This busker has found a novel way of drawing a crowd. Not only is he good singer and guitarist, he's good at them while standing on his head!
-via Yababoon
John Farrier's Blog Posts
If you walk around with a glass of beer and a glass of coffee, you're more likely to spill your coffee than you beer. Why? 4 physicists think that they have an answer. Alban Sauret, Francois Boulogne, Jean Cappello, and Howard Stone recently presented their findings at a conference. Their studies suggest that the foam on the surface of beer dampens movement. The thicker the foam, the less movement and less spillage. Rachel Nuwer writes for Smithsonian:
Just as solid foam reduces noise by absorbing sound waves, liquid foam does the same for motion. The researchers discovered foam's insulating effects by performing controlled lab experiments on coffee and beer. They used high speed cameras to record the waves of motion that rocked through the surface of coffee, an amber beer and Guinness. The more foam that was present, they observed, the more energy was absorbed and the less sloshing occurred.
-via David Thompson
Portal Bikes is a not-for-profit organization that wants to help people rise out of poverty by giving them a machine with multiple purposes. That machine is a bike. The founders of Portal Bikes believe that bikes "are the most incredible invention the world has ever known." They provide transportation of people and cargo, as well as a power source.
Ordinary bikes can do this, but Portal Bikes designed a low-cost bicycle specifically to enhance the lives of the poor.
It's a bicycle, so it can transport people on the front or the back. Owners can also add panniers to provide for additional cargo-hauling capacity.
Some bicycle owners have adapted their bikes to power stationary machines. The Portal Bike has that feature built-in with no loss to the use of the bike for transportation. Whenever the back wheel is turning, so is the power take off device in the rear, which can be used to crank anything which turns, such as a grinder or a mechanical washing machine.
-via NotCot
The great question is clear: should I get a filter feeding shark cat, such as a basking tabby, because it's safe, or should I get a more hazardous shark, such as a great white calico, because it would be cool?
Brynn Metheney, an artist in Oakland, California, drew 12 shark cats for a shark cat-themed monthly calendar. You can see the other shark cats in that calendar here.
-via io9
Fluffy was an ordinary cat. Then, late one night while roaming through the neighborhood, he encountered a crashed alien spaceship. Now he can . . . do things . . . with his mind.
His power is growing every day. Soon the house cat lifestyle will not be enough for him.
From YouTube user Super Epic Cats comes the first episode of "Telekinesis Cat." Other videos in the series include "Mad Scientist Cat" and "Hover Cat."
-via David Thompson
In just a few days, we'll have one of the best holidays of the year: the Day after Thanksgiving. It's all of the good things about Thanksgiving (the food) with none of the bad things about the day (the workload and pressure).
You've got a lot of leftovers left over from the previous day's feasting. What are you going to do with them? Well, if you're like me, then you've already eaten an entire pumpkin pie while standing in front of the open refrigerator door at 6 AM before anyone else has woken up.
But Amy of the great good blog Oh, Bite It! is not like me. She wants a creative alternative to cold leftovers. So she took samples of some of the classic Thanksgiving foods, such as cranberry sauce, candied yams, turkey, green bean casserole, and stuffing. Amy placed these between 2 4-inch circles of canned crescent roll dough, then deep fried them. The result is a quick, hot meal that will increase your gravitational attraction.
Twitter user @smellyghostgirl writes, “my stepdad makes sundials that make a rainbow go thru ur house when the sun hits it and.”* Rainbow Cat brings a technicolor grumpiness to everyone he meets. Rainbow Cat, tell us the secret of eternal grumpiness.
-via Colossal
*She might mean suncatchers instead of sundials.
Late night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel and action filmmaker Freddie Wong are mortal enemies. It’s not that they hate each other so much as they are rivals when it comes to tying neckties.
Although the Full Windsor Knot is common, there are a wide variety of necktie knots, such as the Eldredge and the Cape. Yet true masters, such as Kimmel and Wong, have skills far beyond even these exotic knots.
There is a point in which necktie tying leaves this mortal plane. Gaze into a dark world presented by these two giants of the art of the necktie.
-via Geek Tyrant
Xavier Puente Vilardell is an artist in Brussels, Belgium. If you examine his wood sculptures, you’d swear that he makes them by twisting reality rather than carving wood. He says that his work reflects “a strong Mediterranean tradition, where carved holes in the wood turn into light beams caressing amazing shapes.” You can view more of Vilardell’s work here.
“Oh my God!”
“What?!”
“Do you have to make a mess?”
“Science is generally very messy. Yes, you should know that. You can’t make an omelet unless you break a few eggs.”
With that, Francis pushes forward to make his own Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew.
As we’ve recently mentioned, Pepsi is currently testing an official version of this product. But Francis doesn’t want to wait until it’s on the open market. He’s making his own and, in this video, showing how you can, too.
The recipe is surprisingly simple. There are only two ingredients. I’ll let you guess what they are. Combine them in a blender. How does it taste? Francis says, “You know that’s going to be good when you see the chunks in it.”
I recommend watching the entire video. The verbal interaction with the woman holding the camera is very funny.
-via VA Viper
Girl Scout Cookies—especially Thin Mints—are delicious! They do, however, have low alcohol content. That’s in sharp contrast to Andrea Romano and Laura Vitto of Mashable, who created this video showing you how to make shots that taste like popular Girls Scout Cookie flavors.
After making their shots, Romano and Vitto immediately consume them. So they become increasingly intoxicated through the video. Thus they follow a classical rule of videography: shoot drunk, edit sober.
-via That’s Nerdalicious!
“Hello. I’m an actor.” The man in the grey suit doesn’t pretend that he works for Nordnet, a Scandinavian bank. He makes it clear that he’s saying the words on the teleprompter because he’s being paid to do so.
This is one of several great ads for Nordnet which doesn’t pretend to reflect the actual people and setting of the promoted company. Continue reading to view more of these honest ads.
This is the JCB GT--the fastest backhoe in the world. It's a product of JCB, a British manufacturer of heavy equipment. The company built it to advertise its products at public events, such as drag races. After heavy modifications, it's been able to seize a Guinness World Record. Matthew Lucas, a professional driver, recently piloted it on a track in Bathurst, Australia. Today, Guinness World Records confirmed the JCB GT's incredible speed on that run: 72.58 miles per hour.
-via Jalopnik
The German language is famous for its long compound words. But last year, it dropped its longest word: rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. So that will not be an option while playing a German version of Scrabble.
-via Marko Kloos
(Photos: Toyota)
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, the next SpongeBob SquarePants movie, will come out in 2015. To promote it, Toyota created this custom Sienna minivan. We’ve previously seen a SpongeBob Toyota SUV, but this vehicle is even more extraordinary.
Inside and out, it’s the perfect vehicle for any Bikini Bottom resident. I especially like steering wheel, which looks like a classic sailing ship’s wheel. The jellyfishing net on the roof, though, takes the challenge out of that hobby.
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