Lighthouse Photo

Astronomy Picture of the day has a nice picture of an old fashioned lighthouse in operation in a slight fog.

Maps of Ontario Traffic Cams

The Ontario Ministry of Transport has a Google maps mashup showing the locations of traffic cameras in various Ontario cities. You can click on the map and see the views from the cameras.

via Google Maps Mania (which has a bunch of other Canadian maps)

How To Get Up Early

Here is an entire blog that will teach you how to get up early. There are 41 tips at the moment some of which are interesting and some of which aren't.

I have been getting up early for the past month or so and one of the tips that I think works for me is drinking a big glass of water as soon as I get up.

Lego: Village on an Asteroid

A very cool Lego creation, this is an asteroid (which seems to be a Lego sub-genre) with a very small village on top. There are some great little details including a rooftop flower garden and a fellow filling a cup from a tap.

via Brothers Brick

Smugglers' Submarines

Danger Room has a post about the increase in use of submarines by drug smugglers. 13 of the vessels have been seized in the last two years, some capable of carrying 5 tons of cargo.

Storing extension cords

The Unclutterer has a blog post, well mostly a picture, of a way to conveniently store cables using toilet paper rolls.

via lifehacker

Did Unleaded Gas Lower Crime Rates?

The New York Times has an article that suggests that the drop in US crime rates may have been caused by the phasing out of leaded gasoline. You may recall that it has also been suggested that this drop was caused by the legalisation of abortion.

via slashdot

Colossus runs again

Yahoo news reports that Colossus, the early computer used to decode German messages during World War II, has been rebuilt and is running once again. Colossus was the world's first programmable electronic computer but was kept secret for many years after the war.

The BBC also has a good article with some pictures.

Looking for somewhere to land

Runwayfinder.com is a site that show airports and air strips throughout the US and Canada. It is a Google maps mashup so you can do the normal scrolling and zooming in and out.

via Google Maps Mania

Boat Lifts

DeputyDog is back with another post. This one featuring 8 huge boat lifts of the kind used for moving boats over dams and in places where locks won't work. The only one I've seen in person is the Falkirk Wheel which is certainly worth a visit if you are in that part of Scotland.

Make Your Own Comic Strip

The site stripgenerator.com will let you make your own three panel comic strip by dragging and dropping characters and objects.

Here is an example that I put together in about a minute:
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/63742/

Great Elevators of the World

Another post from DeputyDog, this one about seven amazing elevators.

A Beer Bottle that is also a Brick

Here is an interesting idea, apparently back in the 60s Heineken tried the idea of making beer bottles that could be reused as bricks. I'm not sure how environmentally friendly that would be compared to modern day recycling but it is interesting especially since the second use wouldn't get in the way of the first.

Comic Covers

For the comic book fans out there here is a site that has the covers from a large number of old (and not so old) comics. They even have links from each cover to check and see if there are any for sale on ebay.

A Band in Flash

For those of you who have always wanted your own band, here is a flash site that lets you control a drummer and singer/accordionist. Amusingly, I found this app while flipping through a magazine at a friends house.

The Oldest Domains

jottings.com presents a list of the 100 oldest .com domains.

Lunar Landing Licenses

Slate has an article that answers the question of whether or not a private company would need permission to land a spacecraft on the moon. The short answer is no but they need permission to take off from Earth.

Holes of the Day

Deputy Dog has a blog post with pictures of seven amazingly large holes. I have seen a few of the pictures before but it is neat to see them all together.

Frog photo

National Geographic has a nice picture of a tree frog. There's nothing more to it than that - I just like tree frogs.

NASA is hiring

According to the Houston Chronicle NASA is hiring a batch of new astronauts. The job requirements are list as well in case any of you are interested.

via slashdot