Archive for November 3rd, 2009
Algae Mines
Here’s another story about abandoned man-made structures, but this one may have a happy ending.
Instead of using aboveground ponds to grow algae for biofuels, researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology have proposed growing algae underground in abandoned mines. What are the advantages? Underground mines are cheap, maintain constant temperature, solve the aboveground evaporation and contamination problems, and the site preparation has already been done by the mining companies.
But don’t algae need sunlight to grow? Not necessarily, says mining engineering professor David Summers.
It happens that algae work best when they use only the blue and red parts of the light spectrum, which can be provided by LED lights, and they need periods of darkness in which to process the photons.
An added benefit: Mine owners like the idea because it eliminates the need for them to clean up the sites, as algae are particularly good at sequestering metals.
Win + win + win? I guess we’ll find out.
More information at Scientific American.
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share:  email
this 
|
| Neatorama Shop » Funny T-Shirts | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Outrageously
Funny T-shirts » 
|
||
15 Abandoned Theaters
Oobject captures the majesty and opulence that once defined theater archiecture, and the sadness of their current emptiness in this gallery of urban decay photography. The theater pictured here is in Hellingly Asylum, Sussex.
Theaters are a relic of the past. Don’t believe me? Look at drive-in movie theaters and the shakespearean stage. They simply don’t exist in modern America anymore, save for a relic or three buried in a small town somewhere. This list pays tribute to the thespians and films of the past century, to their writers and directors and to the actors who made them happen.
(image credit: Flickr user Howzey)
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Most Popular Christmas Toys By Year Since 1960
If you are a sucker for nostalgia, this will make your day. I can remember getting that amazing trio of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Soakers, and then a Gameboy. In fact, those would still make great gifts for grown men with a penchant for walks down memory lane.
The holiday shopping season is quickly descending upon us, which means this year’s more popular toys and consumer electronics are soon to become in increasingly high-demand. In recent memory, the Sony Playstation III, Beanie Babies, and of course, the Tickle-Me-Elmo have generated a considerable amount of hype – quickly selling out, and then establishing a re-sale market. But have you ever wondered what the “it toys” have been throughout the decades? We have; and as a result, we decided to compile a time-line which illustrates the top toys from the last 50 years. Here they are, the most popular Christmas toys since 1960.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Sputnik 2 Anniversary
Fifty-two years ago today (November 3, 1957), Sputnik 2 launched from the Soviet Union with a dog named Laika {wiki} on board. It was a tremendous political coup for the USSR to launch a living being into orbit. Unfortunately it wasn’t so tremendous for Laika, as they made no plans for her to ever return to earth. Several stories were told of how long Laika survived in space, but the full story was finally revealed in 2002. Laika only lived a few hours before the stress and heat did her in. Her remains orbited the earth for five months until the capsule burned up on re-entry in April of 1958. In honor of the anniversary, here’s Space Doggity by Jonathon Coulton. -via Metafilter
Update: The video footage is from the song Moan by Trentemøller. -Thanks, waldemar!
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Neatorama Penny Pyramid
Remember the record-breaking Penny Pyramid built by Marcelo Bezos? Well, Marcelo had built a "glow in the dark" pyramid featuring Neatorama:
Marcelo's selling the Penny Pyramid, along with the house it comes in:
How do you get a record 3,500 lb. Penny Pyramid out of a house before you sell it ?........ YOU DON”T, you list it as one of the many upgrades and amenities that comes along with it!
Welcome to the current home of the World’s Largest Penny Pyramid! The penny pyramid which was originally built in 2006 to raise awareness for colorectal cancer and the screening process will be auctioned off along with the house it was built in this winter to raise funds in support of the Penny Pyramid Project. Mr. Bezos, the creator and holder of the record is also the founder of the Penny Pyramid Project, a non-profit child philanthropy educational program that uses its signature world record penny pyramid in fundraisers used to support other charitable organizations in the greater Miami area. The Penny Pyramid Project was founded in 2007, it ran its first annual fundraiser that same year raising over 1,200 dollars in pennies alone. Unfortunately, the fledgling program was temporarily forced to go dormant during the 2008 school year. Mr. Bezos, “it is my hope that this unique approach to the sale of the house will generate enough local and national interest that will generate the necessary funding in order to bring back this really neat educational program for our school children.”
and…. if it does not sell?, well then each coin used in the pyramid will be encased in an aluminum outer shell, a lost art only a few companies in the US now can reproduce. In its hay day from 1900-1970, millions of these encased pennies were used to commemorate or used as a premiums to help advertise a company’s product. Mr. Bezos, This type of coining is just a really cool way to showcase what now is the Worlds Largest “Glow” in the dark penny pyramid!”
The current Pyramid has grown to just over 525,000 pennies. The accompanying video series has also been a viral sensation around the world receiving over 3,300,000 views and counting!
The latest work has caused the outer coins to glow in the dark turning the current structure into the Worlds Largest “Glow” In The Dark Penny Pyramid!
Link - Thanks Marcelo!
Update 11/3/09: Marcelo gave us further info on the Neatorama Penny Pyramid statistics:
The letters are made up of the following number of piles and coins
All pennies are uncirculated 2009 D Professional Series.
N= 57 piles 570 pennies
E= 63 piles 630 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
T= 61 piles 610 pennies
O= 40 piles 410 pennies
R= 56 piles 560 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
M= 65 piles 650 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
1. takes about 1min 30 to process each pile so it glows, (secrete process, last about 600 hours when subjected to continous UV light)
2. took about 5 hours to insert in pyramid
ok, that’s a total of 534 piles or 5340 pennies
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Computer & Office » Road Mice | |
 |
Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Dodge Viper shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life! |
See more Road
Mice » |
|
Outdoor Dragon Skeleton Sculpture
Photo: Virgil England
Artist Virgil England is best known for his custom fantasy-inspired knives and swords. But in 1990, he stepped outside of this domain to create a life-sized (if that’s an appropriate term for an imaginary creature) dragon skeleton in Chugach National Forest in Alaska:
The part of the Dragon that is exposed is about 18 feet long. The wing is 15 feet high. The skeleton is carved whale bone and forged mild steel with reindeer rawhide stretched and stitched over the bones. I did it to display a 59 1/2 inch two handed sword called “The Veil of Tears”. After the ten hour photo session It went to a three day showing in San Francisco then to the buyers.
You can view more pictures at the link.
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Why Roosters Have Wattles
A wattle is the bit of flesh below a rooster’s beak. What purpose does it serve? Carolynn Smith at Macquarie University in Australia conducted a study that suggests that it’s pure chicken bling. Sarah Zielinski writes in Scientific American about the results:
Cutting off the wattles of roosters and seeing how the behavior of hens changed wasn’t an option. Instead, Smith created four animated roosters. The animated roosters (see second part of the video below) all acted the same, performing the tidbitting routine over and over, and they all looked the same, except for their wattles. One had a normal wattle, one was missing his, a third had a wattle that didn’t move, and the fourth had an extra floppy wattle.
A test chicken would be placed inside a test pen with two “audience hens,” a couple of buddies intended to make the test hen more comfortable in the less familiar surroundings (fowl are social creatures). One of the videos was then played for the test chicken and her response was recorded: How quickly did she respond to the animated rooster? How quickly did she start searching for food (the normal response to a male tidbitting)? And how long did she search for food?
The test hens responded more quickly to the tidbitting males that had the normal or stationary wattles, less quickly to the one with the extra floppy wattle (the wattle moved so much that it swung up the side of the rooster’s head and appeared much smaller than it was) and slowest to the male lacking wattles. After the hen’s attention was gained, though, she reacted about the same to each of the four animated chickens. Smith suggests that the wattle helps a rooster gain a hen’s attention when he is tidbitting, rather like a human guy wearing flashy clothes while doing his best dance moves to try and pick up chicks.
Video at the link.
Link | Photo: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Neatorama Mystery Sale - November 2009
Neatorama’s Mystery Sale – $9.95
It’s time for Neatorama’s highly anticipated Mystery Sale. What mysterious item will you get for $9.95? Well, we wont’ tell you: that’s the whole point of the Mystery Sale!
But what we can we can tell you is this: you’ll get something (or a combination of things) worth *at least* $9.95. It will be a physical item, new, fun and worthy of Neatorama. And if you buy more than one thing, you’ll get different items.
Do your Christmas shopping early. It’s simple: just get a few Mystery Sale items (you can even get them gift-wrapped) and cross Christmas shopping off your to-do list!
What will this Mystery Sale bring you? Don’t you want to find out? And remember, like the last Mystery Sale, this one is also for a very limited time. When it’s gone, it’s gone, so get yours today: Link
Update 11/5/09 – time’s up!
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Al Gore: World's First "Carbon" Billionaire?
Climate change may be serious stuff for many of us, but for Al Gore, it’s seriously profitable. He’s about to become the world’s first "carbon" billionaire:
Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy as Mr Gore. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.
Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming sceptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first "carbon billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, has claimed that Mr Gore stood to benefit personally from the energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.
Mr Gore had said that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.
|
Comment (24)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
China's Weather Modification Office: A Government Entity That Controls The Weather
Remember the old saying that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it? Well, not China! The country has a Weather Modification Office that aims to control the weather:
Chinese meteorologists say they brought about Beijing’s earliest snowfall in a decade, after seeding rain clouds with silver iodide to ease a drought.
The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said.
But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting road, rail and air travel.
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » I Love Science T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| I Love Teuthology | See more I
Love Science T-Shirts »
|
Nicolas Cage is Broke
If you’re feeling a tad poor because of the economic meltdown, tell yourself that at least you’re not Nicolas Cage. The highest paid actor in Hollywood is broke:
How could one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors find himself owing $6.3 million in back taxes and deep in money troubles? The answer is, "Easy," if you believe Nicolas Cage.
In a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, the National Treasure star, 45, claims that his longtime business manager, Samuel J. Levin, "lined his [own] pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin."
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
$47K Food Bill, $7K Tip: Just a Friday Night Out for Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich
Recession? What recession? Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich dropped $47,000 on food last Friday at Nello’s in New York City. Note that a lucky waiter/waitress got a $7000 tip: Link
|
Comment (24)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Giant Ethiopian Crack Will Spawn New Ocean
There’s a new giant crack in the desert of Ethiopia, and some scientists think that it will eventually create a new ocean:
A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.
The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.
A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region’s future.
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The iPhone Log Dock
Photo: woodtec
Because you can’t out-tech the sleek iPod and iPhone, it’s much better to go low-tech when showcasing Apple’s coveted gadgets. Behold, the log dock by Woodtec:
Again from Woodtec, the dual iPhone/iPod docking log takes the single log dock and adds room for another device. Now you can charge your iPhone and iPod simultaneously via a single length of tree limb. Unsurprisingly, as there’s more wood and an extra connection, the dual dock comes in at a higher price but for something so unique, $119.00 is surely money well spent.
Zoombits got more on wooden iPhone accessories: Link – Thanks Dave!
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Secret Behind IKEA Tables: Honeycomb!
Ever wonder how IKEA makes their furniture sturdy yet light? The secret is the honeycomb skeleton inside their tabletops. National Geographic went inside an IKEA factory in Poland: Link
|
Comment (12)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The 25 Best Costumes At The 2009 NYC Marathon
Meb Keflezighi won the New York City Marathon on Sunday. He is the first American to win the title since 1982! But around 42,000 runners took part in the marathon, some wearing elaborate costumes. Buzzfeed collected photographs of the most outrageous marathon costumes for your viewing pleasure. Link
(image credit: Flickr user monicamüller)
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
101 Historical Moments You Can Relive on YouTube
Every once in a while, someone will say, “I wish I’d been around when that happened.” You can get a taste for what it was like to live through historical moments by watching converted film footage, news reports, historic speeches, sports coverage, and even famous musical performances on YouTube. This list has links to 101 available videos, some of which you’d never think of to look for on your own. Just a few are recreations. Pictured is a screenshot from the destruction of the Berlin Wall. This resource will be useful to help my children with their history lessons! Link -via the Presurfer
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Flags of the World (the Hard Ones)
If you had to learn to recognize the world’s flags in school, here’s your chance to finally put that knowledge to use! In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given 12 flags. They are not all national flags. How many can you identify? I was surprised to get 8 out of 12, or 67%. Link
|
Comment (13)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Fastest Cat for the Fastest Man
Usain Bolt, who holds the world record for both the 100- and 200-meter sprint, adopted a cheetah named Lightning Bolt, but he isn’t going to make the cheetah into a house cat. Bolt paid $13,700 for adoption rights, and has pledged $3,000 a year for the cat’s upkeep at a wildlife center in Nairobi. The money helps to support the Kenyan Wildlife Services and their efforts to protect endangered species.
The world record holder appeared more comfortable later while handling his baby cheetah, which was the size of a fully grown domestic cat. He cradled the fuzzy-headed cub while feeding it bottled milk as cameramen snapped away.
When asked if he was afraid of cheetahs, Bolt said: “Yes, I was, but not anymore.”
Lighting Bolt is among three cubs rescued by KWS officials after their mother abandoned them in a game park.
(image credit: AP/Karel Prinsloo)
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Seven Giants of the Urals
Seven rock formations called Man-Pupu-Nyor (little mountain of the gods) stand in the Komi Republic, a part of the Ural Mountain area of Russia. They range from 30 to 42 meters tall! The pillars formed when erosion washed away the mountain that once surrounded them over a period of 200 million years. Legend says they are evil giants who had a spell cast upon them. Link -via the Presurfer
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Neatorama T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| Neatorama LOLcats | See more Neatorama
T-Shirts »
|
10 Neat Facts About Google
Google in 1998 (notice the exclamation mark)
Sure, everybody knows that Google was created by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin who became gazillionaires. But did you know that Google's first storage device was cobbled together with LEGO? Or that Google's first investor wrote a $100,000 check even before the company officially existed? Or that it has its own "official" Google dog?
Neatorama presents the Top 10 Neat Facts About Google:
1. Before Google, There Was BackRub
In
1996, graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on a research
project to understand the link structure of the World Wide Web. They're
particularly interested in determining the importance of a given web page
based on its backlinks or how many other web pages link to it (which later
became the concept behind Google's "PageRank" algorithm).
The project was named BackRub (yes, a play on the word "backlink"). You can see an archived page of BackRub in the Wayback Machine:
8) Your logo is upside down: Why is the light source obviously below the image? It looks quite unnatural...
The logo is simply a scan of my hand, from a flatbed scanner converted to black and white. The "back" in the picture is the scanner cover, and the shadows are from the scanner light.
2. The Original Google Computer Storage
Photo: Stanford
Infolab's Computer History Exhibits Photo
Larry and Sergey needed large amount of disk space to test their PageRank algo, but the largest hard disks available at the time were only 4 GB. So they assembled 10 of these drives together.
While he was an undergrad at Michigan University, Larry had built a programmable plotter out of LEGO, so it's only natural that he used the colorful bricks to create Google's first computer storage!
3. Google's First Investor
Sun
Microsystem co-founder Andy
Bechtolsheim knew a good thing when he saw it. After talking to Larry
and Sergey about Google for 30 minutes, he whipped out his checkbook and
wrote a check for $100,000, made out to "Google, Inc." Problem
was, Google, Inc. hasn't existed yet!
Oh, by the way, the Sun in Sun Microsystem stands for "Stanford University Network."
4.
Google Garage
Talk about getting lucky tenants. In 1998, Susan Wojcicki rented her garage to two Stanford students - you know who they are - for $1,700 a month to help out with the mortgage. That turned out to be a life-changing decision for Susan - it got her a key early job at Google which translated to a top executive position later on, introduced a future husband to her younger sister Anne, and created a mini cottage industry for the rest of her family. (Photo: Jack Gruber/USA Today)
In
2006, Google
bought the house which had become a tourist attraction (the busloads
of people who show up to take pictures were so annoying that Google decided
not to publish the address - though ironically, you can still Google
Map it.)
5. Google's First Dog
Despite the Internet's obsession with cats, dogs rule Google. In 1999, a Leonberger breed named Yoshka came to work with Google's first VP of Engineering Urs Hölzle and became the company's "first" dog. (Photo: Google Timeline)
If you must know, Leonbergers are big dogs with lionesque mane that look really majestic. They are, however, useless as guard dogs because they're much too kind and gentle.
6. Just How Many Servers Does Google Have?
A sign near the Googleville data center. Photo: ahockley
[Flickr]
The real Googleville.
Photo: Melanie Conner/NY Times
Good question. Nobody outside the company knows, and Google ain't talkin'. The company's famously secretive when it comes to its data centers (Heck, no one even knows for sure how many data centers the company has!)
For example, The Dalles or "Googleville" data center in a small
Washington Oregon town, was cloaked
in secrecy:
"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."
Recently, Google Fellow Jeff Dean gave a revealing talk on large-scale computing systems in which he discussed technical details of a new storage and computation system called Spanner, which is designed for up to 10 million servers. Skynet, anyone?
7. "Green" Search
All those hardware must use a lot of electricity (indeed, Googleville data center is calculated to require about 103 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 82,000 homes or a city the size of Tacoma, Washington), but just how much energy do you use when you perform a Google search?
Google calculated that it uses about 1 kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average search query. It's so efficient that your PC will likely use more energy in the time it takes to do a Google search.
Photo: Google
Solar Panel Project
To offset its electricity consumption, Google even installed 1.6MW solar panels on the rooftops of the Googleplex. A total of 9,212 solar panels generate 4,475 kWh daily, the equivalent of about the amount of electricity used by 1,000 California homes.
8. Google Trike
I'm sure you're all familiar with Google Street View and the camera-topped Google Car, but what about all of the interesting places inaccessible to cars? Enter the Google Trike, which started as a project by Daniel Ratner, a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Street View team:
"I began thinking about building a bicycle-based Street View system after realizing how many interesting places around the world - ranging from historic landmarks to beautiful trails to shopping districts - aren't accessible by car," says Dan. "When I'm riding the trike, so many people come up to me and ask where it's off to next or how they can get imagery of their favorite spot, so I can't wait to see what our users come up with."
Previously on Neatorama: Google Car Pulled Over by the Cops - Now in Google Street View!
9. I'm Feeling Lucky Costs Google $110 Million a Year
The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's homepage takes you straight to the first web page result. Because it bypasses Google's own search result page, where users are shown ads, the button actually costs Google around $110 million a year.
Why keep it? Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marisa Mayer said:
You know Larry and Sergey had the view, and I certainly share it, that it's possible just to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. And you know what I think is really delightful about Google and about the "I'm Feeling Lucky," is that they remind you that the people here have personality and that they have interests and that there is real people.
10. Googlebot, Revealed At Last!
Image: Ben Rathbone
In 2005, Ben Rathbone (then at Google's Hardware Operations) gave us a glimpse of humanity's future. I, for one, welcome our new Googlebot overlord:
Then I pondered the question: what does Google do? The grossly simplified answer that I came up with is Google connects the world with the Internet.
It all snapped into place: the idea of a robot, connecting a world with the Internet, with wires, that connect to big cabinets of computers. It was not hard then to make the leap to representing the internet as a world, or globe, made up of pages.
|
Comment (14)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
