“Easily search across a variety of social networking sites – MySpace, Friendster, Xanga, Digg, etc.” with a new service called YoName.

Note – the site doesn’t seem to work all the time – bandwidth issues.  Also, if you do a search by email address, it will notify the person via email that someone did a search on them.  However, based on the searches I performed, it doesn’t seem to be very good.  I’ll add it to my search arsenal nonetheless.

Another alternative to this is Upscoop, however, this service wants you to sign into your mail through it to upload your contacts to see what social networking sites they are signed up to.  I chose not to pursue this.

via LifeHacker

There’s a new free service online for estimating the value of your home and homes in your area called Cyberhomes.  It doesn’t provide much more data than local addresses and estimated values, but it’s helpful nonetheless.   An earlier rival of Cyberhomes is Zillow.  There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two services.

via LifeHacker 

An important aspect of being able to manipulate people and thus situations is your ability to read people.  Success Connections lays it out, describing it as improving communication to meet the needs and wants of others, as well as getting what we want, how we want it.

“It takes extreme effort to treat people how THEY want to be treated, instead of treating them how we feel like treating them.”

Basically, they break it down into communication styles, categorized by animal types: the lion, the otter, the golden retreiver, the beaver.  Personally I think this is a bit too simplistic – people are more complex than this.  But, it’s a start.

via Dumb Little Man

Try doing a reverse address lookup on InfoPlease on your street and nearby streets to get the names and numbers of all of your neighbors.  With this information, you can further google them to see what other tidbits you might find.

(from a forwarded email)

Subject: Similes and Metaphors

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their
collections of actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays.
These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers
across the country. Here are last year’s winners. [There were none
submitted by home-school teachers!]

1) Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides
gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2) His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3) He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a
guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of
those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country
speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse
without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4) She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was
room-temperature Canadian beef.

5) She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes
just before it throws up.

6) Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7) He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8 ) The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated
because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge
at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9) The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a
bowling ball wouldn’t.

10) McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag
filled with vegetable soup.

11) From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie,
surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and
Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12) Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13) The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you
fry them in hot grease.

14) Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across
the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having
left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka
at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15) They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences
that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16) John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had
also never met.

17) He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the
East River.

18) Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only
one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19) Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20) The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But, unlike Phil,
this plan just might work.

21) The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not
eating for a while.

22) He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either,
but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land
mine or something.

23) The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg
behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24) It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with
power tools.

25) He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as
if she were a garbage truck backing up.

LifeHack introduces 10 ways for productive procrastination.

60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For : risky activities, decadent foods, and otherwise foolhardy indulgences from Esquire.

via BoingBoing

Hi-res scans of the Voynich Manuscript have been added to Flickr.

Nice, ancienty stuff.  My next question was “Where can I get a nice, ancient looking replica of the Voynich Manuscript?” which after a moment of searching was answered by Metafilter.

via BoingBoing

“A Story of Healing,” which earned the 1997 Academy Award for best documentary, short subject, is now available for FREE under Creative Commons.

via BoingBoing

‘Talking’ CCTV scolds offenders – “”Talking” CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England.”

What fun might it be to hack into this system and do some scolding of one’s own…

via BoingBoing