Justin Shaw loves the GeoChron, a clock that shows night and day changing across the world. But it's far too expensive for him to purchase, so he made his own. Read his instructions at the link if you'd like to build one, too.
Social scientists at the World Values Survey asked people around the world "Do you think most people would try to take advantage of you if they got a chance, or would they try to be fair?" Responses varied widely in different countries. Click on the link to view a larger version. Do the results match your own impressions?
Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, was presented with this mechanical marvel in 1785. It's a machine in the form of a lady playing a dulcimer. The lady isn't just decorative, but an essential part of the musical performance. Be sure to watch the whole video to see other amazing automatons from the same time period.
Nishant Jethi learned that the house sparrow population has dropped due to a decline in proper nesting space. His response to this problem was to build little birdhouses sized just for them. They's shaped like letters so people can spell out words with them.
Michael Colombo spotted a man on a New York City train wearing this tattoo. He said that it's a schematic for a guitar amplifier circuit. Colombo notes that such tattoos, no matter how they might look now, could be very useful to a post-apocalyptic society that needs to preserve knowledge. If you were to get a tattoo for this purpose, what information would you preserve?
Building and maintaining the tennis venue at Wimbledon is expensive, so starting in the 1920s, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club sold bonds to investors. But buyers don't get money; they get tickets. They can sell these tickets freely on an open market and thus earn a profit:
The club has issued these since the 1920s to finance development. But instead of paying cash coupons, like regular bonds, Wimbledon debentures pay interest in something much more valuable: tickets.
Holders get one ticket for each day of the Wimbledon tournaments during the five-year life of the bond. And here is the kicker: If you don't feel like going on any given day, you can sell it—legally.
"They're the only tickets that are freely tradable on the open market," says All England Finance Director Richard Atkinson. "You are free to sell them to anyone you like."
Maximo Riera, the man who created the Octopus Chair, has created more pieces in the shapes of animals, including this walrus. Perfect location in my view: front reception room for a major corporation. Give people the right impression as soon as they walk in.
This Japanese-language video appears to show a man making room for himself on busy sidewalks with a bicycle bell. He doesn't have a bicycle with him -- just the bell. But when he rings it, pedestrians stand aside anyway.
Two years ago, I posted about the Apache, an unusual weapon consisting of a folding knife, handgun, and knuckleduster made in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This weapon appears to be an earlier -- or at least more primitive -- version of that concept. It's a knife with a single-shot percussion pistol. There's a crown marked into the steel, but otherwise, its origin is a mystery.
http://www.tortugatrading.com/engine/inspect.asp?Item=2664&Filter=Arms,+Armor -via The Firearms Blog | Photo: Tortuga Trading
In the new Blu-ray version of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader cries out "No!" as he kills the Emperor. CineWeekly thinks this is the new Wilhelm scream, and therefore added it to many classic movies, from Casablanca to Dumb and Dumber.
That's not bark, but coins driven into the surface of a tree! In several locations in the UK, people have stuck coins into "wishing trees". Colossal has a picture roundup of these oddly lovely trees and The Guardian provides some historical information about the practice, which apparently dates back to at least the Eighteenth Century.
It's Monday. Get up and go to work. This would normally be a tedious and regrettable exercise, but not if you live inside Freddie Wong's head. So get going and hit the first save point before your boss notices that you're late.
Is it a creek, a run, a stream, or a brook? Or something else entirely? Across the contiguous United States, people use different names to describe small bodies of running water. Derek Watkins made this map showing the toponyms used in different regions. Click on the first link to view a larger version.
41-year old Gregory Kloehn lives in a dumpster. But it's not that bad! This artist in Berkeley, California, has modified his dumpster with running water, electrical power, a stove, an oven, and a toilet. Kloehn's home will be on display at San Francisco's Fringe Festival through September 18.
