Batch of links

Here’s a batch of links for Friday. Again, these are just things I find interesting, not necessarily recommendations and certainly not endorsements.

- A bathmat made of live moss; it gets watered when you step out of the shower!

- Christian Jackson’s hyper-minimalistic posters of fairy tales: I particularly like the Little Red Riding Hood poster. I’m sure fans of Once Upon a Time will like these too!

- Spent: A simulation game that puts you in the shoes of a single mother earning close to minimum wage, just to see if you would last the month. It’s full of real-world situations as well as statistics and is meant to educate the general population regarding the challenges faced by those living with less. Eye-opening.

- Sepia Town: Find historical photos (and occasional audio and films) of your town. This website matches the photos with locations on Google Maps. Hours of fun!

- Does a strong, kick-butt, non-scantily clad female superhero exist?: Yes, and here are some examples. The Engineer and I remarked recently that when considering solo female superheroes (as opposed to those who are part of teams), DC seems to have a better track record than Marvel.

- Trent Reznor’s thoughts on ticket scalpers: A very well-articulated and educational read.

- Latin tattoos: This is full of awesome. Once you’re done reading that, try Hanzi Smatter for laughs. Just because your tattoo is in another language doesn’t mean it’s not asinine.

- The Backfire effect: It turns out that when your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs actually get stronger instead of changing to incorporate the new information.

- The secrets inside your dog’s mind: A fascinating article on how dogs evolved to have skills allowing them to fit in with humans. (That being said, I still think our Darwin doesn’t understand pointing.)

- A great gift to welcome new neighbours.