James Ng was set to propose to his fiancée on a hot-air balloon ride when the symbol of their love fell 500 feet into the woods.

Ng, 26, pastor of New Mercies Community Church, had hidden the 1-carat diamond ring in a box in his camera case. As they floated along on Oct. 29, the case slipped from his hands.

"I just watched it tumble, and it hit a tree and spun around, and the stuff fluttered out of it," Ng recalls. "And I just put my head down on the side of the balloon, and I was just — I just couldn’t believe I’d just done that.

"My first thought was don’t tell her … and buy another ring — which it took me forever to afford the one I had," Ng says. But Sonya Bostic, 27, caught on. "When he reacted the way he did, that’s when I knew," she says. "Wait a second! My ring’s in there!"

But the story has a happy ending. Dick Russ and Rob Jennings of USA Today has the story: Link

YouTube link.

Similar in principle to the colored spirals, the shades of blue, and the famous checkershadow illusion, this video demonstrates that our brains judge colors by comparing an object or area to other objects or areas rather than assessing the color directly.

Found at Reddit, where there is a discussion thread re the illusion.

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade rolls through New York every year, but how much do you really know about the annual production? Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your memory ahead of the big event. I scored a miserable 20%! Surely you can do better. Link

If there is one thing on which many working mothers agree, it is that their partners do not pull their weight on the domestic front.

But research to be published this week reveals that men are being unfairly accused and working women are advancing the myth of the "useless man" so they can feel more feminine. "Working women who provide the majority of the household’s income to the family continue to articulate themselves as the ones who ’see’ household messes and needs as a way to retain claims to an element of a traditional feminine identity," said Dr Rebecca Meisenbach, whose research paper, The Female Breadwinner, will be published this week in the journal Sex Roles.

But Meisenbach said the trend of the female high achiever and the male slacker is a tall story that women tell each other to compensate for the fact that most career-orientated women feel an "overwhelming sense of guilt" over their role and less of a mother and a wife.

Link

Scientists have found that hearing specific sounds during deep sleep can improve memory and recall. [...]

Scientists asked a group of students to look at 50 objects, including a cat and a kettle, which were all paired to a specific location on a computer screen.

They then asked the volunteers to lie down and as they slept played them a series of sounds related to half of the objects, including a miaow [sic] and a kettle boiling.

Tested later the students were better able to correctly place an object whose sounds that had heard with their locations.

"The research strongly suggests that we don’t shut down our minds during deep sleep," said John Rudoy, from Northwestern University, in Chicago, who led the study. "Rather this is an important time for consolidating memories."

Link

However, after passing through various collections for several hundred years, a tooth, a thumb, and another finger “went missing” in 1905.  It was just recently that they were identified:

“His lost fingers and tooth were bought by an unnamed collector at a recent auction, where they were being sold as unidentified artifacts contained in an 17th century wooden case…”

So will these appendages now be reunited with the rest of his corpse in the tomb in Florence?  Well, not exactly.  It seems they will “be exhibited from early 2010, when [Florence's History of Science] museum will re-open after current renovation work and will change its name to the Galileo museum.”

Those who find this entire business a bit bizarre are invited to also read or listen to NPR’s report about “The Twisted Journey of Napoleon’s Privates.”

Link.  Photo credit.

Video Link

Relive the past 9.8 years in news stories condensed into seven minutes, peppered with snark and wit.  via AcidCow.

I don’t know how you can ride for more than a mile on a penny farthing {wiki}. No brakes, no gears, and no stopping, or you’ll fall off! These five lunatics have managed thousands of miles on them. For example, Thomas Stevens rode one of these early bicycles around the world!

The only supplies Stevens had when he set out from San Francisco were fresh socks, one clean shirt, a raincoat that did double duty as a tent, and a Smith and Wesson .38 revolver. Because paved roads and automobiles were so scarce at the time, Stevens restricted most of his journey to wagon trails, towpaths, limited public roads, and, on sometimes even railroad tracks. Naturally, the penny-farthing was not built for the same rugged terrain as a locomotive. Therefore, he was often forced to walk, carrying his bike, hopping the railroad tracks, hoping that he would never hear the sound of a locomotive bearing down on him from behind.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by delrond.

(image by Flickr user the|G|™)

Interred in a cemetery? Stored in a traditional urn? How old-fashioned! From being fired into space to crushed into diamonds, there’s few limits to what you can do with your cremated remains. If you’re going to go out, might as well go out in style.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by nuiloa.

Only male gardeners are participating, in part because of some dubious claims regarding gender-based differences in urine:  “There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but also male pee is preferable to women’s, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic.”

A secondary benefit is anticipated in terms of water conservation:

“An average flush of the lavatory can use anything from four and a half to nine litres of water each time, but what people may not realise is that this water is treated to the same standard as drinking water and shouldn’t be wasted.”  Urinating outdoors or in the shower is advocated by environmental activists, including Cameron Diaz, as a way of tacking climate change by saving water and energy.

They are tentatively encouraging the public to follow their lead: ““Adding a little pee just helps get it all going; it’s totally safe and a bit of fun too.”

Links for the Telegraph and the BBC (where there is an explanatory video).

“Snow globes are not permitted to be carried through security checkpoints,” said Transportation Security Administration spokesman Dwayne Baird.

The reason is that the globes contain liquids, and TSA rules say that only liquids, gels or aerosols in containers of three ounces or less are allowed through security in carry-on bags.

Even a small snow globe with less than three ounces of liquid may be confiscated because security personnel have no way of measuring it. You can pack a snow globe in your checked luggage, but be careful to pad it well, or you may end up with wet clothing by the time you reach your destination. Link -via Metafilter

(image by Flickr user revrev)

How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

Why are manhole covers round?

Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco.

You have eight balls all of the same size 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?

You can read more questions and the preferred answers at the link.

Link via Gizmodo | Image: US Department of State

“We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it,” Ms Alamaru, a member of the research team, says. “This is definitely unusual. As far as I know no other coral are reported to feed on jellyfish. However, some sea anemones, which are close relatives of corals, are documented feeding on other jelly species.”

Scientists have suspected that coral must eat microscopic baby jellyfishes, but this is the first time they were presented with evidence of the animal eating adult jellies.

Link Image by Omri Bronstein from the Tel Aviv University

It’s also the number that prompted FDR to alter his own travel plans on any day of the week that landed on the 13th.

"FDR would not depart on a (train) trip on the 13th," said Thomas Fernsler, a University of Delaware mathematician who has studied the number enough to earn the moniker "Dr. 13." He recounted a story that originated with FDR’s personal secretary, Grace Tully, who said the former president would order the train to leave the station before midnight on the 12th or after midnight on the morning of the 14th.

In a final act, FDR died in 1945 on April 12. Thursday, April 12.

"He avoided traveling to the beyond on the 13th," joked Bob Clark, head archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

More about Friday the 13th phobia in this article by Don Babwin of AP: Link

Instead of being unable to ‘put Humpty together again’, the new version claimed all the King’s horses and all the King’s men ‘made Humpty happy again’. [...]

The Something Special show, presented by Justin Fletcher, is aimed at children with learning difficulties but is popular with all children under the age of five.

The BBC insisted the nursery rhyme was not modified due to its target audience and said it had only been changed for ‘creative’ purposes.

Was it political correctness or a sensible attempt to make the nursery rhyme more cheerful for kids? Link

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.  Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.  The search for forms of extraterrestrial life, he says, does not contradict belief in God.

Just as there are multiple forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings in outer space created by God. And some aliens could even be free from original sin, he speculates.

Link.  The photo does not depict an alien free from original sin – just a random chestbusting alien.

YouTube link.

This video incorporates footage from 1935, in which Irish craftsmen build a coracle from willow and an ox hide, then use the craft to set their nets in the River Boyne.  One has to admire the skill and experience required to propel a keel-less craft in a reasonably straight line.  As the narrator notes, these river craft are related to the larger currachs that were capable of substantial ocean voyages.

Found at Scribal Terror.

In 1942, Japanese translators and codebreakers were regularly intercepting U.S. military communications and sabotaging U.S. plans in the Pacific.  Philip Johnston, a white man who was raised on the Navajo Reservation, convinced Major General Clayton Vogel, commanding general of the Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, that the Marines should recruit Navajos to transmit important military communications.

From the Naval Historical Center:

“In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all code words had to be memorized during training.

…The developers of the original code assigned Navajo words to represent about 450 frequently used military terms that did not exist in the Navajo language. Several examples: ‘besh- lo’ (iron fish) meant ’submarine,’ and ‘dah-he- tih-hi’ (hummingbird) meant ‘fighter plane’…

Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers’ primary job was to talk, transmitting information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios…Praise for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the war. At Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, declared, ‘Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.’”

For decades after the war, the contributions of the Navajo code talkers were not publicly acknowledged, because of the continued value of their language as a secure code. The code talkers were finally honored at the Pentagon in 1992, and the Navajo code talker exhibit is now a regular stop on the Pentagon tour.

Of the approximately 400 Navajos who trained as code talkers, only about 50 are still alive, most of them living in the Navajo Nation that includes part of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.  Today, for the first time, a group of 13 code talkers will take part in the Veterans Day parade in New York City.

AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca of Navajo code talker Keith Little, 85, at a book signing in Albuquerque, N.M.

When Hermés yacht brand executive Pierre-Alexis Dumas met Wally builder Luca Bassani Antivari they hatched a dream- to combine the terrestrial luxury of your own island with the aquatic bliss of yachting.  The fruit of their efforts is WHY (Wally Hermés Yachts), a 36,000 square foot, energy-saving, sustainable yacht unlike any seen before.

Antivari: This revolutionary concept of the moving island  is developed with latest and most advanced technologies, recycling thermal energy, as well as any organic and inorganic waste.  The architecture of the project fits perfectly in the environment- there are no excesses, nothing is superfluous, the impact on the sea is minimal.

Dumas: We hope to open a new path, to offer a new lifestyle that is different, serene, contemplative and respectful of the environment, moving slowly on the water, combining the pleasure of sailing and absolute comfort.

YouTube Link

The whole fascinating story, lots of pictures, stats and more video at Twisted Sifter.  WHY’s website.  (Photos by WHY HWSam)

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle:

A broken limb came flying in under the roll bar, spearing Jack through the belly with a piece of wood 20 feet long and six inches thick.

“I’ve always had a pretty high tolerance for pain. I had no pain, I had none,” Wier said.

Still, he knew the situation was desperate. That’s when Jack remembered the military mantra he relied on during his 38 years in the army.

“You define the problem…you identify alternatives… you accumulate relevant information… and then you make a decision. My problem was I got this tree in me,” explained the tree accident victim.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by jmillitzer.

The New York Times has an interactive graph that plots the jobless rate for different groups of Americans compared to the average for all those who are unemployed. Mouseover to find lines for different races, ages, and levels of education. In this screenshot, the label refers to the very faint red line above the dotted line which represents the average jobless rate. Link -via Metafilter

YouTube Link with HD

William Hoffman is a New York filmmaker who put this video together and uploaded it last August.  It’s finally getting some viral activity, and rightfully so.  It’s “a celebration of life that was inspired by David Eagleman’s book, Sum.”

I do enjoy a perfectly realized edit, and this one’s full of them.  William’s website.

“A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear,” wrote Herodotus.

Up until now, most historians thought this was mostly just a story, but the discovery of a massive collection of bones and silver and bronze jewelry in the desolate Sahara Desert has them reconsidering.

Link

At midnight East Germany’s Communist rulers gave permission for gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points.

They surged through cheering and shouting and were be met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side.

Ecstatic crowds immediately began to clamber on top of the Wall and hack large chunks out of the 28-mile (45-kilometre) barrier.

Link | Timeline of the Wall | Interactive Map of the Wall | PBS Documentary | Image: U.S. Department of State

34-year-old Teane Harris of Bensenville, Illinois had planned a big wedding, but it was called off when the groom backed out only a week before the big event. Harris and her mother were told it was too late to get their deposit back for the reception. What to do? Harris decided to use the facilities and all the wedding supplies to throw a party for the Asbury Court Retirement Community.

Just like that, the Halloween party planned for the 340 residents at Asbury Court turned into a lavish banquet, with a sumptuous meal, elegant flowers, sparkling masks right out of a masquerade ball, and a disc jockey who kept the mood lively.

“We knew we weren’t going to be getting our money back,” says Harris, during a phone interview from Hawaii, where she followed through with her honeymoon trip. “So after doing damage control and not wanting anything to go to waste, we looked for somebody who would benefit from it, and we saw the retirement center.”

Asbury officials still marvel over the turn of events, and of the selfless act by Harris. On Friday, they mounted a marquis sign thank you to Harris to show their appreciation.

“It was out of the blue; she knows no one here,” says Eric Haugan, resident services director. “And yet when she came to the party herself, she had all these grandmas wanting to give her a hug. She just broke down.”

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

An Amazon search brought me to Ivan Bunin’s Collected Stories.  The first story is called “The Scent of Apples,” and I learn on the first page that antonovka means autumn apple:

“I remember a fresh and quiet morning…The big garden, its dry and thinned out leaves turning golden in the early light.  I remember the avenue of maples, the delicate smell of the fallen leaves, and the scent of autumn apples — antonovkas –that mix of honey and fall freshness. The air’s so clear it seems there is no air at all…”

There is a long  history of miniature books in Russia, and you can read more about it here.

Via Nag On The Lake.

If one looks closely at the construction of this figure, it quickly becomes apparent that something is just, well…wrong with it. 

This initially-baffling video exhibits how the human visual system can subconsciously interpret and thoroughly "see" a three-dimensional object even though it is impossible for such an object to exist.  Thankfully, the creator reveals how it was constructed.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by flagler.

7.5 billion ash trees are endangered in the United States. (Photo credit Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune)

The culprit is the well-known emerald ash borer, an invasive Asian beetle that first arrived in Michigan seven years ago.  The infestation has spread to Ohio, Canada, and now Minnesota, threatening to do a log power more damage than the famous Dutch Elm Disease.  Federal and state authorities have responded to the emerald ash borer by limiting transportation of timber and wood products, but have been unable to quarantine the disease.

Now volunteers in are spreading out across Minnesota and several other states, collecting seeds which may be needed to restore the white, green, and black ash species if the current epidemic destroys the currently standing trees.  Some of the seeds will be stored in the National Plant Germplasm System, a depository maintained by the Agriculture Department and at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation.  Others will be retained by Native American tribal authorities.

A map showing states and Canadian provinces at risk, with links to sources of local assistance, is available at the Emerald Ash Borer website.

Further details on seed preservation are available in a story written by Bill McAuliffe for the Star Tribune.