Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Interactive Musical Map of Colombia

Soundway Records has released a compilation of the music of Colombia named The Original Sound of Cumbia. To promote the release, they've created an interactive "Musical Map of Colombia."






Link  - Via BoingBoing

How To Lead a Creative Life

I seem to be on the right track.


Click here to enlarge
Via The Curious Brain

Guess Who Has Been Shopped

Been beating yourself up because you don't measure up to the perfection of fashion icons? Stop it! The good news is that some of them have been airbrushed beyond recognition. There's a new photograph-analyzing tool that quantifies the alteration.


Have fun with the before and after images at Wired.com

Breathe...

Take time out to breathe and remember where your oxygen comes from.


Via The Middle Ages

Monday, November 28, 2011

Top 10 quirky science tricks for parties

Perform these tricks at your next soiree and I guarantee you'll be a hit.
P.S.: Bring a fire extinguisher along. You know, just in case.


Thanks Bruce!

Feast

Feast by Matt Zoller Seitz is a celebration of food in film.

Solve This!


Rage Trolling Via Reality Carnival

Candid Footage of Marilyn Monroe


Via everlasting blort

Technical Cutaways, 1940s

Frank Soltesz (1912-1998) was an American artist and commercial illustrator. One of the accounts he worked on was for the Armstrong Cork Co. Frank painted cross sections of factories and buildings to show the operations inside. Between 1947 and 1951 he produced 29 of these incredibly detailed drawings. 








See more here.
Thanks again Bruce!

The beauty of pollination

This is lovely.



Thanks Bruce!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Venezia

Visiting Venice last year was a dream come true. This evocative video brings back memories of this exquisitely beautiful city.


Via Kuriositas

Miranda July, Artist Slash Retailer

Artist Miranda July has opened a store in NYC named after her book titled It Chooses You. The store sells objects she bought on Craigslist which have been repackaged and have an interview with the seller attached. The NYTimes blog says most of the items have been sold so if you go there looking for a slightly used pair of taxidermy deer hooves you're likely to be out of luck.

Pair of Taxidermy Deer Hooves: Lucky pair of deer hooves given as a gift by a friend.

Very Cool Bubbles

Did you know that you can freeze bubbles? These temperatures are perfect for using that left over bubble mix from the summer. Blow a bubble and then catch it on the bubble wand. Wait a few moments while it freezes- it will turn into a cool crystal ball before it shatters!



It hasn't been anywhere near cold enough here to freeze bubbles but without a doubt it will be soon.
There are a few videos of frozen bubbles on the web. Here's one  taken in Minnesota.

Via The Queen is not Amused...but I am.


Dreaming In Paint

Grant Woolard dreams about the art world.


Via Neatorama

Selective Hearing



22 Words

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Bergdorf Goodman Holiday Windows 2011

David Hoey, Bergdorf Goodman’s director of visual presentation, has used the theme “Carnival of the Animals” for Bergdorf's 2011 Holiday Windows. The team spent much of this year creating 5 unique worlds.




See more at Trendland

Niagara on the Lake Walkabout

November has been warmer than usual this year and I've been taking full advantage of the sunny days before the cold drives me into hibernation.









Dekotora Trucks

Japan's decorated truck sub culture. They even have their own film genre.


VICE

Friday, November 25, 2011

Does Anyone Remember Boglins?


These two hideous creatures have been nesting in a tree in the backyard since my sons were little. I'm not sure why I didn't trash them years ago but who could blame me for being fond of them?

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Japanese Maple Tree

Lovely!


Via Fancy

Thanksgiving Angst

I hope all of my American readers are having an angst free Thanksgiving.



See more of Anna Dibble's work

The Ruling Clawss, 1935

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
New Yorker contributor Syd Hoff used the pseudonym A Redfield for articles he wrote for the Daily Worker and New Masses. The Ruling Clawss (Daily Worker, 1935) collects his cartoons originally published in the Communist daily.





See more at  How to be a Retronaut

Giant Koch Snowflake Pecan Pie

Getting the right crust to filling ratio on a very large pie.


Our solution was to construct a pie pan in the shape of a koch snowflake (whose perimter obeys completely different scaling laws), fill it with delicious pecan pie and bake in a custom backyard oven.

Instructables shows you how to make a giant fractal pie . Got 10 hours to spare? Grab a shear and a nibbler and you're ready to roll.

Via Blort

Dictators' Remains As Tourist Attractions

From Evita's earthly remains to Mao's mummy Atlas Obscura answers any questions you might have had about what happened to some dictators after they shed this mortal coil.


A team of embalmers care for Lenin's corpse, buffing and bleaching it and even changing his suits.


Eva Peron wins the prize for most miles put on a corpse.

Read more - via Coisas Do Arco Da Velha

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Mysterious Roving Rocks of Racetrack Playa

This is a strange story indeed. Since the 1940s researchers have been trying to figure out how rocks (one of them a whopping 700 pounds) at Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, CA manage to travel across the desert landscape leaving trails behind them. Animals, wind, gravity and earthquakes have all been ruled out as possible explanations.


Read more at Twisted Sifter

What Tattoo Locations Say About You


Via The Queen is not Amused...but I am.

Visions of Thanksgiving

Click for larger image

Lisa Hanawalt — "Visions of Thanksgiving" in The New York Times

The Cherpumple

Is there sugar in it? Then I like it! This creation is the sweet cousin of the more savory turducken.


Pastry chef David Lowery's Cherpumple (CHERry, PUMpkin, and apPLE pies stuffed inside a cake) weighed 21 lbs 10 oz. Not for those who don't like a heavy dessert after a big Thanksgiving dinner.

The 1940's Experiment

Carolyn Eakins aims to lose 100 lbs by September 23, 2012. This is how she plans to do it: 


The 1940's Experiment is a personal journey and social experiment living for one year on a wartime ration book diet to conquer obesity. 100 wartime recipes will be recreated with photos as well as experiences of living on a 1940s WW2 ration diet… 1 authentic wartime recipe will be re-created for every 1 lb lost.


A few of the 100 recipes look like things I cook. I made a bread pudding just yesterday, I often make pumpkin soup (I add a few herbs) and cheese dreams are something a once upon a time mother -in-law who grew up during WW2 taught me to make.







Via The Awl 

Hybrid Table Settings

Italian company Seletti’s new Hybrid Collection brings east and west together on the table. Each porcelain piece  features two distinct styles—one Eastern, one Western—divided straight down the middle.



Via Trendland

Enlightened Souls

The Enlightened Souls project by Fabrice Wittner uses light stencils to commemorate victims of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year.

Fitzgerald Avenue, Center, Chch, NZ

Bealey Avenue, Center, Chch, NZ

Bond Street, Waltham, Chch, NZ

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Man's Best Friend

A dog in China refuses to leave his owner's gravesite.

Via The Daily What

The World’s Most Untidy Office Desks

If you have a picture of a messy desk that you would like to be featured on the Master Cleaners Blog please send an email to info@master-cleaners.co.uk. But don't expect a piggish colleague's behavior to change. People like this have no shame.

Electronic Pickpocketing

So you know. Just in time for the gifting season.


It's called electronic pickpocketing and security expert Walt Augustinowicz says relatively new technology designed to make your purchases more convenient could put your credit card number at risk.
Mr. Nag's credit card company called him up last week to tell him his credit card had been fraudulently used to purchase $1000 worth of goods at Walmart. I don't know what hurt worse, the fact that his card had been compromised or that people might think he shops at Walmart.

Top 10 Names You’re Going To Have To Explain To Grandma


A lot of names today are going to feel unfamiliar, confusing, ridiculous, or downright stupid to Grandma.
Personally I think Iris is a lovely name. But Palin, Ranger and True? I'm with grandma on these.

Read more about naming baby at Nameberry

Monday, November 21, 2011

Da Vinci’s To-Do List

This makes my list (surf the web, take a bath) look pretty lame.


Link - Via clusterflock

Postman's Park. A Memorial to Self-Sacrifice



In 1900 George Frederick Watt set up a memorial near St. Paul's cathedral in London to honour ordinary people who died saving the lives of others and might otherwise have been forgotten. 
In 1972 the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice was listed on the English Heritage Register.





See more at Imgur
Thanks Bruce!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Weird or what?

I was scurrying down Queen Street in Niagara on the Lake today and heard someone say, "I read a blog by someone who lives here. It's called Nag on the Lake." I hesitated for a moment because, as usual, I looked like the wrath of god. Oh what the hell I thought and chirped up "Hey I'm The Nag!" Sandra is a Rochester reader and was in town for the weekend with friends. What are the odds of me walking past just as she was mentioning my blog?
I feel famous!
Don't forget to send me the photo, Sandra, and I'll post it here.

Knitting The News

Delit Maille recreates the news in wool. Below are a couple of warm and fuzzy sex-crazed newsmakers.

 Dominique Strauss-Kahn 

Silvio Berlusconi
Via Frogsmoke

It's a Never Ending Nightmare With a 7-lb Villain

Tyler McAbee welcomes his niece Ella to the world.


Via reddit

501 Queen Streetcar

Photo: Toronto Star


When I first moved to Toronto I was advised to live either on the subway line or along the Queen streetcar route. The streetcar route offered cheaper options so I spent many of my early days in TO traveling on the Queen car. I lived in Parkdale, Leslieville, the Beach and finally High Park.
A few years ago National Geographic magazine named the route one of the best streetcar lines in the world. The 501 Queen Streetcar travels across Toronto from the Long Branch Loop  in the west to the Neville Park Loop in the east. The Toronto Star has a special section that takes you on a trip along the route.  
Visit some of my old haunts like the Horseshoe Tavern and others I've never been to like Wicked Club. Check out Dangerous Dan's Diner, a carnivore's dream. Read some poems.
I learned that there are 300,000 bees call the roof of  the Canadian Opera Company home.


Photo: Toronto Star

Photo Richard Lautens/Star
Author Robert Priest waits for the Queen streetcar while trying to keep out of the rain.
If you're visiting Toronto a ride on the 501 is one of the best ways to see the city.