Friday, October 23, 2009

The Reason for the Season

Halloween is awesome! I couldn't resist posting this. : )

Thursday, October 22, 2009

30 Second Bunnies

Sometimes a film comes out and the previews look good, but you never get around to seeing it. With so much to do each day, it can be hard to find two hours to spare to sit around watching movies. Realizing this (and also realizing that just about anything can be improved with bunnies), Angry Alien Productions has begun producing 30-second versions of all the hit films, only with all the characters replaced with bunnies. Sounds like the perfect solution, right? My favorites are below. More are here.



Monday, October 19, 2009

Time to Update Our Currency?


Countries around the world (and in Europe, especially) have recently been updating or redesigning their paper currency for a more unique, modern look. Though we in the States have made some small changes to our larger bills over the past few years, our dollars still look awfully old-fashioned. Designers around the world have suggestions for us, however. What do you think of these designs?

Colorful?


Upright?



My favorite:


More info and designs are here.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Fun with Fonts!

I am a huge fan of fonts. Of the classic Microsoft Word package, I’ve always loved Goudy Old Style, Perteptua, and Century Schoolbook. Most of the rest, however, are either too ridiculous to ever use or just plain boring after all these years. So I’ve taken the time to discover some new ones available on the market.

I usually find script fonts to be obnoxious, either because they are too small to read or too flowery. But these are delicious:






I’ve also found I prefer serif to sans serif:





But here are a couple sans serif fonts I like:





And a few funs ones for you:





More new fonts are here. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Silly Research that I Love

1) Do Dead Fish Think?
Researcher Craig Bennett and team recently did a very interesting study regarding the emotional and cognitive capacity of dead fish. The researchers took a dead pacific salmon and put it in an fMRI machine. They then proceeded to show the dead salmon photos of people in social situations with specific emotional outcomes. After allowing the dead fish to examine the photo for several seconds, the researchers asked it to determine what emotion the person in the photo was experiencing. The salmon didn't speak, of course, but thought processes were recorded on the fMRI. The researchers found that the fMRI did, in fact, light up several times when the dead fish was considering emotions (photo below). The conclusion to be made, however, is less about the thought processes and brain activity of dead salmon, and more about the limitations of fMRI research.


2) The Topography of Breakfast
Researcher Mark Fonstad and team also put together some interesting research recently. They set out to determine if Kansas really is--as many people assert--"flatter than a pancake". Researchers purchased a well-cooked pancake from a local IHOP and collected macro-pancake topography through digital image processing. They then measured a west-east profile across Kansas taken from merged 1:250,000 scale digital elevation model data from the United States Geological Survey. Upon comparison of the two topographies, it was clearly visible that, although both pancakes and Kansas are very flat, Kansas is most definitely the flatter of the two.