At long last, the very wonderful Google Reader has a built-in search facility, and it really is excellent. This was the only thing preventing it from becoming the killer RSS reader. Now there’s no need to fool around with a Greasemonkey script to search your newsfeeds.

Bliss!

UPDATE: Reader also gives the correct number of unread articles per feed, rather than simply saying “100+” regardless of how many more than a hundred are unread.

Technorati Tags: google, google reader, search

Powered by ScribeFire.

Just found WeirdConverter, a wonderful site where you can convert completely unrelated items. How many NASCAR Winston Cup Tires in an African Elephant? How many kegs of beer in an Airbus A380? How many bathtubs in an average human stomach? How many dump trucks in an Olympic Swimming pool?

WeirdConverter has the answer.

Technorati Tags: weird

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ah, the things that performers at the Edinburgh Fringe get up to when preparing for the next show.

I’d suggest you don’t read this article in the Edinburgh Evening News if you’re of a nervous disposition. Or even just, uh, if you’re a guy.

Technorati Tags: edinburgh, fringe, weird

Powered by ScribeFire.

Have I really not posted anything at The Far Corner in the last ten days?

I know I’ve been busy with the Festival and a whole bunch of other stuff, but - c’mon, ten days?

If you know me, or you don’t but you’re a reader, kick me. Go on, please, kick me.

Kick me.

Technorati Tags: blogging, kick me

Powered by ScribeFire.

Welcome to another blog walkabout, where we’ll take a whirlwind tour around the planet to see what bloggers are writing about this week.

First up is the wonderfully named Oolong’s Long Oo, a blog by Fergus Ray Murray from Edinburgh, my home town. I was very interested in his article about caustics. Do have a look at Fergus’s main homepage, too; there’s a whole lot of cool photography and science stuff there.

Now, let’s go to Botswana. And why not? Hasina Suliman owns Elements of Curiosity, a personal blog where she writes poetry about how she feels at a given moment. There’s some nice humour here, too. I really liked “Male or Female?“.

Photography & IT is a blog from Tehran, Iran, written by Payman Moghaddas who is an amateur photographer. There are some fabulous photographs here, and even more to savour on his Flickr pages. I loved the colours in these shots taken at a bazaar.

The mysterious Snoskred, from New South Wales, Australia writes Life in the Country. She covers quite a bit of ground here, and is happy to write about whatever interests her at the time. I learned a lot about cows from the questions she asked Ryan Barrett, the Canadian author of “I Will Not Be Forgetting These Outrages!” Hey, cool - a two-for-one!

GorillaSushi is a collection of blogs by different writers. Jason from Aurora, Illinois is the site admin there and gives a useful review of Pownce. I’m still not sure what to make of Pownce, but if you’ve an account there, you can find my page here.

Gerri from the USA gives us all that’s weird and wacky in Absolutely True. She’s had some shocking service from Laminta, the Burger King girl. I’m old enough to remember when the customer was always right. Nowadays regardless of poor service (particularly from large companies in my experience). the company is always right. Which means, of course, that the customer is always wrong.

Elmer W Cagape is originally from the Philippines, and is Living in Hong Kong. He’s a fine travel writer, and I read some thoughtful articles about Chungking Mansions and Hong Kong honesty on his blog. I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but would love to visit at some point.

Madeeha Al-Maas from somewhere in north-west England owns My Pondering Thoughts, though I see she hasn’t updated it for some time. The last I saw of her there was when she completed a survey about herself. I think she’s probably too busy on StumbleUpon to find the time to blog.

Our last stop today is Canada. Keta K, who was born in Prague, moved to Ottawa when she was younger and then to Vancouver. She takes care of Storybook, a blog about bald eagles, lumber and gardening. What I particularly enjoyed was that Keta accompanies her narrative with original video content, as in this post about wild bald eagles. To be honest I’m surprised more bloggers aren’t doing this. I’ve subscribed to her channel on YouTube itself. Excellent stuff there.

That’s all for today, folks. Enjoy the rest of the weekend - oh, and it’s raining here again.

Technorati Tags: blogosphere, blogs

Powered by ScribeFire.

If you only want to go to one show at the Edinburgh Fringe, I thoroughly recommend you should go to see Kahlil Ashanti’s “Basic Training”.

Kahlil does a knockout one-man show where he plays a host of characters, all of whom are completely different and instantly recognisable. I’ve never seen so much energy rolled up into a single person. Watching him is like being on a rollercoaster, as the audience is thrown from side to side, from drama to comedy to pathos. The show is a wonderful autobiographical tale of how Kahlil got to be in the USAF’s entertainment troupe, Tops in Blue.

He was so good, I’m going back to see him for a second time.

UPDATE: I saw him a second time, and he was even better! He got a standing ovation. And it looks like I’m not the only one - here’s a review in the Edinburgh Evening News.

Technorati Tags: acting, comedy, drama, edinburgh fringe

Powered by ScribeFire.