Tuesday, August 14, 2007

random 15

  • eggcorn is a database of unusual English spellings. Currently the linguistic database contains more than five hundred examples of commonly misspelled or misused expressions.

  • BBC article on a paper battery. They have produced a sample slightly larger than a postage stamp that can release about 2.3 volts, enough to illuminate a small light.

  • Don't you just love it when the "experts" are wrong (or this just a weird characteristic of me). On the UK version of the "Dragons' Den: judges gave inventor Rob Law a typically fiery dressing down. His product which was rejected as 'worthless' on the BBC television programme for budding entrepreneurs has proved a huge commercial hit. Here's the daily mail article.

  • Jordon Cooper points out the link to an interesting site: Built with: find out what a site is built with. Here's on coffee.

  • “not-to-do” lists can be just as effective—often more so—than to-do lists for upgrading performance. Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate.
    1. Do not answer unrecognized phone calls
    2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night
    3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time
    4. Do not let people ramble—forget “how’s it going?” and embrace “what’s up?”
    5. Do not check e-mail constantly—“batch” and check at set times only
    6. Do not over-communicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customers
    7. Do not work more to fix overwhelm—prioritize
    8. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7, seven days a week—make evenings and/or Saturdays digital leash-free.
    9. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should.
    via Timothy Ferriss is the author of the best-selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek

  • Captured on video for the first time: the mysterious forces that move rocks across the surface of Racetrack Playa in California's Death Valley.

  • Airtrax omni-directional technology allows this Sidewinder Lift Truck to move forward, diagonally, laterally, in any direction at all. The wheel system can rotate 360 degrees in its own footprint or go sideways without turning at all. The navigational options are virtually limitless. Applications are staggering: from power chairs for the disabled to military vehicles to robots.

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