YesButNoButYes blog has a neat list of Top 10 Obscure Sports in the World. Unicycle Hockey is No. 2: Link – Thanks Jellio!

See what happens when you freak out an owl: Link – via AQFL

Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Savaliev wants to describe the whole world and you can help! Add new links on the map to describe an interesting place.

Link – via Peter Vasilyev

See many more awesome vintage pharmaceutical drug ads: Link – via Spooky Librarian’s Folderol

Collin of Visual Breakdown has the step-by-step howto on making this Photoshop illustration called "Taking in the Skyline": Link – via Fizzle & Pop

This has been around for a few months now, but obviously I missed it until now: Link – via Daily Rhino

Meet Charlie, the fishing chimp, who last year learned to fish to kick off the Wildlife Festival in Lesitin, New York (he ended up catching two fish!)

Link

From the website:

In the “Disembodied Cuisine” we will attempt to grow frog skeletal muscle over biopolymer for potential food consumption. A biopsy will be taken from an animal which will continue to live and be displayed in the gallery along side the growing “steak”. This installation will culminate in a “feast”. The idea and research into this project began in Harvard in 2000. The first steak we have grown was made out of pre-natal sheep cells (skeletal muscle). We used cells harvested as part of research into tissue engineering techniques in utero. The steak was grown from an animal that was not yet born.

This piece deals with one of the most common zones of interaction between humans and other living systems and will probe the apparent uneasiness people feel when someone ‘messes’ with their food. Here the relationships with the Semi-Living are that of consumption and exploitation however, it is important to note that it is about “victimless” meat consumption. As the cells from the biopsy proliferate the ‘steak’ in vitro continues to grow and expand, while the source, the animal from which the cells were taken, is healing. Potentially this work presents a future in which there will be meat (or protein rich food) for vegetarians and the killing and suffering of animals destined for food consumption will be reduced. Furthermore, ecological and economical problems associated with the food industry (hence, growing grains to feed the animals and keeping them in basic conditions) can be reduced dramatically. However, by making our food a new class of object/being – a Semi-Living – we are risking of making the Semi-Living the new class for exploitation.

Weird! Link – via Artifacting

Dontclick.it is a thesis project of Alex Frank – behind its fancy flash interface is the basic question of the value/urge of clicking a mouse button as a mean to navigate the web.

Link | Alex Frank’s website – via UbiKann

This strange sign is one of many from Darren Barefoot’s Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. Check ‘em out: Link – via Darren Barefoot.

Jan Chipchase posted a nice article on the culture of repairing broken things (rather than just tossing them as garbage) in various Asian cities like Chengdu, Delhi, Ho Chi Minh and African ones like Kampala and Soweto:

What sets these locations apart from cities in more ‘emerged’ markets? Aside from the scale of what’s on sale there is a thriving market for device repair services ranging from swapping out components to re-soldering circuit boards to reflashing phones in a language of your choice , naturally. Repairs are often carried out with little more than a screwdriver, a toothbrush (for cleaning contact points) the right knowledge and a flat surface to work on.

Repair manuals (which appear to be reverse engineered) are available, written in Hindi, English and Chinese and can even be subscribed to, but there is little evidence of them being actively used. Instead many of the repairers rely on informal social networks to share knowledge on common faults, and repair techniques. It’s often easier to peer over the shoulder of a neighbour than open the manual itself. Delhi has the distinction of also offering a wide variety of mobile phone repair courses at training institutes such as Britco and Bridco turning out a steady flow of mobile phone repair engineers.

To round off the ecosystem wholesalers’ offer all the tools required to set up and run a repair business from individual components and circuit board schematics to screwdrivers and software installers.

Link – via cityofsound

From the website:

All color. All wild. If you are of the Austin Powers age you will likely think these images are "Groovey baby!" Others of you will gasp and try to turn away. But you can’t. The horror won’t let you go!

Consider this your only warning. The pages before you are frightening stuff.

See for yourself: Spiegel Catalog 1969 – via ValleyDaze

Stephen Colbert spells out the secret of being an expert on anything in this Wired article. For example:

PICK A FIELD THAT CAN’T BE VERIFIED. Try something like string theory or God’s will: “I speak to God. I’m sorry that you can’t also.” Security experts are in this category: They have security clearances, we don’t. We can’t question the expertise of the NSA because we are not in the NSA.

USE THE WORD ZEITGEIST AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Ideally, you want to find words that sound familiar but people don’t really know their definitions: zeitgeist, bildungsroman, doppelgänger – better yet, anything Latin. But avoid paradigm. It’s so 1994. If you say the word paradigm, everybody knows you’re a poser.

Link – via Kewpie

Top 10 Slam Dunks of All Time: Link [YouTube] – via Bank Locater

A 720 dunk by "Air Up There": Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

The Register wrote about a strange military installation in the remote village of Huangyangtan in China, found by the Google Earth community:

Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900×700m scale model of a mountainous landscape……complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks.

It’s clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why?

The only sensible explanation we can come up with is that it’s a training aid for pilots – possibly helicopter jockeys – designed to familiarise them with the landscape should military action ever be required.

Link

Sixteen year-old teenager Corey Workman is alive today because he learned to fight off an alligator attack from watching the Discovery Channel on TV:

"At first it was just a reaction. I just kept punching, and I pulled myself together. I kept on thinking, ‘I’m not going to die this way,’" Workman said.

Workman and some friends were on the water’s edge near Astor in Lake County Saturday night when he felt something grab his left ankle. He said he instinctively started throwing punches, and then when he realized it was an alligator, he remembered what he had seen many times on the Discovery Channel.

"I grabbed its jaw, and I put all my weight back so it would roll over, and I could get closer to it. I put my right thumb in its eye, and as I did that, it let go," Workman said.

Link

Did Pink Floyd synchronize their song to The Wizard of Oz? See for yourself – long video though (43 mins).

A comment on the video pointed out the similarities:

Man, that effect is just freaky. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, I say the best effects are at:
1:27 (10 seconds)
4:02 (45 seconds)
8:05 (2 minutes)
14:40 (2 minutes 40 seconds)
19:29 (30 seconds)
21:10 (1 minute 30 seconds)
27:41 (25 seconds)
29:10 (1 minute 30 seconds)
32:20 (10 seconds)
37:26 (20 seconds)
Add it up, it’s still fairly long, but not as long.

Link [Google Video] - thanks Ajit!

Hit play to see someone surfing a REALLY big wave or go to Link [YouTube] | Extreme: Surfing – via smidgt.se

The famous ConferenceBike is a tricycle pedaled by 7 riders sitting in a circle. One person steers, while the others pedal – it’s kind of like what a bike would look like if it were designed by a committee…

Link

Neatorama reader Richard Sarson wrote to us about his artwork:

The Circle Project is a series of drawings created using a compass and coloured felt-tip (marker) pens. Produced between February and June 2006 by recent graduate of the Royal College of Art: Richard Sarson the works explore pattern, symmetry and composition, also a desire to create something complex using simple tools and a mathematical approach. There are over 1000 circles drawn for each piece with the colours chosen completely at random.

Link – Thanks Richard!

Ford unveiled its coolest car yet: a 6.5 ton ice sculpture of Ford Focus convertible.

Amidst the hot and bothered masses assembled at the British International Motor Show’s sweltering Excel Center, Ford celebrated the success of the best-selling Focus with a six-and-a-half-ton ice sculpture of the company’s new Coupé-Cabriolet. To offset the cool, UK supermodel and noted driver Jodie Kidd was on hand (and knee) for the introduction.

Link – Thanks Gigz!

Ever wonder how much the houses that were used in exterior shots of famous TV shows are worth? Zillow’s got the answer: Link – Fosfor

These whimsical Kebab Lamps are made by the design group Committee (Clare Page and Harry Richardson).

Link – via Treehugger

Did Teddy Roosevelt Coin Maxwell House Coffee slogan "Good to the Last Drop"? When he visited The Hermitage in Nashville, Theodore Roosevelt (supposedly) was given Maxwell House coffee, which he then promptly drank and said "Good to the last drop", which became the coffee’s motto.

Link

When you just need to shut out the world, sit in Stefan Borselius’ Peekaboo chair and pull down the isolation chamber … Link | Stefan’s website

This one’s called "Seduction" – take a look at Sergei’s other ceramic artworks: Link

Neatorama reader Kira Bloom suggested that we all check out Karin Collin’s handcrafted, incredibly unique art pendant necklaces made from ordinary household spoons.

Tres chic!

Link – Thanks Kira!

Found at Museum of Modern Art’s SAFE: Design Takes on Risk: Link – via Behind the Curtains

From the website:

The story goes that a Vice president from the Cartier offices in London, was involved in a fatal car crash. A fire ensued and the occupant along with his watch was caught up in the flames, furthering along the fatality and "melting" the watch on his wrist, a Cartier Bagnoire Alongee, which is shaped like an elongated oval. The watch being melted and mangled took on the shape of a surrealistic watch from a Dali painting. The powers that be at Cartier, found this "watch design" actually inspiring, and decided to introduce is as a new design, and as a tribute to their fallen colleague. Thus the "Crash" watch was born.( in Great Britain the slang for a car accident is "crash")

Link

Dutch artist Floris’ hot tub is kind of like the redneck hot tubs we’ve seen before. Only it’s European rednecks. And at $6,000 a pop, it’s for rich European rednecks.

Link