Archive for March 6th, 2007

Peeing in Tom Hanks' Movies: a mental_floss Quiz.

According to mental_floss, peeing plays a role in nearly all Tom Hanks movies. To make it fun, they have a quiz where to play, you have to match the peeing "scenes" to the movie titles.

Here’s the quiz link: There’s No ‘P’ in Tom Hanks – Thanks Will!

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String Spin.

A simple, yet fascinating Flash applet from Zefrank: Link – via Weird Daily

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People are Good at Figuring Out Faces at Low Resolution (6 x 7 Pixels).

A little experiment by Cognitive Daily showed that people are amazingly good at identifying faces from other images at the resolution of only 6 by 7 pixels!

Link – via AQFL

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Roundworm in the Brain = Death.

From the website:

In 1980, he saw the first confirmed human death, a Pennsylvania boy who apparently had eaten feces from raccoons living in the family’s chimney. Like the birds, the boy had neurological problems and trouble controlling his muscles. The autopsy showed roundworm larvae in his brain.

Link – via MoPo

Previously on Neatorama: Six Horrifying Parasite

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The Trial of Han Solo.

Here’s a funny parody of the TV show Law and Order, featuring Han Solo on trial for the murder of Greedo in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Hit play or go to Link [Google Video] (warning: brief "CGI" dude nudity) – via Drikoland

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Maggot Art.

Abstract art? No, actually it’s maggot art. Rebecca O’Flaherty, the founder of Maggot Art educational curriculum explains:

What are maggots?

Many groups of insects have four stages of development in their lives: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Butterflies are a well-known example of this phenomenon and have special names for two of the stages: a "caterpillar" is a butterfly larva, and a "chrysalis" or "cocoon" is the butterfly pupa. Flies also have four stages, and in many cases their larvae are called "maggots."

Will the maggots or I be harmed in the making of Maggot Art™?

We use only non-toxic water-based paints to make Maggot Art™. The maggots are not harmed by this paint, and they are released as adults after they have completed their development. In addition to cleaning the maggots before use, we handle them with forceps so you will not have to worry about contamination.

Link – via Ugly Overload, Thanks Wendy!

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Dog Cuisine in Nigeria.

Here’s why dogs are becoming scarce in Abuja, Nigeria:

"Everybody is eating dog meat openly now, that is why dogs are scarce," he says.

Many Abuja dog owners complain that their dogs have gone missing, probably ending up in the likes of Oga Bassey’s big dog pepper soup pot.

The article comes complete with dog cuisine lingo:

404: A dog is also called 404 after the French-built Peugeot pick-up van, a tribute to a dog’s ability to run fast
Headlights: A dish with the eyes of a dog as the most prominent component
Gear Box: Dog’s liver, heart and kidneys (usually more expensive than ordinary meat)
Tyre: A dog’s legs. Mr Umoh claims that eating a ‘tyre’ makes you a fast runner
Sentencing: The act of clubbing a dog to death rather than slaughtering it

Link

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Mafia Tactics in Cowbirds.

Cowbirds have long been known to lay eggs in the nests of other birds, which then raise the cowbirds’ young as their own.

Sneaky, perhaps, but not Scarface.

Now, however, a University of Florida study finds that cowbirds actually ransack and destroy the nests of warblers that don’t buy into the ruse and raise their young.

Jeff Hoover, an avian ecologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, is the lead author on the first study to document experimental evidence of this peeper payback — retaliation to encourage acceptance of parasitic eggs.

Findings will be published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences March 5.

“It’s the female cowbirds who are running the mafia racket at our study site,” said Hoover, who has a joint appointment with the Illinois Natural History Survey. “Our study shows many of them returned and ransacked the nest when we removed the parasitic egg.”

So-called “brood parasitic birds” lay eggs in the nests of host birds that raise the parasite’s offspring, usually at the expense of some of their own. The brown-headed cowbird parasitizes more than 100 host species, including many Neotropical migratory birds such as warblers, tanagers and vireos. Prothonotary warblers were used for this study because they almost always accept cowbird eggs, Hoover said.

Hosts that use their beaks to grasp or puncture parasitic eggs and remove them from the nest are called “ejecters.” “Accepter” hosts raise parasitic eggs.

“Retaliatory mafia behavior in cowbirds makes hosts’ acceptance of cowbird eggs a better proposition than ejection,” Hoover said. “The accepting warblers in our study produced more of their own offspring, on average, than those where we ejected cowbird eggs.”

University of Florida Press Release

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Chill a Beer or Soda in Under a Minute.

Need a cold soda or beer quick? The Tinchilla will cool any canned drink in a minute or less. Just insert two AA batteries, ice, water, and your favorite beverage to get an ice-cold drink delivered up to 240 times faster than a fridge.

Seem unbelievable? I thought so, but here’s how one retailer describes the physics:

The Tinchilla is a simple device which utilizes the scientific principle of thermal conduction. By spinning the can at an optimised speed the metal of the can is rapidly chilled by exposing its surface to the ice cubes and water surrounding it. The spinning can is also given a slight wobble resulting in a whirlpool effect inside. This whirpool allows as much of the drink as possible to be exposed to the now chilled surface of the can thus rapidly transferring the heat from inside to the surrounding water and ice.

Pretty neat for only ~$10. Link via TechEBlog

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The Making of a Celebrity Photoshoot.

If you’ve ever wondered how much effort is required to create great celebrity photographs, then this time lapse video by Michael Grecco should help put it in perspective. The video shows the entire 3 hour setup, photoshoot, and tear down process for a spread of Martin Scorsese featured in OnDirecTV magazine. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] to view the video.

To learn more about the photographer and this photoshoot, you can read the two part interview at Death to Film. Via One Man’s Blog

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SciFi Story Sentences So Bad They're Good!

Top5 SciFi has the Top 10 sentences from third-rate science fiction stories. Kind of like the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest of bad writing ("It was a dark and stormy night"), but for SciFi. For example:

As he was led to die in an arcane alien ritual, Tank McPhoton tried one last time to apologize. How was he to know that what he took to be an extended hand of friendship which he gripped firmly and shook vigorously was actually the Supreme Ruler’s private parts?

Link – via Monkeys for Helping (where I found the awesome Klingon pic!)

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Yakuza Table.

This Yakuza table is "digitally tattooed" (whatever that means) to look like the body art of a Japanese gangster. Link
- via Ponchorama

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Wonder Woman 1967 TV Pilot.

Following the success of the 1960’s Batman TV series, in 1967 Greenway Productions produced this four and a half-minute of oh-so-campy TV pilot of Wonder Woman! In the show, Wonder Woman is less of an Amazonian princess and more of a city girl who uses her superhero alter-ego as a fantasy to escape reality.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Pistol Wimp and SF Signal

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Chocolate Bubble Wrap.

That’s chocolate bubble wrap from DeLessio Market Bakery – so instead of popping those bubbles to calm your neurosis, you eat ‘em! Link – via She’s A Betty

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Drunken Animals.

Look at This blog has 5 YouTube clips of drunken animals (including monkey, squirrel, cat, dog, elephant, giraffe, warthog, ostrich, wildebeest …)

The first clip is quite interesting. It’s about monkeys at S. Kits who sneakily steal drinks from unsuspecting tourists on the beach.

It tells us that monkey’s drinking habit is just like humans: some will do anything for alcohol whereas some are teetotalers who avoid it in favor for soft drinks. Even the percentage is similar: 12% drink regularly in moderation, whereas 5% will drink to the last drop.

Link

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Chromatically Arranged Bookstore.

Remember the post where someone arranged their bookshelf by color? Well, San Francisco’s Adobe Bookshop (temporarily) arranged more than 20,000 used books chromatically for an exhibit in 2004!

Link – via Table of Malcontents

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Cruise Missile in Google Earth.

Whoa! Google Earth "captured" this Cruise missile in the skies above Utah (en route to?)

Link – via smidigt.se

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Music Cocoon: iPod Dock with Glowing Tubes.

iPod dock and a bar? Nope – that’s just some glowing tubes by Roth Audio’s Music Cocoon MC4.

Link – via Shiny Shiny

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Hand-Made Arts of Mass Produced Items.

Aryon Hostleton and Alison Macrina made the knitted version of the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag you get from a store – their work is part of an exhibition at Space 1026, suggestively titled "Handjob". It’s all about artists creating hand-made versions of mass produced stuff:

Links: artblog | sokref1’s Flickr photoset – via trendbeheer

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An Omen?

Found at digg.

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Most Expensive Frog Watch

For $150,000 you get this cute timepiece.
Executed in textured 18kt.yellow gold, the body is pave set with ombre tsavorites and studded blue sapphire cabochons with diamond feet details and ruby cabochon eyes. This royal amphibian proudly wears a diamond-encrusted crown. 18kt yellow gold case. Link via: J-Walk

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Kamini

Hip-hop isn’t dead! Kamini’s “Marly-Gomont” has been around for perhaps six months. It is a musical tribute to the rural French village he’s from in which his was the only black family. He has a Wikipedia entry here. Enjoy the video (en français). Link [YouTube].

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9 Laws of Physics That Don't Apply in Hollywood

In general, Hollywood filmmakers follow the laws of physics because they have no other choice. It’s just when they cheat with special effects that we seem to forget how the world really works. 1. Those Exploding Cars No car explosions, please – found at LookyLuc [Flickr] When you’re watching an action flick, all it takes is a crash, or maybe a stream of leaky gasoline that acts like a fuse, and suddenly, bang! You see a terrific explosion that’s complete and violent. But gasoline doesn’t explode unless mixed with about 93% air. Gas-induced car explosions were discovered on film relatively recently (you don’t see them in the old black-and-white movies), and now audiences just take them for granted. In general, there’s no need to rush out of a crashed car, risking injury, because you fear an imminent explosion – it’s probably not gonna happen. 2. Sound that Moves at the Speed of Light Hollywood always gets this one wrong. On film, thunder doesn’t follow lightning (as in real life, because sound is slower); they occur simultaneously. Similarly, a distant volcano erupts, and the blast is heard immediately rather than five seconds later for each mile. Explosions on the battlefield go boom right away, no matter how far away spectators are. Even a small thing, like the crack of a baseball player’s bat, is simultaneous with ball contact, unlike at a real game. 3. Everything is Illuminated: The Myth of Radioactivity Film would have you believe that radioactivity is contagious and makes you glow in the dark. Where did this idea come from? The Simpsons? Perhaps, but the truth is that the most common forms of radioactivity will make you radioactive only if the radioactive particles stick on you. Radioactivity is not contagious. If a person is exposed to the radioactive neutrons from a nuclear reactor, then he can become slightly radioactive, but he certainly won’t glow. And because radioactive things emit light only when they run into phosphor – like the coating on the inner surface of a TV tube – you don’t really need to worry. 4. Shotgun Blasts and Kung Fu Kicks Make Targets Fly across the Room With the string of new kung fu films out (they run the gamut from The Matrix to Charlie’s Angels), you just can’t escape the small matter of bad physics. Yeah, the action scenes look great and all, but in reality momentum is conserved, such that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, when you see a gal kick someone across the room, technically, the kicker (or holder of a gun) must fly across the room in the opposite direction – unless she has a back against the wall. 5. Legends of the Fall We aren’t surprised when the cartoon character Wile. E. Coyote runs off a cliff and is suspended there momentarily before he falls. But in the movies, buses and cars shouldn’t be able to jump across gaps in bridges, even if they go heavy on the accelerator. The fact is, a vehicle will fall even if it’s moving at a high speed. During the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, a driver saw a gap in the bridge too late, and probably inspired by the movies, accelerated to try to make it across. Unfortunately, the laws of physics were not suspended, and he fell into the hole and crashed on the other side. Movies with special effects should come with a warning: “Laws of physics are violated in this movie. Don’t try these stunts at home.” 6. The Sounds of Science All across the silver screen, you’ll catch people screaming as their car flies in slow motion across the gap in the bridge. The problem, though, is that their voices don’t change. In reality, if you slow down motion by a factor of two, the frequency of all sounds should drop by an octave. Women will sound like men, and men will sound like Henry Kissinger. Sound is an oscillation of the air. Middle C, for example, is 256 vibrations per second. If time is slowed down, there are fewer cycles per second, and the resulting sound is lower in pitch. 7. Shell Shock! Exploding Artillery Shells that Blow Straight Up In movies, shells tend to kill only the person standing directly over them. It seems like a waste of artillery, since – if you believe the movies – each shell can’t kill more than a single rifle bullet can. But in real life, artillery shells blow out in all directions, killing people all over. Movie directors like to have their actors running through a field of such shells, but they don’t want their actors killed, so they arrange for underground explosions in holes that blow straight up, missing anyone who’s more than 5 feet away. 8. The Sparking Bullet Sparking bullets are relatively recent invention in movie special effects. The gimmick provides a way of letting the audience know that the bullet just barely missed its target. In real life, sparks do occur when you scrape steel or other hard metals on hard surfaces (such as brick) because little pieces of brittle materials are heated to glow and fly off. The problem here is that bullets are generally made of lead because it’s dense and soft, and you don’t want the bullets scarring the steel of the gun barrel. Ever notice that no sparks fly from the front of the gun? That’s because you’re seeing lead bullets. 9. Sound Travels in Space This is the granddaddy of all scientific complaints about space movies. For instance, in space the hero shouldn’t be able to shout out instructions to the other astronauts from a spot several yards away. The movie Aliens corrected this misimpression with its tagline: “In space, nobody can hear you scream.” And it’s true. Sound is the vibration of air, and it’s sensed when the air makes your eardrums vibrate. But try to forget this rule as soon as possible; it’ll wreck a good many movies for you.

From mental_floss’ book Condensed Knowledge: A deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again, published in Neatorama with permission. [Update 3/6/07: Originally written by UC Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller] Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog!

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Röyksopp's Remind Me.

Röyksopp’s [wiki] Remind Me music video (yes, it’s been around the Net for a while) is one very cool piece of infographics eye candy! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

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Kris Kuksi's Sculpture.

Check out Kris Kuksi’s fantastic sculptures (this one is called "Lust and Self-Abuse"): Link

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Ultraviolet Image of the Sun.

NASA’s twin spacecrafts, the Stereo orbiters, captured this close-up ultraviolet image of the sun. The two satellites will give Earth-bound scientists better ability to track "solar fronts" that disrupt radio communications and even "fry" satellite electronics.

Link

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Amazing Meccano Creations.

Meccano [wiki] enthusiast gathered in Skegness, England to showcase their amazing creations. This one above, a fighter jet model made by John Thorpe, won first prize.

Link

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World's Biggest Balls.

Over at mental_floss, there’s this list of the world’s biggest … ahem, balls! Like this one – the world’s biggest popcorn ball:

Constructed in a popcorn factor in Sac City, Iowa (doesn’t that seem like cheating?), Guinness recognized this ball as the world’s largest in 2004. 910 lbs. of popcorn, 1500 lbs. of sugar and 690 lbs. of syrup went into making the seven-foot-tall, 3,100 pound treat.

Link – Thanks Will!

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