Lots of links, no single category. And I'm still planning on writing about Don Knotts, since he passed away recently and I have very fond memories of him, but he's going to stay dead, so I guess there's no hurry.
From Sirius, a link to an MSNBC article about explorers finally finding the true source of the Nile River, which is actually in Rwanda. Here's an excerpt:
The three explorers from Britain and New Zealand claim to be the first to have traveled the river from its mouth to its “true source” deep in Rwanda’s lush Nyungwe rainforest.
Here's the story link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12106964/.
Nathan Carpenter sent me a link to Riya, which is some extraordinarily cool photo technology. From their website:
Our face recognition technology automatically tags people in photos so you can search for just the photo you want. In your albums. In your friends' albums. In our public albums.
It's spectacularly cool, it's at a level far beyond what seems to be currently available, and it's free. Here's the link: http://www.riya.com/.
Here's something I saw over at The Smoking Gun: a counterfeiter who printed a one-billion dollar bill. I'm not sure how he thought Wal-Mart was going to cash that, but it's interesting to look at nonetheless.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0315062billion1.html.
Ted Coldwell sent me a very amusing link to a Time Traveler's Fund. Here's an excerpt from their website:
We establish a fund in current time. You make a small contribution to the fund, and in a few hundred years that small amount grows to a very large amount. From that fund, moneys will be taken and used to retrieve you, perhaps seconds after you join, perhaps even moments before your recorded death, perhaps some other point in your lifetime. Further, the fund may even pay to have you "rejuvenated" medically (assuming this is scientifically possible at that time,) and support you financially for a number of years.
And through the miracle of compound interest, it's only going to cost you ten dollars! Here's the link: http://www.timetravelfund.com/.
Here's a pretty fascinating idea--programmable beverages.
Ipifini's Programmable Liquid Container technology employs buttons on the container's surface that release additives (flavors, colors, fragrances) into the liquid. Additive buttons allow for the consumer to choose variations of the liquid in the container at the point of consumption. For example, a programmable cola bottle with buttons for lemon, lime, vanilla, and cherry flavors as well as a caffeine button allows for thirty-two potential choices of soda. A programmable paint container with twenty pigment additive buttons allows the consumer to choose from one million colors.
I know it's stupid, but I still love it. Here's the link:
http://www.yenra.com/beverages/programmable.html.