Lexington native Drew Curtis, who runs the website Fark.com, has thrown his hat into the ring for the 2015 gubernatorial race in Kentucky. The race is wide open, as Governor Steve Beshear is ineligible to run for a third term. Curtis will run as an independent.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Business Lexington, Curtis cast himself as a “citizen candidate” and talked about his plans and goals in joining the fray. He cited influence-peddling, party gridlock and “this sinking feeling that nobody is doing their damn jobs at the political level” as major factors influencing his decision.
Curtis said he filed his campaign papers Friday and planned to make a formal announcement Monday on his website. His wife, Heather, will serve as his running mate.
“I have no idea what I’m in for,” said Curtis. “But that’s kind of the thing about being an entrepreneur, is you jump off a cliff and you build the plane on the way down.”
Curtis has set up a website for his campaign. He serves at the University of Kentucky’s Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking board and on Lexington’s Economic Development Investment Board. He also brews craft beer with Will Wheaton. -via Metafilter
The tale of the canine cosmonaut Laika, the first living being to orbit the earth, is a tragic one. But she was not the first dog the Soviets sacrificed in their space program. And the two space dogs that followed Laika not only survived, but became superstars in the USSR (Belka and Strelka are pictured above and illustrated below). Damon Murray edited and published the book Soviet Space Dogs, which tells the story of the Soviet strays who paved the way for humans to enter space. He talked to Collectors Weekly about the space dog program.
Collectors Weekly: Why were dogs chosen over apes or cats?
Murray: Dogs had a history of scientific experimentation in the USSR. Petrovich Pavlov had used them to great effect in his studies of the reflex system. Despite this, apes were initially considered as they more closely resemble man in many ways. Dr. Oleg Gazenko, one of the leading scientists of the space program, even visited the circus to observe the famous monkey handler Capellini, who convinced him that monkeys were, in fact, problematic. They required intense training and numerous vaccines and were emotionally unstable. (Cats did not tolerate flight conditions; that was later proved by French missions in 1963.) The decision was made: Dogs would be the first cosmonauts.
Read the stories of Laika, Belka, Strelka, Dezik, Tsygan, Bobik, ZIB, Otvazhnaya, and other canine cosmonauts of the Soviet Union, in an article at Collectors Weekly.
Reggie is a very patient and long-suffering cat. He’s well aware that these Australian terriers are puppies and don’t know any better, but he isn’t enjoying their company. He finally gets up to leave, but hesitates while he gets one last puppy scratch. Oh, don’t miss the half-hearted foot push at :50. -via Metafilter
A court case in Germany pitted a tenant against a landlord on the proper way for men to urinate. The landlord had confiscated €1,900 of his tenant’s €3,000 deposit due to damage to the marble bathroom floor, which he says resulted from urine splash. The tenant sued. Instead of arguing just on the responsibility for the floor damage, the court case focused on a man’s right to be a “Stehpinkler,” or standing urinator, when the landlord wanted him to be a “Sitzpinkler.”
While Düsseldorf judge Stefan Hank found the pro-sitting landlord's arguments "credible and understandable“, he said that he could not side with the landlord.
"Despite the increasing domestication of men in this regard, urinating while standing up is still widespread", he wrote in his judgement.
The landlord should have warned the renter of the floor's "sensitivity" to potentially damaging bodily fluids beforehand, the judge reasoned.
Nowhere in the story does anyone mention that those who sprinkle when they tinkle should clean up after themselves, sensitivity or no. -via Arbroath
You recall how Toyota added a recorded sound of an engine to its Prius models because people thought it was creepy and dangerous for a car to move silently when it was in electric mode. But apparently they weren’t the only ones. If you step on the accelerator of a fairly recent Ford F-150 pickup, or a Mustang, the satisfyingly powerful American ‘vroom” you hear is deliberately amplified or digitally enhanced.
Fake engine noise has become one of the auto industry’s dirty little secrets, with automakers from BMW to Volkswagen turning to a sound-boosting bag of tricks. Without them, today’s more fuel-efficient engines would sound far quieter and, automakers worry, seemingly less powerful, potentially pushing buyers away.
Softer-sounding engines are actually a positive symbol of just how far engines and gas economy have progressed. But automakers say they resort to artifice because they understand a key car-buyer paradox: Drivers want all the force and fuel savings of a newer, better engine — but the classic sound of an old gas-guzzler.
Can you teach the concept of futility to a dog? No, he’ll have to learn on his own. Buddy found a rock he particularly liked, but the sidewalk is not level and the rock is just too round. Will he continue to fetch it for eternity? Will he give up? Or will he figure out a way around this predicament? No matter what happens, that's a good dog. -via Tastefully Offensive
The golden burial mask of Egypt’s King Tutankhamun was broken off during an attempted cleaning at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo sometime last year. Under orders to fix it quickly, curators used epoxy glue to reattach the beard. Epoxy sets very quickly. The beard ended up slightly crooked, with a visible gap between the face and beard, and some epoxy showing. What’s more, an attempt to remove the excess glue with a spatula ended up scratching the mask.
Three of the museum's conservators reached by telephone gave differing accounts of when the incident occurred last year, and whether the beard was knocked off by accident while the mask's case was being cleaned, or was removed because it was loose.
They agree however that orders came from above to fix it quickly and that an inappropriate adhesive was used. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisals.
We know enough about the royal couple, Will and Kate. England is majestic for at least ten other reasons.
1. The Cabbies Are Smarter Than Google Maps
London has the most informed cab drivers in the world—and they’ve got the diplomas to prove it. To become a certified taxi operator in London, a driver must first pass “the Knowledge,” an extraordinarily difficult exam that involves the detailed recall of 25,000 streets within a six-mile radius of London’s Charing Cross railway station. But that’s just the beginning. Cabbies must also memorize the locations of clubs, hospitals, hotels, parks, theaters, schools, restaurants, government buildings, and churches. Plus, they have to be fluent in English.
Most drivers take three years to master the Knowledge, and many practice by tracing the routes on a bicycle. It’s not uncommon to see future cabbies pedaling through the city in the early morning with plastic-covered maps clipped to their handlebars. Drivers must know their directions backwards and forwards, which is a complicated task in the maze of London’s one-way streets and blocked-off pedestrian zones.
The testing process isn’t quick, either. The exam comprises a six-month series of evaluations that includes written, oral, and practical tests, and only one-quarter of the candidates make it through. But there’s an additional benefit for those who pass. In 2000, researchers at the Wellcome Trust in London scanned the brains of 16 London taxi drivers and found that each cabbie’s hippocampus—the area of the brain associated with memory—was larger than those of control subjects. Scientists believe that the hippocampus grew larger as the drivers spent more time on the job. Storing and retaining that much information could actually be a prescription for avoiding dementia.
The royal family provides a full range of curiosities beyond extravagant weddings. Consider the tradition of England’s annual swan census. Officially, the Queen owns all of the mute swans along the Thames River. But determining just how many birds are in Her Majesty’s flock takes work. So, every July, the royal family conducts a “Swan Upping,” when an armada of skiffs row up the Thames looking for baby swans. When the rowers spot them, they shout, “All up!” and get into formation surrounding the tiny birds. Then the swans are meticulously examined, weighed, measured, and banded by the Queen’s Swan Warden, a Professor of Ornithology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology. Adult swans are examined and counted, too.
When Juergen Horn was in Iceland for the For 91 Days project, he and Mike Powell visited as many natural wonders as possible, including waterfalls. Now he’s posted breathtaking photographs of a dozen of them, all with links to more information. The waterfall above is Svartifoss, which inspired the design of a landmark church in Reykjavík. Below is Glymur, Iceland’s tallest waterfall.
You’ll also see the waterfall in the movie Prometheus, one you can walk behind, another that looks like lightning hitting the village below, and the one where they saw the Game of Thrones cast working, all at Random Good Stuff.
If the original Star Wars trilogy were made in the 21st century, the trailer would most likely look like this, a typical modern trailer modeled after the preview for Avengers: Age of Ultron. The clips are good, and would certainly make me want to see the movie. However, it doesn’t tell you anything about the plot. All we know from this is that the young fellow is the good guy, and the guy with the black mask is the bad guy, and they fight. There’s no indication of which side the other characters are on. Contrast that with the original 1977 Star Wars trailer, in which the narrator makes those alliances very clear, yet still makes you want to see the movie.
The one constant in blockbuster movie trailers is that both will show off the state-of-the-art special effects. I doubt that will ever change. -via Tastefully Offensive
There have been three Jurassic Park movies so far, and a fourth, Jurassic World, is on the way. If you are like me and only saw the first one, the series TL;DW is here to catch you up on the entire trilogy. Or at least the parts you need to know about. What I gleaned from this recap is that I probably didn’t miss anything. I’m still open to seeing Jurassic World (because: dinosaurs), confident that it will not depend on the previous movies for plot continuity. Or something like that. -via Gamma Squad
Sometimes you just feel like breaking something. Even more often you don’t, but it happens anyway. The takeaway from this compilation from Fail Army is that modern furniture, sports equipment, and buildings are not built for the stunts these showoffs are attempting. Enjoy eight minutes of clips that show what happens after “Hey, y’all, watch this!” Contains NSFW language, as you can imagine. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
A "lost film" is one for which there is no known print in existence- anywhere. A great majority of the lost films are the early silents, but films were lost up until around the 1950's.
Why did films become "lost"? Early film stock was highly flammable and film warehouse fires were not that unusual. Incredibly, sometimes studios would deliberately destroy their own films. (These films would nowadays, of course, be classified as "priceless"- both literally and figuratively.)
The deliberate destruction of these gems is on a par, although not with the same evil intention, with the Nazi book burnings of the 1930's. Actually the book burnings were better, in a way, because the books the Nazis tried to destroy still had copies in other locations and complete destruction was much harder to achieve.
Sometimes the loss was caused by simple neglect, as early cheap film stock was just left sitting around for decades and simply turned to goo. Luckily, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy, each only have one or two lost films. Happily, sometimes lost films turn up in basements, attics, closets or motion picture theaters.
Let's take a look- sadly and regretfully- at some of the greatest-ever "lost films.”
* Saved From the Titanic (1912)
The first-ever film made about the sinking of the Titanic. Incredibly, this film was made in the same year the Titanic sank. Doubly incredibly, one of the cast members was Dorothy Gibson, who was an actual passenger and survivor of the Titanic's ill-fated voyage.
* The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908)
The first film ever made about The Wizard of Oz. The film actually features an appearance by Oz author L. Frank Baum. The film was only shown in road shows as part of a theater presentation. The paint decomposed and it was discarded.
* We Must Do Our Best (1909)
Moe Howard, later the leader of the Three Stooges, did this silent Vitagraph film. He was 12 years old at the time. Billed as “Harry Moses Horwitz" (his real name), Moe plays "a bully.” Talk about prophetic!
What’s better than a happy baby laughing? TWO happy babies laughing! So here we have two minutes that are guaranteed to ease the stress of your long day. Ann D’s 9-month-old twins have learned to play peek-a-boo with each other. They’re having a great time. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
