"He was a bold man that first eat an oyster."

- Jonathan Swift, author

Photo: MisterW

Miss C's post about a bus and train combo reminded me of another bus "mash up" this time with a cat ... Behold the Cat Bus (presumably inspired by the Nekobus in the Japanese anime My Neighbor Totoro) at the Burning Man festival.

I still remember losing my grip on a balloon and watching it fly away when I was a small kid, so I can totally sympathize with Michel Fournier.

See, the French daredevil wanted to set the world record for free falling from the highest altitude. But his effort was thwarted when the $500,000 balloon flew away during the set up!

A mechanism that connects the balloon to three parachutes -- which are designed to carry the gondola safely back to Earth after Fournier begins his descent -- prematurely caused a separation. [...]

Observers who watched the translucent, jelly fish-like balloon float away over the prairie landscape were left guessing at what happened. [...]

"Everything seemed to be going according to plan. The team's chase helicopter had risen into the air and was hovering and suddenly for reasons no one can explain, the balloon slipped free and began to ascend," Oliver told Canada AM.

Link (Photo: David Stobbe / The Canadian Press)

Previously on Neatorama: Skydiving from the Edge of Space

Something strange is happening on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reservation in Canada, just across the border from Michigan: many more girls are being born than boys, and the reason might be toxic pollution ...

The steepest sex ratio declines observed in the world have occurred on the 3,000-acre Aamjiwnaang (pronounced AH-jih-nahng) First Nation reservation in Canada.

The ratio of boys to girls there began dropping in the early 1990s, according to data published in 2005 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Between 1999 and 2003, researchers found, only 46 boys were born out of 132 recorded births.

"You get angry and you get worried, thinking what could be causing this," said Ada Lockridge, a member of the tribe who compiled the data and has since become an activist. "And then you want to learn more."

Dozens of petrochemical, polymer and chemical plants border the reservation on three sides. Mercury and PCBs contaminate the creek that runs through the land, and air-quality studies show the highest toxic releases in Canada, said Jim Brophy, executive director of Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers, based in Sarnia, the nearest city.

Several months ago, Brophy and co-worker Margaret Keith did additional calculations, finding that boys made up only 42 percent of the 171 babies born from 2001 to 2005 to Aamjiwnaang living on the reserve or nearby.

"A disruption in the sex ratio of this magnitude has to be taken seriously," Brophy said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-fewerboys_bd25may25,0,1935388.story?page=2 (Photo: Heather Stone / Tribune)

Besides fame and fortune, here's another reason why you should blog: it's good for your health.

Jessica Wapner of Scientific American wrote why scientists think that blogging (and other forms of expressive writing) are beneficial:

Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly.

Flaherty, who studies conditions such as hypergraphia (an uncontrollable urge to write) and writer’s block, also looks to disease models to explain the drive behind this mode of communication. For example, people with mania often talk too much. “We believe something in the brain’s limbic system is boosting their desire to communicate,” Flaherty explains. Located mainly in the midbrain, the limbic system controls our drives, whether they are related to food, sex, appetite, or problem solving. “You know that drives are involved [in blogging] because a lot of people do it compulsively,” Flaherty notes. Also, blogging might trigger dopamine release, similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.

Now, all I did was cut and paste, and I feel better already! Link

The little picture is from one of shirts available from Neatorama's store: Warning I Blog

In 1982, Larry Walters tied 42 helium-filled weather balloons to his lawnchair and flew over Los Angeles.

Lawnchair Larry planned to rise 100 feet above the ground, but he actually flew to an altitude of 16,000 feet (3 miles) and floated into the controlled airspace near Long Bech airport. After he shot a few balloons with a pellet gun he was carrying for this purpose, Larry's lawnchair descended ... onto a powerline!

The dangling cables got caught in a powerline, which caused a blackout. When he was arrested, Larry was asked by a reporter why he had done what he did. His answer: "a man can't just sit around." (Source)

[YouTube Link]

Fast forward to April 2008, when Reverend Adelir Antonio de Carli, a priest in Brazil, strapped himself to helium-filled party balloons to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers. The wind pushed him off course to the ocean, and he went missing, and presumed dead. (Source)

Today's collaboration with What is it? blog brings us this strange device: what is it for?

Place your guess in the comment section - no prize this week, you're playing for bragging rights and fun only. For more clues, check out What is it? blog. Good luck!

In a crowded field of stupid criminals, these two have got a good chance of being the stupidest ever: watch this clip from LawyerShop TV as these two doofus tried to break into a building by throwing boulders through the window ... I won't give away the ending, so you gotta watch.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

After Velma Thomas' heart stopped beating three times and more than 17 hours with no measurable brain waves, her family said their goodbyes and took her off life support.

Then something completely unexpected happened: she miraculously came back to life!

"There were really no signs she had neurological functions," Kevin Eggleston, an internist, told ABC News. "There was no life there," her son, Tim Thomas, told the Charleston Daily Mail. "Her skin had already started hardening, her hands and toes were curling up." [...]

Family members left the hospital to make funeral arrangements. That's when they say a miracle happened.

Ten minutes after the medical staff stopped the respirator -- while nurses were removing the tubing -- Velma Thomas woke up. "She moved her arm, and we thought it was reflexes," Pence told ABC News.

Nurses hurried to call Tim Thomas, who was already a few miles away, on his cell phone. They told him that his mother was moving and had a heart rate, Tim Thomas told the Daily Mail.

Velma Thomas had moved her arm and foot, then she coughed and moved her eyes. Amazingly, Thomas began speaking.

Link

That wood and glass contraption is actually a new PC, called "Enlighten", made by Suissa Computers who specializes in making beautiful wooden computer cases.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Wooden External HD by Suissa
Also check out: Neatorama's Ultimate Case Mod List

After publishing the Top 10 Badass James Bond Villains, The List Universe has a short and enjoyable follow up post, this time the lamest guys Agent 007 ever had to beat up. Like this guy, for example:

Nick-Nack
The Man with the Golden Gun

Never has a Bond character been so unbelievable and offensive as Herve Villechaize’s diminutive butler-henchman. Nevermind the fact that his name makes him sound like a wind-up toy, or that he’s subjected to every imaginable stature-related cliche. We must also sit uncomfortably through the single most ridiculous fight scene in Bond
history, watching Roger Moore chase poor Herve around the room with a chair before stuffing him into a suitcase.

Link - via Miss Cellania

Thai sculptors at robot-models created this awesome ... and large, Optimus Prime metal sculpture out of junk and found object. The sculpture is over 2 m (~7 feet) tall.

The company said that it will continue to make more Transformers, both the Autobots and the Decepticon characters. These sculptures are sure to transform your living room into a sci-fi geek heaven. (see what I did there?)

Link - via GeekAlerts

Here's something I didn't know about Kobe Bryant, the 2008 NBA MVP: he speaks fluent Italian! When he was 6 years old, Kobe's father moved his family to Italy to play professional basketball there. There, Kobe learned to speak Italian and play soccer.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Super Punch | If that's too cerebral for you, check out Kobe jumping over a pool of snakes!

Photo: Peter Aaron / Esto - via Architecture and Hygiene

It's hard to believe that those ugly cargo shipping containers can make beautiful homes, but they do. WebUrbanist has a neat post about homes, offices, shopping malls and even hotels built from cargo containers:

There are plenty of benefits of to the so-called shipping container architecture model. A few of these advantages include: they are plentiful, they are easily transported, they’re stackable, relatively inexpensive (as little as $900 for a used container), they can be prefabricated, and they’re extremely durable. Residential applications are also becoming a popular topic of conversation among green supporters.

Link

I <3 Futurama, and not just because the similarities between the cartton's name and this blog's. Well, the next feature-length DVD, titled The Beast with a Billion Backs, is coming out soon!

Always Watching blog has the trailer, watch for the best line: "Those aren't tentacles, they're genticles!"

http://www.alwayswatching.org/news/futurama-beast-billion-backs-gets-trailer