Links, I thinks

Ze Frank re-watches and annotates his 2006 daily videoblog.
Interesting look at his process and evolving tastes.
The videoblog is pretty charming, too.

Chookooloonks has a really clear guide:
understanding your DSLR camera’s manual settings.

This might come in handy some time:
An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces.

OKCupid: Best questions to ask on a first date

Q: Do my date and I have long-term potential?
A: According to OKC, couples with long-term potential are most likely to give matching answers to the following questions:
1. Do you like horror movies?
2. Have you ever travelled around another country alone?
3. Wouldn’t it be fun to chuck it all and live on a sailboat?

According to OKC’s data set, matching answers on these questions were even more predictive of a successful match than questions about sex, god and smoking.

It’s a fun read: here.

Infinite Camel

Thanks to Peneycad for the tip.

Sun melts rock, OH MAH GAWD

So this is a big mirrored parabola thingie that collects 3 square metres of sunshine and focusses it to a pinpoint. Which is hot enough to burn literally anything on earth.
My brain seriously exploded and is now dripping down my neck. It’s pretty hot but this is hotter:

Thanks to Jessie for this mind-melting clip.

What’s it like to be blind?

UPDATE: The link to the webforum was broken; I fixed it. Here.

Here is a very long, very in-depth web forum, where tons of users ask honest questions of a 26 year old man who’s been blind from birth.

He answers all sorts of stuff, ranging from how much he cares about women’s looks to whether he pees sitting or standing, to info about his computer (he doesn’t use a monitor!) to what his computer screen-reader sounds like. Turns out he can listen to his computer-voice at an absolutely dizzying speed (here’s an mp3).

The thread is 15+ pages long and takes forever to go through, but it’s super-interesting, and worth at least a skim. Read it here.

Animals shaking dry

This is just one more reason to love science nerds.

Via MeFi.

Bubbles on the Beach

Not the pet chimp, not the trailer park boy. Something better.

Thanks to Peneycad for the tip.