(Photo: AJ Guel)

It's basic science: magnets with similar poles repel each other. So to reduce concussion injuries in football, install magnets in football helmets. When 2 players collide, the magnetic push will help soften the impact between the helmets and the trauma to human brains inside.

That's the proposal put forward by Raymond Colello, a neuroscientist. Every year in the United States, 1.2 million people play football, resulting in about 100,000 concussions. Colello thinks that small but powerful magnets could significantly reduce the number of football concussions. Kate Baggaley writes for Science News:

Colello, of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is testing magnets made in China from the rare-earth element neodymium. They are the most powerful commercially available magnets and weigh about one-third of a pound each (football helmets weigh from 3.5 to 5.5 pounds). When placed one-fourth of an inch away from each other, two magnets with their same poles face-to-face exert nearly 100 pounds of repulsive force.

Colello tested his magnets with the same procedure that the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment uses to evaluate football helmets. He placed magnets on the front of a weight and let it drop from various heights onto another magnet. The heights Colello tested (between 6 inches and 4 feet) represent the impact forces athletes normally experience on the playing field.

“At 48 inches, if you dropped a standard helmet and it hit a stationary object, it would create 120 g’s of force,” says Colello. “With the magnets we drop that below 100 g’s.”

-via Uproxx

(Photo: Simply Saxony)

Servers can get hot, so data centers generate a huge amount of heat. If left unharvested, that energy goes to waste. That's why some companies are marketing systems that will let you heat your own home with a cloud server. For example, the German firm Cloud&Heat makes cloud servers that are attached to home water heaters. As the server operates, it heats the water in the tank. Evan Ackerman writes for IEEE Spectrum:

The idea is that you’d buy and install one of these cabinets for about the same cost as a conventional heating system, and hook it up to your ducting, water system, electricity (3 phase at 400v), and Internet (at least 50 Mbit/s). Cloud&Heat pays for the Internet connection and the power required to keep it running, and you get as much warm air and hot water as the servers in the box can produce, free of charge, as it quietly performs cloud computing tasks.

It’s a good option for the server company, too, because the distributed network makes the data safer:

Meanwhile, Cloud&Heat doesn’t have to worry about much of the datacenter infrastructure costs that are typically associated with cloud computing platforms. It also gets access to a very well distributed network, which helps to insulate it against some hardware and software issues. Cloud&Heat will cover all maintenance (and liability) for 15 years, and data security is probably not as much of an issue as it might seem: the cabinets are locked, the data are stored redundantly, and everything on the disks is encrypted.

-via Marginal Revolution

(Video Link)

Refurb the cat is missing a hind leg--one that a cat might normally use to scratch her neck. That doesn't stop her from trying, though! Her phantom limb does the job.

When she's not scratching or playing with her human or canine friends, Refurb (that's short for "Refurbished") raises money for animal shelters. That project began last year when a Something Awful forum member paid a $10 donation to an animal shelter in exchange for a paw print autograph. Other people in that forum and on reddit wanted paw prints, too. Together, they raised about $1,000 for animal shelters.

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Photos: US Navy)

Life on a ship of the United States Navy is busy. The sailors and Marines have a lot of work to do, even when far away from combat zones. But sometimes, the crew takes a day off to enjoy the pleasures of a beach--one made of steel.

When a naval vessel throws a picnic and swimming party, it's called Steel Beach. Tyler Rogoway of Jalopnik has a lengthy post, with more pictures and a video, about this tradition.

Many amphibious warfare ships have submersible well docks. This feature permits a ship to load and launch landing craft at the shore. But the crew can also keep the dock doors closed while submerging the deck, creating an enormous indoor pool.

The US Navy is officially dry. There's no alcohol drinking permitted on board. Yet, on rare occasions, the captain of a ship may announce a Beer Day. Crewmen of age may partake of 2 beers. You can read more about Beer Day and the Steel Beach at Jalopnik.

Sacha Goldberger, a photographer, always puts a playful spin on his work. In the past, we've seen him create lively portraits of his nonagenarian grandmother as a superhero, as well as reveal her unusual friendship with a chicken.

More recently, Goldberger added a classical flair to your favorite characters from science fiction and fantasy movies and comic books, including Boba Fett, Captain America, and Catwoman. They're dressed and posed in the artistic styles of the Dutch Renaissance. Goldberger calls the series "Super Flemish."

(Photo: University of Iowa Libraries and Special Collections)

In 2011, James L. "Rusty" Hevelin bequeathed his collection of approximately 10,000 science fiction fanzines to the University of Iowa. It is a treasure trove of artifacts from popular culture going back to the 1930s. Many of these fan-written magazines feature hand-drawn art. The collection is a record of the development of science fiction that is not duplicated anywhere else in the world.

Soon, these fanzines will be available to anyone who has a computer with an internet connection. The University of Iowa Libraries, which holds the Hevelin Collection, will digitize the roughly 10,000 fanzines. After scanning them and placing the files online, you'll be able to peer into a lost world of imagined worlds. You can follow the library staff's progress here.

-via Lawrence E. Forbes

(Photo: Stephen Ausmus/US Department of Agriculture)

Carrots are not naturally orange. We see orange carrots often simply because some varieties have been bred that way.

In 2004, the Agricultural Research Service, a division of the US Department of Agriculture, created this image to encourage people to eat more carrots. The premise of the marketing ploy is that people will be more interested in carrots if they're visually appealing. An orange carrot may escape your attention, but a purple one won't!

-via Twisted Sifter

J.R. Nicholson, 85, is a rancher in Mason County, Texas. Last week, he suddenly experienced chest pains. Brian Wright, one of his ranch hands, summoned an ambulance. The ambulance crew drove him toward a hospital in Fredericksburg. 

At about 20 miles along that journey, a driver flagged down the ambulance and told the crew that a dog was on one of the running boards of their vehicle. Buddy, a beagle mix, had decided to follow his owner, Nicholson, to the hospital. Michelle Gaitan writes for the Standard-Times:

“We didn’t have anything else to do but to load the dog up and put him in the ambulance and take him to the ER with us,” Brown said.

Brown remembers making the run out to Nicholson’s ranch in October after Nicholson’s ranch hand Brian Wright called for an ambulance. Nicholson had told Wright he felt dizzy and asked to go to the hospital. […]

Wright described Buddy as a playfully curious dog who likes rides on the tractor back on the ranch.

“It was kind of funny. We were inside and he had jumped onto the control switch and turned on the sirens and the lights,” Brown said as they were inside the emergency room. “We didn’t know what was going on.”

Nicholson was released from the hospital the same day.

-via IOTW Report | Photo: AP Photo/Tanner Brown

20 years ago, 6 friends in Los Angeles met in the home of one them. Someone snapped this photo.

7 years later, the boys were getting ready to go off to college. They liked the old photo and took another one in the same positions.

13 years after that photo, the 6 of them--still close friends after all these years--gathered together to make the photo again and to reminisce about old times and new. They are, from left to right, Matt Gruber, Joel Atia, Mykil Bachoian, Kevin Opos, and Ben Danon. Aviv Edelstein is in the front. Redditor downwarddawg took the photo and posted in on reddit.

Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post interviewed the 6 men about their wonderfully long-lasting relationship. When asked to explain the longevity of their relationship, Mykil responded:

I think the longevity of our friendship stems from the fact that we grew up together and have seen each other's growth and progress at every stage in life from about age 8. We are all from the same community and have common interests and backgrounds that overlap with one another. This makes it much easier to relate to each person's individual experiences, because certain things do not need to be explained to one another since we all have a shared understanding of the history that brought each person to any given point in life.

They're fortunate to have each other.

(Photo: Kent Blechynden)

It's not a good idea for future business, right? But the managers of the Island Bay Playcentre in Wellington, New Zealand think that auctioning off a vasectomy will help raise money right now.

The operation normally costs about $316 USD. Dr. Shane Dunphy, who has performed about 1,000 vasectomies, will inflict one to the winner of the auction. Matt Stewart writes for Stuff:

The voucher is valid until June but features a caveat - no frozen peas included, which is commonly applied by patients to reduce swelling.

Widely hailed as "hilarious" on the centre's Facebook page, the surgical auction item sparked some lively discussion including this gem from a mum to a dad: "Just saying, 2 c-sections later, now it's your turn."

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

P.S. My wife comments, "I wonder if they've picked the parent they really want to win."

What did they put into your food?

"They"? Yes, you know: them. Your enemies.

You can make yourself safer by preparing your own food. But if you eat out, then you can't be sure that they didn't add a their own flavors to your meal, such as broken glass or human hair.

With the Magnifying Spoon, you've a chance of detecting contaminants in your food. Object Solutions, a design firm consisting of Ernesto D. Morales, Chris Maggio, and John Wilson, designed this tool that lets you peer into your food with greater clarity than ever before.

(Video Link)

It's a magnifying lens built into a spoon. Before you chow down on your chowder, peer inside. With the Magnifying Spoon, "you may be the victim of needless contamination, but you'll be damned if you're ever caught eating it."

-via Nag on the Lake

Don't That John! is my ongoing series of daring experiments that push the envelope of culinary science and, dare I say, human achievement. In the past, I've made a taco pizza, a Taco Bell Doritos taco smoothie, and a French toast Reuben Nutella Elvis sandwich. Today, I decided to make a pizza.

But not just any pizza. Pizza is wonderful, of course. But so are Rice Krispie treats. So I made a pizza that had a Rice Krispie treats for the crust.

Other people have made Rice Krispie treat "pizzas" in the sense that they have made Rice Krispie treats decorated with candy so that they look like pizzas. But I want a meal--a pizza meal.

This week, humanity reached out and landed a probe on a comet. This was an unprecedented event brought about by great intellect, daring, and determination. In the same spirit and initiative that made the Philae lander possible, I offer to you the Rice Krispie treat pizza.

Paul O'Rourke of Allstar Ink in Limerick, Ireland made this amazing tat. If you ever meet the man who owns this ink, resist the temptation to try to reach through his arm in the hole that O'Rourke installed. Despite all appearances, it's not a radical new type of body piercing.

-via io9

(Photos via Traverly)

Yes, this is a real product. Shiro Cosmetics, a company that produces "hand-crafted makeup and geekery," offers this eye shadow. It doesn't just make you look like actor Nicholas Cage. It will specifically make you look like him raking leaves on a brisk October afternoon.

Shiro Cosmetics' other colors include Turkey Coma, a variety of Avengers colors, and one mysteriously named What's This Lever Do?

That's the color for me!

Microsoft offers a wide array of tests that computer users can take in order to demonstrate their competency with Microsoft products. These users can then list those certifications on their resumes in order to impress perspective employers.

One of the more demanding exams is the Microsoft Certified Professional. At 5 years old, Ayan Qureshi of Coventry, UK became the youngest person to ever successfully complete that exam. He's now 6. His father, an IT consultant, introduced Ayan to computers when he was 3. He found that Ayan could remember anything that he taught him on the subject. Gurvinder Gill writes for BBC News:

"I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he explained.

"Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity."

Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.

He spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system and how to install programmes.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: BBC News