Mezerg is a French musician and instrument designer who builds unique instruments, including a watermelon, a theremin ring, and an electric drill.
His latest creation is the Piano Cocktail. Selected keys open the stops on liquor bottles, allowing the musician to play a cocktail into existence. You can also mix a specific recipe. It just might sound weird.
-via Born in Space
Because students always have to write a lot of papers, oftentimes they forget to double-check whether what they have written is good enough to be submitted. What happens next, you ask? Regret, that's what.
Not only do students misspell a word here and there, but they leave in entire phrases they typed to themselves in a moment of despair or they forget that the name of the text file is so dirty, it sounds like something Eric Cartman would say.
Bored Panda compiles 32 of these moments. See them all over at the site.
(Image Credit: lindsey_bell18/ Bored Panda)
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in Friskney, UK, often takes in parrots that need a home, and they now have around 1500 of them. Recently, they acquired five new African grey parrots from various homes. Park CEO Steve Nichols explains what happened.
“Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny. We always find it very comical when they do swear at you.
“But, just by coincidence, we took in five in the same week and because they were all quarantined together it meant that one room was just full of swearing birds.
“The more they swear the more you usually laugh which then triggers them to swear again.
“But when you get four or five together that have learnt the swearing and naturally learnt the laughing so when one swears, one laughs and before you know it just got to be like an old working men’s’ club scenario where they are all just swearing and laughing.”
Eventually the birds were put out for display, and they showed off their language skills by abusing visitors. Concerned that children were coming for the weekend, the staff decided to remove the parrots from public view. The parrots were separated from each other and lodged with other parrots in the hopes that they will learn new vocalizations. Or will they teach the other parrots to swear? Read more about the foul language fowls at Lincolnshire Live.
Are you clothed above the waist right now? If so, why? Unless you're a klutz with your webcam, you have nothing to worry about. Right now, I'm wearing pajama shorts with a dress shirt because no one in my upcoming Zoom meeting will see my lower body.
Fashion brands are catching up with this trend. The BBC reports:
A "waist-up" focus has been noticed at both Milan and London Fashion Weeks, with detailed necklines and relaxed trousers. [...]
"Fashion is about reacting to reality," said Miuccia Prada, head designer of Prada, at its virtual Milan fashion show. "During lockdown, I realised how important technology is and how it is impactful for us, and in some ways, an extension of ourselves."
"The tunic tops and roll necks, with the brand's famous triangle logo blown up and placed directly below the neckline, will certainly catch the eye of your fellow Zoomers," Jane McFarland, fashion director at The Sunday Times, said of the collection.
-via Dave Barry
We should always charge devices from time to time, in order to prolong their life. But what should be the interval? For the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Support says that it’s half a year.
Via tweet, Nintendo Support wrote that if left uncharged for a long period of time, the game console’s internal battery won’t be able to charge and thus will become unable to use. They add, “Please charge it once every six months.”
Nintendo sure does love its customers.
What do you think?
(Image Credit: Evan-Amos/ Wikimedia Commons)
Tired of drinking boring milk and generic milk candies? If your answer to this question is yes, then you might look forward to this type of food which may be available in the near future: 3D-printed milk food products.
A team at Singapore University of Technology and Design overcame these limitations and figured out how to print milk products at room temperature using a method called cold extrusion. Their magic ink: powdered milk. The stuff you keep in your pantry just in case. The best milk ink, they found, is 70 grams of powdered milk per 100 grams of water.
This discovery could lead to entirely new food concepts. “Given the versatility of the demonstrated method, we envision nutritious and visually appealing foods, with various needs for nutrition and material properties,” the researchers wrote.
Yum!
(Image Credit: SUTD/ Fast Company)
A paper claiming that there is a black hole on the center of the Earth, and that this black hole is influencing the shape of our DNA, has scientists baffled. What’s amazing is that they only noticed this paper now, when it was published last year.
It's either a brilliant satire on conspiracy theories, or the worst thing to be published in physics, genetics, and chemistry for a long time, possibly ever. Either way, we want to know how it got past peer review.
Last year the Macedonian Journal of Medical Science published a paper under the astonishing title “A Black Hole at the Center of Earth Plays the Role of the Biggest System of Telecommunication for Connecting DNAs, Dark DNAs and Molecules of Water on 4+N- Dimensional Manifold”. If you think the headline is out there, look at the diagrams.
[...]
One theory is that this “paper” is actually random phrases put together as an attempt to test the peer-review standards of journals that might be getting sloppy, something scientists do now and then. Evidence for this comes from the fact that the last author, Torello Lotti, has previously published about the problem of predatory journals.
More details about this crazy study over at IFL Science.
What are your thoughts about this one?
(Image Credit: @_Astro_Nerd_/ Twitter)
Of the many things that we should consider as we plan on colonizing other planets and our own Moon, our basic needs — namely, food, water, shelter, and clothing — should be the first thing that we think about. Since the environments on the other planets vary from the environment that we have on Earth, how we meet these needs will surely be different from how we normally do it. This is why,...
For quite a while now, scientists have been developing technologies that explore both the moon and mars. From 3D-printed mars habitats to lunar toilets, news regarding space travel advancements have flooded our streams, having specialist[s] trying to figure out if our species would be able to live and survive in another planet or on our own satellite.
One of the basic needs that we have to meet is shelter. Or rather, the materials that we need to build one.
Concrete is not an option as it requires large amounts of water not found on these places.
Fortunately, there could be an alternative to that material, according to this study published by Javier Fernandez, a scientist at Singapore University of Technology and Design. In this study, he states that “a simple manufacturing technology based on chitin, one of the most ubiquitous organic polymers on earth, could be used to build tools and shelters on Mars.”
Learn more about this over at DesignBoom.
What are your thoughts about this one?
(Image Credit: Zituba/ Wikimedia Commons)
On September 3, 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming returned to work after spending a vacation in Suffolk with his family. Upon returning to the laboratory, he checked on the culture plates he left there before he went on vacation. (He had inoculated staphylococci on these plates). As he inspected the plates, he noticed that one culture was contaminated with a fungus, and, for some reason, the colonies of staphylococci that surrounded the fungus had been destroyed. “That’s funny,” he remarked. He identified the mold as a genus of Penicillium. Little did he know that his discovery would be a big one.
Later, Fleming said: “When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I suppose that was exactly what I did.”
(Image Credit: Dorothy Hodgkin/ Science Museum London/ Science And Society Picture Library/ Wikimedia Commons)
People who sleep less than six hours are two times more likely to have cognitive impairment in the future. This is what researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine found in their study, which is published in the journal Sleep.
Fernandez-Mendoza and colleagues found that adults who reported insomnia symptoms or chronic insomnia and slept less than six hours in the lab were two times more likely to have cognitive impairment when compared to good sleepers.
They also found that this association was particularly strong for adults with coexisting cardiometabolic conditions and cognitive impairment, which may be an indicator of vascular cognitive impairment—a condition where poor cardiovascular health results in impaired brain function.
This type of study seems to suggest that the brain depends on sleep. “Understanding the connection between sleep deficiency and early cognitive decline could lead to improved treatments for insomnia,” said Michael Twery, the director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and one of the study’s funders.
Learn more about the study over at Neuroscience News.
How much sleep do you get?
(Image Credit: DanFa/ Pixabay)
One does not just capture a sailboat crossing in front of a sunrise. It takes luck and timing. And that’s just what Juan Antonio Sendra had two weeks ago when he was at the Mediterranean Sea.
Additionally, by a lucky coincidence, the background Sun itself appears unusual -- it looks like the Greek letter Omega (Ω). In reality, the Sun remained its circular self -- the Omega illusion was created by sunlight refracting through warm air just above the water.
Thank Helios.
(Image Credit: Juan Antonio Sendra)
From a man boxing with a fly, to two airport baggage handlers clashing against each other, to a jerk pissing on the elevator buttons (and then paying the consequences), Ozzy Man Reviews delivers to us a compilation of the good, the bad, and the ugly stuff documented on CCTV.
Which one is your favorite?
(Image Credit: Ozzy Man Reviews/ YouTube)
This is Roll Bottom, a desk design by Ian Stell. The metal secretary desk cover slides down and forms the seat. I'm not sure if it's practical, but it's pretty. You could give it to a coworker that you dislike.
-via Swiss Miss
At Neatorama, a lot of interesting books cross our desks. We like to think publishers send specific books to us to review because they think those books are neat. Clearly they know that we know a thing or two about neato things. At least, we at Neatorama, like to think we know a thing or two about neato things.
Recently we were sent a copy of Cursed Object by J.W. Ocker. J.W. Ocker is an award winning travel writer, novelist, and blogger. While we don’t know J.W. personally, we hope that he is also a nice guy. What we can, however, confirm is that he wrote a rather captivating book about cursed objects. You know what I am talking about. I am referring to those things that people think are inherently evil or that were made evil by a hex or a spell.
The Cursed Objects book is broken into 7 bite-sized, and fun to read, sections. The sections are essentially based on where those cursed objects are found. For example, in section III you will find cursed objects that were found in attics. These are the seemingly great garage sale finds that later turn out to be evil. Later sections of the book delve into cursed objects that are actually found in larger cursed object collections of paranormal or occult museums and displayed for a paying audience.
Each section of the book is further broken down into the story of a specific object. This is where J.W. delves into the history and explores the scientific evidence of a specific object. There is something really magical about this type of book organization. It means that you can read the whole book from cover to cover. It also means, however, that you can skip through and read first about those objects that truly fascinate you. For instance, if you are really drawn to creepydoll stories you might find yourself skipping ahead to page 173 to read about Annabelle The Doll and The Warren Collection.
With Fall here and Halloween coming Cursed Objects is a great spooky fireside read. Whether you believe in cursed objects, or not, there is something fun about delving into the history of the paranormal this time of year. So grab your comfy blanket, a cup of hot cider, and a copy of Cursed Objects and get ready for a fun and slightly unsettling adventure.
Spoon & Tamago describes several ways in which public parks in Tokyo have been carefully prepared to convert into emergency shelters in the event of a natural disaster, such as an earthquake. Among the features are pagoda shelters that are sized for tent covers, manholes that give access to the sewer system for portable toilets, and solar powered lights that direct people to shelters during power outages.
I'm especially impressed with the simple but clever addition of wood burning cook stoves to park benches. You can see two such designs above.
