A black hole in what has been nicknamed the “death star galaxy” is sending a jet of radiation and energy to a smaller neighboring galaxy. Millions of stars are in the path of the deadly stream, possibly with orbiting planets. Such an attack would render any planet lifeless. The cosmic violence is only about a million years old, and may stretch for another 10 to 100 million years. The two galaxies revolve around each other, and are 24,000 light years apart. The attack poses no danger to Earth, as the galaxies are over a billion light years away. Link -Thanks, Cheese Duck!
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Inspired by a list of “best and worst quotes from 2007” and a trip to Krispy Kreme, Marty Z and his wife created this funny t-shirt design. http://www.cafepress.com/martyz -Thanks, Marty Z!
(YouTube link)
How cool would it be to have your portrait done by a robot? The robot was designed by Sylvain Calinon, robot researcher at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA).
When the robot recognizes a face in its field of view, it first grabs a snapshot of this face and extracts the relevant features and contours characterizing it. The robot then grabs a pen and start drawing the user's portrait, starting from the rough contours and adding details iteratively.
Link to Calinon’s site. -via Dump Trumpet
Just about everyone knows the song Frère Jacques (Brother John). Here are 45 versions of the song, in many languages and several dialects of French. Link -via Metafilter
Celebrity Hotel Rooms is a collection of ten of the swankiest hotel suites ever. This picture shows the Peninsula Suite in Hong Kong's Peninsula hotel, which will run you $5,000 a night! Amenities include a 24-hour butler and a stand-by Rolls-Royce. Link
Neatorama had a lot of stories and videos about cats in 2007. Here are some of the more popular ones, in case you missed them or want to see them again.
Goliath is a twenty-pound cat who got wedged in a dog door!
Video of what became ubiquitous in 2007: LOLcats.
A family of cats performing to a waltz.
(YouTube link)
Nora lives with a piano teacher, and loves to play the piano. This was later followed by a video of Nora’s Piano Duets. Nora now has a CD available called Cat on the Keys. $2.00 from every CD sold are donated in Nora's name to Best Friends Animal Society.
Otto’s very strange video valentine for perfect strangers.
Video of a cat climbing into a fish bowl.
A fourth-grade class raised money to buy the disabled cat Xavier a wheelchair.
Agui, the cat who can pronounce his own name!
Macavity rides a bus by himself to the chip shop!
One Useless Cat makes friends with a rat.
Kosh doesn’t want to walk on a treadmill.
Smokey owes his life to blogger EMT Tom Reynolds.
Video showing how to vacuum a cat.
Tama, the cat stationmaster for a Japanese railway.
Pippy, the cat who will beg for anything.
Mr. Lee’s Cat Cam shows what the world looks like to a cat.
Des, the cat with 26 toes!
Where did they come from, anyway? The history of housecats.
Oscar, the cat who predicts death in a Rhode Island geriatric ward, became an internet sensation and one of the most talk-about stories of the year.
A litter of kittens playing with toilet paper.
How to compute the volume of a cat.
The Hemingway Cats get a reprieve.
A cute cat eating corn on the cob.
The Laws of Cat Physics.
Nimra adopted alitter flock of chicks!
The Hello Kitty Cat Humiliation System.
(YouTube link)
Meet Charley, who has cerebellar hypoplasia.
The Russian lady with 130 cats!
This Japanese TV show answers the question: How much weight can a cat carry?
Video of a DJ scratchin' cat.
Caption monkey contest featuring a swimming cat and a bonus pic.
Tiger Lily has the shape of a heart on her side.
The Mean Kitty Song, starring Sparta.
Video of a kitten eating a melon.
Nine videos of the adorable Scottish Fold breed.
Video of cute kittens sleeping in dishes.
(YouTube link)
The animation every cat owner can relate to: Cat Man Do, by Simon Tofield.
The Flo Control Project must recognize your cat before he can come in the house!
Molly survived the washing machine.
Fitzy, the fabulous fetching feline.
Scientific proof that cats are liquid.
A cat who loves his horse.
Video of a cat that acts like a dog.
Snoopy playing an invisible piano.
Video of a dog, a cat, and a crawfish. With earworm music.
Lil'Bit, the cat with two faces.
Two cats having a conversation, plus a remix with an English translation.
Baby, the bionic cat with metal implants in all four legs.
A kitten battling a ferret.
Scientists clone fluorescent cats that glow red in the dark!
Video of the cute upright kitten.
Jelly came home with a copperhead wrapped around her neck!
Japan’s Rent-A-Cat industry.
Musashi's Christmas Song.
January
Goliath is a twenty-pound cat who got wedged in a dog door!
Video of what became ubiquitous in 2007: LOLcats.
A family of cats performing to a waltz.
February
(YouTube link)
Nora lives with a piano teacher, and loves to play the piano. This was later followed by a video of Nora’s Piano Duets. Nora now has a CD available called Cat on the Keys. $2.00 from every CD sold are donated in Nora's name to Best Friends Animal Society.
Otto’s very strange video valentine for perfect strangers.
Video of a cat climbing into a fish bowl.
March
A fourth-grade class raised money to buy the disabled cat Xavier a wheelchair.
Agui, the cat who can pronounce his own name!
April
Macavity rides a bus by himself to the chip shop!
One Useless Cat makes friends with a rat.
Kosh doesn’t want to walk on a treadmill.
May
Smokey owes his life to blogger EMT Tom Reynolds.
Video showing how to vacuum a cat.
Tama, the cat stationmaster for a Japanese railway.
Pippy, the cat who will beg for anything.
June
Mr. Lee’s Cat Cam shows what the world looks like to a cat.
Des, the cat with 26 toes!
Where did they come from, anyway? The history of housecats.
July
Oscar, the cat who predicts death in a Rhode Island geriatric ward, became an internet sensation and one of the most talk-about stories of the year.
A litter of kittens playing with toilet paper.
How to compute the volume of a cat.
The Hemingway Cats get a reprieve.
A cute cat eating corn on the cob.
The Laws of Cat Physics.
Nimra adopted a
The Hello Kitty Cat Humiliation System.
(YouTube link)
Meet Charley, who has cerebellar hypoplasia.
August
The Russian lady with 130 cats!
This Japanese TV show answers the question: How much weight can a cat carry?
Video of a DJ scratchin' cat.
September
Caption monkey contest featuring a swimming cat and a bonus pic.
Tiger Lily has the shape of a heart on her side.
The Mean Kitty Song, starring Sparta.
Video of a kitten eating a melon.
Nine videos of the adorable Scottish Fold breed.
Video of cute kittens sleeping in dishes.
October
(YouTube link)
The animation every cat owner can relate to: Cat Man Do, by Simon Tofield.
The Flo Control Project must recognize your cat before he can come in the house!
Molly survived the washing machine.
Fitzy, the fabulous fetching feline.
November
Scientific proof that cats are liquid.
A cat who loves his horse.
Video of a cat that acts like a dog.
Snoopy playing an invisible piano.
Video of a dog, a cat, and a crawfish. With earworm music.
Lil'Bit, the cat with two faces.
Two cats having a conversation, plus a remix with an English translation.
Baby, the bionic cat with metal implants in all four legs.
A kitten battling a ferret.
December
Scientists clone fluorescent cats that glow red in the dark!
Video of the cute upright kitten.
Jelly came home with a copperhead wrapped around her neck!
Japan’s Rent-A-Cat industry.
Musashi's Christmas Song.
To compile this list, I sifted through 25 pages of Neatorama's animal archives, which took a long time because there are so many interesting stories about all kinds of animals. I highly recommend that you take a look!
These interactive flash toys may be educational, but they are so much fun you probably won’t notice. I spent a lot of time just throwing things around! http://www.barechoons.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27 -via reddit
(YouTube link)
This kitten didn’t get the memo that said cats don’t enjoy a bathtub of water! -via Arbroath
Oliver Thompson made arrangements with the staff at the Blackpool Zoo to set the stage for his proposal. During a zoo visit, his girlfriend Emma Morgan was surprised when a six-ton Asian elephant named Marcella delivered a ribbon to her, with a ring attached!
The elephant was carrying an inexpensive version of the actual engagement ring, just in case it was swallowed. Oh, and Emma said yes. Link -via Unique Daily
"Elephants are my favourite animals so when Oli told me that I was going to be spending the day in the elephant enclosure I was really chuffed.
"Then, this one elephant came up to me and handed me a ribbon. I didn't see the ring at first, but then I smiled at Oli and he opened a box he was holding and handed me my gorgeous engagement ring."
The elephant was carrying an inexpensive version of the actual engagement ring, just in case it was swallowed. Oh, and Emma said yes. Link -via Unique Daily
(VideoSift link)
Mariah Wilder only wanted one thing for Christmas -for her Daddy to come home from Iraq. Sgt. Matthew Wilder found he would be able to come home to Kentucky for the holidays while going to aviation school. His wife arranged for an assembly at his daughters’ school, where Mariah and her sister were presented with a large box. Link -via Video Sift
17-year-old Rachel Rosenfield was touched by a newspaper report on Cambodian children who don’t have access to education. She went to work writing fundraising letters and selling t-shirts, and raised $52,000 in donations to open a school! Rosenfield was in Siem Reap province, Cambodia yesterday for the opening of the new R.S. Rosenfield School for 300 village students.
Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Heng Sinith/AP)
"It makes me feel great to know that I was able to help so many people," the teen said when contacted by telephone. "Just seeing everyone so happy (today). It meant a lot to me."
Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Heng Sinith/AP)
2008 will be the International Year of the Potato. The United Nations made this designation in 2005.
Over the next two decades, the world's population is expected to grow on average by more than 100 million people a year. More than 95 percent of that increase will occur in the developing countries, where pressure on land and water is already intense. A key challenge facing the international community is, therefore, to ensure food security for present and future generations, while protecting the natural resource base on which we all depend. The potato will be an important part of efforts to meet those challenges...
Among the planned acxtivities will be a global forum on "Potato science for the poor" in Cuzco, Peru on 25-28 March 2008. Link -via the Presurfer
PETA has compiled a list of US prisons that best cater to the diets of vegan and vegetarian inmates.
Link -via mental_floss
We get calls all the time from inmates who want to make a positive change in their lives by going vegetarian, and in the course of responding to these individuals, we’ve assembled the following list of the top 10 vegetarian-friendly prisons in the United States as a tidbit for curious citizens, a resource for prisoners’ rights groups, and, well, a menu for future inmates.
Link -via mental_floss
(YouTube link)
Ravi Baichwal was on-air live during the 10PM newscast Sunday at channel 7 in Chicago, when a minivan crashed through the studio wall! The interruption became the news as it happened. Link -via Arbroath
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