Insert special characters in a click

Special characters, like “¶”, or “Ω” or “≈”, are already a pain to insert in Word documents (or the like) and a super-mega pain in the a** to insert correctly into web pages, where if you’re going to be disciplined about things, you need to put in the html entity, so that the symbol will display correctly everywhere.

At least, these things were a pain until now!

I was just taking a look at Lifehacker.com, one of my favorite daily reads. They put up an article today on a new website called copypastecharacter.com. This website is, in reality, a single flash-based webpage, but little websites can sometime have big benefits for users.

Indeed the website is just a display of special characters, but the beauty is in the use. All you have to do is click on the special character that you want and Bing! (no free advertising for search engines intended) the character is on your clipboard, ready to be pasted wherever you need it.

You have the choice of copying the normal text character, but also the html entity; I think that the real beauty of the website is with this latter. In other words, website developers will find this more useful than your average Joe typing in Word.

†, ¼, ⇧, ®, § …

Easy as pie.

(EDIT: All the above symbols display correctly in Opera, Safari and Firefox, but the third from the left, an up-arrow, may not display correctly if you’re using Internet Explorer [hmmm, wonder whose fault that is...].)

www.copypastecharacter.com

Grasp basics (and a bit more) of pharmacology

What exactly happens when you take an aspirin? Why do you have to continue taking certain medications instead of just taking them once? What exactly is the difference between pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics?
If you’ve ever wanted to better understand what that little pill does to your body–and what your body does to that little pill–you’ll enjoy the Interactive Clinical Pharmacology website.
This site was developed by the the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Christchurch Hospital and School of Medicine in New Zealand.
What I appreciated in particular was the ability to interact with the website’s animated illustrations. This allows you to grasp a bit easier certain complex aspects of pharmacology. But fair warning: the website does presume, as the authors put it themselves, “a basic understanding of physiology and pharmacology”.
Interactive Clinical Pharmacology

Incredible animation on angiogenesis at Amgen

Beyond a certain point of growth, cancer cells, like any other cells, need blood vessels to provide them with nutrients and dispose of waste.
Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels are formed in living tissue. Although the term, in and of itself, is not obligatorily attached to cancer, it is usually used in this sense; that’s to say the ability of cancer cells to invoke the creation of new blood vessels in tissue, thus assuring their nutritional needs and allowing them to continue to grow.
Controlling angiogenesis as a method of cancer treatment is thus a major field of current research.
The therapeutics company Amgen has put up an absolutely amazing Flash animation explaining the process of cancerous angiogenesis. This is really, really well done and an excellent illustration of just how powerful the web can be for educational purposes.
Don’t be frightened off by their use of medical terminology: the supporting animations are so well done that even a novice can keep up and learn a lot on this promising therapeutic path for cancer treatment.
Bravo Amgen!

Pioneering New Frontiers in Tumor Angiogenesis

What women really want

(maximize your browser window if you can’t see it all)

That made me laugh literally out loud. It also reminded me of the webpage “How not to fail at life” that made the rounds recently on Digg and Co.
Warning: foul language but mostly SFW: How not to fail at life (you might need to cancel automatic image resizing).

Well, this pretty much made my day

Or check it out directly at You tube.
Thanks Boing Boing.

When violins and Hip-Hop meet…

I Stumbled upon this just a few minutes ago, originally via Metacafé, but for whatever reason I couldn’t get their embed to work. Here’s the same video via You Tube.

Paul Dateh is the violinist and inka one is at the turntables. New music discovery for me. Maybe it will be for you too…

Turn up the volume and enjoy!

You can learn more about the artist at his website, pauldateh.com

Fun with Google Zeitgeist 2008

So, if you haven’t noticed yet, Google has published its “Google Zeitgeist” for 2008.

It’s a collection of the most popular search terms in Google for 2008 grouped under a variety of categories, thus providing an interesting look into our collective, global psyche. Often banal, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and sometimes strange, the Google Zeitgeist is definitely worth a look.

Take a look at the “Politics” section for an excellent illustration of how we use Google to get information rapidly: one day the “Sarah Palin” line is non-existent and the next, boom! it’s there (McCain names her as running mate) and sky-rockets above the other election personalities.

Then, under the “Around the World” section, I couldn’t help but notice two things. First, the amazing popularity of Facebook the world-over. And second, more interestingly, notice how often the word “Google” itself appears in many of the countries’ “Fastest rising” and “Most popular” lists (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, etc.)…

This means that a huge number of people in these countries are searching for “Google”, in Google.

Why?

Feel free to leave a comment for the elements of the 2008 Google Zeitgeist that you find interesting, and, well, keep on Googling!

Ciao!
2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

Today, America has risen

I have a lot of work today and before I have time to truly write everything that I’m feeling this morning it will be too late, everything will have already been said. Nevertheless, I do want – need -, to take a few minutes to mark this beautiful morning.

Yesterday, on November 4th, 2008, We the People of the United States (if I may be sold bold as to borrow this famous phrase), elected Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

On September 11th, 2001, the United States suffered what is probably the most traumatic event in its history. Our country was literally knocked to the ground on that day. Action had to be taken; but unfortunately this action was badly directed by the Presidency of George W. Bush, launching the country, crawling and injured, on a tenebrous path.

And all the things that Americans have always held dear: liberty, justice, the presumption of innocence, being a guiding light for other countries around the world; all this and much much more, started slipping away.

Although the wound of 9/11 will never truly heal, today is the first day of America’s veritable recovery from this event.

The people of America have understood that the time has come to turn away from sorrow and fear and toward hope.

In a few months, we will swear into Office a man who is determined to get America off of this tenebrous path and bring the country back to the light.

Surely, history will insist greatly on the fact that on November 4th, 2008, the Unites States elected its first “black” President. Indeed, this is, in and of itself, a profound and symbolic event.

But I’d like to think that the true victory is elsewhere:

Today, America has risen.

Sarah Palin falls for prank Sarkozy call

The very serious French newspaper, Le Monde, reported today that Sarah Palin fell for a prank by a humorist from Quebec, Canada, who called Palin on the telephone saying he was French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

This is not the first time this comic, who is part of a comedy duo called “Les justiciers masqués“, has made a politician fall for this type of prank call and one of his other victims was … Nicolas Sarkozy.

Normally, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to this as virtually anyone could fall for this kind of thing, but a few details left me troubled and illustrate again Palin’s total lack of qualification for the post of Vice-President.

Le Monde reports that as the conversation progressed Palin didn’t catch on at all when the fake Sarkozy, complimenting her on her knowledge of international relations, recited two completely imaginary names for the Canadian and Quebecois Prime Ministers (and yes there are two: Stephen Harper is the Prime Minister of Canada and Jean Charest is the Prime Minister of Quebec).

Further on, the comic even went so far as to compliment Palin on a recent American pornographic film in which a Palin look-alike plays the main role, saying that he thought it was a biographical film on her life. Palin’s reaction according to le Monde: “Oh thank you”.

The call goes on and on for six painful minutes with Palin not suspecting a thing (and having no idea how to react) while the fake Sarkozy speaks of his “special American adviser” Johnny Hallyday, how he loves hunting from airplanes and killing baby seals, how his wife is hot in bed and how she wrote a song for Palin, and that’s just a start.

It was not until the comic himself told Palin that she had fallen for a prank call that the call was cut by one of Palin’s assistants.

• A red flag should have went up the second she received a call from “Nicolas Sarkozy”.
• Another red flag should have went up in Palin’s head as soon as the comic started complimenting her on her knowledge of international relations.
• A really big red flag should have gone up in Palin’s head when “Nicolas Sarkozy” gave her made-up names for the Canadian and Quebecois Prime Ministers.
• A humongous, gargantuan red flag should have went up when “Nicolas Sarkozy” started talking about a porno as being her life story.

I’m sure that Sarah Palin is a fine woman. But she must not be one 72 year-old heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

Vote November 4th.

Vote Obama-Biden.

Here’s the original article from Le Monde:

Sarah Palin piégée par un faux Sarkozy

Presidential newspaper endorsements

As we close in on the big day, November 4th, 2008, it might be interesting and enlightening to know which newspapers are endorsing which candidates.

The DemConWatch blog is tracking presidential endorsements from newspapers across America, and, when possible, linking to the concerned article.

As I’m writing this, the Obama/Biden ticket has received 181 endorsements and the McCain/Palin ticket 57.

For any still undecided voters, it’s an excellent take off point to get last-minute opinions, from the New York Times to the Ouray Plain Dealer, by way of the Anchorage Daily News, who, by the way, are all endorsing the Obama/Biden ticket (yep, even the Anchorage Daily News).

Wandering electrons congratulates the DemConWatch blog for this excellent initiative!

Presidential Newspaper Endorsement List at the DemConWatch blog.