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Jo Stephens of Cornwall had planned a home birth, but when her labor pains started, no midwife could come. And the ambulance wasn’t going to make it in time, either. Luckily, her husband Marc had been watching YouTube videos just hours before on how to deliver a baby.
A few hours earlier, Mr Stephens has been reading up on home births and how to cope with anything unexpected.
“The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier.”
The Stephens delivered a 5 pound, 5 ounce boy they named Gabriel. Both mother and child were later taken to a hospital where they were pronounced healthy. Link -via Gizmodo
Today marks the first day in the year (May 3rd) of what would be Jonathan Harker’s journal. Dracula Feed has started an experiment of blogging Jonathan’s journal in "real time", publishing each journal entry the day it would have happened.
Experience Bram Stoker’s Dracula in a new way — in real time. Dracula is an epistolary novel (a novel written as a series of letters or diary entries,) and this blog will publish each diary entry on the day that it was written by the narrator so that the audience may experience the drama as the characters would have.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Most people know that inhaling helium will make your voice sound like Donald Duck, but what gas will make you sound like Darth Vader?
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Filmmaker Dan Savage took this picture of a uniquely colored koi found in the ponds of Maruoka Castle, the second oldest standing castle in Japan.
Beyond the unusual blue color overall, the mottled burgundy and indigo effect from the more vividly colored scales on this carp’s back makes it even more attractive to me. I could be wrong, but I would guess this fish would be prized far more than a basic $500 nishikigoi specimen.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Yes, that’s right a volcanic plug. It sounds dangerous but at this stage in its life, Taung Kalat poses no threat. A volcanic plug (sometimes called a ‘neck’) is formed when magma, on its way up through a vent on an active volcano, hardens inside the vent. While the volcano is active this could well lead to the mother of all explosions and it would, you have to admit, be a shame if this beautiful monastery was to be catapulted in to the stratosphere. However, the volcano is thought (perhaps we should say hoped) to be extinct.
(image credit: Flickr user exfordy)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
British art student Sara Watson parked a donated Skoda Fabia car outside her art studio and painted it so that, from just the right angle, it looks invisible. Shadows on the ground and the slight contours of the car give it away, but other than that, it’s as if it were draped with Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility or a cloaking device from Star Trek.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by tempeh.
Photo: frankh
Remember the mobile treadmill posted on Neatorama a while ago? Well, Flickr user frankh spotted a DIY version at MIT (where else?). Apparently, it’s what you get when you cross a bicycle with a treadmill – via GadgetLab
Cancer schmancer, scientists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego have finally solved the age-old question that has eluded science for centuries: can birds dance?
Cats, dogs, and lab monkeys spend lots of time around human music. But no animal had ever been confirmed as moving to a beat—leading to the common belief that animals ain’t got rhythm.
For one of two new studies on animal dancing, Aniruddh Patel at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego and colleagues worked with Snowball the parrot, which seems to love "dancing" to the likes of Queen and Backstreet Boys.
To test whether the sulphur-crested cockatoo was really keeping a beat, the scientists would change the music’s tempo—represented in these videos as "BPM" (beats per minute).
Not one to miss a beat, Snowball quickly picked up the new rhythms, stomping and head-bobbing in time. "We were surprised by the degree Snowball could adjust his tempo," Patel said.
Forget people! The real concern for farmers is not that humans get swine flu from pigs … it’s the other way around!
Humans have it. Pigs don’t. At least not yet, and U.S. pork producers are doing everything they can to make sure that the new H1N1 virus, known around the world as the "swine flu," stays out of their herds.
"That is the biggest concern, that your herd could somehow contract this illness from an infected person," said Kansas hog farmer Ron Suther, who is banning visitors from his sow barns and requiring maintenance workers, delivery men and other strangers to report on recent travels and any illness before they step foot on his property.
"If a person is sick, we don’t want you coming anywhere on the farm," Suther said.
Previously on Neatorama:
- Scientists: Swine Flu Milder Than Run-Of-The-Mill Winter Flu
- Swine Flu: Bacon’s Revenge
- What is Swine Flu? How Does an Animal Disease Spread to a Human Host?
- 5 Deadliest Pandemics in History
Putting a man on the moon, solving Fermat’s Last Theorem, or firing a tenured teacher because of incompetence or even criminal behaviors: which is harder?
While most teachers are good, decent people with the thankless jobs of teaching unruly kids with dwindling resources and ever-increasing class sizes, there are a few bad apples that really ruined school for a lot of children. But why is it so difficult to fire them?
Jason Song of the Los Angeles Times investigates:
Joseph Walker, a former principal of Grant High School in Van Nuys, was sued by a special education teacher whom he tried to dismiss for alleged repeated sexual harassment. A civil jury sided with Walker — but the review commission decided the teacher shouldn’t be fired. The case, now in the courts, has dragged on seven years.
Confronting uphill battles like this, Walker said: "You’re not going to fire someone who’s not doing their job. And if you have someone who’s done something really egregious, there’s only a 50-50 chance that you can fire them."
Walker is now principal of Discovery Charter Preparatory Academy in Pacoima, where he said he had fired three teachers so far this year. None were fired during his three years as head of Grant. The difference: His school’s teachers are not unionized and can be fired at will.
(Photo: Joseph Walker. Photo credit: Liz O. Baylen / LA Times)
Cooks in Liberia are wily geniuses when it comes to recycling stuff. No oven? Not a problem – just take an old Blockbuster Video Quik Drop box and make it into one!
Details over at AfriGadget:
They showed me the oven, a big metal cabinet against the far wall; looks like a refrigerator on legs, to allow a coal pit to fit under the bottom, but when I get near it, I see it’s a Blockbuster Quick Drop Booth! The front, where the slit had been closed, faces the wall and the back door is to access the oven; inside are several fridge trays, on which they lay the pans. The door is then locked with a simple bolt and sealed all around with wet cloths.
The cake was fabulous.
Link – via BB Gadgets
Previously at Neatorama: The T-Mobile Dance
Photo: Least Wanted [Flickr]
We’re always looking out for number one – or criminally speaking, those on the most wanted list. But not Mark "Least Wanted" Michaelson. He has spent years collecting tens of thousands of mugshots of "punks, sneaks, mooks and miscreants. Hookers, stooges, grifters and goons" going back to the 1870s. In other words, the least wanted.
Link [Flickr Photoset] | Least Wanted
I wonder if he’s got mugshots of Henry Earl …
