Look at the picture. When the man moves his joystick to the left, the helmet on the girl's head pulls her left ear, signally that she should go left. When he moves his joystick to the right, the opposite occurs.
Thomas Ricker of Engadget speculates about the most obvious application for this device from Kajimoto Laboratory: a navigation aid for the blind. With a GPS system added, it could be used to give the visually impaired greater independence.
Uterus transplants have been thus far unsuccessful because the transplanted uteri do not maintain a blood supply strong enough to keep a fetus alive. But now British medical researchers may have solved that problem. The Guardian reports:
They have worked out how to transplant a womb with a good blood supply which could mean it lasts long enough to carry a pregnancy to term.[...]
Their most recent study involved five donor rabbits and five recipients, which were operated on at the Royal Veterinary College in London.
Five rabbits received a womb using a "vascular patch technique" which connected major blood vessels, including the aorta.
Of the five, two rabbits lived to 10 months and examinations after death showed the transplants were a success.
Link via Discover | Image: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Sam Hart wrote a love song for his cat entitled "Kitty Song." Then he sang it to his cat while stacking 61 objects on top of him. Most of them are just playing cards, but others are quite large. You can find the lyrics to the song at the YouTube link.
In this issue of the webcomic Dresden Codak, Aaron Diaz pokes fun at the contrived plot devices of movie makers, such as the Reverse MacGuffin and the Double Shyamalan. My favorite is the Unreliable Reader -- a counterpart to the Unreliable Narrator. Click on the link for a larger image.
Animator Noam Raby expressed his love for the webcomic xkcd and the many interests of its artist, Randall Munroe, in this one minute music video. Raby and Munroe have previously collaborated on another animated video entitled "Letting Go."
In his new book Manthropology, Peter McAllister argues that human physical strength and endurance have deteriorated over time. John Mehaffey writes for Reuters:
Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.
Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.
McAllister blames technology that, for all the good it has done, has reduced the physical demands of human existence. Even our comparatively recent ancestors could best us:
* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
* Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 meters or more (the current world javelin record is 98.48).
Artist Soomi Park created a LED rig that gives the user the appearance of having glowing eyelashes. Here's her motivation:
An LED Eyelash project is brought into the world to find an answer to this simple question: Why do women want larger and bigger eyes? In particular, Asians tend to have stronger needs for bigger eyes as a standard of beauty.
Since relatively few Asians are born with big eyes, those without can only look for alternative ways to make their eyes look prettier - i.e., larger. They have a repertoire of skills to make their eyes look enlarged: makeup, jewelry, and plastic surgery. Their desire for bigger eyes are almost obsessive in that so many women look to plastic surgery in order to make their dream come true. Soomi calls this, the fetish of Big Eyes.
Mexican firm Decano Industries has developed a speed bump that remains in place when a vehicle that is moving too quickly is about to drive over it, but retracts when a slow-moving vehicle approaches. Christ Hawley writes in USA Today:
"With this speed bump, people will feel rewarded for obeying the law," says Carlos Cano, the company's president.
The technology is relatively basic: The speed bump is formed by two steel plates that form a triangle sticking out of the pavement. When a car tire touches the plate, a patented device under the triangle measures the force of the impact.
If the tire's impact is gentle enough — that is, if the vehicle is traveling slowly — both plates immediately collapse into the ground under the weight of the car.
Un Trou a la Place du Coeur (A Hole in the Place of the Heart) is a short sand animation film by David Myriam. He writes that it describes "When the violence of individuals generates the birth of an unverifiable collective monster." Run time: 3 minutes.
Gay Wilkinson likes launching iron anvils high into the air. He's not entirely sure why and has a lot to say about how men and women respond differently to his hobby.
Anyway, he places one anvil on top of another and fills the reservoir in between with gunpowder.
Next Wilkinson herds the crowd to a spot about 50 feet from the loaded anvils and delivers a well-rehearsed introduction. "It'll be loud, but ya won't hardly remember that 'cause there'll be so much else goin' on," he says. "There'll be a slight second of fear after that anvil goes shootin' up and starts comin' back down. It'll look like it's going to land on top of you. It won't. Unless you hear me yell, 'Run!' Then you might wanna move.
"Now, some of you might be wonderin'," he continues, "'Why in the heck we would want to do somethin' like this?'"
"Because we can?" guesses a middle-aged man sporting a camouflage baseball cap.
"That's exactly right!" Wilkinson says with a mischievous smile. "It's a whole lot of fun! People talk about the joy of sex, but it don't last nothin' like shootin' anvils."
Illustrator Bryan Christie specializes in transforming "complex ideas into compelling images", especially scientific or technological ideas. One of his recent works is this chart of the human exploration of Mars, organized by country, date, type, and successfulness. Click the link for a larger view.
It seems like everyone is getting into the green lifestyle movement, even a (legal) bordello in Berlin. Mary MacPherson Lane writes for the Associated Press:
One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door.
"It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire.[...]
To qualify, customers must show the receptionist either a bicycle padlock key or proof they used public transit to get to the neighborhood. That knocks the price for 45 minutes in a room, for example, to euro65 from euro70.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlIiLLfdOc5pjZNExqpkFyICzpOgD9BC7KH00 via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: flickr user keepwaddling1
Artist Jimmy McBride makes quilts inspired by stunning astronomical photographs, such as this depiction of galaxy M64. It's currently on display at the City Quilter, a quilt shop in New York City. McBride writes:
they say in space, "no one can hear you scream." well, they can't hear the low drone of the internal power generators kick on again when you're half way to nowhere. i can. i work for a shipping company called "intergalactic transport." i travel back and forth from rock to rock carrying those two all important gems- salt and vinegar. there's a lot of time to kill up here so i downloaded a grandma program and she's been teaching me how to quilt. there's no "log cabins" or "poinsettias" around so i just stare out the window until something catches my eye. it's nice every once in a while to shoot the shit with a fellow traveler, or get caught up in the new dawn celebrations in the outer rim, but mostly it's just me; with a lot of time on my hands.
Artist Brian Kappel creates art from an alternate universe where robot aesthetic needs are respected. Beyond obvious propaganda posters like the one above, you can find advertisements catering to the robot market as well as more heroic depictions. Wynter Holden writes in the Pheonix New Times:
Take Bastard Rat, for example. Modeled after a vintage advertisement, this mock billboard for Tin Man Pest Control depicts an ominous black robot sporting a metal funnel cap, à la The Wizard of Oz, above a rat with Xs for eyes. The slogan reads "no heart, no problem." I laughed so hard that my eyes watered. But underneath the humor, there's an insidious message. Kappel has created a robot-dominated world in which the human attribute of compassion is non-existent. Sound familiar? Lefty Lucy, in which a sexy girl-bot poses for the naughty "All Chrome Revue," and Loose Lips, Kappel's robot-era take on the Nazi posters (which encouraged silence through intimidation), are two other sardonic standouts.
Researchers at Western Washington University wanted to test how alert cell phone users were of their surroundings compared to the general population. So they dressed a student as a clown and had him ride his unicycle around campus:
The observers asked walkers if they had noticed anything unusual, and for those who didn't, they asked specifically if they had seen the unicycling clown. Even when directly asked, the cell-phone users were less than half as likely to notice the clown as those listening to music players or single individuals without any electronics. People who walked in pairs were the most likely to see the clown.
"So it's not the conversation that's the problem; it's not an electronic device that's the problem," Hyman told LiveScience. "It's something about a cell phone conversation is where the problem is."
He speculates, as do other researchers, that when talking to someone in person you both can modify your conversation based on the environment, so if a clown, say, pops up you can both look up. "That's not the case with the cell-phone conversations," Hyman said.
