This is a blog post.

It is posted on a blog.

It, in and of itself, is not a blog.

It is a blog post.

Understood?

Let’s review…

This is a blog post.

It is posted on a blog.

It, in and of itself, is not a blog.

Thus endeth today’s lesson.

Unlike most other kids his age, little Jimmy Somorres loves to eat healthy foods. He enjoys having all kinds of fruit and vegetables in his lunch.

So, when his mom got a great deal on cherries at the grocery store, she didn’t think twice about packing them in Jimmy’s lunchbox.

But, during lunch, a teacher spotted Jimmy showing off the cherries to his classmates, and promptly took him straight to the principal’s office.

Jimmy’s cherries were confiscated and destroyed. He was sent home along with a five day suspension for violating his school’s weapons policy.

At his grade school, they have a no tolerance policy for weapons or anything that resembles a weapon.

Said the principal, “Cherries look like cherry bombs, so bringing them to school is a clear violation of our policy.”

Reminded that cherry bombs are so named because they look like cherries, and not the other way around, the principal replied that “It doesn’t matter. This time, it was cherries. The next thing it could be the real thing. It could one day be a banana bomb or an atom apple. We have to play it safe. This is how we have to live in a post-911 world.”

Early this year, second grader Mikey Aosum was suspended for a week after posing like Joseph Ducreux, whose photo he saw in an art book. The principal said his hand somewhat resembled a hand gun, and, thus, was in violation of the school’s weapons policy.

</sarcasm>

From time to time–and by “time to time” I mean on a quite regular basis–we get eMails from SEO companies wanting to help us increase our online visibility.

Here’s are parts of one I just received:

“My name is [HIS NAME] and I’m researching the online visibility of [NOT OUR TOWN] small businesses.

“I came across [OUR COMPANY NAME] ([NOT OUR STREET ADDRESS]) on search engines and yellow pages sites listed under categories such as [OUR BUSINESS CATEGORIES].

“You can check out your business online visibility report, including an analysis of your business compared to your competitors and explore your options for improving your business’s online presence.”

…

“Why are we contacting you?

“While researching businesses in [NOT OUR TOWN], we came across your business and contact email and thought you would be interested in getting some free tips and advice. If you wish, you may unsubscribe below.”

Stupid SEO spammers.  Maybe if they had actually bothered to look at our website, they would have seen we are not at the street address they indicated, nor are we in the town they indicated.  Heck, we’re not even in the same state the town is in!  On top of that, we’re on the opposite side of the country too!

I’m pretty sure I don’t want their advice if they can’t be bothered with learning such basic details before contacting us.

And, if they are using a script to compile the information and send the eMail, their script isn’t very good, which probably means other scripts used in the performance of their service also are not very good.

Also, I bet our online visibility isn’t very good in [NOT OUR TOWN] because we’re not actually in that town. You think?

A DVD burner is what yesterday’s mystery item is.

It’s all in the cropping!

As of this writing, no one guessed correctly. I’ll go back and correct this if someone guesses correctly before this reveal goes live.

Take your best guess.

Here’s the rule: If no one guesses, the mystery will never be revealed!

Also, if people wait too long to guess, odds are also good the mystery will never be revealed because the odds of me coming back to this three, six months or more from now to reveal the answer are pretty slim. So, guess now or forever hold your guess!

Last one…

There. What did you see in this one?
 

What do you see this time?

Today’s post is another invisible 3D image.

It is different from yesterday’s.

So, in the comments, tell us what you see.

Today’s image is invisible 3D.

Stare closely, slightly cross-eyed, to try to see the invisible 3D image.

If you’re successful, tell everyone what you saw in the comments.

After a few days, we’ll see who was right.

This is called Wiggle Stereoscopy.

With most stereographic images, one eye sees one image while the other eye sees another image. The two together create the illusion of depth, as it simulates how we see. Normally, each eye sees a slightly different perspective, which gives us our depth perception. Stereography tries to replicate that.

With wiggle stereoscopy, the two images are animated. This allows some people to see the illusion of depth.

Of course, it would be difficult to watch a movie like this. Dizzying too, probably.

One advantage is that, unlike most methods of stereoscopy, the 3D illusion can be seen with just one eye in wiggle stereoscopy.