Man Arrested Mid-Hairdo
There’s probably never a good time to get arrested, but you have to admit, this is kind of awkward: Marcus T. Bailey, 25, was in the middle of getting his hair done when he stepped out to deal drug … and got arrested!
The mug shot is priceless:
A 25-year-old Evansville man was arrested Wednesday when he stepped out of a South Side barbershop to conduct an apparent drug deal, police said.
Marcus T. Bailey, 25, was actually being sought on a parole warrant when authorities arrived at 952 Washington Avenue and found him in a car with two other people and about 21 grams of crack cocaine, said Evansville Police Department Spokesman Steve Green. Bailey was apparently having his hair braided inside when he stepped out, Green said.
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Waiter, There’s a Hawk in My Soup!
David William of And I Am Not Lying For Real blog was having a nice lunch when a hawk flew into where he was eating and landed on his food:
I was sitting at a window seat next to the open door, and my food had just been brought out. I looked down to see this guy (or gal - I don’t know hawks) just standing in the doorway, looking back and forth. After surveying the place for a few seconds, it flapped its way in and up onto one of the empty tables. [...]
The hawk just sat there for a little while, getting jerk BBQ sauce all over its talons and looking all emo, until it was spooked by the restaurant’s delivery guy walking in, whereupon it shot past all of us into the kitchen.
The counter guy, the delivery guy and I heard a few pots clanging as we debated calling animal control versus just trying to shoo it back out the door, when one of the cooks who was back there caught the hawk with his bare hands, and walked it back outside.“What restaurant was this?”
I am so glad that you asked.
The place is called, I kid you not… “BIRDIE’S”.
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The Compact Marble Machine
(YouTube link)
It’s not really necessary to watch the entire video to get the idea of what’s going on here. This marble machine was built in four hours. If I had one of these toys at home, I’d watch it constantly. But I have three cats, so it would probably be wrecked within a few minutes. -via Cynical-C
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Homemade Spider Catcher
I don’t know how effective this homemade spider catcher is, but it should be easy to make from a cassette case, a pipe, a string, and some glue. Beats walking into a web, the way I’ve been doing lately! Link -via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
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Temporary Ski Jumps
A half-century ago, building ski jumps out of scaffolding was pretty popular, especially at stadiums, where they would be used to draw a crowd. Deputy dog takes a look at several of these oh-so-scary contraptions. The ski jump pictured was used at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1954. Link
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7 Amazing Types Of Invisible Ink
Some types of invisible ink are right there in your kitchen cupboard!
Hundreds of liquids, from fruit juices to specially formulated chemicals, can be used as invisible ink. Here we explore six of the most interesting and accessible types. We hope you’ll be inspired to make your own invisible ink at home. With a bit of practice, you too can become a master of steganography (which is the art of writing hidden messages, in case you didn’t know that already!)
How much money does a professional steganographer make? Link -via Geek Like Me
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Bat Swinging
(YouTube link)
Since when is this possible? Long Beach Armada outfielder Josh Womack shows off a bit at training camp. Can I learn to do this, or would I just hurt myself? -via Reddit
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Interesting Facts About Beavers
After watching a movie about beavers a few weeks ago, I became highly interested by their strange behaviors. I came to research a bit about the critters and came along some info that may be interesting to all of you readers out there. Personally, I’d like to see a Meerkat Manor-like show based on beaver’s lives. Do you think it would work?
Water is music to beaver ears
Or at least, music they can’t stand. The sound of running water is a beaver’s main motivator in building a dam. A scientist once performed a study where they placed speakers beside a beaver dam that were continually playing the sound of running water. The beavers built up their dams by the speaker until it effectively was silenced. The noise drives them mad. Source
Those darn dams
We all know beavers love their dams. In fact, by building their dams and changing river flows, they are change the world more than any other creature besides man. They’re quite good architects and take water flow into consideration when building, using straight dams on trickling waters and curved dams in raging rapids. They use these dams as protection from predators and as shelter throughout the winter. If a predator destroys part of the dam, it will be fixed overnight.
Also just like men, they won’t stop building until the job is done -resulting in some massively huge dams being built along large rivers. The largest beaver dam was over 2,750 feet long. These dams are the only animal-created structures that can be seen from space. Source
It’s Ok To Eat Beavers on Friday
No, that’s not a naughty sex innuendo. The 17th century Catholic Church actually declared beavers to be a fish according to dietary restrictions, meaning they are ok to eat on both Fridays and throughout Lent. Beaver meat was a common dish by Native Americans and French settlers to America, so the decision was believed to be important to these people’s behaviors. The church decisions are based more on an animal’s environment than their physical characteristics. Source
European and American Beavers Don’t Mix
Because the animals have a different number of chromosomes, they do not cross breed with one another. Russian scientists once tried to breed the two together. In 27 attempted experiments, they only had one semi-success and the baby still came out as a stillborn. Source
They’re Our Only Hope and They’re Terrible Pests
Beavers have an interesting role in the environment. Their dams trap sediments in the water, turning rushing rivers into peaceful wetlands. When the dams break, the sediment stays and rich meadows are formed. Some scientists claim beavers can help prevent drought and that they are our only chance and maintaining our precious wetlands. Source
On the other hand, beavers are notoriously destructive. They cause $100 million in property damage yearly and their re-working of river currents can cause massive floods on our nation’s farms. They have been known to destroy whole forests and one beaver couple almost took out a world-famous cherry tree forest in Washington D.C.. Source
My, What Nice Sex Organs You Have
Beaver sex organs have been used for traditional medicines for centuries. Their testicles and vaginal follicles can actually help with a few conditions, but mostly because the sailicin from the willow trees they eat turns into an aspirin-like salicylic acid with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties. These same naughty beaver parts are still used in perfume production, you may have some beaver residue on you right now- particularly if you’re wearing any of these brands: Emeraude, Coty Chanel Cuir de Russie, Magie Noire, Lancôme Caractère, Hechter Madame, Carven, Givenchy III or Shalimar. Source
Canada Loves Them…But Almost Killed Them All
Beaver is the Canadian national animal and is depicted on the Canadian five cent piece and their first pictorial stamp issued in 1849. The beavers were highly loved in part due to their fur, which was widely sought after up until the mid-19th century. It was so widely adored that the animal was almost hunted to extinction in Canada. If the fur trade hadn’t stopped when it did, the Canadian national animal might be little more than a memory to its residents. Source
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VideoSift Clips of the Week
(Links open in a new browser window/tab)
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Most Awkward Chair Promo Ever
You know, this looks like a great chair - but do they have to focus so much on the benefits to the groin area? I don’t think I’ll be taking my underwear advice from them either. |
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Ice Circle - Extremely rare cold-weather phenomenon
A rare phenomenon usually only seen in extremely cold countries, scientists generally accept that Ice Circles are formed when surface ice gathers in the center of a body of water rather than the edges. |
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Quick-Peel An Egg
You might think you know how to peel an egg quickly, there are certainly a few techniques- but I’ve never seen one this fast. Save 4 years of your life. |
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Float plane takes off, almost hits guy filming, then crashes
De Havilland Beaver plane crash at Lake Hood in Anchorage AK, on June 7, 2009, apparently caused by a strong wind gust. None of the family of four and two dogs aboard were hurt. |
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EXTREME RICE!
Urrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!! |
For more of the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.
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The Incredible Century Old Color Photography of Prokudin-Gorsky
One hundred years ago this year, Russian photographer Sergey Produkin-Gorsky (pictured left) embarked on a project that was to define his life’s work - to photograph the vast country of Russia and its peoples in full color. Yes, that’s right color. Before the first commercial air freight flight, before the invention and testing of the tank and even before the sinking of the Titanic, Prokudin-Gorsky created an unrivalled and astonishing color record of his native country.
The process used involved a camera that would take a set of three photographs. These pictures would be monochrome but each picture would be taken using a filter of a different color. When all three monochrome pictures were projected (using light which had to be specifically colored) then the original color scene could be reconstructed.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
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Painfully Obvious Rules of Photography
Photography can be such a serious art, but taken too seriously it becomes formal and boring - at least for folks like Ivar Gravlejs. With 78 exhaustive tips he ranges from humorous to obvious, dead-pan to just plain stupid. Still, some of us would do well to remember the basics when taking pictures - or will at least get a laugh out of his twisted spin on conventional photo tips.
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Physical Typography: Brilliant Built & Found Fonts
In a way, typography has come full circle - what started as a physical process of setting type in machines has been rediscovered as a physical art by a number of creative photographers and designers. Some of these unusual real-life alphabetic collections were found and photographed in nature while others were acted out, constructed or assembled from bodies and objects but all ten sets of type yield compelling images.
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Civilization
I can’t say I begin to understand this video from Marco Brambilla, but the sheer scope and intricacy of it takes my breath away.
This interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy is precisely the experience video artist Marco Brambilla (director of Demolition Man) and Toronto-based studio Crush were striving for in Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard hotel in New York City.
The entire mural uses over 400 video sources, including samples from several films—something Brambilla is well-known for in his work. This particular project came with some special technical challenges, though.
Link to story. Link to video. -via Dark Roasted Blend
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Synchronized Fireflies
(YouTube link)
Mid-June in east Tennessee means fireflies that flash in unison!
In 1995, scientists confirmed the existence of the Great Smoky Mountain synchronized fireflies, and have subsequently discovered other populations in the Congaree Swamp in South Carolina and other high altitude locations in the Appalachian mountains. As this curious phenomenon remained undiscovered for years, it is quite possible that there are other varieties of fireflies blinking in unison throughout the United States, perhaps even in your own backyard.
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How to Get Into a Kangaroo’s Pouch
Wildlife photographer Jason Edwards seized an opportunity few ever get -to take pictures of a newborn kangaroo inside its mother’s pouch. Two years ago, Edwards encountered a wild kangaroo that was unusually friendly. The scientist who was with Edwards then recognized the animal as the orphan ‘roo she had hand-raised six years earlier! The kangaroo recognized the scientist, too.
After a few days of returning to the semi-desert national park in far northern New South Wales and talking to and sitting with the kangaroo, the researcher was able to get close enough to her former orphan to open her pouch.
In a matter of seconds, Mr Edwards managed to slip in a macro lens and capture this rare glimpse of life inside the marsupial’s pouch. The photo – of a newborn joey, known as a pinkie, suckling the mother’s teat – is being exhibited as part of the New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography Exhibition in Sydney.
“It was one of those frames you don’t get very often,” Mr Edwards told The Times.
The mother kangaroo was calm and not at all bothered by the photo shoot. Link -via Arbroath
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Sun Jar
I once thought that sun tea made in a jar was really something, but how cool is storing sunlight in a jar? The Sun Jar is a regular Mason jar with solar cells, rechargeable batteries, and LED lights. It also has a light sensor, so it turns on automatically when darkness falls. And get this: they are completely sealed, with no switches, so you can even leave them outside as garden lights. Available in yellow, blue, or pink. Link -via the Presurfer
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Borderlands
Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is my favorite kind -geography! You’ll be given a pair of US states. Do they share a border or not? I scored 100%, of course. Link
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What is it? Game 101
Yay! It’s time for this week’s collaboration with the always awesome What is it? blog. Can you guess what this um, rather violent-looking tool is used for? Hint: it has a very specific use - and it’s not for braining someone!
Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL or web links - let others play! No prize this week, so you’re playing for fame and glory.
For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!
Update 6/18/09 - The answer is: A trucker’s tire checker, tires are struck with this tool and from the sound and feel they can tell if the tires are properly inflated. Congrats to Bill Wixon who got it right first!
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50 Films to Watch When You’re Dead
Kottke lists 50 of his least favorite films of all times. In the “50 Films You Can Wait to See After You’re Dead” post you will find movies such as Gigli, Crossroads and Jaws 3-D.
Any film you would like to add - or maybe remove?
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The Best of School District Bureaucracy: No Summer Break For You!
Summer is nearly here and school’s out! Except for hundreds of poor students in Chino, California, who got an unwelcome surprise news that they have to sit for 34 more days of school because of a clerical error. If they didn’t, the school district would lose millions in funding.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the mindboggling bureaucracy and arcane rules that is the school system:
"We made an error on the minimum days of about five minutes," said Dickson Principal Sue Pederson. "Realistically, that’s our accounting mistake as adults. We’re unfortunately making the children pay for it by making them give up their summer."
Students at each school exceeded the state’s requirement of at least 54,000 minutes of annual classroom time, but the problem arose in the district’s minimum days. Schools typically have one shortened day per week, allowing teachers to use the remaining time for planning and parent conferences. Under state law, these days must be at least 180 minutes, and the daily average classroom time over 10 consecutive days must be 240 minutes.
An internal audit in early May discovered that 34 minimum days had been 175 minutes at Dickson and 170 at Rolling Ridge, said district spokeswoman Julie Gobin. That adds up to a shortage of 170 and 340 minutes, respectively, which could be made up in one or two school days. But under state law, these too-short days do not count at all, meaning that all 34 must be made up to avoid a state penalty of more than $7 million.
Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times has the report: Link
(Photo: Christine Cotter / LA Times)
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Derek Paravicini: The Musical Genius
Part I [YouTube Clip]
Born 3-and-a-half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini was so small that his doctor presumed that he was dead. Just as his mother had given up hope, she heard the faintest whimper. To keep him alive, he was put on oxygen but improper equipment left him blind and autistic. At the tender age of 2 years old, Derek discovered the piano, and his life was never the same.
Fast forward 30 years. Derek couldn’t tell his left from right and could barely count to ten but his brain is a perfectly programmed musical computer.
Press play or go to Link [YouTube, Part I] to see the amazing things Derek Paravicini, the musical genius, could do.
The rest of the clips: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Link: The Human iPod, article at Daily Mail by Harry Mount - via LiveScience
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Fascinating Savants in the World
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Nacho Hat
Here’s living proof that SomethingWonderful can come out of SomethingAwful Forums - behold the Nacho Hat!
Cota Froise of SA Forums has the step-by-step guide on how to make your very own Nacho Hat: Link - via bookofjoe
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Designer Band-Aid: Leather Luxury For Your Boo-Boos
Heck, people drink designer water at $55 a bottle (yes, I’m looking at you, Bling H2O), so why not sell designer band-aids to rich people that obviously get their papercuts from counting too much money?
Here’s an experimental leather band-aids by conceptual artist Scott Amron - now, you can fashionably dress your boo-boos for a mere $15: Link - via Refinery29 Pipeline
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The Earth’s Delicious Core
This apple is in the portfolio of artist Kevin Van Aelst, along with quite a few other neat visual works. The only problem I have is that he forgot Madagascar.
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8 Academic Holidays
Happy Bloomsday, everyone! For those of us who aren’t hardcore James Joyce fans, today is the day that honors the Irish author (we’ll get to that in a second). It’s not an official holiday, but that doesn’t make it any less serious to those who celebrate it. Here are the details behind Bloomsday and seven other academic holidays you can celebrate.
Bloomsday
Picture from JohnMariani.com.
Mole Day
Just about any kid who took chemistry in high school has participated in a Mole Day or two. To celebrate Avogadro’s constant, 6.02×10 to the 23rd power, chemistry teachers across the country make their students roll into school at 6:02 a.m. on October 23 for extra credit. At least, my chemistry teacher did. Avogadro’s constant, by the way, defines the number of particles in a mole, hence Mole Day. What you do to celebrate Mole Day really depends on the teacher - it can be anything from creating a poster for Mole Day to consuming a mole of water to creating cheesy mole jokes (Who was Avogadro’s favorite character on M*A*S*H*? Father Molecahy, of course).
Picture from MoleDay.org.
Towel Day
If you prefer Douglas Adams to James Joyce, you’re out of luck for this year - Towel Day, May 25, has already come and gone. Towel Day is a relative newcomer to the academic holiday scene; the first one was celebrated in 2001 just two weeks after Adams died. Why towels? The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, states that the towel is the single greatest thing an interstellar hitchhiker can bring with him:
You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
Why May 25? It really has no significance to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The reason seems to be that fans wanted to honor Adams shortly after his death the 25th was chosen because it was exactly two weeks later. The date stuck, but TowelDay.org points out this lovely coincidence - “As the universe that Douglas Adams created was full of absurdity and randomness, it may be a fitting choice after all. And if you need an additional reason: if you add the hexadecimal numbers 25 and 5, and convert the result to decimal, you get 42!” Forty two being the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, of course.
Photo from Beny Shlevich.
Pi Day
Picture from GJ.
Hobbit Day
Tolkien Reading Day
Yeah, Tolkien’s so important he gets two days. March 25 is known as Tolkien Reading Day, but it’s also the day of the fall of Sauron. The Tolkien Society encourages fans to get together and read out loud while enjoying a hot toasted bun and a warm drink “in hobbitish comfort.”
Picture from TolkienSociety.org.
Square Root Day
Although this is another mathematical day, it’s a bit more rare than the others: it only occurs when the month and day are the square roots of the last two digits of the year. We had one this year - 03/03/09 - but the next one won’t happen on the calendar until 04/04/16. In fact, there are only nine of them every century: 01/01/01, 02/02/04, 03/03/09, 04/04/16, 05/05/25, 06/06/36, 07/07/49, 08/08/64 and 09/09/81 (I know, you could have figured that out on your own. The first one was celebrated on September 9, 1981, created by a high school teacher named Ron Gordon. Nearly 28 years later, he still serves as the national publicist for Square Root Day and suggests that people commemorate the occasion by consuming radishes or other root vegetables cut into squares.
Monkey Day
Monkey Day, December 14, was created just nine years ago by art students at Michigan State. It celebrates exactly what it sounds like it celebrates: namely, simians. What is there to celebrate about monkeys, you might ask? Lots, according to the Monkey Day website. There’s medical research, animal rights, and that whole evolution thing. But mostly, it’s a day to dress up like a monkey, talk like a monkey, and maybe donate some money to your favorite monkey-related charity. And drink, I imagine. Whatever the reason behind El Dia de Mono, it has some pretty powerful fans: Peter Jackson chose the day to release King Kong in 2005.
Picture from MonkeyDay.com.
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‘National’ Sues ‘Naughty’ American University
Well, the headline pretty much sums this one up - disgruntled university is suing an adult content site for treading on their trademarks. Unfortunately for National American University, however, the similarities mostly end at the same-sounding names starting with the same letters. One of the more hilarious claims of the former of the two NAU’s is that students, faculty and others may begin confusing one for the other. When folks affiliated with a school begin to confuse their campus for a pornography production set, however, it might just mean something is missing from the curriculum.
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45 Famous Last Meals
Ryan Deal of Top Cultured has a list of last meals given to condemned criminals, both real and fictional. Here are a few:
Adolf Eichmann: He declined a special meal, preferring a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He drank about half of it.
John Wayne Gacy: A dozen deep-fried shrimps, a bucket of original recipe chicken from KFC, French fries, and a pound of strawberries.
Timothy McVeigh: Two pints of mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
Marv in Sin City: A “pretty decent” steak and a beer.
What do you plan on asking for?
Link [Link pointed to original source at Wikipedia - by Alex 6/17/09] - via Urlesque
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New Animals and Plant Species Discovered in Ecuador
Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum (glass frog) Photo: Luis Coloma
An expedition on the Nangaritza River of Ecuador, near the border with Peru, has uncovered nearly a dozen species new to science, including four amphibians, a lovely lizard, insects, and plants.
This one above is a species of glass frog, Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum, named after its translucent skin.
These discoveries are hoped to encourage the government to protect the area, which is close to a "peace park" created in the late 90s after decades of conflict. More photos and videos are available from Conservation International.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
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Seeing Stars Over Tattoo
An 18-year-old Belgian girl is suing a Romanian tattoo artist over the 56 stars on her face. Kimberley Vlaminck says she requested three small stars, but the tattoo artist didn’t understand her French and English.
Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the tattoo parlour called The Tattoo Box in Courtrai, denies her claim.
He said she knew ‘exactly what she wanted’.
He added: ‘She was awake and looked into the mirror several times as the procedure was taking place.
‘The trouble all started when she went home and her father and boyfriend threw a fit.
‘They are saying things now like I doped her or hypnotised her. What rubbish!
‘She asked for 56 stars and that’s what she got.’
Vlaminck says she fell asleep during the procedure. She is seeking £8,500 to pay for tattoo removal. Link -via J-Walk Blog
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Currency Collages
Artist Mark Wagner takes one dollar bills and cuts them with an Exacto knife, then reassembles them into works of art that sometimes have no resemblance at all to the original bill.
The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable… the foreign in the familiar.
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