Book Of Norm

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  less than five percent of the world’s oceans have been explored, meaning that 95% of what lies deep underwater on Earth has yet to be seen by human eyes. One person who has dedicated his life to uncovering the mysteries of the deep is Japanese photographer  Yoji Ookata  who obtained his scuba license at the age of 21 and has since spent the last 50 years exploring and documenting his discoveries off the coast of Japan. Recently while on a dive near Amami Oshima at the southern tip of the country, Ookata spotted something he had never encountered before: rippling geometric sand patterns nearly six feet in diameter almost 80 feet below sea level. He soon returned with colleagues and a television crew from the nature program  NHK  to document the origins what he dubbed the “mystery circle.” Here is what they found. Using underwater cameras the team discovered the artist is a small p...

From Autoblog - pretty funny and interesting - especially considering I like Subaru but will never be buying this cute ute / impreza outback. The Swiss, as usual, go their own direction.   By  Jonathon Ramsey RSS feed Posted Sep 19th 2012 5:29PM 2 1 Comments 9 Seems that the Swiss Family Robinson has stopped throwing its francs at the  Volkswagen Golf , and is instead pelting the  Subaru XV Crosstrek  with its hard-earned  geld . According to the Australian blog Best Selling Cars, the Volkswagen Golf has likely been the number one seller in Switzerland every single month since the hatch was first launched in 1974, except for when the  Mercedes-Benz W123 sedan  briefly deposed it in 1980. In August, however, the Golf's dictatorship of the number one spot wasn't toppled by the  Skoda Octavia , "the usual number two" that remained there ahead of the Golf, but by the XV, which ascended to the peak after having been...

The Dodge Ram Long Hauler looks like it is going to get built. Response to the concept has been hugely popular... befitting the size of this damn thing. Basically, it is the biggest cab attached to the biggest bed with the biggest engine Ram has to offer (a huge diesel). And to top it off is a 170 gallon fuel tank, just in case, you know, the Middle East blows up. Obviously, this is the right truck for the end of days - perhaps they should offer it before December 2012?

Google and Amazon are now locked in a hardware battle. Soon Microsoft will enter the fray, also peddling its own hard goods. Pretty amazing really. Yes - they are three of the biggest "hardware" companies in terms of the server market, but they have never ever before been "hardware" companies in any traditional sense of the word. But now, with dueling 7' and larger tablets - these companies are taking each other on. All want to dethrone Apple and be the go to source for your content. All want to offer customers a seamless integrated experience. At the same time... every tablet looks identical... From my perspective? This is awesome. These companies are throwing huge money behind getting me cheaper tablets with better specs. The maturation of this market has been mindblowing. What was a good tablet only two years ago is now is now totally out of date. At the same time, what was a good laptop two years ago is now... a good laptop. Intel pushing out n...

Global riots are pretty tightly linked to food prices. Which is really interesting and not at all surprising all at the same time. Currently, we are on the fence between "god these prices suck" and "whoever is in charge needs to pay, right now". With the way the weather is going (climate change believers, deniers, skeptics, rabid supporters, insane internet comment leavers--holy crap there are a lot of you, or a few crazy busy ones out there--, and Santa Claus all have to agree that the global weather has been pretty screwed up recently, and looks like it will be getting more so) it seems like 2013 will be the year to watch, with food prices spiking and the world not ending and all. We Are Now One Year Away From Global Riots, Complex Systems Theorists Say Posted by  Brian_Merchant  on Monday, Sep 10, 2012 Save this post More Sharing Services Add This What’s the number one reason we riot? The plausible, justifiable motivations of trampled-upon...

This is pretty hilarious.. think about it for a minute. I would go with the 100 duck sized horses: there are a lot of them, but a horse sized duck would be hard to take down.