Yes, it's real! This surreal fusion of country line dancing and hip hop from 1995 was created by aerobics instructor Diane Horner. She says "You can even add your shoulders if you want. That's the fun thing about hip hop dancing."
Christiaan Van Vuuren became a viral video star when he produced a rap video while under quarantine for drug-resistant tuberculosis. His quarantine lasted longer than he expected, so he produced a second video. Thankfully, Van Vuuren is now home from the hospital after living there in isolation for six months:
His spoof clips and comedic raps about his time in hospital - about 13 of them have been posted to YouTube - have been viewed nearly 1.5 million times and van Vuuren's online celebrity even got him a regular gig on prime time national news in New Zealand, rapping the news of the day.
Asked how he felt about his imminent departure from hospital, van Vuuren said he was "buzzing". His clear test results only came back on Friday.
"I'm just pumped to get home and sleep in my own bed, breathe fresh air and enjoy some of the sunlight ... I'm just excited to get back into life in the real world again," he said in a phone interview.
An ambigram is a word that can be read from a different orientation. Typographer John Langdon designed this tattoo that says "art & science" from one direction and "philosophy" upside-down.
Here at Neatorama, we've previously written about a few inventive campaigns by the Dutch advertising company DDB. That firm once turned a subway stairwell into a piano, used zombies to promote cholesterol awareness, and made gorilla attack-proof glasses. One of their more recent efforts touted the effectiveness of a certain line of refrigerators by suggesting that they could preserve meat as old as the dinosaurs.
In the 60s and 70s, various recreational vehicle manufacturers mounted small motorhomes on the Volkswagen Beetle chassis. It was called the "Bugaroo" or "Beetle Minihome":
The MiniHome is a tour de force of ergonomic design and space-saving ingenuity, if one can get past the stereotypical 70s Harvest Gold & Avocado Green interior color scheme – the decor is up to the buyer, at least. At 125 inches long, 79 inches wide and 73.25 inches high, the camper offers copious living space that includes a full-size bed in the cabover section. Other VW RV amenities include a slide-out butane stove and stainless steel sink (above), a 50-lb icebox and a closet.
Web Urbanist has a large gallery of pictures and links to technical information about these unusual RVs.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel developed a computer program that they think can detect depression among bloggers. To test their hypothesis, they scanned 300,000 English-language blogs and had clinical psychologists read the subjects that the computer indicated were depressed. The psychologists agreed with the computer 78% of the time:
"The software program was designed to find depressive content hidden in language that did not mention the obvious terms like "depression" or suicide," explains Prof. Neuman. "A psychologist knows how to spot various emotional states through intuition. Here, we have a program that does this methodically through the innovative use of 'web intelligence.'"
For example, the program spots words that express various emotions, like colors that the writer employs to metaphorically describe certain situations. Words like "black" combined with other terms that describe symptoms of depression, such as sleep deprivation or loneliness, will be recognized by the software as "depressive" texts.
A mandala is a geometric design with special spiritual connotations in various Buddhist and Hindu traditions. The creation of sand paintings in the form of mandalas is a high art among Tibetan Buddhists. In the above time-lapse video, you can watch monks compose one over six days at Emory University:
Sand mandalas have been in practice for thousands of years, according to Tsepak Rigzin, assistant program director for Drepung Loseling and an adjunct Tibetan language instructor at Emory. Monks use a grated metal rod and a traditional metal funnel called a chak-pur to carefully place millions of grains of colored sand on a table.[...]
There are hundreds of colorful mandala designs to choose from, Rigzin said, but they all share a basic format of geometric shapes and spiritual symbols.
“Normally the monks who do this, they have to go through a lot of training programs and they have to be authenticated by their masters,” Rigzin said. “They have to memorize the oral texts and learn the ritual.”
Following their traditions, the monks wiped away the sand painting within an hour of its completion.
Artist Robert Tabor made this shoe that looks like a sandwich. It's called "Brisket Flip Flop" and was made with "Dyed foam form for flip flop decorated with, various, fabrics, trims, and crystal rhinestones."
Paul the octopus lives in an aquarium in Germany. His keepers use him to predict world cup winners by placing food in two containers marked with the flags of the competitors. Whichever he chooses first is more likely to win:
His keepers say he correctly predicted nearly 70% of Germany's results during the 2008 European Championship.[...]
"Paul's prediction was phenomenal," said aquarium spokesman Tanja Munzig.
"He swam straight over to the German glass, climbed in and even put a lid on top once he was sitting inside."
The octopus, which was born in the UK and was moved to the German aquarium, has become a national celebrity after correctly predicting Germany would beat Australia in their opening match, then lose to Serbia, and then beat Ghana.
Rachel Mount is an accomplished cake artist in northwest London. She made this cake that looks like an ashtray. Sorry, that's all the information that I can find. But you can browse her website to view more marvelous designs.
The legend of Dracula was inspired by the 15th Century Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler. Researchers at Ancestry.com recently discovered that Robert Pattinson, the actor who plays the sparkly vampire Edward in the Twilight series, is related to him:
Researchers at Ancestry.com discovered that Pattinson and the Transylvanian leader (real name: Vlad III Dracula) are connected through their relationship to the British royal family. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson's distant cousins; Vlad the Impaler was their distant uncle.
"Tracing Pattinson's family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga," said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. "Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson's life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he's playing on screen."
Link via Nerd Bastards | Images from Geek Tyrant, photo of Robert Pattinson originally from Summit Entertainment
Haim Breitbart, a medical researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has developed a drug that will temporarily incapacitate sperm cells in mice.
So far, the new pill dubbed the Bright Pill (a play on Brietbart's name) has been tested on animal models in a pre-clinical setting, and has been found to work wonderfully on mice. "What we found is that by treating the mice with our molecule we can get sterility for a long period of time; in the lower dose, about one month, and in the higher dose we found three months of sterility.
"Later on the male mouse can become fertile. It's reversible," he promises.
Provided in pill form, but also tested as an injection, the male birth control solution was administered in two treatments over three days: One day on, one day off, one day on. In the larger dose group, it took about a week until the effects manifested themselves, but most importantly, the treatment does not appear to in any way affect the sex drive or the sexual behavior of the mice who received it.
http://www.israel21c.org/201006238085/health/a-birth-control-pill-for-men via Popular Science | Image: NIH
Yale University researcher Laura Niklason and her colleagues grew rat lungs in a lab. They then implanted those lungs into rats, and the rats successfully breathed. This is the first time that animals have been able to breathe with lab-grown lungs:
The team started with decellularized adult rat lungs, which retain the organs' branching airways and blood vessel network, and added a mixture of lung cells from newborn rats. Niklason says that the crucial step was nurturing the would-be lungs in a bioreactor that circulates fluid—simulating what would happen during fetal development—or air through them. The cells stuck to the scaffold in the right locations and multiplied. After up to 8 days in the bioreactor, they had coalesced into what the researchers' tests indicated was functional lung tissue.
To determine whether the new organs worked, the researchers removed rats' left lungs and stitched in lab-grown replacements. X-rays showed that the implanted lungs were inflating, though not fully. Tests of gas levels in blood flowing to and from the replacement organs showed that they were taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide at 95% of normal efficiency.
The rats managed to survive for two hours with their new lungs. Video at the link.
British cat Oscar lost his hind feet to a harvester. But doctors have been able to attach prosthetic replacements:
In a three-hour procedure, the veterinary surgical team inserted the pegs by drilling into one of Oscar's ankle bones in each of his back legs. The implants, which are attached to the bone at the amputation site, were coated with hydroxyapatite to encourages bone cells to grow onto the metal.
The skin then grows over a special "umbrella" at the end of the peg to form a seal against bacteria and potentially fatal infections. The peg protrudes through the bone and skin, allowing the custom-built artificial paws to then be securely attached.
Oscar was trying to stand a day after the surgery and, despite some problems with infection, he was able to bear weight equally on all four limbs within four months.