Category Archives: Randomness

The Intersection of Oil & Sex in Williston, ND

We went down to Williston, North Dakota at the end of summer and it was clear that this small American city with a population of about 10 000, like its Candian counterparts, Weyburn and Estevan, was booming due to the oil economy and various related industries. One industry that’s not available in the Canadian cities […]

Sappy Sunday – Acceptance & Anti-Bullying Message From An Insurance Commercial?!?

A Thai insurance commercial, mashed-up with an atmospheric piece of music, creates a touching message against bullying and about acceptance:

Friday Fun Link – Go The Fuck to the Library

It’s funny cause it’s true. (h/t to TR & CF)

The Best Non-Fiction Book I Read This Year…

…was quite possibly a fiction book! I think I’ve mentioned before that I read mostly non-fiction – probably 80-90% NF to 10-20% Fiction.  But a recent Reddit thread on “eye-opening books that have improved the quality of your life” led me to a great fiction find. In the thread, somebody recommended Bill Bryson’s “A Short […]

The Tribesman Who Facebook Friended Me

A really interesting story about how Facebook has reached into places where you would least expect it. (I sometimes feel like I need to add this to any story I post that I find on MetaFilter but seriously, the MetaFilter comments make the original story 1000x better!)

Cross-Linguistic Onomatopoeia

A discussion of how the song “Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes” is sung with a different melody in Canada then in other parts of the world leads to this awesome Wikipedia article about how a variety of animal sounds and other common noises are conveyed in different languages. (via MetaFilter)

Saturday Snap – Funny Graffiti

Kids, grafitti is wrong and you should never do it.  But if you happen to have a Sharpie in your pocket when walking past an unadorned stop sign, it’s a truism of life that the obvious jokes can also be the funniest.  😉  

Map Porn

I recently discovered an awesome sub-Reddit called r/mapporn which features all kinds of really frickin’ cool maps such as “America 1681“, “Flipping European and North American Cities“, “World Map of Railways“, “Map of Facebook Connections” and I have to stop there or else I’ll just link to all their maps – each one is so […]

Friday Fun Link – One Day on Earth

A recent documentary features a variety of scenes from all around the world captured on a single day.  Here’s the trailer: One Day on Earth – Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

Some Thoughts on The 10th Anniversary of 9/11

There’s a lot of commentary today online, in other media and at memorials around the world.   So instead of adding to the noise, I thought I’d do a quick round-up of some of the most interesting things I’ve seen… (Oh, okay – I’ll quickly do my own “Where were you when?” story since I […]