Tafyrn Palecloud

Tongue in cheek (One would hope...)

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:45:21 GMT

We saw this on someone's car while we were walking, and got a good laugh. ^_^

The North Pole Ice Cap is Collapsing

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:58:33 GMT

This is really scary... Way scarier than spiders...

Global climate change is happening right now, and far faster than we think.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=06a00a8d-9aa6-4103-98a8-c9d65dc0aaa2&k=55548

A Christmas Ornament

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:43:02 GMT

Just for fun, seamora and I created our own Christmas ornament out of Sculpey clay, albeit depicting a rather untraditional deity... But, it's Christmas colours, so all is good. ^_^

Work in progress...

The finished ornament.

We are both quite pleased how it came out. ^_^

Canada Line Photos

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:12:22 GMT

seamora and I just posted the 256th (2⁸th) entry to our Canada Line Photography blog. ^_^

http://canadalinephotos.blogspot.com/

The Canadian Chicken!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:57:23 GMT

Shouldn't that be "Cluck to learn more"?

In Case of Table Stowage Malfunction...

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:28:19 GMT

Percussive maintenance at its best.

The Earth Burns...

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:42:56 GMT

The yellow-red tongues of giants lick the sky. Plumes of ash drift, the anvil of a fiery forge from mountains to the sea. Ringed with flashing red and blue, a futile gesture. Blinding white flashes illuminate the smoke, electricity finds its way to the ground. Haze, the horizon muted in yellows and oranges. Blue is elusive, the very sun beaten into submission. Angry red dots the land. So many dreams and hopes, gone in a eye-blink.

This is so cool!

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:22:30 GMT

http://lug.oregonstate.edu/events/firefox/crop-circle

(Thanks to shin_kudo for the heads up. ^_^ )

I am Wolf!

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:38:37 GMT

Sung to "I am Cow", by the Arrogant Worms.

I am wolf, hear me howl,
come too close and I will growl.
And I snarl and bare my pointy fangs!
Shedded fur and sticks and bone,
line the edges of my home.
I am wolf, I am wolf, hear me howl.

I am wolf, eating hare,
freshly caught outside my lair.
Saving some for all my little cubs.
Oh, they yip and play and bounce
for choice tidbits they will pounce.
I am wolf, I am wolf, I've got cubs.

I am wolf, here I stand.
Light paws fly across the land.
And my call is answered in the night.
We are part of something more,
as we play and hunt and snore.
I am wolf, I am wolf, I am wolf.
I am wolf, I am wolf, I am wolf!

Fun Puzzle Games

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:31:43 GMT

seamora and I were talking about wooden puzzle games that we want to build for gifts, and it triggered an old memory about Klotski puzzles from when I was a young cub.

We already have a few Kumiki puzzles (known here as wooden burr puzzles), which we have very much enjoyed, and we're going to have to build a Hua Rong Dao when we get the equipment to precision cut wooden blocks. ^_^

(Sokoban is fun too — I had lots of fun making and playing Sokoban dreams in Furcadia)

Speaking of block-based puzzle games, we would strongly recommend Bloxorz , which is one of the most fun (and nicely done) flash games we have seen in a long time.

We made us a lolcat

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 08:18:09 GMT

Now, with 100% Unknown Fibres!

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:41:52 GMT

Twenty-three years later, it still haunts us...

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:58:23 GMT

The travellers wondered why nothing happened when they inserted their passports.

A Seataf Picture - Lonely Rails

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:39:00 GMT

Caught on Camera

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:51:09 GMT

Looking at satellite imagery is always an enjoyable adventure — and you never know what you will find.

See it for yourself on Google Maps

Note the interesting chromatic dispersion, where the intensity value was captured before the chromatic channels. If we knew the response time of the satellite camera system, we could calculate how fast the aeroplane was travelling at the time. Also note the different resolutions of the different acquisition channels.

Ouch, it's Hot...

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:57:08 GMT

Whittier, CA Temperature:

Today: 97 °F / 36 °C
Average: 69 °F / 20 °C
Record: 84 °F / 28 °C (1959)

We set a new record today...

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:54:35 GMT

Recipe - Forest Medley

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:54:34 GMT

Here is another one of seamora's quick, tasty and low-cost meals that can easily be made from fresh vegetables found all year round. ^_^

Ingredients:

0.30 Kilograms of small potatoes (Yukon Gold or similar)
0.10 Kilograms of red onion
0.10 Kilograms of Broccoli
0.10 Kilograms of Cauliflower
0.15 Kilograms of Turkey Kolbassa

Approximate cost of ingredients: $4

The above quantities will feed two people.

Preparation Instructions:

1. Dice two potatoes into small cubes around one cubic centimetre in volume.
2. Fry the potatoes in olive oil on a frying pan on medium-high heat until light brown, and the potatoes are soft.
3. Add salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder.
4. Chop 1/2 of a medium sized red onion and add to the frying pan
5. Add diced broccoli and cauliflower, and cook until lightly browned and soft, adding two tablespoons of water to steam the vegetables.
6. Cook the Turkey Kolbassa separately, then add to the potatoes and vegetables.
7. Stir together, then serve.

Forest Medley, ready to eat.

Yikes! Kyrill was Nasty!

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 04:50:48 GMT

Hurricane Kyrill that hit Europe late last week was strong enough to derail trains! An empty passenger train in Switzerland was overturned, with gusts of wind measured up to 220-240 km/h.

http://rynek-kolejowy.pl/index.php?p=wiecej&id=4933
http://www.bahnonline.ch/phpkit/newsfotos/id9914_01.jpg

And for the first time in history, the Deutsche Bahn shut down all operations, and part of Hauptbahnhof Station collapsed.

Wow.

Say hello to Global Climate Change...

Did you know?

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:44:10 GMT

The Boston "Big Dig" construction project cost $14.6 Billion US dollars?

That is so much money that it is hard to imagine.

In fact, if you took $1 dollar bills and laid them length-wise end to end, they would stretch to the moon and back six times!

Dimensions of a US dollar: 6.14 inches by 2.61 inches [1]

Performing the unit conversion to something more sane, the length of a US $1 bill is 15.5956 cm.

The cost of the Big Dig is $14.625 billion US dollars [2]

The project is estimated to be 98% complete [3]

The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km [4]

Performing the first calculation, we get how far 14.6 billion dollars worth of one dollar bills will stretch:

(14,625,000,000 dollars * (0.155956 metres / 1 dollar) = 2,280,856,500 metres, or 2,280,857 km.

Then, we divide that into the distance from the Earth to the Moon:

2,280,857 / 384,400 = 5.93355099 times.

Thus, the distance is long enough to travel to the moon and back almost three times!

When we take into account that the project is 98% complete, at 100% completion, assuming that spending continues as a linear function of completion, that results in 6.05464286 times.

A Funny Sign

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 03:36:46 GMT

As seen in Pico Rivera:

Did you know?

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:18:52 GMT

Did you know that every gismu has from two to five rafsi, each of a different form, but each such rafsi represents only one gismu?

A Hamiltonian Cycle of Languages

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:41:24 GMT

English - Sometimes, it is fun to take a sentence and translate it through a series of different languages, to see what strange results one will get when you finally return to the original language.

Dutch - Soms, is het pret om een zin te nemen en het te vertalen door een reeks verschillende talen, om te zien welke vreemde resultaten men zal krijgen wanneer u definitief op de originele taal terugkomt.

French - Parfois, il est le pret à prendre une phrase et lui traduire par une série différents langues, afin de voir quels résultats étranges on obtiendra quand vous revenez définitivement sur la langue originale.

German - Manchmal ist er das Darlehen, einen Satz zu nehmen und ihm durch eine Serie verschieden Sprachen zu übersetzen, um zu sehen, welche fremden Ergebnisse man erhalten wird, wenn Sie definitiv auf die Originalsprache zurückkommen.

Russian - Иногда он - займ брать предложение и переводить языки ему серией по-разному, чтобы смотреть, какие чужие результаты получат, если Вы возвращаетесь окончательно к оригинально.

Spanish - A veces él - tomar el préstamo la proposición y trasladar las lenguas a él por la serie de formas diferentes para mirar, cuales resultados ajenos recibirán, si volvéis definitivamente a originalmente.

English - Sometimes he - to take the loan the proposition and to move the languages to him for the series of different forms to look, which foreign results will receive, if you return definitively to originally.

What is that? / Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:32:36 GMT

And today's question is: What is the object under the umbrella? We asked the person at the lost and found desk, and they had no idea either.

Giant storm on Saturn?

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:13:10 GMT

So, how long do you think it will take until the "end of the Mayan calendar doom-sayers" start running with this?

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08332

**Edit**

Evidently, not very long...

http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?s=221bd6edc8244251840a39533c942a29&showtopic=101634&st=0&p=1022529&#entry1022529