Status-Q

For me, there is nothing quite so evocative of happy adventures to come as the sight and smell of freshly-Nikwaxed walking boots.

The MetaPhone project has some great examples of what you can deduce just from phone call records.

Excerpt:

Participant B spoke at length with cardiologists at a major medical center, talked briefly with a medical laboratory, received calls from a pharmacy, and placed short calls to a home reporting hotline for a medical device used to monitor cardiac arrhythmia.

Participant C made a number of calls to a firearm store that specializes in the AR semiautomatic rifle platform. They also spoke at length with customer service for a firearm manufacturer that produces an AR line.

Wandlebury woods were magical this morning.

If you're a fan of the Aerobie frisbee-like device, or the Aeropress coffee maker, or, like me, both of them, you'll enjoy Zachary Crockett's fine article about how they came into existence, and about Alan Adler, their inventor. Nicely done.

Many thanks to Hap for the link.

At first I thought this was just a nice seat that had been installed for the purposes of enjoying the view. But now I suspect it may also say something in Japanese... :-)

You can't have an explosion in a movie without a big bang, even if that explosion comes from a starship drifting through the vacuum of space. If the USS Enterprise is anywhere nearby, it's also likely to be buffeted by the pressure waves, and the crew thrown across the bridge.

In a similar vein, it was one of the Weta Workshop guys in the 'bonus features' on the Lord of the Rings DVDs whom I first heard point out that swords, coming out of wood-and-leather scabbards, somehow always make a zzzhinggg sound. Whereas in fact...

Well, I'll let this chap demonstrate:

Thanks to James Fraser for the link!