John Farrier's Blog Posts

Embossed Aluminum Pans



Israeli designer Idan Friedman has been experimenting with a new medium lately -- embossed disposable aluminum pans. He refers to the project as depicting "ordinary people and disposable objects." I think that it's a lovely way to take trash and turn it into art.

Link via Dude Craft | Designer's Website

Three-Sided Chess



Three-person chess, a game mentioned on by Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, is now a reality. It requires a specialized board, but other than that, you can just follow the rules at the link. Here's an overview from the creators:

The only changes from conventional chess are some protocol issues that must be followed to maintain order where the teams border each other, which is simple and necessary. Also, please notice that the trajectory lines orienting from the outer rank, are simply visual aids to help guide diagonal moves passing through the center. If the path is clear, a diagonal move starting from the outer rank can pass through the center and sweep back around to where it originated. The complexities of the third player are infinite. Your threatened piece may be allowed to maintain occupancy as your position is beneficial to the threatening player.


http://www.3manchess.com/page4.html via Geekosystem | Photo: 3-Man Chess

Official US Government Website Provides Advice on Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse

The Centers for Disease Control, an agency of the United States government, finally got with the times and decided to warn the public about the dangers of zombie attacks. Here's what the CDC plans to do during an outbreak, assuming that its staff shows up for work:

If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak. CDC would provide technical assistance to cities, states, or international partners dealing with a zombie infestation. This assistance might include consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine). It's likely that an investigation of this scenario would seek to accomplish several goals: determine the cause of the illness, the source of the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break the cycle of transmission and thus prevent further cases, and how patients can best be treated.


This sounds a trifle naïve. Anyway, the website then offers tips on how to prepare your family to live through this kind of unnatural disaster. There is one, huge, glaring oversight: no weapons. There's not a single mention of the utility of guns, machetes, and such during the most obvious time when they will be absolutely necessary to survive.

But that's probably more a job for FEMA. Maybe the CDC isn't the place to go for survival advice.

Link via Say Uncle

Portal Crosswalk



The physics of crossing the street just got more complex. I think that I'll just jaywalk.

Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Jeff Wysaski

Previously: Class Cancelled due to Portal

The Pencil Sharpener Museum



The late Paul Johnson of Carbon Hill, Ohio, collected pencil sharpers starting in the 1980s. His collection grew to over 3,400 distinct sharpeners, which he eventually housed in a shed that served as a museum. Johnson passed away recently, so the collection was moved into a regional welcome center last Friday.

The Logan Daily News reports Johnson started collecting after his wife gave him a few pencil sharpeners as a gift in the late 1980s. He kept them organized in categories, including cats, Christmas and Disneyland. The oldest is 105 years old.


Link | Photo: Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations via Flickr user queenofdesign

The End is Nigh, and It Is Beautiful



Stephanie Vetter captured this photograph of an aurora over Jökulsárlón, a glacial lake in Iceland. It won an international competition for landscape astrophotography.

Link via Gizmodo

Worm Regenerates Entire Body from a Single Cell



Planarians, a type of flatworm, reproduce by asexual fission. Cut one in half, and the missing parts will regrow until you have two planarians. Scientists have known for a while that the regeneration took place among a cluster of cells called cNeoblasts. Some wondered if was possible to grow an entire worm from a single such cell, and so performed an experiment:

Wang and Reddien harvested a single cNeoblast from one type of planarian. Then they gave a different kind of planarian, one that did not have its own neoblasts and couldn’t regenerate, a lethal dose of radiation. Its tissues started to die, from the head down toward its tail. Then they implanted the first worm’s neoblast into the tail of the second, dying worm.

They watched as the transplanted cNeoblast multiplied, differentiated and “ultimately replaced all the host’s tissues,” according to a news release from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Descendants of the single neoblast cell differentiated into neuronal, intestinal and other adult cell types, taking over the jobs of the host’s dying cells. The newly restored worm was an exact genetic copy of the cNeoblast donor. All this from one single cell.


http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/flatworm-regenerates-new-body-single-cell via GearFuse | Photo: Flickr user puuikibeach used under Creative Commons license

The X-Muppets



This would, in all actuality, be a great movie. Or at least a short film. The pairing of Wolverine and Animal is good, but Beaker is automatically funny in all things.

deviantART user Rahzzah made this image to mark the 21st anniversary of the passing of Jim Henson.

Link via The Mary Sue

Sonic the Hedgehog Tattoo



Yes, really! The post isn't mislabeled. This is tattoo of a protein named after the Sega video game character. The man with this image writes:

I got the tattoo because I am a cell biology student and love the ridiculous naming of proteins done by the geneticists which discover it. I figured, for my first tattoo, it might as well be something completely unique. I love it though, great conversation starter and very few people have any idea of what the hell it is at first glance.


Link

The Call of Pikathulhu



What do we know about this madness? Nothing, but the stark computer programming manuals beside Pikathulhu tell us enough.

via Kotaku | Photo: unknown

Tiny Homemade Skee Ball Machine


(Video Link)


Sam Seide likes making tiny versions of arcade games. His latest creation is a tabletop skee ball machine. It even dispenses tickets when you score! You can't trade them in for anything, though.

Link via Technabob

Babbage Engine Tech Support



Zach Weiner's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is consistently one of the funniest and most intelligent webcomics available. Today's, though, was especially good. A Nineteenth Century British owner of an analytical engine is contacting tech support, which apparently wasn't any better back then.

I would like to add that Mr. Weiner is a gentleman. A year or so ago, I emailed him, asking for permission to use one of his cartoons for a project at my day job. He responded favorably in literally under a minute, and even offered to track down and send a high-resolution version of the cartoon in question.

Link via Boing Boing

Previously: The World's Most Addictive MMO

Inflatable Earbuds



When using earbuds, the quality of sound transmission is impaired by the loose fit of the bud inside the ear canal. This new invention by Stephen Ambrose offers a solution:

The ADEL currently comes in two flavors — a "balloon" completely surrounding a driver unit, with the membrane replacing the entire structure of a traditional earphone, both the plastic, metal, or wooden housing and eartip; and a retrofit to existing eartips, in which small vent holes are drilled into the collar that fits around an in-ear phone's driver unit, then covered with small sections of membrane.

The diaphonic pump is a subminiature unit that can be mounted in line or on the tiny drivers used in earphones; in the balloon units it turns the otherwise wasted energy left over by the moving driver into inflation pressure to keep the membranes seated in the ear canals.


Link via Popular Science | Photo: Dan Bracaglia

Enormous Real Life Version of Angry Birds


(Video Link)


The city of Terrassa, Spain, was graced with a huge analog version of Angry Birds, thanks to a promotion by Deutsche Telekom. People stood in line to get a chance to throw soccer ball-sized birds downrange. The pigs exploded gloriously.

Link (Google Translate) via Kotaku

Winner of Beard Competition Has the Norwegian Flag and a Moose on His Face

Elmar Weiss, a longtime beard champion, has once again captured the world title for best beard. Since the competition was held in Norway, he sculpted his long beard into a Norwegian flag and a moose.

In 2005 he won with with a beard styled into the shape of Berlin's Brandenberg Gate, and in 2007 with a representation of London's Tower Bridge.

He said he had begun preparing his creation for the Trondheim event at 7am, with the help of his sister.

"When my beard isn't styled, it goes down to my waist. It is sort of folded up," he told the AFP news agency.


Link via Geekosystem | Photo: AFP

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