Here's another goodie from the BBC: the animated history of Stonehenge - where you can watch 4,500 years of history behind the iconic monument in just about a minute. It's quite interesting!
Link [BBC Flash video] - Thanks Jeffs!
Alex Santoso's Blog Posts
With the price of diesel skyrocketing (prompting independent truckers to strike yesterday), it's interesting to note that Mother Nature has actually made a tree that produce natural diesel!
Treehugger has the story:
Australian farmers in the wet tropical region of North Queensland have bought over 20,000 of these so-called diesel trees. The intention is that in 15 or so years they’ll have their very own oil mine growing on their farmland.
Because, the Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii, to use its botanical name, can be tapped not unlike a rubber tree, but instead of yielding rubbery latex it gives up a natural diesel. According to the nurseryman selling the trees, one hectare will yield about 12,000 litres annually.
Once filtered—no complex refining required, apparently—it can be placed straight into a diesel tractor or truck. We read that a single Copaifera langsdorfii will continue to produce fuel oil for an impressive 70 years, with the only negative being that its particular form of diesel needs to be used within three months of extraction.
Link - Thanks Chris Tackett!
Some years after Jelly Belly released the Bertie Bott's Jelly Bean (inspired by the Harry Potter book series), they came out with these weirdly and wildly flavored jelly beans, BeanBoozled.
Candy Addict blog reviewed some of the flavors:
Pencil Shavings: Oddly enough, these did have a woody essence to them, with notes of plastic and rubber. I’d say it wasn’t horrible, yet it wasn’t tasty either. Just interesting.
Baby Wipes: (from Brian) Wow - these taste just like baby wipes smell. You can’t truly appreciate these unless you have had kids. Brings back many unpleasant diaper memories.
Link - Thanks Candy Addict!
Examples of virtual 3D extraction of organisms embedded in opaque amber: a) Gastropod Ellobiidae; b) Myriapod Polyxenidae; c) Arachnid; d) Conifer branch (Glenrosa); e) Isopod crustacean Ligia; f) Insect hymenopteran Falciformicidae. Credits: M. Lak, P. Tafforeau, D. Néraudeau
(ESRF Grenoble and UMR CNRS 6118 Rennes).
Scientists from the University of Rennes, France, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility used X-rays to reveal the structure of prehistoric insects trapped in amber:
Malvina Lak and her colleagues from the University of Rennes and Paul Tafforeau of the ESRF, together with the National Museum of Natural History of Paris, have applied a synchrotron X-ray imaging technique known as propagation phase contrast microradiography to the investigation of opaque amber. This technique permits light to reach the interior of this dark amber, which resembles a stone to the human eye. “Researchers have tried to study this kind of amber for many years with little or no success. This is the first time that we can actually discover and study the fossils contained within”, says Paul Tafforeau.
The scientists imaged 640 pieces of amber from the Charentes region in south-western France. They discovered 356 fossil animals, ranging from wasps and flies, to ants and even spiders and acarians. The team was able to identify the family for 53% of the inclusions.
http://www.esrf.eu/news/general/amber/amber/ - via Newslite
Before this story went 'round the Interweb:
Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley, who called Debbie Shank’s case "unbelievably sad," replied in a statement: "Wal-Mart’s plan is bound by very specific rules. … We wish it could be more flexible in Mrs. Shank’s case since her circumstances are clearly extraordinary, but this is done out of fairness to all associates who contribute to, and benefit from, the plan." (Source)
After the story went 'round the Interweb:
"Occasionally, others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times," Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Pat Curran said in a letter. "We have all been moved by Ms. Shank's extraordinary situation." [...]
"We wanted you to know that Wal-Mart will not seek any reimbursement for the money already spent on Ms. Shank's care, and we will work with you to ensure the remaining amounts in the trust can be used for her ongoing care," Curran said.
"We are sorry for any additional stress this uncertainty has placed on you and your family."
The publicity apparently worked for the family: Wal-Mart dropped its lawsuit to recoup money from a brain-damaged former worker. Link
Previously on Neatorama: Wal-Mart Wants Disabled Woman's Long-Term Care Money Back
Photo: krisez [Flickr]
All right, 'fess up: how many of you were Rickrolled yesterday on April Fools' Day?
With all the Rickrolling goin' on these past few months, most of us don't really know much about Rick Astley, the singer who enjoyed a resurgence in fame and unwittingly become the new face of Interweb prankery (is that a word? No? It should be!)
If you don't know much about Rick, here are some fun facts regarding the man behind the phenomenon (no Rickrolling, we promise, because Neatorama will never give you up and never let you down!):
1. Rick Astley was born Richard Paul Astley on February 6, 1966. It was a Sunday. Rick shares his birthday with Axl Rose (born Feb 6, 1962), Bob Marley (1945), Ronald Reagan (1911) and Babe Ruth (1895). No wonder he was destined for stardom!
2. Rick left school at the age of 16. He drove a delivery van for his family's business, a garden store.
3. If you think Rick is clean cut (okay, he did have long hair in Cry For Help ... ), that's because he is: heck, the guy was choir boy at his local church.
Oh, don't believe me? Here's a snippet from a 1988 Smash Hit interview:
Have you ever thought about getting your ear pierced?
"I haven't no. Never once. It used to be trendy and fashionable, but you see, when anything becomes trendy and fashionable, I don't like it. It's not because I want to be different, it's just that I don't want to be mega-fashionable. I never really fancied a hole in me ear anyway." (source)
4. Rick was a drummer for a local band called FBI. When the lead singer left, Rick volunteered to take on the role - it was a lucky stroke because pop mogul Pete Waterman of Stock, Aitken & Waterman saw him perform. Waterman made him (but not the band) an offer, but Rick turned him down out of loyalty to his friends.
The band FBI in 1984, from left to right: Kevin Needham, Rick Astley, Will Hopper, Peter Dale and Greg Smee. (Photo: Rick Astley's official website)
A year later, his bandmates felt guilty that they were holding Rick back and let him go to London to pursue his career ...
5. ... as a gofer for PWL Studios, Pete Waterman's production company. There, he learned the recording process and the record industry business before he resumed singing.
[Okay, this is only tangentially related: Pete Waterman is a phenomenally rich man. He bought 18 Ferraris at one go, was the first man to purchase the privatized British Rail, and once owned the legendary locomotive The Flying Scotsman (source). Don't know who he is? If you're in the UK, just check out Pop Idol - he's one of the judges]
6. Rick's first song was a duet titled "When You Gonna", with singer Lisa Carter. It was released under the simple name of "Rick & Lisa" and was a flop. Here's the YouTube clip (Pwnage at 1:25, 3:28 and 3:45!):
7. Two months after When You Gonna, Rick cut his first solo "Never Gonna Give You Up". The second time using "Gonna" did it for Rick - the song was a big hit. It stayed at number one for five weeks in the UK and was the best selling single of the year. Worldwide, it sold 15.2 million copies. It was 1987 and Rick was 21.
This one's not the rickroll video that most of you have seen before: it's a live performance in 1988. Well, you can consider it being rickrolled live!
In the (now famous again) music video, Rick sang in his trademark trenchcoat. Tech writer Mathew Ingram wrote in his column in The Globe and Mail, "In the video, he does his best to strike pop singer poses in a trenchcoat, but only succeeds in looking like a teenager performing in a high-school musical." But I think Mathew is just being jealous.
8. Rick Astley is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the first male solo artist to have his first 8 singles reach the Top 10 in the UK. This feat has never been repeated since.
9. Tired of being hounded by the press and wanting to prove that "there was more to him than being merely a singer" (source) - though some say he developed a fear of flying and didn't want to tour anymore - Rick left Stock, Aitken & Waterman.
For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Rick remained largely out of the spotlight, preferring to focus on his family life (Rick's parents divorced when he was four, and he feared that his career would wreck his family life).
Pete Waterman said this about Rick's retirement: "Rick walked away right at the height. People look at other artists like Simply Red and say they were big, but he out-sold them two to one." (source)
10. No, he's not gay. Rick lives with his Danish girlfriend Lene Bausager and their daughter Emilie. Actually, that's not the only popular misconception about Rick - when he was starting out, a lot of people assumed that Rick was a black man (because of his deep voice). Even after he made appearances, many people still thought that the skinny white guy was lip-synching to a song made by a black guy!
Links: Rick Astley's official website | MySpace Page
If you're still reading, my little confession: I actually like Rick Astley! Most of the time I got Rickrolled, I actually listened to the entire track. Why? I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand ...
If you have young children, or if you're young at heart, this is the song for you: The Elephant Song by Eric Herman (video created by Eric's wife Roseann with the help of their 3-year-old daughter Becca. The little girl in the song is Meghan, who was 6 at the time).
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Christophe! | Don't forget to check out Eric's webstore: Link
Thats the METI Human Patient Simulator, a robot that breathes, urinates, and blinks with uncanny realism.
The high-tech robotic mannequin simulates a wide variety of battle wounds and injuries and is currently used in the Navy Trauma Training Center to train doctors and nurses in combat zones.
Fogonazos blog has an interesting post about the huts abandoned by Antarctic explorers Robert F. Scott and Ernest Shackleton:
Shelves are still stocked with tins of cabbage, veal or onions. All these objects have been preserved by the cold for the last 100 years. Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton left them here in their way to the South Pole, in the beginning of the 20th century. But none of them was able to come back.
Link - Thanks aberron!
What do these sentences have in common?
"I noticed his glazed pompadour had acquired a killer swoop; a foxy wave befitting a jester."
"Strike with prejudice against laziness, that quixotic devil procrastination—but maybe tomorrow."
"Coitus interruptus—often exactly at the wrong moment, quite bedeviling kenetic zest—just happens."
Neatorama reader Ryan Hagen explains:
I've been fascinated for a while now by Pangrams,
sentences which contain each letter of the alphabet at least once (the most
famous one of course is "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"). A few
weeks ago, as a challenge to myself, I started writing one pangram every
morning, and have been so captivated by the process that I find I can't stop.So I started this blog, Pangramaday, to showcase the best of them.
Link - Thanks Ryan! (BTW, the illustration is from The Liner by John Ralston, whom we've covered before here on Neatorama)
Forget the Obama Girl ... Here's the Obama kid: Jeff Simmermon of And I Am Not Lying blog wrote to us about his friend's toddler whose political preference was already set at such an early age. (Note how he has to get the last word in!)
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via And I Am Not Lying, thanks Jeff!
Dave Chameides of 365 Days of Trash blog wrote to us about his project of keeping all the trash he generates in a year:
The idea for this project came about six months ago as I was throwing something away in the garbage. It occurred to me that I was doing nothing more than that. I was making it go away, not dealing with it, not accounting for it, simply removing it from my sight. [...]
So starting tonight at midnight, I am not going to throw anything away for 365 days in order to see what my impact is. It sounds sort of nuts at first (perhaps for a bit after that as well), and believe me, while I am intrigued by the concept, I’ll admit that there are parts of it that I am dreading. Am I really looking forward to going on vacation and bringing all my trash home in a suitcase? Hardly, but that said, I need to be honest about this or it’s not worth doing in the first place. My hope is that, as the experiment takes shape, I will be able to quickly ascertain what waste I can simply cut out through choices, what waste is necessary but that can be dealt with in a sustainable way, and what waste I just simply can’t do anything about.
He's keeping all the trash in his basement and you can follow his "progress" at his blog here: Link - Thanks Dave!
Treehugger has a short and sweet article about the Belmont Clothes Library in Australia, which loans out business apparel to the unemployed so they can look smart for job interviews!
Just avoid the underwear section! Link - Thanks Chris!
A lot of cities in the United States are strapped for cash but a handful of them are taking extreme measures of raising funds by taking these steps:
1. Install red-light cameras
2. Shorten the yellow light duration
3. Profit!
Here is an article at the National Motorist Association about 6 cities that were caught shortening yellow traffic light durations for profit. Take Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example:
Link - Thanks Christophe! (Photo: Tmuna Fish [Flickr])The city of Chattanooga was forced refund $8800 in red light cameras tickets issued to motorists trapped by an illegally short yellow time. The refund only occurred after a motorist challenged his citation by insisting that the yellow light time of 3.0 seconds was too short. LaserCraft, the private vendor that runs the camera program in return for a cut of the profits, provided the judge with a computer database that asserted the yellow was 3.8 seconds at that location.
The judge then personally checked the intersection in question was timed at three seconds while other nearby locations had about four seconds of yellow warning. City traffic engineer John Van Winkle told Bean that “a mix up with the turn arrow” was responsible and that the bare minimum for the light should be 3.9 seconds. (Source)
Photo: massdistraction [Flickr]
Folks, it's time for this week's Neatorama and Hobotopia's Caption Monkey game. But first, the story behind this photo, from Flickr user massdistraction:
I'm going to burn in hell for posting this...but here's the story. Many years ago the little man went to daycare daily, while I worked full-time. He wasn't yet potty-trained but would wander into their bathroom, express some interest (as the older kids used the potty) then wander out again. Usually. On this day he somehow managed to get himself stuck in the toilet. The daycare provider's first instinct was to grab a camera and snap off a photo before helping him out. I was both appalled and amused (and felt guilty for the latter).
Now, on to the game: place your caption in the comment section. One caption per comment, please, but you can enter as many as you'd like. The funniest caption will get a prize: Adam "Ape Lad" Koford's Meet the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats, which details the adventures of Kitteh and Pip in over 250 comic panels.
If you like Adam's old-timey LOLcat cartoon (many found in his Flickr set), then you'll love this book!
Good luck (if you don't win, you can still get his book at Lulu).
Update 4/4/08: Congratulations to Nora whose caption "Mario Lied to Me!" won! Woohoo, way to go, Nora!
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