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This video is College Humor's foray into the realm of anti-smoking public service announcements. It turns out the cost to society for smoking is much, much worse than cancer and smelly carpets.

Via Geekologie

The Micro Butterfly RC plane manufactured by Plantraco weighs just a fraction of its heavier counterparts used by RC plane hobbyists. A durobatic foam body and carbon fiber batteries bring this 32mm wide plane up to only 2.6 grams.

Link via Oh Gizmo!

Earthquake-prone Japan has a market for these suits that you strap onto your cats and dogs so that they can survive for days after a major earthquake. Each suit contains all of the necessary gear including water, biscuits, aromatherapy oils, and rubber foot pads, all contained in the pockets of a flame-resistant coat.

Link (in Japanese) via Rinkya via Popped Culture

These drones include both aerial and surface craft intended for clandestine operations:

* Sea Stalker, a torpedo-size underwater robot that specializes in snooping on radio signals and other communications. “The [concept] is to launch these from submarines at night,” Kenny said. “They will transit to offshore, anchor, put their antennas out and begin collection. Ideally you would have a series of these … to cover different ports or hotbeds of terrorist activity. And then you would collate that information on board the ship.”

* Scan Eagle, the 45-pound aerial bot that has seen heavy use by the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kenny says Special Operations Command is looking at boosting Scan Eagle with extra fuel and sensors — and maybe even weapons, like the Air Force’s armed Predators and Reapers. It seems Scan Eagle is launched from a sub’s deck while she is surfaced, but that could change. “We’re looking at launch and recovery from an SSGN payload tube to allow clandestine close-in operations,” Kenny said.

* BUSTER, a 15-pound UAV that Kenny says is particularly useful when working with foreign armies. “We’ve … done some very successful operations with allies, doing foreign internal defense, training them to operate this vehicle.” The allied armies launch BUSTER from land, while the submarine “pull[s] in the full motion video and the infrared, correlate[s] it and fuse[s] it in our battle management centers on board.”

The picture above is of the Sea Stalker. [Correction on 8.3.09: It's the Sea Stalker by General Dynamics and is unmanned, but is a surface, rather than subsurface craft. Thanks, AeroNut!]

Link

Previously on Neatorama: The Navy's Armed Sea-Bots

(YouTube Link)

Last night, Miss Cellania linked to a video of a five-year old boy playing Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" very well.  Pop culture blog Urlesque took this idea and ran with it, compiling ten videos of children, aged three to ten, performing rock songs.  The above video is of an eight-year old boy playing "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix.

Link

Hasbro could greatly expand its market if it made My Little Ponies like these two based upon the violent video game Gears of War. And it would probably capture the true meaning of what it means to be a My Little Pony.

Link (where there are also Legend of Zelda and Iron Man-themed My Little Ponies)

Previously on Neatorama: Star Wars-Themed My Little Ponies

Would you like to keep your departed loved ones in an urn on the mantle? How about in an urn that looks like the deceased person's head? Cremation Solutions makes personalized urns using facial reconstruction and 3D mapping software.

Link via Oh Gizmo!

The safest place is keep your money is to stuff it into your mattress. Or, alternatively, this mattress-shaped piggy bank which received no TARP funds and comes complete with a miniature pillow.

Link via Nerd Approved

(YouTube Link)

Ever played the children's board game Mouse Trap? These Britons decided to build a life-sized version in order to raise money for a hospice:

"Over a few pints a group of friends decided it would be a great idea to build a life size replica of the Mousetrap game... and here it is – The complete giant Mouse Trap day at the Lamb pub in Surbiton. We raised over £2000 for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice... brilliant day..."

Here's a video of the construction phase of the project:

(YouTube Link)

Via Urlesque

The fastest submarine in the US Navy can go only 25 to 30 knots. But the Electric Boat Corporation, the primary designer for US Navy submarines, is trying to design one that can reach up to 100 knots. It plans on testing a 1/4 scale model off the coast of Rhode Island next year:

The sub utilizes the phenomenon known as supercavitation. Supercavitation is the process wherein an object moves so fast through the water that it creates a gas bubble around itself, nearly eliminating drag. Unencumbered by the high drag of water, the object is free to speed along at much higher speeds than otherwise possible. Supercavitation has been known since the end of World War Two, and the Soviets succeeded in creating a torpedo that utilizes supercavitation for high-speed travel, but so far no one has succeeded in scaling the effect up to the size of a whole submarine.

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/darpa-readies-ultra-fast-mini-sub

Some jobs could be done by a trained monkey.  So it's all the more impressive that an untrained monkey on a farm in India herds 75 goats out to and back from the fields every day. National Geographic reports:

Martin K, Estate Manager- "She takes out the goats for grazing and brings them back. A shepherd is usually required to accompany the goats all day long and bring them back in these hills. But because of her, manpower can be spared. She is as good as a shepherd. The only thing is that she does not speak, but otherwise carries out all responsibilities."

They say they feel confident that the goats will be safe when Mani accompanies them.

Mani is said to make a strange sound when she discovers a goat is missing or when danger lurks.

There's a (non-embeddable) video of the monkey at the link.

Link

image by flickr user eirikref used under creative commons license

The Sahara Desert is growing, consequently reducing food production in the area and therefore inducing poverty. But architect Magnus Larsson has an ambitious and fanciful plan to use bacteria to create a calcite wall on the desert's southern edge:

Bacillus pasteurii is commonly found in wetlands, and is able to chemically create calcite. By unleashing the bacteria on areas of the desert, sand could be solidified into sandstone within a few hours. The way Larsson proposes to do this is fill massive balloons with bacteria and station them along the Sahara's southern border, where the weight of the oncoming waves of sand would pop the balloons. The released bacteria would then quickly set up a protective wall to block future sand shifts.

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-07/preventing-expansion-sahara-bacteria-built-walls

Sarah Kaufmann carves sculptures out of blocks of cheese. A native of Wisconsin who studied art and worked in the dairy industry, she was born for this work. The picture above is of Kaufmann and her sculpture of Neil Armstrong. Click the link for a video of the artist in action.

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Official Website

Scientists have conducted research which suggests that cats may have paw preferences:

Psychologists from Queen’s University Belfast in North Ireland, in a study published in Animal Behaviour, conducted a series of experiments on 42 kitties to discover if they are left- or right-pawed.

In two of the experiments, in which the cats had to reach for a toy mouse, the kitties were ambidextrous. But in the third experiment—in which bits of tuna were placed in a jar for a cat to fish out—showed a definite paw preference: 20 out of 21 female subjects used their right paw, and 20 out of 21 male subjects used their left.

Link

image by flickr user cjc4454 used under creative commons license

Researchers have found in Vietnam what they believe to be the world's largest cave:

By contrast, explorers walked 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) into Son Doong, in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, before being blocked by seasonal floodwaters—and they think that the passage is even longer.

In addition, for a couple of miles Son Doong reaches more than 460-by-460 feet (140-by-140 meters), said Adam Spillane, a member of the British Cave Research Association expedition that explored the massive cavern.

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