I don't know why it's so interesting, but it is: Here's a time lapse of a tear down and a modular build of a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
No words on how many days it took to tear-down and build (the whole project took 8 months, but that included the time it took to get permits, utility hookups, etc.)
Link [embedded brightcove Flash video] - Thanks Betsy!
We posted a story about the Tetrius Puzzle Game Magnet, but perhaps it's more fun just to make your own. Geek Crafts tells us what you'd need:
* wooden cubes - $2.99 at Michael’s for 42 cubes
* glue - I used some wood glue I had on hand
* magnetic adhesive sheets - $1.00-$1.50 at the dollar store or Michael’s - I used some I had on hand
* spray paint - could be $1.00 per can if you have to buy them - I used paint I had on hand
http://geekcrafts.com/howto-tetris-magnets/ - Thanks Geek Crafts!
When Neatorama reader Yoshi Hashimoto (Thanks yoshi!) submitted this YouTube clip, it was like a blast from the past for me. See, I grew up in Indonesia and what the clip shows is a trained monkey in a traditional (and disappearing) kid's show called "Topeng Monyet."
Topeng Monyet means "Monkey Mask". It's a traveling one-man (and one-monkey) circus show. He yells out "topeng monyet" while wandering the streets in a residential area, and you can call him to perform at your house. In a typical show, the monkey is the star: it rides a wooden bicycle, walks around holding an umbrella, wears a mask, and so on.
Topeng monyet monkey riding a wooden bicycle. Photo: Harisichwan [Wikipedia]
As you'll see in the clip, the bicycle has been "upgraded" to a mini motorcycle. The monkey is even smart enough to wait for a break in traffic before zooming about.
As a kid, it was a neat treat to see a topeng monyet show. Whenever my parents called one, the neighborhood kids would gather around to watch. But looking back on it as an adult, I realized that it was a sad deal for the monkey. I don't know how it was trained, though I suspect with a lot of beatings, and when it didn't perform to expectation, the guy would yank the chain hard. (If you watch the clip carefully, you'll see that the monkey is on a very long chain).
This type of show is disappearing in Indonesia. I don't know the reason, maybe it's harder to get a monkey or maybe the city government frowned on the practice. Maybe it's a health scare (monkeys carry rabies and Herpes B, and they've been known to scratch or bite spectators).
Lastly, here's a clip of a more "traditional" topeng monyet show:
Our pal Rob of What Is It? Blog has compiled a quiz for all of you tool enthusiasts. It's about hammers - but not just any ol' hammer to bang on stuff. Some of 'em are pretty darned obscure.
See if you know these 23 hammers: The Hammer Quiz - Thanks Rob but you forgot this one).
According to some ethicists, The current medical definition of death is wrong ... and this mistake is costing lives.
The controversy swirls around organ donation, in which doctors remove organs from brain dead patients:
Most organs donated from the deceased come from people who have been diagnosed as brain dead. Organs remain viable for only about an hour or two after a person's last heartbeat. Brain dead patients are ideal candidates for organ donation, then, because they are kept on ventilators, which means their heart and lungs continue to work, ensuring that a steady flow of oxygen-rich blood keeps their organs healthy. Surgeons remove the donor's organs, then shut off the ventilator. The patient's heart eventually stops.
Yet a small but vocal minority in the medical community has always insisted that some brain dead patients may not be dead. For instance, one study documented some kind of brain activity in up to 20 percent of people declared brain dead, suggesting to some critics that doctors sometimes misdiagnose the condition. Although some neurologists contend the claim, University of Wisconsin medical ethicist Dr. Norman Fost points to research showing that many "brain dead" patients have a functioning hypothalamus, a structure at the base of the brain that governs certain bodily functions, such as blood pressure and appetite.
"We have been taking organs out of those patients by the thousands," says Fost, "and they are not brain dead."
Others point to the unsettling fact that the brain dead look alive -- their hearts beat, lungs function (albeit with the aid of a respirator), and skin retains a pink hue. Brain dead women have even given birth.
"There is nobody in the world of philosophy and bioethics who thinks brain death is a coherent concept," says Truog.
Here's an interesting article by Timothy Gower in The Boston Globe: Link - via Look At This
Look closely at the photo: yup, that's one James Terry of Miami Florida, who demonstrated his safety device for repairing airplanes while flying! From the June 1930 edition of Modern Mechanics - via Modern Mechanix
Michael Jackson has fallen on some hard times and the King of Pop's Neverland Ranch is up for auctions, and Jonathan Haeber of Bearings blog has some fantastic nighttime photos of the place.
What I do post are places that were largely seen by the public (or at least by hordes of kids who count it a privilege to have been on “the Ranch.”) Whether or not you believe he’s innocent, one can still appreciate the beauty of Jackson’s vision in creating such a place. None of us should ever lose our sense of wonder and amazement at the world, and I think Jackson truly wanted children to have this, largely because he never had it as a child himself.
Link (Photo: Jonathan Haeber) | Flickr Gallery - via The Presurfer
Woohoo! I've recently found out that Neatorama's full feed has just been picked up by popurls!
Last week, Thomas Marban upgraded Neatorama from a single list to a full-featured news block on the popular website. (Thanks Thomas!)
If you haven't visited popurls before, check it out. The amount of links on there is amazing: Link
Martha Weiss of Georgetown University and colleagues found something unexpected with moths and butterflies: they remember what they learned as caterpillars.
The findings challenge the accepted wisdom that the insects – brains and all – are completely rewired during metamorphosis, and may provide clues about neural development.
"Practically everything about the two phases of the organism are so different – morphology, diet, how they move, and what they sense," says Martha Weiss of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in the US.
"We were curious to see if we could train a caterpillar to do something it could remember as an adult," she says
Weiss and colleagues exposed tobacco hornworm caterpillars, Manduca sexta, to ethyl acetate – a chemical often used in nail polish remover – and a series of mild electric shocks.
Seventy-eight percent of the caterpillars that were shocked directly after exposure avoided the compound in subsequent tests while still in the larval stage.
Previously on Neatorama: World's Weirdest Moths
"The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers."
- Scott Adams, cartoonist
Cliff Pickover's The Galactic Question Center blog asks one interesting question every month. Last July, the question was this:
Consider three horses, each pulling a cart filled with hay. The horses are in a row, walking down the road. As it walks, the second horse gets to eat from the hay that the first horse is pulling. The third horse gets to eat from the hay the second horse is pulling. Which horse would you prefer to be?
The comments are just as interesting as the question! Link
(Photo: mexikids [Flickr])
One of my favorite new blogs, WebUrbanist, got a new post about 20 creative (and somewhat bizarre) furniture made from recycled materials.
The four above are: light made from old fluorescent light tubes by Castor Canadensis design collective, a Lamponi lamp made from an old iron, a shopping cart chair by reestore, and a bicycle wheel table by Andrew Gregg.
Check out the full list here: Link
