Archive for June 1st, 2009


Homemade R2D2s

Posted by Miss Cellania in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods on June 1, 2009 at 10:38 pm


The Bay Area R2 Builders showed off four fully-functioning R2D2 units at Maker Faire. They cost around $10,000 to build, and take a couple of years of work. Link to video report. Link to website.

 
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Canned Meat, Fish & Bugs From Around the World

Posted by Queuebot in Food & Drink on June 1, 2009 at 10:33 pm


Potted meat product, quail eggs, snails, and armadillo? Sure I’ll try anything once. I never realized how many canned meat products were out there.

A whole chicken. That jelly is pretty off putting.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by notoriousnicholas.

 
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5 Kidnap-For-Ransom Stories

Posted by Queuebot in Crime & Law on June 1, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Holding a person for ransom makes big headlines, but years later or in another placec, you may not be familiar with these stories that gripped the public in their time.

The kidnapping and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., son of aviator Charles Lindbergh occurred in 1932 and was one of the most horrific crimes of its time, prompting the “Lindbergh Law”, which made kidnapping a federal crime. (Prior to, it was classified as a local crime.)

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by smellslikepurple.

 
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Skyscrapers of the Not so Distant Future

Posted by Queuebot in Architecture on June 1, 2009 at 2:17 pm

I have always found skyscrapers to be so majestic, and beautiful. Here are some soon to be finished skyscrapers, as well as a few still in the design phase.

International Commerce Centre. West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Estimated Completion: 2010. Apparantly, this building was going to be even longer, but they were forced to scale it back, since city ordinances don’t allow buildings that are taller than the surrounding mountains.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by notoriousnicholas.

 
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10 Common Phenomena Explained

Posted by Queuebot in Science & Tech on June 1, 2009 at 2:17 pm

This article gives answers to how ten everyday things work. These are some interesting facts to know, and you can surely use them to impress your friends. Some examples of what’s explained are sunscreen, joint cracks, freckles, hiccups, and the falling sensation that some get while lying in bed. Below is an excerpt from the section about the falling sensation:

Have you ever woken up to a falling sensation and a strong muscle twitch as you are simply lying in bed? This phenomenon is known as hypnagogic myoclonic twitch or “Hypnic Jerk,” and studies have shown that roughly 70% of people have experienced it. There is no definitive answer on why this happens, but most scientists have agreed on the following explanation. When you are falling asleep your muscles become very relaxed and enter what is essentially a state of temporary paralysis. While your body is making this transition the brain can misinterpret the sudden relaxation of the muscles and instead think that you are falling. Instincts kick in and send signals to your muscles to jerk you upright which leads to a rude awakening. Studies have found that “Hypnic Jerks” occur more frequently with people who suffer from sleep anxiety, fatigue and discomfort because the brain is more easily confused. Either way, it is a normal part of the sleep process and poses no real danger.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Snappy.

 
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The Astounding World of the Future

Posted by Queuebot in Everything Else on June 1, 2009 at 2:16 pm


[YouTube - Link]


Voted Best Short Film at the New York Comedy Festival, a tongue-in-cheek look at the thin line between Utopia and dystopia.

– via buzzfeed

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

 
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Outsourcing Elderly Care -to India!

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel on June 1, 2009 at 12:35 pm


Steve Herzfeld confronted the decisions that haunt most of us eventually. His elderly parents needed round-the-clock care, but he couldn’t afford the quality of nursing home he wanted for them in Florida. So he sent them to Puducherry, India!

Looking back, Herzfeld says the main thing he would have done differently would have been to hire staff before their arrival: it took him five difficult weeks to find a nurse.

But once staff had been found, he could give his parents a much higher standard of care than would have been possible in the US for his father’s income of $2,000 (£1,200) a month. In India that paid for their rent, a team of carers – a cook, a valet for his father, nurses to be with his mother 12 hours a day, six days a week, a physiotherapist and a masseuse – and drugs (costing a fifth of US prices), and also allowed them to put some money away.

Could this be the wave of the future? Herzfeld, whose parents died a few years after moving to India, knows this plan would not work for everyone, but he admires the caring way that his parents were treated in India. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Steve Herzfeld)

 
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To Bee or Not to Bee

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animals & Pets on June 1, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Keeping bees is illegal in New York City. That doesn’t mean there are no beekeepers in the city; they just keep their bees hidden on rooftops. Now a resolution to legalize beekeeping is on the table, and many are interested in starting a new hobby.

Beekeeping classes in New York City were brimming with students this spring, partly because of publicity after a city council bill was introduced to legalize beekeeping.

On one Sunday in April the student beekeepers gathered for a live demonstration of hiving.

Afterwards they got two boxes; one with about 20,000 live bees, and another smaller one with the queen bee inside.

National Geographic has a video report, including an appearance by an underground beekeeper who is allergic to bee stings! Link -via Digg

 
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The Infomercial Slogan Quiz

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on June 1, 2009 at 12:11 pm


Some TV infomercials play so often that you can’t help but memorize their slogans. Others, not so much. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your memory on 12 products “as seen on TV”. I scored 67%, even though I only knew one answer. Link

 
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The Woman Who Moved Her House Brick by Brick

Posted by Alex in Architecture, Home & Garden on June 1, 2009 at 7:07 am

In 1947, after the love of her life passed away unexpectedly, May Alice Savidge bought a house to restore.

A few years later, she was told by the town council that her house was to be destroyed to make way for a road. Needless to say, May didn’t take that lying down: she fought the town … and lost. But Savidge never gave up:

In 1969, when she was 58, the bulldozers reached her gate. Her response was to number each beam and pane of glass so that her home could be reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Dismantling the heavy oak timber frame, held together with tapered wooden pegs, was both difficult and dangerous. A team of local demolition contractors helped May. She traced over a sample of brickwork using greaseproof paper and crayons so that she would know which bond to use and how thick to lay the mortar.

She continued to live in the house as it was taken down, sleeping beneath the stars in the freezing cold. [...]

She found a site in the seaside town of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, and obtained planning permission and laid foundations. A lorry made the round trip to Norfolk 11 times to carry every part of the house.

So began a life of hardship. She had no electricity and worked by the light of Victorian paraffin lamps. She used an alarm clock to set herself targets each day, noting how many nails she extracted from oak beams per hour, as she dismantled the house and prepared for rebuilding. [...]

Two years later, the framework was fixed to the foundations by a local carpenter and May started to infill the brickwork. She had no experience of brickwork, but was determined to lay every single brick perfectly.

It would be another eight years before the roof tiles were put in place and the property made watertight.

By the time she was into her 70s, however, May had moved in and the house stood proudly in its new gardens, each old oak beam in place, the brickwork nearly complete and many of the walls plastered.

Savidge continued to work on the house until she died at the age of 82. Her niece, Christine Adams, continued the job to finish the house and now recounts the amazing life story of her aunt: Link – via Cellar IotD

 
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The Axe Calendar

Posted by Alex in Advertising, Pictures on June 1, 2009 at 7:06 am

Sure it’s a little bit sexist, but at least it’s creative! When Gee Seoul ad agency created this giant "calendar" ad for male deodorant Axe on the side of a female dorm. You get the message, I’m sure.

Larger pic at directdaily: Link

 
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Designer Gas Mask by Diddo Velema

Posted by Alex in Art, Pictures, Weapons & War on June 1, 2009 at 7:05 am

Just because the apocalyptic scenario of a bioterror attack is (always) around the corner, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice fashion for safety. Behold the designer gas masks by Diddo Velema:

Deep down, we are afraid we may never be satisfied. An expanding archive of branded myths and icons feeds this fear. Designer Gas Masks is an attempt to visualize this state of mind. Because it is only by first acknowledging and then challenging fear that we will all be able to breathe a little easier.

Link (Don’t miss his shark attack wetsuit!) – via why not?

 
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Twitter Quote Cross Stitch

Posted by Alex in Art, Blogs & Internet on June 1, 2009 at 7:05 am

What do you get when you mix Twitter with a crafster? How about this twitter quote (michael Ian Black) put in cross stitch, by Julie Zidel of You Heart.Us:

I’m not really sure where I should begin here. I guess we should go way back the beginning, last Wednesday. I’m in the office sitting at my desk eating lunch and making my daily rounds through facebook, flickr and twitter. I take a look at my twitter favorites page. The tweets on this page. These tweets range from the the funny to the mundane to the completely absurd but they all have one thing in common. They amuse me. I thought it was a shame that people were out there living life and not even knowing what they are missing out on. Then it hit me! It is my duty to spread the joy through cross stitch.

Link – via Craftzine

 
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Inhale Exhale Flipbook by Matt Shlian

Posted by Alex in Art, Video Clips on June 1, 2009 at 7:04 am

Remember the flipbook you had as a kid? Well, paper engineer (that’s what he calls himself) Matt Shlian has just turned that concept upside down. Technically, that may be inside out. Or maybe front to back. Who knows! Just take a look at his mind-blowing Inhale Exhale cutout Flipbook and weep: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

 
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