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The LiveSide blog pointed me to UMapper and the geography games that people are putting together.

I just killed a few minutes trying to nail Countries and Capitals as well as US States and Capitals. I did ok on the USA (about 70% on my first try) but world cartography is not my bag…

Boing Boing Gadgets pointed to this visualization of where all of the shots where taken in the last two NBA seasons.

I don’t know whether this is shots attempted or made, i’m currently assuming its attempted. I’m shocked by two things in looking at it though:

• First, to see such a sharp drop off from the majority of shots taken right under the rim and for the rest of the Paint to be so poorly defined. Apparently, there’s a lot of layups and not so many teardrops or hook shots from the rest of the paint as I imagined.
• Second, to see a neat little ripple a few feet inside the 3-point line. I suppose this is what they call the mid-range jumper.

I also instinctively knew that a lot of 3-pointers came from the corners but i never imagined how many!

Visualization of all the shots from the NBA’s 2007-2008 season.

Once upon a time, there was a video of Ryan flying into a mattress. Not the first time it had ever happened, but certainly the first for our group. I haven’t seen that video in years but today’s Bostonist post struck the same chord of dorm-room silliness!

And apparently, Mattress Jousting is a thing now!

WOW. Screw you Transformers 2! I’m waiting for this to come out on Veterinarian’s Day!

Never Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth

After the last post, Ben sent in the following recommendation.

Erik Elstran – April 2009 from North of Ten on Vimeo.

I will almost certainly never be able to do this and I find it amazing.

slyt (single link youtube)

Make it Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar.

Via Metafilter

Oh MikeD, I would ask which belt you learned The Colonic Fist attack but Kurt would agree with me that this is your default Bean Powered style!

Found via Metafilter, this guy is going around youtube and “redubbing” songs into sign language versions.

For example: Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger and Rihanna’s Disturbia.

Awesome!

Via Metafilter, a game named Bureau of Steam Engineering where you must build steam powered robots in order to defend the Union in an alternate Civil War.

It reminds me of the old Incredible Machine games, except a bit more focused.