Catch of the Day

11 foot 8 inch Bridge VS 12 foot Trucks

By Scott Langill

11'-8"

Since 1956 trucks have been hitting the Gregson Street train trestle in Durham, North Carolina. Often enough that Jürgen Henn has a website called 11foot8.com with videos and photos of the unfortunate incidents. Warning signs and flashing “overheight” warning lights were insufficient and the railroad company installed a protective steel crash beam in front of it. The beam has already been replaced once.

11foot8

13 crashes in 13 months

Hanzi Smatter

By Scott Langill

Not "to learn as much as possible", but "empty, hollow, bare, deserted"

If you email them a photo, Hanzi Smatter will tell you what those Chinese characters tattooed on you or yours bodies mean.

Hanzi Smatter

GoTopless August 22

By Scott Langill

The GoTopless image censured by Facebook

From the UFO religion that brought you Clonaid, sensual meditation, Raël Girls, and the planned Elohim embassy (a Third Temple) for the extraterrestrials; now the Raëlians, are sponsoring GoTopless day in at least nine American cities including Chicago. While Raëlians (and their fellow travelers) will march to stand up for women’s right to go topless in public, men are asked to coverup in solidarity.

GoTopless

The Raelian Movement: Intelligent Design for Atheists

President Obama signs “The ______ Act of ______”

By Scott Langill

As seen in the Congressional Record

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called Representatives back to Washington this week to pass what the media are calling the “$26 billion jobs bill,” but it’s name of record is “The ______ Act of ______.” The most recent version of House Resolution 1586 was passed as a substitute amendment by the Senate last week. A substitute amendment clips out everything in a bill and puts in all new text. In their haste to leave for their summer recess they forgot to rename the bill. If the House had properly named the bill this week, it would have made it necessary for the Senate to also reconvene to pass the newly amended bill. So on August 10 the House agreed “to the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment,” and later that afternoon “The ______ Act of ______” was signed into law by President Obama. NOTE: Some news outlets are erroneously referring to H.R. 1586 as the “XXXXXX Act of XXXX.”

Senate Passes “The ______Act of____” – No Foolin’!

“The ______ Act of ______” in the Congressional Record

Tomorrow, Now, Forever

By Scott Langill

Cill Airne, Ireland

For the phototactic. Somewhere it’s daybreak. This westbound chain of webcams broadcasts the dawn.

Tomorrow, Now, Forever

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Musical Compositions

By Scott Langill

Hum along with the Übermensch

The webpage featuring this year’s Cambridge University Press biography of Nietzsche also features 17 free downloadable musical compositions of the philosopher in mp3 format.

Friedrich Nietzsche – Cambridge University Press

The Nietzsche Music Project Home Page

Free Nature Sounds

By Scott Langill

Simulated Vinyl record, tone-arm being bumped at FreeSound

The Nature Sounds Player allows you to create your own relaxing sound mix using .wav files found at The FreeSound Project. You can also save your mix by exporting it to a file. Avoid the lemur. And why a horse snort?

Free Nature Sounds

The FreeSound Project

I Write Like

By Scott Langill

Not my keyboard

Check what famous writer you write like with I Write Like’s statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of famous writers. Stump Connolly’s “The Facebook Pol” got David Foster Wallace. Catch’s “Apres David After Dentist” got J. K. Rowling (meh), this blog entry got Kurt Vonnegut; but my “Star-Spangled Stravinsky” got H.P. Lovecraft (woohoo). But then, Nixon’s resignation speech got H.P. Lovecraft and Kurt Vonnegut got Douglas Adams.

I Write Like

Geocities-izer

By Scott Langill

A Geocities-ized The Week Behind

Enter the URL of any website, and the Geocities-izer will add proper graphics, motion, and sound to bring back that classic Geocities feeling.

Geocities-izer

Apres David After Dentist

By Scott Langill

Is this going to be forever?

Last year’s second most popular video on YouTube and to date, over 62 million views. A 7-year old Florida boy named David asking existential questions while drugged out in the backseat of a car after the dentist. Business Insider just published an article in which enabler Dad (who has quit his day job) revealed they have made about $150K from YouTube and from selling stickers and t-shirts on their web site. So which one is the one trick pony?

Business Insider Article

David After Dentist

Is This Real Life? (David After Dentist Website)