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Get Irish Now from Irish Spring lets you put yourself into an Irish scene and send it out for a holiday greeting. Customize your look and add a message. See the one I made here. Then make your own! Link
Previously at Neatorama: Pi Day 2007.
Cyanobacteria {wiki} could one day be grown in moon soil, which is inhospitable to other plants because its nutrients are locked up in minerals that are tough to break down. Igor Brown of NASA’s Johnson Space Center says cyanobacteria are tough enough to survive and thrive in a lunar environment as long as they have water, air, and sunlight.
Brown says he envisions growth chambers for cyanobacteria being set up on the Moon, as part of a multi-step process for making use of the resources bound in the lunar soil. The chambers would be supplied with water, sunlight and lunar soil to allow the cyanobacteria to grow.
Cyanobacteria harvested from the chambers could then be further processed to make use of the elements they extract from the lunar soil. For example, they could be broken down by other bacteria, resulting in a nutrient-rich soup that could be used as fertiliser for food plants grown in hydroponic greenhouses. Methane given off by the breakdown of the cyanobacteria could be used as rocket fuel.
The tough cyanobacteria used in the experiment was taken from hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. Link -via Digg
(image credit: NSF)
A beekeeper in Macedonia was upset that a local bear was constantly raiding his hives, despite various schemes to frighten it away. Zoran Kiseloski pressed criminal charges against the bear, who was convicted in absentia. The bear remains at large, and is a protected species, so the government was ordered to pay restitution for the damages. Link -via Arbroath
In 2007, Oklahoma made watermelon its official state vegetable.
Yes, you read that right: on April 17, 2007, the Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill declaring that not only is watermelon a vegetable (related to cucumbers, they said), it’s also the state’s official vegetable. (Source)
Other states have official vegetables are:
Arkansas – South Arkansas vine ripe tomato
Georgia – Vidalia sweet onion
Idaho – potato (what else?)
Louisiana – sweet potato
New Mexico – chile and pinto bean
North Carolina – sweet potato
Texas – sweet onion
Utah – Spanish sweet onion
Washington – Walla Walla sweet onion
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Given how many horrendous karaoke performances we’ve been subjected to, we weren’t at all surprised to learn that the guy who invented the karaoke machine can’t sing, can’t read music, and plays the keyboards about as well as your average third-grader. Songs in the Off-Key of Life
Inoue’s happy-go-lucky ineptitude has been pretty much the driving force of his entire life. In high school he picked up the drums, which he chose as an instrument because, hey, all you had to do was hit them. Eventually, he took his limited talent and started playing with a Hawaiian band that frequented old dance halls from the days of the American World War II occupation. Inoue, shall we say, marched to the beat of a different drummer. Noticing this, the other band members quickly, and somewhat mercifully, realized that he’d be of better use on the business side, and he started acting as the band’s manager. But he still served as occasional drummer, particularly on amateur nights playing backup for rich Japanese businessmen. Because Inoue can’t read musical notation, he had to reply on watching the singer’s lips in order to strike the right beat. One of his clients apparently found his drum technique flattering and asked Inoue to accompany him to a hot springs resort as his personal drummer. But Inoue couldn’t go. Time Asia tells what happened next: "[Inoue] obliged by providing him with a tape of his accompaniment. The boss delivered an emotional rendition of Frank Nagai’s ‘Leaving Haneda Airport on a 7:50 Flight,’ Inoue collected his money in absentia and karaoke (a term long used in the industry for house musicians – it literally means ‘empty orchestra’) was born." Inoue quickly realized he was on to something. With some help from his buddies, he built 11 prototype machines, kitted them out with amplifiers and background music, and then leased them to bars in Kobe. They were an immediate hit. But Inoue made one crucial mistake: He didn’t patent his invention. Big companies quickly realized they could make a mint on machines and tapes and made their own. Inoue only went so far as to patent two things: a type of plastic-covered songbook for wannabe Frank Sinatras, and a concoction he claimed could ward off rats and cockroaches in more downscale karaoke joints. But hey, give the poor guy credit: He certainly did things His Way. |
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The article above was reprinted with permission from mental_floss‘ book In the Beginning. From Big Hair to the Big Bang, here’s a Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything by our friends at mental_floss. Did you know that paper clips started out as Nazi-fighting warriors? Or that cruise control was invented by a blind genius? Read it all in the book!
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Deputies in Ness City, Kansas, responded to a call from a man that said that there was something wrong with his girlfriend. This is what they found in the guy’s bathroom:
Deputies said a woman in western Kansas sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years, and they’re investigating whether she was mistreated.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said a man called his office last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend.
Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s
skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.” [...]
“She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple said. “It is hard to imagine. … I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”
He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
“And her reply would be, ‘Maybe tomorrow,”’ Whipple said. “According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom.”
Update 3/19/08: So how did the woman’s butt get fused to the toilet seat? Discover magazine has the answer: Link – Thanks Chasey!
And I’m Not Lying blog has not one but two strange video clips about ’80s music.
The first is a YouTube video clip of Japanese impersonators singing "We Are The World" (the Stevie Wonder and Cyndi Lauper impersonators were hilarious! I think that it actually was Michael Jackson himself …)
The second is Lionel Ritchie singing "Hello" while inhaling helium from a balloon. Positively bizarre!
Link [embedded YouTube clips] – Thanks Jeff Simmermon!
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This game, created by This is Pop for Adult Swim, starts off with this little note:
In the beginning, there was a contest of strength amongst the most prominent figures in scripture to determine the mightiest. The role of this great rivalry was thought to be lost forever. Until now. Let there be Bible Fight!
You can choose Jesus, Eve, Mary, Moses, Noah, and Satan (with a mystery 7th player once you’ve beaten everyone) and fight in various biblical locales.
Link [Flash Game] – via Vectorvault (who’s running a little contest, highest score wins a premium collection of vector art) – Thanks Adam Jarvis!
"The next time I want to send an idiot on some errand, I’ll go myself."
– Sam Goldwyn, movie producer and founder of Paramount and MGM movie studios (that ‘G’ in MGM stands for Goldwyn)
We were, however, surprised to learn that poor 
