Fabaceous (adj): bean-like.  Funbaceous (adj): humour-like.  Here’s two weeks’ worth of links – brace yourselves!

Olympics:

• Intro to Canada – At the beginning of the Olympics, NBC made this short film to introduce their American viewers to Canada.  Tom Brokaw narrates.
• Opening ceremonies – TBP’s take on the 2010 opening ceremonies in Vancouver.  Lots of spectacle.
• Week one – The Big Picture collects the best images of the first week of the Vancouver games.  Make sure to check out the Norwegian curlers’ pants in #10.
• NYT Interactive – The New York Times presents their videos of the Olympics, including a luger’s-eye-view of the track at Whistler and an interactive map of the downhill course.

Social:

• Fruitful multiplication – A 93-yr-old Jewish woman passed away recently, leaving behind close to 2,000 living relatives.  In her religious tradition, bearing children was a tribute to God.
• Oldest temple – An archaeological dig in Turkey is shaking up the field of anthropology, as scientists have dated the ruins to 11,500 years ago, predating the Pyramids by 7,000 years.  The head of the dig argues that religion and the urge to worship brought people together, from which came civilization, cities and agriculture.  Civilization, it seems, is a product of religion, and not the other way around.
• North Korea – Disturbing article on the conditions and mentality of those living under the rule of Kim Jong-Il.
• US budget – Breakdown of where the $3.7 trillion that the US federal government spends goes, along with a comparison of the same sector from last year.

Science:

• Power generation – Interesting article on Bloom boxes, power generators for on-site power requirements.  They use about ½ the natural gas as a traditional power plant, using fuel cell technology.  Developed originally for NASA, they combine oxygen with any fuel source to create energy.  Companies using them already include Google, Staples, eBay, Walmart, FedEx and Coke.  The inventor wants to see them powering homes in the next 10 years.
• Organ printing – The Holy Grail of organ transplant may be on the horizon – organs that won’t be rejected, because they are made from cells from the recipient.  A new printer that uses 3-D scaffolding technologies to print blood vessels and skin is the precursor to a new generation of medical devices that can build an organ from your own cells, ready to transplant into you.
• Google – Fascinating article on what keeps Google’s search algorithm so far ahead of its competitors’.  The constant changes they make to ensure more accurate and relevant results go largely unseen by users of the service, but are documented here.
• Gates on climate – Bill Gates, head of the largest philanthropic organisation in the world, spoke at TED this year about the need for climate change technological advances.  He’s putting his money where his mouth is to try and reduce climate-changing emissions to zero by 2050.
• Homeopathy in trouble – It seems British skeptic’s antics have paid off – members of Parliament are questioning why Britain’s NHS pays £4m each year for treatments that fare no better than placebos in tests.
• Mariana Trench – I never realised before quite how deep parts of the ocean are.  This illustration puts it in perspective.

Language Arts:

• Story Idea generator – TVTropes (warning, highly addictive website) puts all their combined knowledge of narrative into this generator which offers a random combination of tropes to spark an idea.  Perhaps the beginning of a writing exercise?

Miscellaneous:

• Unique store – This furniture store definitely has a unique design.  I’m not sure if it’s possible to get further from the North American big-box sensibility when designing a large retail space.
• Online presentations – Presentations given online often suffer because they either lack graphics (so you’re stuck watching a video of someone explaining something you can’t see) or they lack video (so you’re stuck watching static slides for the duration).  Zentation combines the two so you always know what’s going on.
• Tire art – Sculptors using used tires have created some amazing projects.
• Marching band – If you thought that all marching bands play is Souza, prepare to be surprised.  This music video for OK Go features the marching band from Notre Dame.
• Wall decals – If you have a photo you would like blown up and stuck to your wall, Shutterfly has the service for you!  They will crop your photo and print a vinyl wall decal 3,4 or 5 feet high to decorate any room.
• Rubik’s robot – A Rubik’s cube-solving robot built out of Lego™ solves a random cube in 10 seconds.

Have a great weekend and remember, March (starting Monday) is National Cheerleading Safety Month!

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