Lately, I've been trying to get an essay published in a scholarly journal. Maybe I have a chance with this one! The Journal of Universal Rejection, hosted by Pacific University, offers a timely response and permits simultaneous submissions. Editor Caleb Emmons writes of the advantages of his publication:

You can send your manuscript here without suffering waves of anxiety regarding the eventual fate of your submission. You know with 100% certainty that it will not be accepted for publication.

There are no page-fees.

You may claim to have submitted to the most prestigious journal (judged by acceptance rate).

The JofUR is one-of-a-kind. Merely submitting work to it may be considered a badge of honor.

You retain complete rights to your work, and are free to resubmit to other journals even before our review process is complete.

Decisions are often (though not always) rendered within hours of submission.

A four-issue subscription costs £120 per year.

http://www.math.pacificu.edu/~emmons/JofUR/ via Marginal Revolution

Artist Jon Jackson has lived his entire life in Los Angeles, but has decided to move to New York City to further his career. He's saying goodbye to his city, or rather, breaking up with her. So Jackson put up 5 billboards expressing why it's important that they both move forward and start seeing other cities.

Link via Nerdcore

Why is dinner taking so long? Aren't you supposed to be faster than this? Crafter Bethany makes, among many other projects, superhero and supervillain aprons. Featured characters include Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, and Dark Phoenix.

Link via Geek Crafts

deviantART user Pe-u offers this take on Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. One commenter speculates that the matron at the right is Captain Marvel, but I'm inclined to think that it's supposed to be Superman.

Link via Popped Culture

Previously:
The Birth of the Bride of Frankenstein
The Birth of the Golden Girls

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While spending only $5 for the necessary modifications, Douglas Desrochers gave a rocket helicopter blades which it could use to make a smooth descent:

The HeliRocket is propelled by a standard model-rocket engine, but instead of the engine’s ejection charge deploying a parachute, it releases the rocket’s 3 tail fins. The fins then swing up into a helicopter blade configuration, which slows the rocket’s descent by converting much of its kinetic energy into drag and angular momentum (spin).

Link via CrunchGear

This. Is. Kamino!

Artist Jon Wollack crafted this helmet as a wedding gift for a friend. It sure beats a china set.

Link via Geekosystem

A restaurant in Tuscon, Arizona, plans to sell tacos made with lion meat starting in February:

Boca Tacos y Tequila says it's accepting prepaid orders for African lion tacos, to be served starting Feb. 16. Orders must be placed by Feb. 7 and owner Bryan Mazon says there are already a few reservations from curious customers.

Mazon says his restaurant started offering exotic tacos on its menu every Wednesday about six months ago and has tried "just about anything we can get our hands on."

According to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and other game meat can be sold as long as the species isn't endangered.

The lion tacos will be sold for $8.95 each.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo by Flickr user Smudge 9000 used under Creative Commons license

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A kangaroo kicked a man into a pond. That is all.

via Home on the Range

What? You're still using ordinary ice from a freezer? How gauche! Proper people only drink cocktails mixed with gourmet ice. Fortunately, there's a who slew of companies that now prepare and sell luxury, hand-crafted ice:

Gourmet ice, often heavily filtered and hand-cut to guarantee the optimal amount of dilution, has officially become part of cocktail culture. Sasha Petraske, who in 2000 reinvigorated the New York bar scene with his speakeasy Milk & Honey, is considered by many to be the father of designer ice in the U.S. Since then, bars around the country, from Bar Agricole in San Francisco to Philadelphia's Franklin Mortgage Investment Company, have followed suit, creating cocktails that feature market-fresh ingredients, small-batch bitters, and large blocks of beautiful ice.

Link via Althouse | Photo by Flickr user Kyle May used under Creative Commons license

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Last month, I linked to the above video and wondered how this beer dispenser could work. My guess was that the dispenser pushed open a perforated hole in the bottom. Now we have a confirmed explanation:

The cup features a small hole at the bottom, covered up by a circular magnet. Pressurized beer lifts the magnet up, filling the cup until the weight of the beer on top of the magnet pushes it back down, sealing the bottom. This system is not only faster (serving 56 draft beers in a minute), but minimizes spilling, to the joy of sticky-footed concert-goers everywhere.

Josh Springer, head of GrinOn, was originally developing a pitcher with a latch on the bottom, but when it turned out that would cost $30,000 to develop, he switched his focus. The GrinOn cups cost only 30 cents more than normal disposable cups, and the magnets also serve as an advertising device for drunken buffoons, who steal them to put on their refrigerators. Selling that space to advertisers generates extra revenue.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/video-magnetic-beer-pouring-system-fills-your-cup-bottom

DVICE has a slideshow of 26 strange aircraft that, although oddly designed, actually flew. Among them is the Inflatoplane developed by Goodyear in 1956. This plane had an inflatable rubber body. It was small and light enough to be moved in a wheelbarrow. The engineers hoped that this plane could be dropped behind enemy lines for downed pilots to use to escape:

The Inflatoplane's performance was comparable to that of a a J3 Cub. The airplane was wheeled out like a wheelbarrow and inflated in about 5 minutes using less air pressure than a car tire. The two-cycle 40-hp Nelson engine had to be hand-started and held 20 gallons of fuel.

The Inflatoplane carried a maximum weight of 240 lb., had a range of 390 mi., and an endurance of 6.5 hr.s. Its cruise speed was 60 mph. Take off distance on sod was 250 ft with 575 ft needed to clear a 50-foot obstacle. It landed in 350 ft on sod. Rate of climb was 550 ft per min. Its service ceiling was estimated at 10,000 ft.

Link via DVICE | Video of Inflatoplane

Pictured above is the longest word in the English language. It's a slang term for a disease incurred by inhaling silicone dioxide. Sam Kean has a story at NPR's website describing the difficult task of defining a "word" so that one may determine which is the longest.

For example, do the names for chemical chains count? Does a word have to be published to qualify? Should words intentionally created to be the longest be considered real words? Kean lists the six words that qualify under various criteria. Which do you think is the best case for the longest word?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/21/133052745/whats-the-longest-word-in-the-english-language? via Kottke

Alex Tew created a website that encourages you to calm down and slow down. Just sit in front of your computer and do nothing for two minutes but listen to the sound of waves splashing. No, don't touch your mouse or keyboard or you'll have to start over. Tew writes:

I had been thinking how we spend every waking minute of the day with access to an unlimited supply of information, to the point of information overload. i also read somewhere that there is evidence that our brains are being re-wired by the internet, because we get a little dopamine kick every time we check our e-mail or Twitter or Facebook and there’s a new update. So we’re all developing a bit of ADD. which is probably not great in terms of being productive.

It took me three tries.

Link via Geekosystem

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Pro surfer Mark Visser wore a LED-covered vest and surfboard while riding 30-40 foot waves off Hawaii. The visual effect was stunning, as well as difficult to capture on film [sic]:

Engineered LED lights were built into a bupuancy vest and modified into the surfboard. The lighting technologies were created especially for the project by Solus Corporation using ground breaking NASA submarine lighting to ensure the wave and board were lit in the right places, at the right time and illuminated the wave without hindering the vision of Visser, the jet ski drivers and the helicopter pilots.

Link via Super Punch

Craig Smith of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made a snowplow that he can drive with a modified bicycle:

A lever pulls up or lets down the plow with a rope and pulley. Pulling the lever all the way back cantilevers the rope and pivot point so it locks in place. The plow blade is hinged with a bungee cord, so hitting a discrepancy in the road allows the blade to flop and give like a real plow. The bike can turn on a dime so raising the plow and returning up the adjacent path is quick and easy. I can do 'reverse' by pushing down on the front wheel with my foot to roll it backwards.Totally useless with larger snow falls, but the light ones make snow removal fun.

Link