NorthGeek

Jay Leno: in search of Hollywood’s hidden street circuit. Starring a Mercedes SLS AMG

With the title, I believe enough has been said. I’ll add this: Dan R, you should be ashamed that you didn’t post this first. Enjoy:

NorthGeek is very excited about Google’s Navigation

This is something that just makes you think, “well, duh” – it had to happen, and finally, it has. Now shipping with all Android 2.0 phones (‘all’ being the Moto Droid for now, at least) is the new Google Maps Navigation which is an internet-enabled, voice prompting GPS navigation app that takes full advantage of all of Google Maps and Google Local’s network features, from business contact info to street view. Have a look:

I’m quite excited for more Android 2.0 phones to come out, especially a GSM one. My only question now: what to do with my Blackberry Bold?

Rolltop – laptop of the future?

Obviously, this is a computer rendering, but wow, I want one! This could very well be the future of portability – a fully collapsable (and ‘rollable’) notebook computer/display. Sign me up – and have a look:

The fun theory – people do things when it’s fun!

Not much needs to be said here, check out this video – what a great idea!

Travel the world on a $20 million lottery win

What would you do if you won the lottery?

You hear stories about lottery winners squandering all their winnings, never feeling comfortable in new social circles, becoming depressed from the paranoia and misunderstanding of the amount of money, etc.

This guy won $20M and traveled the world. He is trying visit every single country. He seems to have taken the right steps to ensure his sanity and have a good time. He helped out family and friends, entertained many company investment opportunities, and bought some quirky decorations of course. He also set up multiple teams to manage his money (you don’t trust anyone with that kind of cash).

Some interesting bits from the Reddit conversation:

Relationships: “No, we were just not right for each other. Winning does make me paranoid when I meet someone interesting. It translates into nervousness, something I wasn’t with women before.”

Dating: “Yes, I mostly date trust fund babies now.”

Arriving in a new country: “Hostel for first night, look into renting a place for a month if it is interesting to me. Once bored, start looking into neighboring countries to repeat.”

Craziest travel stories: “Craziest travel story: I was hiking through Nepal and suffering from oxygen deprivation (I didn’t realize it at the time). By the middle of the week I was hallucinating and thought I saw a yeti, Jesus, and Elvis. Reading through my travel diary for that month scares me. I was shot at in Somalia by a child carrying a pistol that should have been too big for him to carry. The bullet passed through our windshield and missed us by a few inches.”

Words of advice for other people aspiring to win the lottery: “It is dumb luck. I was buying ramen at 4 AM at a gas station and didn’t want change back, so I asked for a lottery ticket since it was a buck. I didn’t even check the numbers until a week had passed and was cleaning out my pockets to do laundry.”

Happiness: “An unfortunate consequence of living in a hardcore capitalist/consumer society is that most problems end up becoming money related. “I have to pay off this student loan, I have to pay for medical bills, etc.” It freed me from that stress in life and has given me the opportunity to travel without much restrictions, so in that sense I am happier.”

How to ensure you don’t squander it: “I moved most of the money into a trust that doesn’t allow me to withdraw over a certain amount every year ($95k). Even if I don’t make any interest on the investment that withdrawal amount is enough to keep me happy and won’t run out in my lifetime.”

What things did you buy: “Comics, action figures, video games, and Porsches.”

Supporting tech: “I’m a Linux user so I support open source. I contacted a few developers on sourceforge who created programs I couldn’t live without and offered them money for their hard work. Most declined.”

Satisfying donation: “I gave money to a school near one of my properties in Brazil, it felt good to see them using books that were more updated than the ones I used in grade school.”

Porsches: “I have a collection of Porsches: 550, 944, GT2, GT3, 964, and a Cayman. All but the 550 are regularly driven.”

N.B. NorthGeek does not endorse playing the lottery. Of course we all know it’s just a tax on the mathematically challenged.

Montreal’s very own Michael Jackson tribute!

Saturday’s Surreal Vancouver sunset

A gorgeous Saturday on Canada’s West Coast was followed by an eerie, almost apocalyptical sunset. As a bonus, it was followed by the annual fireworks competition. This time lapse is taken from the often frequented KatKam.ca webcam near the Burrard Bridge. Please forgive the terrible music!

Here are some stunning photos captured during the sunset:

via KatKam.ca

via KatKam.ca

Evian RollerBabies!

Maybe the funniest and cutest video you’ll see all day…

How do you get to school?

This is pretty crazy stuff! How much could it really cost to build a walking bridge? Those Columbian jungle governments are nutty.
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Some interesting trivia you may or may not have known…

Just a collection of interesting facts. Or factoids… What’s the difference between a fact and a factoid?

• ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
• And ‘lollipop’ is the longest word typed with your right hand.
• No word in the English language rhymes with ‘month,’ ‘orange,’ ‘silver,’ or ‘purple’.
• ‘Dreamt’ is the only English word that ends in the letters ‘mt’.
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
• The sentence: ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter of the alphabet.
• The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak,’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
• There are only four words in the English language which end in ‘dous’: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
• There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: ‘abstemious’ and ‘facetious.’
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
• A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
• A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
• A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• Almonds are a member of the peach family.
• An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
• Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors
• Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!
• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
• The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
• The cruise liner, QE 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
• The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.