Some of you will will receive bouquets of flowers this weekend (hint: Valentines Day). Some will arrive pre-arranged in vases with wires and ribbon. Others will come in a handful, like those in this video. Dave Hax is here to show you how to make them look like they do on TV with the help of some cellophane tape. This will also work when your child picks the flowers out of your garden later this spring. -via Laughing Squid
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Highland Titles is a company that sells plots of land in the Highland Titles Nature Reserve at Glencoe Wood, Duror, Scotland, starting at £29.99 for one square foot. The idea is that you can then call yourself a Laird or Lady of Glencoe. You’ve seen schemes like that before, such as getting a star named after yourself or receiving a one-inch plot of land in Black Oak, Arkansas, with an album purchase. Highland Titles has a Twitter feed, which attracted the attention of one Bill Somebody, who questioned the practice of selling souvenir titles.
I see your website says you get a personal right to the plot @highland_titles. You know that means you don't own it?
— Bill Somebody (@loveandgarbage) February 10, 2015We sell land. If you do not understand how land can be sold in Scotland, ask a Scottish lawyer http://t.co/6Ee6WlfZSq @loveandgarbage
— Highland Titles (@highland_titles) February 10, 2015Well, it turns out that Bill Somebody is a conveyancer, which means a lawyer specializing in real estate transfers. He was joined in the argument by a law professor from Aberdeen University, and another Scottish lawyer. Not only that, he called in yet another Scottish lawyer who is a former President of the Law Society, and a law professor at the University of Glasgow. The arguments were going swimmingly until Highland Titles started blocking all the Scottish lawyers. They took it as a badge of honor.
Soon, the Aberdeen LLB graduation ceremony will involve: the handover of a degree certificate; and a ceremonial block from @highland_titles.
— Malcolm Combe (@MalcolmCombe) February 10, 2015Read the whole story and you, too, could be blocked by Highland Titles! -via Metafilter
The Library of Congress has a special collection of images, donated by the Liljenquist family, of over a thousand ambrotypes and tintypes taken during the Civil War. Many of these are portraits of soldiers, but also includes pictures of children, families, and personal artifacts.
Tom Liljenquist and his sons Jason, Brandon, and Christian built this collection in memory of President Abraham Lincoln and the 620,000 Union and Confederate servicemen who died in the American Civil War. For many, these photographs are the last known record we have of who they were and what they looked like. See "From the Donor's Perspective--The Last Full Measure" for the full story.
The Liljenquist Family began donating their collection to the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division in 2010 and continues to add to it. In addition to the ambrotypes and tintypes, the collection also includes several manuscripts, patriotic envelopes, photographs on paper, and artifacts related to the Civil War.
What struck me was how young so many of the soldiers were.
The folks at How It Should Have Ended couldn’t wait until the movie actually came out to jump on an intriguing tidbit from the trailer of Jurassic World. Chris Pratt's character is training raptors for a show at the park -isn’t that rather odd? Especially considering what happened in the first movie! Based on that tiny part of a scene, they went ahead and speculated on how it should end. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The following article is from The Annals of Improbable Research.
Ig Nobel Achievements distilled into limerick form
by Martin Eiger, Improbable Research Limerick Laureate
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. For details of all the Ig Nobel Prize--winning achievements, see each year's special Ig Nobel issue of the magazine, and also see the website.
2010 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize
Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists. ["Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Applied Microbiology, vol. 15, no. 4, July 1967, pp. 899--906.]
The news is far worse than I feared.
There's microbial life in one's beard.
Yes, the germs find a haven
On people unshaven.
And thus, I am off to be sheared.
In 1989, dairy farmers William and Harold Mann decided to build a pond on their shared wetland area of Vashon Island, Washington. In the shape of a deer.
William created a giant grid with string and, in the dead of winter, meticulously plotted the outline of John Deere’s classic logo. Determined to work even after the weather turned on him, and after having already lost two pairs of boots to the endeavor, he laid the final cinderblocks of the pond’s outline wearing snowshoe-like contraptions he created to prevent his feet from sinking in the mud.
Some of their closest neighbors didn’t even know about the deer-shaped pond for years after it was built -or even after they started lighting it up for Christmas. The visiting news reporters gave them a clue. Redditor NoLegsOleg posted the picture above that a friend took on a recent flyover. You can also see the pond on Google Maps.
Gnocchi are dumplings, normally boiled and then pan-fried. But Steve here decides he’s going to deep-fry them. He mentions that they popped a little last time, so he’s going to turn the fryer up a little hotter. What? When he removes the gnocchi, you’ll see why that might not be the best idea -unless you are looking for a laugh. Steve, the video host, came to reddit to address some questions about the situation. Be aware that the audio is only in one channel -your equipment is probably fine. -via Viral Viral Videos
Some people take stuff home from work, and some people bring back souvenirs of a memorable trip. Those two activities intersect in Neil Armstrong’s closet. Going through her late husband’s things, Carol Armstrong came across a bag of what appeared to be old spare parts. She contacted Allan Needell of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, who recognized the objects as artifacts brought back from the Apollo 11 moon landing.
After some research it became apparent that the purse and its contents were lunar surface equipment carried in the Lunar Module Eagle during the epic journey of Apollo 11.
These artifacts are among the very few Apollo 11 flown items brought back from Tranquility Base and, thus, are of priceless historical value. Of utmost importance is the 16mm movie camera with its 10mm lens. The camera was mounted behind the right forward window of the lunar module and was used to film the final phase of the descent to the lunar surface, the landing, as well as Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's activities on the lunar surface including taking the first samples of lunar soil and planting the US flag. Thanks to the Neil Armstrong family, the Apollo 11 purse and its contents are now on loan at the National Air and Space Museum for preservation, research and eventual public display.
Get an overview of the discovery at Sploid and an in-depth explanation of each object at NASA. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Lisa Young of the National Air and Space Museum Conservation Unit)
In yet another case of an unlikely mashup that works, Bonecage has put the story from the TV show Breaking Bad to the tune of “Africa” by Toto. The lyrics might make you laugh, but if you don’t catch them all, they are listed at the YouTube page. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The following is a list from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader History's Lists.
Be careful about dinner invitations from people you don’t know well- you might find yourself on the menu.
1. BEANES AT EVERY MEAL
Some people believe that the brawling, scrapping Alexander “Sawney” Beanes was just a fictional legend, but many more contend that the Scottish character was a real guy. The story goes like this: Beane grew up in the town of East Lothian, in eastern Scotland, in the 15th century. Villagers considered him lazy and a liar, so they ran him (and his wife, who’s described a having similar character traits) out of town. Taking shelter in a deep cave along the Scottish shore, the Beanes turned to a life of crime, attacking travelers and anyone who got close to their home.
But pretty soon, everybody had heard stories about Sawney and the missus, so as time went on, it got harder to hide the evidence of their crimes. Plus, times were tough, and famine was a common problem. That’s when the Beanes started to eat their victims (or smoke their flesh to be preserved for later). over the years, the couple prospered and had at least 14 children, who, in turn, grew up to have more children. Eventually, they were all caught by King James’ men, but legend says that before that happened, the Beane family killed and ate about 1,000 people.
2. YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART
When Spanish conquistadors first marched across Mexico in the 16th century, they were surprised to find the Aztecs, but they were even more shocked by what they Aztec people were doing. For years, the Aztec nation had been sacrificing humans as part of their religious ceremonies. Much has been written about Aztec religious sacrifices: soldiers, slaves, and captors stoically went to grisly and bloody deaths in which their hearts were removed as offerings to the gods. What’s not mentioned is that the other parts of the victims were passed out to high-ranking citizens to be eaten. Historians estimate that in one year alone (1486-87), more than 20,000 people were sacrificed and consumed.
3. BUTTERFIES IN YOUR STOMACH
You’ve heard it said that a hardworking person will get the job done, while a lazy person will find an easier way to do it. These cats would like a drink of water, but it’s not worth the effort to actually stand up on all fours to get it. Cleverness enables laziness, so they’ve figured out a way to have a drink while lying down. -via Tastefully Offensive
These guys thought they could haul a load of wood in a tiny three-wheeled 50cc Plaggio Ape, which is essentially a Vespa scooter with a truck bed. But their downfall is a hill. It’s not a big hill, just big enough to confound the loaded vehicle. Experienced Ape drivers know that they could have made it by driving in reverse. They also could have made it if these two guys had helped with a push, but they couldn’t stop laughing long enough to do a darn thing. I don’t know if I would have reacted any better. -via Uproxx
In 1846, before we even knew what a virus was, doctor Peter Panum observed a measles outbreak in the Faroe Islands.
Because the Faroe Islands were so remote, Panum had an easy time observing the disease spread from person to person. He developed an eerie power of prediction. If one person developed a rash from measles, Panum knew that everyone else in the patient’s house would get sick two weeks later.
Panum noticed other predictable patterns, too. On average, he estimated, every infected person infected seven to nine other people. Today, the estimate for the average number of infections spread from each sick person is higher–between 12 and 18. By comparison, the figure for Ebola is only about two.
The panic over the ebola virus is understandable because the mortality rate is high, but the chances of catching it are tiny compared to measles. The measles virus evolved to be very contagious in order to survive as a species. The virus must find new human hosts because old hosts become immune. Carl Zimmer explains the process in much more detail at The Loom. -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
(Image credit: Paul Duprex)
It’s not unusual for livestock owners to repurpose an old bathtub as a feeding trough. That was the case in Orangeville, California, for a 30-year-old mare named Phantom. Phantom was dancing in her stall Friday when she fell and became wedged in the bathtub. She was stuck there for at least 25 minutes with her feet in the air. The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District was called.
Charles Campbell told KTLA sister station KTXL that when his wife called 911 for help, a confused dispatcher called back minutes later to clarify what had occurred.
“She called her back and she said, ‘You’re husband can’t get out of the bathtub?’ And she says, ‘No, it’s my horse,'” Campbell said.
Firefighters and the family worked together to tip the bathtub on its side and pull Phantom out to freedom. You can see that in a short video clip at Facebook. -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District)
The instructions for the game Color Tiles seem simple:
Click on a blank space.
If the color matches the nearest neighboring tiles,vertically or horizontally,
from the clicked space, you get the matching tiles.
Actually doing that is maddening. Find two matching tiles with a blank space in between, great. Find two catty-corner with a blank space adjacent, wonderful. But those are not easy to find! Once you start getting rid of tiles, the configuration changes, and there are more blank spaces. But you are timed, so don’t study too thoroughly. Is it a good idea to click all the blank spaces as fast as you can? No, because in addition to being timed, you also have a finite number of clicks. Tiles that are farther away from each other with other colors in between will also work, but are almost impossible to see. The highest I’ve scored so far is 45. If you are color-blind, you can toggle a mode in which symbols appear on the tiles. Try it yourself and let me know if I am just hopeless at games like this. -via Look At This
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