internet explorers club | friendly muttonchops

I am so thrilled that this exists - someone has done analysis of the facial hair of Civil War generals and this is probably why the internet was invented, or at least digital humanities.

Who knew that Faber-Castell (as in the pencils) was the name of an ACTUAL GERMAN COUNT? Here is his story.

Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell has been known to hurl wooden pencils from the tower of his castle to the stone courtyard below. It is not a petty fit of pique by a mad Bavarian aristocrat. The 72-year-old count, the eighth in a long line of pencil makers, just wants to prove how durable the pencils that carry his family name are.

In other “this was made for Emily” news, Dumb Cuneiform is a service that will take your 140-character-or-less text, tweet, or what have you, translate it into cuneiform, put it on some stone, and send it back to you.

A look into the roots of “New Jersey Italian” is fascinating, and looks into how language changes with immigration and generations. I love the idea that Italian-Americans in New Jersey are speaking a dialect of Italian that died out in Italy.

Also on the subject of the greater New York metropolitan area, Ada Calhoun on the disappearance of the New York of her childhood. Let it be known that I am Very Against people writing on the Leaving of X (notable exception: Leaving Everywhere) or the Disappearance of Y Place, but this avoids all the clichés and is really worth a read.

This egg separator is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever watched.

To use all those eggs, instead of Easy Bake Ovens, please now only purchase your children this kit to make their own ramen noodles. This is also about the level of my own ramen making, so maybe I should invest.

Finally, a look at the Tetris Effect, or how playing video games play with our brains, sometimes resulting in us mentally playing the games long after we’ve put the games down.

Etcetera: A Titanic theme park is being built in Dubai. Today in cheese theft (Comté this time).