John Farrier's Blog Posts

10 Years of the International Space Station



This week will mark the tenth anniversary of continuous human habitation onboard the International Space Station:

More than 200 orbiting explorers have visited the space complex; 15 nations have contributed to the missions, providing modules and hardware; and more than 600 experiments have been carried out on board.


Link via Gizmodo | Photo: NASA

Doily Car



Paul Overton of Dude Craft is trying to identify this image of a doily made in the shape of a car. His commenters have determined that the model is a Skoda Octavia Combi -- a Czech-made vehicle. The doily appears to be located in Prague. Does anyone the name of the artist responsible?

Link

Satellite View of a Nuclear Test Site



Yucca Flat in Nevada was the site of 827 nuclear detonations while the US enhanced its nuclear weapons. Pictured above is a Google Maps satellite view of the pock-marked surface.

Link via Boing Boing | Image: Google

Snails Playing Soccer


(Video Link)


YouTube user knitalatte filmed two snails playing soccer in 2008. The fast-paced, high-scoring action is absolutely riveting.

via Ace of Spades HQ

Pumpple: The Turducken of Cakes

Flying Monkey, a bakery in Philadelphia, created a cake dubbed the "pumpple". It's a pumpkin pie and apple pie baked between chocolate and vanilla cakes and covered with buttercream icing:

This oversize creation weighs in at a whopping 15 pounds and measures more than a foot tall. And at 1,800 calories a slice, it's not for the faint of heart.[...]

It starts with the pies, which it par-bakes. The half-cooked pumpkin pie is dipped into chocolate cake batter and baked. The apple pie and vanilla cake get the same treatment and are baked on top of the chocolate cake. Its massive size means that it spends hours in the oven. Homemade buttercream is then — literally — the icing on the entire cake.


Link via Theresa Coleman | Photo: NBC

Dead Drops



Here at Neatorama, we've covered a variety of projects by artist Aram Bartholl. He has filmed people living out their World of Warcraft characters, made a giant Google Maps marker, and placed CAPTCHAs in real life. Bartholl's latest project is called "Dead Drops." He stuck five USB flash drives into walls around New York City and invited people to download from or upload content to them.

Link via CrunchGear | Photo: Aram Bartholl

"Skin Printer" Generates Skin to Cover Injuries

Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are developing a printer that they hope can create skin to help injured soldiers immediately after they're hurt:

The system, which lays down cells with the same fluid-based inkjet technology used in many printers, could print large swathes of living tissue directly onto the injuries of soldiers wounded on the battlefield. Covering burns and related wounds is of critical importance because, the scientists note, "any loss of full-thickness skin of more than 4 cm in diameter will not heal by itself."

Tests on mice revealed advanced healing by both the second and third week of recovery, with complete closure and formation of scar tissue by week three in treated (but not untreated) subjects. The printer has two heads, one of which ejects skin cells mixed with fibrinogen (a blood coagulant) and type I collagen (the main component of the connective tissue in scars). The other head ejects thrombin (another coagulant).


Link via DVICE | Photo: US Army, used under Creative Commons license

Horse Playing with a Ball


(Video Link)


This horse is playing with a ball; your argument is invalid.

via Geekosystem

Pavlov's Cell Phone



Ian Page is conditioning himself to salivate whenever his cell phone buzzes:

For the last 8 years, whenever my cell phone received a call or text it would vibrate in my left pocket. 'Bondage Happens' is a device I wear on my head that is connected to my cell phone. Whenever I receive a call or text the phone will vibrate and the device will inject a little bit of lemon juice into my mouth, thereby conditioning me to salivate when I get a phone call. I will wear the device for 2 weeks, starting Friday October 22nd.


Link via Make | Page's Website | Screenshot: Make

3G Network Service Now Available on Mount Everest

Until recently, people in the Mount Everest area were restricted to satellite phones and a voice-only mobile network. But a Nepalese telecommunications company has now extended 3G wireless service to Mount Everest:

The coverage would reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, company head Pasi Koistinen, said.

He added that this had not been tested yet.

The 3G network will help climbers and trekkers stay in touch with their families and trip organisers, Mr Koistinen said.

It will also enable them to receive weather reports and safety information while they are climbing.


Link via CrunchGear | Photo by Flickr user Rupert Taylor-Price used under Creative Commons license

What Are the Most Popular Books in a Prison Library?

Avi Steinberg, a former prison librarian, has written a memoir about his experience. In it, he recounted the books that were the most popular among prisoners, and why:

The prisoners' book choices are suggestive: Anne Frank was effectively coping with incarceration in her Amsterdam attic, and Plath is an obvious choice for those less than contented with their lot. Participants in Steinberg's women's writing group insisted on checking out an author's photo before they would read the book, with interesting reactions. Flannery O'Connor's portrait got a positive verdict – "She looks kind of busted up, y'know? She ain't too pretty. I trust her" – but the judgment on Gabriel García Márquez was blunt: "That man is a liar".


Crime fiction was also very popular.

Link via Marginal Revolution | Author's Website | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user jvoss used under Creative Commons license

LBJ Was Almost Shot Hours after the JFK Assassination



A retired US Secret Service agent named Gerald Blaine said that on the evening after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he almost accidentally shot President Lyndon Johnson:

Blaine heard footsteps approaching. He picked up his submachine gun and, in the darkness, pointed it at the chest of a man who turned out to be Johnson.

Blaine writes that the enormity of what had almost happened left him chilled. He realized that, 14 hours after losing one president, the nation had almost lost another one by his hand.


Link via Joe Carter | Photo: Cecil Stoughton/US National Archives

New Suits May Help Astronauts Retain Bone Mass



Astronauts can lose 1-2% of their skeletal mass for each month that they spend in very low gravity. After a several months, this loss can become a serious health problem. But a new MIT-designed outfit called the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit may help counteract this problem:

With stirrups that loop around the feet, the elastic gravity skinsuit is purposely cut too short for the astronaut so that it stretches when put on—pulling the wearer’s shoulders towards the feet. In normal gravity conditions on Earth, a human’s legs bear more weight than the torso. Because the suit’s legs stretch more than the torso section, the wearer’s legs are subjected to a greater force—replicating gravity effects on Earth.

The prototype suit testing took place on parabolic flights that created brief periods of weightlessness. Results showed that the suit successfully imitated the pull of gravity on the torso and thighs, but it did not exert enough force on the lower legs. Researchers are now refining the suit’s design to address this; they also plan to test the suit to see how it performs when worn overnight.


http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-10/superhero-style-skin-tight-spacesuit-provides-healthy-compression-astronauts | Photo: MIT/James Waldie

Scientists Make Progress in Growing Giant Insects

John VandenBrooks of Arizona State University in Tempe examined how changing levels of oxygen in the atmosphere may effect the size that insects grow:

The team raised cockroaches, dragonflies, grasshoppers, meal worms, beetles and other insects in atmospheres containing different amounts of oxygen to see if there were any effects.

One result was that dragonflies grew faster into bigger adults in hyperoxia.


Experimenting with giant insects -- what could possibly go wrong?

Link via DVICE | Image: Warner Bros.

Dinosaur Skull Found in Church Wall



A slab of marble in the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano, Italy, appears to contain a cross-section of the skull of a dinosaur:

“The rock contains what appears to be a horizontal section of a dinosaur’s skull. The image looks like a CT scan, and clearly shows the cranium, the nasal cavities, and numerous teeth,” Andrea Tintori, the University of Milan paleontologist who spotted the fossil near the altar, told Discovery News.

Measuring about 30 cm (11.8 inches), the skull was cut in sections as slabs of the marble-like rock were used to build the Cathedral between 1532 and 1660.


Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Andrea Tintori, University of Milan

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