Online tool for creating graphs
“NCES constantly uses graphs and charts in our publications and on the web. Sometimes, complicated information is difficult to understand and needs an illustration. Graphs or charts can help impress people by getting your point across quickly and visually.”
Why Chipotle does less than other chains
“Chipotle also avoids the frills that pad other chains’ bottom lines. ‘Desserts and other sides are all profit for these chains,’ says industry analyst Clark Wolf. ‘The whole infrastructure’s already there, so they can make a 90% margin on extras.’ But founder and CEO Steve Ells staunchly refuses to expand his menu beyond four options (burrito, burrito bowl, taco, salad). ‘We want to do just a few things better than everyone else,’ Ells says. ‘We just do things we think are right.’” [via BL]
The quietest place on earth
“Silence is a truly rare thing. All reverberation is removed… all sounds that aren’t coming from your own body disappear. After a few moments in the anechoic chamber, you’ll begin to feel a touch jumpy. Hearing your heart beat, your blood pulse, the sound of your own ear buzzing and your body functioning like you’ve never heard before has a tendency to be a bit unnerving. And in complete silence, you lose all sense of space and surroundings. The absence of reflected sound and reverberation makes ‘feeling out’ the room impossible.”
How to meditate
“The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.”
“In Japan, That Donut Could Cost You Your Job”
“To curtail Japan’s overweight population, the Japanese health ministry recently mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below ‘regulation size’ of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control — as well as the weights of their family members — will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government.”
Online Vietnam Veterans Memorial
“it’s a 5 gigapixel image (about 460 feet wide when viewed at 100%) of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall (stitched from 1,494 images) where you can click on any name to learn more about that person or add photos and comments.”
OpenID for Google accounts
You can now use your Google Account to log into any site that supports OpenID.
Canoe made from disposable chopsticks
“A former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama has built a 4-meter (13-ft) long canoe from thousands of used disposable chopsticks recovered from the city hall cafeteria. Bothered that perfectly good wood was going to waste after a single use, Shuhei Ogawara — whose job at city hall involved working with the local forestry industry — spent the last two years of his career collecting used chopsticks from the cafeteria.”

canoe