Ordinarily I wait for James to post a Name That Movie before I post my own, but this week is so crazy with work that I figure I better post this now while I have a chance. Hope you enjoy it. Good luck...   more »

I know I'm behind the curve on this stuff typically so you all probably already know about Gary Brolsma the "Numa Numa Guy".  But if not, read on.  I'm sure we all remember the "Star Wars Kid", a pudgy kid shoots some video of himself pretending to be a jedi fighting with a light sabre.  A rather unkind person manages to get ahold of the video and upload it to the internet and suddenly the youngster's private off-kilter antics are being laughed at the world over.  Fortunately, in the case of Gary Brolsma, the story is a lot happier...   more »

ULev readers: things are getting crazy at work, so I may not be able to post much over the next couple days.     See you on the flip side.

My Collections is an amazing page by a Londoner named Tony.  Tony is a serious collector.  I'm blown away by the variety and sheer volume of things he collects.  Further Tony includes a dozen or so pictures of his collections, which he has placed on display around his home.  If you consider yourself a collector, in all likelihood you'll think your own collection paltry compared to this!  Check it out.

[EDIT:  Link was found via Boing Boing.]

The European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter has identified a region of the Martian surface near the equator which appears to be a frozen sea covered with dust. Ice is rarely seen on Mars, typically only appearing at the poles. This sea appears to have been protected by the layer of dust atop it...   more »

So the other day I wrote an article about OU--in my opinion English's most persnickety vowel pair. Following that article I wrote a quick survey and sent it around to the people in my office who are a fair mix of different cultures, to get their take. The survey had only one question...   more »

Scientific American reports that astronomers at Cardiff University have discovered a galaxy with no stars--that emits no visible light of its own. Cosmological science has long predicted these dark galaxies, and indeed the current theories of galaxy formation require that there be quite a few of them, but up until recently none had been found precisely because, well, they're dang hard to see...   more »

Or more precisely "OU".  In all of English, this is the letter combination that my daughter finds the hardest.  I don't blame her... I think it's the worst.  Consider the sentence: "Though he may have difficulty, enough thought should  get him through the tournament in four hours."  To my ear each of those ou's makes a different sound...   more »

No Name-That-Movie this week over at Aces Full... poor James is sick this week.  Feel better soon, James!  In the meantime you can "get your guess on" here.  Good luck...   more »

I posted a new photo to Photos/VanessaTidbits.

The other day I wrote a story about a mannequin. In one scene the box she is shipped in is opened, and she is covered in styrofoam peanuts...   more »

So I was back at the podiatrist today to have a little more of my toenail trimmed away (feels great now!) and to have a blood test done. They want to prescribe Lamisil, which will wipe out the fungus under my big toenail, so it will stop deforming and becoming ingrown. Apparently Lamisil is a little hard on the liver and kidneys so they want to check and make sure that mine are healthy and functioning normally before they put me on the medication. This meant of course, they would have the unenviable task of sticking me with a needle. Did I mention I hate needles? ...   more »

This morning, Éric, a math enthusiast, posted an interesting message to the Sequence Fan e-mail list.  He had come up with a neat sequence and asked "Will the sequence ever stop?"  I decided to see if I could answer that question...   more »

I found a really neat kaleidoscope animation on the web today, and pulled together this collection of kaleidoscope-links...   more »

Reuters reports (via Yahoo News) that a man wearing a mask bought a low-number Hong Kong license plate at auction this past weekend. The plate number, "12", sounds like the Cantonese phrase "certainly easy". It couldn't have been that easy to buy, as the guy paid approximately 7.1 million Hong Kong dollars for it ($910,000 US)...   more »