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You can always build forts.

(via Bookslut)

Too bad about the “your property is greater than .5 acre and is unobstructed” requirement. Because otherwise I would totally buy a windmill.

It doesn’t look like much, but what you’re looking at is the number of cell phones “retired” in the U.S. every day — 426,000. View a close up, and other similar photo montages of consumption at Chris Jordan’s Running the Numbers.

(via GOOD Magazine)

Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Surprisingly — stunningly, in fact — research shows that the majority of people select the first option; they would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have. How irrational is that?

Surprising, and not. But are people really that status-conscious? I mean, I know they are. But, really?

(LA Times: “Why people believe weird things about money,” by Michael Shermer [13 Jan 2008]; via Lifehacker)

Mildly frightening robot cat. Just don’t let it eat the robot chicken.

(Somewhat surprisingly, not that robot chicken.)

(via Consumerist)

Would they?

A handy listing of food (and some non-food) expiration time frames.  Although, come on–you’re supposed to refrigerate opened peanut butter after 3 months?  Refrigerate?  Really?

It’s reassuring, as always, to see that even when the sun outlives its useful existence and fries the earth, honey will still be good to eat.

(via RealSimple, by way of Lifehacker)

Or maybe it wasn’t crazy at all. In fact, does anyone say that anymore? They ought to. Because, if it does, it is. From a press release on the FBI’s web site:

The sales pitch was seductive: the young visionary behind Brown Investment Services in Virginia guaranteed investors he would double their money in 30 business days by tapping into the complex world of foreign currency trading.

Just for future generations, let’s translate:

“guaranteed” = “ha ha ha (etc.)”

“complex world of foreign currency trading” = “fraud”

In case you were wondering.

A study of UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families finds that convenience foods aren’t.  Which is to say, families relying on so-called “convenience” foods spent as much time preparing dinner as those families who leaned on, e.g., hot dogs and frozen peas.

(EurekAlert: “Convenience foods save little time for working families at dinner.” [Aug 7, 2007])

Books are so popular in home decor that even people who don’t read acquire them. They buy volumes by the yard at Half Price Books. They send orders off to a California book-decor specialist who ships Danish language books by the foot.

No comment.

Danish? Well, they aren’t meant to be read.

Unless you happen to read Danish. In which case, they are.

Perhaps the ultimate signal that books are decor came when a recent Pottery Barn catalogue showed an entire bookcase with the books turned backward, annoying mismatched spines facing inward, all in an attempt to achieve a neutral, uniform look.

Because… Oh, never mind.

Can’t find a particular book on that shelf? That isn’t the point. As a decorating technique, books work even better when they’ve been read.

Okay.

Then books become signs of a full life, one of inquiry and imagination. Well-loved books are invitations to linger and relax. They are conversation starters. They are small monuments to our interests and passions. As antiquarian book dealer Michael Utt says, “When you look at a person’s books, you can see into his soul.”

–

The trend toward books as decor-only is jarring to longtime book collectors, such as Mr. Utt.

“You should collect what you love,” he says. Or, at least, invest in something you want to read.

–

Here are tips from the experts on how to decorate with books.

That’s “experts”.

Make it personal If you loved your last trip to Oaxaca, a stack of books on regional Mexican art will evoke memories. That’s one way books personalize a room, says interior designer Debbie Chirillo. If Matisse is your favourite artist, a few books of his work will establish your taste. NASCAR your thing? There are books on that, too.

You mean to say that people write books about things they find interesting? How novel.

Stack books on the floor or in baskets. The casual arrangement makes them inviting.

What a brilliant idea… stack books… on the floor.

Create interesting storage Paint a wooden ladder black and use it to shelve an assortment of books, says Leni Leth on www.hgtv.com. Leth runs Book Decor, the California company that sells foreign books by the foot for the express purpose of looking at them rather than reading them. Danish books cost US$100 a foot, German are US$150 a foot and French are US$200. More info at bookdecor.com.

And the reason people care about the language of books they’re not reading…?

A lamp that is too low for its location can be raised by placing it on a stack of books, says designer Linda French. Custom bases can be ordered to raise lamps, but a stack of books is a more personal touch.

Again, brilliant! Make a light higher… by putting it on top of books! Never would’ve thought of that myself.

Create platforms Accessories stand out when they are placed atop a stack of books.

Show them off Stack nicely bound books on end tables or on tables behind sofas. Books add height, create interest and make a room feel lived in.

Jackets on or off Take book jackets off to create a more subdued colour palette. Leave pretty jackets on large art or garden books.

Make a table Put a pile of large books next to a chair. Top with a small piece of glass. Use as an end table.

(a Knight-Ridder news article, initially found someplace, then rediscovered over at the National Post [in Canada]: “Books smarten up a room.” [July 13, 2006]; originally pointed out at The Millions)

Pretty faces negatively influence ad campaigns, anti-smoking ads encourage smoking.

Think you’re fit for a mag cover? How are your cheek shadows? How about your shirt creases (any ugly shadows?)? See retouching in action, step-by-step, in this flash exhibit.

A Chicago Tribune correspondent embarks on a mission to trace the oil from a service station back to its sources; the results are quite remarkable–enlightening and frightening and such–and are conveyed through a written article and an online video documentary (which, before you go, “aw, shucks,” has pretty remarkable production values).

(Also, the documentary uses some well-placed Philip Glass music from Koyaanisqatsi, which is a plus.)

(via Grist)

I, too, would like to note that, for a mere $10,000, I could tell you that puppies sell.

(The main point: a publisher [Nolo Press] spent hundreds o’ thousands o’ dollars to decide what would help it sell more books, and it decided that thing was a friendly golden retriever added to its covers.)

P.S. Above-pictured puppy is in no way affiliated with the aforementioned Nolo Press.

(via The Millions)

“…and this is—it’s your full-time job? Mm-hm, I see. So— So— And, so how long have you been in the telemarketing business?”

A borderline brilliant “counter-script” to use against telemarketers, presented in a lovely choose-your-own-adventure/flowchart format. Done up by the folks (folk? organization?) at EGBG, though it’s not entirely clear what EGBG is. Whatever it is, it’s (based?) in the Netherlands.

(via, originally, the ever-helpful BoingBoing)

• TV-B-Gone. Can anything this delightful be legal? (via Cool Tools)
• Too Real. Schizophrenics are apparently not fooled by optical illusions that trick non-schizophrenics. Curious.
• Oh, that makes it better. “We didn’t actually hover an Osprey over a mosque.” A while ago, Bell & Boeing put out an ad for a type of aircraft (an Osprey) which involved said aircraft hovering over a mosque, troops rappeling, etc., with the tagline, “It descends from the heavens. Ironically, it unleashes hell.” Then everyone from both companies agreed, “oops.” (via The Seattle Times)
• Castles of the US. A surprisingly long list, though apparently the page’s maintainer no longer has time to update it. You wouldn’t imagine the castle landscape is too dynamic, however, so it’s probably fine. (via MeFi)

• Enter into thought about all the underplaces of London, in an interesting and highly photo-ridden post titled “London Toplogical.”
• Or entertain the thought of what “to call the food blech is an insult to blech” means, exactly. This and other insults that didn’t make the cut when slicing & dicing entries for Zagat guides.
• How to talk to a human. More specifically, how to reach a human through the tangle of touch-tone absurdity found w/ most customer support lines.
• It’s not just a tusk, oh no; it’s a tusk (tooth) with “hydrodynamic sensor capacities.” The narwhal’s secret powers finally revealed, and by none other than the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
• Now that summer’s coming around, watch out: that honeybee down the street may actually know more than you think. And no, I’m not using ‘honeybee’ in any sort of allusive manner. (via BoingBoing)

Or would that be past-future? “Futuristic” adverts from roundabout the 60s, Motorola making your future-selves more leisurely fantastic comfortable. Fun.

(More descriptive, if you like: paintings commissioned by Motorola sometime in the 60s to, like, advertise, showcase, what-have-you.)
(via BoingBoing)

Quick: which industry devours more money, Hollywood or Self-Storage?

The answer may surprise you.

(Or not; it really depends how easily you are surprised.)

Now there’s yet another study to add to the growing scientific dissatisfaction with echinacea and its alleged cold-fighting properties.

The sad thing is that, probably, no amount of scientific proof is going to dethrone echinacea in the minds of the millions who’ve already convinced themselves it does work.

(Of course, there’s always the chance that the study is flawed…)