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In 1983, there weren’t many portable music options. The Walkman had only been out for a few years, CDs were just in their infancy, and most people owned a large collection of records. Audio Technica’s Mister Disc was designed to fill this void.
What probably seemed like a great idea turned into a flop. They’re almost impossible to find now, even on ebay (here’s an old listing). I guess us 80s kids just weren’t cool enough to see the intrinsic greatness in the Mister Disc.
The World Rubik’s Cube Champioinship was held this past weekend in Budapest, the puzzle’s birthplace. Yu Nakajima of Japan won by solving his cube in 12.46 seconds! However, the world record is still held by Frenchman Thibaut Jacquinot who solved one in 9.86 seconds last May. 14-year-old Hungarian Matyas Kuti set a record for the larger 5×5 cube competition with an average time of one minute and 45 seconds. There were other categories of competition, like solving a cube with your feet! Link -via Geek Like Me
Want to see something almost equally as disturbing? Check out The Young FrankenSteve.
In honor of today’s International Cephalopod Awareness Day, here’s today’s octopus trivia:
An octopus has three hearts. Two hearts to pump blood through each of its two gills, and a third one to pump blood through its body.
In the spirit of “International Cephalopod Awareness Day” here’s a fun clip of an octopus changing colors. Truly amazing animals.
P.S. Happy ICAD Miss Cellania!
Word has it that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il boasted about being an “Internet expert”. It is this expertise that makes him dubious about allowing further access to the Internet; its potential to stir up dissent is a cause of concern for the leadership.
“I am an Internet expert. Many problems would arise if the Internet is connected to other parts of the North,” Yonhap quoted Kim as saying.
On his way home to Seoul from the summit in Pyongyang, Roh said Kim seemed to be “very familiar with the technical aspects of the Internet.”
It operates its own version of the Internet, a highly censored Intranet that is policed by the Korea Computer Center, North Korea’s window on the worldwide web and its leading high-technology research and development hub.
Link – via linkfilter
Neatorama reader Rich B. is on the 87th day of his Great American Roadtrip when he saw this: Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean, Texas. The museum is dedicated to everything barbed wire: Link – Thanks Rich!
Previously on Neatorama: Barbed Wire Hat (also from the same museum)
Swedish artist and illustrator Mattias Adolfsson creates wonderful sketches on his Moleskine sketchbook – he has just completed (cover to cover) his seventh book!
Link to Mattias‘ blog where you can gawk at his fantastic drawings – Thanks pt ford!
That’s a gorgeous pottery snake done by artist Mary Small (1994) in the style of Acoma Pueblo:
The Acoma Pueblo is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, occupied since the 12th century. Also known as "Sky City," Acoma is located 40 miles west of Albuquerque on a 400 foot sandstone butte.
Acoma is well known for their beautiful earthtone pottery with designs of ancient interpretation. The snake represents transmutation, life, death and rebirth.
That and more rattlesnake related items can be found at online exhibits of the American International Rattlesnake Museum: Link – Thanks Rich!
Ceph·a·lo·pods are marine mollusks like squid, octopus and cuttlefish, characterized by well-developed eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles. The word is from the combination of the Greek kefale and pous, roughly meaning head feet. Some folks pronouce it sefalopod, others say kefalopod.
Take this opportunity to hug an octopus. If there are no octopi or squid near you, may I suggest perusing Pink Tentacle or Ectoplasmosis? Both blogs are very cephalopod-friendly. There are links to many other cephalopod sites at Cephalopodcast. Link -via J-Walk Blog
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I’m not sure why of if anyone in the world would want to dress up their 3-9 months old kids in Little Trees car freshner costumes, but it is possible.
Link – Rare Bird Finds via BB-Blog
There are over a million described species of insects, and even more that haven’t been studied. A little research indicates they are all strange in different ways. It was not easy to pick a dozen for this list, but these are all pretty weird.
The Longest Insect.
The Borneo walking stick (Phobaeticus kirbyi) can grow to up to 32 centimeters long, with another 14 centimeters if you measure the legs stretched out! But you might not see one, even if you are in Borneo and looking for them, since they closely resemble the slender tree branches they live on.
The Biggest.
Goliath beetles (Goliathus) are the largest insects in terms of bulk and weight. They can reach over 4 inches long, which doesn’t sound like much, til you look at the picture. The beetles are native to the African tropics, where they subsist on tree sap and fruit. Goliath beetles can be kept as pets, just feed them dog food (but don’t expect them to come when called).
Strongest animal on earth.
The Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules) is a species of rhinoceros beetle that lives in South America. It can grow to over 6 inches in length (counting its horns), but its claim to fame is its strength. The Hercules beetle can support 850 times its own weight on its shell! This beetles eats only vegetation and is not aggressive, except to other Hercules beetles, when males fight each other over females.
Weird Lifecycle.
The twisted-wing parasite (Strepsiptera) is an order of insects who display a gruesome lifestyle. The larval stage parasite will climb a flower and wait for an insect pollinator (bee or wasp) to come along. They climb aboard the bee, burrow into its body, and change into a second-stage larva. They feed off the blood and organs of the host. An adult male parasite will emerge from the host and search for a mate -a process that takes such little time that he never develops a mouth. The adult female remains in the host’s body for the rest of her life, never growing legs or wings. She mates by pushing only her reproductive organs outside of the bee’s body! Her offspring will emerge and look for new hosts.
Violent Sex.
The gruesome behavior or the male African bat bug (Afrocimex constrictus) is directed at other bat bugs. Instead of copulating via the female’s sex organs, he will stab her abdomen to release sperm directly into her bloodstream. So the females have evolved paragenitals, a “spongy reservoir of immune cells” as a defense against these tactics. But since male bat bugs are not particular when it comes to mating, some male bat bugs have also developed paragenitals to defend themselves against sexual attack!
Bizarre Body Parts.
Seed Beetles have rough sex, too, but in the conventional manner. What is very unconventional is the male seed beetle’s penis (shown in above picture). He can do some damage with that thing. So female seed beetles have developed thicker, more padded reproductive canals over time as self-defense against their paramour.
Trap and Torture.
Tree ants (Allomerus decemarticulatus) in the Amazon contruct elaborate traps for other insects they feed upon. They build these traps from tree fibers reinforced with fungus. When an unsuspecting insect encounters the trap, the ants emerge from hiding underneath and pull the prey’s legs to immobilize them, almost like a torture rack. Then they dismember the victim and carry the parts off to the colony. This method of “drawing and quartering” allows the ants to dine on insects much larger than themselves.
Unstoppable Swarmers.
Driver ants (Dorylus) or siafu are the masters of the swarm. Dorylus includes several species of army ants, primarily found in Africa. Colonies can contain 20 million ants! When the column is on the march looking for food, people can avoid them just by stepping aside. But there have been cases where invalids have been killed (by asphyxiation) when a column of ants marches through the house. They have been known to kill and eat animals up to the size of small zebras. The soldiers of the colony flank the column. Their bite is so strong and persistant that they are sometimes used to suture wounds; just apply an ant while you hold the wound together and let it bite, then rip the body off. It should hold for a few days. Male driver ants are so much larger than the rest of the colony that they appear to be a different species. Males lead a solitary life until sexual maturity, when they approach the colony for mating. When a male is detected, the workers of the colony tear off his wings and take him to be mated with their queen. You can watch this process on video.
Gruesome Bloodsuckers.
Assassin bugs use a mouth tube to inject toxin into their prey. This toxin acts as an anaesthetic and also liquifies tissues, the easier to suck you dry with. There are thousands of assassin bug species; some eat only other insects and some attack reptiles, birds, and mammals. This assassin bug is turning the tables on a vampire bat. Notice how you can see the blood entering the young insect.
Deadliest of all.
The Prettiest (discounting butterflies).
The strangest of all.
They sleep in our houses, eat the same dinner, breathe the same air, yet teenagers have lives so different than most adults that they might as well be aliens. Sure, we’ve all gone through that awkward adolescent stage and experienced the complex social structure that is high school – but tell any teen today that you were once their age, and they will tell you that it was different back then. And they’d be right.
Photographer and author Michael Franzini set out on a Herculean task: to capture the full spectrum of teen life and to understand what it means to be a teenager in America today. He traveled to all fifty states – a total of 30,000 miles in five months – to meet, interview, and photograph teens, ranging from the mainstream kids like the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the studious preps, to the fringe kids like the goths, the skaters, and skinheads, and everyone else in between.
Michael has put together the life, richly illustrated with photographs, of 100 young Americans – a slice of what he thinks is representative of the modern teen culture – in his book One Hundred Young Americans.
What Michael found is nothing short of amazing: there is a generation gap that is wider than ever before, shaped by the ubiquity of technology. Teens today have instant access to people and information through the web, instant messaging, and cell phones that their parents could never have imagined. With MySpace, their neighborhood play yard has literally thousands of participants. With blogs, their lives are like an open book – indeed, many share their most intimate thoughts with strangers. With technology, they have more independence and a brand new level of freedom.
In the One Hundred Young Americans website (a preview until the book launches on October 30, 2007), you can browse a gallery of teens that Michael met in his journey. There are video clips of 19-year-old Lindsey Adams, who has been racing cars since the eight grade and whose goal is to be the first woman to win the Indie 500, and of TJ Williams, an 18-year-old who loves to fiddle with his car, hang out with buddies, chase women and … ride bulls!
Here’s a small selection of the stories you will find in the website, which itself is only an excerpt of the upcoming book:
Jake [19, Arizona] has 15,000 friends on MySpace and gets followed through the mall by girls who recognize him as an online celebrity.
April [18, Nevada] is the youngest sex worker at the world famous Bunny Ranch, which she saw on the HBO series Cathouse. Every day, two or three men each pay $5,000 for an hour alone with her.
Jon [19, California] is a skinhead who proudly calls himself a racist. He says the white race is disappearing, and he’s pissed off about racial mixing. He lives in a trailer with a Nazi flag on the wall and a shotgun under his bed.
David [17, Maryland] plays 60 hours of role-play video games a week, and he tries not to talk to anyone at school. Kids at school make fun of his hair, but he ignores them and keeps walking.
Reskew [18, New York] is one of New York City’s most wanted graffiti artists. He wouldn’t let us show his face or use his real name. His tag appears in over 200 illegal locations around the city. He says he does it for the adrenaline.
For more stories, photographs, and video clips of the One Hundred Young Americans, check out Michael Franzini’s website: Link [Flash website] (don’t miss the interview with the author!)
Note: This review is sponsored by the 100 Young American website. Although I am compensated for this review, the words and opinion (with the exception of the quoted text) are all mine. There was no editorial pressure to write only positive reviews.
You can decline to state your age but you can’t hide from this new facial recognition software from Omron Corp: it can tell the sex and age of people!
A computer screen displays the sex and age of people as determined by face-recognition software developed by Omron Corp. at the CEATEC technology trade show in Chiba, Japan October 2, 2007. The Japanese text reads: (L to R) "Woman 20-39 years, Man 20-39 years, Man 20-39 years".
Link – Be sure to check out Cellar Image of the Day for more fascinating photos (don’t miss their 6 years worth of archives!)
The newest ad campaign for Masterfoods Australia’s Fling chocolate updates the fairy tale of love: instead of falling in love and living happily forever after, the princess says "buh bye" to the prince and eats a chocolate bar instead!
Certainly fits their tagline "Forever is overrated" …
Link (embedded YouTube clips) | More info on Fling ad campaign
This image of a double transgenic mouse embryo by Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute researcher Gloria Kwon, done using widefield microscopy and red and green fluorescence, won Nikon’s 2007 Small World Photomicrography Competition.
Lots more cool microscopy photos here: Link – via Scribal Terror
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Etsy seller poorlulu has a neat item for sale: a needle felted Mario and his ladder, as well as Donkey Kong and his barrel!
Link – via GeekAlerts
See also: Neatorama’s 10 Mario Fun Facts
How many hammer does a juggler need to drive in a nail? Find out the answer in this neat little trick (don’t try it at home, kids!)
Link (embedded video)
Today’s theme at Miss Cellania is Down South, where she explains everything y’all would want to know about the Deep South:
The first Southern statement to creep into a transplanted Northerner’s vocabulary is the adjective "big’ol," truck or big’ol" boy.
Be advised that "He needed killin" is a valid defense here.
If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y’all, watch this," you should stay out of the way. These are likely to be the last words he’ll ever say.
Do not be surprised to find that 10-year olds own their own shotguns, they are proficient marksmen, and their mammas taught them how to aim.
Plenty more where they come from here: Link
Artist Joy Kampia specializes in crocheted sculpture and wearable art. Like her creation to the left: the Hamburger Dress!
Link (larger pic) | Joy’s website
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Yes, it’s just CGI, but Chris Lomaka‘s Body Mouse is still very creepy! Link – via Random Good Stuff
Tippi Degré’s parents moved from France to the wilderness of Namibia when she was just a little baby – for 10 years, Tippi wandered the busy barefoot, making friends with all sorts of wild animals like leopards, mongoose, baboons, elephants, and snakes.
Here’s her fascinating story:
Her playground was the hills and the harsh desert tribe lands of southern Africa; as the family wandered the bush land, Tippi picked up all kinds of friends – like Abu, a five ton (28-year-old) elephant she calls “her brother”.
She would ride to a water hole on top of Abu and splash with the elephants of the herd, cuddle giant bullfrogs, lion cubs or meerkats; and became a grasshopper hunting specialist with the chameleons she was so fond of.
Tippi also befriended the Himba tribes people and the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who taught her how to survive on roots and berries and hence gave her practical experience of real life in the bush.
Link (with embedded YouTube video clips)
I couldn’t help but laugh at this remix of an Arby’s ad! Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer
