“Snow falls in soft crystals of infinite variety, but as the pioneering avalanche researcher Monty Atwater writes, ‘snow seems averse to being studied. When it is poked or disturbed or manhandled in any way, it changes, quicker than a chameleon, from one kind of snow to another, leaving the observer baffled.’” MORE âž²

“Since 1987 or so, the 5.25″ floppy disk officially made its way into the backs of desk drawers, bottoms of bookcases, or boxes left in the garage, so they could make room for their smaller, hardback 3.5″ brothers which ironically died an equally quick death thanks to the advent of the CD.” VIEW âž²

“I sent out dozens of disposable cameras to street newspapers throughout the US and Canada. The newspapers took the cameras and gave them to their carriers. The carriers took pictures and dropped the cameras in the mail. I developed and scanned the pictures and created an on-line repository of photographs relating to homelessness that anyone can use free of charge.” MORE âž²

“From a culinary perspective, hotdish on a stick fails due to an ultra-grotesque overdependence on starches. We know, of course, that the thing’s got to be breaded in order to be fried. But do there really need to be super-ball sized tater tots interspersed with the bready meatballs? It seems impossible that anything could taste breadier than bread, but hotdish on a stick pulls it off.” MORE ➲

“July 7, 2005, was one of the darkest days for London, as terrorists blew up three underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing scores and injuring hundreds. But out of that darkness came an unusual light, the flickering light from survivors such as Adam Stacey and Ellis Leeper as they shot the scene underground using cameraphones and videophones.” MORE ➲

“The grand attraction to the annual Corndog Festival is, without a doubt, the glorious Corndog Styling Competition. Every year there are many incredible entries, with our panel of judges doing their very best to commend the outstanding entrants with fabulous prizes.” MORE ➲

“Plastic Snow Ball Maker makes perfectly round snow balls every time.” VIEW âž²

“Kids love to collect things. With a little luck and a lot of effort, children might be able to build up valuable collections. There is no set age when collectibles become assets, but most are at least 30 years old before their worth increases. Some collectibles known as “investment-grade” can become very valuable if they are in perfect condition and in demand. MORE âž²

“Chucks of deep fried alligator (tail part, battered in corn meal, seasonings, probably similar to snake recipe) served on a 10 inch wooden skewer. Seen mostly at outdoor festivals. Has a chewy consistency like undercooked pork. Tastes like alligator.” MORE ➲

“The idea is not completely original, I’m sorry to admit. While working on a mail-art project for school, I saw Daniel Farrell and Richard Kegler of the website P22 document an impressive number of odd forms of correspondence between their two addresses in upstate New York. One of the last experiments displayed on their site was a camera attached to a postcard and plastered with stamps. Taking a good idea and running with it, I began to mail cameras to various locations. This project is still ongoing.” VIEW ➲

“I live in a tiny NYC apartment that’s full of cool things from all over the world. I simply love to travel and collect stamps in my passport. I’ve got Chinese menus galore, a zillion different bottle caps, scissors you won’t believe, spoons, paperclips, toothpicks and tons more. My favorite snack is popcorn and I collect all kinds of pictures and stories about corn…” MORE ➲

“I bet the drivers never even saw what they left behind.” VIEW âž²

“…Kodak, with its ‘you take the picture, we do the rest.’ mail order marketing strategy made it possible for the uncommon event of incarceration of the Japanese American family to be recorded… Most internees documentated their lives just as most people want some documentation of their existence, whether it be day to day life or special family rituals… With the camp regulations on contraband this idea of the family photograph had became illegal at most camps.” MORE ➲

“An avalanche is a very large slide of snow (or rock) down a mountainside, caused when a buildup of snow is released down a slope, and is one of the major dangers faced in the mountains. An avalanche is an example of a gravity current consisting of granular material.” MORE âž²

“First published in FEED online magazine, May 3, 2000: Jorn Barger is a collector, of a sort — though you wouldn’t know what sort, exactly, from gazing on his worldly possessions. A long-haired, thick-bearded former artificial-intelligence (AI) programmer in his forties, Barger lives in genteel poverty, sharing an apartment with roommates in Chicago’s scruffy West Rogers Park neighborhood. His bedroom once held a lot of books, but he had to sell them off some time ago; the principal fixtures remaining are a secondhand Macintosh with built-in television, a boom-box radio, and a bed. Barger spends his days in the bed, and there — sitting with the Mac’s keyboard in his lap and its monitor beside him — he collects: A color-coded map of the world’s language families. A discussion of the various titles Proust considered and discarded for Remembrance of Things Past. A National Enquirer article on “who’s doing yoga in Hollywood.” A BBC item on the evolution of cooperation among capuchin monkeys…” MORE ➲

“Deep Fried Twinkies are fun to eat on the fairway at your local carnival…” MORE âž²

…but now you can make them at home. And open heart surgery is fun, too, I hear.

“Phototag is a community photography project where we retrofit cheap disposable cameras with shiny new packaging, artwork, instructions and return postage. Each camera is then passed along to friends and strangers with the request that they take one picture and pass it along to someone else.” VIEW âž²

Seems there has been no activity for almost two years, though.

“I have now 2777 items stored at my home, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a room called ‘Penguin Museum.’” MORE âž²

Yep. This is what Geocities is all about. Watch out for the embedded Midi audio, and also for all the penguins.

No doubt you’ve already seen the snowflake maker by Barkley Evergreen & Partners Interactive, right? PLAY âž²

“For delicious grilling without much fuss, I like to serve brochettes, which are essentially the French version of kebabs… Perhaps the biggest practical advantage to serving brochettes is that you can cut the food into pieces before cooking, eliminating the need for awkward carving later and allowing you to go straight from the fire to the table.” MORE âž²

“What’s the strangest thing you’ve EATEN in the N. East Asian region? I’d like to hear what kind of weird food delicacies are out there…” FIND OUT ➲

“The biggest snowflake, reportedly measuring 38 cm (15 inches) by 20 cm (8 inches); fell on January 28, 1887 at Fort Keough, Montana, according to a report in a 1915 issue of Monthly Weather Review.” MORE âž²

“We are fascinated by the people, places and things that surround us. In this new gallery feature we are showcasing the inspired vision of different amateur photographers from all over the world.” VIEW âž²

“For many years I did not think there was any particular reason why I collected the things that I did or that there was any connection to my practice. Mainly they were junk shop finds or things retrieved from skips or found on the ground whilst going about my daily business. Old oil cans, tools, brushes, tins, utensils, the kind of stuff people throw away during a spring clean. Then I came across my late father‘s razor.” MORE âž²

“The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can.” VIEW âž²

Editor’s note: AWESOME.

“Souvlakis are the hamburgers of Greece. At least they were until hamburgers arrived and now hamburgers are the hamburgers of Greece.” MORE âž²

“Even now, after more than a half century, the Collyer name still resonates. New York City firefighters refer to an emergency call to a junk-jammed apartment as a ‘Collyer.’ The brothers are recalled whenever a recluse dies amid an accumulation of junk…” MORE âž²

From the Climbers Guide to Everest: “This painful state comes from the sun burning your eye cornea. It occurs if you don’t wear sunglasses at altitude.When climbing on oxygen, the warm and moist breathing air will escape your oxygen mask upwards and sometimes clog up your goggles, especially upon climbing down. Your choice will then be to climb ‘blindfolded’ or remove the glasses…” MORE âž²

(Disclosure: When I was a kid Styx was one of my favorite bands.)

“…no list of 80s-retro culture is complete without the coffee-table book that now sits right next to this Catholic gal’s great-cathedrals tour guide and Reagan retrospectives: Bar Mitzvah Disco: The Music May Have Stopped, but the Party’s Never Over’ by Roger Bennett, Jules Shell, and Nick Kroll. Even if you don’t know the words to ‘Hava Nagilah,’ if ’99 red balloons floating in the summer sky’ means something to you, Bar Mitzvah Disco is for you.” MORE âž²

Apparently the Wovel snow shovel “clears snow with a fraction of the effort and is safer on your back.” VIEW âž²

This is a great invention — but what we really need is a shovel that automatically adjusts for varying levels in sidewalks.

“Shish kebab is a wooden or metal stick (a skewer in Turkish) with small cubes of any kind of meat, fowl, fish, fruit, or vegetable (usually a combination) which is roasted on a grill. The name literally means ‘skewer of grilled meat’ in Persian.” MORE âž²