Amazing Choir uses hands to simulate storm

Amazing Choir uses hands to simulate storm is a Perpetuum Jazzile Youtube video of an a capella rendition of Toto's "Africa"

The intro is fantastic and inventive, the vocal performance is... okay. The song lyrics, are of course, problematic. I don't know why it's become such a standard in a capella circles, but there it is.

(From Metafilter)

Tom Swiftly

Looks like we have a follow-up!

Tom Swiftly is a no-frills website devoted to generating Tom Swiftlies (for explanation, see previous day's post).

You can click on "Swiftly" to refresh, on "Challenge" to scramble and capitalize all letters, or "Submit" to submit your own. Enjoy!
(From metafilter)

Weekend Competition: Tom Swifties

Weekend Competition: Tom Swifties is a New York Times word competition. They explain:

“ Tom Swifties' are curious puns that monkey with the description of reported speech for comic effect... This weekend, co-vocbularists are invited to submit their own Tom Swifties – the more convoluted the better. Additional points will be awarded for references to current affairs... For example:

'I manufacture table tops,' said Tom counterproductively.
'Let’s have a debate about cows,' Tom mooted.
'Who discovered radium?' asked Marie curiously.
'Just parsley, sage and rosemary,' said Tom timelessly.
'This sea-spray will ruin all the metal-work,' said Tom mistrustfully
'I can’t tell you how much it resembles a table,' said Tom veritably.
'Show no mercy killing the vampire,' said Tom painstakingly.
'It keeps my hair in place,' said Alice with abandon."

Get it? Get it? A BAND ON? VERY TABLE-EY? MIST-RUST-FULLY? Quite awful, and delicious. The comments are running wild.

(From the K )

Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else

Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else is a satirical video about queer marriage. Betty Bowers is purportedly America's best Christian.  I'm not saying this is the best logical argument, but it is the most snide and heavy-handed. 

(From Guy)

The cold hard facts of freezing to death

The cold hard facts of freezing to death is an article by Peter Stark that ran in Outside Magazine over 10 years ago. I remember reading this a couple of months before--I can't remember where--but now it showed up on Kottke so I thought it'd be worthy of a post.

Basically, it's a fictionalized narrative of a person who almost dies of hypothermia, sprinkled in with some facts. Exerpt:

"At 85 degrees, those freezing to death, in a strange, anguished paroxysm, often rip off their clothes. This phenomenon, known as paradoxical undressing, is common enough that urban hypothermia victims are sometimes initially diagnosed as victims of sexual assault. Though researchers are uncertain of the cause, the most logical explanation is that shortly before loss of consciousness, the constricted blood vessels near the body's surface suddenly dilate and produce a sensation of extreme heat against the skin.

All you know is that you're burning. You claw off your shell and pile sweater and fling them away.

But then, in a final moment of clarity, you realize there's no stove, no cabin, no friends. You're lying alone in the bitter cold, naked from the waist up. You grasp your terrible misunderstanding, a whole series of misunderstandings, like a dream ratcheting into wrongness. You've shed your clothes, your car, your oil-heated house in town. Without this ingenious technology you're simply a delicate, tropical organism whose range is restricted to a narrow sunlit band that girds the earth at the equator."

(From Kottke)

Diagram of a Blog

Diagram of a Blog is an op-art piece by Paula Scher. You may know Paula as the lady who desgined the Citibank logo, or the lady who gave a so-so talk about design at TED. Meh.

(From Guy)

Microsoft Bing

Microsoft Bing is a new search engine by Microsoft. It went live 2 days early.

The India Times reports there are a few glitches:

"As Microsoft attempts to unseat Google, it unveiled a slate of convenient features for Bing, including an "autoplay" tool that lets users preview videos simply by hovering a mouse over them.

The tool may become a liability because users can have easy access to porn videos on Bing, and not have to log on to one of the porno websites."

(From MM)

My Life Is Average

My Life Is Average is a humor site, mocking FMyLife.com.. FMyLife, of course, is a site where people write in crappy things that happended to them, and readers vote on the best/funniest/worst thing to happen.

In My Life Is Average, people write in with anectdotes of supreme mediocrity. Such as:

"Today I left the house without locking the door. When I came back, all my stuff wasn't gone. MLIA "

"Today, I opened my closet. Didn't find Narnia. MLIA."  

"I'm a security guard at a museum. Nothing comes alive at night. MLIA"  

"Today, my G string snapped. I had to get a new one for my cello. MLIA "

"Today, I experimented with another guy. We were great lab partners, and will probably work together again. MLIA "

"While downloading Limewire, it asked me if I was going to use it to download music illegally. I said no. I did. MLIA. "

"Today, a spider bit me. I did not get super spidey strength."

"Today, I saw a single lady. I liked her, but I didn't put a ring on it. MLIA "

"Today, I had some Frosted Flakes. There were good, but not great. MLIA."

The tone is understated apathy. Cute.  

(From DB)

Live Mocha

Live Mocha is a social site that helps you learn foreign languages. Basically, you can earn points by correcting other people's writing or pronunciation in your native language. In exchange, someone else can help you learn to speak a new language.

Live Mocha explains: "Members all over the world can utilize their native language proficiency to teach and learn from other members of the community. Users have the option of practicing structured conversation exercises with a native speaker or submitting a writing or an audio sample of an exercise for a native speaker to edit or correct. These community-based interactive tools in Livemocha help build a strong engaged language community."

In addition to the interactive stuff, they also have structured lesson plans with support for English, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Nice. 

(From DM)

How To Shave Your Groin

How To Shave Your Groin is a self-explanatory YouTube video advertising Gillette products and explaining how to properly shave your groin. Without actually showing anything graphic. It uses hirsute shadow people to explain what to do.

I think I will have to try this lotion thing, lest I start getting the nickname "crotch itch".

(From Guy)