We’re celebrating 300 posts in the Really Sarah Syndication blog since November! Thanks for reading!

“It’s easier to accidentally completely delete a new MMS than to send it.” [From the Small Surfaces blog]

Enough said.

Ooooh, I just love maps. Check it out: a blog of strange maps! The one shown here is a map of cannibal zones. But don’t miss the story of the State of Absaroka, U.S.A. — what? You don’t know that one?

My favorite books relating to maps:

The Mapmakers: Revised Edition

1066: The Year of the Conquest

1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the endpapers were the place I first fell in love with maps)

The Thomas Guide

And now go away and don’t bother me. I’m looking at maps busy.

What if there were no stop signs… and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?

If you’ve ever worked on the design side of the desk… don’t miss this great YouTube video!

*Why isn’t the video embedded?

From a consistently fascinating blog, Arthur Shapiro’s Illusion Sciences. Illusion Sciences isn’t in the class of trick pictures you looked at in a 6th-grade science unit; it explores what makes the mind interpret (and mis-interpret) images. Take a look at the site. You’ll be surprised.

Click on the image to go to the Illusion Sciences site, where the image is active:

If I were one of the people involved in inventing, developing, funding or launching GPS service, I’d be feeling very gratified right now (in addition to being rich). It’s sick that we need this kind of protection available, but it’s also exactly what technology is for. Good on them.

If only we could tag people just before they act.

GPS devices have been used for years to monitor sex offenders. But technological advances have now made it possible for the systems to issue warnings by cell phone if the offender gets too close to a specific victim.

Massachusetts adopted a law last year that lets judges require electronic monitoring of people who violate personal protection orders. Michigan, Oklahoma and Hawaii followed suit this year with GPS laws, bringing to 11 the number of states with related measures, said Diane Rosenfeld, a lecturer at Harvard Law School who proposed the Massachusetts law.

[via CNN.com]

Ischia. The newest Motorola handset to clear FCC certification. Good grief, who thought of “Ischia”? How do they plan to pronounce it?

Being medically-minded, I look at that brand name and think instantly: Ischemia.

(Ischemia: A decrease in the blood supply — and therefore oxygen flow — to an organ, tissue, or body part. Ischemia is often associated with tissue destruction or death.)

An ischemic limb might be blue or black… you get the point. “Ischia” is not evoking pretty pictures in my mind.

The only other word that comes to mind is eschar (eschar: a necrotic mass of tissue).

Ew.

[via Crave]

134 issues… that how long it’s taken me to reach the dizzy heights of the Carnival. 

You can see my post on Why Tap When You Can Talk? featured, along with a slew of other posts well-worth reading, on Justin’s MoPocket blog. Go on, have a look.

Some people are in a race to “keep up with the Joneses”. Some people are in a race to “keep down with the Cohens“. As for hats…

[today’s offering from xkcd]

When we swam in the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee to you English-speakers), little fish swam around our feet, nibbling and tickling our toes. Laura Ingalls Wilder describes the same phenomenon (along with a snapping crab) in On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Who knew it was a luxury spa treatment?

Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

“This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet,” Ho said.
He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they’re sanitary.

Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

Or, as my 18-month old would say, “Tickle-oo!”

[AP story via Kosher Fish Destination]