The original 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was devised as a promotional tool for a new candy bar from Quaker Oats. Unfortunately the candy bar had to be recalled soon after it’s release because of formulation problems that caused the chocolate bar to melt. In fact, the title of the film was changed from Charlie, to Wonka to include the name of the candy bar.
source: DVD special features – Pure Imagination documentary
A site make long unmanagable urls into one liners. Very handy, thanks John Stossel. I noticed he was using them in an online article.
Bob Schieffer in his book This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV
A great resource of free services on the web. Free tutorials, free file transfers, free conference calls, free voicemail/faxes, ect. Mainly aimed at print designers, but most are beneficial to everyone.
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/25369.html?cprose=8-15
Don’t ask me how I run across these things, but I was entertained by this guy’s video. It’s about Canadian government politics but an interesting presentation.
Now this is a financial report I could watch!
He reminds me of Rick Moranis, come to think of it he’s from Canada too.
According to Michael Conover, a professor of wildlife at Utah State University, the deer population is at an all time high, “more now than when the Pilgrims landed!” He cites the decline of hunting as a major reason.
source: This Old House Magazine article “Bye-bye, Bambi” 4/2007
Another interesting thing gleaned from the article is that the prison ordered 1,600 Korans to the tune of $23,000.
Interesting project at Microsoft to “explore photo collections in 3D.” Program can scan personal photos or even photos shared on the web to build a navigable 3D space. One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while!
http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/PhotoTours/
Make sure you watch the video demo!
http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/PhotoTours/PhotoTourismFull.wmv
Sebastian Junger in his book A Death in Belmont, puts forth the idea that murderers are the best candidates for sentence commutation and parole. Their recidivism rate is only 2%, compared to burglars, petty thieves and rapists at around 50%.
A comment in the summation of Sebastian Jungers book A Death in Belmont made me think a bit. “All governments are deceitful, because it’s much easier to be deceitful than truthful. And most of the time it is no more sinister than that.”
