(YouTube link)
I never bought a wheelie bar, but this ad from 1966 brings back memories of doing stunts on my old spider bike, like standing on the seat... Then my mother instincts kicked in. Hey! These kids aren't just riding without helmets, they aren't even wearing shoes! And who encourages their kids to do wheelies, anyway? Things sure have changed in 45 years! -via Nag on the Lake
The Smithsonian National Zoo didn't think it was right to name a baby anteater without input from his mom, so they gave her a choice. They attached names to three flowerpots with different tasty treats underneath - mango (Fausto), grapefruit (Demetrio) and hard-boiled egg (Pablo). You can see where her heart... er, stomach, ended up leading her.
Link via FlossyMatt
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe.
In the back of the cave, Og groans in misery. Ogga is smug -she told him to leave that two-day-old meat alone. But it looked fine to Og, and as usual, he thought with his stomach instead of his head. Og swears to the gods of food that if only they will let him get through this, he will never touch meat again.
Food, by virtue of once being alive, has a tendency to do what all dead things do: decompose. Food decomposes when its molecules break down into simpler molecules and elements. To do this, it needs the assistance of several helpful organisms and chemicals within its own body.
INVASION OF THE MICROSCOPIC KILLER SPONGES!
Bacteria are little more than live microscopic sponges. The cellular wall of a bacterium (that's what they call one bacteria) is porous -just like a sponge. To eat, it simply soaks up whatever it happens to be lying in. (What a life!)
Salmonella bacteria
NATURAL FOOD
In its natural state, food is wet, warm, and out in the open. Take away any one of these conditions, and you take away a bacterium's ability to thrive. Therefore, in order to preserve our food we wrap it (to take away its air) and/or chill it (to slow down its rate of reproduction). Alternately, we can dry it (a bacterium can't eat what it can't soak up).
BACTERIA ARE OUR BUDDIES
All bacteria aren't deadly, of course -in fact, most are harmless. We have bacteria all through us, both inside and out. We couldn't live without them. The deadly bacteria are the ones that produce toxins as they eat and reproduce. Some familiar examples are salmonella, e. coli, anthrax, and the bacteria that cause botulism.
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In the back of the cave, Og groans in misery. Ogga is smug -she told him to leave that two-day-old meat alone. But it looked fine to Og, and as usual, he thought with his stomach instead of his head. Og swears to the gods of food that if only they will let him get through this, he will never touch meat again.
Food, by virtue of once being alive, has a tendency to do what all dead things do: decompose. Food decomposes when its molecules break down into simpler molecules and elements. To do this, it needs the assistance of several helpful organisms and chemicals within its own body.
INVASION OF THE MICROSCOPIC KILLER SPONGES!
Bacteria are little more than live microscopic sponges. The cellular wall of a bacterium (that's what they call one bacteria) is porous -just like a sponge. To eat, it simply soaks up whatever it happens to be lying in. (What a life!)
Salmonella bacteria
NATURAL FOOD
In its natural state, food is wet, warm, and out in the open. Take away any one of these conditions, and you take away a bacterium's ability to thrive. Therefore, in order to preserve our food we wrap it (to take away its air) and/or chill it (to slow down its rate of reproduction). Alternately, we can dry it (a bacterium can't eat what it can't soak up).
BACTERIA ARE OUR BUDDIES
All bacteria aren't deadly, of course -in fact, most are harmless. We have bacteria all through us, both inside and out. We couldn't live without them. The deadly bacteria are the ones that produce toxins as they eat and reproduce. Some familiar examples are salmonella, e. coli, anthrax, and the bacteria that cause botulism.
Doctor Who Projection Watch - $19.95
Attention Doctor Who fans! Behold the Doctor Who Projection Watch from the NeatoShop! This fabulous time piece has the ability to project the image of the 11th Doctor.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Doctor Who items.
Saudi Arabia's proposed Kingdom Tower will rise to 5,280 feet. That's a full mile. If completed, this building in Jeddah will cost $30 billion to build and will contain apartments, hotel rooms, and offices in its 12 million cubic feet of space. The above graphic compares the structure to the Petronis Tower (center) in Malaysia and the Empire State Building (left) in the US. Currently, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa, which is 2,700 feet tall.
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/04/09/040911-news-jeddah-skyscraper/ via Gizmodo | Image: The Daily
Flickr user George Kelly spotted this fellow at the recent SXSW conference in Austin promoting Creative Commons. In the spirit of that organization, he was glad to have his photo taken so as long as it was properly licensed.
Link via Walyou
Nicholas Maxim was born without hands or forearms, but the fifth grader can write -and well, too. Nicholas has won a special award in Zaner-Bloser's 20th annual National Handwriting Contest.
Other winners of the competition will be announced in May. Link -via Arbroath
"We submitted his entry because we felt his penmanship was amazing considering he completes most of his work without using his prostheses," said Cheryl Hasenfus, Readfield Elementary School principal.
At those times, Nicholas writes by holding a pen or pencil between his upper arms.
On behalf of Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of educational materials, Hasenfus presented a trophy to Nicholas during a school assembly for his excellent penmanship. The school is in Readfield, Maine.
Inspired by his ability, Zaner-Bloser decided to create a new award category in his honor: Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship
Other winners of the competition will be announced in May. Link -via Arbroath
(YouTube link)
"This guy is crazy!" ...crazy like a fox. This is apparently a vending machine at a petting zoo from which people can buy treats to feed the animals. But Billy here has figured out how to "tap" into it himself! -via Buzzfeed
Update: purple_phoenix, who works there, tells us this is not a billy goat, but a female sheep! That'll teach me to go by YouTube titles.
What looks like a Stretch Batmobile, goes really fast, and runs on electric motor? The Dutch Superbus, the brainchild of Wubbo Ockels, who created the car for public transportation (that or a really, really expensive ride to prom).
AOL's Translogic blog has the video clip: Link (Photo: Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
The next time you get an Indian talking from a call center on your customer service call, don't get too upset. Instead, have pity as your counterpart may soon be talking from jail!
For a man serving a life sentence for murder, Pradeep Deburma has a slightly unlikely dream: to work in a call centre like hundreds of thousands of other young ambitious Indians. Even more improbably, he has every chance of realising it while still behind bars.
Deburma, 24, is detained in a high-security prison near Hyderabad which is launching an innovative scheme to turn convicts into "outsourcing providers" for local firms and eventually, it is hoped, international clients.
The scheme is in its early stages, with prisoners being trained in basic data entry skills. Jail authorities hope that inmates will soon be just as likely to tap at a keyboard as dig vegetables, make carpets or stitch uniforms.
"We have got so many computer literates and professionals in our prison," said Gopinath Reddy, director general of prisons in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Talk about being chained to the desk! Jason Burke of The Guardian has more: Link (Photo: Jason Burke)
Love cats but have cat allergy? Well, hang in there - scientists are closing in on a cat allergy vaccine that will let you have your cat fix without the sniffles:
A mix of seven synthetic peptides makes up the vaccine. The idea, the researchers wrote, is that the immune system will encounter these peptide strands, which fit into the immune cells like a key to a lock, and recognize them as harmless. That action stops the sniffling, sneezing inflammatory response in its tracks, even when the peptides are attached to real cat proteins.
An early clinical trial on 88 patients resulted in no serious side effects, the researchers reported. A single injection reduced the skin's inflammatory reaction to cat allergens by 40 percent, the researchers wrote.
Remember our post from way back when about the cost of raising a child totaling about $250K? Well, economist Bryan Caplan decided to take a closer look as to exactly why (and how we can lower that cost). The Week summarizes:
So... we're spending too much on kids?
"In a nutshell," says Sierra Black at Strollerderby, "Caplan believes that parents are 'overcharging' themselves for their children." By committing to intense tactics like attachment parenting, which requires moms to carry newborns non-stop and respond to their every desire, they're unnecessarily robbing themselves of time. Parents also feel obligated to spend a fortune on lessons of every kind, and an endless stream of educational videos and toys.And all that expensive attention is really unnecessary?
Yes. Caplan says the bottom line is that nature — the kids' genes — mostly determines who they'll be; the power of nurture, he says, is minimal. Research on twins and adopted children shows that kids raised by highly educated parents with big vocabularies, for example, tend to know more words when they're tiny. But by the time they reach age 12, "the effect of enriched upbringing on vocabulary was barely visible," Caplan says in The New York Times.
Link (Photo: Caitlin Caplan)
Carolina Fontoura Alzaga's edgy chandeliers made from bicycle chains are inspired by victorian chandeliers but add a contemporary bike culture twist.
Link - Via Notcot
The recycled bicycle parts become a representation of the dismissed, invisible, and powerless, but also an affirmation of self-propelled movement. The bicycle chandelier thereby creates a new third meaning of reclaimed agency.
Link - Via Notcot
Love coffee? No, I mean, do you love coffee? If you're a coffee addict, then take heart - it's not your fault: A new research shows that how much you crave caffeine largely depends on your genes.
New research suggests that individuals who carry a so-called "high-consumption" variation of either gene appear to drink more coffee, relative to those who carry a "low-consumption" variant.
"It's really an incredible story," said study co-author Dr. Neil Caporaso, branch chief of genetic epidemiology at the National Cancer Institute. "People don't really suspect it, but genetics plays a big role in a lot of behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. And now it turns out that it has a part in how much caffeine we drink."
