Free Science Fiction eBooks...

...from the Gutenberg Project...

Geography Puzzle...

Here's a very nice puzzle that is more challenging (at least to me!) that it might seem – because it exploits the size/shape distortions of Mercator projections as latitude changes.

The premise of the puzzle is simple: you start with a Google Maps world projection, with 15 country outlines in red misplaced (see below).  All you have to do is drag them to where they belong.  If you're a bit of a geography nerd, this sounds like it should be easy – especially because most of the puzzle pieces are well-known and fairly large countries, and none of them are the little tiny countries you might expect them to throw at you.  As you drag the outlines to various latitudes, you can see the shape and size change, dramatically (this is of course the result of the Mercator projection). 

It took me just over 9 minutes to complete this, with one country in particular (and one that I'm very familiar with, having traveled extensively in it!) took me almost three minutes to find...

Optical Illusions...

A great collection, with some that are new to me (like the one below).

Another Step Backwards...

Every year we need fewer farmers and more engineers.  This is a natural consequence of the world's economy evolving toward mechanization and automation.  The jobs available in the evolving economy are more intellectual, less manual.  So naturally, our schools need to better prepare students for this new world, by equipping them with the skills to get jobs in it.  Right?

Wrong.  California has decided that math needs less emphasis.

Doom...

Curiosity: Self-Portrait 2...

There Must Be...

...an interesting story behind this change...

Blog Post of the Day...

This one is somewhat recursive – it's from Rachel Lucas, who is herself blogging about a (great!) post from Jeff Goldstein:

There is no point to the GOP anymore. They are about as much of a counterweight to the liberal Democrats and Obama as a dingleberry is on Primo’s ass when he wants to run like the wind.

He doesn’t like it, and he might slow down for a second to rub his butt in the grass, but then off he goes again to his desired destination, undeterred.

There's no substantive difference in behavior between the Democrats and the Republicans, taken as a whole.  I agree.  It's a problem.  One that smells of doom...