There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible varying positions for the Rubik's Cube. A team of mathematicians and programmers determined that all of them can be solved within 20 moves:

With about 35 CPU-years of idle computer time donated by Google, a team of researchers has essentially solved every position of the Rubik's Cube™, and shown that no position requires more than twenty moves.

Every solver of the Cube uses an algorithm, which is a sequence of steps for solving the Cube. One algorithm might use a sequence of moves to solve the top face, then another sequence of moves to position the middle edges, and so on. There are many different algorithms, varying in complexity and number of moves required, but those that can be memorized by a mortal typically require more than forty moves.

Link via Popular Science | Photo by Flickr user huangjiahui used under Creative Commons license

We've previously featured the amazing optical illusions of Edgar Müller. Pictured above is a concrete plaza in Moscow before he started to work on "Duality", as well as the finished product. More images at the link.

Link via Super Punch | Photos: Edgar Müller.

(Video Link)

Researchers led by Tajuki Narumi at the University of Tokyo created a cookie-eating simulator that allows users to believe that they're tasting different flavors, when they're really only tasting one:

To create the effect, the team branded a plain cookie with a distinct logo that the headset tracks via a built-in camera. An air pump sprays out the smell of the chosen cookie, increasing its concentration as the system "sees" the cookie approaching the wearer's nose.

Meanwhile, a visual display in the headset shows an image of the chosen cookie, suggesting the correct texture for that flavour.

The combination of smell and visual texture combine to fool the user's sense of taste into thinking they are eating a flavoured cookie instead of the plain one.

Link via technabob

Allegedly, the above photo is one of thirty-three that a woman named Jenny emailed to her co-workers as her resignation letter. Her boss, Spencer, installed Internet usage monitoring software on the company's computers. Jenny had access to it, so she decided to let her co-workers know what Spencer was looking at on the Internet.

Link via Geekosystem | Previously: Flight Attendant Quits While on Plane, Bails Using Emergency Slide

UPDATE: It's a hoax.

The photo above is from a 2008 Amsterdam art installation created by the Sagmeister group out of 250,000 coins. In the links, you can find a time-lapse video of the creation of the display. The captions read, in part:

Over the course of 8 days, and with the help of over 100 volunteers, the coins were sorted into 4 different shades and carefully placed over a 300 sqm area.

The coin mural spelled out the sentence "Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better."

After completion the coins were left free and unguarded for the public to interact with.

Link via DudeCraft | Photo: Sagmeister

Steven Slater, a flight attendant on a JetBlue airliner, got into an argument with a passenger while during boarding at a Pittsburgh airport. He finally had enough of his job, quit, and opened the emergency slide on the plane in order to leave:

He grabbed the intercom and said: "To the passenger who called be a mother ------, ---- you.

"I've been in the business 28 years. I've had it. That's it."

Mr Slater then activated the emergency exit and slid down the inflatable slide on to the tarmac.

He then boarded a train to the terminal, stripping off his tie and discarding it to the astonishment of bemused onlookers.

Slater was later arrested.

Link | Photo: Daily Telegraph

(YouTube Link)

Masato Akamatsu of the Hiroshima Carp has earned the nickname of "Spider-Man" for climbing a wall to snag an out at a recent baseball game in Japan. Watch the video of this amazing catch.

via Urlesque

Sharpie has developed a new writing implement that's a cross between a pen and a pencil. The writing it produces stays erasable for three days. Then it becomes permanent. At Wired, Charlie Sorrel writes:

The Sharpie Liquid Pencil contains an “ink” made from liquid graphite and lays it down just like a pen. Once written, you have three days to think on the validity and weight of your words. During this period you can erase it just like pencil-marks. After the three days is up, the pencil lines will turn to ink and remain inscribed forever.

Link via Geekologie | Image: Sharpie

Richard Berk, a criminology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks that it's possible to build a computer program that could predict the likelihood that a convicted felon will commit future crimes. These predictions could be used to determine whether or not a convict should be granted parole:

If Berk's ground-breaking computer models work, it could be key for a state parole board that has come under increasing scrutiny for releasing violent criminals well before they reach their maximum sentence, only to see them go on to commit more violent crimes.[...]

Killers who kill again after they are released highlight the need for the state to find a more accurate way to predict which inmates present the highest risk when paroled.

So the parole board has given Berk a $228,000 grant to build his system, pilot it next year and have it in place by 2011.

"We're hoping this will take the board's decision-making to a higher level," parole board spokesman Leo Dunn said. "If a computer program can help prevent the death of someone like [Denise Merhi], then the board wants that information."

Link via DVICE | Photo by Flickr user Tim Pearce, Los Gatos used under Creative Commons license

Who's been stealing my Twinkies from my cubicle here at Neatorama HQ? This time, I'm going to catch Miss Cellania in the act! Instructables user action_owl designed and built a homemade laser tripwire alarm system that tweets a picture of anyone who crosses it:

This instructable will show you how to construct a laser tripwire that can twitter and grab an image from a webcam, as well as execute any command you can put in a bash script.

This instructable is actually quite simple and is even suitable as a beginner arduino project. It requires a GNU/linux (or possibly Mac) operating system with the arduino IDE and Processing IDE working properly.

Video at the link.

Link via OhGizmo! | Photo: action_owl

I've just discovered a neat retro culture blog that has apparently never been mentioned here. It's called Retrospace, and is packed with advertising, music, fashion, and magazine covers from the groovy 60s and 70s. Posts are sorted into categories in the left sidebar, including "Gastro-Abominations" and "That 70s Home".

Link via Ace of Spades HQ

You can "Like" someone's Facebook status update, comment, or picture. But the company has declined to add a much lobbied-for "Dislike" button. It is, perhaps, too harsh an expression for the refined manners of Facebook users. So Kevin Murphy offers this alternative: a 'Meh' button. It would express, Murphy argues "I tepidly accept this thing that you are writing about or showing me on Facebook."

What say you, Neatoramanauts? Does Facebook need a 'Meh' button?

Link via Geekosystem

Pablo Picasso's largest work measures 34 by 38 feet. The painting, consisting of gouache on canvas, was created as a theatrical backdrop for the Russian ballet director Serge Diaghilev. It's been in storage since 1939 and has only now gone on public display at the Victoria and Albert Museum:

It took a tower of scaffolding, five riggers pulling it up and ten museum staff unrolling it down to hang the front cloth this morning.

A front cloth is a theatrical creation, designed to hang just behind the red velvet curtain and to be viewed by an audience while musicians play the overture.

This particular piece was designed for the Ballets Russes performance of Le Train Bleu, in Paris, in 1924.

You can view several large images at the link.

Link via The Presurfer | Image: Getty

Sophie Thomlinson weighed under 2 pounds when she was born in the back of an ambulance in the middle of a blizzard. There was no incubator in the vehicle, but it was necessary to keep her warm until they arrived at the hospital. So the attending paramedic improvised a solution:

But paramedic Rob Dalziel, 37, was able to keep her moist by wrapping her in a yellow plastic bag usually used for disposing of hazardous medical supplies.

He then used towels to cocoon the child and keep her body temperature at a safe level and forced air into her lungs to ensure she kept breathing as the ambulance continued on to Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

Link | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Police_Man_Liam used under Creative Commons license

(YouTube Link)

Interpreter Sam Farley is having a lot of fun presenting Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in American Sign Language. While driving.

via Geekosystem

Previously:
15 Unique Bohemian Rhapsody Covers
The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody