This is a fantastic way to dress-up a watermelon as a centrepiece. Who said that Jack o’Lanterns were only for Halloween — or only for pumpkins?

Now, dare your kids to stick their hands in there. Use a fork, or you’ll lose a finger!

(From Debbie Forster’s photostream, via TDW and Digg)

Well, I’m definitely going to try this:

I love the fibonacci sequence, and I know I’m not alone. Photographers, if you use the “rule of thirds,” you love the (abbreviated) Fibonacci sequence, too.

But one of the really neat things about Fibonacci is how its elegance can be found in a lot of places throughout nature, either directly, or after some twists and turns (or, asymtotically).

The mathematics can be daunting. So here’s a pretty video.

(thanks, Naomi)

March 14 — or 3/14 in the notation — is Pi Day. It’s a day to celebrate the mathematical and geometric constant known as pi (or more properly π). And pi, of course, is 3.1415…. (it continues forever).

If you slept through high school geometry, π describes the relation between a circle’s diameter and its circumference. That is, if you have a wheel that’s got a diameter of, say a foot, each full rotation of that wheel will go about 3.14 feet.

Wikipedia has a fuller discussion, and graphics. And the, to really burn your brain, you can wiki-hop on over to their treatment of other irrational and transcendental numbers (π is both).

Some people suggest that you should mark March 14 as Pi Day by memorizing the digits of π — do it here, in a “fun” online game.

Others suggest that you should also mark Albert Einstein’s birthday.

Most popular, of course, is the phonetic celebration — celebrate π by eating pie.

That sounds right to me. Now, hmmm, what kind of pie? I suppose I will have to sample a few. Perhaps three and a bit?

Be honest with yourself — when was the last time you thought about Bosnia and Herzegovina? Was it during the Olympics, upon a casual mention of Sarajevo, host of the ‘84 Games? Because if not, I’m willing to bet your last thought about Bosnia and Herzegovina was probably related to either war, “ethnic cleansing” or war crimes, or perhaps the Dayton Accords, if you’re a real wonk.

Not me, though — because I just drank a Bosnian beer.

Yes, in the world brews section of my local liquor mart, I noticed a bright little “New Product” sign, and I can never resist those. So I picked up a bottle of “Nektar” beer. And it turned out to be brewed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1873.

Keen-eyed readers will notice not only that Amy has a thing for tulips, but also that I’m using a mug engraved with “Quill” — keepsake and memento that goes back all the way to my student newspaper days. Ah, memories.

Anyway, none of my beer-in-glass pictures turned out, but I can tell you that this was an easy-to-drink, very pleasant lager. It had a nice golden colour, and it wasn’t too hoppy nor too bitter. But, really, I’m easy to please when it comes to beer.

I’m just glad that Bosnia has a beer that gets exported. Go Bosnia! (and Herzegovina!)

Related to my previous post, I came across a site today that translates for you one of the more important phrases in any language: how to order a beer.

Sure, in English it’s “One beer, please” but did you know that in American it would be “Brewski here, please!”

Some other languages from the full set of 50:

Read the full list here.

Tessellation is when geometric shapes repeat in an endless pattern. Squares in a grid is a simple example of a tessellated pattern. A honeycomb is a tessellated hexagon.

Even a soccer ball is a (slightly more complex) tessellation.

But there are tons more — and here’s a page of them, with pretty colours and all. The one at the top mixes squares with triangles.

(Props to Joel Johnson on Twitter)

There’s not much I can say about Basil Wolverton that others haven’t said better and earlier. You may recognize his work from Mad Magazine, as I did, or perhaps from the work of the many artists he inspired.

I just happened across the poster below, which I love, and which generated this post. Click on it for a full-size image:

The Mitchell Library in Glasgow is huge — like, ridiculously huge. It’s got over 1.2 million volumes, making it the largest reference library in Western Europe.

Among it’s collections are numerous photographs, and many of them have been scanned and placed on the internet in recent years.

And that gives us what they call the “Virtual Mitchell” which allows you to search through about a century and a half of photography about the streets, people and places of Glasgow.

So, obviously, I searched for “Great Hamilton Street” (okay, I browsed, but the name kind of did attract me, when I came across it).

In 1898, above, Great Hamilton Street was home to a pub: “Old Burnt Barns.” By 1925, unfortunately, the pub had closed, replaced by a pawn shop.

Not long after that, the road was attached and somewhat straightened, and Great Hamilton Street was no longer — subsumed as part of the London Road. It just doesn’t have the same ring.

Happily, though, I’m pleased to note, thanks to the magic of Google Maps’ Street View, that the corner of London Road and Green Street, which used to be the Great Hamilton Street home of Old Burnt Barns, now appears to house The Carlton Bar.

And that calls for a drink.

This is a clever idea, and would be loads of fun in the right decor — perhaps you could have a set of end tables with long tablecloths, in cyan, orange, red and pink which you could call Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde?

I wonder, though, if the effect would be lost if you actually filled the shelves up with books whose spines weren’t bright yellow?

At any rate, you can contact the designer at this website and order one. No price is given, but I’ll bet shipping is pricey. Unless it’s shipped flatpack Ikea-style.

Or unless you can somehow ship it off to the left, appearing simultaneously at the right.

(via)

Darn it — this is the kind of thing I rely on the Internet for, and yet somehow I miss it until the very last 40 minutes.

Today (Monday) is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, marking five decades of bubble wrap. At least as reported by the Christian Science Monitor:

Sealed Air Corporation’s Bubble Wrap, like Kleenex, Post-Its, and, well, Snuggies, has come to occupy one the rarest gems of consumer acceptance: adoption of its brand name as the generic term for the product. And because an Indiana radio station decided it nine years ago, today, the last Monday in January, is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, a day when folks the world over are encouraged to pause, ponder, and, well, pop little plastic bubbles of air.

There are oodles of online “pop the bubble wrap” games. In fact, I’ll embed one here:

But if you want the real deal, head on over to the Sealed Air Corporation website.

Amy and I are jazzed for the final season of Lost, which premieres on Tuesday, Feb. 2 (check local listings). And we’re probably going to either have or attend a party. And, of course, it’ll be a theme party.

A couple of seasons ago, for the finale, we downloaded print-your-own labels to make regular household goods into Dharma brand foodstuffs. It was a blast to cut them and tape them over the regular labels, and they were a hit at the party we took them to.

Now, with just 10 or so days left until the final season starts, I’ve dug out that old zip file, and I’m uploading it here for you:

• Lost - Dharma food labels (zip)

Unfortunately, I don’t remember where I found that zip file way back then, although some of the files credit InsanelyGreatTees (which has since pulled the post). A quick search online shows me that my little zip file has been far outclassed, too, by the way.

I’ve already got more than enough for my needs, and I think the zip file I’ve uploaded will be more than enough for yours, but if you’re looking for Dharma labels that you could use for everything in the cupboard — from disinfectant spray to eyedrops to merlot — then check out the mega-post at Max Pictures’ Blather.

In the meantime, if you’re planning a Lost party, you could take it a couple of steps further, like one friend of mine is planning: everyone has to come dressed as a different Lost character.

Now, in the comments, please speculate as to the direction of the final season.

This is a sweet rebuttal to my mother, who thought that I was wasting my time with “that fantasy game Dragons and Dungeons crap.” She never understood why I wanted “an Intendo” and also disliked my love of “Married With Children” and Stephen King. She later came around on sitcoms when she happened across an episode of “Roseanne” that gave her a snarky comeback, which she promptly appropriated.

Anyway, I never actually played Dungeons & Dragons — I played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which I guess makes me advanced at life. Also, I got pretty good at spinning dice. I once spun a four-sided die, no lie.

(from here, via here)

What if YOU were the Tetris block? What if, when you hit the “rotate” key, it was as if, from your perspective, the whole world rotated around you?

Well, I’ll tell you what — it sure makes the game a heck of a lot harder.

Play it at firstpersontetris.com.

I’m trying to think of a frozen, slushy martini recipe that these olive penguins would go well with. They would also, I think, be a nice adornment to the right kind of salad, or you could just plop a whole group of them on a white plate as a fun appetizer.

Anyway, I think they’re pretty self-explanatory from the pictures above, which are from mattea.tanner’s Flickr stream, but if you want step-by-step instructions, try these ones.

Essentially, the carrot slice gets turned into the nose and feet, the two olives make the body and the head. The white stomach can be made from either cream cheese or mozzarella.

(via SeriousEats.com)