Archive for September, 2008
Man Jumped a Shark to Save Dog
Greg LeNoir really, really loves his dog Jake. When a shark suddenly grabbed the rat terrier during its daily swim, Greg jumped in and punched the shark until it let go of the dog!
A big dark green shape which I realized was a big shark’s head zoomed up from under Jake. Jake screamed … Oh, you don’t ever want to hear … it’s such a death scream and it sucked him under.
The shark clamped down on jake but its owner Greg LeNoir wouldn’t have it. I dove straight down in like a battering ram. I drove my fist under the water into the shark and pushed it down. It felt like concrete on my hand …
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Washing a Car in Your Own Driveway in Washington State is a Crime
If you want to save a few bucks, skip the car wash and wash your car in your own driveway.
Except if you live in Washington State, that is. There, washing your car in your own driveway is illegal:
Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.
"I understand this is something people have done for a long time," says Bill Moore, water quality specialist with the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is requiring the ban. "It’s not something we should be doing any longer."
He says the soapy runoff is toxic to salmon and other fish and that small metal particles that wash off cars, such as brake dust, is harmful, too.
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You CAN See Russia From Here!
After Sarah Palin announced her now oft-repeated line that "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska," Gary Tuchman from CNN’s news show Anderson Cooper 360° went to find this island. Here’s his report:
The island is called Little Diomede. It looks like a rock plopped into the Bering Strait. Only about 150 Alaskans live on the whole island. And just about two miles away; in full view of every single house on the island is the nation of Russia. Specifically, it is the Russian Island of Big Diomede which sits about 25 miles from the Russian Siberian mainland (which you can also see from the American island.) [...]
We were curious what the Little Diomeders thought about Palin’s claim of foreign policy experience because of the proximity of Siberia. Interestingly, many of these Alaskans had no idea who Sarah Palin was! It turns out they have no TV on the island, and therefore, many don’t follow the news.
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Boy Survived 5-inch Kitchen Knife Stabbed Through His Skull
Ten months ago, a 15-year-boy and his friends were attacked when they tried to stop a friend from being robbed at a bus stop.
The boy was stabbed in the forehead with a kitchen knife … yet he survived. The Daily Mail has the gruesome X-ray and the story: Link
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Teen Bleeds Through Her Skin!
A 13-year-old Indian girl named Twinkle Dwivedi has a medical condition that baffles doctors: she bleeds through her skin without being cut or scratched!
Twinkle Dwivedi, 13, has a strange disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched.
She has even undergone transfusions after pints of it seeped through her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and the soles of her feet.
Sometimes her condition is so bad she wakes up with her entire body covered in dried blood.
Link (Photo: Barcroft Media)
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Udder Chaos: Woman in Cow Costume Wreaked Havoc
Police arrested 32-year-old Michele Allen for disorderly conduct … while wearing a cow costume!
Saturday night, people in the 3100 block of Wilbraham Road called police to report a woman wearing a cow costume was chasing kids, and blocking traffic. Michele Allen also allegedly urinated on the porch of one neighbor.
Link – via Boing Boing
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The 2008 Financial Meltdown, a Primer
Confused about the 2008 financial meltdown? Conor Friedersdorf of Culture 11 has a run down on the bailout legislation, why so many members of Congress were against it, and what the big plunge in the stock market meant. For example:
2) Why did its Congressional critics — especially House Republicans — vote against it?
Daniel Larison dissents from the conventional wisdom:
"The failure of politics that culminated in the defeat of the bill was the failure of the proponents of the legislation to make an argument that did not rely very heavily on prophecies of disaster.
There was no real attempt at persuasion, and the haste in which everything was done generated far more intense opposition than was necessary. The supporters of the bill wanted to ram it through with as little deliberation and scrutiny as possible. On any other issue, on any other bill, this would be seen as outrageous and you would hear about the wisdom of having a lower chamber that was more responsive to the people.
Now opposition to this hasty adoption of a bad plan is derided as irresponsible? Let me break it down for you: if things are indeed as bad as the proponents say, and if they are the responsible, sober voices of wisdom that they pretend to be, the truly irresponsible thing was to wait up until the last weeks before the recess, rush out a terrible plan, demand immediate adoption of this terrible plan (which they were happy to admit in public was a terrible plan) and then not even correctly gauge the level of support for the legislation before bringing it to a vote."
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Birth Of A Tornado
Another tornado caught on camera. These weather phenomena never cease to amaze me but I’m glad I don’t live in an area where tornado formations are frequent.
Link: LiveLeak
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Romeo's Feet
(YouTube link)
This is Romeo, a Siberian lynx. In this video, he is three months old and nursing on a sheet. Look at the size of those paws!
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Star Wars Hoodies
Impersonating an imperial storm trooper gets a lot more comfortable with a hoodie from Mark Ecko. The front zips up to look like a mask, but I can’t tell if you’d be able to see out of it or not. Also available in Bobba Fett style. Link -Thanks, Max!
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The Common Cold
(YouTube link)
Being a guinea pig for the British government’s Common Cold Unit in 1946 was very popular with students. They saw it as a cheap holiday: getting free accommodation in spacious flats fully equipped with books, games, radio and telephone, and spending your leisure time playing table tennis, badminton, or golf. You even got paid three shillings a day.
The students were instructed to maintain a distance of at least 9 metres from all unprotected persons, other than their flatmates. The unpleasant part of the experiment began when the participants had to spend half an hour in a draughty corridor after taking a hot bath, had to wear wet socks for the rest of the day, and were infected with nasal secretion from a cold sufferer.
This was the experiment that contradicted what your mother told you: the common cold is not caused by cold temperatures, but by infection. This is just one of nine of the oddest experiments ever, detailed at New Scientist. The last one is a hoot! Link -via Digg
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What Caused the Viking Age?
From the late eighth to the mid-eleventh centuries, Vikings invaded community after community across Europe and even parts of Asia and the western hemisphere. According to a new study published in the current issue of Antiquity, the reason behind all that travel is -a shortage of wives!
An intriguing archaeological clue is that much of the bounty plundered from Britain — particularly from monasteries — wound up later in the graves of Viking wives. The items included precious metals, fine cloth, jewelry and other handicrafts.
Barrett’s analysis of Nordic historical records found that Scandinavian men often served as warriors, frequently forming “military brotherhoods,” until they were able to marry and establish their own households, which were key to prestige and power.
The Vikings themselves may have caused the shortage, by practicing female infanticide. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: henribergius)
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The Big Picture
(YouTube link)
Artist John Chiara thinks big. He built his own box camera, and made it as big as a room. Chiara takes it to a location on a trailer and puts it together on site. One benefit is that the camera never wiggles! He must also develop his own film, because the photographs are huge, too. -via the Presurfer
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Rubik Mirror Blocks
A quirky take on the always frustrating Rubik’s Cube, the Rubik Mirror Block seems to up the ante by not only making the shapes of the blocks of different sizes and shapes it also doesn’t (obviously) have any color to help guide you to the solution. Watching the video I could just feel my blood pressure rise as he began to turn the blocks about. It also doesn’t help watching the way he was using that knife of his to open the box…a little too careless in my opinion.
More info on the toy – Link from Technabob.
via – Gizmodo
*Update – Some of you folks who may be interested in buying one may have to wait for a release date for North America (and perhaps Worldwide) as the product is only being sold in Japan. However, according to Technabob the designer, Hidetoshi Takeji was seen taking international orders from this forum TwistyPuzzles.com.
Also, Ebay seems to have a few of them for sale as well. One of them from here is going for $29.99 – [Link].
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The Google Adwords Panhandler
Sign of the times: even beggars now use Google Adwords! Found via Blame it on the Voices
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A True Image From the False Kiva
Photo: Wally Pacholka
A bad thing about living in a city is the light pollution that prevents us from seeing spectacular sights like this: the Milky Way galaxy, as seen from the False Kiva in the Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
APOD, one of my favorite sites, has the larger pic:
Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band’s left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.
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Upside Down Homes and Buildings
Photo: Chromatist Photography
Are you upside down on your property? Well, maybe you’ll feel better after taking a look at homes and buildings that are actually upside down. Or maybe not.
Urlesque has a pretty neat gallery of upside down buildings from around the world. This one above is actually a 1997 art installation at Harbour Green Park, Vancouver, Canada by Dennis Oppenheim titled "Device to Root out Evil." ("A country church is seen balancing on it’s steeple, as if it had been lifted by a terrific force and brought to the site as a device or method of rooting out evil forces," according to his website)
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Time to Set MS on Fire, a Parody Ad
And now for a geeky pitstop, here’s a parody of The Doors’s famous song, a cheeky ad from Linspire Linux titled "Time to Set MS on Fire":
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via AQFL
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Save $-9.99!
Well … technically it’s almost correct! Found via Bits & Pieces
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Massachusetts Will Vote on Abolishing the State Income Tax
Whaa? Did I read this right? The citizens of "Taxachusetts" have finally risen against the tyranny of high taxes: there’s a ballot measure to get rid of the state’s income tax.
Question 1 would cut the tax by half the first year and eliminate it the next year, and Ms. Howell said the state could compensate by cutting lucrative employee pensions, paring bureaucracies and spending wisely.
“We don’t have to cut any essential services or any government programs that are providing a benefit to the people of Massachusetts,” Ms. Howell said. “All we have to do is cut government waste.”
Some voters who wanted taxes lowered to 5 percent have decided to support Question 1 to show their anger at the state, said Barbara Anderson, director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, which advocated 5 percent but is now producing bumper stickers that read “Hell Yes! Question 1.”
Massachusetts does have some experience against that sort of thing – the last time they rallied against taxation, America ended up being an independent country: Link – via Blue’s News
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Epic Tow Truck Fail
The Bailout plan isn’t the only thing that failed today: here’s a YouTube clip of a tow truck that needed to be bailed out itself after bailing out an overturned semi.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks mowog!
Previously on Neatorama: Crane Pulling a Bus Out of a River – What Can Go Wrong?
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How is the Bailout Failure Affecting You?
Photo: freemarketmyass [Flickr], at a protest against the bailout in Chicago
So. Today, the House of Representatives said no to the Mother of All Bailouts™ (with the majority of the Democrats voted for it, and the majority of Republicans voted against it). The Dow dropped like a rock, falling 777 points, making it the worst single-day point loss ever. Democrats blamed Republicans, Republicans blamed Democrats. Oh, and Citigroup gobbled up Wachovia and the Fed pumped $330 billion into the market anyway.
I went to lunch with my lovely wife and had a delicious Korean BBQ meal. I paid cash and left a generous tip to the nice waiter. Then I went back to work, and now, I’m typing up this post.
My point is this: Wall Street may be burning (and the New York economy is undoubtedly going to take a lickin’) but I doubt it’ll take the rest of the country down with it, despite the all doom-and-gloom we’ve been told. Most of the people I talked to don’t have the same sense of urgency that Wall Street and the politicians have, or wanted us to have.
The economy in general has been kind of sucky – business is down (and we’ve made adjustments to cope with it), but that has been the way it is for a long time – well, before the hulaballoo at Wall Street.
I live within my means, own a house we can afford, pay cash for most of my purchases. We save for a rainy day. And I worked my butt off every day for all of this – I don’t think the Wall Street meltdown or a Super Bailout is going to affect us all that much.
But I may be wrong. So let me ask your opinion: what do you think of the bailout failure and what it may mean to you? Are you fearful for your economic future? Is it because of the failure of the bailout or something far more fundamental?
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Two Very Lucky Climbers Who Cheated Death
Photo: Hermann Erber
Austrian photographer and climbing enthusiast Hermann Erber took this amazing photo of two ice climbers climbing a frozen waterfall when right beside them the falls collapsed!
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Jules Verne Spacecraft Destructive Re-entry Photo
Photo: European Space Agency
Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle named Jules Verne, has successfully completed its mission delivering fuel, water, oxygen, food, and other items to the International Space Station. The spacecraft was then sent on a destructive reentry path that let it break apart safely over an uninhabited part of the South Pacific.
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Spider-Man's Next Partner: Stephen Colbert!
Guess who’s coming to star in an upcoming Spider-Man comic? It’s none other than Stephen Colbert, who’s running for president in the Marvel Universe!
Marvel is proud to reveal that Spider-Man and acclaimed television personality Stephen Colbert will join forces in an all new eight-page story featured in the extra-sized AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #573! Acclaimed writer Mark Waid and fan favorite artist Patrick Olliffe present Stephen Colbert, a candidate for the U.S. Presidency in the Marvel Universe, teaming up with Marvel’s most iconic crime fighter.
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Honeybees Can Count (Up to 4)
We may not have been giving honeybees enough credit: turns out the insect can count (well, up to four anyhow)!
Also at the Australian National University, Marie Dacke and Mandyam V. Srinivasan trained European honeybees to pass a particular number of colored stripes in a tunnel to get a food reward, which was placed by a stripe. When they removed the food, the bees still returned to the same stripe.
Next, they mixed things up on the bees: they varied the spacing of the stripes, and even replaced stripes with unfamiliar markers. The insects consistently passed the same number of markers to approach the former reward site, demonstrating that they could count, up to four.
The studies burnish the impressive list of honeybees’ known cognitive abilities, all achieved with a brain the size of a sand grain.
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America's No. 1 Export is ... Debt!
When you think of a country’s export, what comes first to mind? For most people, japan means cars. Saudi Arabia? Oil. China? Everything else.
How about good ol’ United States of America? It turns out that our no. 1 export is debt. Lots and lots of debt.
Here’s an interesting article by Justin Fox for TIME about how US has been selling $700 billion in debt securities to foreigners every year (the number is the same as the bailout plan, but that’s just a coincidence) and how the party’s coming to an end (maybe):
Our quandary is that we are apparently not capable of safely manufacturing $700 billion in debt securities to sell to foreigners every year, as we’ve been doing since 2005. (That this is the same total as Treasury’s bailout plan is just a coincidence.) If we keep trying to borrow that much from overseas–as you’ve probably gathered, selling debt means borrowing money–today’s quality problems may soon seem petty. For now, we can still reassure buyers around the world by slapping that GUARANTEED label on our debt. But as financial crisis and economic slowdown cause government debts to burgeon, and as commitments to Social Security and Medicare loom closer as baby boomers retire, that confidence could easily fade.
Link (Illustration: Harry Campbell/TIME) – via reddit
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The Hills Have Eyes
French street artist JR, best known for his technique of photographing inhabitants of an area & pasting the resulting imagery up on grand scale around the community has taken to the favelas of RIO DE JANEIRO in a grand project to honor the residents of one of the world’s biggest slums. The scale of this project never siezes [sic] to amaze me. One day we will plan on doing something of this level.
See more pictures at DNA Imagery. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
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Does the Moon Orbit the Earth or the Sun?
I had never heard the argument that the moon orbits the sun, but it does go around the sun as it revolves around the earth. The question, which does it orbit more? Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog lays out the argument and explains.
Turns out, it orbits the Earth, despite these claims. The above claims are true, but are not important in this argument. Instead, you have to look at something called the Hill sphere. Basically, it’s the volume of space around an object where the gravity of that object dominates over the gravity of a more massive but distant object around which the first object orbits.
OK, in English — and more pertinent to this issue — it’s the volume of space around the Earth where the Earth’s gravity is more important than the Sun’s. If something is orbiting the Earth inside Earth’s Hill’s sphere, it’ll be a satellite of the Earth and not the Sun.
The derivation of the math isn’t terribly important here (and it’s on the Wikipedia page if you’re curious), but when you plug in the numbers, you find the Earth’s Hill sphere has a radius of about 1.5 million kilometers. The Moon’s orbital radius of 400,000 km keeps it well within the Earth’s Hill sphere, so there you have it. The Moon orbits the Earth more than it orbits the Sun. In reality it does both, and saying it orbits one and not the other is silly anyway.
(image credit: NASA)
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Famous Preserved Body Parts
If you become famous enough, someone may want to keep at least a part of you around after you die. This list looks at ten body arts: brains, fingers, even a bladder, that were preserved for posterity. Or study. Or reverence. The leg bone shown belonged to Civil War general Dan Sickle. Link -via Look at This
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