Archive for March 4th, 2008
Our Earth and Moon, as seen from Mars
NASA released an image of the earth and the moon in one picture, as seen from Mars. It was taken by the HiRISE Instrument on October 3rd, 2007.
On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features. These clouds are so bright, compared with the Moon, that they are saturated in the HiRISE images. In fact, the RED-filter image was almost completely saturated, the blue-green image had significant saturation, and the brightest clouds were saturated in the IR image. This color image required a fair amount of processing to make a nice-looking release.
“Nice-looking” is an understatement. Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog
(image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share:  email
this 
|
| Neatorama Shop » Toy & Games » Science Toys | |
|
|
BuckyBalls Magnetic Toys are 216 rare earth magnet balls that can be shaped and molded into virtually any shape. Tear 'em apart and snap 'em back together in unlimited ways for hours of fun! Watch the video for a quick demo of what BuckyBalls can do. Remember to get two for twice the fun! Link |
See more Science
Toys »  |
|
Henry the hexapus superhero (only with less sucking power!)
Neatorama likes weird animals with strange appendages such as the two tailed lizard , the two faced swine, and even hybrids such as the octosquid. It helps create identities for future comic superheroes in the least, not to mention the 2-for-1 deal you get when you order a meal at The Frying Dutchman. But what happens when nature works in the opposite direction?
There’s definitely something at the bottom of the Blackpool sea life center in England, purporting to house the first ever hexapus in existence. This is no octopus who came to an unfortunate accident rather, Henry’s appearance is attributed to a birth defect in which only six of the eight tentacles were created, during embryonic development.
The question now remains if Henry still has the potential to be a superhero or a diner’s surprise?
BBC link or via Zooillogix
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Nestography: Retro Video Game Screenshot + Caption
Nestography is a project by Adam Mathes where he took screenshots of retro 8-bit video games and caption them with poignant, witty, and yes, even snarky comments.
I like this one, from the Nintendo Duck Hunt game I used to play when I was a young boy. Link – via Ample Sanity, Thanks Bot!
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Meet Me Room: Where ISPs Connect Their Networks To Each Other
Photo: Dave Bullock
In 2006, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska famously referred to the Internet as a "series of tubes," and got ribbed for it. But here in the Meet Me Room in a business building in downtown Los Angeles, Sen. Stevens ain’t that far off.
From Dave Bullock’s article at Wired:
In the bowels of the world’s most densely populated Meet-Me room — a room where over 260 ISPs connect their networks to each other — a phalanx of cabling spills out of its containers and silently pumps the world’s information to your computer screen. One tends to think of the internet as a redundant system of remote carriers peppered throughout the world, but in order for the net to function the carriers have to physically connect somewhere. For the Pacific Rim, the main connection point is the One Wilshire building in downtown Los Angeles.
If this facility went down, most of California and parts of the rest of the world would not be able to connect to the internet. Tour one of the web’s largest nerve centers, hidden in an otherwise nondescript office building.
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Chiditarod: The Urban Iditarod with Dawgs (Humans!) and Shopping Carts
Neatorama reader Aubrey introduced us to the Chiditarod. It is the urban equivalent of the Iditarod, except instead of dogs and sleds, it’s dawgs (humans) and shopping carts.
This year’s race, held on March 1, 2008, was done for the charity Burners Without Borders:
When I first arrived, I saw what appeared to be a logistical nightmare unfolding before my eyes. Vikings, Pirates (a lot of Vikings and Pirates), Pac-men, Knights of Camelot, Baseball Furies, Mario Brothers, Where the Wild Things Are, Pilots, and Ninjas among others. 83 teams consisting of an average of 3 to 5 people each in costumes ranging from utilitarian to elaborately awkward trying to squeeze onto a small lot covered with ice and mud.
Link – Thanks Aubrey!
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Home & Garden » Dishware, Drinkware & Flatware | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Dishware,
Drinkware & Flatware »
|
||
The Pet Food Taste-Tester
How does Simon Allison, a senior food technologist responsible for pet produce for British retailer Marks & Spencer, select food to carry for the store? Why, he taste-tested them, of course:
"You have to chew it a bit.
"I have trained my palate to look for materials that we will not allow in the recipe, such as tripe – pet owners react badly to the smell of tripe. "I’m looking for a patè texture, almost to the point where you could spread it on crusty bread."
His favourite is the organic luxury chicken dinner with vegetables for cats. "It has the taste and aroma of chicken and some of what you call the red flavours – things like heart and liver; gutsy, savoury notes. "Then you get a mealy, green pea, pulse aroma and occasionally a sweeter note from the carrot."
Link – via Wrongorama (a neat new blog "where what shouldn’t be is." It’s like Neatorama but for things that are just … well, wrong.) – Thanks Alex!
|
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Weemade
Weemade is a new blog that showcases children’s artwork.
Here at weemade, we find the artwork and creativity of kids inspiring, thought provoking, entertaining, and unpretentious. We think that reminding ourselves how children see the world is a valuable and enlightening process.
Anyone can add artwork, credited or anonymously, but all submissions will be screened before posting. Link -via J-Walk Blog
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Virtual Mob Sims
Nearly every year, uncontrolled rushing of crowds fleeing a burning building or a riot scene led to people being trampled and even killed.
Now, thanks to a computer simulation developed by Paul M. Torrens of Arizona State University, planners will be able to drop thousands of virtual people to create a virtual mob for a particular scenario:
The specific scenarios Torrens creates could show firefighters how to save the most people, tell architects where to place exits or barriers in stadiums, and guide police forces in corralling unruly mobs.
While most traditional crowd simulations treat individuals as purely physical, with no social or emotional reactions, Torrens’s model turns each individual into an "avatar" with an artificial mind. Avatars can plan their own route, adjust their path on the fly, and even respond to the body language of fellow cybercitizens who may be jostling them.
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Avalanche Control
“Avalanche control” sounds like a contradiction in terms, but deputydog has uncovered three ways people have engineered communities to protect homes from an avalanche. Building your home somewhere besides underneath a snowy mountain is not one of the three, although it is mentioned. Link
|
Comment (0)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
It's Raining "Graupel"
When I went out to walk the dog this morning, here’s what I found on my patio — Graupel : "precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime ice; the snowflake acts as a nucleus of condensation in this process." Graupel looks like the remains of a crumbled styrofoam cup, it crunches under your shoes, and it sizzles when it comes down, like cold french fries going into a deep fat fryer.
|
Comment (14)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Scientists Do It ... T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| Möbius Does It On The Same Side | See more Scientists
Do It T-Shirts »
|
Celebrity Dolls Repainted
Noeling takes celebrity collector dolls and painstakingly repaints them to more resemble the person they portray.
I used a 16-inch Mary Poppins doll here produced by Robert Tonner Doll company – a very nicely made facial sculpt but the facial paint left much to be desired. So, I completely removed factory facial painting and hand painted it to more faithfully replicate Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. The doll’s hair has been extensively restyled to more accurately represent the character’s hairstyle from the movie.
His Deviant Art page has many more repainted dolls, some of which are for sale. Link -via Dump Trumpet
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Space Alone
(YouTube link)
A short and sad animation by Ilias Sounas. One of the linked animations from the collection entitled 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies. Link -via the Presurfer
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Gamma Ray Burst Aimed at Earth?
WR 104 is a binary star 8,000 light years from Earth. Both stars are on the brink of exploding, possibly into gamma-ray bursts, which can send a narrow beam of destructive gamma rays to far away planets. Since the pole of the spiral disc formed by the two stars seems to point at us, there has been some speculation that earth would be in the path of such a beam. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy Blog explains the phenomenon and why we shouldn’t worry about it. Link
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Caption Monkey 22: X-Files, the Intersection
Photo: rhinny [Flickr]
All right, guys, it’s time for this week’s Neatorama and Hobotopia’s Caption Monkey game. Today’s prize is Adam "Ape Lad" Koford’s excellent book Meet the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats. (Congrats to Andini who won the last game, will it be your turn today?)
In this book, Adam compiles the adventures of Kitteh and Pip (over 250 comic panels’ worth) alongside comments from Aloysius Koford and never-before-seen drawings. If you like Adam’s old-timey LOLcat cartoon, this book is a must-have.
Contest rules are darned simple: To win, simply submit the funniest caption. Place your caption in the comment section – one caption per comment, please, but you can submit as many as you can think of.
Good luck (and if you don’t win, you can still get Adam’s book at Lulu)
Update 3/6/08 – congrats to the winner SenorMysterioso #38 who wrote:
…that my mom is on her way to pick me up
|
Comment (53)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Flunking the Pepsi Challenge
|
The following is reprinted from Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader Lots of companies have ad campaigns that flop, but Pepsi seems to have more than its share. Here are a few classic bombs. Keep On Truckin’
There was just one problem: contest organizers accidentally printed 55 winning tickets instead of five. Rather than risk alienating the winners – not to mention millions of Pepsi drinkers – Pepsi sent all 55 winners to Daytona, gave away five trucks instead of one, and spent $20,625 on free gas instead of $1,825. Estimated cost of error: about $400,000. Over-Stuffed
In April 1996, Pepsi canceled its "Pepsi Stuff" merchandise giveaway campaign months ahead of schedule. Reason: Too many winners. The company underestimated how many people would redeem the points by 50%, forcing it to spend $60 million more than expected on free merchandise. "We’re outpacing our goals on awareness," a company spokesperson explained. Jet Lag
When Pepsi refused, claiming the offer was made "in jest," Leonard filed suit in federal court. Three years later, a judge ruled that "no objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier jet." Pepsi lucked out … case dismissed. The King of (Soda) Pop
Even Pepsi’s biggest successes can become colossal flops. In 1983 they signed the largest individual sponsorship deal in history with pop singer Michael Jackson. It was a multi-year deal and Pepsi made millions from it … only to find itself linked to one of the most lurid scandals of the 1990s when Jackson abruptly cancelled his Pepsi-sponsored "Dangerous" tour in 1993. Jackson’s reasons for quitting: (1) stress generated by allegations that he had sexually molested a young boy, and (2) addiction to painkillers he took "to control pain from burns suffered while filming a Pepsi ad." The Name Game
Vlk, a diabetic who does not drink Pepsi, collected the letters by taking out classified ads offering to split the winnings with anyone who sent him a matching set. "I don’t even remember making one whole set myself," he says. "I didn’t buy any Pepsi." (The company got even by mailing him his winnings in $15 increments, one check for each winning set.) They Can See Clearly Now
Marketing experts point to two critical flaws that they say doomed Crystal Pepsi from the start: (1) customers balked at paying extra for a product that, because it was clear, was perceived to have fewer ingredients than regular Pepsi, and (2) after more than a century of conditioning, consumers want colas to be dark brown in color. "Clear sodas are about as appetizing as brown water," an industry analyst explains. |
|
 |
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader. Where else but in a Bathroom Reader could you learn how the banana peel changed history, how to predict the future by rolling the dice, how the Jivaro tribes shrunk heads, and the science behind love at first sight? Get ready to be thoroughly entertained while occupied on the throne. Uncle John rules the world of information and humor. It’s simply Ahh-Inspiring! 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!
|
For its "Pepsi 400" contest in the summer of 2001, Pepsi offered to send the holders of five winning tickets on an all-expenses-paid trip to Florida’s Daytona 400 auto race. One of the five would get to drive home in the grand prize, a brand-new Dodge truck; the other four would each get $375 worth of free gas.
Another disaster from the "Pepsi Stuff" campaign: 21-year-old John Leonard tried to redeem seven million award points for the Harrier fighter jet he saw offered in a Pepsi Stuff TV ad. The rules stipulated that contestants could buy points for 10¢ apiece, so that’s what he did. Leonard (who studied flawed promotions in business school) raised $700,000 to buy the required points and then sent the money to Pepsi, along with a letter demanding they hand over the $50 million jet.
In 1983 another Pepsi contest ran into budget trouble when the company offered $5 per letter to any customer who could spell their own last name using letters printed on Pepsi bottle caps and flip tops. Pepsi hoped to control the number of cash prizes by releasing only a limited number of vowels … but it failed to take into account people like Richard "no vowels" Vlk, who turned in 1,393 three-letter sets and pocketed $20,894 for his effort.
In 1992 Pepsi introduced Crystal Pepsi, an attempt to cash in on the booming popularity of see-through soft drinks like Clearly Canadian. Sales were less than half of what Pepsi projected, even after the company reformulated the product.
|
Comment (21)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Unplugging Oneself From Cyberspace
Do you find that you’re overwhelmed by the need to check your email every hour, read hundreds of feeds on your feedreader, or chat with everyone on IM? Do you need an off-ramp on the Information Superhighway?
Here’s what Mark Bittman, a self-professed tech-addict, wrote in the New York Times about unplugging himself from teh interwebs for one day a week:
On my first weekend last fall, I eagerly shut it all down on Friday night, then went to bed to read. (I chose Saturday because my rules include no television, and I had to watch the Giants on Sunday). I woke up nervous, eager for my laptop. That forbidden, I reached for the phone. No, not that either. Send a text message? No. I quickly realized that I was feeling the same way I do when the electricity goes out and, finding one appliance nonfunctional, I go immediately to the next. I was jumpy, twitchy, uneven.
I managed. I read the whole paper, without hyperlinks. I tried to let myself do nothing, which led to a long, MP3-free walk, a nap and some more reading, an actual novel. I drank herb tea (caffeine was not helpful) and stared out the window. I tried to allow myself to be less purposeful, not to care what was piling up in my personal cyberspace, and not to think about how busy I was going to be the next morning. I cooked, then went to bed, and read some more.
Link (Illustration: Scott Brundage)
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Apartment Room Addition: Hope the Cables are Strong!
Are you outgrowing your apartment? Need an extra room? Well, just hang one outside your window (hope those cables are strong!). Here’s a "walk-in sculpture" called the Rucksack House in München, Germany.
The cube is a light and empty space, free from connotations and open to its user’s needs. While still being inside a private atmosphere, one has the impression of floating outside of the confines of the actual dwelling above the public space. Folddown furnishings and a multitude of built-in openings on the inside provide extra living space with direct daylight. Sections of the walls unfold, with the help of hidden magnets, into a desk, shelves, and a platform for reading or sleeping. The Rucksack box is suspended from steel cables that are anchored to the roof or to the facade of the existing building. The construction is a welded steel cage with a light birch veneered plywood interior cladding. The outside cladding is exterior grade plywood with an absorbent resin surface punctuated by plexiglas inserts.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Trivia: Bert and Ernie = Banana and Orange
The Muppets Bert and Ernie were designed by Don Sahlin based on two fruits: Bert was a banana and Ernie was an orange.
Rumor was, Bert and Ernie were named after two characters in Frank Capra’s "It’s a Wonderful Life" (Bert the cop and Ernie the cabbie).
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Darwin Foiled. For Now.
Here’s a crazy YouTube clip of dirtbike racer (and all-round crazy guy) Travis Pastrana jumping out of an airplane without a parachute … Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via metafilter
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Exploring the Forbidden Underground: Tailrace of the Toronto Power Company Hydroelectric Plant
Photo: Kowalski
Michael Cook of The Vanishing Point wrote about his experience exploring the depth of the tailrace of the decomissioned Toronto Power Company Hydroelectric Plant at the Niagara Falls. (Tailrace is the downstream part of the dam where water re-enters the river):
Imagine a tunnel more than ten storeys underground, a hundred years old, bricklined, wet, and completely inaccessible save by descending through a narrow slit in its ceiling thirty feet above the floor, and then returning up the same rope you came down.
Now imagine that this tunnel flows into Niagara Falls, emerging behind the pummeling curtain of water that nearly everyone in North America journeys to see at some point in their lives.
This tunnel exists. In the autumn of 2004, thanks to the work of two people with the experience and equipment to make it happen, I had the chance to feel Niagara Falls.
Link | Other parts of the Hydroelectric Plant
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » I Love Science T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| I Love Math | See more I
Love Science T-Shirts »
|
Want to Lose Weight? Eat Breakfast
Psst, want to lose some weight? Turns out your mom’s right: eat breakfast.
University of Minnesota scientists did the 5-year study of more than 2,000 younsgers and found those who skipped breakfast weigh about 5 lb. (2.3 kg) more than those who ate "the most important meal of the day." What’s more interesting is that the breakfast-eaters actually consumed more calories on a daily basis.
"It may seem counter-intuitive," said Mark Pereira, who led the research. "But while they ate more calories, they did more to burn those off, and that may be because those who ate breakfast did not feel so lethargic. [...]
"They skip breakfast because they worry about weight gain – and it’s ironic that the ones who aren’t worried and eat in the mornings are the ones who keep their weight down."
|
Comment (8)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Star Wars: Manga vs. Marvel
The official Star Wars website has a very neat post comparing the comic adaptation of the movie by Marvel (1977 to 1986 series) to that done in Japanese manga style by Media Works (1997 – I believe these are created by Tamaki Hisao, published in English by Dark Horse comics).
When the two are placed side by side, the contrast couldn’t be greater. Take, for instance, the battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The manga version showed the gruesome scene in two-page spread. Marvel, on the other hand, were forced to tone down the visual by hiding the action behind a "convenient scenery."
The manga version
The Marvel version
Check out the entire article here: Link
|
Comment (12)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Avalanche on Mars
Photo: NASA
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter space probe took a snapshot of this avalanche on the Red Planet’s north pole
The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. [...]
Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. "It really surprised me," she said. "It’s great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn’t changed for millions of years."
Because she was the first person who noticed them, these avalanches are now called “Ingrid’s Avalanches”: Link
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Quote: Oscar Wilde on Faithfulness
"Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."
– Oscar Wilde, poet and author (1854 – 1900)
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
