What frame of mind are you in? Would you like to change it? Would you like to break out of the frame and think outside the box? You might get a little inspiration from Grant Snider’s latest gallery of ideas at Incidental Comics.
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In this week’s mental_floss List Show, John Green tells us some interesting things about the Harry Potter books and movies. Find out the inspirations and models for J.K. Rowling’s characters, what happened when all those children were on a movie set together, and quite a few details that carry spoilers, so avoid this if you plan to read the books sometime in the future. Who are you kidding, anyway? If you have put off reading the Harry Potter books this long, you probably won’t get around to reading them anytime soon. So enjoy the video!
There’s a reason that metal objects are not allowed in the room where an MRI operates. After all, the “M” stands for “magnetic.” This video from four years ago shows exactly what damage an metal oxygen tank can do in an MRI. On Saturday, an oxygen tank pancaked two men into an MRI at Tata Memorial Hospital in Khargar, India.
During the process of carrying out the scan, the attending doctor asked Jadhav to fetch an oxygen mask. Jadhav, who had never worked in the MRI room and had no idea that no metal is allowed anywhere near the machine, thought he was asked to bring in an oxygen cylinder.
As soon as he entered the room with the cylinder, the machine pulled him with such brute force that he flew towards the machine with the cylinder still in his left arm and carried Ramaiah with him. Before anybody in the room knew what was happening, Jadhav and Ramiah were stuck to the machine. And they remained glued to it four hours.
While the machine can be switched off, deactivating its magnetic field is a complex process. Both Jadhav and Ramiah lost consciousness after a couple of hours of fruitless attempts to wrench them out.
The orderly Sunil Jadhav, age 28, suffered a fractured elbow. Technician Swami Ramaiah, age 35, was pushed into the MRI by the tank and Jadhav. He suffered multiple injuries, and is hospitalized with a punctured bladder, kidney damage, internal bleeding, and nerve damage to his legs. Read more about the incident at the Mumbai Mirror. -via Arbroath
Thanks to the internet, people from all over the world can talk to and learn from each other. We Americans have learned that the popular image others have of us is that we are all fat and carry guns. People from other English-speaking nations are shocked that a medical emergency can cause personal bankruptcy in the U.S. But that’s all text. When people from other countries actually visit the United States, they encounter some things they aren’t prepared for. For example:
4. Tipping
The waitstaff, bartenders, cab drivers, hotel employees, and almost anyone in the service industry are tipped. The rule is to tip not less than 15% and although it’s considered as voluntary, giving less than the accepted percentage or not leaving anything at all is generally looked down upon. This is one of what foreigners often rant about when in America (and the locals do that too anyway).
5. America is Really Huge
If you plan visiting the country for a week and the places to visit you have in your itinerary include driving from New York to Miami to Mount Rushmore to Grand Canyon to Las Vegas to Hollywood, please realize that it’s impossible to happen. Remember, America’s area is 9,826,675 km² which first-timers often underestimate. Hint: Italy is just about the size of California.
You might be able to go from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, but it will still take a few hours, and another few to Hollywood. That's equivalent to driving through several nations in Europe. Yeah, these are thing Americans take for granted. Read the rest of the list at When on Earth. -via the Presurfer
The European Space Agency (ESA) is on high alert as the Rosetta spacecraft is in the process of deploying the Philae lander to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Follow its progress live from mission control in Germany. The actual landing should happen about 11AM Eastern time, but there is plenty going on now.
Emily Lakdawalla offers plenty of information in her timeline of the event at The Planetary Society. And look for her in the live feed.
All next week, I'll be in Darmstadt, Germany, at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), to witness the historic attempt at landing on a comet. I'm not going to lie to you: I'm going to be terrified about Philae's survival until I see ESA engineers leaping from their seats and cheering. To be clear, I have no specific doubts about the spacecraft or its designers. It's just that we have never landed on anything like a comet before. We don't really know what the surface of a comet is like -- is it a hard, crusty shell of rocky material? A diaphanously fluffy, almost cloud-like layer of highly porous dust? Gravelly? Crunchy? Crystalline? Powdery? Sandpapery? Slippery? Who knows? The last time we landed on a surface that we knew so little about was when ESA landed Huygens on Titan in 2004. But Huygens did almost all of its science on the way down, returning all its data to the Cassini orbiter in real time, so it didn't matter whether Huygens survived its arrival on Titan's surface. In contrast, almost all of Philae's science will not come until after a successful landing. It's going to be terrifying. But I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Aldo get live updates from Lakdawalla's Twitter feed.
Phil Plait is posting pictures at Bad Astronomy as they come in.
The picture above is from the Unrealistic Comet Landing Simulator game from UsVsTh3m. Try it out after the real comet landing.
Update: I guess we can call this a success!
Update: Randall Munroe has updated today's xkcd comic to reflect the success of the mission.
At one time, John weighed 360 pounds. But with hard work and determination, he slimmed down to the buff guy he is now. He wants you to know that his body is not perfect despite the weight loss and fit muscles: losing an enormous amount of weight will leave you with loose skin. John is insecure about it, but confronts that insecurity by showing us what his skin looks like. He does a good job of camouflaging it while dressed, and the tradeoff in health is well worth it. See more of John at Instagram. -via Viral Viral Videos
I’d noticed in passing that Disney's Maleficent didn’t seem to be much of a blockbuster, now I know why. Screen Junkies gives the movie the Honest Trailer treatment, which seems almost like shooting fish in a barrel for this film. -via Tastefully Offensive
People will collect almost anything. It’s the thrill of acquiring something distinctive and rare, and sometimes it’s the thrill of having something other people don’t. Most people don’t have bedpans. Eric Eakin has around 250 bedpan items, both bedpans themselves and ephemera relating to bedpans. It all started out as a prank played on his mother, and when she began collecting them, he inherited her interest. At first, Eakin collected both antique bedpans and chamber pots, but let go of the chamber pots because other people collected them.
Collectors Weekly: What’s the difference between a bedpan and a chamber pot?
Eakin: Well, they’re distinctly different in size and function. Indoor plumbing only arrived in the early 20th century for most people. Before that time, if you got up in the middle of the night and had to use the toilet, you’d go in a little pot. It was usually the youngest child’s responsibility to empty all the chamber pots in the morning.
Chamber pots are about 10 inches around, often with ceramic handles, and have a lid on them. A friend of mine said he once sat down to dinner with some friends, and they were eating on fancy china. But then, they brought out the soup and served it from a chamber pot, and he didn’t have the nerve to tell them what they were eating out of. They thought it was a beautiful antique soup dish.
As with anything else, there’s a lot to know about bedpans. They were made much sturdier in the past than they are now -modern bedpans are practically disposable. There are a very few bedpan collectors in the world, but Eakin knows them and their unique stories. Learn more than you thought you’d ever know about antique bedpans at Collectors Weekly.
(Image credit: VCU Libraries)
StoryCorps gives us a special story for Veteran’s Day. Marine Lance Cpl. Travis Williams tells us about his platoon as they fought in Iraq in 2005. As we honor our veterans, we must also remember the unseen scars they carry from their war experiences. And we must never forgot those who did not get to become veterans. The StoryCorps story was animated by the Rauch Brothers. -Thanks, Jason!
There comes a time in every kid’s life when he wants to build his own little space in the living room -a fort! When Dad is an architect, he can’t help but observe how his kids discover the joy of creation, and he can’t help but analyze the situation and offer some building advice. Architect Ben Pell has some basic tips for constructing a pillow fort, which parents can pass along to make fort-building a family project. Here’s a sample that corresponds with the illustration.
Choose From The 3 Basic Fort Types
Buttress Fort: Furniture is used like a primary retaining wall and the fort is built off of that.
Tunnel Fort: Furniture – usually the couch – is built into the fort itself, which runs the length of the furniture.
Compound Fort: Multiple pieces of furniture are connected with a series of “rooms.”
Read more about building a fun but sturdy pillow fort at Fatherly. -via Digg
Devin Supertramp’s extreme sports videos show us thrilling activities we’ve have never thought of. This one looks fun -NOT! Imagine jumping out of a hot air balloon, tied to a rope, so that you’re swinging through the air alone. And don’t drop the GoPro camera! You’d kind of want to be not too high off the ground, but you’d certainly not want to be too near the ground, either. I couldn’t help but wait for something to go wrong, even though I knew that a tragedy wouldn’t have made it into the final cut. -via Viral Viral Videos
Anne Widya makes dinner into works of art for her four children. She started out with simple shapes, but when she posted a picture of a meal on Facebook, she received lots of encouragement. Since then, Widya has made food art her hobby, to the delight of her children. Continue reading to see more.
Move over, keyboard cat! Wyatt’s on the drums, and he’s ready to rock! No matter that Wyatt is only eight months old and has yet to walk or talk, here he drums along to “5 Minutes Alone” by Pantera. He’s going to be dangerous when he’s old enough to sing! -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Will Reid has third episode in his series of instructional videos for his teenage children. This one is about how to hang up a wet towel. He starts out by saying the videos have been somewhat effective or at least annoying to his children, but we see that they have yet to learn how to load toilet paper onto the holder. I have to disagree with Will about one thing -if a towel is wet, I do not want the kids to fold it. But I don’t have a heated towel rack, so what do I know?
However, I have just recently warned my daughters about the dangers of treating their towels in a dormitory bathroom the way they do at home: theft, mildew, other people's filth, insufficient laundry money, etc. They’ll learn one way or another. -via Tastefully Offensive
The latest episode of Epic Rap Battles of History pits fictional characters against TV stars as the four Ghostbusters strut their supernatural superhero status against Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who’s main advantage is that they are real. Who won? It really doesn’t matter; it’s all about the sick rhymes. -via The Daily Dot
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