Do you spend hours, if not days at a time playing video games without leaving your seat? If so, you're running the risk of acquiring Swamp Ass. Nathan Fillion, AKA "The Captain", is here to warn you of its effects. Don't let Swamp Ass happen to you or someone you love. -via reddit
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution [...]
But the North Dakota Constitution does not require that the Governor and other executive officers take such an oath. John Rolczynski, 82, of Grand Forks, spotted this problem sixteen years ago. Since that time, he's argued that North Dakota's 1889 admission into the union is invalid. It remains a territory, not a state:
Finally, somebody listened. State Senator Tim Mathern introduced a bill fixing the mistake that will be put to voters this spring. The happy historian, now confined to a nursing home with Parkinson's disease, told the local news team Valley News Live that he was "glad that I was able to see this thing corrected."
Medical researchers have discovered that an inexpensive deworming pill that has been used in Africa for more than 25 years can kill mosquitoes. The medicine, known as ivermectin, is effective for only a month. So it's necessary for everyone in a region to take it at the same time. But when administered that way, the incidence of malaria can drop by 80%:
They vacuumed mosquitoes from the walls of huts in three villages whose inhabitants had recently been given ivermectin and three whose had not, and tested to see how many mosquitoes contained malaria parasites.
The ivermectin villages had almost 80 percent fewer.
The drug was shortening the mosquitoes’ lives, explained the lead author, Brian D. Foy, a Colorado State mosquito expert. Only older insects transmit malaria, since they must get it from humans first.
Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo by Flickr user wild_turkey5300 used under Creative Commons license
Chris Bray and his father were able to watch the launch of both the first and the last space shuttle missions, thirty years apart. For the last one, they decided to recreate their poses from 1981. Link -via DVICE | Photo used under Creative Commons license
Christopher Rozzi's Tiny Confessions is sort of like Post Secret for monsters, pets, and pop culture icons. Check out his cartoons for Frankenstein's monster, the beast from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a fortune cookie. Link -via Flavorwire
The annual Jell-O Mold Competition was held in Brooklyn about a week ago, and the winning works are even more impressive than those from the 2010 competition. Take a look at amazing gelatinous versions of dentures, cups of espresso, a pancake breakfast, and more. Link -via New Jovian Thunderbolt | Photo: Francesca Signori
Roger Tullgren of Hässleholm, Sweden needs to listen to heavy metal music while he works. Mind you, that's not wants to, but needs to. It's such an essential part of his life that it's been classified as a disability, entitling him to special dispensation by employers:
The ageing rocker claims to have attended almost three hundred shows last year, often skipping work in the process.
Eventually his last employer tired of his absences and Tullgren was left jobless and reliant on welfare handouts.
But his sessions with the occupational psychologists led to a solution of sorts: Tullgren signed a piece of paper on which his heavy metal lifestyle was classified as a disability, an assessment that entitles him to a wage supplement from the job centre.
"I signed a form saying: 'Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style. This puts him in a difficult situation on the labour market. Therefore he needs extra financial help'. So now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper," he said.
The manager at his new workplace allows him to go to concerts as long as he makes up for lost time at a later point. He is also allowed to dress as he likes and listen to heavy metal while washing up.
http://www.thelocal.se/7650/20070619/ -via Marginal Revolution | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user AnnieGreenSprings used under Creative Commons license
That's not modeling clay. The LEGO minifig is surfing on a cloud of ink in water, captured in a moment by photographer Alberto Seveso. His series entitled Ink Riders includes several other examples, which you can view at the link. Link -via Colossal
Educated Guess, a wine produced by Roots Run Deep Winery in California, summarizes the wine making process on its label. Running clockwise from the top-right corner, you see sucrose conversion, sulfide production, bleaching with sulfur dioxide, its relationship to wine quality, and the formation of acetylaldehyde.
wyliewalcyzkracing doesn't go into much detail, but he links the loss of his beloved Chevrolet Camaro with his upcoming divorce. This is tragic because the car, he asserts, has superior features and performance to his wife. He goes into great detail on this point:
Read the rest of his comparison at the link. Link -via MArooned
In 1989, YouTube user phreakmonkey acquired a 1964 Livermore Data Systems Model A Acoustic Coupler Modem. It was one of the first modems ever made. Watch him use it to load Wikipedia on his laptop! The video begins with some historical and technical information. You can skip ahead to about five minutes into the video to see him login.
Everything that you know about natural disasters is wrong. Every calamity, from earthquakes to hurricanes, is actually caused by giant Street Fighter characters in the sky.
I don't have any information about this video, but it clearly show a man who's mastered his trade. He flattens pieces of dough and throws them about twenty feet away to a co-worker, never missing the target at which he never even directs a glance. -via Ace of Spades HQ
Vermont will soon have statewide broadband Internet access, in part due to the labors of a horse delivering cable to remote areas. Fred and his human Claude Desmarais have lately been working seven days a week on the project:
As Desmarais murmured a signal, Fred tugged a length of cable from a mammoth truck-mounted reel. With a pull, the cable rose to a lineman, who looped it through a "lasher," or a device that slides along the aerial line. By this method, the new cable was linked up to it as Fred ambled along.
The Belgian horse was outfitted with an old-fashioned draft harness and, attached behind that, an iron whippletree, which is a mechanism used for pulling.
