Rhett & Link made a music video in split screen, with a contest attached in which you are challenged to spot the differences between the two takes. That gimmick is for their sponsor, who is giving away prizes on Facebook (details at the YouTube link). If you don't want to jump through the necessary hoops to enter, you'll still enjoy the creepy song about common nightmares. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Spain recently raised the value-added-tax (VAT) on cultural activities to 21%, which didn't sit well with theater owners. One theater in Bescanó staged a revolt by using carrots! Theater owner Quim Marcé explains:
"We said, 'This is the end of our theater, and many others.' But then the next morning, I thought, we've got to do something, so that we don't pay this 21 percent, and we pay something more fair," says Marcé in Spanish.
He looked out his window at farmland that surrounds this village, two hours north of Barcelona, and suddenly had an idea: Instead of selling tickets to his shows, he'd sell carrots.
"We sell one carrot, which costs 13 euros [$16] — very expensive for a carrot. But then we give away admission to our shows for free," he explains in Spanish. "So we end up paying 4 percent tax on the carrot, rather than 21 percent, which is the government's new tax rate for theater tickets."
Classified as a staple, carrots are taxed at a much lower rate and were spared new tax hikes that went into effect here on September 1.
Theater patrons love the idea, and bought plenty of carrots. Marcé also has the support of the local mayor, but other officials say the scheme is plainly tax evasion. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Quim Marcé)
Welcome to Windows95! I bet you don't remember all these little-known tips and tricks for getting the most out of your operating system. There's an entire Tumblr blog of them at Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks. Link -via Metafilter
HRL Laboratories collaborating with researchers at Caltech and UC Irvine have developed the lightest metal material yet: it's called microlattice, and it is just what the aerospace industry needs. Microlattice can sit on a dandelion and not crush the seeds, yet it can bear a 50% compression stress load. It's secret is a series of tubes.
The key structural component is a series of hollow tubes. In a study published last November in Science, the researchers exposed a light sensitive liquid to UV light through a patterned mask, which created a three-dimensional photopolymer lattice. They then deposited a layer of nickel-phosphorous onto the polymer lattice, which was then etched. The remaining structure was a macroscopic material with hollow tubes as the base structural elements. The resulting material had a density of .9 mg/cm3. By comparison, ultralight silica aerogels are 1 mg/cm3.
Read more about micro lattice at Popular Science. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: HRL Labs)
If Dear Abby were a cat, what kind of advice would you get? Jeff Wysaski at Pleated Jeans gives us seven typical questions and the feline wisdom to deal with them. Link
In an article last week, we read about how Ed Bernays convinced architects and builders to include bookshelves in new homes, in order to sell more books. There's a big difference between including them and designing a home around bookshelves, but some bibliophiles have done just that. See thirteen gorgeous interiors dominated by books and the awesome installations and fixtures to store them in at Flavorwire. Link
A Swedish TV ad for who-knows-what features skydiving cats in formation, with the best soundtrack possible. Let us hope they all landed on their feet just as they should. -via Warming Glow
Ever wish the beautiful (or creepy) world you've created in the game Minecraft were real? It can be -just not life size. Minecraft World Exporter is a tool you can use to download the data, then you can upload it to FigurePrints, a 3D printing company who will make your world real. Yesm they do World of Warcraft models and Xbox Live avatars, too. Link -via The Daily What
Are these boots, sandals, or blue jeans? Actually, they are all three. Danielle make the shoes out of vintage jeans, and no two pairs look exactly the same. They're available through her Etsy store DaniKshoes. Link -via Laughing Squid
W00t! It's time for another collaboration with the always-excellent What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what this strange object is used for?
Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like. Please do not post any web link or URL - doing so will void your entry. You have until the answer is revealed on the What Is It? Blog tomorrow.
Two prizes: the first correct guess and the funniest yet wrong one will win a T-Shirt from the NeatoShop.
IMPORTANT: Please write your prize selection alongside your guess, so visit the NeatoShop and take a look around. If you don't write your prize selection, then you don't get the prize. I think you'll like the selection of funny t-shirts and science t-shirts -or even t-shirts of your favorite blogs and websites.
For more mystery items, go to What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: the mystery item is experimental XM75 40mm grenade launcher, probably made by S.A. in the late 1960s. The first person to guess grenade launcher was Berhard, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer of the week came from Colshorts, who said these were $250,000 Military Pencil Sharpeners. That's also good for a t-shirt! Find the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog got a tattoo of a meteor hurtling toward Earth. The process was recorded for the show L.A. Ink, but was cut before it aired. Luckily, the segment was posted on YouTube. Read about how the tat came about at the blog. Link
Speaking of Bad Astronomy, the blog has moved from Discovery magazine to Slate magazine. You can follow Dr. Plait there now. Link
Seven-year-old Remi Urbano has been begging for a cat for a while. His dad, Dan, kept saying no, but then agreed to buy a cat if a picture of Remi and his little sister pleading for a cat got 1,000 Facebook likes. You can probably guessed what happened.
November 5th @ 6PM
Posted by Dan’s wife with the headline “Dan thinks there is NO way we can do this. I say there is. Help us out. We really want a cat named Hairy Pawturrr. If you can’t like, share. Shares count too! Thanks so much everyone!!”
Hairy Pawturr … HAIRY PAWTURR! If those little kiddies weren’t enough, how can you pass up on having a small kitten in this world named Hairy Pawturr!! (not to mention the HA HA to the face of the man who belittles social media). Of course, I did my part to ‘like’ and ‘share’. I didn’t think much about it until 10PM that night when I checked the photo again. It was just under 900 shares and 400 likes. I snickered and anticipated the look on Dan’s face in the morning.
November 6th @ 9:30AM
The post had gone viral and it exploded to over 20,000 shares and likes—not to mention a following on the Ellen DeGeneres Facebook page. It was total insanity, but also total hilarity to hear Dan say, “Maybe I under shot it”.
The picture now has over 100,000 likes. Remi's new cat is named Hairyette Pawturr, and you can see pictures of her with the kids. Read the family's recap of the story at their blog. Link -via Daily of the Day
(Image credit: Marisa Papile Urbano)
The higher the objective, the higher the cat jumps. That's what they do. How high can he go? -via Blame It On The Voices
Red Bull has produced another human-powered Rube Goldberg contraption (see the first one here), this time using professional athletes of all kinds. Find out all about them, and about the project, at the project site. Link -via Laughing Squid
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