The planned UNESCOSat mission -- a UN-owned satellite that will conduct low-gravity experiments -- will examine whether or not the Shewanella MR-1 bacterium can convert human feces into a fuel that can be used on long-range spaceflights:

The goal is, to put it bluntly, to see if Shewanella can convert astronaut feces into hydrogen for use in onboard fuel cells. "The bacteria generates hydrogen. If we give waste to bacteria, it converts to hydrogen that could be used in a fuel cell. We're looking at how reliable the bacteria are," explains Donald Platt, the Program Director for the Space Sciences and Space Systems Program at the Florida Institute of Technology. Shewanella's viability will be determined based on its growth rate in space--figuring out, in other words, how different its life cycle is in space than it is on Earth.

Link | Image: Fast Company

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The design shop Casual Profanity made a dress out of hollow tubes. It fills intermittently with glow-in-the-dark fluids. The dress itself is not really practical, but this video is particularly well-made and was a finalist at the Vimeo Awards in the category of "Captured".

via Technabob | Designers' Website

This Lalique decanter holds 1.5 liters of Macallan whisky. This rare combination recently sold at auction for about $460,000:

The Macallan, founded in 1824, is produced at a distillery near Easter Elchies House in north east Scotland's Speyside whisky region.

The Lalique decanter was created using the "cire perdue" or "lost wax" method.

Before the auction, the whisky was taken on a 12-city "tour du monde" to build up interest and raise funds for charity: water, an organisation that provides access to clean, safe drinking water for people in developing nations.

Link via Born Rich | Photo: BBC

Previously: The Most Expensive Whiskeys in the World

Comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has declared today to be National Unfriend Day. It's a time to go through your list of friends on Facebook and delete people who aren't really your friends:

Kimmel used his show on November 11 to declare today National UnFriend Day [NUD] -- a new holiday he hopes will inspire Facebook users to unfriend their social-networking contacts that aren't real friends.

"NUD is the international day when all Facebook users shall protect the sacred nature of friendship by cutting out any 'friend fat' on their pages occupied by people who are not truly their friends," the show's website states.

Link via Geekosystem | Photo by Flickr user West McGowan used under Creative Commons license

Previously: Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend

Wafaa Bilal, a professor of photography at New York University, plans to have a camera surgically implanted in the back of his head. When his project his completed, it will stream images to museum visitors:

For one year, Mr. Bilal's camera will take still pictures at one-minute intervals, then feed the photos to monitors at the museum. The thumbnail-sized camera will be affixed to his head through a piercing-like attachment, his NYU colleagues say. Mr. Bilal declined to comment for this story.

The artwork, titled "The 3rd I," is intended as "a comment on the inaccessibility of time, and the inability to capture memory and experience," according to press materials from the museum, known as Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Bilal's work would be among the inaugural exhibits of Mathaf, scheduled to open next month.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Associated Press

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Afrotech Forums user Dr. West made a functional touchpad out of a piece of paper with graphite rubbed on it:

There isn't much to explain here. It just uses pencil graphite on paper as a kind of two dimensional potentiometer. Four voltage dividers between 5v, 2M ohm resistors, the paper, and my grounded finger feeds signals from each corner into an Arduino. The Arduino does some insufficient math and spits out mouse coordinates that are not linear.

http://afrotechmods.com/forums/index.php/topic,8501.0.html via Geekosystem

French designer Pierre Stephane Dumas has created a set of inflatable tents that he hopes will change the way that people go camping:

But they are far from the traditional camping trip - decked out with wardrobes, shelves and electric lights, the bubbles look more like a movable hotel room than a regular tent.

Launched this year, the structures can be now be hired out at sites across France for around £400 pounds a night.[...]

He explained: 'Having a night under the stars or seeing the sun rise and set is not something that many people experience anymore.

'A normal tent or camper van means people miss out on these things.

'So I designed this eccentric shelter with the aim of offering an unusual experience under the stars while keeping all the comfort of a bedroom suite.

Link via Geekologie | Photo: Solent News and Photo Agency

For several months after the US entry into World War II, Americans feared air raids or even invasions of the continental United States by Germany and Japan. An article in the March 2, 1942 issue of Life magazine suggested several possible invasion routes that Axis forces might take. These include a Germany landing at Norfolk, Virginia supported by fifth columnists hidden in the US. At the link, you can view maps of a few other fanciful scenarios.

Link | Image: Time Warner

You could sharpen your own pencils, but who would want to go to all the effort? Send them to David Rees of Artisanal Pencil Sharpening, and he'll whittle them to perfection and return them to you with the shavings and a certificate of authenticity:

This is how Rees' artisanal pencil sharpening works: You might send him your favorite pencil, but Rees more often selects and sharpens a classic No. 2 pencil for his clients, he promises, "carefully and lovingly." He slides the finished pencil's very sharp tip into a specially-sized segment of plastic tubing, then puts the whole pencil in a larger, firmer tube that looks like it belongs in a science experiment. Throw it at a wall, he says, and it won't break. The cost? $15.

Rees lives in New York's Hudson Valley, a region full of tiny vineyards and cheese makers and old-school butchers and bookbinders. It's a place where people take the time to create things by hand.

Rees is also known for his political cartoon franchise called Get Your War On.

Link via Fast Company | Company Website | Rees' Website | Photo: Meredith Heuer/LA Times

Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic Air, lost a bet to Tony Fernandes, the owner of Air Asia. Consequently, he must serve as a flight attendant on an Air Asia international flight:

Branson made the wager with Lotus racing team principal Tony Fernandes , who owns Air Asia, over which of their Formula One teams would go better this season.

The loser had to serve as a "stewardess" on the winner's airline.

Although neither of the men's teams scored a point in their debut season, Lotus slightly outperformed the Virgin.

Fernandes said today "it's time for Richard to start preparing himself for some hard work and the likely pain of a pair of high heels."

The date of the Kuala Lumpur-London flight has yet to be set, but seats will be auctioned off and money given to Branson's chosen charity.

Link | Photo: Reuters

This unknown cosplayer is dressed as a hat worn by Jayne Cobb, a character on the TV show Firefly.

Oh, He robbed from the rich
and he gave to the poor.
Stood up to the man
and he gave him what for.
Our love for him now
ain't hard to explain.
The hero of Canton
the man they call Jayne.

via Great White Snark | Image: Fox

Previously: If Firefly Had Been Made in the 80s

This excellent image captured by NASA shows astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson gazing out of a window on the International Space Station. It was taken last September. Dyson, a chemist, went into orbit on April 2, 2010 and remained on the station for 174 days.

Link via DVICE | Photo: NASA

Software engineer Skytee made a steampunk-style bandwidth meter. He (she?) calls it the TorrentMeter:

I got a 1908 voltmeter in a brass housing, about 20cm (8in) in diameter. It had a resistor made from a wire wick. The gauge's internal resistance without that is now about 67 ohms, eats up 150mA when the handle is at full scale, and wants about 10V. That's too much to be driven directly by a micro controller. A switching amplifier, made from a couple parts, shall help.

Link via Make

The finish is crude, but that just adds to the charm. Anyway, the concept is brilliant: an eternal fountain of warm gravy. Instructables user turkey tek rigged this arrangement based on a peristaltic pump powered by an electric drill.

Link via J-Walk Blog

Scientists in Taiwan discovered that placing gold nanoparticles in plants made them glow, which could turn them into an effective form of nighttime illumination:

By implanting the gold nanoparticles into the leaves of the Bacopa caroliniana plants, the scientists were able to induce the chlorophyll in the leaves to produce a red emission. Under a high wavelength of ultraviolet light, the gold nanoparticles were able to produce a blue-violet fluorescence to trigger a red emission in the surrounding chlorophyll.[...]

“In the future, bio-LED could be used to make roadside trees luminescent at night. This will save energy and absorb CO2 as the bio-LED luminescence will cause the chloroplast to conduct photosynthesis,” Dr. Yen-Hsun Su said in an interview with Chemistry World.

Link via Popular Science | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Irargerich used under Creative Commons license