2005 was a huge year for Sandstorming. What started out as a one-man blog has grown into a three-man website, with Julz and myself joining Johnsee on the writing force at various stages during the year.
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| Sandstorming.com: Jan 2005 |
Not being one to brag or anything, but here is a list of things we achieved in the past year:
- We actually started getting comments on our articles (averaging at just over 5 per article now).
- We changed blogging programs (from Blogger to WordPress). This allowed us to do a lot of cool stuff we couldn’t do before, such as: category tags on articles, user accounts, cleaner and faster site design, more creative themes, and release our dependence on any 3rd party website (eg. Blogger.com).
- We received our first Google AdSense cheque (with a second one winging its way shortly).
- 4 of our articles made it to the front page of Digg, and 1 of them made it into the Diggnation podcast.
- Our Google PageRank (a ranking out of 10 that helps determine where your site will show up in search results) went from practically nothing to a 4 (for comparison, digg.com is a 6, and news.com.au is an 8).
- We changed servers (from Windows to Linux), and we changed our site statistics analyser (from AWStats to Google Analytics).
- Sandstorming.com now averages just over 450 visits per day.
We also branched out a bit and tried some other projects. Our Jack Thompson Random Fact Generator has been very successful, with over 100 submissions and 31,700 votes cast. Unfortunately, some other projects didn’t take off, such as Globecast. (Although if you would still like to submit an application, the offer is still there. We need more applications.)
Overall, this year has been great, and things can only get better for us as we put more projects into the pipeline with the money we earn. Thanks for everyone’s support, and we’ll see you all through 2006 and beyond!
Also, stay tuned for the Top 10 Sandstorming Articles of 2005.
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This is just pure gold. So many of these I think men can instantly relate to. My favourites of the bunch:
82. What do women really want in bed? More blankets. They get colder than men.
79. Never trust the woman who gives you the best blow job you’ve ever had
49. They dream of one day peeing in a urinal.
21. More than half of surveyed females between 18 and 25 would prefer to be run over by a truck than be fat.
19. The more piercings she has, the more places she’ll let you put it.
The List:
100. Girls enjoy always having something kind of wrong, like a headache or cramping or something. Remember: No matter how bad it sounds, she’s going to outlive you.
99. Most women will not have sex for the first time with a guy unless their legs are shaved. If your date shows up and you spot stubble, she’s trying to keep herself in line.
98. No matter how much she reassures you, if you can’t get a hard-on she assumes you’re not attracted to her.
97. Beware of your girlfriend’s single party friend or gay bud. They want her to be single with them and will encourage any bad behavior as often as possible.
96. Jewelry. Now you always know what to get her for a last-minute gift.
95. The sight of you in your socks and underwear is the biggest turnoff in the world.
94. Never trust a girl who has no girlfriends. She doesn’t get along with other women because she’s either bat-shit crazy or just plain mean.
93. Girls who say, “I love sports!” are lying. Girls who ask you what time the game is on, without specifying which game they’re talking about, are not.
92. A random hookup is more likely to result in pregnancy, because a woman has more sex when she’s most fertile.
91. She still has all the love letters and cards from her past boyfriends.
90. Just started dating? Women want you to drive, even if it’s their car.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Pandora is a new web based program created by the Music Genome Project.
It’s simple as telling it what bands you like.
The program then checks its reference list for bands with the same musical qualities, such as tempo, instruments, genre, vocal patterns and producers. It then puts them all into a playlist for you to tell Pandora if you like it or not.
It then allows you to keep a specific list of favourite artists and songs, and it uses all the similarities of the songs you like to find more of that exact type of music.
One of the more fun things about Pandora is the fact you can look at celebrity playlists to find what music specific artists or actors enjoy.
[Link]
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There’s a great gallery of photoshop jobs before there was even computers… or photoshop.
[Link]
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Amongst all the fossils ever found in the world, there might be nothing more bizarre than this specimen. One Protoceratops, a herbivorous (plant-eating) dinosaur, perished in the struggle with a carnivorous theropod, Velociraptor. After their death 80 million years ago, both skeletons were fossilized, then finally unearthed in 1971 in fully articulated forms without having been smashed.
The reason why they fought with each other is not known. Protoceratops might have been defending its nest from the predator, or the two creatures might have encountered accidentally, but all we can do is build speculations and guesses about them.
Both dinosaurs have similar sizes. Velociraptor is grabbing the head of Protoceratops with its forearms. Also sickle claws of its hindlegs seems to have torn out the throat and belly of Protoceratops. This posture is sometimes compared to that of a linx (bob cat) leaping attack against a prey. On the other hand, Protoceratops is biting Velociraptor at its right forearm so deeply that the predator could not have moved.
[Link]
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Today is Australia Day, and you know what that means!
Okay, yes it does mean getting the day off work for no other reason than to celebrate being Australian. Yes, alright, it does mean getting extremely intoxicated in the name of patriotism. Okay and yes, it also means lots of barbeques (hold the shrimp, please).
But, most importantly, it means Triple J is counting down the Hottest 100 songs of 2005!
For all our international readers, Triple J is a nation-wide, non-commercial, youth radio station that plays the best new/independent music from both sides of the hemisphere.
Their Hottest 100 annual poll has been running for over 15 years now, showcasing the best and most popular alternative music from Australia and across the globe. It is one of the largest public music polls in the world and attracted over 606,000 votes this countdown (136,060 more than the last one). It is also one of the only reasons I haven’t thrown out my FM radio yet.
Australians: Find the frequency your radio should already be set to by clicking here.
Internationals (and Australians that don’t have/can’t be bothered getting an FM radio): click here to listen online!
The countdown starts at 10am 26 January 2006 (GMT +10:00, Australia - Queensland - Brisbane). I can’t be fucked working out when that is in your own time zone, so click here and do it yourself you lazy pricks.
However, good on you for embodying the true Aussie spirit.
[Triple J website] [Hottest 100 website]
UPDATE: The countdown is over, the complete list can be found here.
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The trailer is now out for one of the first movies to come out about the 9/11 bombings. Flight 93 is set to be a real-time account of the passengers on board flight 93 as they attempt to overthrow their hijackers after learning of the two other planes that collided with the World Trade Centers.
[Trailer] [Official Site] [IMDB]
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As a follow-up to the original story here, I received the following in my inbox this morning…
Good morning,
Thank you for advising us of the problem you experienced with our AERO Fun Pack.
We are currently investigating your concerns with the information that you provided.
In the meantime, we have arranged for a reimbursement cheque to be sent to you so that you can purchase some replacement products.
…
All I can say is, even if we did send a satirical letter, we did have a slightly dodgy aero bar. Nestlé deserves full marks for the customer service which in this case is first rate! Well done Nestlé!
UPDATE: Nestlé’s cheque arrives in the mail here.
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THE Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Pope’s words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements.
For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.
The decision was denounced yesterday for treating the Pope’s words as “saleable merchandise” and endangering the Church’s mission to “spread the Christian message”.
A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.
[Link]
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I’ve removed the funny picture gallery. The sites direction has changed since the induction of the gallery almost 2 years ago, and the pictures are creating a huge bandwidth strain on the server. Removal should help speed up the site.
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