Photo: shadycam [Flickr]
Last May, artist Daniel Firman had an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He created this taxidermied (is that a word?) elephant, titled Würsa. The whimsical equilibrium is supposed to show what even a large thing like an elephant could do 18,000 km (~11,200 mi) above the earth.
Here's a pretty neat way of turning a ho-hum bridge into an amazing tourist attraction: turn it into a fountain!
The fountains at the Banpo Bridge were installed on September ninth and have since become a major tourist attraction. It has nearly 10 thousand nozzles ( more exactly 9, 380 ) on either side of the bridge that shoots out 190 tons of water every minute. According to the Seoul mayor, Oh Se-Hoon, the fountain bridge would help acknowledge Seoul as an eco-friendly destination amassing more tourists.
Freshome has the story (and video clip): Link - via Random Good Stuff, thanks Juergen!
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Beautiful Bridges in the World
A lot of people think that Faster-than-light (superluminal or FTL) travel is the stuff of kooky mad scientists-wanna-bes (indeed, Albert Einstein himself had declared that it is impossible).
I get a lot of submissions from crazy people claiming that they've discovered fundamental flaws in physics or that they've come up with a completely novel Theory of Everything, and those go straight to the junk pile. But when this came from an emeritus physics professor from Rice University, I was intrigued.
Here's Robert Haymes, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, wrote about FTL travel:
Presented below is a concept of how it might be possible to travel in space at speeds in excess of the speed of light in vacuum. It is presented now because of my firm conviction that immediate actions are necessary to Save Our Species; steadily increasing overpopulation of the planet Earth by humanity, coupled with a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, signals that we may soon wipe the planet’s surface clear of civilization, if not of life itself. One mode of salvation would be to establish self-sustaining branches of humanity on other planets. It does not appear that any other habitable planets exist within our solar system. However the Milky Way Galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, many if not all of which have planets orbiting them. Some of those planets are most likely habitable. Astronomers generally believe that these stars are separated by distances averaging a few light years. To reach them in practical amounts of time will require faster than light travel.
Link - Thanks Nancy! | Another interesting article: Is Faster-Than-Light Travel or Communication Possible? by Philip Gibbs
John Escobar and colleagues at UCLA have shown that the simple act of peeling an ordinary sticky tape in vacuum generates enough X-ray to take an image!
"At some point we were a little bit scared," says Juan Escobar, a member of the research team. But he and his co-workers soon realized that the X-rays were only emitted when the kit was used in a vacuum. "We don't want to scare people from using Scotch tape in everyday life," Escobar adds.
This kind of energy release — known as triboluminescence and seen in the form of light — occurs whenever a solid (often a crystal) is crushed, rubbed or scratched. It is a long-known, if somewhat mysterious, phenomenon, seen by Francis Bacon in 1605. He noticed that scratching a lump of sugar caused it to give off light.
The leading explanation posits that when a crystal is crushed or split, the process separates opposite charges. When these charges are neutralized, they release a burst of energy in the form of light.
As long ago as 1953, a team of scientists based in Russia suggested that peeling sticky tape produced X-rays. But "we were very sceptical about the old results," says Escobar. His team decided to look into the phenomenon anyway, and found that X-rays were indeed given off, in high-energy pulses.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081022/full/news.2008.1185.html | Gallery at Wired - via Boing Boing, Thanks Dave Bullock!
Photo: Carlos G. Camara, Juan V. Escobar, Jonathan R. Hird and Seth J. Putterman
It seems that the success of Guitar Hero has prodded video game makers to try and make copycat games of similar genre. Michael Moss of Quitting Time comics envisioned one such "products that never made it": Toilet Hero!
To be fair, based on experience, I can tell you that if you unclog a toilet, you're instantly a hero in the eyes of your wife.
Here's another excellent piece from GOOD Magazine: a historical survey of the US economy, focusing on GDP, the amount of US national debt, boom/bust cycle, inflation, and the stock market (to the point before the crash).
Link - via Think.BigChief
Previously on Neatorama: 10 American Financial Meltdowns in the Past Century | The $700 Billion Shirt
VH1's Best Week Ever blog has compiled a list of the craziest bikes ever. One of them is the boombox bike shown above, which also happened to be the subject of Nicholas Randall and Joe Stevens' documentary Made in Queens.
What do you get when you cross a hamster ball with a roller coaster, super size it so humans can go in? And if that's not enough, let's give it motors so you can drive it ... Behold, the Buzzball:
At the heart of the Buzzball is a dual motor configuration, enabling the pilot to control the motion and direction of travel via left and right control triggers, which provides power to the driving wheels. [...]
Once the Buzzball is in motion the pod maintains an upright position until the pilot turns, causing the pod to rotate inside the ball against the direction of travel, which applies a braking force and the pod to lock with the ball. This causes the pod to rotate with the ball until the weight of the pilot and pod overcomes the inertia forces and causes the Buzzball to change direction.
This is when the fun starts, as the speed will affect the degree of rotation of the pilot and pod from a partial barrel roll to complete and multiple rotations!
Link (with video of the Buzzball in action!) | Buzzball website
When Wayne Forrester saw that his wife Emma changed her Facebook profile to "single" just days after he moved out after a fight, he got so angry that he stabbed her to death!
The day before the murder, he called her parents and complained about his wife's Facebook entry which he said "made her look like a fool", the court heard.
In a statement to police Forrester said: "Emma and I had just split up. She forced me out. She then posted messages on an internet website telling everyone she had left me and was looking to meet other men.
"I loved Emma and felt totally devastated and humiliated about what she had done to me."
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Forrester's sister Liza Rothery said the murder had had a "devastating" impact on her and parents Frances and Robert. Miss Rothery added: "What on earth could Emma have done to result in such a brutal, callous attack on a defenceless woman?"
With the real estate market went bust, Bill and Sharon Kastrinos decided to downsize their home ... into a size of a small shed!
Now, they live in a place so small, he and his wife use a ladder to climb into their bed every night. The downstairs has a sitting area, tiny kitchen and bathroom in a space that's 98 square feet. The upstairs loft has a bed in 56 square feet of space. They keep extra clothes in their car.
"It's a very simple lifestyle," he says. "The downside of it is it takes a readjustment. You can't have 100 pairs of shoes in the closet or 50 outfits."
The upside?
The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. The couple now live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home in 2007 cost $725,000. If they want to leave, the home has wheels and can be pulled behind their vehicle and plugged into any RV park in the nation.
This is pretty neat: a product from Google Labs called In Quotes, which allows you to see what the US presidental candidates and other politicians said what about hot issues like health care, the environment, the economy and so forth, as quoted from news sources.
http://labs.google.com/inquotes/ - via swissmiss
If you hurry, you can wear something truly horrifying this Halloween. Here's the T-shirt that will make any grown man quake in his boots: The Taxman Cometh - $9.95
Landing gear stuck? Not a problem for this pilot - This emergency airplane landing is as flawless as it gets! Hit play or go to %3Cobject%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22movie%22%20value=%22//www.youtube.com/v/s9zXweJ4O3s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowFullScreen%22%20value=%22true%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cembed%20src=%22//www.youtube.com/v/s9zXweJ4O3s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1%22%20type=%22application/x-shockwave-flash%22%20allowfullscreen=%22true%22%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3C/embed%3E%3C/object%3E [YouTube] - via I Am Bored
There's an eCard for every occasion, including for telling your partners that they may just be infected with STDs ...
Madison Park of CNN has the story:
Breaking up over e-mail is a social no-no. But sending an e-card telling someone to get tested for STDs may be a public health courtesy.
Since 2004, a free Web site, inSpot.org has allowed users to anonymously notify their partners to get tested for STDs such as HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.
It may not be the most personal way of delivering the news, but researchers say it beats not saying anything at all.
"When you weigh the importance of getting people notified, that's ultimately what needs to be done," said Jeffrey D. Klausner, director of STD Prevention and Control Services in San Francisco, California's Department of Public Health. "By notifying them -- even if it's done anonymously, even distantly, even with an e-card -- the benefits of getting someone diagnosed and treated outweigh the concerns of insensitivity."
Link: Article at CNN | inSpot Website
Framingham State College did something unusual in its effort to raise funds from its alumni - instead of a nicely worded letter begging for money, it sent a "blah, blah, blah" letter!
"Today, the fact of the matter is that deserving students need help to finance their education. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah," the letter said.
"I just think it's unprofessional. It's a poor representation of what we stand for. We pride ourselves on our image, and it failed," said Student Government President Steve Whittemore.
So how successful was the letter? About 6,000 students were solicited. Several dozen responded, and $2,000 was collected.
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
