Possibly the best freestyle bike rider in the world

Even if he is the best freestyle bike rider in the world, he doesn't have even a tiny bit of the flair Nicole had in BMX Bandits.

Chimps invent new termite tool

The old method of using a stick for termite harvesting was driving some chimps bananas so they invented a new tool....

Did You Know?

I see one of these every year, but this one is brilliantly done.

Bike Parking in Japan

This is amazing. Because bicycles are the main form of transport in Japanese cities, there is a huge parking shortage. They just pile them up together at the bike racks. This video shows an alternative initially, which is basically a bike garage like a parking garage, then shows the new automated structures, which have to be seen to be believed!

Pirate Bay guys about to go on trial

The Associated Press: Pirate Bay file-sharing trial to start in Sweden

Maps of War

Maps of War is a great site that shows via flash expansion & contraction of various empires over history. The Middle East one is great, as is this one, the history of religions:

I can feel my arteries clogging just reading the recipe

"massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven
through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce"

The Bacon Explosion - Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. - NYTimes.com

DIY bulletproof backpack

Is this good? Bad? Certainly it's sad that there's been enough shootings in schools to make this product even viable, but I wonder how you'd make your kid feel if you bought one of these for them.

Ballistic Panel for bullet proof safety

8 Best Non-Human Tool Users

Some of these are well known to most, but they're still pretty freaky!

Clever Critters: 8 Best Non-Human Tool Users | Wired Science from Wired.com

How to tie the world's fastest shoelace knot

It's hard not to admire the sheer dedication of Ian Fieegen, who had a dream in 1982 of creating the world's fastest tying symmetrical shoelace knot, and achieved it. From such an ignominious start has erupted the world's best shoelace site.

Ian's Shoelace Site

My favourite page is his history of the "Ian Knot" (which anyone who had a knot book as a kid, like me, knows is really a reef knot even though he never admits it):
Ian's Shoelace Site - History of the Ian Knot

A very useful page is the Secure Knot.

Not quite as cool as the dude who collects mechanical pencils, or the dude that reviews little notebooks, but still pretty cool....

Wired Science's 13 Most Popular Stories of 2008

Wired Science's 13 Most Popular Stories of 2008 | Wired Science from Wired.com

How It's Made: Communion Wafers

The Cavanah Co. makes more than 80% of the communion wafers for the US, England, Canada and Australia. They point out that because they have such a huge market share, they can actually detect changes in church attendance. For example, a scandal with Catholic priests dropped church attendance by 20%. 911 increased church attendance for 6 months. Bad economic times increase church attendance, so I’m guessing they’re packed at the moment.

Interesting court case against God

Here's the background: Atheist Senator Ernie Chambers files a lawsuit against God, and the judge dismisses the court case "with prejudice" because God doesn't have a residential address and can't be served.

This is where it gets interesting: Sen. Chambers has the right to appeal, on the grounds that since the court acknowledges the existence of God, and recognises His omniscience, then they must accept that He has been duly served. Otherwise they must admit He is either not omniscient, or doesn't exist, or in my opinion they have to finally separate church and state and throw the case out. Sen Chambers hasn't decided if he's going to appeal or not, but I really hope he does, because it would be fascinating to see what happens.

Suit Against God Thrown Out Over Lack Of Address, Judge Tosses Neb. Legislator's Lawsuit Against God, Saying Defendant Never Received Notice - CBS News

Queensland teenager Samantha-Jane Stacey wins sumo medal | The Courier-Mail

"The only takeaway food she eats is sushi. We're not takeaway people," she said.

"She eats very healthily; Weetbix and fruit for breakfast, a salad roll for lunch and a normal dinner. She probably eats less than my eldest daughter, who's a size 8."

Bullshit.

  

Queensland teenager Samantha-Jane Stacey wins sumo medal | The Courier-Mail

Play With Spider - Flash 3D - OneMotion.com

Incredible interactive virtual spider all implemented in 3D Flash. You have to try it out to understand what’s so good about it.

Play With Spider - Flash 3D - OneMotion.com

Beautiful Photos of the Large Hadron Collider

The Boston Globe has an amazing photo essay on the installation of the LHC. But don’t worry, CERN says that no black holes will be created, but if they did, any black holes that are created would disintegrate instantly, and even if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be positively charged so they couldn’t suck up the Earth. So in summary even if the LHC did manage to create a stable black hole it’d be a weeny one with very small effect on the Earth. Besides, the LHC is has the same potential of making bad stuff like black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles and magnetic monopoles than is being made in the universe anyway, but if it does happen, instead of it being millions of light years away, it’ll be in Switzerland where we can watch it easily. See? Safe!

Online TV shows and movies

TV Links collects links of complete shows and movies that are online (like on Youtube, Google Video etc) and categorizes them. Awesomeness.

Tattooing your eyeball? It's your frickin eye, man!

DON'T TURN BLIND EYE TO EYE-TATTOO RISKS

Lost Wallet Test - 100 wallets deliberately lost to test honesty

This is an interesting social experiment conducted by bored.com. Lost Wallet Test - 100 wallets deliberately lost to test honesty. You can check out the results based on gender, race and age. For the executive summary, old white females are the most trustworthy, and young black males are the least trustworthy. I'll wait while you pick your jaws up off the floor.

Endless Assembly Lines and Giant Cafeterias

Inside China's Vast Factories