You've seen 3D printers, but you've not seen anything like this! A recently uncovered video shows a ultra-secret machine that is the prototype for Starfleet's replicator. It can make anything! Watch it produce furniture, shoes, canned goods, fruits and vegetables, home insulation, even tampons! This will surely revolutionize the manufacturing industry. -via Kottke
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
(Image credit: Flickr user Juan Manuel Caicedo Carvajal)
The CERN Cafeteria, Geneva Switzerland
by Lois Malone
Autumn in New York!
April in Paris!
January in Geneva! The winter destination of choice for the high-energy physicist. Only the most discriminating mind can appreciate the delicate shadings of the gray skies, the nuances of a weather pattern that daily promises rain but delivers instead a damp so intense you can hear the moss grow. Day's end brings the spectacle of Geneva's night life: on the Rhone's Left Bank neon spells out the names of Switzerland's glorious national heroes: Patek-Philippe, Rolex, Piaget, Baume et Mercier, while along the avenues sounds the pounding, sensuous rhythm of doors being shut and bolted so the streets can be properly empty by 8:30.
In the face of all these distractions, the physicist seeks refuge among his peers and inevitably finds himself at mealtimes jostling happily along amid thousands of colleagues, staff and miscellaneous hangers-on, at the Main Cafeteria at CERN [Centre European des Recherches Nucleaires].
Such a Deal
This reviewer sampled the CERN cuisine on a recent Thursday at lunchtime. My overall impression is that this must be one of the best deals in lab food anywhere, and this in spite of the comparatively steep prices, which for the daily menu of entree plus two vegetables run from 7 to 11 Swiss francs depending on the choice of entree.
There is a wide choice of meal types: an ample salad bar, with breads available of the high European standard; two hot meal counters; and of course the prepared-sandwich case for the scientist on the go. Beverages include the usual juices, bottled water, coffee from do-it-yourself espresso machines, and taps from which the customer can serve him/herself several types of beer and a selection of wines including chianti, Cotes du Rhone, a Spanish rose, and for the white wine connoisseur, a Chasselas de Peissy. A dessert table that would do credit to a two-star hotel presents a bewildering array of pastries, but owing to the fact that I was sponging off someone who seemed disinclined to proceed beyond the cheese course, I was unable to sample any of them.
In the confusion of handling trays while surreptitiously scanning the crowd for Nobellists, my companion and I ended up with nearly identical meals: the veal, a tomato and Brussels sprouts for me, the veal, a tomato and noodles for him. What can be said about veal? Or, for that matter, noodles? Each of us got yogurt; I had a glass of the rather undistinguished chianti, and we adjourned later to one of the other two rooms for our excellent espressos, all for just under SFr 30.
Revenge is an ABC-TV series. This video is the feline version of the latest episode. I am living proof that you don't have to follow the TV show to enjoy the cat version, but how does it look to someone who is following the TV show? Let us know! You'll find more episodes at sorkinlane's YouTube channel. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Scary monsters may fill theater seats, but let's face it -lovable monsters do much better in toy stores. No doubt Frankenweenie, which opened in theaters this past weekend, will join the ranks. How will the resurrected dog compare with other monsters we've come to know and love? See the competition at Flavorwire. Link
You're just walking along and suddenly, a rival appears right in front of you! This compilation of animals confused by mirrors is both cute and funny. I don't think I'd volunteer to try it with a lion, however. -via the Presurfer
This museum in San Mateo, California, is the "world's only repository for the study and display of Zymoglyphic art, artifacts, and natural history." It has some very interesting exhibits from history and nature -except there is something unnatural about them. A clue comes from the second definition of the word "zympglyphic":
2. The collection and arrangement of objects, primarily either natural or weathered by natural forces, for poetic effect
Shown here is a Happy Fish (Piscatonius delitus). You'll enjoy finding the "poetic effect" in the exhibits at the museum's website. Link -via Metafilter
The Ohio State University marching band played lots of classic video games during their halftime show at the OSU-Nebraska game yesterday. There's some really complicated formations going on here, and it only gets better as the show goes on. -via Metafilter
Annika Eriksson is the head cook at a school in Falun, Sweden. Her students have enjoyed extraordinarily good meals, including fresh-baked bread and a vegetable buffet with over a dozen different offerings. School officials told her the food she was serving to the students was too good -and that she will have to scale it back because it's not fair to students at other schools in the district.
From now on, the school's vegetable buffet will be halved in size and Eriksson's handmade loafs will be replaced with store-bought bread.
Her traditional Easter and Christmas smörgåsbords may also be under threat.
Parents and pupils alike find the municipality's orders distasteful.
Fourth-graders at the school have even launched a petition in protest against the decision to put a lid on Eriksson's passion for cooking.
Chances are that you've never heard the names of any of the ten nurses on this list. But they all have stories of devotion and sacrifice, and they all deserve to be remembered. For example, Elsa Brandstrom was nicknamed "The Angel of Siberia." The daughter of the Swedish ambassador to Russia, she volunteered her services at the outbreak of World War I.
In 1915, Brandstrom was in Siberia treating German prisoners of war with the Swedish Red Cross. Matters got more complicated when her Russian work permit was revoked, but that didn’t stop her. Brandstrom continued traveling to Siberia illegally for two whole years, until the Russian authorities arrested her in Omsk in 1920.
Upon her release, she went back to Sweden and launched a campaign to help POWs. Her efforts included fundraising and founding a children’s home with room for more than 200 orphans. Eventually, she married and moved to the United States. But even there she dedicated herself to helping German and Austrian refugees.
And she is just one of ten heroic nurses on the list. Link -via the Presurfer
Chef Jon of Food Wishes tells us the secret of looking like a competent chef, even if you aren't. Don't let my kids see this video, they'll be flipping food all over the kitchen practicing this! Link -via Viral Viral Videos
In places where malaria is rampant, a common defense is to sleep under a insecticide-laden mosquito net. The nocturnal mosquito of the genus Anopheles can't penetrate the netting, and will die from the insecticide if they try. But malaria rates did not plummet as expected. Did the bed nets fail? No, the mosquitos changed -they stopped being strictly nocturnal and started feeding at dawn, after their human buffets got out of bed!
First, we don’t know yet if this was an evolutionary (i.e., genetic) change or a purely behavioral change. It is possible that there was quite a lot of genetic variation in timing of activity in the population a few years ago and that the bed nets provided a selective regimen that skewed the population to consist mainly of late night and dawn-active individuals. It is also possible that there is sufficient behavioral plasticity in the mosquito allowing it to learn the new best time of day to go out foraging. I’d love to see the mosquitoes placed in isolation chambers to monitor purely genetic patterns of circadian rhythms of activity.
If the change is genetic, meaning the circadian rhythm is inborn and the adaptive behavior is passed to future generations, malarial mosquitos may be much harder to defend against. If this is a learned behavior, well, we have a ready-made horror movie plot. How scary are mosquitos that can learn? Link -via Ed Yong
When I first saw this picture, I assumed someone in the neighborhood who had suspicions wrote this on a parked truck. But according to WBIR, this truck was stopped by police in Memphis. Someone was actually driving it with "METH LAB" written on the windows!
After being stopped for a license plate violation early Friday morning, the driver was arrested for outstanding warrants and other meth-related charges.
The meth cooker in the truck was removed by a hazmat crew. Link -via reddit
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
Everybody thinks Queen Isabella was so great, financing Christopher Columbus' voyages and all. But there's a darker side to her story.
When Isabella came to power in 1479, the Spanish region was at war with itself, a bunch of tiny kingdoms jockeying for position. By the end of her reign, Spain was united and becoming a global power. But it wasn't all good.
FIGHTING HER WAY TO THE TOP
Princess Isabella was the daughter of King John II of Castile, but she was a long way down on the royal ladder. For one thing, there was a little problem called the Sallic Law that prevented any woman from ascending the Castillian throne. But when her two brothers died off (one under suspicious circumstances) Isabella stepped up to the plate.
She'd already secretly merried Ferdinand of Aragon; their first task was to unite his Aragon and her Castile under their absolute rule. The queen kept the nobles firmly under her thumb and chose royal officials who were university-educated. A student and a great reader, Isabella created a government based on brains rather than birth.
PUTTING SPAIN ON THE MAP
With the domestric home front in hand, the royals looked south where Granada was still ruled by Islamic Moors. Under the banner of a Christian Crusade, the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella took Granada from the Moors in 1492. The country of Spain was united. Isabella was now free to make the shrewdest of all her decisions.
The Apple Sisters meet the Handsome Coffee Roasters in this flirty retro musical ad. It sure makes me want a "hot" cup of coffee! -via Daily of the Day
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