Plot Drawings

Xkcd.com has plot diagrams for the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Jurassic Park. The diagrams show the location and groupings of the various characters as the stories progress.

I'm not sure how useful something like this would be if you were writing a story rather than studying one but the idea is certainly interesting.

via Walter Jon William's blog

Flash Game: Totem Destroyer 2

Totem Destroyer 2 is another cool flash game. In this one instead of building up a pile of things you start with a pile of things with an idol at the top. You goal is to blow up the items in the pile so as to lower the idol to the ground. (Actually not the ground but to the special dark coloured blocks.)

Some of the levels need a bit of luck but on the whole a fun game.

via kottke.org

Obit: Richard Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter at Nuremberg

The Economist has the obituary of Richard Sonnenfeldt, the chief interpreter at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

I thought this section was particularly interesting:

When he asked Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, whether he was ever tempted to enrich himself from the inmates, Hoess replied: “What kind of man do you think I am?”

Prize awarded in Space Elevator Contest

The Washington Post reports that a design team from Seattle has won a prize in NASA's first space elevator contest.

The contest requires that the machines climb 2,953 feet up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high.

SF Gate also has an article on the contest and says the prize was $900,000.

Attractive Quarterbacks are Better Quarterbacks

The Ottawa Citizen has an article (as does the National Post) about a new study that shows that the facial attractiveness of NFL quarterbacks is directly correlated to their ability on the playing field.

A new study shows that the facial attractiveness of NFL quarterbacks — as rated by panels of female students who have no idea they're pro athletes — mirrors their athletic ability on the field, regardless of other attributes such as age or ethnicity. Other studies have demonstrated similar patterns with professional hockey and soccer players.

Steel Velcro

The New Scientist reports that German engineers have built what is essentially steel Velcro. The strips can support 35 tonnes parallel to the join or 7 tonnes perpendicular.

via Make

Massive Crater on Phobos

Astronomy Picture of the day has a photo of the Stickney Crater on the Martian moon Phobos. The crater is huge - it takes up one whole end of the not-very-round moon.

Ponoko - Make Stuff from a Picture

Have you every drawn something on a napkin and decided you would really like the real object but had no idea how to make it? Check out the intro video on this page at Ponoko. If you send them a digital photo of the napkin they will make the object for you.

They can also make an object from a more conventional CAD file.

Note that I haven't actually used this service I just like the idea of it.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Washington Post has an interesting article about the events that lead to the opening of the Berlin Wall. The article says it was a bureaucratic misunderstanding started by a bumbled press conference.

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.

Stars over Easter Island

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

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

Gnome Bowling

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

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.

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.