Swing Set

WolframAlpha

monkaaay hearts this website and always things of funny things to search! Try your name, your birthdate, a movie, a person, a math formula (Emily B), ANYTHING, JUST TRY IT!

Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is an online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might. It was announced in March 2009 by Stephen Wolfram, and was released to the public on May 15, 2009.

Users submit queries and computation requests via a text field. Wolfram Alpha then computes and infers answers and relevant visualizations from a core knowledge base of curated, structured data. Alpha thus differs from semantic search engines, which index a large number of answers and then try to match the question to one. In this way it has many parallels with Cyc, a project aimed since the 1980s at developing a common-sense inference engine.

Wolfram Alpha is built on Wolfram's earlier flagship product, Mathematica, which encompasses computer algebra, symbolic and numerical computation, visualization, and statistics capabilities. With Mathematica running in the background, it is suited to answer mathematical questions. The answer usually presents a human-readable solution.

However, Wolfram Alpha is also capable of responding to natural-language fact-based questions such as "Where was Mary Robinson born?" or more complex questions such as "How old was Queen Elizabeth II in 1974?" It displays its "Input interpretation" of such a question, using standardized phrases. E.g., "Mary Robinson | place of birth" or "age | of Queen Elizabeth II (royalty) | in 1974". It is also capable of performing calculations on data using more than one source. For example, "What is the forty-eighth smallest country by GDP per capita?" yields Pakistan, $696.59 per year .

The database currently includes hundreds of datasets, including All Current and Historical Weather. The datasets have been accumulated over approximately two years, and will continue to grow. The range of questions that can be answered will grow with the expansion of the datasets.

From Wikipedia.

Some queries to try: (they are easter eggs click to learn more about easter eggs)

Hello world.

Where am I?

Who are you?

Where you are?

Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego?

Why did the chicken cross the road?

What is love? (and click on "Use What Is Love (song) instead")

Is wolframalpha better than google?

How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

What do women (or men) want?

How do I win the lottery?

Where do babies come from?

88mph

There are tons of movie and other references as well. If you start a line in a written work or film or song it finished it or answers the questions as they did in the piece. (ex. how many roads must a man walk down?)

Friday Diversion: Ducks!

Ducks!
A puzzle type brain workout game. You have to figure out what you need to do to get through each level, there are some repeats, but they get harder. I think there are 25 levels of ducky cuteness.

monkaaay is a little jealous of the duckies' cuteness.

Google Earth

Heart-shaped island highlighted by Google Earth becomes hit with lovers.

A tiny island in the Adriatic has become a holiday hit for lovers because it is shaped like a heart.

The 130,000 square yard islet of Galesnjak came to prominence after its unusual shape was highlighted on Google Earth.
Even the owner of the uninhabited island - now known as Lovers' Island - didn't realise how perfectly heart-shaped the island off the Croatian coast was until he was swamped with requests from couples to stay there.

It seems many lovers from around the world consider it the ideal spot for a romantic Valentine's Day break.
Vlado Juresko said: "It has been incredible. We think it is the most perfect heart-shaped island in the world. Nobody lives there so if lovers really do want to spend time alone it's the perfect desert island.
"We always thought it looked a bit like a heart but since it's been on Google Earth everyone else has seen it too and the whole world seems to want to stay here."
The island is located in Zadarski Kanal between Zadar and the Island of Pasman.
Croatia is ranked as the 18th most popular tourism destination in the world, proving especially busy during the summer months.

This fingerprint can be found in Hove Park, near Brighton and Hove in the UK. It measures 38 metres around. Imagine the size of the hand.

A synthetic wonder that can be truly appreciated only from above, this giant man-shaped lake (-21.805149,-49.089977) is located near Bauru, Brazil.

Dubbed the "Badlands Guardian" by locals, this geological marvel (Google Earth coordinates 50.010083,-110.113006) in Alberta, Canada, bears an uncanny resemblance to a human head wearing a full Native American headdress--and earphones, to boot. Of course, The Guardian was produced naturally.

Some of the sights you find in Google Earth are just plain mysterious. For example, why is a fighter jet parked (Google Earth coordinates 48.825183,2.1985795) in what looks to be a residential neighborhood lot near Paris?

Here is a link with these photos and more!

This Man

Read more on their website, like dreams about this man, theories, see portraits people have drawn of him, and places where he has been dreamt of.

In January 2006 in New York, the patient of a well-known psychiatrist draws the face of a man that has been repeatedly appearing in her dreams. In more than one occasion that man has given her advice on her private life. The woman swears she has never met the man in her life.

That portrait lies forgotten on the psychiatrist's desk for a few days until one day another patient recognizes that face and says that the man has often visited him in his dreams. He also claims he has never seen that man in his waking life.

The psychiatrist decides to send the portrait to some of his colleagues that have patients with recurrent dreams. Within a few months, four patients recognize the man as a frequent presence in their own dreams. All the patients refer to him as THIS MAN.

From January 2006 until today, at least 2000 people have claimed they have seen this man in their dreams, in many cities all over the world: Los Angeles, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Tehran, Beijing, Rome, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, New Dehli, Moskow etc.

At the moment there is no ascertained relation or common trait among the people that have dreamed of seeing this man. Moreover, no living man has ever been recognized as resembling the man of the portrait by the people who have seen this man in their dreams.

The aim of this website is:
- to help those who have seen this man in their dreams and to foster communication among them;
- to understand who this man is and why he appears in an apparently pattern-less array of situations in the dreams of such diverse human subjects.

Munchies

Hungry and can’t decide among your favorite snacks? Now you don’t have to – Munchies Snack Mix is the only snack mix with all your favorites in one bag including Doritos, Cheetos, Rold Gold and SunChips.

MUNCHIES Cheese Fix

MUNCHIES FLAMIN' HOT

MINCHIES Totally Ranch Snack Mix

Hmmmmm... Think these are like the 50 extra pieces they have left over at the end of packaging a batch of each item? The old crumbs from the bottom of the bucket. Then they just have some sort of flavor spray that they coat it all with to mask the orginal not fitting together tastes?

monkaaay don't think he want him no munchies

Your Truck is on Fire

The scene: 42 Robinglade Dr Toronto, ON Canada
The following is a series of screen shots of google earth's street view. I think I solved the case...

View 1: Arriving at the scene

Click on an image for a larger view. Or google the address yourself and see the street view.

View 2: Oh yeah, that's on fire

View 3: Attempting to put it out

You can see a person sitting near the porch... what is she doing?
Oh, good idea, try to squirt it with the sprinkler! That's gonna get it done obviously.....

Close up of van.

View 4: The scene

Here is a view as the google truck passes by (without seeming to stop to help mind you.) Let's take a look at what is going on now... (remember click for larger view)

View 5: Finally noticing

Some spectators here finally start to notice that something is on fire...

And here you can see on the right, a person rushing to the van; and on the left the woman calling someone... hopefully the fire department.

View 5: The culprit?

I think this is where I solved the case...

Who is this guy!? Is he wearing a mask!? ...Really?! And possibly a cape?!

Re-purposing Item: Suckers

Mmmmm monkaaay wants to try it NOW!

Original purpose: Satisfying your sweet tooth.

Aha! use: Stirring cocktails. Look for traditional lollipops in colors that complement your drinks. Lime-flavored stirrers give vodka tonics an extra burst of flavor.

Reward: Inner-child twist to a grown-up beverage (and fodder for cocktail-party small talk).