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Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have created a three dimensional woven scaffold that could be impregnated with a recipients own stem cells to create functional cartilage. From the article:
In laboratory tests, the fabric scaffold that the researchers have created had the same mechanical properties as native cartilage. In the near future, surgeons will be able to impregnate custom-designed scaffolds with cartilage-forming stem cells and chemicals that stimulate their growth and then implant them into patients during a single procedure, the researchers said.
via medGadget
Brickshelf user Roguebantha has a neat Star Wars’ AT-AT made out of Lego. Link
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Fiji water is the second best selling bottled water in the US but shipping water all the way from Fiji comes at a cost.
Pablo Päster, who is a sustainable engineer, has done a thorough and exhaustive study and has worked out the true cost of producing and transporting the water. What’s probably the most surprising is that it takes a staggering 26 times more water to make the bottle than it actually holds.
Treehugger has summarised the findings:-
the manufacture and transport of that one kilogram bottle of Fiji water consumed 26.88 kilograms of water (7.1 gallons) .849 Kilograms of fossil fuel (one litre or .26 gal) and emitted 562 grams of Greenhouse Gases (1.2 pounds).
This toy has a removable bear-face that can be unbuttoned to expose a multi-eyed creature, it’s also limited to just 20 pieces. Found at Clutter Magazine .
That’s EnerGlo, a waterproof glow-in-the-dark coating that can be applied to fabrics like nylon and polyester.
Because it’s waterproof, the fabric can be used for a wide variety of sportswear, like skiing jacket and swimwear.
Link – via Backcountry.com: The Goat
Jeff Sewell wrote the Ultra[man] FAQ, which tells us everything we want to know about Ultraman [wiki]:
What Is Ultraman?
Ultraman is the generic name for a series of Japanese live-action television shows produced between 1966 and 1998. Each series focused on at least one extraterrestrial "Ultra-hero" who arrives on Earth to fight various large monsters. Conveniently, each Ultra-hero can grow to over 200 feet tall. Each Ultra-hero had various energy emission powers, plus were experts in some form of hand-to-hand martial arts-style fighting. Virtually all of them also had one weakness: their energy would run out after a short time fighting. (Strangely enough, when this happened, they tended to "get serious" and use their most energy-draining attack on the monster(s).)
This one above, which I chose because of his awesome, … er, head gear, is the Ultra Father.
Link – via Meine Kleine Fabrik
Do you have a story about rats? I’ve got a few. So what the hell is going on with rats. Well, we have answers. We hooked up with Jerry Langton, a rat expert, to give you everything you wanted to know about rats.
Click Play or go to Link [YouTube] . Found at CBC’s The Hour .
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There was nothing more disheartening than when Napoleon’s lips ” hurt real bad” and Kip wouldn’t bring his lip balm to school. Don’t fret, this will never happen to you again. You can have your very own Vanilla flavored Napoleon Dynamite Lip Balm. This lip balm offers quality moisture and protection, not to mention, the vanilla flavor is Flippin’ Sweet.
You’ve bought the MacGyver paperclip , now spoil yourself a little with Napoleon Dynamite’s lip balm, click here if you want the real thing.
I am e, sadly not affiliated with Marc Jacobs in any way. I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love me.
Emi Guner loves fashion designer Marc Jacobs [wiki] . A lot. Click here for more.
Hate Valentine’s Day? Here’s the top ten reasons why Valentine’s Day sucks at YesButNoButYes:
9. I have a stalker. You’re desirable, alright. To a psycho who won’t take no for an answer. He/she thinks because you answered one email message, you two are now an “item”.
Maybe you should take the bull by the horns and sent your stalker a greeting card. This one will do.
Link – via Miss Cellania
Right Place is the winner of the Best Short Film at Cannes 2006, directed by Kosai Sekine. It’s about an Japanese convenience store clerk with OCD that finally found the "right place" for himself.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via VideoSift
The stuff of nightmares: thousands and thousands of spiders (or daddy long legs, or harvestmen, or whatever they are!). Found at Something Awful
After having completely solved all tough medical problems like cancer, scientists turned their attention to working out a formula to calculate how "beer goggles" affect a drinker’s vision.
Here’s what they come up with:
An = number of units of alcohol consumed
S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)
L = luminance of ‘person of interest’ (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)
Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)
d = distance from ‘person of interest’ (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)They all add up to make the aesthetically-challenged more attractive, according to the formula.
Chowdhury Osman is one honest cab driver. The Queens taxi driver tracked down a passenger and returned a bag full of diamonds, after he was given just 30-cent tip for the ride!
This is a strange plan to kill someone:
A 50-year-old Stanislaus County woman has been arrested for trying to hire family friends to murder her ex-husband by putting wasps in his car, according to detectives.
In December, the woman contacted other friends and asked them to put wasps in Nellany’s car so that he would get stung, according to authorities. Nellany is allergic to wasps. He told detectives when he started his vehicle and turned on the heater the wasps came out of the heater vents. Investigators said he managed to get out without being stung.
Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Deputies suspect one motive for Angela Nellany’s actions was to collect on her husband’s life insurance policy worth $250,000.
From the website:
Spa owner Ada Barak gives a snake massage treatment, where she lets loose the reptiles on the body of customer Liz Cohen, at her spa in the northern communal village of Talmey El’Azar Feb. 1, 2007. Barak uses California and Florida King snakes, corn snakes and milk snakes in her treatments, which she said were inspired by her belief that once people get over any initial misgivings, they find physical contact with the creatures to be soothing.
Link – via Boing Boing
Nardwuar the Human Serviette [wiki] is a Canadian celebrity interviewer and musician from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He legally changed his name in 1986, and argues that “no one refers to Iggy Pop as ‘James Osterberg’”. When asked to explain his name, Nardwuar once quipped “Nardwuar equals dumb silly name, like Sting; Human means human, as in Human Fly; and Serviette is something you can’t get in the U.S. because down there they’re called napkins.”
His interviewing style can be quite grating and confusing to those who have had no prior experience with him.
Nardwuar does extensive research on the interviewee to confuse/scare/impress them, often bringing up facts about band members’ pasts that they have a hard time recalling, until he coaches them along.
The interview will always end with “Keep on rockin’ in the free world”, and the “doot doola doot doo…” of “Shave and a Haircut”, to which the interviewee must respond with the final “doot doo!”.
Click Play or go to Link [YouTube] . Click here [YouTube] for Part 2 of the interview with the “doot doola doot doo”.
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Joggling is a term for jogging while juggling. Really. Perry Romanowski is a long-distance joggler who publishes training tips and stories about his quest to joggle 44 marathon races in his blog Just Your Average Joggler. Why?
I do it because I can and it makes people smile.
Link -via Grow-A-Brain
The Union of Concerned Scientists has published The A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science. You can view the list alphabetcally, by issue area, by timeline, or by agency. You can also locate each listed issue by finding it on their interactive periodic table. Although there’s a lot of material, the issues only go back as far as 2002. Link -via Cynical C
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What happens if you send a mail with the appropriate postage value in coins, rather than in stamps? Monkeyfaq has the answer: Link – via Reddit
See also: Postman Delivers "Map-Addressed" Christmas Card
Apparently, plowing into fence is the latest teen craze:
Five Deer Park, N.Y. teens have been arrested since October for "fence plowing," the latest rage among certain Long Island youths, according to Suffolk County police. The concept is simple: Pick out a fence, run toward it at high speed, and launch yourself like a missile to plow through the wood.
Another 10 fence plowing incidents are still under investigation in the Deer Park area, police said. The arrests were made after the suspects were caught on a surveillance camera installed by a home owner whose fence was plowed five times, police said.
Link | Why, there’s even a YouTube clip: Link
Here’s German comedian Barbara Schöneberger "singing" the Star Trek theme music. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Artists Marc Owens and Jasmine Raznahan created this tandem umbrella for the inseparable! Link – via Notcot
Archaeologists at Mantua, the city of Romeo and Juliet, discovered the skeletons of a couple locked in a loving embrace:
Yesterday at Mantua, in an amazing echo of that heartrending story, archaeologists revealed the discovery of a couple locked in a tender embrace, one that has endured for more than 5,000 years.
