Check out The Lego Trebuchet.
Controversy tainted the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating contest. Apparently, there were calls for disqualification after um, some spewage took place. But, it sounds like the contest was over and the dude won by 30 hot dogs! Look at his competition and I think you’ll agree that he deserved it.
Since it’s the 4th Of July, I figure it’s my duty to post something patriotic. OK, here’s a nice op-ed piece “celebrat[ing] all that’s right with our great country.” Despite the title, it’s actually not too schmaltzy.
Write Like An Egyptian will write your name in Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as lead you to a site with loads of information on the ancient writing system.
Revisit your grammar nightmares at Sentence Diagrams: One Way Of Learning English Grammar. Although I vaguely recall having to do this, thankfully I don’t remember much of it. Or am I just repressing the pain?
Civilization III is one of my favorite games ever; it’s extremely addictive and can waste surprising amounts of time. Still, I’ve found a site that shows that I am nowhere near as obsessed as some people. The Civilization Fanatics’ Center is a great resource for the game, but they have also undertaken a “Democracy Game” where all of the “Citizens” registered with the site can vote on every decision in an ongoing game played by one physical person, the “President.” They have a constitution, elected officials, and way too much time on their hands, obviously. Yet I’ll still plug the game; you can get it here if you haven’t already.
Would-be fisherman have clamored to a remote Crofton, MD pond to try and catch a northern snakehead, a fish native to southern China that is known to devour other fish and then “shimmy on to other ponds on its belly and fins,” surviving “for days out of water if it stays wet.” A $1,000 bounty has lured an inordinate amount of people and at least as many reporters, but so far only two snakeheads have been caught.
The Scourge of Arial is an interesting article explaining the lineage of the Arial font. Arial is basically a rip-off of Helvetica, once a very popular font, that became pervasive because of its bundling with Windows. Of course, Micro$oft chose Arial over Helvetica to avoid licensing fees. Go figure.
I present the Flash Game Of The Day, Egyptian Space Taxi. It’s a little tough at first (and the few instructions are in German), but it’s addictive.
W does his rendition of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.” Just kidding. W is making a speech on the U.S. demand for immunity in the new International Criminal Court. I’m a little on the fence with this, but I think this sets a bad precedent. How can we expect other countries to support this and allow their personnel to be tried in this court if we are too “holier than thou” to be held culpable? I understand the worry that American personnel would be beyond the reach of American law, but that seems to be the basic point of the whole thing. What stops other countries from making the same sovereignty claims if he persists in this position?
