bookofjoe

Soda or Pop?

 

Depends where you live.

Created by Joshua Katz, this map illustrates regional variations in the generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage.

Many people in the South ask for a Coke even when they're ordering a Sprite, as in: "I'll have a Coke. What kind? A Sprite, please."

Speed Tape

You don't need to be an airplane mechanic to find this stuff useful.

It works great around the house: I use it to seal the access port of my heating system's replaceable air filter housing.

2.8" wide x 148-foot-long roll: $32.23.

Odd Signs

 

 

 

 

Expert's Expert: Cook's Illustrated Magazine test cook Andrea Geary on the one piece of equipment she'd take home if she could have her pick from the Test Kitchen

Asked what it would be, Ms. Geary (above) replied, "It's a total luxury item, but the Vita-Mix blender. Those are fantastic. It's the kind of thing I would never spend the money on myself. But if they gave me one? I'd be fine with that."

You can too.

$499.71.

Bruce Lee demonstrates some kung fu moves

He really was fast as lightning.

Find the 12 differences

Original up top, altered image below.

Answers here.

I've noticed that the simpler the images upon first looking at them, the more difficult finding the differences proves to be.

There are several in this puzzle that can only be termed "diabolically subtle."

Fair warning.

Binchōtan Bead Bracelet

From the website:

This bracelet is made with Binchōtan (also called white charcoal), considered the finest charcoal in the world.

Each bead is polished by hand by an experienced craftsman in Korea — an arduous process taking months to finish.

From afar, the beads are smooth and shiny, almost like porcelain.

Up close, the fine grain of the original oak wood is still visible.

White charcoal has an extremely high carbon content and has been prized for centuries for its beneficial effects on blood circulation, body temperature, and spirit.

Features and Details:

• Each bead is 0.6" in diameter

• Bracelet size is adjustable

$280.

Your value doesn't decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth

[via Cayte Grieve]

Helpful Hints from joeeze: Those black streaks on your roof will destroy it

FunFact: That black stuff is roof algae.

Patterson Clark's "Urban Jungle" feature in the Washington Post laid out the cold, dark truth; excerpts above and below.

Where you could find me online in 2013

I happened on this graphic last night.

A number of those twenty-seven (!) websites have gone dark over the years.

This movie does not exist

Wrote the site's creator, owner of a video production studio whose livelihood may be dashed to smithereens by ever more powerful AI :

I thought it was fun to see what kind of movies AI would generate, so I created a "This Movie Does Not Exist" website that auto-generates fake movies (movie posters + synopsis [top]).

It basically uses GPT-3 to generate a story plot, then uses that as a prompt (with in-between steps) for Stable Diffusion.

Results may vary, but it definitely surprises sometimes with movies that look and sound amazing!

Terrazzo Crayons

From the website:

A set of wax-based crayons inspired by terrazzo and rocks.

Each cube — 1.4" long on each edge — consists of a variety of colors so that as you sketch and draw you get a mix of shades. 

Presented in a beautiful minimalist box. 

£38.50.

There's a reason a standard set of 26 identifying words were selected to identify each letter of the alphabet.

Lives can hinge on getting them right.

Doesn't hurt to memorize and use them when you're on the phone spelling out your always misspelled name (Shirt, Spurt, Skirt, Start — I could go on for a while with a pretty much endless litany of botched versions of my name but I won't).

Toucan Purring

Steely Crüe