What do you get when you combine dodgeball with Asteroids? Or maybe it would be more descriptive to compare this game with "bullet time" in the Matrix movies. Anyway, in Dodge This, you (the green ball) have to avoid being hit by red bullets. The bullets are traveling fairly slowly for bullets, but they are coming from all directions. Whoever is shooting at you is not particularly well-aimed, either. You could survive a half-minute or so by not moving at all. But once you are hit, the game is over. The scoring system can easily confuse people who aren't paying close attention, because when it says you are "top 94%," that's actually really bad. 

From what I've heard, this is much harder on a touch screen than for those of us with a mouse. My advice is to stay away from the edges, because you never know where gunfire will originate. Ultimately, your score depends on how long you survive. Therefore, your maximum score depends on when you are obliged to stop and do something important. -via Metafilter 

If you've been following Neatorama for any length of time, you are surely familiar with artist Theo Jansen's enormous Strandbeest wind-powered kinetic sculptures. Every time I see one, I always feel sorry for the way he has to chase them down when the wind is blowing and they are walking fast. Yeah, their legs are way longer than his! But now he's got that problem worked out. Not only can he keep his creations on a leash, but he doesn't even have to run to keep up with him. The solution is a chair Jansen calls the Caterpillar. It glides smoothly across the sand on rolling, uh, "wheels" that resemble tank treads. And it's powered by the much bigger Strandbeest that is pulling it along. 

Jansen says the Caterpillar device will eventually find itself incorporated into a Strandbeest. That sounds pretty neat, but I don't think it would be nearly as cool to watch as seeing his previous works of art walking down the beach on their many legs. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Dennis "Tink" Bell was a scientist who served in the British Antarctic Survey. The Guardian reports that in 1959, he fell into a crevasse on King George Island, which is just north of the Antarctic Peninsula, during a mission. His companions were unable to pull him out and he died.

In January, shifting ice exposed Bell's well-preserved body, which was found by Polish explorers. DNA testing compared those remains with surviving siblings and confirmed the identity of the body.

The Antarctic Monument, an organization that honors British explorers who died exploring the Antarctic, notes that Bell was noted for his great sense of humor. He's the man on the left in the photo engaging in playful tomfoolery to the amusement of his colleagues.

-via Glenn Reynolds

Katia Lekarski loves to attend weddings, but doesn't get invited to as many as she'd like. Figuring that there are other people like her, she created the app Invitin. This app allows people to invite strangers on the internet to attend their weddings in exchange for ticketing fees. The Guardian explains that couples can sell these tickets to defray the costs of their special events.

There is a screening process. Guests must abide by a dress code and event organizers can vet them by their profiles prior to approval. But it is otherwise a straightforward process to attending a wedding.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: outreachr on Wikimedia Commons

Do you need a bit more light in your workspace? This lamp and provide a simple and practical solution. The Swedish design firm Front, which consists of Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, created this lamp for the furnishings and furniture store Moooi.

It's part of a series of animal-themed lamps that the designers say you will "fall in love with at first sight, or hate forever." Well, I'm in love with the idea of a 7-foot tall horse lamp in my home.

-via Toxel

Redditor /u/Pavelcraftleather is a Romanian master leatherworker who produces unique leather products, notably masks, helmets, and bags from overstock material, and sells them at Atom Leather.

I'm especially taken with this beautifully formed purse that resembles a shrimp. The whirling lines and the forms they create are a delight to the eye.

The Hustle interviewed a few Chuckheads--adults who loved visiting Chuck E. Cheese restaurants as children and relish those experiences to this day. They collect memorabilia and artifacts from the company's history and document the history of this icon of their childhoods. One of them, Damon Breland, operates an appointment-only museum with many of the original animatronics for which Chuck E. Cheese used to be famous.

How does the private equity firm that owns Chuck E. Cheese feel about Chuckheads? It's an uneasy relationship. The Chuckheads want to maintain the traditional style and activities of the restaurants, whereas the owners want to modernize. But the company has agreed to maintain six Chuck E. Cheese restaurants according to the folkways that Chuckheads appreciate.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Damon Breland

I recently had to spend the night at the Dallas Love Field airport due to weather-related flight delays. This was not a pleasant experience, although I have seen worse airports at which to spend the night.

What was notable during that evening and morning was that several travelers were remarkably well prepared for the experience. They camped out on padded benches and had blankets, pillows, face masks, and noise-canceling earmuffs. Because these items were not standardized, I think they were unlikely to have been provided by the airport; these were personal possessions that had been thoughtfully packed for just such an event.

Perhaps these prudent travels were familiar with Sleeping in Airports, a website dedicated to providing information about this experience. The site provides tips and reviews for different airports, as well as provides suggestions about how to sleep effectively.

One such tip is to rent a car...and then just go to sleep in it without driving it anywhere.

-via Book of Joe | Photo: Flickr user Oakley Originals used under Creative Commons license

We do everything with our hands, some of it dangerous, so it's no surprise that the US sees around 45,000 finger or thumb amputations every year. It was a breakthrough when reattachment was developed, but that's not always possible. Alternatively, some of those fingers are replaced by amputating a patient's toe! Moreover, a study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery tells us that the long-term outcomes for replacing fingers with toes is better than reattaching the original finger. The survey compared outcomes of 75 patients with 126 toe transfers to 52 patients with 96 digit replantations five years later, and found the toe transfer patients had significantly better hand function. The loss of a toe or two did not significantly affect foot function.

You have to feel for the folks who lost two or more fingers. Then you might wonder why toe replacement works better on average. The study doesn't go into it, but it may be that a deliberate toe amputation done in the same surgical procedure is fresher and less damaged than a retrieved finger. Read more at Discover magazine, or here if you're out of free articles. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: sole_lover) 

Is there such a thing as having too many ducks? Tara Poole lives in Victoria, Australia, and has ducks and chickens. While she was raising her own set of domestic ducklings, someone from a wildlife group who knew Poole contacted her about taking in a clutch of abandoned ducklings. These were Australian wood ducks, a wild species that proved to be quite different from barnyard ducks. The ducklings apparently imprinted on Poole and her husband. They hung out with the domestic ducks and learned to swim. The wood ducks started flying all at the same time, and Poole expected them to fly the coop eventually. But the wood ducks decided farm life was good enough. Instead of heading into the wild, the now-grown ducks follow their humans around everywhere and cuddle with Tara. They even critique her fashion choices! It's a good thing she loves ducks, because she is stuck with them.   

Homemade ice cream used to be made by churning your ingredients while they are surrounded by ice an salt. It took forever and made your arms hurt. Modern ice cream makers use electricity, but you don't really need them if you know a few things about ice cream. The secret to good ice cream is that the ice crystals that form in it while it's freezing are too small to be detected in your mouth, leaving only delicious creaminess. Churning breaks up those crystals, but the right ingredients will keep them from growing in the first place. Swetha Sivakumar explains why sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream tend to inhibit the growth of large ice crystals, making them perfect for no-churn ice cream. Those two ingredients, with flavoring added, are all you need. However, the kind of flavoring you add makes a difference, since additives will vary in their own crystal-growing tendencies. Read how to make your own ice cream without all the churning at Serious Eats. You will still need a freezer.

(Image credit: Serious Eats/Qi Ai)

You've heard of concrete canoe competitions, designed to challenge the skills of engineering students. You can make concrete float, if the weight of the displaced water is greater than the weight of the boat and whatever is in it. Scale up those little concrete canoes, and you have a concrete ship. It sounds insane, but massive cargo ships made of concrete exist all over the world. They were built mainly during the steel shortages of the two world wars. Concrete may have been easier to get than steel, but these ships were slower and less maneuverable than steel ships, so they were relegated to other uses besides battle (in most cases; we will learn about a crucial exception). Still, concrete is more easily breached, and near impossible to repair before the boat sinks. You can't just bang out the dents. 

Phil Edwards introduces us to concrete ships by tracing the history of 24 ships built at the McCloskey shipyard in Tampa, Florida, in just over a year (1943-44). Oh, they are still around, even if they don't float anymore. It takes more than 80 years for a concrete ship to disintegrate! Find out more about concrete ships at The Crete Fleet. This video has a 95-second skippable ad at 2:00. -via Laughing Squid 

The family of two-year-old Unakite Thirteen Hotel did not select her name. Neither did any human. She was born in 2022 in a house in Nebraska and relinquished by her birth mother, who does not have a current relationship with the birth father. The infant was then taken to a hospital, where she was issued a certificate of live birth instead of a birth certificate, with the randomly computer-generated name of Unakite Thirteen Hotel. 

The normal procedure is to file a certificate of live birth with the state, which then issues a birth certificate. But that didn't happen in this case. The girl's father, Jason Kilburn, found out about her, and filed for custody. Meanwhile, without a birth certificate, she couldn't get a Social Security number, and therefore could not be registered at a daycare nor could she get health insurance. And she couldn't change her name, either. 

Her father named her Caroline Elizabeth Kilburn, and had to go to court to get her a birth certificate. When it was finally issued, Caroline's name was still Unakite Thirteen Hotel. But the state didn't follow through with getting her a Social Security number. Only after the story made national news this week was a Social Security number issued for Caroline  ...in the name Unakite Thirteen Hotel. Kilburn is relieved that the number proves his daughter exists, and will seek a legal name change. 

Unakite is a kind of granite, pictured above. The comments at Metafilter make it clear that unidentified hospital patients are often classified by random words to avoid confusing them with other patients, but that does not explain how so many people dropped the ball with Caroline. 

(Image credit: Tom Harpel) 

On August 10, 1945, after deciding that two atomic bombs was enough, the Japanese government, using rather obtuse language, indicated a willingness to surrender. On August 14, Japan formally expressed this sentiment to the United States through Swiss intermediaries. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito made his first public radio broadcast to inform his people of the surrender. The actual ceremony would take place on board the USS Missouri on September 2.

For the United States and the other Allied powers, August 15 is accepted as Victory over Japan Day. As the last major belligerent surrendered, it was the end of the war and thus a time of great celebration.

WPRI News notes that V-J Day is not a federal holiday. In fact, only the State of Rhode Island designates it as an official holiday--a decision made in 1948. Although Arkansas has celebrated V-J Day in the past, it dropped the holiday in 1975.

Rhode Island marks this great victory on the second Monday of August, which is today.

-via Kiel James Patrick | Photo: Victor Jorgensen/US Navy

When you hear of a celebrity who "dropped off the face of the earth," that usually means they stopped getting work, or fell out of favor, or maybe retired. This list means it literally, in that these people were rather well known and suddenly they disappeared even from their friends, family, and co-workers, never to be seen again. That doesn't mean the disappearance was a mystery, or is "unsolved." The sudden disappearance of Glenn Miller is pretty well established to be a plane crash at sea. The reason for the disappearance of a war correspondent can be assumed, even when no witnesses and no remains are found. But others are inconclusive- they may have been murdered, or they could still be alive somewhere, living under an assumed identity. 

You would expect a list like this to have Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart, and indeed they are here. But you'll also learn about many celebrities whose disappearances flew under your radar, or were famous in another country, or who vanished a long time ago. Read about 30 of them at Bored Panda.