(YouTube Link)

This 10-minute video shows the impact of bullets on various targets at 1 million frames per second. It was made by Werner Mehl, an engineer noted for his development of high-speed photography:

Germany’s Werner Mehl is the talented engineer who created the PVM-21 infrared chronograph, in many respects the most sophisticated ballistic speed-measuring system currently available to the general public. Werner runs a company, Kurzzeitmesstechnik, which specializes in high-tech ballistic measuring systems and ultra-high-speed photography. Werner has engineered camera and lighting systems that can literally track a bullet in flight, millimeter by millimeter, with eye-popping resolution. Werner employs digital cameras that record up to 1 million frames per second, with effective shutter speeds as fast as 1.5 nano-seconds. The videos produced by Werner’s systems are amazing. Below are two short samples. The first shows a 7mm bullet penetrating cardboard. Note you can clearly see the engraving of the rifling on the bullet.

Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Werner Mehl's Website

Photo: Tomas Valenzuela

Artist and environmental activist Oliver Bishop-Young's project "Skip Conversions" tried to find creative and often amusing ways of recycling unwanted products. One example was a dumpster, which he turned into a swimming pool, a skateboard ramp, a living room, a garden, and a campsite. More pictures at the link.

Link via Urlesque | Artist's Website

At the blog Food & Think, Amanda Bensen asks "Have you ever stopped to think about how strange it is that we drink the breast milk of another species?" She did some research on the history of milk drinking and found that it can be traced back to 7,500 years ago in Central Europe and the Balkans. From a press release by researchers at University College, London:

The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) scientists published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology. The genetic change that enabled early Europeans to drink milk without getting sick has been mapped to dairying farmers who lived around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe. Previously, it was thought that natural selection favoured milk drinkers only in more northern regions because of their greater need for vitamin D in their diet. People living in most parts of the world make vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin, but in northern latitudes there isn't enough sunlight to do this for most of the year.

In the collaborative study, the team used a computer simulation model to explore the spread of lactase persistence, dairy farming, other food gathering practices and genes in Europe. The model integrated genetic and archaeological data using newly developed statistical approaches.

Link via Food & Think | Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture

The entropy of the universe may be 100 times worse than expected. Ron Cowen writes in Science News that recent research suggests that the universe will degrade faster physicists had previously thought:

An analysis by Chas Egan of the Australian National University in Canberra and Charles Lineweaver of the University of New South Wales in Sydney indicates that the collective entropy of all the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies is about 100 times higher than previously calculated. Because supermassive black holes are the largest contributor to cosmic entropy, the finding suggests that the entropy of the universe is also about 100 times larger than previous estimates, the researchers reported online September 23 at arXiv.org.[...]

In the case of the universe, Egan says, “we'd like to know [when and] if the entropy will eventually reach a maximum value, marking the end of all dissipative processes, including life.” Physicists have dubbed that maximum entropy “heat death.”

I know nothing about physics, therefore I propose that people take alarmist, unjustified responses to this disastrous news.

Link via Gizmodo | Image: NASA

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Bedsearcher has a collection of pictures of colorful and creative lifeguard stations that can be found around the world. Pictured above is one by engineer Ulrich Müther and architect Dietrich Otto at Binz, Germany. Müther was a prolific designer in the 1960s and was noted for his buildings composed of concrete shells.

Link via The Presurfer

Photo: Kamiya Design, Inc.

The components of this table and chairs set by the Japanese firm Kamiya Design spell out the word 'table'. It's part of an exhibition at the upcoming Nagoya Design Week, held from October 14-18.

Link via Gizmodo | Company Website | Nagoya Design Week

Image: planetwrite

Literally. Flickr user planetwrite of Ocala, FL used his laser engraver to draw Rick Astley's image on dinner rolls. | Link via Urlesque

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John Gill and Gary Arold of Hurley, New York built a compressed air cannon in 2006 that can fire a pumpkin (but they prefer squash as ammunition) up to a mile away. Adam Bosch writes in the Times Herald-Record:

The cannon is mostly used on weekends to attract people to Gill's Farm Market on Route 209 in Hurley, but sometimes the guys get together at the 1,500-acre farm and blast it when nobody's around. Just for fun.

They've shot pumpkins, scuba tanks and a basketball filled with corn and foam insulation. They once scattered some geese by accidentally shooting into the flock. Then there's the time they shot a bowling ball more than a mile.

"The first time we shot a bowling ball, that's was probably the worst thing we ever did," Arold says. "It kept going and going and going."

Link via CrunchGear

Photo: Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern's NS 999 electric locomotive runs entirely on 1,080 12-volt batteries and produces 1,500 horsepower. From the company's press release:

NS 999 is an entirely electric locomotive that uses a lead-acid energy storage system comprised of 1,080 12-volt batteries to operate in railroad switching applications without the use of a diesel engine and with zero exhaust emissions. The plug-in locomotive also can regenerate dynamic braking energy through a system provided by Brookville Equipment Company. The recovered dynamic braking energy continually replenishes the energy storage system, and uses this recovered energy for tractive effort in rail operations. The batteries are carefully monitored and controlled through an elaborate battery management system to assure safety and maximum battery life, and when fully charged NS 999 is able to operate three shifts before recharging is required.

Link via Popular Science

Image: Victoria Reynolds

Artist Victoria Reynolds creates paintings of raw meat, such as the above "Flight of the Reindeer", an oil on panel from 2003. A native of Texas, she got her BFA at the University of Oklahoma and her MFA at the University of Nevada. Reynolds now lives in Los Angeles and has exhibited in the U.S. and Europe.

Link via MAKE

(YouTube Link)

Like many products appearing on high fashion runways, these one-of-a-kind products are not very practical -- other than the fact that they can be eaten. The French-language video above shows many of the items available at a 2004 exhibition by fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. At the time, Suzy Menkes wrote in The New York Times:

Surrounded by crinolines and corset dresses sculpted out of wickerwork (think bread basket) and stuffed with round and shapely loaves, the French designer emphasized the finesse it had taken to create the show at the Cartier Foundation for contemporary art (until Oct. 10). The exhibition includes a sculpted dress with two brioches to create Gaultier's famous pointed-bosom gown for Madonna and a Kelly bag, lovingly shaped and baked, to celebrate his current role as designer for Hermès. Add umbrellas, hats and the signature matelot stripes re-created with inky dye.

Link via Urlesque (where there are pictures of clothes made out of chocolate) | Designer's Website

(YouTube Link)

The Fire Spy Robot, developed by the South Korean firm Hoya Robot, can be thrown into a burning building, roll through fire, take pictures, and inform firefighters outside of the conditions inside. In addition to reconnaissance duties, it can tow a water hose and spray the fire:

The little two-wheeled robot can roam through the blaze spraying water from a fire hose and looking for trapped people. Its onboard light and camera helps firefighters pin-point people before they enter the building themselves. The robot also gives them enough information to decide on the safe routes, and quickly develop a rescue plan.

The Firefighters Assistance Robot is a small device resembling a miniature tank and measuring just 12.5 cm in diameter and weighing 2 kg. It can travel at 1 foot per second and withstand a fall of over six feet. It can also survive temperatures as high as 160 C (320 F). The operating time of the robot inside a burning structure is up to 30 minutes.

Link via Popular Science | Company Website

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This Volkswagen commercial is about one effort to get people to take the stairs instead of the escalator (presumably for the exercise). The company turned a staircase at a Stockholm subway station into a piano and videotaped how travelers responded.

via Urlesque | Commercial Credits

Image: Kurtsystems

For centuries, people have trained race horses by making them pull heavy weights. But after Mehmet Kurt lost a horse due to overtraining, he decided to create a training vehicle that was safer and could be adjusted for individual training needs. Natalie Avon writes in Popular Science:

The horse isn’t pulling the four-and-a-half-ton, $427,000 vehicle. Rather, the vehicle keeps pace with the animal, and trainers fit the horse with equipment such as an electrocardiogram machine, oxygen masks and movement sensors to monitor its performance. They can then subtly regulate the horse’s speed for optimal training.

http://www.kurtsystems.com/index.htm via Popular Science

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Bunker, a short film by Paul Doucet, is about a woman alone in a bunker beneath Paris after a nuclear war. Marie pleads over her radio for someone to respond to her. Finally, a voice answers.

Dialogue in French with English subtitles. Run time: 10 minutes. Content warning: foul language.

via io9