Thursday, October 29, 2009

Factoid: Deutsche Bank has 60,000 pieces of contemporary art

This article in the New York Times has an article about the amount of art owned by banks.

Deutsche Bank is believed to own the largest corporate collection in the world, with some 60,000 pieces of contemporary art. UBS owns 40,000 pieces, and JPMorgan Chase 30,000. Combined, that approaches the Museum of Modern Art’s trove.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Stars over Easter Island

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a beautiful shot of, well, stars over Easter Island.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Tides

Wolfram Alpha will show you the tides for a given location. We don't have tides here in Ottawa but if you type in "tides Singapore" it will show you the tides there.

You can also add a date if you don't want today's tides:
tides oahu tomorrow
tides kitty hawk 1 January 1969

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Gnome Bowling

Here's a project for a rainy day: Paper gnomes for you to use as bowling pins.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Plot Generator

Looking for a plot for your novel? Big Huge Thesaurus will generate a whole list of them for you every time you load the page.

Some examples:
  • A servant is held hostage in Washington D.C..
  • A maid grabs the wrong briefcase by mistake in a spooky cemetary.
  • A mystical shaman discovers a shocking secret in the sewers.
  • An abused woman must save the president from terrorists while on Safari in Africa.
  • God takes a vacation that goes horribly wrong in a prep school.
  • A young man misses an opportunity of a lifetime and ends up betraying his best friend.
  • An army chaplain fights for his life in Australia.
  • A battle-scarred warrior enters a hot dog eating contest while on a date.