Antonius and Vizay Nazareth of AVbyte, who created Tumblr: The Musical we featured yesterday, also created a musical for Neatorama's newest favorite literary fiction, Fifty Shades of Grey.
Inexplicably, whips and chains are missing from this musical: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
(R) Cartier
When French magazine Marie Claire 2 asked photographer Peter Lippmann for glamorous photos of gorgeous chicks in luxurious jewelries, they probably didn't expect this ;)
Check out the gallery at Peter's website: Link - via Trendland
As you watch the glitzy coverage of the London 2012 Olympics, perhaps you pine for simpler times.
Like, for instance, the bygone era of the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, when the Olympic Games had a men's all-around dumbbell event (That's Frederick Winters who won silver with panache).
With that nose, you'd expect that when a baby elephant sneezes, it's an epic event ... epicly cute, that is. Hit play and say gesundheit: Link [YouTube]
Photo: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Most people don't associate the word "satelitte" with "homemade," but that's exactly what South Korean artist Song Hojun did. He made a $500 homemade satellite by rummaging through back alley electronics stores.
Now, all he needs is a rocket to launch it into orbit:
There's a long history of do-it-yourself satellites being launched by universities and scientific groups around the world, as well as amateur radio clubs, but Song said his is the first truly personal satellite designed and financed by an individual. [...]
The bespectacled Song spent nearly six years combing through academic papers, shopping online at sites that specialize in components that can be used for space projects, and rummaging through electronic stores hidden in the back alleys of Seoul.
Eunhye Shin of Reuters has the story: Link
Dear
Neatoramanauts,
Do you still write "Dear so-and-so" in your correspondence? No?
That's what author and CNN contributor Bob Greene noticed as well:
Is "Dear" an endangered species?
It would appear to be. You may have noticed that fewer and fewer people begin their letters and notes with "Dear." Some holdouts -- I'm among them -- do, but this may be mostly out of lifetime habit. Even people who grew up using the traditional salutation -- middle-of-the-road, go-by-the-book people -- now regularly begin their notes with "Hi."
This is mostly a function of the digital-communications age. "Dear," which always looked fine atop a business letter, or a handwritten note, is increasingly seen as archaic and old-fashioned on a computer screen or on a smartphone or mobile device.
The pending disappearance of "Dear" is a sea change in the way we write to each other -- yet when you think about it, there are few logical reasons arguing for a longer life for that particular word. We've always used it, just because we've always used it.
Would you miss "Dear" if it's gone forever from our daily usage? Link
Don't mess with the Pachycondyla ant! It has a very unusual way to protect itself when bothered: it sprays venomous foam ... from its butt! Alex Wild of Myrmecos explains: Link
AIDS researchers are cautious about saying the word "cure," but two fascinating cases are enough like each other to publicize what happened. Dr. Timothy Henrich and Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston searched for patients who were infected with HIV and underwent cancer treatment. They found two patients who had stem cell treatments for cancer treatment and were later found to be free of the virus. Unlike most HIV patients, they did not stop taking their retroviral drugs during their cancer treatment.Both men had endured multiple rounds of treatment for lymphoma, both had stem cell treatments and both had stayed on their HIV drugs throughout. “They went through the transplants on therapy,” Kuritzkes said.
It turns out that was key.
“We found that immediately before the transplant and after the transplant, HIV DNA was in the cells. As the patients’ cells were replaced by the donor cells, the HIV DNA disappeared,” Kuritzkes said. The donor cells, it appears, killed off and replaced the infected cells. And the HIV drugs protected the donor cells while they did it.
One patient is HIV-free two years later, and the other is seemingly uninfected three-and-a-half years later.
“They still have no detectable HIV DNA in their T-cells,” Kuritzkes said. In fact, doctors can’t find any trace of HIV in their bodies -- not in their blood plasma, not when they grow cells in the lab dishes, not by the most sensitive tests.
The hottest thing in London is the Olympic Flame. And what about the 8,000 torches that each sport 8,000 holes that 8,000 people carried 8,000 miles? What happens to those now that the cauldron has been lit? Olympic torches have always been highly collectible, but the 2012 torches are extremely coveted.In fact, a 2012 London torch reportedly sold for $240,000 in May. The values of these torches, Perlow says, will inevitably go down. “People get very taken up in the moment when the time of the Games arrives. Right now, they’ll spend what I call crazy money for Olympic souvenirs just because they need to have that instant gratification, that ‘I’m here, experiencing it now’ memento.”
Those collectors may want to check their math. After all, one of the torches made for the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games sold for nearly $400,000 last year at auction in Paris, currently the second most expensive Olympic item ever sold, but there were only 22 made versus 8,000 in London. The more common torches, like the 17,000 torches made for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games torch, go for a couple thousand dollars online.
“Most torches are in that price range,” Perlow says. “When you’re talking a 1956 Melbourne, that’s a $15,000-20,000 torch, because there were only 400 of them. The 1960 Squaw Valley is probably around $100,000. A 1988 Calgary is probably $20,000, because I think only 150-some-odd Calgary torches were made.”
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