for Spam, Deletes it

Pet Bear Just Like Dog - WNBC

Pet Bear Just Like Dog - WNBC

from: Rock to: Hardplace - Google Maps

On google maps, it's 21 hoursfrom: Highway to Hell, and 3 hours between Rock and A Hardplace.

SPOILER: Harry Potter is alive and well...

... and living in Florida: Living, Breathing Harry Potter He's a 78-year-old man who happens to share the name of a certain fictional boy wizard who is famous the world over."

I just bought the Doggie Driver Swing Exerciser!

It's a swing trainer that you can use to play fetch with your dogs, they also make the slingshot that I also bought; it has the feel of a crossbow.

We got them at Cabelas in PA on I-78.

Firefox continues to impress me more than IE. You can use it to open more than one site at a time by just listing the sites. IE makes you write a script to do it. You can also use it to print file directories without going into DOS, just point it at c:\.

Words to live by...

"If you have any doubt as to whether you are dressed appropriately, you probably are not." Yale Club dress code.

Man calls in bomb threat to make a flight that he missed

Federal prosecutors Thursday, July 26, charged thirty-one-year-old Kou Wei Chiu, a Nashville doctor, with making a bomb threat because he missed his flight out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Investigators said the threat forced the Memphis-bound plane to turn around in mid-air and return to the airport. According to an FBI affidavit, Chiu admitted that he used an airport pay phone to call 911 three times after he arrived at gate S-7 too late to board his Northwest Airlines flight Wednesday. [AP]
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JOTD: Why are NYers always so depressed....

... because the light at the end of their tunnel is NJ. (Which is where I am heading to see my family, which is not depressing at all. I just love telling that joke as I go thru the Lincoln Tunnel.)

We're still looking for good DR or colo space in NJ/NY at work and good suppliers for computer toner and parts.

If you're interested in some BeerTableMuisic in Germany: try this

Live Search Books: The Cat of Bubastes

MS Live now has a book search: Live Search Books: The Cat of Bubastes

How Projects Really Work

Project Cartoon: How Projects Really Work

Bizarre Laws In The U.S. - Photos - WNBC | New York

Bizarre Laws In The U.S. - Photos - WNBC

What Not To Wear To Work - Photos - WNBC | New York

What Not To Wear To Work - Photos - WNBC | New York

Flash Games

I've been playing some Flash "click thru" games like Crimson Room, MOTAS, Exmortis, and Chasm. Chasm was more interesting and sensible than Crimson Room. Ex mortis may be good for Halloween.

02645 - Google Maps

This version of Google Maps - Developer Preview allows you to check distances "as the crow flies" using maplets.

Google enables face recognition in Image Search? - Lifehacker

Google enables face recognition in Image Search: "When you add &imgtype=face to the picture search string, only photos with faces are showing up. This feature has not been officially announced yet and I have no idea how reliable it works."

Checkout this digital gramaphone

Check out this CD player project.

Blackberry Maps

I use a blackberry with GPS on it and none of the apps create an easy to send link to my position: Google Maps does not allow saving yo

ur location to mail or the clipboard and Blackberry Maps is not send-able to someone who does not have a BB. I found this article: Twitter/Blackberry/Google/Maps/TinyURL Mashup, but do not have the means to run the script. Does anyone have any other solutions other than manually edditing the Latitude and Longitude link from BB maps so it will run with Google Maps?

Genome of DNA Discoverer Is Deciphered - New York Times

I always wondered how much data was in the genome:


New York Times: Genome of DNA Discoverer Is Deciphered


"A copy of James D. Watson's genome, recorded on two DVDs, was presented to him yesterday in a ceremony in Houston by Richard A. Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine, and by Jonathan M. Rothberg, founder of the company 454 Life Sciences. "

Map Location for Scargo

http://scargocafe.com

http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=41.12185&lon=-73.33087&z=2

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We're on the way to Cape Cod...

http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=41.12185&lon=-73.33087&z=3

I'll post pictures from Maryland a little later...
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Undocumented DTV DVR Tips

We're at a friends house and, of course, I am helping them fix all of their devices including their DirecTv. It does not have PIP, but these Undocumented DTV DVR Tips were helpful. I am also having a big problem installing their Windows Vista on their wireless WLAN.

[FCNYC] Freecycle! Live! June 2! Spring Cleaning FreeMeet

------Original Message------
From: christina salvi
Sender: freecyclenewyorkcity@yahoogroups.com
To: freecyclenewyorkcity@yahoogroups.com
Sent: May 9, 2007 7:41 PM
Subject: [FCNYC] ADMIN: Freecycle! Live! June 2! Spring Cleaning FreeMeet

Spring Cleaning? Don't throw it away…bring it to the

FREECYCLE™ NEW YORK CITY
SPRING CLEANING FREEMEET!

Saturday, June 2, 2007, 11am - 4pm
Harlem YMCA (in the Little Theatre)
180 West 135th Street
at Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (7th Ave.)
New York, NY 10030

Closest Public Transportation: M2 Bus, 2, 3 or C to 135th St.
check www.HopStop.com to find the best route for you.

The FreeMeet is your chance to unload unwanted, but usable items, take
home things you can put to good use and meet other folks from the
Freecycle community. Anything leftover at the end of the event will
be donated to local charities or recycled to the extent possible. As
the name suggests, the Freecycle FreeMeet is FREE and open to the public!

You don't need to bring anything to take anything (though a tote bag
might help). Please bring portable items only and leave furniture and
other heavy stuff at home (log on to www.Freecycle.org to find people
who can pick these items up from you).

Please bring your items no later than 3pm and visit
www.RecycleThisNYC.org/freemeet for more information.

Sponsored by the Harlem YMCA, Freecycle New York City and the Office
of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE).

Freecycle NYC is a project of Recycle This!

Lost & Found on Metro North

... Other items have become office lore. In the day when Metro-North
trains stopped near a veterans' hospital in Montrose, more than a few
sailors and soldiers returning from New York after a night of drinking
left behind their prosthetic limbs.

And one woman, so the story goes, purposely abandoned her late husband's
ashes to repay him for the nights he claimed to have fallen asleep on
the last train home when, in fact, he was with his mistress. The
railroad learned this months later when a woman called to confess. She
never did pick up the ashes, though, and Metro-North had to get rid of
them and the urn they came in...

From
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/nyregion/08found.html?ei=5088&en=6744c
258ff517c2f&ex=1336276800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=117865
2656-h+jsT3wgrI2q35gOa3YwhQ

The public storage heist

Ask me about it sometime and how it relates to getting the fox and the chicken across the river in the row boat.

We stopped at Kiku on Rt 17 after we were done. The chicken was relevant there as well, but not the fox. We did not have sushi, so we did not need the rowboat to serve it in.

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We've got a new pet: Hector

My inlaws have a new addition: Hector, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel or CKCS. He is named for Hector from the Illiad who was Troy's greatest warrior. On the way home we stopped at Harwich Pet Supply to stock up on pet toys.

So now we have to reset the Time since "Hector was a pup."

PS: Hector Harder was also played by Chill Wills on "Burke's Law" in 1963.

RPI Reunion

I am working on my class reunion at RPI. Here are some interesting facts:

Richard “Rick” Mastracchio is a NASA astronaut who served as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Atlantis mission STS-106 that worked on building the International Space Station. He was the flight engineer during the launch and landing of the Atlantis.

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

This demo site from Microsoft Live Labs called Photosynth assembles your multiple photos of a place into a navigateable space. The idea is pretty cool. Has anyone tried it with their own photos yet?

Per Lei

This is my current location.

http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=40.76838&lon=-73.95914&z=0

MA:bb

BlackBerry Bluetooth Keyboard

This BlackBerry Bluetooth Keyboard looked interesting, I wonder if you can get it to work with a PC too/ Can it be USB powered?

Photojojo » Turn an Etch-a-Sketch into a Kitschy Picture Frame in Just a Few Minutes

This is a great idea from Photojojo to Turn an Etch-a-Sketch into a PhotoKitschy Picture Frame in just a few minutes. Using HP's Clear Decals (#00064-3) can do it faster and in color with a laser printer.

We're on our way to Cape Cod, passing New Bedford, MA

I have a new GPS phone, so I can send it via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless.

FWIW, This is our current location: http://maps.BlackBerry.com?lat=41.71815&lon=-71.18273&z=5, unfotunately you can only use the link on a blackberry. What a bad design!

Here's the Google maps link using the nowhere.

What Is a Hokie?

Virginia Tech calls themselves Hokies: What Is a Hokie?

Local shopping sites: Shoplocal.com, yokel.com, nearbynow.com, slifter.com

Most Annoying Songs Of All-Time

Check out our look at the songs that you just can't forget...no matter
how much you try.

MORE DETAILS: <http://www.wnbc.com/tu/5nQTOUp5z.html>

Mm, mm, mm, mm, good, coyote!

Coyote Cools Himself In Quiznos Cooler

A coyote walks through an open door and makes himself at home in the
soda cooler of a downtown Chicago eatery.

MORE DETAILS: <http://www.wnbc.com/tu/5nQTOUoEZ.html>

ZUI Update

http://www.wnbc.com/tu/5nPbIprog.html

Zamboni Driver's Drunk Driving Charges Overturned
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FOX: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

This game show is my new favorite: FOX: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Home Page

Home Page: "'Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing.' "

» ‘A Swarm of Angels’ crowdsourcing film production | The Social Web | ZDNet.com

» ‘A Swarm of Angels’ crowdsourcing film production The Social Web ZDNet.com: "Can open source methodology be applied to film production? Yes, says UK filmmaker and author, Matt Hanson, whose own project, 'A Swarm of Angels', "

WOTD: Crowdsourcing: A Million Heads is Better than One

Crowdsourcing: A Million Heads is Better than One: "The 'wisdom of crowds' is a popular web 2.0 buzzword, popularized by James Surowiecki’s book of the same name. At its most basic, the term means that two heads are better than one, and that still more heads will yield even better results."

Motion-sensing comes to mobile phones | Tech News on ZDNet

Motion-sensing comes to mobile phones Tech News on ZDNet: "Those are a few basic applications for accelerometers. They can also be used to help people operate their phones without using a keypad. The Samsung SCH-S310, introduced in Asia in 2005, uses a three-axis accelerometer that allows a user to dial the phone by 'writing' numbers in the air."

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=listen+good+horror&search=Search
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Odds & Ends

Datacenter conference vendors:
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/ME2/Sites/dirsect.asp?sid=0EB1715B06BD
4D42AE87125F5B3458DA&nm=Sponsors&navid=6EF0C07C82154C75BF8D2F364C4DD282

New cables:
http://www.siemon.com/apps/Utilities/showImageDisplay.asp?showImage=/sha
re/products05/tr_10g-6a-utp-trunking-cable-assemblies_pf2_big.jpg

Wireless access points in the wall:
http://www.ortronics.com/us/products/product-guide/view.aspx?famID=10120

Hot vs cold:
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,2896
25,sid80_gci1112887,00.html

http://www.computable.nl/pictures/f541191.jpg

Humor:

File access: http://humanics-es.com/ergonomic-bloopers.jpg

Carriage return: http://www.humanics-es.com/user-stereotypes.htm

Streetscapes: http://www.humanics-es.com/sidewalkdesign.htm

What's wrong with this pic: http://www.humanics-es.com/live-longer.htm

Anything right? http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g185.gif

Busy, busy, busy: http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g437.gif

Week in review: http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g335.gif

Problem solver: http://www.glasbergen.com/images/cre1.gif

Worthsaving: http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g381.gif

RAM: http://www.borg.com/~rjgtoons/images/ram.gif

Yahoo! Go. The Internet to go.

Mobile Yahoo is available for Blackberry as a Gamma product: Yahoo! Go. The Internet to go.

» Hillary cast as big brother in 1984 ad spoof

An interesting anti-Hil add from the Barack camp: Hillary cast as big brother in 1984 ad spoof ZDNet.com

OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a great idea. It takes the internet's address book that all computers use, strips out the corrupt phishing sites and adds common mispellings to improve your web surfing experience. I have not set it up yet, but as friend of mine swears by it. It's also useful if your primary DNS gets poisoned.

Welcome to DST '07

We've survived the changeover at work, here are some Daylight Saving Time Anecdotes including a foiled bombing.

Managing Your Aces - New York Times

This is an interesting article about managing creative people:

Managing Your Aces - New York Times

Word of the day: perquisite

Perquisite, from a NYT article on Google's bus service for employees.

Woman found dead in house after 4 yrs

Another one for the not-my-job to watch them file. How can you leave a DEAD LADY IN A CRACKHOUSE FOR 4 YEARS?

YouTube - Simon Two-Hands Hollweg

Here's the hockey fight video. The hit may lead to criminal charges: YouTube - Simon Two-Hands Hollweg Mar 8, 2007

New Goal: Finding all of these foods

General
Bombay Duck - Is not "duck" at all, but dried fish. It is also known as Bummalo, which is a species of fish from Southern Asia, particularly abundant in the Ganges Delta and the Arabian Sea of western India.
Cherry tomato - Tomato, yes; no cherries.
Chicken Maryland - This is a batter-fried chicken served with batter-fried bananas and pineapple rings. Another version contains a slice of ham draped over the chicken. It seems to have originated not from the state of Maryland, but in Southern Asia, possibly introduced by the British.
Chinese Fortune cookie - Invented in California, not China.
Colonial Goose - Actually lamb coated with bread-crumbs and, occasionally, bacon. This originated in Australia in the 19th Century. Supplies were scarce and goose was difficult to acquire in Australia, so they had to improvise.
Cream crackers — Contain no cream, and are pale brown in colour.
Crispy Seaweed - This dish, often served as a starter in Chinese restaurants in the west, is actually deep fried shredded spring greens.
Duck sauce - Sauce, yes; no duck in the ingredients.
Five Alive - Fruit juice blend, depicting five fruits on the label, but consisting mostly of sugar (high fructose corn syrup).
Fruity Pebbles - Cereal. No fruit, no pebbles. (List of ingredients shows no fruit.)
Hawaiian pizza - This version of pizza does not come from Hawaii at all. It is a pizza with toppings of pineapple and ham, and sometimes onions or peppers. The name probably came from the pineapples that grow in Hawaii, as well as the traditional place of pork in the native Hawaiian diet.
Mincemeat - Mincemeat was originally a Medieval food made of a sweet, spicy mixture of chopped lean meat, (usually beef, or beef tongue), suet and fruit. Over time, the meat content was reduced, and today the mixture contains nuts, dried fruit, beef suet, spices and brandy or rum, but usually no beef.
Oiseaux sans têtes - Literal translation 'birds without heads'. A Belgian dish constisting of sausage meat wrapped in slices of veal.
Norwegian Omelette - Is neither a Norwegian dish nor is it made from whole eggs. This French dessert, also known as Baked Alaska, consists of hard frozen ice cream on a bed of sponge cake, covered with uncooked meringue. It is kept in the freezer until serving time, when it is placed in a very hot oven, just long enough to brown the meringue.
Peanut - No pea, no nut. Peanuts are legumes, not nuts.
Scotch Woodcock - This is not poultry at all. Instead, it is an egg mixture with anchovies on toast. Sometimes an anchovy paste is used.
Spotted dick - Steamed pudding with spots.
Steak tartare - Not steak, it is raw ground beef, often served with raw egg on top. No tartar sauce, but Worcestershire sauce (tartare is a preparation of finely chopped raw meat or fish).
Sweetbread - This is neither sweet, nor bread. It is a dish made up of the pancreas or the thymus gland of a calf or lamb. It is prepared in a variety of ways, including fried, sauteed or baked.
Sweetmeat - An archaic word for confectionery.
Swiss Wing - This was not invented in Switzerland, but possibly in Hong Kong. It is made with soy sauce and chicken.
Toad in the Hole - This does not contain toads. It is a traditional British dish made of sausage cooked in Yorkshire Pudding. In Australia it is made with an egg, sometimes in place of the sausage, and a slice of bread.
Vanillerostbraten - An Austrian dish which does not contain vanilla, but garlic (which is nicknamed "poor man's vanilla").
Welsh Rabbit or Welsh Rarebit - Neither name describes what this food actually is. It is a concoction of bread and cheese.

[edit] Canada
Pâté chinois (French, Chinese pie) is not Chinese in origin, and contains no Chinese ingredients. It is actually cottage pie.

[edit] China
Ants Climbing a Tree - This is a Szechuan Chinese meal made with ground pork and vermicelli. The end result resembles columns of ants climbing along twigs.
Gunpowder Tea - This is a Green tea from Guangdong. It does not contain gunpowder, but is made up of tea leaves, hand-rolled into tiny pellets that resemble gunpowder.
Lion's Head - A dish with large pork meatballs, usually cooked in a clay pot or in a wok.
Married Couple's Sliced Lungs - This unfortunate name is not a mis-translation. It is a Szechuan dish, often served cold, which is made of thinly-sliced beef, beef lung/stomach/tongue, and a generous amount of spices, including Szechuan Pepper.

[edit] Mexico
Pico de gallo (Spanish, Rooster's Beak) contains neither roosters nor beaks. Pico de gallo is really a type of chile sauce.
Refried beans are only fried once.
Carne de chango or Carne de mono (Spanish, Monkey Meat) is actually marinated, smoked pork.[1]

[edit] South Africa
Bunny Chow is actually a popular South African meal consisting of an emptied out half-loaf of bread filled with chips (french fries), curry, or meat—but never rabbit meat. The Afrikaans name for this dish, "Katkop", translates to "cat head".
Monkeygland Sauce has nothing to do with monkeys or glands, but is a very popular South African sauce that usually consists of a marinade of fruit chutney, red wine (or tomato sauce), and hot sauce. It is mostly used to prepare the dish Monkeygland Steak.

[edit] USA
Ants on a Log, or Bugs on a Log is a snack made by spreading peanut butter along the trough of a stalk of celery and placing raisins on the peanut butter.
Beef Olives, or Veal Olives, Beef Birds, Veal Birds have no olives and no birds, respectively.
Boston Cooler is a drink combining Vernor's (a very strong regional ginger ale) with vanilla ice cream. It is served throughout southeastern Michigan, including Detroit, but is virtually unknown in the city of Boston.
Boston Cream Pie and Washington Pie are cakes, not pies.
Buffalo Wings contain chicken, not buffalo. The name comes from the fact that the preparation originated in Buffalo, NY
Caesar Salad has no relation to Julius Caesar, but is named for its creator, Caesar Cardini.
Chinese Chicken Salad is unknown in China.
City Chicken, or Chicken Fried Steak, is not made of chicken. It is veal, pork, or beef (or a combination thereof) that is placed on a skewer, breaded, and fried.
Egg Cream contains neither egg nor cream — it is a classic New York beverage made from milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer water.
Frankfurters are probably not recognizable as a product of Frankfurt to people from Frankfurt, Germany. More likely invented by German-American immigrants from Frankfurt. Also see Wiener.
French Fries probably originated in Belgium.
French Dressing is unknown in France.
German Chocolate Cake is not a German torte but a wholly American layer cake deriving its name from Sam German, who invented the sweet baking chocolate German's Baker's chocolate in 1852.
Grape Nuts contain neither grapes nor nuts.
Hamburgers are not really made of ham. This may actually be folk etymology because Hamburg, Germany is a city in Germany. See above under Frankfurter. They are usually molded out of ground beef into patties. Allegedly, the name comes from the introduction of Steak Tartar to the west from Hamburg. Ground beef is a related dish.
Head Cheese is not cheese, but a terrine made from the meat of a calf or pig's head (in United Kingdom it is called brawn)
Hot Dogs - meat, but not dog meat. Reputedly named for the sausage's resemblance to the shape of the Dachshund.
Italian dressing, a vinaigrette, is unknown in Italy, where oil and vinegar are usually served separately.
London Broil - unknown in London, or indeed the entire United Kingdom.
Michigan hot dogs are unknown in Michigan; there, people eat Coney Island hot dogs, which do not come from Coney Island.
Rocky Mountain Oysters, also known as "prairie oysters", are not oysters, nor are they from the Rocky Mountains, particularly. They are calf or bull testicles, which some people consider to be a delicacy. "Prairie Oyster" is also the name of a drink made of a raw egg yolk suspended in Worcestershire sauce, a folk hangover cure.

[edit] Cocktails
Cocktails have a long line of odd names with no particular reasoning behind the name. Some of the more common drinks include:
Flaming Dr Pepper tastes like Dr Pepper but contains none.
Long Island Iced Tea has no tea in it and is extremely alcoholic.
Root-Beer Shooters taste like root-beer but contain none (they do, however, contain Coca-Cola and Vodka).
Baby Guinness contains no Guinness.
Moose Milk is a Canadian drink made with cow's milk, ice cream, and several types of alcohol.

[edit] Misleading brand names
This section contains commercial names of processed foods that are fancifully comparative, some of which could be considered very odd if taken at face value.
Chick-O-Stick — not a stick of chicken, or chicken on a stick, but a candy bar.
Chicken of the Sea — a brand of canned tuna, famously confused for chicken by pop singer Jessica Simpson.
Chock full o'Nuts (official capitalization) — This brand of coffee contains no nuts
Gatorade - A sport drink most fortunately containing no alligators. The name comes from its development at the University of Florida, where it was first tested on the Gator football team.[2]
Grape-Nuts — Cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts. (Its creator incorrectly thought that the baking process turned starch into "grape sugar".)
Pocari Sweat — Contains no sweat; the misleading name is intended to indicate that it replaces electrolytes lost through sweating.

Link to specific quotes in web pages

This site lets you link directly to part of a web page with highlighting.

Citebite - Link directly to specific quotes in web pages

FEIN MULTIMASTER TOOL

Has anyone tried one of these?

FEIN MULTIMASTER HOME RENOVATION AND REMODELING SYSTEM: "The Multimaster doesn't rotate or use a back and forth motion. It oscillates. Oscillation permits you to do extremely fine and delicate work, or be more aggressive, depending on the accessory blade and material.

MultiMaster Pages:
MultiMaster Tools MultiMaster Accessories "

HBR List Breakthrough Ideas for 2007

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0702/articl
e/R0702A.jhtml

Cat washing machine

Seen on CNN today, this is either the funniest or cruelest thing that
you've seen in a while. Someone is selling a cat-washing machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15bwhVxw-Bg (If you think your cat is
lying to you, this may be an alternative to sending it to Gitmo for
water-boarding)

WOTD: pyrophoric

As in uranium is pyrphoric. (Who knew)

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5312573,00.html
Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

NBC featured a jacket made from cork today

I wonder if it works as a life jacket.
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[FYI] PC Today Article - New & Updated Mobile Software

Gmail For Mobile lets Gmail users download email to their Windows Mobile
devices. All you need to do is enter http://gmail.com/app on your mobile
device's browser to start reading Gmail emails...

Fans of Google applications not only can access Gmail, but also Google
Calendar through GooSync BETA (free; www.goosync.com). Synchronize your
device's calendar with Google Calendar by hitting the sync button or
over-the-air...

While on the topic of Google, its map application is now available for
Treos. Users get locations, directions, maps, and real-time traffic
information with Google Maps. Just enter www.google.com/gmm on the
Treo...

Turn a handheld device into a USB card reader to access files on storage
cards without using synchronization programs. Softick Card Export II
($14.95; www.softick.com) doesn't need drivers to work...

For more:

http://www.pctoday.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F2007%2Ft
0503%2F15t03%2F15t03%2Easp&articleid=37571&guid=E0B62599B0DB4158BC020598
93C4B881&searchtype=0&WordList=BLACKBERRY&bJumpTo=True

Too much GPS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_isVdeRwnus

53% of stats are useless.

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State of the Union; Load useful apps on your memory stick

Use this site if you’d like to skip around the audio of the State of the Union by keyword: http://www.pluggd.com/state-of-the-union#taxes


Try this for your memory stick: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/portableapps/PortableApps_Suite_Standard_1.0.exe?download

Today's Anniversaries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries

Blue Monday

This is the SADdest day of the year:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_10343-Blue-Monday-The-Years-Most-Depressing.html

FW: Earth is Growing Video

Check out these videos on how the continents formed:
http://marshallbrain.blogspot.com/2006/12/is-planet-earth-growing.html