Have you ever wondered about the effects of a nuclear bomb going off in your city? Of course you have, unless you were born after the end of the Cold War. And even if you were, you may have thought about it at one time or another. A new simulator from the Outrider Foundation lets you pull up a map by city name or ZIP code, select a bomb, and it shows you how far the fireball, radiation, shock wave, and heat would reach, and how many people would be killed. There are four bombs: the 15-kiloton Little Boy from World War II, the 150-kiloton North Korean Hwasong-14, the 300-kiloton W-87 from the US military, and the 50,000-kiloton Tsar Bomba. You can even specify whether the bomb detonates on the surface or in the air. Dropping Little Boy over my town would kill everyone in the city limits. The image above shows the effects of Tsar Bomba on New York City. -via Digg
Jeff Goldblum is one of the least afraid actors in Hollywood, and his effortlessly cool demeanor makes me think he must be a descendant of Fonzi and therefore quite magical to hang out with.
But since I'll probably never get to meet the guy, much less hang out with him, I'll have to get to know him by watching this fun Autocomplete Interview video by WIRED instead.
That way I can find out fun facts about Jeff, like the fact that he has two sons and does not in fact have a stutter, and the video also answers one of the most important questions of all time- does Jeff Goldblum song? Why yes, he does song!
-Via WIRED
People have been lifting ideas from Mother Nature for decades. Velcro was inspired by the hooked barbs of thistle, and the first highway reflectors were made to mimic cat eyes. But today, the science of copying nature, a field known as biomimetics, is a billion-dollar industry. Here are some of our favorite technologies that came in from the wild.
1. Sharkskin—The Latest Craze in Catheters
Hospitals are constantly worried about germs. No matter how often doctors and nurses wash their hands, they inadvertently spread bacteria and viruses from one patient to the next. In fact, as many as 100,000 Americans die each year from infections they pick up in hospitals. Sharks, however, have managed to stay squeaky clean for more than 100 million years. And now, thanks to them, infections may go the way of the dinosaur.
Unlike other large marine creatures, sharks don't collect slime, algae, or barnacles on their bodies. That phenomenon intrigued engineer Tony Brennan, who was trying to design a better barnacle-preventative coating for Navy ships when he learned about it in 2003. Investigating the skin further, he discovered that a shark's entire body is covered in miniature, bumpy scales, like a carpet of tiny teeth. Algae and barnacles can't grasp hold, and for that matter, neither can troublesome bacteria such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
Brennan's research inspired a company called Sharklet, which began exploring how to use the sharkskin concept to make a coating that repels germs. Today, the firm produces a sharkskin-inspired plastic wrap that's currently being tested on hospital surfaces that get touched the most (light switches, monitors, handles). So far, it seems to be successfully fending off germs. The company already has even bigger plans; Sharklet's next project is to create a plastic wrap that covers another common source of infections—the catheter.
2. Holy Bat Cane!
Glacier National Park in Montana has several webcams set up in important places. One is focused on a cottonwood tree that black bears use as a den, so that we can see them as they slowly emerge from winter hibernation. One webcam is focused on a large hole that bears occasionally stick their heads out of. Another webcam is further back, so you can see how far up the tree that hole is. The images refresh every minute or so. If you don't see a bear when you check it, the park's Twitter feed will have sightings.
Yawn! Do you ever struggle to get out of bed? This black bear has been sluggishly poking its head since March 23rd. You can watch it emerge from hibernation live on our new temporary webcam here: https://t.co/vrfiP1oa4v pic.twitter.com/40LnBfT6dC
— GlacierNationalPark (@GlacierNPS) March 29, 2018
-via Metafilter
Victorian era etiquette was rigorous, and the rules and rituals one had to follow after a death in the family were particularly strict, even though they were only enforced by social pressure. A widow was expected to grieve for two and a half years, with her activities, dress, and demeanor proscribed in every detail. That included wearing black crape, a stiff, heavily-dyed type of silk, with a veil to hide her tears. These requirements made some fabric and clothing manufacturers rich, but they weren't so great for the widows who had to wear the veils. They were hot, heavy, scratchy, restricted one's vision, and were full of toxic chemicals.
By the 1880s, medical journals had begun a discussion about the health effects of heavy crape veils. The New York Medical Journal decried “the irritation to the respiratory tract caused by minute particles of poisonous crape,” while a syndicated column from the North-Western Lancet declared the mourning veil “a veritable instrument of torture” in hot weather, staining the face and filling the lungs with toxic particles. Doctors speaking of poisonous fabric were not being hyperbolic: Many of the substances used to color and treat crape were seriously toxic, and as the 19th century progressed, the dyes in use only became more dangerous.
Read about Victorian mourning veils and the dangers they posed at Racked. -via Digg
The Simpsons isn't a musical show per se, since not every episode features a musical number, but over the last three decades the show's creators have treated us to some great original songs that really get stuck in your head.
Songs like "Baby on Board", "Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?" and "See My Vest" stick with you seemingly for the rest of your life, lying dormant in your brain until you hear a few verses sung or read about them on a list such as this.
And let's face it- as far as earworms go I'd rather have "Baby on Board" bouncing around inside my head than some cheesy modern pop song created using the same algorithms that gave the Bieber-bot sentience.
When you go for a job interview, you start out with the attitude that you need to impress the people at that company. Are you good enough to get this job? But then you realize that you are also finding out about the business and the people you'll be working with, and if you go to enough interviews, you'll run into at least one that's completely bonkers.
The good news is that, even if you are offered the job, you can always say no. Check out a list of reader-submitted horror stories about job interviews from their past at Cracked.
The Marshalls have an ordinary last name but they are far from an ordinary family, but it's not their big bug eyes, unusual fashion sense or lack of conversation that makes them strange- it's the dark secret they have locked away in the basement.
The Marshalls is a stop motion animation short created by Adeena Grubb, with music by Daniel Beja, and what it lacks in depth of story it makes up for with some super creepy vibes!
The Fermi Paradox asks the question of why we haven't found extraterrestrial life, considering the billions of planets in the universe. There are plenty of possible reasons, but the idea is that the rest of the intelligent species of the galaxy just don't want to be around us is as good as any. Or maybe they just haven't gotten around to exterminating us yet. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
My dog doesn't care much for TV unless there are noisy birds on the screen, but other dogs I've had would sit on the couch with me and watch TV like little humans, paying closer attention to the shows on the screen than I did.
Their canine channel surfing always made me wonder how much they were actually seeing of what was happening on the screen- were they actually watching shows or just following sound and movement?
Hank Green answered this age old question on this episode of SciShow, explaining how a dog's TV watching habits may vary by breed and discussing how a dog's eyes, which are more attuned to flickering yet see less colors, see TV differently than you and me.
-Via Laughing Squid
Otto figured out the secret to inner happiness long ago, but he's not sharing that secret with anyone because he's not actually aware that he's figured out the secret to inner happiness. In fact, Otto doesn't really know what he knows because he's too busy living in the now, which is probably a good thing for the kids from Springfield Elementary because if his mind starts to wander his bus might start wandering all over the road too!
Add some animated chill to your geeky wardrobe with this Ottomatic Zen t-shirt by Ilcalvelage, it's a high-larious way to show some love for your favorite bus driving buffoon!
Visit Ilcalvelage's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more toon-errific designs:
| Alive | Hoors Light | The Ruckus | Grey Castle |
View more designs by Ilcalvelage | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
The Name of the Year Tournament is a little late getting launched, so it can't called itself March Madness, but the excitement is there as it is every year. The full-size, readable 2018 bracket is here. The number one seeds are Salami Blessing, La Royce Lobster-Gaines, Dr. Narwhals Mating, and Makenlove Petit-Fard. Can those names of real people fend of the likes of Forbes Thor Kiddoo, Darthvader Williamson, Fabulous Flournoy, or Beau Titsworth? Voting will begin soon at the tournament's blog. -via Metafilter
Imagine waking up with no recollection of who you are, where you are or how you got to be where you are in life...*shivers* that sounds like an absolute nightmare, especially considering you might have to live your life all over again...
On the other hand, waking up to discover you're a lamp wouldn't be so bad, unless the people who own you have a cat in the house...*shivers* (Comic via Channelate)
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
For some reason, we had to learn the difference between Roman columns in elementdary school. It may have been so that the school could check off "architecture" in our curriculum, but the lesson was disconnected to anything else in world history, so it didn't mean much. The real reason that columns were so important is that they held the building up, which would be important if we ever bothered to learn more about architecture. But now that we're older and know more, we get the fascinating tale of why Corinthian columns were made in the same pattern for thousands of years, from the Greeks and Romans all the way up to today.
The legend is a good tale, but the history we know for real is quite interesting, too. -via Laughing Squid
The newest Steven Spielberg movie, Ready Player One, opens nationwide today. In honor of the occasion, we can indulge in some a Spielberg's greatest past work. A set piece is "a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires serious logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money." They can often stand alone without the rest of the film, but they cannot be taken out of a film without damaging the whole. For example:
7. Melting Nazis, Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
More than a decade before Spielberg The Grownup Filmmaker plunged audiences into the full horror of the Holocaust, Spielberg The Ageless Adolescent tackled history’s darkest chapter from a more boyish, innocently rousing vantage. Raiders Of The Lost Ark is all about sticking it to Hitler—a kind of fantasy score-settling that culminates in the film’s karmic, cathartic Grand Guignol climax. Tied to a nearby post, Ford’s Dr. Jones and Marion Crane (Karen Allen) avert their eyes as the Nazi bad guys pry open the titular artifact and get some supernatural comeuppance. The ethereal effects look primitive by today’s standards, but there’s a timeless (and, sadly, rather timely) thrill to watching these Third Reich scoundrels go from solid to liquid for their sins. It was neither the first nor the last time Spielberg would push the limits of the PG rating; everyone tends to attribute the introduction of PG-13 to the heart-ripping violence in his second Indiana Jones movie. But with Raiders, Spielberg traumatized all ages for a greater good. Remember, the next best thing to clocking a real Nazi is melting off the face of a fake one.
The AV Club looks at 25 such set pieces, arranged in chronological order, maybe because it would be too hard to rank them. Oh yeah, the videos are there, too. Scrolling through them is like watching all your favorite movies again.
(Image credit: Jimmy Hasse)
