Here Be Treasures

Scamming the Scammers

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | sociology | No Comments

Hands up those of you that haven’t received a Nigerian 419 scam email. Thought so.
While most of us just delete the mail and get on with our lives, a questionable bunch of scam-vigilantes devote time and effort and cunning to try to scam the scammers.
This video shows just how far the baiting can go, as the hapless young Nigerian scammers perform their very own version of The Village People classic, YMCA.
Another video has the scammer try to injure himself in a stunt-video promo.

If this sort of thing tickles your bristles, then get on over to the master baiting HQ, 419eater.com.

Animoto—Your Photos To Videos

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | cool tool, photography, video | No Comments

Animoto.com takes your photos and makes a hip and happening video out of them. Simply upload your photos and choose your settings and you have a funky video.

…And Then My Mom Walked In

Monday, June 8th, 2009 | video | No Comments

Presenting the YouTube “…And Then My Mom Walked In” collection.
Growing up we all have memories of our mom walking in when we were doing something kinda embarrassing, whether it be singing or dancing or whatever. Nowadays a lot of this gets caught on camera and immortalised.

Of course, there are some very understanding moms out there…

Soldiers On Meds

Monday, June 8th, 2009 | sociology | No Comments

Melody Petersen, writing at MSNBC, brings up the issue of US soldiers serving while on heavy medication. We are all aware of soldiers being given amphetamines and the drug abuse problems that arise in arenas of war, but data suggest that over 10% of actively serving soldiers are on anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and tranquilizers. Given that it is questionable for a civilian to drive a car, let alone operate heavy machinery, how much sense does it make to entrust serious firepower weaponry to soldiers with compromised thinking ability?

Playing For Change

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | music | No Comments

Watch this video of musicians around the world playing the Ben E King song “Stand By Me”. It is from the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”. More info at playingforchange.com.

Strange Maps

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | curiosities | No Comments

Do you ever have sites that you love but are afraid to visit because there’s too much good stuff there and you’ll get over-excited and then panicky because you’ll NEVER FINISH IT ALL? I do.

Strange Maps is one such site. It might seem like a bizarre subject matter, but there is a wealth of material on this site. It was started in September 2006 and is chock-full of curiosities. You could spend days on it.
I would list some of my favorites, but I’ll just end up losing another few hours on the site…

The Ten Commandments of B-Society

Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | sociology | No Comments

B-Society is a group of like-minded people who have got together to try and change the dominance of the 9-5 culture mindset, and the lifestyle that follows from that. They want acceptance of the ‘night owl’ character and opening hours to suit too!

I can wholeheartedly agree, being a night-person myself, though I wouldn’t refer to myself as a B-person.

Wall of Awesome

Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | humor | No Comments

We’ve all done it. Every single one of us. And now there’s a place to share it.

Invisible, Anonymous & Unaccountable Censorship

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | sociology | No Comments

Censorship is a thorny issue. Innocently using Google (with safe-filter off) to search for water-sports, or latex paint bondage, or child models is likely to return some unexpected and unwelcome results. We have accepted that movies have a rating system, and that TV after the watershed will contain not-for-children content, but the internet is a vast and chaotic sea of content with no ratings system, and accessible by all, or so you thought.
So should a government approved agency work in secret to ban access parts of the web? While most of us are aware of the Great Firewall of China and censorship within Dictatorships and some fundamentalist Muslim countries, few realise that in the UK, 95% of the internet-accessing population are behind an invisible firewall. Wired tackles the issue in this article on internet censorship.

The Lure of the Rule

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | science | No Comments

The standard for a kilogram is a small platinum and iridium cylinder that lives under guard in a specially controlled environment in a basement in Paris. Dava Sobel writes in Discover Magazine about this particular kilogram, and witnesses how an Irish kilogram standard is measured for accuracy over a four day period. Interesting reading, though the lure of the sub-header (the mystery of why it is getting lighter) is never really investigated.

The Big Problem of Small Change

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | economics | No Comments

I always had a strange urge to hoard coins. I would imagine that with a few years of work I could create a large stockpile of a particular denomination, like the 10c or the 20c coins, and through the mild economic disruption that my shortage created, I would derive a strange sense of pleasure. Don’t worry, I have sought help.
But Argentina is going through this exact problem right now. Some speculate that citizens are hoarding the coins because inflation is pushing the value of the metal in the coin above the face value of the coin. James Surowiecki reports on the ‘change’ in Buenos Aires.

How To Take Care of the Hair Down There

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | video | No Comments

Gillette have produced a set of videos aimed at men’s vanity in an attempt to sell yet more razors. How to take care of the hair down there is just one of the corny lines in this infomercial, another is “trimming the bush makes the tree look taller”.
They also have info on shaving your armpits, back, head…

Internet, Old Skool Style

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | technology | No Comments

We all reminisce about cars, buildings, equipment from years gone by, but when you find a very early piece of technology that is now so ubiquitous that they are simply not seen anymore, it can be very interesting. Phreakmonkey has an old modem, from circa 1964, that he managed to get working and uses to connect to Wikipedia.

Photos That Changed The World

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | photography | No Comments

‘Nuf said, though the squeamish and puritanical amongst you might want to give it a miss.

http://photosthatchangedtheworld.com/

(via Kottke)

Bono Interviews George Clooney

Monday, May 25th, 2009 | sociology | No Comments

It’s good to see over-paid, over-recognized stars use their cultural status to do work that’s socially responsible. Bono and George Clooney are two such people who use their fame to try bring better living conditions to the less fortunate.
To mark their “World’s Most Influential People” special, Time set up an unusual interview situation. Bono interviews Clooney. Worth watching.