- Snowflakes Under an Electron Microscope (via @ThisIsTrue)
- The United States of Autocomplete (Strange Maps) – What happens if you type each state name into Google and see what the popular searchers are?
- See something? Cite something! (How to share content on the Internet)
- I agree that “App Store” is too generic to be trademarked, but it’s funny to see Microsoft — the owners of such products as “Windows,” “Word” and “Flight Simulator” — making the complaint against Apple. (via @ThisIsTrue)
You Know You Need Coffee When… (Volume 2)
Continued from volume one…
- You put a filter in the coffee maker, then go back to get…a filter for the coffee maker. And then put the bag of coffee back in the fridge…where you’ve never kept coffee. Ever. (Yeah, I was batting 1,000 that day.)
- You get halfway up the stairs before realizing you left your travel mug in the car. (I’ve done this several times.)
- You get impatient with the pour rate while filling your mug.
- You pour cereal into your coffee mug instead of a bowl. (Well, almost.)
- You come up with a great item to add to your “You know you need coffee when…” list and can’t remember what it was.
The Office Barista: Simple Drinks For Your Coffee Break
Don’t have time to go to Starbucks, but want something more than plain coffee? Here are some simple drinks you can make with ingredients that might be in your lunch room, or that you can easily keep at your desk.
Coffee + hot chocolate mix = mocha
Coffee + hot chocolate mix + cinnamon
Hot chocolate mix + mint-flavored black tea
Hot chocolate mix + cinnamon-flavored black tea
Hot chocolate mix + masala chai tea
Since I realized that this was more of a list of what you can do with hot chocolate mix, I’ve been meaning to fill in more detail for…well, months now. Apparently today is National Coffee Break Day, so I figured rather than letting it sit in the drafts folder forever, I’d post what I had in observance!
Starbucks’ new Trenta Coffee: Big Deal
I can’t get worked up about Starbucks’ new super-size for iced drinks, the 31-ounce Trenta. Here’s why:
- It’s only on iced drinks. Iced tea, lemonade, iced lattes, etc. Unless you’re getting plain iced coffee, you’re not getting 31 ounces of fully-caffeinated coffee.
- Even then, there’s ice taking up a lot of that space. So you’re still not getting 31 ounces of coffee.
- You can get a 32-ounce drink in any fast food place in America. Sometimes it’s called a large. Sometimes it’s called a medium.
A 31-ounce Frappucino might be a bit much…but how much do you typically get in a milkshake at a restaurant that specializes in them? I’m going to guess it’s 12-16 ounces in the glass, plus about the same in the metal mixing cup that they usually deliver to your table at places like Ruby’s or Johnny Rockets. That brings it to 24-32 ounces — in other words, about the same.
So, a little perspective. Is the Trenta bigger than any other Starbucks drink size? Sure. But compared to a Big Gulp? No one would think twice if you picked up a 32-ounce iced tea or lemonade at McDonald’s (except to ask why you weren’t getting a soda), or refilled your 12-ounce glass twice at a sit-down restaurant.
Marvel or DC? It’s the Universe
I’ve always considered myself a DC fan. I think it’s mainly that it’s where I got started, so I got invested in the DC Universe. That’s what’s familiar, while Marvel always seemed like I’d need to do a ton of research just to get started. (Not necessarily true, of course, that’s just how it seemed.) Most of the Marvel books I’ve read were either stand-alone or set off in their own corner of the universe (Alias, True Believers, Astonishing X-Men when Joss Whedon was writing it, etc.)
In short: the complexity of the universe I knew kept me in, and the complexity of the universe I didn’t know kept me out.
These days I still consider myself a DC fan, and I follow all the DC-related news and commentary, but I don’t actually read many of their books anymore. It’s down to one: The Flash. The rest of the line just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. But neither does Marvel’s. Actually, about half of my pull list is from BOOM! right now, with the rest of it scattered around DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse, Aspen, Image, etc.
Previously posted on Reddit
Comment Policy
The Internet needs a new rule: Do not comment on an article about a controversial topic until you’ve actually read and understood the post to which you’re responding.
(Mad) Scientific Fact: The Girl Genius Novel is Out!
For the past decade, Phil & Kaja Foglio have been spinning the mad science/gaslamp fantasy adventures of Agatha Heterodyne in the award-winning comic book-turned-webcomic Girl Genius. Now they’ve stepped into a new medium, adapting the first story into a prose novel: Agatha H. and the Airship City.
The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been sixteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over – and terrorizing – the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Heterodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach – and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.
The comics are great fun, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ve filled in the details in the novel version!
