Why bother with brooms and brushes? This guy just vacuums his flume out with a leaf blower! You have to pity anyone downwind from him. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
It's a shame such grand homes are built and now no one lives in them. Most are abandoned because restoring them to safe living conditions simply costs too much. See nine such mansions and castles at io9. Shown here is Château Miranda in Belgium, built in 1866 and empty since 1991 due to a property dispute with the government. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Flickr user Paul-Henri S)
The Samsonadzes is a knockoff of The Simpsons shown on TV in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The plots are very different, as the Georgian show is heavily political, and makes fun of Russians. The video here is an entire episode in Georgian, but you should watch at least the introduction sequence. Read more about the series and see more clips at Laughing Squid. Link
This appeared in the police blotter in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Something smells fishy about the story, but it made it into the newspaper. Honestly, the rest of the column is pretty funny, too. Link -via Daily of the Day
Boston native Hilary Sargent, also known as Chartgirl, made a chart about the various media and news outlets and how well they covered the Boston marathon bombing story. You'll have to click twice enlarge it at the link to read all the information. Which news outlet got the facts right? Which advertised pressure cookers on sale? Who identified the wrong people as the bombers? Who used Photoshop on the photographs? It's all here in the handy chart. Link -via Boing Boing
Buzzfeed has a roundup called 38 Baby Shower Cakes Made Of Nightmares. Many depict the moment of childbirth and include plenty of naked female anatomy, along with blood and newborn babies made of cake. Consider the full list NSFW. But this one made me laugh out loud. It takes a perverse imagination to serve a cake to a pregnant woman featuring an alien chestburster. Some of the others are pretty funny, but may be disturbing for sensitive souls. Just remember: they're all cakes. Link
In Russia, Victory Day is May 9, a day to commemorate the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II. Look closely at this billboard promoting the holiday. It has a Soviet flag, but the soldiers are taken from Joe Rosenthal's photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima," which shows the U.S. victory over the Japanese in the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. Yes, it's been flipped horizontally, so maybe no one will notice. See more at English Russia. Link -via Buzzfeed
How's this for a great use for emerging technology? Combine a sonogram that gives a 3D rendering of a fetus with 3D printing, and you produce a plastic model of the baby months before birth. This goes a long way toward allowing the vision-impaired to feel the shape and size of the baby, whether it's the mother or other family members. Industrial designer Jorge Roberto Lopes dos Santos is putting that technology to work.
His company Tecnologia Humana 3D has been developing new ways to build three-dimensional computer models using data from sonograms and other imaging techniques after initially setting out to enhance prenatal diagnostic tools.
The work took a new direction when dos Santos realized that printing these models would give visually impaired mothers-to-be a chance to meet their babies in utero.
“We work mainly to help physicians when there is some eventual possibility of malformation,” dos Santos said. “We also work for parents who want to have the models of their fetuses in 3D.”
Tecnologia Humana designs the models with sophisticated programs that produce highly detailed simulations of a fetus’ anatomy that doctors can examine virtually.
So of course the technology will also be available to those who don't need it but can afford it. Soon, when you ask an expectant father how his wife is doing, and he may pull out a tiny plastic fetus instead of the currently used sonogram printout. Link -via io9
(Image credit: Tecnologia Humana 3D)
At first I thought, "Oh no! That poor horse got a garbage can struck on its head!" Then I realized he did that on purpose. What fun! But think, pal, you can't see where you're going! You know, this answers the age-old question -how do you dispose of a garbage can? Next time one wears out, I'll just put it out in the pasture for the horse to play with. -via Tastefully Offensive
For his son's 11th birthday, redditor crujones43 set up a treasure hunt. The boy had to read maps, collect clues at various locations, use a compass, solve puzzles, and hike through the woods to find a box containing real money. The fun of getting there was worth even more! Thirty pictures of the adventure are posted, in case you want to try something similar. Link -via reddit
(Image credit: Flickr user Joan Grífols)
Dr. Stephen Hoffman learned about malaria the hard way—by rolling up his sleeves and letting thousands of infected mosquitoes bite him.
Malaria is the biggest killer in human history. It's taken the lives of half the people who ever walked the earth. Even with modern drugs, 10 to 30 percent of those who contract the disease die. Needless to say, it's not the sort of thing you want to expose yourself to, unless you have a very good reason. Stephen Hoffman had a very good reason.
Back in mid-1990s, the biologist rolled up his shirtsleeves and dipped his arm into a swarm of malaris-infected mosquitoes. But he did expect to get sick. At the time, he thought he’d invented a vaccine that would keep him disease free. He was wrong. After Hoffman came down with a fever and the chills, he knew it was time to start over.
Today, in an unassuming Maryland office park, Hoffman and his team are breeding malaria parasites, dissecting mosquito spit glands, and working on a vaccine that might be the biggest boon to public health ever invented.
A Sticky Situation
To understand how Hoffman’s newest vaccine works, you have to understand the malaria parasite. The story begins in the salivary glands of the Anopheles mosquito, where the parasite is born. It lingers there until dusk, when the mosquito goes out to feast.
As a mosquito “bites” a human host, it spits on the skin, transmitting thousands of parasites from its salivary glands into the human’s bloodstream. From there, the parasite rides the blood vessels down to the liver, squirms into a liver cell, and then spends the next week maturing into an adult. All the while, the human victim has no idea what’s happening. There aren’t any symptoms until the end of the week, when as many as 1 million mature parasites will burst out of the liver and invade the body’s red blood cells, making the host utterly miserable.
The Navy's new strategy for saving the world. In the U.S. Navy, floating hospital ships are curing the sick and healing the blind. It's all part of the Pentagon's plan for global domination.
For millions of people in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the U.S. Navy no longer conjures up images of war games and nuclear submarines. Instead, the sight of American sailors means one thing: free medical care.
In recent years, the Navy has started dispatching dozens of hospital ships—some as big as shopping malls—to aid developing nations. The crews consist of doctors, nurses, engineers, pilots, volunteers, and even acupuncturists, all there to help. But as mental_floss reporter David Axe learned while visiting the Kearsarge ship in Nicaragua, the Nashville in Gabon, and the Comfort in Panama, these missions aren't about altruism; they're about winning friends and influencing nations.
Soft Power
The U.S. Navy has been in the medical business for decades, often setting sail in response to earthquakes or hurricanes. But until recently, these missions were for emergencies only, and not part of a bigger diplomatic strategy. It took the Iraq War to change that.
After years of failing to pacify Iraq with firepower, the Pentagon decided it needed to think outside the arsenal. The result was a new theory called "soft power." The idea is to send the military into potential conflict zones—along with other government agencies and civilian volunteers—years before any fighting breaks out. The troops hand out free medical care, aid local governments, and build roads and schools. Basically, they do anything they can to be of assistance.
By giving everyone a helping hand, soft-power programs hope to improve the United States' image and leave a lasting, positive impression of America on the citizens of other nations. "It's about influencing generations to come," says Navy Commodore Frank Ponds.
In this cartoon by film student Auke de Vries, a man decides that ropes will help him veg out in from of the TV effortlessly. But who is really pulling the strings? -via the Presurfer
The U.S. Army uses Bagram Batman, based on The Dark Knight, in training videos. He's one tough character! Woe to the soldier who forgets his safety messages.
Bagram Batman may not be the hero the men and women of Afghanistan need.... But it’s the one they get. Veiled under a cloak of valor, Bagram Batman battles idiocracy, mediocrity, complacency and poor table manners!
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