Marc Derepentigny has created
what is possibly the coolest fan-made Transformers costume ever! The 7-foot
suit comes complete with servo-actuated claws, moving LED eyes and smoke
thrusters.
Our pal Yan of Geeks Are Sexy
found out that he lives nearby and went over to interview him:
Marc has been building costumes as far as he can remember, even dating
back to his early childhood. It first started with cardboard and hot
glue, eventually evolving into styrene plastic and Crazy Glue, which
is what the robot is made of. He estimates the time it took him to build
it at two years, with around two hours of work per day, and a total
cost of about $2000.
Read more over at Geeks Are Sexy (don't miss the video clip!): Link
Inspired by the classic Little Golden Book we've all read as little kids,
Los Angeles-based illustrator Joebot
decided to create his own version of videogame-based Little Golden Books:
Link
- via Geek
Art
We know, we know. We should exercise more. But who has the time to go
to the gym?
American College of Sports Medicine's Health & Fitness journal just
squashed that excuse with this: a set of 12 exercises with only body weight,
a chair and a wall that takes only 7 minutes of your life. Best of all,
it's all based on science, as Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times'
Well Blog summarized:
“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity
interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged
endurance training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan,
the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute
in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article. [...]
The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30
seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an
8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes
should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes,
you’re done.
Fairyflies - a type of chalcid wasp that live on the eggs and larvae
of other insects - are pretty small. They're about the diameter of the
tip of fine drawing pen, which makes them almost impossible to find.
But not to John Huber of Natural Resources Canada and colleagues! They've
discovered a new species of the fairyfly that's just 250 micrometer (0.01
inches) long, and named it after Tinkerbell:
A new species of tiny fly named after the fairy in "Peter Pan"
is mind-blowingly miniscule, with delicate wings trimmed in fringe.
Tinkerbella nana is a newly discovered species of fairyfly from Costa
Rica. [...]
Under the microscope, these teeny-tiny insects reveal fine detail,
particularly their long, skinny wings, which terminate in hairlike fringe.
This wing shape may help ultra-small insects reduce turbulence and drag
when they fly, a feat that requires beating their wings hundreds of
times per second.
Researchers don't know how small insects can get, Huber said.
Maybe
these atoms need to go on a diet; they're a bit pear-shaped!
Physicists have found that the certain atoms have pear-shaped nuclei
at their centers, and it may be a good place to look for new types of
physics:
The findings could help scientists search for physics beyond the Standard
Model, said Witold Nazarewicz, a theoretical nuclear physicist at the
University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
who was not involved in the study.
Specifically, the pear-shaped nucleus could provide a good place to
search for an electric dipole moment, or an asymmetrical distribution
of positive and negative charge inside neutrons. An electric dipole
moment would provide a way to test extension theories to the Standard
Model, such as supersymmetry, which could help explain why there is
more matter than antimatter in the universe.
"There are strong theoretical suggestions that in nuclei that
have those pearlike shapes, that this electric dipole moment can be
very large," Nazarewicz told LiveScience. "These systems are
very good hunting grounds for future searches for this dipole moment."
It’s practically mandatory to join the site (at least for the time
being). If you’re not
on Facebook you’re a lot like Schrodinger’s Cat—no one
knows for sure if you’re
alive or dead.
Here are a few tips for being interesting while Facebooking. If we all
have to be on it,
we might as well make it as painless (and as interesting) as possible.
People mainly look at your pictures, you might as well put your best
face forward. If
you don’t like how you look in pictures, smile.
Try to be less repetitive with your posts. One baby, cat, or paleo-diet
approved
plate of steamed kale picture a week? Okay. One an hour? You shall be
blocked and
forgotten.
Don’t get all political. If I agree with you, I ignore you. If
I disagree, I think less of
you. No one wins until we actually go to the polls.
Do not become a spam factory. It makes you seem like less of a friend
and more of a
corporate pimp.
You shall not pass .. without taking a look at this impressive LEGO recreation
of The Battle of Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings. Made by Rick-K and
Big J, the diorama is 90% completed yet it's already 100% awesome.
The LEGO Battle of Helm's Deep has over 150,000 pieces and 1,700 minifigs:
Who *yawn* are the most sleep deprived students in the world? Students
from the United States, according to new research by Chad Minnich of Boston
College:
"I think we underestimate the impact of sleep. Our data show that
across countries internationally, on average, children who have more
sleep achieve higher in maths, science and reading. That is exactly
what our data show," says Chad Minnich, of the TIMSS and PIRLS
International Study Center.
"It's the same link for children who are lacking basic nutrition,"
says Mr Minnich, based at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College.
But what about those Asian students who study all the time?
Asian countries are the highest-performing in maths tests - and Mr
Minnich says this has often been associated with long hours and cramming
in after-school classes.
"One would assume that they would be extremely tired," he
said. "And yet when we look at the sleep factor for them, they
don't necessarily seem to be suffering from as much sleep deprivation
as the other countries."
Minnich placed the blame on smartphones and laptops. Sean Coughlan of
the BBC has more: Link
Nearly one third of commercial honeybee colonies in the United States
didn't survive winter, and we're almost to the point of not having enough
bees to pollinate crops:
“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we
don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,”
said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland,
who led the survey documenting the declines.
Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early
2013, roughly double what’s considered acceptable attrition through
natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since
2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of
honeybee health. Hopes raised by drop in rates of loss to 22 percent
in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers.
The honeybee shortage nearly came to a head in March in California,
when there were barely enough bees to pollinate the almond crop.
Had the weather not been ideal, the almonds would have gone unpollinated
— a taste, as it were, of a future in which honeybee problems
are not solved.
“If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important,”
said vanEngelstorp. “One in every three bites [of food consumed
in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.”
During the blanket coverage of the Cleveland kidnapping story, when TV
anchors Ashleigh Banfield of CNN interviewed TV commentator Nancy Grace
of Headline News, the split-screen satellite simulcast implies that the
interviewer and interviewee were at a different location (after all, why
would they need satellite, otherwise?), but eagle-eyed viewers pointed
out that they were actually both at the same parking lot!
At first it seems like a normal TV "remote," as Banfield
interviews Grace from another location. Then the channel's graphics
alert viewers: both anchors are in Phoenix. That's odd. Also: They're
both outdoors, sitting in what looks to be a parking lot. And is that
same building behind them? [...]
It seems that Grace and Banfield are sitting in the same parking lot,
facing in the same direction, and judging by the speed of the vehicles
in their shots, they cannot be sitting more than 30 feet away from each
other. Yet, they're behaving as if the are on opposite sides of the
world.
Dashiell Bennett and Philip Bump of of The Atlantic Wire has more: Link
Map shows the regions with languages descending from the 7 Eurasiatic
language families (Image: Pagel et al./PNAS)
We're all just part of a big, happy, linguistic family. Evolutionary
biologist Mark Pagel
of Reading University claimed that languages across Europe and Asia -
from English to Urdo, Japanese and Itelmen (Itel-what? Look
it up) - are all descended from the same tongue dating back to the
last ice age:
Most words have a 50% chance of being replaced by an unrelated term
every 2,000-4,000 years.
But some words last much longer. In a previous study, Pagel's team
showed that certain words – among them frequently used pronouns,
numbers and adverbs – survived for tens of thousands of years
before other words replaced them.
For their latest study, Pagel used a computer model to predict words
that changed so rarely that they should sound the same in the different
Eurasiatic languages. They then checked their list against a database
of early words reconstructed by linguists. "Sure enough,"
said Pagel, "the words we predicted would be similar, were similar."
Pagel listed
23 "ultraconserved" words that endured:
Thou
I
Not
That
We
To give
Who
This
What
Man/Male
Ye
Old
Mother
To hear
Hand
Fire
To pull
Black
To flow
Bark
Ashes
To spit
Worm
Most of the words, like "Mother" or "I," are common
- so that makes sense. But what's up with "Bark"?
"Bark was really important to early people," said Pagel.
"They used it as insulation, to start fires, and they made fibres
from it. But I couldn't say I expected "to spit" to be there.
I have no idea why. I have to throw my hands up."
The problem with talking to other people is that often times, the topic
of conversation drifts away from what's truly important: your
upcoming wedding.
But fear not! Reductress, a
new online magazine for women by Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo, both
writers and performers of UCB and NYC comedy scenes, has published an
article on how to bring the conversation back to to your wedding:
Give Her an Honorary Wedding Job.
Who wouldn’t love the privilege of arriving an hour early to make
sure your guests sign the guestbook before they take a seat? Your friend
will feel honored that you’re including her on the most important
day of your life. She’ll let you talk for hours about how your
dieting bridesmaids better not overshadow your wedding weight loss.
Respond to Anything Anyone Says with the Sentence: “Oh,
That Reminds Me. I’m Getting Married in 3 Months.” It might be clunky, but it’ll do.
Ask About Her Recent Vacation.
Give her just two seconds to reminisce before you hint that her destination
wasn’t nearly as nice as where you’re planning to honeymoon.
