Meat PieUpdated: March 27th, 2007
Tues March 27th
Here’s something for the hardcore information addict. Wikipedia has a “Random article” button on its site which can throw up some real gems.
In one 30-minute session I discovered that presidential hopeful John McCain is a Zonian, read the account of how Hollywood actor Anthony Dwain Lee was shot four times in the back and head by LA police at a fancy dress party, and found out that Hitler wrote a sequel to Mein Kampf called Zweites Buch. In the book Hitler predicts that the final struggle for world domination would take place around 1980 in a war between the US and the combined forces of Britain and Greater Germany.
My next next Wiki visit was less productive (the vast majority of the random pages are pretty dull), though I did unearth a pretty gruesome case of demonically possessed nuns in17th century France called the Loudun possessions.
Wednesday March 7th
See how popular your name has been over time at Baby Planners.
You need to click on the Fun Stuff to access the interactive graphic, and only the top 100 names are listed.
You can view the historic popularity of names in the US at The Name Machine.
Monday February 19th
Be the first person to discover intelligent life on another planet by taking part in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project.
The site, run by Berkeley University in California, allows you to download software that runs signal analysis on data that has already been recorded.
It’s possible that the Wow! signal - detected in 1977 - had an intelligent extra-terrestial origin, though scientists still disagree about the possible source of the 72-second signal.
Also on the space theme, Harvard University has an interesting Sky Map as well as the space Image of the Year 1999-2006. The overall winner can be found here.
Monday February 5th
How to keep the seat next to you free on the train….
Select your seat, take out your laptop and click on this site.
Not only will the seat next to you remain untaken, you’ll probably end up with the whole carriage to yourself.
Monday January 29th
Find aerial photos of secret government facilities at Cryptome.org
Tuesday January 23rd
See how US boardrooms, political bodies and universities interconnect at the brilliantly designed theyrule.com.
If you click on the Load Map option you can see the networks that others have found. My favourite is the Apple vs. Microsoft map.
Wednesday December 13th
The image quality isn’t great but this time-lapse video of the Panama canal makes fun viewing.
It’s taken from a webcam at one of the locks and compresses one week into 11 minutes.
Tuesday November 21st
It’s a bit like Risk but a lot quicker and you don’t end up hating your opponents.
But be warned, Dice Wars is highly addictive.
Thursday November 16th
They say an Englishman’s home is his castle, but for this American couple their home is their missile base.
If you ever fancied getting away from it all missilebases.com has a list of disused silos for sale.
Or if you’re looking for privacy but prefer the above ground experience, Vladi Private Islands and Private Islands Online have details of available properties.
Thursday November 9th
For some, the freemasons are part of a sinister “illuminati”, hell-bent on world domination. But according to the Phoenixmasonry Masonic Museum they’ve been far too busy playing spanking-related practical jokes to have time to create a New World Order.
Check out the electric spanker, the lifting and spanking machine and the invisible paddle machine.
When not being spanked it appears members had to suffer exploding pie tables, forced to perform the hula hula bull dance, or just put in an electric bird cage.
The full catalogue can be found here.
Monday November 6th
Test your geography knowledge against the clock in this addictive Geosense game.
But don’t confuse Sri Lanka with Madagascar, like I did, cos it really buggers up your score.
Wednesday October 18th
In 1932, Winston Churchill wrote an article for Popular Mechanics magazine, predicting what the world would be like 50 years on. Click here to see how he got on.
This fascinating site contains many more examples of how the future looked to people years ago.
Thursday October 12th
Eagle-eyed users of Google Earth have spotted what appears to be a “hovering car” in a suburb of Perth, Australia.
If you haven’t already got it, Google Earth allows you to zoom around the globe looking at detailed satellite images. It can be downloaded for free here.
Also worth a visit is Google Sightseeing, which shows the unusual things people have found there.
Monday October 9th
See the location of every ship in the world at sailwx.info
The site also gives you detailed info on each ship and allows you to see what course they have taken over the past few weeks.
Monday October 2nd
Did you know that if Microsoft founder Bill Gates saw some money on the pavement it wouldn’t be worth his while to pick it up if it was less than $180 (around £100)?
Apparently that’s the amount of money he’s earned every 4 seconds - the time it takes to pick something up from the ground - since creating Microsoft in March 1986.
For this and a load more bizarre Bill Gates wealth statistics click here
Monday September 25th
Following on from ‘the top 10 worst worst album covers of all time’ we proudly present… ‘the top 10 worst worst album covers of all time II’
Wednesday September 13th
Science@NASA allows you to track satellites in real time.
If you click on the J-Track 3D button on the left of the site you can see a 3-D graphic of all the satellites currently orbiting the earth.
Sunday August 27th
This site won a Webby award a couple of years back, which is kinda like the internet Oscars.
Anyway, it’s brilliantly designed, quirky and kept me amused for hours.
Sunday August 20th
‘He was a scrawny calf, bit of a woozy, no-one suspected he was packing an Uzi.’
Presenting to you… Cows With Guns, a five minute animation where the Meat Pie fillings fight back.
Wednesday August 16th
Now this made me laugh out loud.
It’s the top 10 worst worst album covers of all time with commentary from the ‘Pork Tornado’.
Thursday August 10th
Some pretty amazing images here but check out the final one. Not sure if it’s scary or just plain funny.
Wednesday August 9th
Now this site is strangely fascinating.
Watch planes take off and land from LA International airport in this real-time graphic.
If you have a slower connection this may take a few seconds to load. If the graphic doesn’t appear you probably need the Java software, which can be downloaded for free here.
Tuesday August 8th
In the 1970s, a now-forgotten writer claimed that 75% of the people who had ever been born were alive at that moment. An amazing statistic, but according to this article by Population Today - complete bollocks.
It estimates that 106 billion people have been born on Earth, meaning the current population accounts for just 5.8% of the total.
Thursday August 3rd
I have no idea how I came to be on this particular website, but check out this guy working at the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro.
I’ll let you do the puns.
Wednesday August 2nd
Meet the man with the world’s steadiest hand.
Bryan Berg used 3,000 decks of cards to create Disney’s Cinderella’s Castle - without using tape, glue or other tricks.
You can see pictures of the record-breaking feat, and Berg’s other creations, at Cardstacker
Tuesday August 1st
See real footage of George W Bush drunk at a wedding in 1992 at thesmokinggun.com
The site also has an arresting images section of famous mugshots. My personal favourite is Steve McQueen giving the peace sign to the police photographer.