Scripts of the World

Smashing Magazine has a very interesting article about various writing systems in use around the world. Lots of cool pictures and interesting information.

Which Colour Means What Where

Information is Beautiful has a post with a very cool chart showing what various colours mean in various cultures.

A Flat Piggy Bank

Make has a post (with pictures) of an amusing piggy bank. It basically sandwiches your coins between two panes of glass.

Lego: Radio Controlled Sailing

Love this little vignette especially the gun-smoke / cannonball.

via Brothers Brick

Video: Dutch Marines Capture Pirates

This is the sort of thing that will probably become much more common in the future. It is combat footage of Dutch Marines storming a hijacked cargo ship and capturing the pirates. The video was taken by a helmet camera worn by one of the marines.

The commentary is in dutch but it is pretty easy to follow what is going on. I liked it when the fellow with the helmet cam slid down the rope from the helicopter.

Who puts an OED in a blue box?

Several strange things happened to me the other day. I got up early because the electrician came to fiddle around with the electrical outlet for our new stove. (It had been installed where it blocked the stove from being pushed all the way back.)

The first weird thing is that I went for a run at about 8 AM. I was amazed at the number of people who were out that early. I kept having to slow down or dodge around groups of school kids. It was also garbage / blue box day so I kept having to dodge around them on the sidewalk.

The second weird thing happened a few minutes into the run. I encountered a gaggle of school kids and a row of garbage cans while I was beside a large truck parked in the road. Because I couldn't pass I slowed down. As I did so, I glanced over at the blue box. Sitting on top of it was an Oxford English Dictionary.

I'm not talking about one of those largish books that you keep on your desk for essay writing. I'm talking about one of these (that's the best picture I could find). This is a two volume set that collects all the content from the full 20 volume OED. In order to accomplish this, each page has the contents of 9 pages from the full set. Because the print is so small, the box that holds the two volumes has a little drawer that holds a magnifying glass.

The magnifying glass was missing but then I guess no one would throw a magnifying glass in a blue box.

Roman Ingots for Modern Physicists

Nature has an article about some ancient roman lead ingots that have been recovered from a shipwreck. Italian physicists plan to use the lead to line part of an experiment as the lead was refined so long ago that all of its own natural radioactivity has completely faded away.

Photo: Rocks off Scotland

National Geographic has a great photo of some huge rocks in the sea off the Scottish coast.

April Smashing Desktop Wallpaper

I'm a bit late here once again but Smashing Magazine's April desktop wallpaper post is out. I'm leaning towards the shot of English Bay.

Lego: Mini Chess Set

Make has a post with some nice shots of a usable, miniature chess set made entirely with Lego. The set is 12 studs by 12 studs and has drawers for holding the pieces.

How Many Cousins How Far Removed?

jish.nu has a chart showing what the various degrees of cousins (and other relatives) are and how they relate to you. I always wondered what the difference was between an nth cousin and a cousin n-times removed.

via Rebecca's Pocket

Handpowered Record Player

Make has a post about a hand powered record player made as a freebie by an ad agency. They provide a link to instructions on how to make your own.

International Space Sation Over Time

USA Today has a great animation showing how the International Space Station grew over time.

via Angel Station

Origami with a Hoodie

Conceptual Devices has a post showing different useful things you can make by refolding your hoodie. You can make a laptop sleeve, a shoulder bag, a backpack or a baby carrier. Obviously you may want to do some testing before you run around with your laptop in an improvised bag.

Capturing a Satellite by Hand

Astronomy Photo of the Day has a great photo from 1984 that shows an astronaut who has flown out from the Space Shuttle to a satellite to manually attach a recovery device.

Lego: The gun is bigger than the ship

Who can resist a Lego steampunk model where the gun is almost as big as the ship.

$1 Million Comics

Two big sales recently in the world of comic books. Yahoo reports that a copy of Superman # 1 sold for $1 million.

"The fact that this book is completely un-restored and still has an 8.0 grade, it's kind of like a diamond or a precious stone. It's very rare," he said.

There are only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful have been rated so highly. It's rarer still for those copies to be made available for sale.

Also, the BBC reports that a copy of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, sold for $1.075m. Apparently the seller bought the comic for $100 during the 1960s.

The POW who broke into Auschwitz

The Times has an article about Denis Avey a British POW who actually broke into Auschwitz concentration camp to gather information that he thought might be needed after the war.

What They Took to War

Ptak Science Books has a post, with photos, about what First World War British soldiers were issued to carry with them to the front. There doesn't seem to be a lot of it but I would imagine it would be rather heavy.

via Air Minded

Best Drives on Earth

National Geographic Traveller has a large article about the 50 best drives in the world.

As an added bonus, someone has created google maps of all of the routes.

Have any of you ever driven any of them?