CDM & SW^2's Custom-Made Mini-Golf Hole

The Ithaca ScienCenter has an 18-hole mini-golf course with science-themed holes. For the littler kids (or idle engineers), they set-up some blocks that could be used to funnel a golf ball to a hole. When you put college graduates in this setting, this is what happens.


Credit for the idea goes primarily to Sam, who is also the one putting in the video.

Any last requests?

Now, I'm pretty sure they meant this sundae as a "Happy Ending" for your meal but that name inherently takes on a new, morbid connotation when presented on the Seniors page of the menu...

"Enjoy our Happy Ending Sundae; it may be your last!"

Million Moderate March

Yesterday, the Daily Show announced that they will be holding a "Rally to Restore Sanity" in D.C. next month.

This is John Stewart's response to the hyper-vocal extremist that predominates the political and social scene. The idea is to show that the middle 80% care too and we don't need to act like children to express ourselves.

It is also a not-too-subtle rebuttal to Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally that was held last month and featured a restrained Sarah Palin. Beck created a good deal of controversy by "accidentally" holding his rally on the same day, at the same location (only 2 flights of stairs lower, he would later say in his defense) as the anniversary of MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. 

Glenn Beck's rally

Just to mock that point, John Stewart spent a good deal of time during his announcement to explain how the show's staff came to choose this date, the 36th anniversary of the Muhammad Ali's and George Foreman's “Rumble in the Jungle.” (the show was already going to be in D.C., that Friday would be too tiring for the crew, and that Sunday is Halloween) 

The Daily Show will provide Sane Signs to any rally-goers such as “I disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler” and “I am not afraid of Muslims/Tea Partiers/Socialists/immigrants/gun owners/gays — But I am afraid of spiders.”

It would make me so happy if this rally turned into a big deal. Now no one is expecting a Million Moderate March, but the Daily Show has nearly 1.5 million fans on Facebook. One or two hundred thousand people could get together and show our leaders and the world that this is not a country filled with crazy people; the crazies are just the vocal minority.

Also, it should be mentioned that Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report will be holding a satirical "March to Keep Fear Alive" on the Mall at the same day. Ought to be amusing.

Coming soon: Mortal Peril!

If you've seen or read anything from the mythos of Harry Potter, you know of the Weasleys' whereabouts clock that uses magic to display the general location or condition of each of the members of the Weasley Family. If you didn't know of it, you do now... Some of the statuses mentioned in the series to which a Weasley family member can be assigned are Home, School, Work, Travelling, Lost, Hospital, Prison, Mortal Peril, etc.

Anyways, a few days ago, I was Skyping with my sister when my girlfriend/roommate instant messaged me saying that she was on her way home. I absentmindedly restated the message aloud saying, "Jenni's on her way how." And my sister was rather confused.


"How do you know that?" she asked. "Do you have that clock from Harry Potter that tells you peoples location? Is Jenni 'traveling'?"


We laughed and then I start thinking. It would be totally doable to make a simple version of that clock in real life. Nowadays, with everyone carrying around a smartphone with GPS, you'd just need an internet connection and a simple program that taps in one of the numerous GPS-based social networking features (e.g. Facebook Places, Google Latitude, etc). Wiring it so that the program then moved physical hands on the clock face would be relatively easy actually. Admittedly it would be a good deal trickier to set up the "lost" or "mortal peril" statuses but with some creative programming you could probably find a way. [Comment below if you have any ideas]


In fact, while researching  for this blog entry, I found an actual working version of  this concept. Apparently a man was talking with his  kids about Harry Potter and wanted to show them that science and engineering can be even cooler than magic, because science actually works (in theory...O-chem lab...grumble...grumble...).


To prove the point, he built a beautiful version of the Weasleys' clock that works by retrieving Twitter updates and scanning for keywords that indicate the person's location. Super cool! Also, on his website he points out that he's not the only one that's tried something like this even Microsoft has given it a whirl.

Canada, eh?

Lessons brought back from (less than a mile) beyond our northern border:

1. Niagara Falls would be much cooler with trees and boats being continually washed down them (à la toy boats and sticks cast into the gutter as a kid on rainy days).


2. Effeminate men are to French-Canadian game shows as large-breasted women are to Mexican ones. 


Also, French-Canadian game shows are apparently at least 10 times more complex than their American counterparts. After half an hour of secret numbers, poker-faces, v-neck shirts, and Who-Wants-to-be-a Millionaire? style questions, I still couldn't figure out even a small portion of the labyrinthine rule set of Paquet Voleur. Even the website didn't help. Humorously, I had to go to the French Wikipédia site to really get any understanding of this game. I guess that makes sense considering my typical Google query is "wiki [thing I'm curious about]".

D'Artagnan Bar?

3 Musketeers, a division of Mars, just came out with a new variation on the classic 3 Musketeers bar:

"Whipped chocolate truffle filling sits on top of an airy crispy layer, surrounded by that 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand chocolate you love."

The only thing they're actually claiming that this candy shares with the bar it takes its name from is the chocolate covering. As if the chocolate covering is the unique identifier that makes people love or hate 3 Musketeers bars.


I can understand Milky Way: Simply Caramel or even 3 Musketeers: Mint, but if you change the size, lose the original filling, and add another filling, you really need to just market a new candy bar. Hell, Mars owns the Twix brand too! Why not just make another iteration of that candy bar? There's already Twix: Peanut Butter and Twix: Java...

Look familiar?

Every time a bell rings, an account opens at BofA

The other day I went into my local bank to close my account. I had deeply mixed feelings about this because I like to support local businesses and I'd had an account with them since my 18th birthday. There is, however, no Santa Barbara Bank & Trust in upstate New York.

I had built-up in my mind the idea that I would go into the bank and be instantly pleaded with by the bank manager like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life.

"...Now, listen to me, I beg of you not to do this thing. If Potter gets a hold of this building and loan, there will never be another decent house built in this town…"

Instead, the very professional teller asked me to pay my last overdraft fee, in cash, then asked if there was anything else she could do for me. I was tempted to ask her to show just a pang of dismay.