Top 50 Foods and Where to get them

The Guardian has an article on the best 50 foods in the world and the best places to get them. I haven't had any of the things on the list so I can't really agree or disagree. Have any of you tried any of them?

via kottke.org

The Crescent Nebula

Astronomy Photo of the Day has an awesome picture of the Crescent Nebula.

September Smashing Wallpaper

I'm even later than usual with a link to Smashing Magazine's September Wallpaper selection. I've gone with the dog and flower.

Flash Game: Two Rooms

Two Rooms is a Flash puzzle game. The interesting thing is that there are two boards that you flip between using the spacebar. A few of the levels require a bit of arcade action but most of them just need a bit of thinking.

Make Money on an iPhone Upgrade

Alec Saunders has a blog post showing how you can make money upgrading your old iPhone to a new one. It basically hinges on a trade-in program from Best Buy.

My Old School Makes the News

My old high school in Burlington seems to have made the Globe and Mail. It sounds like some things have changed a bit since my day.

I don't normally link to the Globe since their articles vanish after a while but I thought I would chance it this time.

Another interesting aspect of the article is its use of the word "gummer" to describe students in grade 9. I don't think I've heard this term since high school and Jen says she's never heard it so I'm wondering if it is a Burlington specific term - or maybe even a MM Robinson term. Maybe there is a Burlington dialect after all.

Lessons from mortality rates

According to this blog post your chances of dieing in a given year double every 8 years.

This startling fact was first noticed by the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz in 1825 and is now called the “Gompertz Law of human mortality.” Your probability of dying during a given year doubles every 8 years.

The author goes on to see what the implications of that law is.

via kottke.org

Find your magnetic declination

Ever wondered what the magnetic declination (the difference between where a compass points and true north) is where you live? In the old days you had to look on a map or chart and then adjust it for the time that has passed since the chart was printed. Now you can just asked Wolfram Alpha.

If you type in:

geomagnetism Ottawa

it will tell you that the declination here is 13.68deg West.

If you put a date after the location you can also get the declination for other dates. For example the day I was born the declination in Ottawa was 16 degrees West.

TED Talk: Motivation

TED has an interesting 20 minute video of a speech by Dan Pink. He talks about how to motivate people for different kinds of jobs. It turns out that rewards like money only work for certain kinds of work.

WWII Posters

The Telegraph has a slide show of WWII British posters. The posters mostly deal with life under the threat of air raids. Some are recruitment posters for the ARP and Air Wardens while others remind people of the dangers of leaving a train in a blacked out station or how to park your car on a blacked out street.