(YouTube link)

Synchronization of 5 coupled metronomes in Lancaster University.

Pretty neat. -via Cynical-C

15 Historical Events That Fascinate Us brings us the short version of the most puzzling pieces of our history. The wonders of the ancient world, rumored treasures no one has found, lost civilizations, technology that shouldn’t have been possible at the time, these mysteries capture our imagination and our curiosity. http://frikoo.com/15-historical-events-that-fascinate-us -via the Presurfer

Scientists at UCLA have succeeded in reprogramming stem cells from mouse skin to become functioning cardiac cells. This is the first trial to find that partially differentiated, or iPS cells that don’t involve embyos or eggs can be made into the three types of cardiac cells needed for heart repair. Senior author of the study Dr. Robb MacLellan says the results are encouraging.

“I believe iPS cells address many of the shortcomings of human embryonic stem cells and are the future of regenerative medicine,” said MacLellan, an associate professor of cardiology and physiology. “I’m hoping that these scientific findings are the first step towards one day developing new therapies that I can offer my patients. There are still many limitations with using iPS cells in clinical studies that we must overcome, but there are scientists in labs across the country working to address these issues right now.”

Further studies at UCLA will try to determine whether human cells can be reprogrammed as well as the mouse cells. http://www.physorg.com/news128768372.html -via Digg

(image credit: Dake)

(College Humor link)
Someone in the comments at Digg suggested that after this and the radio-controlled car doing the Mario theme, the next video should be the Halo theme done by cat yodeling. -via Digg

They’re big, they’re buoyant, and when they fail, they might stay right where they are for many years. Dark Roasted Blend has a whole fleet of shipwrecks and abandoned boats for you to see. Link

Unlike so many lists you see on the internet, this one encompasses cinema history more than thirty years back. Cultcase looked at classic films to find the toughest (male) characters in cinema history. No special effects, just tough guys written and acted that way. Each has a video clip. You’re sure to find at least one you’re not overly familiar with, and some you may remember as awe-inspiring or nightmare-inducing. Link -via Geek Like Me

100 pictures, arranged in a 10x10 grid, showing the biggest news stories of the hour.

Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.

10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10x10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.

You can pull up clickable headlines by clicking on the pictures or the one-word headlines on the right side at the site, but the pictures are not explained. This screenshot was taken at 11PM Wednesday (the time in Italy). Link -via YesButNoButYes

(YouTube link)
From Runaway Box, who brought you the One Semester of Spanish Love Song. Lyrics are available at the YouTube link. -via Digg

It’s 80s week for mental_floss’ lunchtime quizzes. Today’s quiz asks you to match 10 newsmakers with the scandal they were involved in. I scored 70%, because if I did one thing in the 80s, it was read the newspaper. It’s still hard to recall names of people you don’t hear about anymore. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14511

Instructables has 44 entries in their cake contest. Contestants were invited to focus on either tasty recipes or elaborate decoration. Voting is open until tomorrow, but you must register in order to vote. Even if you can’t decide between them, you’ll find links to recipes, photographs, and instructions for all the entries, ranging from a completely vegan chocolate cake to a tank birthday cake with a rotating turret. Link

A signature Pink Floyd giant inflatable pig escaped its tether and flew away during the Coachella music festival last weekend.

Former Pink Floyd star Waters said "that's my pig" as it drifted away during Sunday's gig.

Coachella spokeswoman Marcee Rondan said: "It wasn't really supposed to happen that way."

The pig was tethered to the ground with ropes and floated away as Waters was playing one of the versions of Pink Floyd song Pigs.

The tattered pig came to ground in the driveways of two families in La Quinta, California. The families will split a $10,000 reward offered by Coachella organizers. They will also share four life tickets to the annual music festival. Link -via Digg

(YouTube link)
This ad for Clustarack print shop racks would make Rube Goldberg proud! http://www.clustarack.com/ -via Metafilter

The Poop Report is a blog of scatological humor, but this is a serious project where you can make a difference. Karanpur is a village in Uttar Pradesh, India with a school for 700 lower caste girls. The village has no plumbing. The girls must rise before dawn to attend to their toilet practices in a field before daylight. School founder Virendra "Sam" Singh wants to provide toilets for the village.

Here is an appliance that embodies his philosophy. A toilet protects its owner from the danger and humiliation of outdoor defecation. But it also provides a haven for neighbors to achieve the same standard of safety and dignity -- educated or not, Sam knows, no woman wants to poop in the fields. Here is an inexpensive way to improve health and spread sanitary practices beyond the walls of his students' dwellings.

Sam settled on the Sulabh toilet model, which collects and composts waste in alternating pits that need to be emptied only once every ten years. But as inexpensive as they are, they still cost too much for Sam to fund them on his own. He approached participants of the World Toilet Summit for fundraising help. My wife and I accepted his offer to tour the school and meet his students; and now I'm passing his plea for help on to you.

Sam's immediate goal is 43 toilets in Karanpur itself, followed by a toilet for each of the 700 girls in his school. Every cent will help achieve this goal. A dollar is lunch for four workers building a toilet. Twenty dollars may pay the labor cost altogether. And $250 -- which is no small sum, even for an American -- will fully cover the cost of bringing health, sanitation, and dignity to a student of Pardada Pardadi, her family, and her neighbors. For $250, Sam and his team can build a complete toilet.

Any amount donated will be appreciated. If you sponsor a complete toilet for $250, you get naming rights for the facility. Donations can be made through a PayPal link at The Poop Report. Link -via Boing Boing

Jim Corbett was a renowned tiger hunter who was born in India in 1875. Through many amazing kills and several close calls, he developed a profound respect for the big cats, including maneaters.

In a time when a hunter was measured for how many fearsome animals he could kill, Corbett exuded pride at never having killed a large cat for sport or financial gain. He refused even to hunt leopards which were often regarded as vermin at the time. "Those who have never seen a leopard," he said, "can have no conception of the grace of movement, and beauty of colouring of this the most graceful and the most beautiful in our Indian jungles. Nor are his attractions limited to outward appearances, for pound for pound, his strength is second to none, and in courage he lacks nothing." Corbett began lectures in various schools and nature societies with a message to protect the vanishing tiger and leopard populations. He referred to his youth as "days when there were ten tigers to every one that now survives."

Corbett knew tigers better than anyone. His conservation efforts went against the grain of the times, but his legacy lives on in a national park named after him, and a tiger species named Panthera tigris corbetti. Read his fascinating story at Damn Interesting. Link

Two NCAA Division II schools were playing softball. Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her college career, but with the score tied 0-0, she hit one out of the park. Two players on base ran home, and Tucholsky ran toward first base, missed it, then turned around. Her knee suddenly gave out and she collapsed. Tucholsky could not reach first base.

If she received any help from her coach or teammates, she would be out. The coach could replace her with another runner and keep a two-run single, but that would rob Tucholsky of her only possible collegiate homer.

That’s when the opposing team stepped in. Central Washington senior and scoring leader Mallory Holtman asked if she and her teammates could carry Tucholsky to each base.

"Honestly, it's one of those things that I hope anyone would do it for me," Holtman said. "She hit the ball over her fence. She's a senior; it's her last year. … I don't know, it's just one of those things I guess that maybe because compared to everyone on the field at the time, I had been playing longer and knew we could touch her, it was my idea first. But I think anyone who knew that we could touch her would have offered to do it, just because it's the right thing to do. She was obviously in agony."

Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky's left foot could secure her passage onward. Even with Tucholsky feeling the pain of what trainers subsequently came to believe was a torn ACL (she was scheduled for tests to confirm the injury on Monday), the surreal quality of perhaps the longest and most crowded home run trot in the game's history hit all three players.

After that, does it really matter who won the game? You can read the entire story at ESPN. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Stephen Katin/WOU)

Update: See a picture of Tucholsky "running the bases" in this story.