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See more redneck iPod dock, engagement announcement, hot tubs, space shuttle, rollercoaster, yacht at Neatorama.
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Apparently, this Marco Island, Florida attraction is for real! Found at jo-eks.
This Disneyland Sign Generator is found at Add Letters.
From Pink Tentacle:
Residents of the coastal town of Susami in Wakayama prefecture love the sea and the post office so much that the town once installed a mailbox on the ocean floor for scuba divers. Now, further evidence of this powerful sea/mail love comes in the form of “Surumail” — edible postcards made from squid.
Produced by the Susami fishing cooperative, Surumail postcards consist of dried surume squid (Todarodes pacificus), the local seafood specialty. The squid jerky is flattened and vacuum-packed into the shape of a postcard, and an adhesive label is included for the postage, delivery address and a short message.
Comments Off This is a clip from a talk at TED (Technology, Entertainment, design) given by Michael Shermer [wiki], the founder of Skeptic Magazine. At around 3 minutes mark, he showed a clip about perceptual blindness (the basketball pass experiment) and even a clip from Katie Melua [wiki].
It’s worth watching: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Sherzod Agzamov!
Update 12/4/06: Hanan of growabrain gave us another link to the white shirt experiment: Link
From The Largest Minority:
Miniature wooden Santa figures were removed from Rossmann stores, a German retail chain, after customers claimed they looked like they were giving the outlawed Hitler salute.
“We were astonished by the reaction,” Josef Lange, a spokesman for Rossmann said. “It looks like he’s just pointing up to the sky and we were surprised that anyone saw the so-called ‘Hitler salute’ in that. But we responded and had the entire inventory removed and destroyed.”
More than 1,000 people are feared dead after Typhoon Durian hit the Philippines:
Official figures showed 450 dead, 507 injured and 599 missing, but Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the local Red Cross, said he believed more than 1,000 died in the thousands of homes that were buried under 1 1/2 meters (5 feet) of volcanic debris, mud and flood waters.
"At this time, no more. I’m sorry," Juan Garcia, mayor of devastated Guinobatan town, said when asked about prospects of survivors being found. "It’s almost impossible. They have been buried under sand and boulders. I don’t think they can survive. It’s impossible for anyone to survive."
Ed Grothus is a former Los Alamos National Lab employee. Now, he tinkers around his shop "The Black Hole," a marvelous scientific junk store with a huge collection of used scientific equipments, electronics, lab supplies, military surplus and "nuclear by-products" (I don’t know what he means by that). It’s called the Black Hole because "everything goes in and nothing comes out."
Link [flickr set] | The Black Hole of Los Alamos website – via Cosmic Watercooler.
That’s Brad Graham showing off his custom bicycle chopper "OverKill." See more custom bikes at AtomicZombie: Link
Besides posting tons of fun stuff at YesButNoButYes blog, Mario Marsicano also has some awesome retro stuff you can buy at his website (and namesake) Jellio. Here’s Gumball Time, a gumball vending machine modded to be a clock. And guess what? They still dispense gum or prizes when you put in a dime!
Link – via Digital Drops
Comments Off Take 5 toothpicks and snap them in half (but leave the two halves attached) and arrange them in a burst pattern. Then, without touching them, rearrange the toothpicks to make a star. How? Press play or go to Link [metacafe] – Thanks Delpitos!
Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London confirmed what we all suspect all along: psychopaths have different brains than normal people.
Psychopaths showed less activity in brain areas involved in assessing the emotion of facial expressions, the British Journal of Psychiatry reports.
In particular, they were far less responsive to fearful faces than healthy volunteers.
Link – via Blue’s News
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Here’s how to make cleaning hardwood floor more enjoyable: turn a radio-controlled car into a floor sweeper! Details at Evil Mad Scientist Lab: Link – via DIY:happy
Comments Off Artists Ansuman Biswas and Jem Finer describe themselves as "Slightly inept trainees of an ancient mystic sect, they have somehow managed to infiltrate the Cosmonaut’s Training Programme in Star City, Moscow. They are determined to practice the kind of space flight taught by a long line of sages… and they certainly need the practice."
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Zero Genie website – via Interactive Architecture
From Modern Mechanix Blog, which covers articles from vintage Modern Mechanix, Popular Science, and other mags: Link
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That’s a fire extinguisher, part of a new product line called Orange Works at the Home Depot.
The chic yet functional product was designed by Peter Arnell, and Home Depot says:
"it hopes the fire extinguisher’s design will induce homeowners to keep the product in an accessible place, so it will be useful in an emergency, unlike those extinguishers hidden in the closet."
Found at Everything and Nothing
WikiHow has the detailed instruction on how to make your own 3D paper snowflake: Link – via Make
Being homeless didn’t stop this guy Brian from making the best of it: he built a motorhome bike that he pedals around Portland, Oregon! From BikePortland: Link 1 | Link 2 – via Honky-Tonk Dragon
From USC’s Regional History Collection, here are some early photos of the grand opening of Disneyland (and yes, that’s Uncle Walt at the controls of the Viewliner, the train that ran between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland): Link – via Boing Boing and Look at This …
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According to the Times of London:
Pythons were probably the first idols to be worshipped by man, archaeologists said after unearthing evidence of a ritual dating back 70,000 years.
A rock shaped like an enormous python’s head, discovered in a cave in the Tsodilo hills of Botswana, puts back the date of the first known human ritual by 30,000 years, they say.
Equally interesting is the context in which the idol was found. It appears that even way back then, “the great and powerful Oz” was already behind the curtain:
Behind the rock, which was covered in man-made indentations, was a chamber that the archaeologists believed was used by a shaman who could have spoken without being seen, giving the impression that it was the snake speaking.
“The shaman would have been able to control everything. It was perfect,†Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, said.
The python photo comes from the Basel zoo via Rasch-Blog.
My friend Diana at Cream of the Crock has quite a collection of vintage pharmaceuticals. She’s gone out of her way to research the various ingredients in her “menthol snuff.” Turns out she can . . .
CLEAN UP [with] Menthol – sometimes used “as a pesticide against tracheal mites of honeybees”
HARDEN UP [with] Epinine – a “Sympathomimetic, vasoconstrictor agent.”
MAKE UP [with] Bismuth Oxychloride – “Bismuth is the by-product of lead and copper refining, … it is a by-product of lead refining, bismuth oxychloride should be lead free when companies begin using it in their cosmetics.”
THROW UP [with] Ammonium Chloride – “It is sold in blocks at hardware stores for use in cleaning the tip of a soldering iron and can also be included in solder as flux. Other uses include a feed supplement for cattle, in hair shampoo, in textile printing, in the glue that bonds plywood, as an ingredient in nutritive media for yeast, in cleaning products, and as cough medicine. Its expectorant action is caused by irritative action on the bronchial mucosa. This causes the production of excess respiratory tract fluid which presumably is easier to cough up. It is the active ingredient in many antiperspirants, usually used in aerosol antiperspirants.”
PERK UP [with] Camphor – “It may also be administered orally in small quantities (50 mg) for minor heart symptoms and fatigue.
and BLOW UP [with] Lycopodium – “used in the past in fireworks, fingerprint powders, explosives, and as a covering for pills. In relation to that, the term “Lycopodium mask” is sometimes used to describe a type of flamethrower-mask worn by some music bands or artists on stage, such as Rammstein.”
Ten miners married their sweethearts Saturday a thousand feet underground in the Shanxi province of China. Why? It’s a stunt aimed at making China’s coal-mining industry (the deadliest in the world) less depressing. Mine manager Liu Suisheng indicated they are trying for an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest simultaneous underground wedding. The photos must’ve turned out a bit dark, since I couldn’t find any. Link
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Here are the images from this week’s Cellar & Neatorama collaboration: the Digestive Table, created by artist Amy M. Youngs.
Start by "feeding" your table scraps of food and shredded paper into the opening on top of the table.
In the center of the table, there is a composting bag filled with a mix of worms, sowbugs and bacteria. These are part of the "digestive system" that will break down the waste into rich compost that drips out of the bag. The compost can then be used as fertilizer for plants.
As if that’s not cool enough, Amy added an infrared camera connected to an LCD screen on the table, so viewers can see what the worms and sowbugs are doing inside the bag!
See the details of Amy Young’s Digestive table at her website: Link (Don’t miss her other projects). As always, visit Cellar Image of the Day for more fantastic pics.
Link Donkey has a list of the top 10 most intelligent and stupidest dogs on the planet:
Most intelligent: These breeds on average require less than 5 repetitions to understand a new command. They obey first commands 95 % of the time or better.
Stupidest: Require more than 80 repetitions to understand a new command. Obey first commands less than 25 % of the time.
So what’s the most intelligent breed? Border collie. The stupidest? Afghan hound. Link – via AQFL
See more of French artist Andre Martins de Barros’ artwork here: Link – via Jaf Project
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This mule just gave birth. So what’s neat about that, you think. Here’s why it’s amazing (hint: it’s a mule!)
A mule is the hybrid of a horse and a donkey and should be sterile – except in this instance.
There have only been two substantiated cases of a mule giving birth in the past quarter century: one in China in 1988 and the other also in Morocco in 1984.
From the website:
A beer distributor says Maine is being a Scrooge by barring it from selling a beer with a label depicting Santa Claus enjoying a pint of brew.
In a complaint filed in federal court, Shelton Brothers accuses the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship for denying applications for labels for Santa’s Butt Winter Porter and two other beers it wants to sell in Maine.
The dispute recalls a similar squabble last year when Connecticut told Shelton Brothers it had problems with its Seriously Bad Elf ale.
"Last year it was elves. This year it’s Santa. Maybe next year it’ll be reindeer," said Daniel Shelton, owner of the company in Belchertown, Mass.
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What makes this flashlight so powerful? A few things. First, there’s some batteries. And not just a few, but 12 1.2V NiMH (rechargable) batteries capable of sustained 10 amp draws. They’re in a nice, heavy duty battery carrier that can withstand the load as well.
Then there’s the bulb. It’s an Osram HLX 64623. This is a 12V bulb which is being overdriven to 14+V, to about 140 watts, with an estimated light output of about 4000 lumens. Compare that to a regular 2D MagLight, which is much, much less than 50 lumens.
There’s also a metal reflector, as the stock MagLight reflector would melt almost instantly from the heat of the Osram.
The stock MagLight switch would also melt under the current load, so that’s also been replaced with a switch capable of switching the load.
Link | There’s even a video [YouTube] – via 2dayBlog
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This kitchen island, made by Italian company Sheer, may not be practical (those who have it probably eat out every night anyways) but you can’t beat it as a conversation piece. The unit’s top lifts up to reveal the cooking surface and sink.
Link – via AV Club Blog
Since the 60s, there has been a large increase in the number of reported natural disasters. Does this mean that the world is becoming more dangerous or are people reporting more things?
Link – via Digital Journal
