Pygmy Tarsiers
Scientists thought the pygmy tarsier was extinct, since the last live sighting was over 80 years ago. Eight years ago, one was accidently trapped and killed in Indonesia. But recently, scientists have caught three live pygmy tarsiers and observed a fourth in the Lore Lindu National Park on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The pygmy tarsier, or Tarsius pumilus, weighs about 50 grams (1.7 ounces), and has dense fur, large, protruding eyes. In addition to seeming as a living, breathing version of the Furby, it also appears as though it ought to have had appeared in the 1984 movie “Gremlins.”
Unlike other primates, the pygmy tarsier — endemic to a specific area of Indonesia — has claws instead of nails on its fingers. It is half as big as the Philippines tarsier, which has similar features.
The trapped animals were fitted with radio tracking collars and released. Link -Thanks, Thembi!
(image credit: Texas A&M University)
See a larger species of tarsier up close here.
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G-speak
(Vimeo link)
Take a look at the G-speak spatial operating environment by Oblong.
Some of the SOE’s core ideas are already familiar from the film Minority Report, whose characters performed forensic analysis using massive, gesturally driven displays. The similarity is no coincidence: one of Oblong’s founders served as science advisor to Minority Report and based the design of those scenes directly on his earlier work at MIT.
It sure looks cool, but personally I don’t understand the advantages of this system over typing or using a mouse. Link -Thanks, carfeimao!
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Nanobamas
Professor John Hart of the University of Michigan created nanoscale likenesses of president-elect Barack Obama that are each smaller than a grain of sand! The “nanobamas” were made to raise awareness of nanotechnology.
Each one contains about 150 million carbon nanotubes stacked vertically like trees in a forest. A carbon nanotube is an extraordinarily strong hollow cylinder about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair.
“Developments like this are an excellent way to bring the concepts of nanotechnology to a broader audience,” said Hart, who made the portraits with his colleagues by working late on a Friday evening. “Also, we thought it would be fun.”
The 3D likenesses are made of carbon and are half a millimeter wide. Link -Thanks, Sid Morrison!
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Too Cute
This is absolutely adorable, it’s a great way to share your love with the world…or at least enjoy a good snowfall together.
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Happy Anniversary to Calvin and Hobbes!
Happy Anniversary to Calvin and Hobbes! It was November 18, 1985 (I know, I’m a day late), that the precocious little boy and his sage stuffed tiger/real tiger first hit comic pages across America. So, I thought I’d hit you guys with a little C&H trivia… I know, it’s not nearly enough to fill the void Bill Watterson has left us, but it’s a little something.
Bill Watterson
Ever since he retired from Calvin and Hobbes, Watterson has been painting and “studying music”. He’s notoriously private and apparently hasn’t changed his lifestyle much. Up until fairly recently, he still lived in his hometown of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Now he lives in Cleveland, not too far away. He doesn’t do pictures or autographs, not for anyone, although he used to sign copies of his books and slip them into a little family-owned bookstore in Chagrin Falls. He found out that people were eBaying them instead of tucking them away in their own private collections, though, and stopped that practice.
Calvin’s Older Brother?
Originally, Calvin and Hobbes were supposed to be minor characters in the strip Watterson was trying to syndicate. They were both the same as they are now – a little kid and his tiger – but were supposed to be only occasional characters. When he sent that strip to United Features, they suggested that he rework the whole thing to center around Calvin and Hobbes. So Watterson did. And United Features rejected the strip anyway. It was eventually snatched up by Universal Press Syndicate instead.
Licensing
You know those decals you see on trucks sometimes that have Calvin taking a whiz on the Chevy logo (or the Ford logo, or the BMW logo, or whatever)? So not legal. Actually, almost anything you see with Calvin and Hobbes on it is copyright infringement. Here is the complete list of things Bill Watterson has approved for mass production:
Watterson issued a cease-and-desist. Some of the makers complied and substituted a different (but similar) boy for Calvin, some replaced him with a female Calvin, and some just ignored him altogther. “I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo,” Watterson once said. Go here for a rather comprehensive site of all of the fake Calvin logos. It’s pretty impressive.
Namesakes
You can probably figure out where Calvin and Hobbes come from (I’ll go over that in a second) but lots of the other characters are inspired by real-life people too – or not-so-real-life people.
Calvin, of course, is named after John Calvin, the 16th century theologian who was a huge proponent of predestination. We don’t know Calvin’s last name. Watterson has said that people often assume that Calvin is based on his own childhood, but he disputes this fact and says that he was actually a very quiet, obedient kid.
Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes, who said that the natural state of humans was to be at war. Watterson has said that he feels Thomas Hobbes had a “dim view” of people. Hobbes’ feline characteristics were based on Watterson’s cat, Sprite.
Miss Wormwood got her name courtesy of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. In the C.S. Lewis tale, Wormwood is the nephew of an experienced demon and is being advised by his uncle on how to damn men to Hell.
Susie Derkins received her distinctive last name because “Derkins” was the nickname of Watterson’s wife’s family’s beagle.
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A Hard Case to Prove
Michael Minelli wants you to know he’s not a douchebag, or at least, he doesn’t think so. That’s why he’s suing the author and publisher of the book “Hot Chicks With Douchebags” for including him. The libel lawsuit should be interesting, as the lawyers will have to establish the relative “douchebaggery” of Minelli. I think the prosecution might have a hard time after seeing a picture of Minelli, who claims the book has caused him to receive “hatred, contempt, and humiliation” and has resulted in “friends, acquaintances, coworkers, employees, and strangers alike” calling him a “douchebag.” Here’s a quick excerpt of the page in question:
[Minelli's] popped-collar, spikey-haired presence was so far beyond regular douche, so far beyond uberdouche, he could spontaneously create a new element on the periodic tables–Douche Nine.
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Was This House in the Twilight Movie?
Now that Twilight is out and every teenage girls in the whole United States have seen the movie, would someone tell me if this house is indeed in the movie? The chances of me seeing this movie is pretty slim 
It’s my neighbor’s house who rented it out for a movie shoot (rumored to be Twilight): Link
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World Toilet Day
Today is World Toilet Day! The World Toilet Organization invites you to become informed and get involved to promote global water issues and sanitation. 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper toilets. The international charity WaterAid has ways you can help, and some fun stuff like potty games and printable posters. Link -Thanks, Actor 212!
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Picture Indians
PJM at Old Picture of the Day dropped out of the rat race and became a high school teacher.
I can remember my first day of class, I had one class made up of a particularly tough group of students. These students did not have a history of academic success, and struggled in a number of areas, and with a number of issues. On the first day, I threw out the text book, and told the students I was going to teach them to do something useful, and that they would accomplish something that they could be proud of, and that they would be recognized for.
What they did was create a website called Picture Indians. The students learned about web design and coding, copyright laws, and photo restoration. Take a look and maybe send an email to the students to let them know what you think of their project. Link to story. Link to website. -Thanks, Alannah!
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The Lego Lifestyle Home
Legomaniacs, you can do more than just build things from Legos! Display your passion in your home with furnishings made from Lego bricks, home products from the Lego company, and products that have that familiar (if not company-sanctioned) shape. See a roundup of these products at mental_floss. Shown is a sofa you could assemble from interlocking blocks sold by a French company. Warning; having all these items in your home at once may scare away members of the opposite sex. Link
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Monty Python Strikes Back
(YouTube link)
John Cleese, Eric Idle, and the rest of the Monty Python gang have decided to fight back against the unauthorized uploading of their material to YouTube. Link -via Metafilter
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Cool Spy Gadgets
Over the years, you’ve seen James Bond use amazing gadgets you wish you could have yourself. Walyou has a rundown of 15 such spy gadgets that exist in the real world! As someone said in the comments, even if you have absolutely no reason to spy on anyone, you’ll want to own these. My personal favorite is the Com-Bat, a small robotic plane that resembles …well, you see it here. Link -Thanks, Eran Abramson!
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Bike Hero
(YouTube link)
Bicycle + Guitar Hero = Bike Hero. This took some work! Kevin says he went through many takes before getting it right. The music is Prisoner of Society by The Living End. -Thanks, David Ross!
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Photos from LIFE
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
I don’t know about 1750, since photography began around 1826, but the LIFE archives are an amazing resource. Link -via YesButNoButYes
(image credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1936)
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1980s Toys by Artist Robert Burden
(Video Link)
Robert Burden is a San Francisco-based artist who composes paintings of toys from the 1980s, including depictions of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The video above is a time-elapsed video of his composition of an 11-foot high monumental painting of Voltron.
Link via Topless Robot
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Rebel Attack in Lego
Flickr user roguebantha_1138 built a huge Lego diorama that tells a story, set in the Star Wars universe!
Welcome to Mustaneer! (it’s not as distant as Mustafar) Basically it’s a Rebel attack on an Imperial base and mining installation. About a year in the making, on and off, it is 75 by 125cm and all built in 1:200 scale. I’ve taken LOADS of pictures (OK, I’ve taken too many) but I’ve tried to write something interesting with each, so if you have a bit of spare time join me on a journey to a galaxy far far away….
See lots more pictures in the Flickr set. Link -Thanks, xadrian!
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Beauty Mask Video
I have no idea who thought this was a good idea for a product and who in the marketing department thought this video would work to sell it. Oddly enough it makes me think of this as a Michael Myers tribute video. WTF?!
via -BoingBoing
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A Roomba Riding Cat
(Video Link)
You may think that this Roomba-riding cat is cute. I’m more concerned about the implications of cats learning how to use human technology. What, do you think that cats will be loyal to us when the revolution comes? As Jonah Goldberg has long warned, cats will turn on us without the slightest hesitation like Kent Brockman before our alien ant overlords.
Via Bits & Pieces
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Guidelines for Cats
Cats have rules for their lives, they just don’t want to tell you about them. James S. Huggins has compiled a list of these guidelines. For example:
The humans would have you believe that those lumps under the covers are their feet and hands. They are lying. They are actually Bed Mice, rumored to be the most delicious of all the mice in the world, though no cat has ever been able to catch one. Rumor also has it that only the most ferocious attack can stun them long enough for you to dive under the covers to get them. Maybe YOU can be the first to taste the Bed Mouse!
Link -via the Presurfer
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Pop Culture Propaganda Posters
Propaganda posters may or may not have served their purpose for the Soviet Union, but they sure have inspired artists in other parts of the world! The form has been co-opted and remixed with pop culture icons for laughs. See a collection of such derivations at Popped Culture. Link -Thanks, Jeremy Barker!
(image credit: BeJay)
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The Naked Gun, as Presented by Grand Theft Auto IV
(Video Link)
Here’s a remake of the opening scene of the classic comedy film The Naked Gun using Grand Theft Auto IV. RT: 1 minute, 16 seconds.
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…It’s a galaxy zoo out there!
For those of you (like me!) who look up into the night sky pondering hoping for the existence of alien civilizations in faraway galaxies here’s something to bring it all a little closer to home.
Galaxy Zoo.org is a volunteer scientific project that enlists the aid of volunteers who are asked to classify images of galaxies that were taken by a robotic telescope as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It’s quite likely that the galaxies captured have not been observed before by any human eyes! In reality the figure is probably closer to 20 other pairs of eyes as all images are seen several separate volunteers for accurate classification of each galaxy.
The reasoning behind use of human volunteers is according to Galaxy Zoo project member Kevin Schawinski largely thanks to: “The human brains (is) actually much better than a computer at these pattern-recognition tasks” (humans: 1; computers: 1000101).
There’s a tutorial showing how to classify galaxies according to shape (elliptical, spiral or irregular) and rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise).
If you’re lucky you might discover something completely novel like Hanny’s Voorwerp (which looks like a dancing alien in this APOD image) or something more disturbing.
Permalink at Galaxy Zoo.org
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Bullet Time 2.0 by Toshiba
Using 200 Toshiba Gigashot cameras this advertisement called “Timesculpture” for Toshiba advances the Bullet Time method we all remember from the movie The Matrix. However, this was created not by combining static images compiled together…no sir ree, Bob!!
This was filmed and produced using looped video clips digitally stitched together to work seamlessly to create a really cool looking ad. The ad itself is fun to watch but the real meat of this story comes from the clip that details how they made it. What floored me was the amount of data collected to produce this ad…20,000 gigabytes! And the time it took to process this plethora of data? Four weeks. Four weeks! @_@
And here is the making of the ad “Timesculpture”.
via - Gizmodo
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Books: Rare, Medium, Well Done
Rare, Medium and Well Done Books is an "awesomely unorganized bookstore" in Lincoln Park, Chicago. If I’m ever in the Windy City, this will definitely be a place to visit.
A fantastic photo by Doug Oldham [photo.net]
Photo: deeeeaaaan [Flickr]
It looks either like a fire death trap or a treasure trove of a bookstore with a great sense of humor …
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All Muppets, all the time!
OK, I should totally be working on my NaNoWriMo book right now… but then my husband managed to distract me with this Muppets site. The videos are fantastic - I’m especially partial to the Secret Elevator Tapes featuring Pepe the King Prawn. But I also really love Animal, Beaker and the Swedish Chef in an elevator.
Warning: Do not click if you have something you should be doing right now!
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Man Plays Carrinet
I have the feeling this is the future of our school music programs. Surely they can’t say they don’t have the money to fund arts and music when it’s all being made from veggies. The best part is, when you’re done you still have a healthy, yummy snack. That can also help the school lunch program as well, just mix the budget for both and everyone wins. Especially this guy, the ultimate veggie band teacher.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via BoingBoing
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Girl With a Perl Earring
With apologies to Johannes Vermeer. If you don’t get this, then count yourself lucky because you’re obviously not a nerdy geek That is all. Move along.
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