The Schienenzeppelin, built in Germany in 1930, was a revolutionary locomotive. This streamlined metal tube was pushed by propeller in the rear:

Conceived and built in 1930 by the German rail company Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Schienenzeppelin was a design alternative to the streamlined steam locomotives of its day. It was a slippery, lightweight construction at 20 tonnes, running on but two axles, powered by a 46-liter BMW V12 which was later used to power the light bombers of the Luftwaffe. The engine’s 600 horsepower were channeled into a massive ash propeller, tilted at a 7? angle to produce downforce.[...]

Originally good for 120 mph—comparable to the fastest streamlined steam locomotives—the Schienenzeppelin topped out at a magnificent 140 mph in the summer of 1931, a speed record which stood for 23 years and which has never been surpassed by a gasoline-powered locomotive. Unfortunately, the train never made it into production. Problems with propeller safety and reliability prevented it from attaining mass production and the speed record prototype was dismantled in 1939, on the eve of World War II.

Link | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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If you think that 13-year old Rebecca Black's song "Friday" is an insipid, bubblegum pop expression of the teenage mind, you'd be wrong. Dana Vachon argues that it's actually a complex rebuttal to the artificiality of modern life:

Her cultural debt is less to Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles than Evie Vicki the robot girl from Small Wonder, we realize, as in a voice controlled by Auto-Tune she enumerates the banalities of an anti-existence: “Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs, gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal… gotta get down to the bus stop.”

She offers the camera a hostage's smile, forced, false. Her smoky eyes suggest chaos witnessed: tear gas, rock missiles and gasoline flames. They paint her as a refugee of a teen culture whose capacity for real subversion was bludgeoned away somewhere between the atrocities of Kent State and those of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the start of a creeping zombification that would see youthful dissent packaged and sold alongside Pez and Doritos.

“Look and listen deeply,” she challenges. An onanistic recursion, at once Siren and Cassandra, she heralds a new chapter in the Homeric tradition. With a slight grin, she calls out to us: “I sing of the death of the individual, the dire plight of free will and the awful barricades daily built inside the minds of all who endure what lately passes for American life. And here I shall tell you of what I have done in order to feel alive again.”

Link via Ace of Spades HQ

It's variously romantic or creepy to have someone sit in your lap. But even when it's not creepy, it gets uncomfortable after a while. So Ilian Milinov proposes this design called the Hug Chair to make lap sitting a bit more comfortable.

Link via Gizmodo | Designer's Website

Veterinary students at the University of Bristol (UK) have using their new "Breed'n Betsy" -- a machine that simulates parts of a cow's body and replaces the use of live animals for this part of veterinary training:

The metal frame simulators allow students to diagnose pregnancies, and carry out artificial insemination and embryo transfer.

Students can also use the system to teach themselves with the aid of guidance posters and have the freedom to practice whenever they want.

"Many of our students come in to try out the simulators," said Mike Steele, from the School of Veterinary Sciences.

"As a result, the first rectalling class with a new group of students is very much more successful.

"No student is in a cow for more than five minutes now and up to 90% leave the first session having felt a uterus, most differentiating whether pregnant or not."

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Product Site | Photo: University of Bristol

Alberto Salazar, a trainer of highly successful athletes, has been experimenting with new forms of physical therapy to give his clients an extra edge. One of his techniques is called the cryosauna:

The cryosauna is the latest tool, even though Salazar admits, he is still testing to understand its most effective uses. "That's how all advances are made in science and life," he said. "It's by experimentation."

The knowledge will be gained through trial and error on his elite athletes, though all agree the machine is harmless and potentially a breakthrough. Theoretically, it makes sense: a container of liquid nitrogen turns to gas and is pumped into the cylinder where the athlete stands, plunging the temperature below negative 200 degrees Fahrenheit for a short burst of time. The body believes that it is dying and rushes blood to protect its vital organs. Two minutes later, when the athlete emerges from the container, the concentrated and enriched blood rushes back through the body, providing an instant cleanse and relief.

Rupp, who has trained with Salazar since high school, views the experience practically. "An ice bath you can sit in for 20 minutes," he said. "This thing you go in for two minutes."

Link via Marginal Revolution | Image from Lexx by Salter Street Films

This is great, but it also needs a proof of purchase tab that can be cut off and mailed in for special offers. Thingiverse user dnewman used the Eggbot egg-decorating machine to draw a nutritional label on an egg.

Link via Geekosystem

An ice luge, a quick Google search informs me, is an ice sculpture which is carved so that one can drink alcohol from a channel from inside or on top of it. In this case, pour liquor into the top of the Star Destroyer model. It flows over the middle and to the front, awaiting your lips. Instructables user Incrxtc made this one from a 300-lb. block of ice.

Link via Geekologie

Redditor TheLocoYoko and his fiancée wanted to set the right mood for their wedding, and so commissioned this image for their wedding invitations. When he was asked "Are you inviting people to a wedding, or a massacre?", TheLocoYoko responded "Depends on how things go with the open bar."

Link

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From the same people who brought you The Squid Wrestler comes a new action hero: The Rug Cop. A scientific experiment gone wrong gave an aging detective amazing toupee powers. With his supernatural hairpiece, Rug Cop battles crime in the mean streets of Tokyo.

via WTF Japan, Seriously?!

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There are few problems that cannot be solved with the proper use of artillery, as these Russian soldiers demonstrate. The snow in North Ossetia is building up. So it's time to reduce the load by triggering a small avalanche. There was only one problem: they were a bit too close to the snow pile.

via Geekosystem

I hope that Google Translate is mangling this Chinese news story so much that its actual meaning is completely different that what it appears to be. Or that some reporter is playing a joke akin to April Fools' Day news articles in the United States.

That caveat (and wishful thinking) aside: it appears to be traditional in Donyang, China to take the urine left in buckets by schoolboys and boil eggs with it. "hawkers to sell the boy down the street selling eggs, street an odor, Dongyang people say that this is a taste of spring."

Link via Boing Boing | Photo: China Daily

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Hannah Hart is drunk. Or she's pretending to be drunk. At any rate, she has a webcam, a kitchen, and a hunger for a grilled cheese sandwich. Don't we all? This is a great idea for a show, but it needs spinoffs like My Drunk Metal Shop and My Drunk Day Care Center. Content warning: some foul language.

via Urlesque | Hart's Twitter Feed

Artist Jason Levesque made these nesting dolls for a show at the Rothick Art Haus. The illustrations at his blog are quite striking and worth a look.

Link via Super Punch | Artist's Blog | Rothick Art Haus

Should Twilight be among the books that everyone should read? It is according to this infographic by David McCandless of great books (according to popular surveys):

Do Top 100 Books polls and charts agree on a set of classics? I scraped the results of over 15 notable book polls, readers surveys and top 100's. Both popular and high-brow. They included all Pulitzer Prize winners, Desert Island Discs choices from recent years, Oprah's Bookclub list, and, of course, The Guardian's Top 100 Books of All Time. A simple frequency analysis on the gathered titles gives us a neat 'consensus cloud' visualisation of the most mentioned books titles across the polls. Do you agree with the consensus?

You can view a much larger version of this image at the link. My wife (a big reader) and I were just discussing this cloud, and she suggests that the list be narrowed to To Kill a Mockingbird and Nineteen Eighty-Four -- and to add King Lear, though it is not a novel. What would you add or remove from this cloud?

Link via GeekDad

In 1983, musician Dalton Stevens couldn't sleep, so he idly sewed buttons on a denim jumpsuit. This decision launched his new identity as the Button King:

In 1983 it got so bad that I got up one night and started sewing buttons on a denim suit. Two years and 10 months later I still couldn't sleep and the suit was covered with 16,3333 buttons. It weighted 16 pounds.

Things kind of evolved from that starting point. After the suite, I glued 3,005 buttons on my guitar, then I glued 517 buttons on my shoes.

When I completed the clothes, the guitar and my shoes, I went to the newspaper in Sumter, SC and then to our local paper, the Lee County Observer in Bishopville. They gave me quite a write-up. Soon after, I went to a television station in Florence, WPDE, and they aired my story too. From there I was featured on CNN and then my story went worldwide.

Stevens subsequently went on Johnny Carson and David Letterman, clips of which can be seen at the video link.

Video Link and Official Website via The Presurfer