Here Be Treasures

New Calendar Time

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | cool tool | No Comments

For the Gregorians amongst us, it’s coming up to the New Year, and every New Year needs a new calendar. So here are a couple of ideas for you.

If you‘re really cheap like arts and crafts you can make your own calendar. Not one of those stuffy ‘photo-pasted-over-month’ thingies. No! I give you the ‘dodecahedral calendar‘. You choose the year (2010, obviously), the language (Albanian to Welsh), day to start the week, and the format.

Perhaps you like the standard calendar format of picture and month. Then you can make your own calendar at Glennz Desktop Calendar, where you can choose the start month and then select which images you want from a set of cool illustrations.

Becoming Greenland

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | Earth | No Comments

Johann Hari writes a very saddening piece in MoreIntelligentLife.com about the effect global warming is having on the Inuits in Greenland. Did you know that the North Pole could be open ocean as early as 2015?

Honour

Friday, October 30th, 2009 | politics | No Comments

The US Administration, led by the man recently given the Nobel Peace Prize, engages in extra-territorial assassinations using their remotely-operated drone planes. This much is common knowledge. But just how many have been killed in Obama’s first 9 months of administration? And what percentage of them are innocent bystanders? Does anyone care?

A report in the New Yorker reveals some uncomfortable truths. Some choice quotes:

John Radsan, a former lawyer in the C.I.A.’s office of general counsel, who is now a professor at William Mitchell College of Law, in St. Paul, Minnesota, says … “If it’s Osama bin Laden in a house with a four-year-old, most people will say go ahead,” …

I don’t know anyone who thinks like that.

… the recent campaign to kill Baitullah Mehsud offers a sobering case study of the hazards of robotic warfare. It appears to have taken sixteen missile strikes, and fourteen months, before the C.I.A. succeeded in killing him. During this hunt, between two hundred and seven and three hundred and twenty-one additional people were killed, depending on which news accounts you rely upon. It’s all but impossible to get a complete picture of whom the C.I.A. killed during this campaign, which took place largely in Waziristan.

Is it okay to target a funeral?

… and then killed dozens more people—possibly as many as eighty-six—during funeral prayers for the earlier casualties. An account in the Pakistani publication The News described ten of the dead as children.

Coffee Bean to Carbon Atom

Friday, October 30th, 2009 | science | No Comments

A brilliant zoom scale from the University of Utah showing just how small the human cell and its enemies are…

Insects Are Food

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | yikes | No Comments

This borders on nightmare territory for me. Entomophagy. Might as well put me in a restaurant where the waiters are clowns and my hair and teeth are falling out.

The Ogori Café

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 | inspiring | No Comments

Cabel finds an amazing concept cafe in Japan. The Ogori Café. I’d love to see every café do this once a year.

Sand Art

Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | art | No Comments

Environmental Graffiti have a small piece on Peter Donnelly, an artist who uses the beach as his canvas.

A Picture Made From The Scales of Butterfly Wings

Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | art | No Comments

This weeks Economist has this article about the Museum of Jurassic Technology. They’ve republished one of the more incredible exhibits: a picture made from the scales of butterfly wings.

Coolest T-Shirt Ever?

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | humor | No Comments

Michael Jackson may be dead and buried (finally) but there are still four brothers left to carry on the legacy of the Jackson 5. Or rather, the Jackson 4.
(via dooce)

Birds on a Wire

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | animals, music | No Comments

Via Ze Frank, a composer sets a photo of birds on electric wires to music, literally.

Turn Around Bright Eyes

Friday, August 28th, 2009 | infographics | No Comments

Who would have thunk that the humble flow chart could be crafted to reflect the lyrics of perhaps the most iconic 80s song?

Every now and then I fall apart…

Wood That Be A Real Moon Rock Then?

Friday, August 28th, 2009 | yikes | No Comments

With the discovery by a Netherlands museum that a moon rock presented to them by the Apollo trio is nothing more than petrified wood, expect conspiracy theorists to start beating their cover-up pots and pans again.
It will be interesting to see if other museums around the world test their moon rocks.

Some Nude Music Videos

Monday, August 10th, 2009 | music | No Comments

… because.
Make the Girl Dance:




Toe Jam:




Matt and Kim:

Cambridge University Photo Competition

Monday, August 10th, 2009 | photography | No Comments

The Engineering Department at Cambridge University have a photography competition every year for students and staff. They take some amazing photos.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | crass | No Comments

Pax Bank, a staunchly Catholic bank, blushes today over revelations that it bought over €1m of shares in tobacco and arms companies, and a pharmacutical company which manufacturers the dreaded and forbidden Pill.

In gambling circles, this is known as hedging your bets.