SuperForester Annette Presents: Good Search

Oooooooh!

The amazing miss SuperForester Annette just sent us word of Good Search.

Good Search is a search engine where you enter in your favorite charity, then search for whatever you need, and... Good Search gives money to the charity you chose!

How simple is that?

I just googled "nutmeg" for Kiva. It took three seconds.

How "now" is the sentence: "I just googled nutmeg for kiva."

That should be our slogan, yo!

SuperForest: We just googled nutmeg for kiva.

Check out Good Search. They've combined curiosity and philanthropy into one friendly app.

Search good with Good Search!

Here's the Good Search wiki.

Thank you, Annette!

See something that makes you happy? Send it in to SuperForestnyc(at)gmail(dot)com.

I'm gonna get "fixed"!

This fall I am planning on turning my 1983 Raleigh road bike into a single gear racer! The bike now is primarily used by a good friend of mine, Jason "Sloopy" Lewis when he comes to visit me from Austin.






I love these projects. The "handsy" work, the trial and error, the mess em ups and triumphs. But what I love most is the RESEARCH!

While researching though, I came across a fun and interesting morsel of intrigue.

Stick with me here...

I was trying to figure out if and or what the difference between a fixed gear bike and a single gear bike are and came across a goody description on wikipedia.

The sentence read like this:

"Nevertheless, the enforced fast spin when descending is claimed[who?] to increase "souplesse" (a French word roughly meaning suppleness), which improves pedaling performance on any type of bicycle.[22]"

The sentence was interesting, of course, but what made my nostrils scrunch is that sweet, little [who?].

So, clicking the "Who?" brought me to this: THIS.

WEASEL WORDS!
Genius!
Oh you wonderful Wiki Weasels!

I love it! Every time I hear a statistic on the news or someone quotes a percentage of "people" who do "something" in a conversation I always scrunch those nostries and wonder, "WAIT! Who said that?"

Thank you wikipedia for validating my concern!

But still, Who said it?!!!

love and weasels,

TV

Outstanding Octopi!

Octopodes are so cool.

We just found a great youtube viddy of an octopus doing its thang.

Check it out, it's pretty impressive:



Here are a few other impressive facts:

"Octopuses have three hearts. Two pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body."

"When under attack, some octopuses can detach their own limbs, in a similar manner to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm serves as a distraction to would-be predators; this ability is also used in mating."

"There are three forms of the plural of octopus; namely, octopuses, octopi, and octopodes. Currently, octopuses is the most common form in the UK as well as the US; octopodes is rare, and octopi is often objected to."

Interesting, no?

Happy Monday!

-Team SuperForest

Utopian Flying Machines

This gorgeous image is a footnote to the "Utopia" entry on wikipedia.

Nina Simone - I Loves You Porgy

So beyond wonderful. Your heart aches to hear sounds this fine.

The legend, Nina Simone.

David Ford: GTH

I wish the song was titled something else, but this man is such an embarrassment of talent and creativity that I couldn't not put it up.

Enjoy.

David Ford @ wikipedia

Where Do You Get Your News?

Afternoon All!

Jackson here.

Whenever I meet people these days, if we have the chance to have a real, honest to goodness conversation, I'm bound to ask: "Where do you get your news?"

I don't have a television. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't ever like to ever own one again. (I'd prefer a nice HD projector.)

That said, I no longer get my info from TV, and what a difference it seems to make in terms of my daily outlook. I was over at SuperForester Andrew's apartment recently to watch Saturday Night Live and was completely transfixed by the television. The opinions and information in every moment are such an incredible peek into the zeitgeist (spirit of the times,) that I wonder if perhaps I should get back into TV, or risk being left behind.

Nah... The truth box is all the TV I need.

So now I get my info from the internet, and I am free to check facts, balance multiple viewpoints, and cross-reference news items in a way that I feel portrays events in a much more objective light.

So here is where I get my "news":

Google.com/news - the broad strokes.

cnn.com - the Amero-centric broad strokes and assorted zaniness.

treehugger.com - Pink news ("green" is over.)

inhabitat.com - Pink architecture and design news

slashdot.org - Nerdcore wonderland

boingboing.net - Sexy nerdcore wonderland

swissmiss.typepad.com - wry design and kid-centric product news

wikipedia.org - reference (taken with a grain of salt, but taken liberally)

imdb.com - all things Hollywood.

aicn.com - all things nerd Hollywood fanboy-style.

vbs.tv - the hipster version of 60 Minutes.

It is through these 11 sites that I get my daily dose of news, information, and opinions.
I love these sites dearly, and champion them relentlessly.

So, tell me: Where do you get your news?

Comment at the bottom, or email: superforestnyc@gmail.com

(Note: Dirrrr. I forgot nytimes.com!)

Modern Sheds!

Sheds. One of life's unfortunate necessities. They sit in the backyard, gobbling up the overflow from our already full lives.
Usually they are shabby affairs. Uninspiring in design and made of the cheapest possible materials.

Now there is hope!

Modern Sheds!

Looky:




Check out Modern-shed.com for their complete line of great looking sheds.
Sheds... heh heh. Where did that word come from?

Let's ask the Truth Box....

Here it is, from wikipedia:

"Etymology-

The word is recorded in English since 1481, as shadde, possibly a variant of shade. The word shade comes from the Old English word "sceadu", which means "shade, shadow, darkness." The term's P.Gmc. cognate, "skadwo" also means "shady place, protection from glare or heat."

The Old English word is spelled in different ways, such as shadde, shad or shedde, all of which come from an "Old Teutonic/Anglo-Saxon root word for separation or division." The first attested usage of the word, in 1481, was in the sentence "A yearde in whiche was a shadde where in were six grete dogges." The Anglo Saxon word "shud", which means "cover" may also have been part of the development of the word. In 1440, a "shud" was defined as a "... schudde, hovel, swyne kote or howse of sympyl hyllynge [covering] to kepe yn beestys."

You heard the man, kepe yn beestys in yr schudde! Beestys like it that way.

Special thanks to SuperForester Jon for telling us about modern-shed.com!

PaperFoam!

SuperForester Taylor just sent us word about a great product: PaperFoam!

From their site:
"PaperFoam is a packaging product, which consists of 100% natural resource. We are using potato starch or Tapioca starch to produce our package. Because we are using natural resources, the CO2 emission is much lower compared to other packages. We do not rely on the fluctuating oil prices."

According to wikipedia, PaperFoam's packaging is totally biodegradable, and can be either composted or recycled along with regular paper.

Minty. Are you in a band and need cd cases? Get 'em off PaperFoam!

Thanks again to SuperForester Taylor!

The New Hotness: Free!

Ooooooh! You know what's so hot right now?

Free.

It seems that there is money to be made in giving things away for free. We're not sure how exactly, something to do with page clicks or banner ads or something, but the point is that the cost of good and services, especially online services is dwindling, and in many cases, that dwindling means that things are completely free.

Gmail: Free
Youtube: Free
Wikipedia: Free
CNN.com: Free
Slashdot: Free
Fandango: Free
Skype: Free

And now we've got two more runners in the "give it away, give it away, give it away now" race.

Photoshop and South Park.

Unlikely bedfellows, we know.

Check it:

(image via ars technica)
Ars Technica - "Photoshop now free"

And:

(from killerstartups.com)

Seriously, go to South Park Studios and watch every episode from every season, streaming instantly, when and where you want it.

Free! All for free!

What's next?

Free cars? Free houses? Free clothes?

Where will it all end?

We're excited to find out!