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A sea lion blocks the path that a penguin wishes to traverse. Does he go around the enormous beast? No. He walks right over the sea lion.

via The Presurfer

+1 for original thinking and creative use of body hair. Surely this is the epitome of playful elegance in body modification.

Link (main site is NSFW) via Great White Snark

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Once you've developed robots that can feed on human flesh, the next obvious step is to teach it to juggle. This amazing robot can juggle a ping-pong ball and, very briefly, two. Moreover, it accomplishes this feat without any external sensors. The robot can't see or hear the ball. Rather, it calculates where the ball will land:

How does the robot do this? The key elements are the shape of the paddle and how the robot strikes the ball. We used mathematical analysis to learn which shape and motion would make "sensorless" juggling possible. What we found was that a slightly concave paddle keeps the ball on the plate and that a decelerating motion keeps the ball in the air.

You can read technical details about this project, dubbed "The Blind Juggler", at the link.

Link via Geekologie

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If their hands are full of packages, how can people push the button to summon an elevator? Here's one simple, but ingenious solution: lower the button to foot level so that people can push it with their feet!

via CrunchGear

This unique revolver invented by John Walch in 1859. It has two triggers and two hammers to fire two rounds that were loaded into each chamber. James R. Rummel explains how it works:

The secret to the extra firepower is what is known as “superimposed loads”. Basically, the chambers are loaded with a powder charge with a bullet sitting on top, as is normal. Then another powder charge and bullet is loaded on top of the first.

The reason this doesn’t lead to an exploded gun and missing fingers is due to the unique ignition system. There are two percussion caps for every cylinder.

The gun is equipped with two hammers, and two triggers. Both hammers are cocked at the same time, but only the right-handed trigger is squeezed to set off the first shot. Then the left-hand trigger is squeezed, the left-hand hammer drops, and the second bullet goes flying. Cocking the hammers again will cause the cylinder to revolve as per normal.

Percussion caps are supposed to create a spark to set off the powder. Notice the ring of nipples to the outside of the cylinder? Those are the caps that are set off by the right-hand hammer, the hammer you are supposed to squeeze first. They don’t have a hole which goes directly into the back of the chamber, but instead channels the spark down a little tunnel. After about an inch, the tunnel makes a left hand turn and finally emerges into the chamber.

The hope is that the extra inch traveled will mean that the spark from the right-hand trigger will set off the powder charge in front, which will send the first bullet flying down the barrel while leaving the second bullet and powder charge untouched. The left-hand trigger will cause the left-hand hammer to drop, which will impact on the inner percussion cap, and hopefully cause the second charge to ignite.

http://hellinahandbasket.net/?p=5853 | Photos: Hell in a Handbasket

Previously: 20-Shot Revolver

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YouTube user OneMinuteGalactica mashes up classic hygiene films with scenes from science fiction, such as Luke Skywalker's and Leia's first date. In this mashup, Spock is trying to overcome his problem with anger. As he will discover, only a fool fights in a burning house.

via blastr

When David Sarnoff tried to find investors to develop commercial radio in 1921, this was the response from one group of financiers:

The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?

Sarnoff pressed on anyway and eventually founded NBC and RCA. You can read nine other failed, pessimistic predictions about technology at the link.

Link via TigerHawk | Photo by Flickr user slgckgc used under Creative Commons license

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Ted Williams, a homeless man in Columbus, Ohio, has become an Internet sensation. He has an outstanding voice -- like that of a professional radio announcer. Today, redditors led the charge to get Mr. Williams back on his feet, and he's already been scheduled for local radio appearances. You can read the details at Urlesque.

Performer's Website (under construction) via Urlesque

Orville Douglas Denison thinks that telescoping ladders used by firefighters are too slow for firefighters to use effectively. So he designed a system that would lift up firefighters on something like a conveyor belt or an escalator:

In a rescue, firemen could extend Denison’s hydraulic ladder to windows as high as 113 feet. But rather than clamber up the ladder, the firefighter would hop on, and the rungs would roll up at 200 feet per minute—more than twice the average climbing speed of a firefighter weighed down by 130 pounds of gear. The firefighter would ride to a window, load unconscious victims into a rescue bag, hook the bag to the ladder, and shift it into reverse to bring the person to safety. Denison says it can now take up to 15 minutes, and sometimes several men, to carry one victim down a ladder from 10 stories. He estimates that his ladder could lower four people to the ground in less than four minutes.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-12/invention-month-easy-way | Image: Kevin Hand

It keeps going...and going...and going. Karpen's Pile, a battery built in Romania, has been providing power since the 1950s:

The prototype has been assembled in 1950 and consists of two series-connected electric piles moving a small galvanometric motor. The motor moves a blade that is connected to a switch. With every half rotation, the blade opens the circuit and closes it at the the start of the second half. The blade's rotation time had been calculated so that the piles have time to recharge and that they can rebuild their polarity during the time that the circuit is open.

The purpose of the motor and the blades was to show that the piles actually generate electricity, but they're not needed anymore, since current technology allows us to measure all the parameters and outline all of them in a more proper way.

The science behind it (assuming that it's not an elaborate hoax) challenges conventional physics:

According to some who studied Karpen's theoretical work, the pile he invented defies the second principle of thermodynamics (referring to the transformation of thermal energy into mechanical work), and this makes it a second-degree perpetual motion machine. Others say it doesn't, being merely a generalization to the law, and an application of zero point energy.

If Karpen was right, and the principle is 100% correct, it would revolutionize all of the physics theories from the bottom up, with hard to imagine consequences. Though I guess this isn't going to happen very soon, the museum still needs proper private funding to acquire the necessary security equipment required by the police to exhibit the device.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: National Technical Museum of Romania

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A book may be able to save your life. Specifically, it may be capable of stopping a bullet. Which novel of 2010 is the most protective? Is it Jonathan Franzen's Freedom? Or Joshua Cohen's Witz? Or will it be something on the high-tech Kindle? The people at Electric Literature decided to find out. Alas, they didn't address a more important question, which I leave to you: which book of 2010 is most deserving of being shot?

Official Website via Joe Carter

You may have heard of locavores -- people who prefer to eat food grown or raised locally -- or freegans -- people who dine on wasted food. Now there's a new food movement that advocates curbing the growth of invasive species by eating them. Invasivors prey upon species that are taking over the established habitats of other animals. Jackson Landers is an adherent of this movement:

As the Locavore Hunter, based in Virginia, he teaches urbanites how to hunt and butcher deer. He has branched out from the locavore life to invasives, and lionfish are one target. But as he has pushed the envelope of the invasivore approach, he has hunted and eaten feral pigs, two species of iguana, armadillos, starlings, pigeons and resident Canada geese. He says that all of these activities will be chronicled in a book, “Eating Aliens,” and perhaps a television show as well.

Mr. Landers, who grew up in a vegetarian household, taught himself to hunt. He believes that eating invasives can have a real effect. “When human beings decide that something tastes good, we can take them down pretty quickly,” he said. Our taste for passenger pigeon wiped that species out, he said. What if we developed a similar taste for starlings?

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Jackson Landers' Blog | Photo by Flickr user jon hanson used under Creative Commons license

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LEGO artist Peer Kreuger made the Stilzkin Indrik, a remarkably strong and agile vehicle that can pull heavy loads over snow. Could any reader translate the Russian text for us?

Link and Flickr Video via Jalopnik

I swear, it's real! On the rare occasions when Alex allows lunch breaks here at Neatorama HQ, we have to wear these contraptions. And even if you're not under that kind of pressure, it's always useful to have food shoved in your mouth when you're otherwise using your hands.

via Geekosystem

Tom Torrey, who previously made a TIE Fighter that looks like Charlie Brown's head, has sculpted another piece in the same theme. This one depicts Luke Skywalker after arriving at Dagobah. Snoopy is lucky that he doesn't taste very good.

Link via Comics Alliance