Who Knew How Dangerous Cruise Ships Are?
Every once in a while the news reports a case of someone disappearing on a cruise ship, presumably falling or being pushed into the sea never to be found. Little did I know how often it occurs, or that an entire site is devoted to tracking and reporting on the murders, deaths, rapes, missing persons, disease outbreaks, sinkings, injuries, mutinies, and thefts which occur. The site does an amazing job reporting on cases, and advocating for safety improvements (they point to numerous problems where the staff of cruise ships have been the ones committing crimes, particularly theft and rape).
One disturbing story I came across on their site was the strange Case of Annette Mizener, who vanished, presumably killed and thrown overboard. She was traveling with her family and on the last night of a cruise she disappeared, with some of her items found by a railing on a lower deck, a nearby security camera covered, blood spatter at the scene, and a man had been harassing the woman's mother throughout the trip. Yikes!
Anyway, it's an interesting read, so check out the Cruise Bruise.
^Q
Shattering car windows with ceramic?!
Today I learned that car windows can be difficult to break with a hammer while shockingly easy to break by throwing a tiny piece of ceramic against them (such as you can get from breaking the ceramic off a used spark plug). Apparently it has something to do with the incredible "hardness" of ceramic. I vaguely remember something about that from fifth grade science class...
^Q
Here is showing how hard it can be with a normal object:
And how easy it is with ceramic.
The Unintentional Awesomeness of Insane Clown Posse
While I've known the name "Insane Clown Posse" for a decade, and knew it had something to do with guys in weird clown makeup, that was about as much as I knew...
Recently I learned more, and my god it makes me happy to think of all the effort the universe expended in creating this moment and these two fellows. It almost constitutes proof of intelligent design to me, it's that surprisingly weird. How little I knew there was a hardcore hip hop style called "horrorcore". Dudes in clown makeup don't seem hardcore to me, but whatevs.
Read the 12 Most Ridiculous Insane Clown Posse Lyrics.
I wish I could be a juggalo, too.
^Q
Here they are for reals in their video Miracles:
While I normally hate SNL, they did a funny spoof which is almost indistinguishable from the real thing:
And to give you a sense of what it's all about, here's a spoof which captures some of the key attitudes and terms:
TrekDesk: The Treadmill Desk !?
Trying to slim down while you work? Turn a good work ethic into a trim waistline with Trekdesk!
At first blush this seemed like an awful idea, I was imagining people trying to jog while typing on their keyboard or reading documents, but actually it's intended for a slow walk and this professor at University of Utah who is studying the heatlh benefits of it makes it seem pretty compelling... What always amazes me, though is how efficient the human body is. She says you'll only burn 100 calories per hour. That's like 10 Life Saver candies. I have a hard time believing my car is that efficient...
It'll cost you $399 and you need to provide your own treadmill. If you've got more money or energy than me, you can buy one over at Sky Mall.
^Q
Lock Picking Is Scarily Easy
Most people feel secure in their homes behind their locked doors. And they are... But it's more because of criminal laziness than the security of locks. A friend taught me lock picking when I was in high school and it was quite a revelation to discover that in 45 minutes I could be taught how to make lock picks and then pick 95% of locks. I've had to use this knowledge to get back into my own home on a few occasions, as well as help friends get into theirs. I've never used the knowledge for evil. 
And I'm glad few other people have, either. But it's amazing when you realize that any criminal could quickly learn this skill and stroll through your front or back door in only a few more seconds than it takes you to insert and turn your key. Fortunately the same life choices and lack of ambition that make them criminals has also prevented them from learning new skills like lock picking.
Basic tutorial on lock picking:
And the frighteningly fast Bump Key method:
^Q
The Public Service Announcements of Harry Enfield
A while ago a friend introduced me to one of the funniest things I've seen in years. These are some public service announcement spoofs done on Harry Enfield's sketch shows.
Women Know Your Limits
Women Don't Drive!
Women Keep Your Virtue:
And you can see more over at YouTube...