Lebowski Fest is a bowling event celebrating all things relating to the Coen Brothers 1998 film, The Big Lebowski. It can be likened to a Star Trek convention in a very loose sense. The event takes place at a bowling alley and includes unlimited bowling, costume , trivia, farthest traveled, and bowling contests, prizes, and what-have-you. The friend of the Coen Brothers who inspired the main character played by Jeff Bridges, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd has been known to make an appearance and drink some White Russians.
Professor David Nutt believes that there is no reason why we can't make hangover-free alcohol, like Star Trek's synthehol.
Alcohol works in the brain mainly by latching onto signalling molecules called GABA-A receptors. There are dozens of subtypes of these; not all of them are associated with specific effects of alcohol. For example, memory loss may occur in conjuction with drinking because alcohol binds to alpha-5, a GABA-A receptor subtype in the hippocampus.
Professor Nutt suggests that if molecules that bind poorly to the bad subtypes like alpha-5 could be developed, it would be possible to retain the pleasant effects of alcohol without the bad side-effects.
In Florida, Customs and Border Patrol has seized a giant shipment of 14,000 brass knucles disguised as belt buckles from Pakistan and China.
"There is no way this could be used as a belt buckle," Local 6 reporter Erik von Ancken said. "This is not a novelty, it is solid metal used for only one reason police tells us. In fact, even the packaging is a joke -- it is spelled 'b-u-k-l-e.' The packaging, from Pakistan and China, reads 'belt buckle' but police say that is ridiculous."
As Japan has fewer and fewer children, toy companies there have discovered an alternative market: adults who are nostalgic for their childhood toys (in this case: a very geek-chic belt!)
Major toymaker Bandai recently launched adult-size reproductions of an action hero belt worn on the 1970s megahit Kamen Rider ("Masked Rider") TV series.The new belt sells for about 30,000 yen, the equivalent of $270.
Kawauchi said it would give hard-working middle-aged men an opportunity to spend money on themselves by buying the leather belt, which flashes with LED lights.
As the former boys have acquired not only purchasing power but also girth, the belt stretches 44 inches, about double the size of the children's version that first came out in 1971.Bandai sold a staggering 3.8 million of the original Kamen Rider belts, letting a generation of Japanese boys shout out "Transform!" and spin their arms around to become cyborg heroes with blinking belts.
If you have been living under a rock and don't know what cthulhu is, maybe you should start here: Wikipedia's entry on HP Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos, then read his work here: Link
Authorities said that Sarah and Kris Everson faked having a sextuplet as a hoax to tap the generosity of others to pay their bills!
Those who heard the Eversons' sad story of tight finances set up a Web site to solicit contributions -- including a van, washer and dryer, cash and gift certificates. A real estate agent was even working to find the family new housing.
Hours before admitting it was a scam, Sarah Everson showed an Associated Press reporter pictures of her in maternity clothes, her baring a huge pregnant-looking midsection, even sonogram images she claimed were of her infants. She showed off a tiny nursery, a closet full of baby clothes and the tiny diapers premature newborns must wear.
She said the entire story of her children's births was being kept secret by a court order enacted because a member of her husband's family was trying to kill the Eversons and their new sextuplets.
America's Overvalued Real Estate Blog's entries are each "a nasty overpriced wreck". This one is titled Garden Shed:
Occasionally, nasty overpriced wrecks are described as "garden sheds". However, this particularly disgraceful Seattle listing might actually have started its life as a storage facility for horticultural implements. ...
And who can blame the current owner of this garden shed. Just install two windows, a door and some inside partition walls, and quicker than you can call a local realtor and say "reasonably priced starter home", he has a $375k property on the market. That is the sad reality when a city suffers from a bubble; sheds become houses, crack houses become single family homes, and beach huts become seaside mansions.
Many more overvalued properties listed! Link (Thanks Dave Birt!)
University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has this fantastic collection of 4500 full page plates and other vintage human anatomy images.
This one was a hand-colored lithograph by Nicolas Henri Jacob (1781-1871), titled "Dissection of the head and neck, cranial, spinal and sympathetic nerves", from the book Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'homme.
Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting page on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy viewed from a distance of 10 million light years and then Zooms in towards Earth in powers of ten [from 10^23 meters down to 10^(-16) meters]. If ever there was a witness to creation, these folks have captured it for our viewing pleasure!
Once you click on the site, the software does all the work. Sit back and imagine how perfect our universe is! You can play it forward and backward to be amazed over and over. At the end it says AUTO....click on that and review the process in reverse! You can also click on MANUAL and review each step of the process at your leisure.
Reminds me of the stuff I used to read in high school. Link (Thanks Tim!)
For those who don't know about captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart), it is a question used to prevent automated bots to submit a form.
Take a look at Rafita Mirabal stare down a charging 400-lbs bull with nothing but a red cape and a short sword. Oh, did I tell you he's 9 years old?
Rafita already has had about two dozen fights in bullrings since 2005, including his latest challenge on Sunday in Texcoco, just east of Mexico City.
His contests differ slightly from a regular bullfight. The animals are younger and somewhat smaller, and he does not give the matador's final death blow with his sword. The ban on swordplay isn't to protect Rafita, but rather the sport's reputation.
Yves Brun and colleagues from Indiana University discovered that the world's strongest glue is produced by the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus to stick to river rocks.
The adhesive can withstand an enormous amount of stress, equal to the force felt by a quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it. That’s two to three times more force than the best retail glues can handle.
"There are obvious applications since this adhesive works on wet surfaces," said study leader Yves Brun, an Indiana University bacteriologist. "One possibility would be as a biodegradable surgical adhesive."
But making it has proved challenging. Like a mess of chewing gum, the gunk globs to everything, including the tools used to create it.
