The ultimate comfort food may become ultimately comfortable if designer Claire Manganiello has her way. This is her concept for a bedding design that looks like a pizza. It is, of course, just a concept now. There is not even a pattern or materials list available. But we could probably calculate how much dough, cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni would be necessary to make it a reality.
-via Technabob
It's a show about a large, extended family that struggles with occasional internal conflicts, along with treachery and murder. Yes, it's The Brady Bunch. Actor and geek celebrity Wil Wheaton brings us this mashup of two popular shows for his new program, The Wil Wheaton Project (warning: auto-sound).
Content warning: NSFW language.
-via The Mary Sue
When you mix Diet Coke and Mentos candies together, an explosion results. Physicist Tonya Coffee published a paper in the American Journal of Physics explaining why this happens. New Scientist summarizes Coffee's findings:
Instead, the vigour of the jets depends on various factors that affect the growth rate of carbon dioxide bubbles.
The rough, dimply surfaces of Mentos encourage bubble growth because they efficiently disrupt the polar attractions between water molecules, creating bubble growth sites. […]
"Water molecules like to be next to other water molecules, so basically anything that you drop into the soda that disrupts the network of water molecules can act as a growth site for bubbles," Coffey told New Scientist. "And if you have rough candy with a high ratio of surface area to volume, then there's more places for the bubbles to go."
Low surface tension also helps bubbles grow quickly. Measurements showed that the surface tension in water containing the sweetener aspartame is lower than in sugary water, explaining why Diet Coke creates more dramatic fountains than sugary Coke.
The phenomenon scales nicely. With enough Mentos and Diet Coke, you can build a rocket car. Or, like Harley Morenstein of Epic Meal Time, you can wear a full-body suit made of Mentos candy, sit over a dunk tank filled with Diet Coke, and go for a swim.
-via Geekologie
(Image: AEG Powertools Australia)
Mattias "Hellboy" Schlitte of Germany has a huge Popeye-like forearm. It's ripped with muscles that he has developed after several years of rigorous training. Schlittle uses that arm to win arm wrestling competitions around the world.
His left arm, in contrast, is not muscular. That's because Schlitte was born with a rare genetic disorder that increased the size of the bones in his right forearm. That forearm is a whopping 18 inches in circumference.
Schlitte's career began in 2004 when he was 17 years old. He describes the experience:
In 2004, a little bar in Haldensleben was looking for the strongest armwrestler in the region – my first tournament and the beginning of my career. Without any knowledge or practise I competed in the amateur-class up to 90kg – being only 16 years old with a weight of 65kg. At first, older and more experienced fighters smiled at me for being so light-weighted, but after winning the contest the opinions changed immediately.
Here's a funny commercial that Schlitte made for an Australian tool company.
-via Break
(Image: unknown)
Please check your page orientation before sending a job to the printer. Also verify that you have selected either the black and white or the color printer.
-via JCF Art
Three weeks ago, Molly Ortberg of The Toast amused us by retelling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as though it had been written by the philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand. She's working her way through all seven of J.K. Rowling's famous fantasy series in this manner. So far, she has also composed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Collectivism.
Ortberg took a break from that project to reveal the Objectivist wisdom in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here's a selection from Alice's confrontation with the Duchess:
“If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.”
“Which would not be an advantage,” said Alice, who felt very glad to get an opportunity of showing off a little of her knowledge. “Just think of what work it would make with the day and night! You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis–”
“Talking of axes,” said the Duchess, “chop off her head!”
“You have no right to do that,” Alice said calmly. “The removal of heads does not fall under the purview of government.”
The Duchess gasped.
“A society that robs an individual of her head,” Alice continued, “or in any way attempts to limit the freedom of her head, is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang rule. You cannot promote the aristocracy of non-value at the expense of individual liberty.”
The Duchess fell silent.
“I am going to build a railroad here,” Alice said. “There is nothing you can do to stop me.”
“By the way,” Alice said as she turned to leave, “The appropriate posture of a worthy woman to a worthy man is hero-worship, not in chopping off his head. She never loses the awareness of her own sexual identity and theirs. A properly feminine woman does not treat men as if she were their pal, sister, mother—or leader. There will never be a woman president.”
-via American Digest
(Image: HBO)
I posted this question on Twitter. Considering that I have only half a milliwheaton of followers, it's done well. So I've decided to open it up to the larger Neatorama community.
I no longer watch Game of Thrones. After viewing the episode "The Mountain and the Viper," I decided that the show is so dark that I don't want it in my head anymore. But I won't dispute that it's an excellent program and that Peter Dinklage, the actor who portrays Tyrion Lannister, is a master of his craft. This was particularly evident in that same episode during the scene in which Tyrion and Jaime discuss their relative Orson Lannister.
Dinklage has experience on the Shakespearean stage. He portrayed the titular character in Richard III. In what other roles by the Bard would he do well? I can see him as the volatile, wisecracking Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet or the scheming, vengeful Edmund in King Lear.
What do you think? What Shakespeare character would be best for Peter Dinklage?
(Photo: 500CBFan)
This pallet of delicious pork rectums was spotted outside of a dumpling shop in Taipei, Taiwan. Please note that it is a product of the great republic. Despite complaints to the contary, American workers can still produce goods sought across world.
It appears that pork rectums must be properly deboned and inverted before they become sellable. These can be made into dumplings. Here in the South, we deep fry pork intestines and call them chitlins. Alternatively, we may use them as sausage casings. To my knowledge, these practices do not include the actual rectum portion. Perhaps the people of Taiwan prize quality American pork rectums so highly that they price domestic producers out of the market.
How many pork rectums are present in this picture? How many would fit into a standard shipping container? W.M. Briggs, a statistician, learned that just one South Korean food company imports 2-3 shipping containers full of American pork rectums a month. He crunches the numbers:
The 20-foot container is a standard size; we have all seen these containers on the highway. They measure 20′ x 8′ x 8.5′ feet. The volume is 1,360 cubic feet.
We only need one more piece of information. The size of the average, deboned, inverted pig’s rectum is two feet long, and 2 inches wide. For the purposes of this calculation, we can assume that the rectum is a parallelepiped, which is to say, a rectangular box of size 2′ x 0.167′ x 0.167′ feet.
A standard rectum thus takes up 0.056 cubic feet. We’ll ignore packing considerations for now and imagine that we’re trying to stuff as many rectums as we can into a container. This calculation, which will represent an upper bound, is easy: we have 1,360 available cubic feet, and each rectums takes up 0.056 cubic feet.
That makes about 25,000 rectums per container. Using the universal principle “one pig, one rectum”, this makes it 25,000 pigs slaughtered per container. Of course, packaging adds bulk, so that the actual number of rectums that can be transported per container must be less. A figure of 20% to 30% increase per rectum seems reasonable. That is, each dry rectum, considering the plastic, dry ice, cardboard, etc., is like 1.2 to 1.3 packaged rectum.
This means that each takes up about 0.067 to 0.072 cubic feet per rectum. That gives us a low of about 18,500 to a high of around 20,000 rectums per container.
Now, those Koreans are importing 2 to 3 of those containers every month. Pick the middle figure. That makes 30 containers a year, just going to this one company. That gives a grand total of between 560,000 to 610,000 rectums per year sailing across the high seas on their way to Korea.
-via David Thompson
P.S. Shouldn't these actually be labeled as boneless pork recta? I cannot confirm it, but I think that rectum is a second declension noun.
Note: Don't forget to check out Twaggie's new (and very funny) video: Just Kid-ing
Hélio Surdos's friend Carlos is deaf, blind, and a huge soccer fan. As a result of his sensory limitations, he's been largely left out of the excitement of the World Cup in Brazil. One morning, Hélio woke up with a great desire to help Carlos follow a soccer match live. So he made a scale model of a soccer field and marked lines with what appears to be a plastic clay.
During a match between Brazil and Croatia, Hélio moved Carlos's hands over the board to match the movement of the ball. Regiane, an interpreter, verbally signed the gameplay into Carlos's back. As you can see, Carlos really got into the spirit of the event.
The lengthy video embedded above shows how Hélio and Regiane built the board and conducted the event. The gameplay begins at 4:07. Watch a thrilling goal at 9:50 and Regiane's clever use of a vuvuzela at 10:10.
-via Huffington Post
(Photo: Catherine Morgan)
Barra is a 23-square mile island off the western coast of Scotland. It has an airport with three marked runways. It conducts regularly scheduled flights. What makes those flights unique is that the schedule takes into account the tide. That's because during high tide, the sea submerges the runways.
(Photo: ㇹヮィㇳ)
According to this history of the Barra Airport, commercial air service to Barra began in 1936. A wide beach called Traigh Mhòr proved to be the ideal landing strip for the rocky island. A passenger terminal was built in 1978.
Here's a video of a plane landing on one of Barra Airport's beach runways.
-via Marilyn Terrell
15 years ago, electrical engineer Bruce Campbell purchased a Boeing 727 jetliner that was about to be scrapped. He hauled it to a wooded suburb near Portland, Oregon. Since that time, he's been gradually turning it into a home. Why? Because Campbell says that a jetliner is an ideal starting point for a house:
Jetliners are masterful works of aerospace science, and their superlative engineering grace is unmatched by any other structures people can live within. They're incredibly strong, durable, and long lived. And they easily withstand any earthquake or storm. Their interior is easy to keep immaculately clean because they are sealed pressure canisters, so dust and insects can't intrude from the outside. And they're quite secure - when all the doors are closed and locked, they're highly resistant to intruders. So the human hearts inside feel wonderfully safe and comfortable.
So far, the renovation project has cost Campbell about $218,000. He spends about 6 months a year working on it.
(Photos: Bruce Campbell)
-via Colossal
Every four years, the best soccer teams from around the world gather in one city to select a grand champion. This year, the World Cup will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There is good reason to think that England's national team may win. How will the English respond if they are are victorious?
Tom Phillips of BuzzFeed photoshopped images of how he thinks British media outlets will respond if England brings home the golden trophy. You can see all of these glimpses into the future here.
-via Twisted Sifter
(Photo: Mister Eaters)
If I know one thing about haute cuisine, it's that Spam goes well with everything. John Clarkson, the owner of Mister Eaters, a chip shop in Preston, Lancashire, UK, agrees. He loves Spam so much that he invented the Spam-filled donut.
To make this culinary marvel, he slices open an ordinary glazed donut, adds a layer of spam, then re-assembles the components and deep fries them. They're ready just four minutes later. The donuts are a big hit with Clarkson's customers:
He said: 'They have flown off the shelves and I am so pleased that people are waking up to how good it tastes.
'We are always experimenting and will always bring our ideas to life, we definitely aren’t your average fish and chip shop that’s for sure.
-via That's Nerdalicious!
The details are sketchy right now, but it appears that over the weekend, a hippopotamus in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, Mexico escaped from its cage and wandered around town. Why anyone had a hippo--a dangerous, aggressive animal that can swallow a human whole--is not clear. According to the British tabloid Metro, police arrested a man who claimed to own the hippo but lacked the documentation necessary to prove it.
-via Doug Mataconis
