A Lion Called Christian

I'm a sucker for animal stories that tug at the heartstrings, and especially when those stories are about a cat. This video, sent to me by someone who knows those predilections of mine, is about a big cat -- a lion called Christian. He was raised by two people in their home until he became too big for domestic life. He was returned to the wild, but his human 'family' had a reunion with him after a year, and that's what this video is about.

Animal lovers -- and especially cat lovers -- should get out their hankies now, and prepare to say, "Awwwwww."



(If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.)

Brainy Quotes: Famous Quotes and Quotations

I love stuff like this: BrainyQuote.com -- A website that serves up famous quotes and quotations by subject or keyword, or according to who said it.

I came across BrainyQuote more or less by accident, while trying to help my daughter solve a crossword puzzle. The clue was a quotation, and the correct answer was the name of the person who said it. We entered the quotation into a Google search, and voilà, we discovered BrainyQuote, which had the answer.

BrainyQuote is addicting, and highly recommended as an alternative to a mindless computer game, next time you are looking for something to pass the time. Who knows what words of wisdom or inspiration it might yield.

By the way, BrainyQuote also offers a "Quote of the Day" widget for your website or blog, if you like that sort of thing.

Check it out. As Benjamin Franklin said, "The doors of wisdom are never shut."

American English Dialects - A Quiz

Here's a link to a quick, 20-item quiz that is supposed to assess regional American dialects. The quiz was developed from the results of the Harvard Computer Society Dialect Survey of 30,788 respondents.

Try it. (No cheating!!)

The Yankee - Dixie Quiz

I came out 46% Yankee. How about you?

Birdtown (a Funky Town)

This video has been on YouTube since June of 2007, and only had 31,000-something views as of today. I can't believe something as cute as this hasn't gained more currency. It should have 'gone viral' ages ago, in my humble opinion.



(If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.)

Video: War history portrayed as food fights

Here's a novel take on war. Filmmaker Stefan Nedelman (touristpictures.com) stages a series of food fights to represent the history of war, from World War II to the present day. The 'combatants' are ethnic foods from the various warring countries and groups. Have a look:



(If the video above does not display or play properly, you can view it here on BoingBoing TV.)

In case you couldn't identify some of the combatants, the filmmaker provides this cheat sheet.

I thought the video did a great job of characterizing ethnic groups in terms of emblematic foods, but I'm wondering if some groups -- or individuals in groups -- will take offense at being portrayed this way. For what it's worth, although I'm American, I've never thought of myself as either a hamburger or a chicken nugget! Nevertheless, I get the stereotype.

I found the video to be both amusing and surreal. It also made me squirm a bit, although I'm having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why.

In any case, it's a true original, and if it doesn't go rampantly viral around the Web, it should! What do you think?

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Tip of the hat to Stefan Nadelman, who produced this video, to BoingBoingTV for hosting this version of the video, and to John Battelle's Searchblog, where I first saw it.

Nostalgia: The 1950s and 1960s

In an email, a friend sent me a link to a video of 1950s nostalgia. What killed me, of course, was how well I actually remembered everything portrayed in the video -- the music, the cars, the (ahem) fashions. Talk about feeling old -- even though I was just a little girl in the Fifties, mind you!

Here's that link:

Take Me Back to the Fifties

After watching the video, I clicked through to the website's home page, where I discovered even more nostalgia inducers.

This video covers my high school and college years:

Take Me Back to the Sixties

And while we are at it, how about a featurette on The Cars We Drove in the 50s & 60s.

By the way, the first car I got to drive regularly was my mother's 1958 Ford Fairline 500, like the one in the photo at the top of this page -- but without the fender skirts. (Mom would never have had a car with fender skirts!)

More stuff to play with

Have a look at Poodwaddle.com for a great collection of stuff to play with, presented in a novel and interesting way.

Check out the Earth Clock, and the Poodwaddle Games. There are a bunch of gadgets and widgets that you can embed on your website.

A Life Expectancy Calculator

"Your Real Age (sometimes called Health Age) is different from your current physical age. It is a reflection of your health and vitality. The lower your Real Age the better shape you are in. It is used to calculate the Life Expectancy of someone of your current physical age."

So says the introduction on the page with the Life Expectancy Calculator (according to which I'm really only 49, and I'm going to live until I'm 90-something).

From Peter Russell's The Spirit of Now. While you're on Peter's Site, check out the World Clock -- food for thought.