The most realistic optical illusions I've seen

Prepare to have your mind blown.


(via Kottke)

Black Friday gives us a glimpse at what the zombie apocalypse will be like

Nothing gets me into the holiday spirit like seeing a horde of Walmart shoppers fighting over smart phones on Black Friday.

Sushi-scented cologne

It is the mission of the Demeter Fragrance Library to explore and expand the use of fragrances we experience in everyday life. I guess that explains this:

Not what you think it would smell like! Demeter's Sushi is the fresh scent of just cooked sticky rice and straight from the seaside seaweed, laced with hints of ginger and lemon essences. Simply delectable... after all, if it smelled like fish, would you wear it?

Actually, after looking at some of the other fragrances offered -- including classic scents like Black Pepper, Glue, Fireplace, Earthworm, and Humidor -- I'm tempted to check them out.

The problem with navel oranges

(from GoComics.com)

German driver stopped for speeding has entire mobile office in his car...just like police officers

When German police pulled a car over for speeding on the autobahn, they found the driver had an entire mobile office set up in his vehicle. Mounted on a wooden frame in the passenger seat was a laptop, printer, router, wireless internet stick, and WLAN antenna, all plugged into a power inverter.

There wasn't any evidence the equipment was in use while he was moving, so the driver only received a speeding ticket.

If you thought the interior of that car looked familiar, it's because it looks like just about every police car in America.

You probably haven't thought much about it, but distracted driving among police officers is a problem. A Minnesota study found that 14 percent of crashes between 2006 and 2010 involving police vehicles were caused by distracted driving, half of those due to squad car computers.

The quickest way through a security checkpoint

Christians are called to share the gospel, so that's exactly what we should do. If someone wishes to listen to what we have to say, all the better. But if it happens to get us through a security checkpoint more quickly...well, that's fine, too.


I wonder if anyone has tried this at the airport.

(via LewRockwell.com)

Your password can't protect you

Wired's Mat Honan has some sobering information for those of us who have so much of our lives online. He begins by focusing on what most computer hacks have in common:

The common weakness in these hacks is the password. It's an artifact from a time when our computers were not hyper-connected. Today, nothing you do, no precaution you take, no long or random string of characters can stop a truly dedicated and devious individual from cracking your account. The age of the password has come to an end; we just haven’t realized it yet.

Honan knows his stuff. He was a hacking victim whose online presence was virtually wiped out.

It's a scary article, but a must-read for just about everyone.

(via Kottke)

How hot dogs are made (watch at your own risk)

They certainly taste better than they look, but even that may not be enough incentive for some of you after seeing this.

(via Kottke)

An undeniable truth (11/10/2012)

You cannot rely on fair-weather friends in an emergency.

Tolkien fan re-creates hobbit house with 2,600 balloons

Balloon artist Jeremy Telford of Utah built a life-size replica of Bag End, the house belonging to Bilbo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The inflatable structure required 2,600 balloons and took nearly 40 hours to complete.

The best part is that he let his three kids demolish the whole thing when he was done.


(via Dave Barry's Blog)

Free online speed reading program

If you're like me, the arduous process of slogging through a massive tome is becoming more and more intimidating. This is, after all, the Information Age, and we're used to having pretty much everything reduced down to a few lines in a blog post, a two-minute YouTube clip, or a 140-character-or-less tweet. Anything beyond that...well, there just isn't enough time between Facebook status updates.

Eyercize is a free, online speed reading program that's designed to help you become a more accomplished reader. It's designed to help you:

ease your workload

reduce eyestrain

improve your job skills

get better grades

improve your material retention

The program allows you to adjust your reading speed from 100wpm up to 5,000. There are other helpful features, including a bookmarklet you can copy to your browser toolbar which, when clicked, takes text you have highlighted on a web page and pulls it into the speed reading trainer.

And did I mention that it's free?

(via Gary North's Tip of the Week email)

Cinematic trailer for Angry Birds: Star Wars