Redditor YesImAtWork posted a picture of his nephew’s birthday cake, which recreates the periodic table of the elements. His nephew is six years old. How much does a six-year-old boy know about the elements? You might be surprised:
Yes, this child has a series of YouTube videos telling us about the elements, 32 of them so far. He understands more chemistry than most adults. And he’s got an awesome cake to share!
Someone once told me, “If you think you have a problem, you probably do.” I would add a corollary to that: If you obsess about a problem long enough, you’ll cause yourself one. In the latest comic from Sarah Andersen, her obsession has been confirmed. On the upside, at least she’s been proven to be right about something.
In 2008, Gunther Wahl set the world record for milking a cow at two liters in two minutes. in 2012, Maurizio Paschetta smashed that record by getting four and a half liters. At the 2014 World Cow-milking Championship in Lenna, Italy, last week, Gianmario Ghirardi milked an astounding 8.7 liters in two minutes to win the title. The championship was not without controversy. The previous title holder, Paschetta, refused to participate this year. Why?
“For a competition at this level I would have expected strong anti-doping checks on the cows and milkers to protect the animals and guarantee transparency of the top positions,” he was quoted as saying.
“The event could be a showcase for the agricultural world and its traditions, but this has been neglected in the organization,” Paschetta said.
Hints of a doping scandal in the world of competitive milking? What has the world come to? -via Modern Farmer
(Image credit: La Zanzara - Radio 24)
The premise of this stunt is intriguing. Photographer Simon Roberts and pilot Jonathan Nicol took photographs of the sunset in every time zone for a project called Chasing Horizons. The purpose was to create an interesting ad for Citizen watches.
Over the course of 8 hours they literally chased the sun around the globe, staying in ‘the same moment in time’ and letting the Earth spin under them while Roberts captured all 24 sunsets along the way… or rather captured the sun trying to set on them while they fought back with technology and sheer force of will.
The ad turned out okay, and the photographs, well, they aren’t the greatest sunset photographs, but they were in 24 different time zones. The question is, how did they chase the sun around the globe through every time zone in only eight hours? If you think about it, you can figure out the answer before you read the article that explains it at PetaPixel. -via mental_floss
(Image credit: Simon Roberts)
Cats don’t think the way people do, but anyone who has a cat can see how their internal thinking is consistent within a house cat framework. There are some universal ways that cats think, without ever having learned from other cats or YouTube videos. Here, Cole & Marmalade (previously) demonstrate 14 examples of cat logic. Since it's a sponsored video, the last 30 seconds or so is an ad. -via Tastefully Offensive
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.
by Linda A. Kowalski, PhD. Viratest Carcinogen Monitoring Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia
and
Geoffrey F. Auchinleck, P. Eng. Automed Corporation, Richmond, British Columbia
Estimating the total yield of standing timber in British Columbia is essential both to the forest industry and to environmentalists. Right now there is no adequate survey of the total softwood standing crop in BC, mainly because of inaccuracies in measuring the height of the trees.l We suggest that the reason for this inaccuracy is the seasonal change in height due to contraction of tree trunks during winter and elongation during summer.
Figure 1. Average measured heights (from ground to crown) of softwood trees.
During summer, the apical meristems and cambia of mature tree trunks grow both in height and in girth. In winter, freezing of water in xylem vessels, combined with cessation of growth, results in a decrease of volume and a concomitant reduction in height. This leads to the hypothesis that measurements of tree height and assessments of yields will vary seasonally. Our measurements show this to he true.
For years now, the BC Parks Board has been affixing index markers to many of the trees in their parks. (See Figures 2a and 2b.) We measured several specimens of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), and Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) from top to ground level (A), from the index marker to the top (8), and from the index marker to ground level (C) (see Figure 1).
The Seasonal Variation in Height
On average, the total height of each Douglas fir tree, measured from the ground to the top, was 30 percent greater in summer than in winter. The average total height, both of Western hemlock and of Western red cedar, was also 30 percent greater in summer (see Figure 1). The BC Parks Board index markers were significantly closer to the ground in January, 1994 than in August, 1994 (see Figure 2, which shows the same tree and Parks Board Tree Estimation Marker).
At first glance, this 1930 picture of a freak show act would be something you put down to trickery. But this trickery may give you the willies. Mortado was a body modification practitioner.
Mortado, The Human Fountain was born in Berlin and first exhibited himself there in 1929. He had holes bored through both his hands and feet, and, when seated in a specially constructed chair, copper tubes were fed through the wounds. Water flowed through them at a high pressure, making Mortado a “human fountain”.
When he was not performing, he plugged his wounds with corks to keep them from healing. He occasionally also performed in biblical Crucifixion reenactments, placing small “blood bags” in his wounds for realism, which his assistant would puncture when he nailed him.
The picture was taken at Coney Island’s Dreamland Circus.
Congratulations to musicisn, animator, and YouTube star Mystery Guitar Man, also known as Joe Penna (previously at Neatorama) on the birth of his son Jonah Lane Penna! He and his wife made a pregnancy time-lapse video with a difference: this one has a plot, sort of. A lot of planning, work, and timing went into this video over ten months. They even moved to a new home during the shoot, and the new residents of their old apartment let them keep the camera and props set up in the garage to finish the video. He talks a little about how they did it here. -via Viral Viral Videos
The advertising character we know as the Michelin Man has been used by the tire company off and on for 116 years now. His name is Bibendum, a moniker he gained from an appropriated artwork. It’s a Latin word for the act of drinking, which seems weird now, but his creators did not know Latin. And Bibendum was quite an odd character 100 years ago.
Many of the posters from the early 20th-century depict him as a somewhat sinister figure, large and bespectacled and chomping permanently on a cigar. Initially he was shown drinking champagne, which linked to the Latinate toast, and this was reinforced by a strangely worded tagline that had been first mentioned in 1893: "À Votre Santé Le Pneu Michelin Boit L’Obstacle!" (The Michelin tire drinks up obstacles!). The poster apparently led to the character being known for a while as the "road drunkard," an image that would be abhorrent to any car-related company today. But the Michelin Man learned to change with the times.
Not only did he sober up, he became less obviously wealthy. Notice the fat cat look in the 1914 poster above. Read about the evolution of the Michelin Man at Co.DESIGN. -via Digg
Kittens are adorable, but when a kitten that looks different comes along, like Lil Bub or Grumpy Cat, we make stars out of them. And that’s why we have Slittens! Slittens are sloth kittens, or kittens with sloth faces, and there’s a Tumblr blog of them. At first, they’re a little creepy, but once you get used to them, you want one for your very own. -via Boing Boing
William Garratt made a little animation showing how difference audiences react to the music at various types of concerts. There’s folk, rock, metal, EDM, jazz, dubstep, opera, and maybe a couple more. Things start to go a little weird as each concert progresses. -via b3ta
Even among miniature horses, Acer stands out for being the shortest at only 22 inches tall! Mainestar Aces High was born of an imported sire, who has since been gelded, at Wolfscastle Miniature Horse Farm. The only survivor of three foals of the sire, Acer was born with dwarfism. Outside of a deformity of the rear hooves, which has been corrected with artificial hoof extensions, Acer appears to be in good health. Read his story here. The three-year-old horse is smallest in Britain! -via Viral Viral Videos
Pixar’s next feature film, Inside Out, takes place inside the head of an adolescent girl, where her five main emotions battle each other for supremacy. We’ve seen these emotional battles from the outside, but inside Riley’s head, the emotions are anthropomorphized and voiced by Amy Poehler (Joy), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), Bill Hader (Fear), and Phyllis Smith (Sadness). The teaser is actually quite short, as Pixar takes half the video to remind us of the emotions they evoked in their previous films. Inside Out should be in theaters in June, 2015. -via FilmDrunk
Between the vine and the liquor store, plenty of secrets are submerged in your favorite bottle of vino. Here the author of Black Lane Wineries of Sonoma spills some of the best.
(Image credit: Jim G)
1. Digital eyes are everywhere in vineyards. Certain premium estates in Bordeaux and Napa are beginning to look a little more like an army base -or an Amazon.com warehouse. They’re using drones, optical scanners, and heat-sensing satellites to keep a digital eye on things. Some airborne drones collect data that helps winemakers decide on the optimal time to harvest and evaluate where they can use less fertilizer. Others rove through the vineyard rows, where they soon may be able to take over pruning. Of course, these are major investments. At $68,000 a pop, the Scancopter 450 is about twice as costly as a 1941 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon!
2. There are also lots of cow skulls. They’re not everywhere, but biodynamic farming techniques are on the rise among vintners who don’t want to rely on chemicals, and this is one trick they’ve been known to use to combat plant diseases and improve soil PH. It’s called Preparation no. 505, and it involves taking a cow’s skull (or a sheep’s or a goat’s), stuffing it with finely ground oak chips, and burying it in a wet spot for a season or two before adding it to the vineyard compost.
3. Ferocious foliage is a vintners friend. The mustard flowers blooming between vineyard rows aren’t just for romance. Glucosinolates in plants like radishes and mustard give them their spicy bite, and through the wonders of organic chemistry, those glucosinolates also double as powerful pesticides. Winemakers use them to combat nematodes -tiny worms that can destroy grape crops.
October is here, which gives us thoughts of Halloween and a hankering to enjoy some horror films. TV channels do their best to fulfill your desires, by pulling out all the stops on their October schedules. Every day of the month you’ll have quite a selection, and they’re all compiled in a day-by-day list at the Atlantic. Bookmark it now, to save the hassle of looking through your preview channel or cable company website.
There’s 23 horror movies on the schedule just for tomorrow! You might want to jot down your “can’t miss” choices on your daily planner or fridge notes. But you should also try some films you’ve never seen, or never even heard of, just for kicks. You’ll thank me later. -via Tor.com
