HOME |
RSS | 
Life Size Mouse Trap is a life-sized version of the Rube Goldbergian Mousetrap game, made by Mark Perez.
The Mousetrap is impressive as a static sculpture but it is the motion, started by a human that is the heart of its existence. A hand starts the TRAP with a crank of the CRANK to set to spin two large wooden gears. Which in turn, turns the belt which rotates the hoist to lower the bowlingball that pulls the rope which spins the STOP SIGN until it slips past 12 and falls
to tug the rope attached to the end of the sledge hammer causing it to swing down striking the coil spring trigger releasing the drawn back leaf spring which pulls the cable attached to the end of the giant HAMMER whipping it into the heel of the BOOT (which is attached to the 16 foot tall FLAME THROWING LAMP POST) sending it ….
(You get the idea! It ends by releasing a two-ton bank safe! It was displayed in the Maker Faire 2007)
Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei of Eye on DNA blog wrote about the top 5 things you can do with your genetic code, for example:
#3 Preserve your DNA in jewelry form.
The Perpetua Life Jewel Pendant is composed of your DNA embedded in acrylic and can be made in a variety of colors. There’s also a Gold & Crystal Life Jewel Heart available. They market it for preserving “your animal companion’s DNA,” but nothing stops you from preserving DNA from yourself or your lover(s) and children.
Comments Off
Aaron Johnson’s "What the Duck" is a neat web comic strip about a photograph-obsessed duck. A large part of the charm of the website is the witty comments! Link – Thanks Mindy!
Weird Al Yankovic explains what eBay is all about (oh so, so true!) … Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks özi!
Sara of the Itinerant Poetry Librarian blog thought that the world needs a traveling librarian of lost and forgotten poetry, so one day she ditched most of her belongings and traveled to more than 10 countries to spread poetry.
She wrote:
… as someone interested in freedom of speech, words and access to knowledge for all, and with a personal interest in poetry and preserving our shared collective cultural heritage, I decided it was time to make this a reality.
So you know what I did? I got rid of my belongings and became the world’s first travelling library of lost & forgotten poetry. I got rid of my belongings because most of them wouldn’t fit into my rucksack along with the library, not entirely because I am some mad anti-consumer, though that does help now that I’ve been existing as a fully operational free public lending library for nearly a year now and don’t have local taxpayers ensuring my existence through their tax dollars.
I buy very little because my library is free and to keep on doing it I need to er, like, not spend anything. So. I couchsurf, eat from bins or the food ppl give me, and continue to take the library around the world. I’m on the 10th country and 14th city so far. It turns out the world _does_ need a free travelling library of lost & forgotten poetry as we’ve over 300 members and counting so far. If you can find us, you should come join!
Here’s her blog: Link – Thanks Sara!
Comments Off 
Photo Credit: Lund University, Sweden
Scientists found out that bats fly very differently from the way birds fly, and underscored the different evolutionary paths bats and birds took in developing flight:
A bat, Glossophaga soricina, in flight in a wind tunnel at Lund University, Sweden. The velocity field induced by the wingbeat is shown superimposed and to scale. The bat wake reconstructions have features that have not been observed in similar-sized birds. Membranous and feathered wings of natural and engineered flyers may have significantly different aerodynamic properties.
|
VideoSift’s "collectives" are neat, user-created groups of videos on a certain topic. This particular one, called That’s terrible! Who gave that a green light? is all about clips that are sooo bad they’re awesome!
For more the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift. |
Aristophanes
Best Lines: "Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleip "These impossible women … can’t live with them, or without them!" Yeah – it’s an old line. Shakespeare
Best Lines: "Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance." "Sampson: … I will be cruel with the maids, I will cut off their heads. Mark Twain
Best Lines: "I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it." "In a world without women," Twain was once asked, "what would men become?" "Scarce, sir," Twain replied. "Mighty scarce." "Familiarity breeds contempt – and children." "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress." Lenny Bruce
Best Lines: "A lot of people say to me, ‘Why did you [the Jews] kill Christ?’ I dunno … it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know? … We killed him because he didn’t want to become a doctor, that’s why we killed him." Richard Pryor
Best Lines: "I went to Zimbabwe … I know how white people feel in America now – relaxed! ‘Cause when I heard the police car I knew they weren’t coming after me!" "I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right." Stricken with MS, Pryor stopped performing in the mid ’90s, but he remained outspoken – but as an advocate for radical animal rights group – until his death in 2005. |
|
 |
From mental_floss’ book Scatterbrained, published in Neatorama with permission. Don’t forget to visit mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog!
|
Comments Off 
Flickr user Bluemoose uploaded photos of this awesome model of Mos Eisley (a space port from the planet Tatooine from Star Wars) made from LEGO blocks, from the Leicester LEGO Fest in 2007.
Here are more LEGO creations based on the Star Wars universe: Link
Overview: The inventor of comedy. The plot of his most famous play had the wives of dueling Athens and Sparta withhold sex from the warmongers until, finally, peace fell over the land.
Overview: Shakespearean humor generally falls under four categories: 1) horrible puns that rely on knowledge of 16th-century English; 2) veiled reference to sex; 3) satire concerning 16th-century politics that scholars don’t even laugh at; and 4) wit that, sometimes, remains timeless.
Overview: Mark Twain was the funniest writer in American history. We’re going to stop the overview there to leave more room for his jokes.
Overview: Comedy’s first bad boy, Bruce created the current form of stand-up storytelling with its sarcasm, twists, and shocks. In the ’50s and ’60s Bruce discussed topics ranging from his Jewish heritage to explicit sex and was arrested several times for public profanity – which does make him challenging to quote in a family-friendly book, but …
Overview: Born to a brothel’s madam and one of her clients, Richard Pryor didn’t get a head start in life. By making fun of himself, the state of the black race in America, and his own mistakes, Pryor became recognized as one of the finest comedians in American history. In the tradition of Lenny Bruce, not many of his best lines are suitable for publication. But we’ll try.
