John Farrier's Blog Posts

iPhone Sausage Stylus

iPhone styluses (stylusi?) can be difficult to operate while wearing gloves, which can make winter use challenging. In South Korea, some inventive users have begun inserting the stylus into sausages and then holding the more manageable sausages. The link is to a Korean-language news source run through Google Translate.

Link via Popular Science | Photo: News 24

The Best Inventions by Professor Frink of The Simpsons

Professor John I.Q. Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr. is a character on The Simpsons. He's a socially inept scientist and inventor known to proclaiming nonsensical words when he's nervous. On the show, he often produces inventions of questionable utility and scientific rigor. Dan at McLOL has compiled a list of some of Frink's more absurd inventions, along with sound files from the show demonstrating their use. A few samples:

Hamburger Earmuffs

If you think inventing the Hamburger Earmuffs was easy you’d be GLAYVENLY wrong. The dear professor had problems like “the pickle matrix” to contend with, something Homer didn’t think of when he tried to steal Frink’s invention.[...]

Debigulator

Uses this invention to shrink Lisa so she can mingle with the tiny people who worship her as their God. (Eedle-blay!)
But when Lisa needs to return to normal size…(Hoyvin Mayvin!)


Link via Digg | Image: FOX

The Advanced Technology of Competitive Sailing

In The New York Times, Henry Fountain has an article exploring how the ancient technology of sailing gets very cutting edge in high-value competitions, such as America's Cup:

“You have to understand the aerodynamic principles well and how to apply them,” Mr. Drummond said. “If you have the skills to design an airplane, you have the skills to design a yacht. Now we could have a good crack at a windmill.”

Load-shifting can be done with more traditional sails, too, by changing their shape, which is accomplished in part by having a flexible mast. But even with technology — one system uses image-recognition equipment to “read” lines on the sails to see if they match prescribed curvatures — shape-changing is difficult. It is easier with a solid wing.

Alinghi 5 uses traditional sails, but that is not to say it is any less innovative than BMW Oracle’s boat. It has a flexible mast, one that is nearly 200 feet tall, and some of the biggest sails anywhere. Like most advanced racing sails, they are a sandwich of polyester film sheets with a filling of carbon fibers providing strength. The fibers are laid out in radial lines calculated to match the loads, and where the fibers come together in areas of maximum stress the sail has a distinct look, as if it has been dusted with ashes.


Link via CrunchGear | Photo: flickr user ramonbaile, used under Creative Commons license

A New Armored Wall to Replace Sandbag Emplacements



The traditional stacked sandbag emplacement of armies around the world may be on the way out. This new portable system called McCurdy’s Armor can be assembled by soldiers with no tools and provide solid protection from small arms and bombs:

The armor can be set up in a variety of arrangements (U-shaped, J-shaped, etc.), and in instances where troops are worried about armor piercing rounds a second layer of armor can supplement the structures. But the walls aren’t just a protective cocoon for far-flung outposts; ballistic windows offer protection while giving Marines a line of sight and the ability to fire downrange, meaning McCurdy’s Armor can be deployed as both a defensive stronghold as well as a tactical firing position.

When it’s time to pull up camp, Marines can quickly break down their ersatz stockade, stack it back in their vehicles and move on to fortify the next position without leaving a single thing behind. Just try pulling that off with sandbags.


http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/new-armored-wall-system-could-replace-sandbags-marines-afghanistan

The Evolutionary Origins of the Sweet Tooth

In an interview at The Smithsonian, evolutionary biologist Jason Cryan explained why humans generally have predisposition to sweet foods and a disinterest in bitter foods:

The evolutionary explanation for the sweet tooth revolved around that idea that we have physiologically associated a sweet taste with high-energy foods which would have helped our earliest ancestors survive better in their environment (getting more “bang-for-the-buck”….if an individual has to spend time and effort foraging for food, it’s better to obtain energy-dense food items than energy-poor food items). When one considers our ability to taste, our ability to perceive “sweet” is relatively weak, while our ability to perceive “bitter” is generally considered much stronger (in fact, the strongest of our taste reception, on average). Perception of “bitter” is thought to be an evolutionary strategy of quickly identifying plants that contain potentially harmful toxins (produced as secondary plant compounds). Thus, evolving a low tolerance to “bitter” and a high tolerance to “sweet”‘ might have promoted our ancestors to actively seek out sweet tasting foods.


Cryan also notes that all animals that have been tested favor sweet foods -- except for cats. Cats may have lost the ability to taste sweet foods due to a wholly carnivorous diet.

Link | Photo: US Department of Health and Human Services

Cooking With Liquid Nitrogen


(YouTube Link)


Here is a video of chef Ferran Adria preparing an alcoholic sorbet using liquid nitrogen. This is an experimental food preparation technique also used by American chef and Food Network star Richard Blais, who recommends it as a way of impressing a date:

"You don't need to know any fancy techniques to make a dish with liquid nitrogen. This is the ultimate science-guy-who-wants-to-impress-someone-but-is-fudging-it recipe:

1. Buy your favorite ice cream at the store.
2. Let it melt (in its container) on the counter.
3. Pour the melted base into a stand mixer.
4. Let it whip, and while it's doing that, slowly add in the nitrogen.
5. When is it ready? When it's ready! Look for the same consistency as regular ice cream.

"You can even use liquid nitrogen to clean up after the meal. Sprinkle some on the floor and it collects all of the particles. It's easier than a vacuum.

"Will the goggles kill the mood? Not if your girl is into the sexy-nerd look. Hey, while you're at it, throw on a lab coat with nothing underneath.


Link via Digg

10 Fake Simpsons Words That Belong in the Dictionary

In 2001, the Homer Simpson expression "Doh!" was entered into The Oxford English Dictionary. Jeff Wysaski of guyism proposes that ten invented words from The Simpsons should be likewise formally incorporated into the English language. Example:

Embiggen: To make bigger or grow in size; a perfectly cromulent word

This graceful word can be attributed to town founder Jebediah Springfield. As the town motto goes, “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” The word is used repeatedly throughout the 7th season episode in which all of Springfield comes down with a major case of Jebeditis (another excellent candidate for this list) during the town’s bicentennial celebration. Adding credibility to the word is the fact that it has appeared in numerous scientific publications since the episode aired.

Simpsons fans can’t think of “embiggen” without thinking of the other fake word used to describe it: cromulent. Clearly, this word should be included on this list as well – if it weren’t for the fact that the Webster’s American dictionary added it to their “New Millenium” edition a few years ago. The official definition: fine, acceptable.


Link via Digg | Image: Fox

Greatest Possible Food: A Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito Stuffed Sausage Log Wrapped in Bacon



Today is a sad day for enterprising cooks, for the greatest possible food has now been invented. What could possibly surpass this invention by Smoking Meat Forums user Fire it up?

Link via Geekologie

Codependency Suit



It's often cute when couples dress in matching outfits. Artist Nonaine took this practice a step further with her Codependency Suit. It can be two separate outfits, or it can join together into one. At the link, you can see similar shirts and hooded capes that couples can use to bind themselves together.

Link via GearFuse | Artist's Website

Three-Legged Bear Walks Upright


(YouTube Link)


This video shows a wild bear with three legs. Presumably it was born without a front leg or lost it later in life. The bear gets up on his hind legs and walks like a human. Is it real or fake?

via Urlesque

Man's Internal Organs All Back-to-Front

Situs Inversus is a rare birth defect in which a person is born with organs facing backwards. A patient in India may be the only living person known to have the affliction:

In Mr Shivnani's case, they discovered the aorta and inferior vena cava, which pump clean blood in and impure blood from the heart were reversed. He also has two livers.

"While operating we were supposed to know the exact location of everything that we are going to touch. But in this case we were not sure which veins were entering where," Dr Prakash Sanzgiri told the Times of India.

Surgeons also found he had no small intestine and three vessels supplying blood to his infected kidney.


Link | Information about Situs Inversus | Image: US Department of Health and Human Services

T-Shirt War

(YouTube Link)


T-Shirt War is an impressive stop-motion film by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. It depicts two men using alternating images on their shirts to battle and irritate each other. Paul Overton of DudeCraft predicts "If this thing isn't a meme already, it will be soon." I think that that's a safe bet.

via DudeCraft | Official Website | Behind the Scenes Video

Surgically Implantable Bra

Three years ago, Gail blogged about a bra implanted inside human breast tissue to take the place of an external bra. Plastic surgeons have greatly developed this idea since that time. So far, 600 women have undergone the surgery:

Conceived by South African plastic surgeons and currently being performed in Europe, the Internal Bra System is a breast-lift operation that places a mesh-like material inside the breast to support the new shape.

The cone-shaped material, named Breform, is similar to what is used in hernia operations. It's meant to take the strain off the skin, which after a traditional breast lift can begin to stretch and sag in three years, according to The Daily Mail.

"Breform is like a bra cup without the straps," plastic surgeon Dalvi Humzah told The Daily Mail. "Over time, the mesh gets incorporated into the breast as the body produces a fibrous tissue that holds the structure in place - like a permanent bra under the skin."


Link via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: Breform

Melted Candle Wax Lampshade


(Video Link)


The Impossible Lamp is a work of craft and film by Jeeves Basu. It begins with a large wax candle sitting atop a clear plastic lampshade. Basu and his team had the difficult task of melting the wax so that it would drip over the mold, but cooling it before it could drip off. This time-lapse video shows how they did it.

Link via Urlesque

Guess That Highway Sign



German photographer Josef Schulz traveled across the U.S., taking pictures of highway signs. He then photoshopped out the text, leaving only the shapes and colors. The series is called "Sign Out." Can you guess what company the sign represents? More at the link.

Link via Fast Company

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Profile for John Farrier

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