We are the 99%

wanted

I solved the deficit!!

Congress is  headed for the biggest gridlock in decades, and there's absolutely no forward momentum to grow the economy and get folks back to work.  Yet somehow, the budget deficit has come to be seen as the biggest problem facing this country, and that's an impossible task, right?

Today's New York Times has an interactive feature that allows the reader to take a stab at solving the budget deficit.  Try it here.  And then if you want to see how I solved the deficit, you can go here.

Watch out for nature

Found at FunTimesHad

Warning

The Trilogy Meter

Found at Nerdlike.

Pop-up photo: it's OK to play when you're a grown-up

OK, this is really cool.  WikiHow takes us step by foolproof step and at the end, we have a pop-up photograph!


Reading these instructions, I suddenly remembered cutting out the cardboard animals on boxes of animal crackers, and using them as actors on a television screen made from a Muller's macaroni box.  Anyone else?

What kind of playhouse do you want?

I couldn't find a price for this table turned playhouse (link at Inhabitots timed out) but would guessing $750+ be excessive?


At the risk of sounding extremely ancient or extremely crabby , when I was a kid, the best playhouses came when you could talk your mom or your auntie into letting you throw a sheet over the kitchen table or four chairs-- although the chairs were often arranged to make the seats of a car..

Here's a link to pretty easy instructions for making a cardboard playhouse for your kid-- or yourself; I won't tell.

Photo and directions from Make Baby Stuff.

Design your own snowflake

Remember when you never were bored?  Go here and create your own snowflake!

Real snowflake image from SnowCrystals.

Pun sentences (don't groan too loud)

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.

When the electricity went off during a storm at a school the students were de-lighted.

She was only a whisky maker but he loved her still.

He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Ancient orators tended to Babylon.

A pet store had a bird contest with no perches necessary.

A toothless termite walked into a tavern and said, "Is the bar tender
here?"

More at t Whimsy.

Salem on Halloween

Alien Vs. Predator

From Pixdaus.

Great Moments in Physics

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen.

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied:

"You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use.

On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqroot (l / g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only person from Denmark to win the Nobel prize for Physics.

From Short Funny Stories, photo from CERN Photo Lab.

Contented frog

From Majorly Cool Things

Geologist at Lunch

Questions I have never been able to answer

See more questions at SpongeFish.

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?
Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?
What is the speed of darkness?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

chat chasse pigeon

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcVIQiXuzM

Our economy set to music

Melodies derived from Stock Charts, arranged with Songsmith, the Microsoft Composition Tool. The most expensive Music of the World. By Johannes Kreidler. www.kreidler-net.de

Plan To Start Little Stationery Store Too Sad For Bank To Deny Loan

KANSAS CITY, MO—Loan officers at the First National Bank of Kansas City defended their decision to lend local man Tim Creamsby $650,000 to open a small stationery store Monday, explaining that, while the business's long-term prospects were poor, the idea was "simply too pathetic and heartbreaking" not to sign off on.
"In order to qualify for a loan of that size, an applicant normally must demonstrate significant financial holdings, have an impeccable credit score, and fill out a number of contracts," First National loan officer Robert Lewiston said. "But when I met Mr. Creamsby and listened to his pitiful story about how he'd worked all his life at an office-chair factory to save up for his dream—his dream to have a little shop where people could buy thank-you notes and maybe pick up some fountain-pen ink every now and then—well, I blurted out the first number that came to mind just to make him stop."


Read more at The Onion.

Is this gorgeous or what?

I'll tell you what it is and where it came from tomorrow-- unless you want to guess? (Hint: unintentionally compounded word whose second part relates to a place of education.)