This image is going around the Internet. It shows a motorcyclist wearing rollerblades while cruising down a busy highway. Safe or not?

via Geekologie

The US is building a new embassy in London with a heavy emphasis on physical security. Pictured above is an artist's conception of the winning design, which will be built in 2017. Mike Olson of Wired talked with Clifford J. Rogers, an expert in medieval warfare, about how this design incorporates elements of medieval castle architecture:

The low wall at street level and the larger circular landscaped perimeter is reminiscent of a bailey, an enclosed courtyard that doubles as a first line of defense. “It’s not necessarily meant to stop the enemy dead,” Rogers says, “but to give you time to react and man the inner defense.” As in the Middle Ages, this wall can be patrolled by guards.

Link | Image: Keiran Timberlake

Cartoonist Caldwell Tanner created a set of panels depicting superheroes as hipsters. It features Aquaman, Iron Man, Professor Xavier, the Incredible Hulk, and Batman.

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1809153 via Popped Culture

Previously by Caldwell Tanner: Superheroes in College

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This video shows crocodiles feeding on a dead antelope. Hippopotamuses wander up to lick the crocodiles, which the crocs tolerate because the hippos are so much larger and stronger. At the end of the video, you can see a baby hippo gnawing on the back of a very patient crocodile.

via Nerdcore

Perfumer Christopher Brosius has produced a perfume that's supposed to make you smell like a library. It's called "In the Library."

Link via Marginal Revolution

This chairs in dining room table set by Duffy London are suspended by cables from an upper frame:

This design creates an exceptionally divergent dining experience and aesthetic, creating a room within a room, with chairs that hover around the table, it also makes vacuuming a breeze.

It cost about $4,680 when the price is converted to US dollars.

Link via OhGizmo!

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This video shows a sport native to the British Royal Navy. It's in memory of a particular incident during the Second Boer War in which sailors quickly brought a gun from their ship to an inland battlefield over rough terrain. Since that time, teams of Royal Navy sailors have competed against each other by symbolically re-enacting this event. As you can see from the above video from 1997, this involves moving field guns over walls, disassembling them, swinging them across a gap with ropes, reassembling them, and then firing three rounds. And that's just stage 1.

via Make

Researches at the Imperial College in London have developed a reusable fabric that can be taken off and re-worn:

The spray consists of short fibres that are mixed into a solvent, allowing it to be sprayed from a can or high-pressure spray gun. The fibres are mixed with polymers that bind them together to form a fabric. The texture of the fabric can be varied by using wool, linen or acrylic fibres.

The fabric, which dries when it meets the skin, is very cold when it is sprayed on, a limitation that may frustrate hopes for spray-on trousers and other garments.

The researchers hope that the technology can be adapted to create spray-on bandages, among other applications. You can view a video of the creation process at the link.

Link via Popular Science | Screenshot of New Scientist video via Popular Science

This library reference desk at the University of Delft (Netherlands) is made of recycled books. There are three more pictures at the link.

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Recyclart

Actress Alyssa Milano is raising money for an orphanage in Haiti by offering to follow on Twitter the highest bidder in an auction:

Alyssa Milano will follow you on Twitter for a minimum of 90 days, will retweet one of your tweets and will send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle.

It will be at the celebrity’s discretion to continue following the winner beyond 90 days.

Link via Geekosystem

A man in the Kansas City area was attacked with a knife and frying pan. He responded by swinging a banjo at his attacker's head:

Police say the Monday banjo blow to the head stopped the assailant, who was treated for a cut and taken to jail.[...]

The two 21-year-old friends were drinking and arguing about a band when Hilton grabbed the kitchen weapons and attacked, police said.

The victim happened to have banjo in hand and used it in self defense, they said.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/14/2222279_overland-park-man-uses-banjo-in.html via MArooned | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user mahalie used under Creative Commons license

Detailed studies of traffic flow allow cities to adjust the timing of changes on traffic signal lights. But according to a trio of researchers in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, it may be better to simply allow individual lights to switch as local demand changes:

If each traffic light responds to its immediate demands, then all the lights will just react to the traffic coming from nearby intersections, which defeats the purpose of a smart network.

The solution is a decentralized approach that lets the traffic lights work together by figuring out how changes at each individual intersection would affect the entire system. Instead of being stymied by natural fluctuations in traffic, the system takes advantage of them, using random gaps to help improve traffic flow. Traffic lights could request green time only when there is a definite demand for them, the researchers write. This acyclic approach could eliminate the particularly annoying problem of sitting at a red light while there’s no traffic.

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2010-09/giving-traffic-lights-mind-their-own-can-reduce-congestion-study-says | Previously: Is a Progress Bar on a Traffic Light a Good Idea? | Photo by Flickr user grendelkhan used under Creative Commons license

Artist Matthew Mazzotta conceived of Project Park Spark: a program that gathers dog feces, generates methane from them, and powers lights using that methane. The system is set up in a park in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dog owners collect their dog waste in a special biodegradable bag and throw it into the digester – an air-tight cylindrical container, where the dog faeces are broken down by anaerobic bacteria. A byproduct from that process is methane which can then be released through a valve and burnt as fuel. In this case it is being used to power an old-fashioned gas-burning lamppost in a park.

Link | Photo by Flickr user Evil Erin used under Creative Commons license

Buying wine in bottles and boxes is so old-fashioned. In select supermarkets in France, customers can now fill up containers with gas station-style pumps:

Bring your own resealable bottles, Poland Spring containers, jerrycans, whatever. Or you can get one at the store. Select your grade (red, white, or rosé). Pump. Print receipt.

Astrid Terzian introduced this concept that hearkens back to a bygone era when wine would arrive in Paris shops in tonneaux and consumers would bring their own flagons to fill. But today, Terzian says, she started this scheme in fall 2008 to fill a niche, tapping into two key themes, environmental awareness and the economy.

Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Dr. Vino

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Quirk Books is the publisher of offbeat titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Their new book by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall imagines a zombie outbreak in the midst of a Star Trek convention. The above video is a trailer for that book.

via Fanboy | Amazon Link