Getting to know you

How well do you know cowboy-speak?
(My score: 7 out of 10 - I'm a "Tenderfoot".)

How well do you know your cheeses?
(My score: Holy crap I got 7 out of 8! How did that happen??)

How well do you know Peter Rabbit?
(My score: 6 out of 10, which is not too bad considering I've never even read the book.)

How well do you know your candy wrappers? Tip: Each letter is the first letter of the candy’s name unless otherwise specified.
(My score: 18 out of 26)

Technorati tags: quizzes

Smoke Up, Johnny!

Over at flickr, wayfarer_boy has posted photos of signs that are part of a clever Japanese anti-smoking campaign.

Maybe stepping outside for a smoke isn't such a good idea after all...

Technorati tags: Japan, no smoking

Say what?

Langmaker.com has a huge list of constructed languages or "conlangs". Everything from the Elvish Sindarin, one of several languages J.R.R. Tolkien invented for his Lord of the Rings trilogy to the four-word language of Simlish, which was developed by Maxis Games for use in The Sims.

Technorati tags: conlangs, language

Holy Foley, Batman!

Did you know that most of the sound you hear in a movie, other than dialogue, is put in post-production? The sound effects guy (called a Foley artist) adds everything from the complex sound of the hero making his way down an echoey tiled hallway in cowboy boots while dragging his broken leg behind him to the sound of someone simply stubbing out their cigarette in an ashtray.

A Day in the Life of a Foley Artist

Foley artists share their secrets

Tips for making great sounds

How they make cartoon SFX

Technorati tags: sound effects, SFX, Foley artist

Gnop

The history of Pong

The world's smallest Pong game

Play 20 rounds of 3-D Pong against the computer, giving you plenty of chances to admire the font when it flashes the computer won when you lose after about three seconds of play.




Wuzzat you say, Pappy? You don't go in for these new-fangled video doohickeys with the fancy-schmancy moving visual elements and whatnot? You say the gaming industry went downhill after the Zork series? Well, put yer teeth back in and take an old-skool bite out of Pong: The Text-Based Game

The secret world of Pong

Battle Pong takes things up a notch, allowing you to fire on your computer opponent in order to break through its shields.

This Pong clock is pretty clever. The time is represented by the "score" as these two tirelessly battle it out throught the day. Yours for the Pongtacular price of a mere 199 Euros.

However, if you're Pong budget somewhat more limited, you might want to do what I did and just download the Pong Clock screensaver.

Technorati tags: pong

Small Change

What Is It? has a nice collection of photos of various doodads, whatzits and thingamajigs. Your job is to figure out what they actually are. Here's one example, which looks like it could have been used during the Inquisition to get a confession out a particularly stubborn heretic. Click the photo on the left and scroll down a bit to find out what the heck this thing really is.





Another interesting pic in the site showed a regular quarter next to a quarter that was shrunken down somehow to the size of a dime. The question was, how did they do that?

Bert's Quarter Shrinking and Can Crushing Gallery shows the effects of what happens when you create an extremely strong electromagnetic field around a metal object, in effect crushing it down to a fraction of its original size. Neat!

Technorati tags: mystery photos, photography, electromagnetism

Take two capsules and call me in 50 years

The Nine Eight Most-Wanted Missing Time Capsules (via Digg)

Cold War "Time Capsule" found in Brooklyn Bridge

How to prepare your own time capsule

Time Capsules, Inc. guarantees their product will maintain the integrity of your capsule contents for 500 years. Finally, a way to be assured that future generations can treasure those important documents, photos and backissues of Maxim just as much as you did.

The KEO Project is collecting messages (up to 6000 characters -- text only, no pics or video) from us 21^st century residents. They will be included on a satellite launching in 2007 and returning to Earth... in 50,000 years. Don't worry, I'm sure all your American Idol references will still be valid in 52007 AD.

Technorati tags: time capsule, KEO Project

But we've got the biggest balls of them all

Step right up, ladies and gents! Don't be shy! Come see the World's Largest Ball of

Popcorn
Rubber Bands
Twine
Barbed Wire

and my favorite, The World's Largest Ball of Paint.

For the past 29 years, Michael Carmichael has been putting coats of paint on a baseball. He's almost at 19,000 coats, and the sucker weighs close to 1,400 lbs.

A couple of filmmakers have made a documentary called Roadside Ambition on the legendary paintball which resides in tiny Alexandria, Indiana. Carmichael hopes to pull in enough tourists to help the economically struggling town.

Technorati tags: strange, world records

Maybe he needs a better plan?

You know that nasty shock when you get your cell phone bill? Yahaya Wahab, a Malaysian man, recently received his monthly bill and was startled to see it was much higher than he expected. Much higher. Much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much MUCH higher.

He got a bill for $218 trillion.

That's trillion. With a T. Oh, that and he had ten days to pay it off.

That's not only higher than the entire GDP of Malaysia, that's higher than the GDP of the entire freakin' planet.

I heard what really did him was sending those 15 trillion text messages to vote for Kellie Pickler in American Idol.

To help out Mister Wahab in the future, I've dug up these handy 10 Tips for Reducing Your Cell Phone Bill. I'm sure with a little diligence and self-control, he can get his budget down to a more manageable 50 or 60 trillion. (via Techdirt)

Technorati tags: bizarre, cell phones

You wanted thumbs up, they gave you the finger

INFORMATION NATION: The Blog

Info-larious!

Have a movie? Want it to be a hit? Don't have the clout, the time, the energy or the talent to make it an international critical success? Realized that it might be the worst movie since Xanadu? You've come to the right place.

We at The Weekly Blurb believe that every film, no matter how good or bad, deserves a blurb - a nice, punchy, positive bit of praise that can be pulled out here and pasted in your movie's advertising.

The Weekly Blurb is a Mike Nelson project, former head writer and star of the now-defunct Mystery Science Theater 3000. (via Metafilter)

Technorati tags: movies, blurbs, reviews

M I in Michigan? No, but it's OK.

Sorry for the even greater than usual lack of content this week. The Information Nation staff is taking some time off to make a trek to visit kinfolk in The State With The Big Westerly Appendage. Business as usual by the beginning of next week...