for_sv's blog

They say everything looks better from a distance, but here’s proof that it’s not always true. While no one’s itching to get close to the mosquito, when it’s magnified a couple of thousand times, the notorious pest begins to look almost…beautiful. With this site, you can zoom in on the detailed anatomy of a black ant or fruit fly, simulate the use of a scanning electron microscope to magnify a bee’s eye or a carpet beetle (up to 4000x), discover the 12 Most Wanted bugs (like our old pals the cockroach or the cat flea), and browse “over 1500 micrographs of scientific, biological, and medical subjects photographed with light and electron microscopes.” So if you don’t know an ant’s, er, rear end from its abdomen…don’t worry, you will.

A new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone.

Here’s how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party.

THE OLDEST MILITARY TREATISE IN THE WORLD. Full text online.

A new book, Signs of Life, by Dave Askwith and Alex Normanton, features spoof signs which lampoon officious notices and labels that inform and instruct.

Chasing natural tempests.

[Flash site] Some absolutely stunning shots.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the most famous idea that nobody understands, is now completely explained in five one-minute films. Well, not really. The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia advises that it’ll take some more effort on your part to grasp the whole thing, but they certainly help get the ball rolling (or the watch ticking). Get this — the speed of light from a uniformly moving source is always the same, regardless of how fast it’s moving. We’re still dealing with that one, but we had a eureka moment on the concept of time dilation, as demonstrated by Zoe driving her car while Jasper watches from his veranda. Thanks, Professor Wolfe!

We admit, there are days we wish we’d followed our nine-year-old aspirations and wandered off to Africa to study the animals. This is one of them. Pete’s Pond was created by Pete Le Roux, the general manager of Botswana’s Mashatu Game Reserve. Because poachers frequented the nearby Limpopo River, Pete decided to help repopulate the reserve by digging a pond to provide an alternative watering source. And with some technical help from a webcam, you can see what kind of crowd now hangs out at Pete’s Pond. Get sighting updates,
or just check out what the elephant and leopard researchers are spending their time on. And if you can’t tell a steenbok from an eland or an African civet from a large-spotted genet, the animal gallery can help you out. If you happen to catch the pond at a slow moment, you can relive busier times with video highlights. But in only one hour, we saw a herd of elephants, a sprinkling of zebras, a variety of birds, and one lone warthog. We were working, we swear!

Commercials. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re here to stay. And let’s face it, these 30-second spots often exhibit a lot more creativity and sass than most of the shows they so rudely interrupt. Thanks to today’s Pick, you can now revel in the whole gamut of weird, fascinating, and memorable TV adverts from around the world. The site keeps things simple with the latest additions listed on the front page, and over 500 ads waiting in searchable splendor on the archive page. From quirky Canadian Football League commercials to amusing Australian beer spots, there’s something here to entertain even the most jaded TV cynic.