A research team led by Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposes that hospital patients be given gowns that match their skin color when they're admitted. Changes in that color during the stay, contrasted by the gown as a constant, could alert caregivers to a decline in patient health:

Human eyes evolved to see in color largely for the purpose of detecting skin color changes such as when other people blush, Changizi said. These emotive skin color changes are extremely apparent because humans are hard-wired to notice them, and because the background skin color remains unchanged. The contrast against the nearby "baseline" skin color is what makes blushes so noticeable, he said.

Human skin also changes color as a result of hundreds of different medical conditions. Pale skin, yellow skin, and cyanosis – a potentially serious condition of bluish discoloration of the skin, lips, nails, and mucous membranes due to lack of oxygen in the blood – are common symptoms. These color changes often go unnoticed, however, because they often involve a fairly universal shift in skin color, Changizi said. The observer in most instances will just assume the patient's current skin color is the baseline color. The challenge is that there is no color contrast against the baseline for the observer to pick up on, as the baseline skin color has changed altogether.

Link via Digg | Photo: CDC

(YouTube Link)

The opening to last night's episode of The Simpsons parodied "Tik Tok", a song by American pop singer Ke$ha (that's how she spells it). Featuring Groundskeeper Willy brushing his teeth with a bottle of Jack.

via Comics Alliance | Another Tik Tok Parody

RC car maker Losi has released what's being called the most advanced radio controlled car ever built. The Ten-T has a single-cylinder 3.4 cc gas engine that burns a mixture of methanol, nitromethane and lubricant and provides 1.8 hp. It has dual disk brakes, front and back, and adjustable suspension. Even though it's only 18 inches long and weighs just 6.2 pounds, it's built like a race car. Eric Adams of Popular Science has all of the details:

With the Ten-T you just hit "start" on the remote. That turns on the car's own electric motor, powered by a 7.4-volt lithium-polymer battery. The motor turns a starter shaft behind the engine, which spins the crankshaft until the engine's suction draws in fuel. Meanwhile, the battery also lights a glow plug, similar to a spark plug, in the engine. The plug's hot element, combined with the compression of the fuel-air mixture when the piston rises, ignites the fuel. Then the plug keeps glowing, and the fuel keeps burning, until you're ready to call it quits.

Article Link and Manufacturer Link | Photo (unrelated) via flickr user SteelCityHobbies used under Creative Commons license

This famous photo by Nick Ut of the Associated Press was shot on June 8, 1972, after South Vietnamese forces used napalm on an area where they suspected Communist forces were hiding. The little girl in the center, Kim Phúc, and the terror that she expressed in photo came to symbolize the war in the eyes of many Americans.

Kim Phúc was badly burned and suffered permanent nerve damage. She tried to study medicine when she grew up, but was forced drop out in order to become a propaganda tool of the Vietnamese government. Later, she was able to begin medical studies in Cuba. While traveling back from Cuba in 1992, her plane stopped in Canada to refuel. Kim and her husband used the opportunity to defect, and they became Canadian citizens in 1997.

In the years since she's escaped, Kim Phúc has spoken to thousands of US veterans, established a foundation to help children hurt by war, and served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace. In the links, you can read a biography of her and read or hear her life in her own words, courtesy of NPR.

Biography and Personal Narrative via Ace of Spades HQ | Images: AP and CBC, respectively

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Why would anyone want to get hit the face with a cupcake fired out of a 120 psi cannon? Wrong question. The correct question is: why wouldn't everyone want to get hit the face with a cupcake fired out of a 120 psi cannon?

The above video is a viral advertisement for Johnny Cupcakes. The cannon was built by Kamp Grizzly, a marketing studio in Portland, Oregon.

Link via Gizmodo

(Video Link)

The Facade Printer is a computer-controlled paintball gun. It was developed by the German design group Sonice Development GmbH and can paint images onto a wall:

It consists of a two-axis turntable and a print head which is powered by compressed air. The printer shoots the picture dot by dot from a remote distance on a selected surface. Particularly inaccessable, formatless and uneven surfaces can be printed on. For example a building can be printed from the street, without having a complex scaffolding.

Gallery and Technical Info (in German) via GearFuse

(YouTube Link)

It's called the "Better Marriage Blanket" and is supposed to absorb noxious bodily odors. The advertisement claims that the carbon fabric lining of this blanket keeps flatulence beneath the covers. It also suggests that the blanket would make a great wedding or anniversary gift.

http://www.bettermarriageblanket.com/ via Geekologie

We've previously featured the optical illusions of artist Leando Erlich. One that we've missed is this installation at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan. It looks like a swimming pool, but is actually two sheets of acrylic with a few inches of water between them. Visitors to the exhibit at the lower level appear to be walking around at the bottom of a swimming pool. More pictures at the link.

Link via DudeCraft | Artist Website | Museum Website

No, it's not a picture of Neatorama's corporate offices (we don't get a mobile shower unit). It's an office design proposal by artist, designer, and inventor Steven M. Johnson. He has all sorts of creative if questionable suggestions to improve everything from cubicles, to RVs, to bedroom slippers.

His Nod Office, for example, is an ingenious piece of furniture that integrates a bed into a desk. Who among us has not wished for such a thing? He takes the idea of integration further — much further — with concepts such as Road Office (“for those wishing to catch up on work at the roadside … or [in a] traffic tie-up,” he says), the Treadmill Workstation (now that’s productivity!), and any number of mobile workspaces, such as the chauffer-driven executive suite or the Real Life Vehicle, an SUV that features rotating seats, pull-out computer stations, file cabinets, and laundry facilities.

At the link, there's a thumbnail gallery of his work, an article about him, and if you keep scrolling down, an interview.

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/work-life/searching-for-value-in-ludicrous-ideas.html#/images/dm/issues/work---life/articles/rv/rv_1.gif via Fast Company

(YouTube Link)

Researchers at Tohoku Gakuin University in Japan have developed a robot that stays balanced on a ball, even when it's pushed or heavy loads are placed on top.

Three independent rotors spin to keep the robot's balance atop the ball, and it can move in any direction, using an "omniwheel" akin to the one under Honda's U3-X.[...]

Dynamically stable robots like this one are better than static bots, which use three or more wheels, researchers say.

They can have smaller bases, allowing them to navigate tight corners. And their omnidirectional abilities allow them to quickly go in any direction without having to turn around.

via Popular Science

I've sat on this story for a week because it seemed like an obvious hoax. But Prahlad Jani, who claims to have consumed no food or drink for seventy years, has spent six days in a hospital in India under strict observation:

So far, Mr Prahlad appears to be standing up to scrutiny. He has not eaten or drunk any fluids in six days, and similarly has not passed urine or a stool in that time. He remains fit and healthy and shows no sign of lethargy. Doctors will continue observing him for 15 days in which time they would expect to see some muscle wastage, serious dehydration, weight loss,and fatigue followed by organ failure.

It is common in India for Jains and Hindus to fast, sometimes for up to eight days, without any adverse affects, as part of their religious worship. Most humans cannot survive without food for 50 days. The longest hunger strike recorded is 74 days.

Link via technabob | Photo: AFP

Congratulations to Denmark, which uses less toilet paper than any other Western nation:

The problem of toilet paper waste has been brought to the forefront of the media through a comprehensive, worldwide usage study by watchdog organisation World Watch, which said that each Dane uses a meagre 13 kilos of toilet paper annually – a figure at the ‘bottom’ of those for the western world.

On the flip side, Americans – the world leaders in TP usage – go through a whopping 23 kilos each per year. That figure is equivalent to using 57 squares of a roll each day.

Link via Ace of Spade HQ | Image: CDC

deviantART user orscobrusco specializes in origami. He's put pictures of impressive pieces in his gallery, such as this cobra. It was made from a single sheet of paper with no cuts or glue. Here's his description run through Google Translator:

Original model of the undersigned, created in '98.
This in particular is made of paper "elephant skin" patterned wet-folding, sheet starting about two meters long. The paper has been applied to the wounded colored with a dark wood stain and ink.

Link | Gallery

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We've seen a cat riding a Roomba. Now here's a soft-shelled turtle doing it. He doesn't appear to enjoy it as much.

via Geekologie

(YouTube Link)

Israeli artist Paz Bernstein uses a Wacom tablet to create speed paintings of people that he meets on Chatroulette. This video is a compilation of some of those encounters.

via Urlesque | Artist's Website

Previously on Neatorama:
Chatroulette Surprise
Chatroulette Piano Player Improviser