caption contest, Valentine’s Day edition

Since today is Valentine’s Day, this week’s caption contest will feature a picture of the romantic couple variety.  But there is still plenty of room for humor in the photo (besides all the potential humor, satire, and irony of a relationship).   There is no context provided with this picture, although a few things just to mind.  So you get to figure out what’s going on here.  Here’s a few ideas to get you started: Why is he wearing a pink hat?  Why are they together?  What are they thinking?  What are their friends thinking?  What are you thinking?  You can create whatever backstory you want to set up your point or joke.  The only rules are — make it funny and keep it clean.

(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

decorating with Super Mario Bros

The walls inside most people’s houses are typically solid colors or a repetitive wallpaper design.  Wouldn’t it be nice if they were more artsy / cool-looking / beautiful / shiny / awesome?  But what are your options?  If you’re a graphics artist, you could paint your own walls.  Or you could pay a professional to, but that would probably be really expensive.  However, quite possibly the best alternative are Blik restickable stickers for your wall.  (Note: I haven’t used them yet, but would like to acquire some for my game room / home office.)

I would like to get the New Super Mario Bros. stickers, although the original Super Mario Bros. would be awesome, too.  And since they’re movable and reusable, you can change it up for free if you ever get tired of the current pattern.

These are now on my Christmas wish list, so whoever wants to buy these for me, that would be great.   If I receive a lot, I’d just have to decorate the whole house with them.   Surely my wife wouldn’t mind!  I mean, Mario is awesome.  And she’s talked before about rooms needing to have a “theme” — well, this would give the room a definite theme!   And she’s said she wants more stuff on the walls, so this would be an easy way to take care of that and mark it off the honey-do list.  🙂

FYI, if you want to go really old-school, there are wall stickers for Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Centipede, and even Pong.

Also, at that first link above, there is a video of a Super Mario Sound Wall, where if you touch a coin or brick it makes the appropriate sound effects.  How awesome would that be?  That would be perfect for a game room!  Actually, that would be awesome for any room in the house!

caption contest, soldiers with balloons

It is once again time for a caption contest.  The photo this time features a group of people in military uniforms with balloons trapped inside large nets.   Are the balloons being held hostage?  Are they being taken away?  Will they be released?  What is the purpose of all this?   You decide.

(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

boiling water, freezing air, & thundersnow

If you take boiling water and toss it into the air when it’s -22 degrees outside, it evaporates into steam before it hits the ground.  Here’s a video of it.  Looks neat. At first it looks like it’s instantly turning into snow, but it’s in fact steam.

I remember hearing that hot water can actually freeze faster than cold water.  Turns out that’s only sometimes true — according to science, water at 100 degrees C will freeze before water warmer than 60 degrees C but not before water cooler than 60 degrees C.  Although if you put hot water and cold water in the freezer at the same time, the hot water can freeze faster because the bottom part of the hot water can start freezing while the top is still warm (and no convection is occurring).  Further explanation is beyond the scope of this article, but you can read more here if you’re feeling particularly nerdy today.  (It’s actually called the Mpemba effect.)

Also on the page right now is a video of Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel getting surprised by “thundersnow“.  It’s basically just thunder and lightning, but it’s more rare in a snowstorm.  His reaction is interesting, which is why this video has been making the rounds on TV.