Archive for July 9th, 2007

Chemistry video collection.

Enjoy this collection of 16 chemistry experiments from the Journal of Chemical Education. You can read an explanation of each video, or just watch things bubble, burn, or explode! Link -via Dump Trumpet

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Oregon Lawn Chair Pilot.

Last weekend, Oregon gas station owner Kent Couch took off on a 193 mile solo flight -in a lawn chair attached to 105 helium balloons! He took along food and drinks, a bb gun, and a parachute. His flight, reminiscent of Larry Walters flight in 1982, reached an altitude of 13,000 feet and lasted nine hours. Link -via Fark

The image is from the movie Danny Deckchair (2003).

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Jay Leno Inhaled "Anti-Helium"

We’ve posted about sulfur hexafluoride [wiki] gas a while ago, so it’s a nice surprise to see it featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Here’s a funny clip of Leno inhaling the "anti-helium"

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Algonkin!

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Chevy V8 Grill.

Neatorama reader Trent Whatley sent these awesome photos of a BBQ grill made from a Chevy V8 engine block! This beast may not crank out 500 HP but it does produce 60,000 BTU!

Trent wrote:

My neighbor Terry Bacon had all the torches and welders so he played a big role in that department. The idea has been rolling around in my head for a couple years but I just hadn’t found the time or all the parts to pull it off. I did some internet searching to see if anyone had already built one and that is how I found your site. There are some cars that have been turned into BBQ’s and some BBQ’s that are ran by an engine but I have yet to see an engine that has been made into a BBQ. It’s been an interesting turn of events in the making. When I pitched the idea to some of my friends, most thought I was a little off but after they saw it in working order they were impressed. It is still a work in progress with lots of add-on’s to come. Now that it has proved to be a functional unit it’s time to dress her up a bit. I took it to a local car show this weekend and I think my grill had more lookers than a lot of the cars there. It was definitely the hit of the 4th of July BBQ.

Fantastic! Thanks Trent!

Update 7/13/07: Visit Trent’s website here: V8-Grill – Thanks Gear Head!

Also check out: Neatorama’s Top 10 Coolest BBQ Grills (And Then Some!)

Update 10/17/07: Trent just sent me this updated photo and a new blog for the V8 Grill.

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Science Can Now Enlarge Breasts Using Belly Fat.

Having cured cancer and all other ailments of the world, scientists turned their attention to breast-enlargement:

Scientists say they can create a fat mixture with concentrated stem cells, which, when injected into the breast, apparently encourages tissue to grow. [...]

The procedure – dubbed Celution – could be carried out in an hour.

Fat from the either the stomach, bottom or thigh can be taken out with a standard liposuction procedure, and the stem cells then extracted.

These cells are placed into a cartridge ready for injection one hour later. The company says the breasts will then fill out over the course of six months.

Link – Thanks David R!

The image is from a 1930 Soviet poster promoting breast care:

"Are you taking care of your breasts? Harden your nipples with daily washing in cold water"

Really, I didn’t make it up.

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Spider-Man 3 Venom Case Mod.

Check out this awesome Spider-man 3 / Venom case mod gallery at techPowerUp! Props, Jason!

Link – Thanks Jason Dumbaugh! | See also Neatorama’s Ultimate Case Mod List

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Moonset As Seen From Space.

This amazing photo of the Moonset over planet Earth was taken by the International Space Station (Expedition 7) in 2003.

Link to larger pic | More photos at Chamorro (this one is #61) – Thanks I Am Stunned!

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Dumb Thieves and Robbers, Caught on Tape.

Auslandsjahr blog has a list of the top 10 dumbest thieves and robbers, caught on surveillance video.

My favorite is #4. Short and sweet!

Link [embedded YouTube videos] – Thanks Tommi!

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Porn Star Uses High Schol Classmate's Real Name as Stage Name.

KPRC Houston has this strange story of a woman whose name was "stolen" by a porn star!

Lara Madden, 25, is an actress in the pornography industry. She is a former Houstonian who has appeared in about a dozen X-rated movies under the stage name "Syvette Wimberly."

That’s the problem.

The real Syvette Wimberly was one of Madden’s classmates at Kingwood High School. The women knew each other in the ninth grade.

And the real Syvette is suing:

Wimberly is suing Madden for invasion of privacy and emotional distress.

"Really on a weekly, if not daily basis, my client has had to deal with odd phone calls, former classmates that didn’t know her that well sending her e-mails about whether she’s now in the adult film industry and just a general lack of safety for her," attorney Caj D. Boatwright said.

Link – Thanks Tiffany!

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Backyard Model of the Himeji Castle.

Today’s collaboration with Cellar Image of the Day brings us another look at a Japanese retired insurance examiner’s backyard castle: a model of the Himeji Castle.

We’ve actually posted about this before, but it’s so cool that we just had to feature it again!

Be sure to visit Cellar IotD for more fun and astounding pictures!

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Key West sides with Hemingway Cats.

The Ernest Hemingway Home in Key West, Florida has been home to a group of about 50 cats, many of them polydactyl, for decades. Some are the descendants of the original six-toed cat the author was given in 1935. The Hemingway estate has been locked in a struggle with the USDA for almost a year, which says the cats are an “exhibit” and require a special permit. The Key West City Commission has just passed an ordinance, granting the estate an exemption from the law.

The new ordinance reads in part, “The cats reside on the property just as the cats did in the time of Hemingway himself. They are not on exhibition in the manner of circus animals. … The City Commission finds that family of polydactyl Hemingway cats are indeed animals of historic, social and tourism significance.”

Link -via Simply Left Behind

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Zack Kim Plays The Simpsons Theme on Two Guitars.

We’ve featured Zack Kim playing the Super Mario theme song on two guitars before. Here’s another one, this time Zack plays The Simpsons theme song (yes, on two guitars!)

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Zack’s website – Thanks Emma!

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The Grafitti Frame.

Graffiti "artist" couldn’t resist framing this sign in San Francisco El Grande Church in Madrid, Spain, which said "please do not grafitti nor post posters."

Sent by Neatorama reader Victor Azor – Thanks Victor!

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Wall Piano.

London College of Communications graduate Hon Lam Li created this Wall Piano that lets users play music by tapping on the wall.

There are two microphones attached on the wall surface. Those microphones are acting like human ears for the computer. Therefore, the computer is able to hear people who tap/bang on the wall. The program that I made could translate those hits into piano keys.

It all depends on how hard you hit the wall. The lower key will be produced when you hit it harder; and the higher key will be produced when you hit it softer. Just like every other modern piano, it has 88 keys.

Link – Thanks Patrick Burgoyne!

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World's Neatest Used Video Game Store.

From the website:

I was told it sold a "few" second hand games and cd’s. Armed with a well drawn map (thanks Saori!), we traveled 3 stops from Oami on the Togane line to Gumyo. After walking for about 30 mins in sweltering humidity, we came to our destination. 2 large black shops loomed in the distance. From the outside, it looked like one of those stores where you purchase goods aimed at, shall we say, the more mature market. Upon entering the store, I was transported into what can only be called the "Nerd Nirvana".

Naturally, it’s in Japan: Link – Thanks moronic50!

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Ten Politically Incorrect Truths.

From Psychology Today, here’s a list of the 10 Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature. For example: why men like blond bombshells, most suicide bombers are muslims, having sons reduce the likelihood of divorce, and beautiful people have more daughters.

Link – Thanks David R!

(Image is the iconic Marilyn Monroe scene in The Seven Year Itch)

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Make Your Own Simpsons Avatar.

If you were a Simpsons character (Springfieldian?), what would you look like?

Thanks to the official The Simpsons Movie website, you can make your very own Simpsons avatar: Link – Thanks Hojimoto!

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The Largest Electric Bass Section Ever Assembled

Spinal Tap reunited for Live Earth on Saturday and played their hit “Big Bottom” backed up by “every bass player in the known universe.” Pluck, slap, and pop for the environment.

Hit play or go to YouTube

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Solar-Powered Beach Bag.

We’ve seen The Ghetto Blaster Bag today, the tote that plays music. But what if you already have the music, and all you need is power for it? Then you need The Juice!

We’ve built the world’s first heavy-duty solar beach tote that incorporates our high-tech flexible solar panel.

With the Juice Bag Beach Tote, your phone is good to go, and your camera’s always ready for that one great shot – No matter how far you are from a power outlet.

Only $249.99. Link -via Arbroath

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Computing the Volume of a Cat.

How do you compute the volume of a cat?

Dunking it in water doesn’t work– you only get the volume of the rat-like creature that lives inside the cat; much like the feeble alien within a Dalek. (And, if your answer had anything to do with contour integrals, get real.)

Find out how Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories did it, and the volume of this cat. Link

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A Seed of a Pen

A Seed of a Pen, by Zeev Zohar. At the top of the pencil sits a seed. When the pencil gets too small you plant it.

Link – via Notcot

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Manga Shakespeare.

‘Twas only a matter of time . . . Here’s a great-looking Hamlet and a Romeo and Juliet as well:

Via Bookslut

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100 Best Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies.

If you’re looking for something different to watch tonight, here are some great suggestions! The editors of Rotten Tomatoes have compiled an overview of science fiction movie reviews from their site, and ranked the top 100. Link -via Gorilla Mask

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World Wife-Carrying Championship.

44 couples competed in the World Wife-Carrying Championship Saturday in Sonkajarvi, Finland. Madis Uusorg of Estonia won first pace, with a time of 61.7 seconds, while carrying Inga Klauson. The prize: plasma televisions and Klauson’s weight in beer! Link -via Arbroath

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Interview with Grow-a-Brain

<toot one’s own horn>

I am honored to be interviewed with Hanan Levin of the famous (and fun!) Grow-a-Brain blog. This is my first interview (been asked before, but I’ve always shied away until our pal Hanan asked nicely.) You can read the whole interview here: Link – Thanks Hanan!

PS: Sometime ago Neatorama got picked as "Favorite Mindmeld" of 2007 Editors’ Awards for Online Excellence by The Morning News. (Thanks Rosecrans Baldwin!)

While we’re at it, the blog also got a nice mention in the Columbia Free Times weekly and Ze Frank (note, BB is our pal and role model, we think the world of it). Aw, shucks! Thank you for everything, guys! (Neatorama Monkey image is by Apelad)

</toot one’s own horn>

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The Origin of Everyday Punctuation Marks.

Here are the origins of several symbols we use in everyday life. Question Mark Origin: When early scholars wrote in Latin, they would place the word questio – meaning "question" – at the end of a sentence to indicate a query. To conserve valuable space, writing it was soon shortened to qo, which caused another problem – readers might mistake it for the ending of a word. So they squashed the letters into a symbol: a lowercased q on top of an o. Over time the o shrank to a dot and the q to a squiggle, giving us our current question mark. Exclamation Point Origin: Like the question mark, the exclamation point was invented by stacking letters. The mark comes from the Latin word io, meaning "exclamation of joy." Written vertically, with the i above the o, it forms the exclamation point we use today.   Equal Sign Origin: Invented by English mathematician Robert Recorde in 1557, with this rationale: "I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gmowe [i.e., twin] lines of one length, thus : , bicause noe 2 thynges, can be more equalle." His equal signs were about five times as long as the current ones, and it took more than a century for his sign to be accepted over its rival: a strange curly symbol invented by Descartes. Ampersand Origin: This symbol is stylized et, Latin for "and." Although it was invented by the Roman scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro in the first century B.C., it didn’t get its strange name until centuries later. In the early 1800s, schoolchildren learned this symbol as the 27th letter of the alphabet: X, Y, Z, &. But the symbol had no name. So, they ended their ABCs with "and, per se, and" meaning "&, which means ‘and.’" This phrase was slurred into one garbled word that eventually caught on with everyone: ampersand. Octothorp Origin: The odd name for this ancient sign for numbering derives from thorpe, the Old Norse word for a village or farm that is often seen in British placenames. The symbol was originally used in mapmaking, representing a village surrounded by eight fields, so it was named the octothorp. Dollar Sign Origin: When the U.S. government begin issuing its own money in 1794, it used the common world currency – the peso – also called the Spanish dollar. The first American silver dollars were identical to Spanish pesos in weight and value, so they took the same written abbreviations: Ps. That evolved into a P with an s written right on top of it, and when people began to omit the circular part of the p, the sign simply became an S with a vertical line through it. Olympic Rings Origin: Designed in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the five rings represent the five regions of the world that participated in the Olympics: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. While the individual rings do not symbolize any single continent, the five colors – red, blue, green, yellow, and black – were chosen because at least one of them is found on the flag of every nation. The plain white background is symbolic of peace. "The Symbol" Origin: Okay, so we’re running out of symbols, but this is a great pop culture story: In 1993, Prince’s dissatisfaction with his record label, Warner Bros., finally reached its peak. Despite his superstar status and $100 million contract, the Purple One didn’t feel he had enough creative control over his music. So "in protest," Prince announced that Prince would never perform for Warner Bros. again – this unpronounceable symbol would instead. The symbol for the Artist Formerly Known as Prince combined three ancient symbols: the male symbol, the female symbol, and the alchemy symbol for soapstone, which was supposed to reflect his artistic genius. Prince retired the symbol when his contract with Warner Bros. ran out in 2000. Today, he is again Prince.

The article above, titled What the #!&%?, is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

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Ghetto Blaster Bags.

GeekAlerts has a neat post about ghetto blaster bags: functional bags that not are only made to look like boomboxes, but can actually play music through built-in speakers. Some even have FM radio and iPod/MP3 players …

Link

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Beach Hotel for Rich, Devout Muslim Turks.

The Bera Alanya hotel on Turkey’s Mediterranean cost caters to rich devout Muslims who want to enjoy the beach in their head-to-heel, long-sleeved baggy swimsuits without provoking stares from the secular Turks!

Link – via Spluch

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Ye Olde Tourist Trappe.

From the always excellent Miss Cellania, whose topic of the day is World Travel.

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Queen Anne's Lace.

The Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota or wild carrot) is so aptly named for its intricate flower structure.

And see that red flower in the middle of the "lace"? Here’s the reason why it’s there: Link

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