We're in the future already, so where's your hoverboard? It's at a lake in Turkey, hovering under the power of water pressure. -via The Daily What Geek
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
This is the colorful new look of the Ecole Maternelle Pajol in Paris. The building housing the kindergarten has been around since the 1940s, and was recently updated by French architectural firm Palatre & Leclère. The inside is just as bright! See more pictures at The Cool Hunter. Link -via Boing Boing
This video shows the effects of audio tones on a drop of mercury. You can see it in slow motion with music added at mental_floss, but better yet, you can find out how the experiment came about. Link
Buzzfeed's extensive photo collection of political figures as teenagers includes candidates, governors, senators, judges, mayors, political wives, and even a couple of journalists and pundits. As ever, you can sort them into preps, nerds, jocks, and stoners if you like, although fashions change and they are, of course, different ages. They haven't changed all that much, but seeing Rudy Giuliani with hair is a real hoot! In the photo shown, I'm pretty sure Rick Santorum is the one in the black turtleneck. Link
Oral contraceptives didn't start with The Pill. Ancient recipes for preventing pregnancy contained all kinds of natural ingredients for desperate people. Their effectiveness varied, and none are recommended.
Modern testing has revealed that other herbs and plants recommended by ancient authors, such as cow parsnip and the wild yam called Barbasco root, contain chemicals that can influence hormone levels. Of course, not all oral contraceptives had to contain plant matter: Native women in today’s New Brunswick brewed tea out of preserved beaver testicles, which could have provided androgen to influence their hormonal balance and decrease fertility.
Read about other historical birth-control schemes at Discoblog. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user faster panda kill kill, altered at Speechable)
You've seen a lot of flashmob videos, but this one doesn't have much flash, and it's not really a mob, just a beautiful performance for those lucky enough to be in Sabadell, Spain, when they recorded it. A Babelfish translation from the video link says:
So ignore the fact that it's an ad and enjoy the music. -via reddit
In 130º anniversary of the creation of Sabadell Bank we have wanted to pay a tribute to our city with the campaign “Som Sabadell”. This is flashmob that we realised like final finishing touch with the participation of more than 100 people of the Orquestra Simfònica of the Vallès and the choirs Lieder and Amics of l'Òpera and the Chorale Belles Arts.
So ignore the fact that it's an ad and enjoy the music. -via reddit
In 2002, scientists from the the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered deep-sea worms that feasted on, and helped dispose of, skeletons of whales and other large sea animals. The worms belong to the Osedax family and extracted nutrients from bones without any means of drilling into them.
A team led by Dr. Sigrid Katz of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have figured out how they do it. The worms use chemistry!
So these worms are not only bone-eaters, but acid-spewers as well. Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: Greg Rouse)
Scientists were perplexed when they only discovered females but further investigation revealed that the males remained in their microscopic larval stage, living inside the female worms.
The unusual group's name Osedax is Latin for "bone devourer", and the worms have no mouth, gut or anus yet are still able to remove nutrients from bones.
A team led by Dr. Sigrid Katz of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have figured out how they do it. The worms use chemistry!
By analysing the worms' tissues, the team found that acid-secreting enzymes were abundant in the root-like parts that attach to bones.
"The acid is secreted through the skin of the roots region," said Dr Katz.
Osedax marine worm green "root" structure (c) Greg Rouse The acid released from the green-coloured "root" demineralises the bone
"The skin cells in this region are very long cells and the upper end has lots of [microscopic protrusions, which] enlarge the surface multiple times, so lots of acid can be secreted," she explained.
So these worms are not only bone-eaters, but acid-spewers as well. Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: Greg Rouse)
Last night, redditor welcometocrazy drew a comic strip out of boredom. It stars two rocks, which may have been a reflection on a point of view that even more boring. However, the response was so positive that she started a blog and promises to post a new comic every week. Link
Whether you call it a circle of friends or a clique, girls manage to travel in groups quite often, although these groups are relatively rare in film compared to gangs of men (or boys). You are more likely to encounter a gang of guys with a token female on the silver screen. But there are some notable girl gangs in film, which you can see at Unreality magazine. Shown here are the Pink Ladies from the musical Grease. Link
EuroLapse takes you on a three-month tour of Europe in less than five minutes. And you can't beat the ticket price! Filmmaker David Smith says:
You'll find a list of the countries at the vimeo page. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
The images used in this time lapse were taken in 2011 over the course of three summer months in Europe. My wife's mother lives in Lithuania, just outside of the capital city Vilnius, so we decided to make it our homebase from the end of May through August while we traveled to various countries.
You'll find a list of the countries at the vimeo page. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
A fossil species of the human family called Australopithecus sediba is a fairly recent discovery. Some of the two-million-year-old individuals unearthed in Africa have tartar on their teeth, which is rare among primate fossils, but it gives scientists a chance to reconstruct what they ate. That diet was a surprise.
Scientists speculate that bark-eating may not have been their first choice. The diet and the fact that they lived in a cave may mean that they lived during a drought or stressful environmental change. Link -via Ed Yong
(Image credit: Lee Berger)
The team conducted their studies on the two most complete A. sediba individuals recovered thus far, an adult female and a subadult male found at a site just outside Johannesburg. Analyses of the wear on their molars showed that the two hominins ate hard foods shortly before they died. And their tooth chemistry—specifically the carbon ratios—revealed that, over their lifetime, they dined mostly on so-called C3 foods, which include trees, shrubs, some herbs and the animals that eat those kinds of plants. This is surprising, because other hominins of similar antiquity relied more heavily on C4 foods—most tropical grasses and sedges and the animals that eat those plants. Furthermore, paleoenvironmental evidence from the site that yielded the fossils attests to a setting dominated by C4 plants, not C3 ones. Among early hominins only the much older Ardipithecus ramidus from Ethiopia comes close to A. sediba’s carbon isotope composition; compared to the tooth chemistry of modern creatures, A. sediba’s looks like a savanna chimpanzee’s or a giraffe’s.
Even more startling, when the researchers examined the tartar, they found traces of plant foods no one thought our ancient kin ate, such as bark. The tartar contained silica crystals called phytoliths that plants make as a means of self-defense, some of which the investigators could attribute to particular kinds of plants on the basis of their distinctive shapes.
Scientists speculate that bark-eating may not have been their first choice. The diet and the fact that they lived in a cave may mean that they lived during a drought or stressful environmental change. Link -via Ed Yong
(Image credit: Lee Berger)
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
Go ahead and scoff at the cure-alls and tonics concocted in the 1800s, but know this: taken in large enough quantities, they'd make people forget what ailed them.
THE WAY WE WERE
In the 19th century, doctors were few and far between: which may have been a good thing, since medical practices weren't anywhere near an exact science. Patients took their chances: bloodletting, purging, sweating, and freezing were standard operating procedures. Blistering was also in vogue, based on the notion that the body could harbor only one ailment at a time. The theory was that the pain of raw blisters would drive out the pain of just about anything else. Many doctors carried a supply of acid and other skin scorchers. If they ran short, a hot poker from the hearth worked just as well.
ON THE CUTTING EDGE
Amputations were also popular; hence the nickname "sawbones" for doctors. There also was something called "trepanning" that involved drilling holes in the patient's skull to relieve pressure on the brain.
When electricity came into everyday use in the late 1800s, doctors quickly discovered the healthy jolt it could provide to their incomes. One doctor advertised a range of electric brushes, corsets, hats, and belts to cure everything from constipation to malaria.
IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?
Calling a doctor was a last resort. In some communities, the doctor moonlighted as the local undertaker. Mothers, who made their own home remedies, did most of the doctoring. Sometimes an apothecary, who could grind together a more exotic medication, was consulted. But in the 19th-century spirit of unbridled and unregulated American capitalism, it wasn't long before Mom got a little mass-produced help from the medicine men.
Continue reading
Go ahead and scoff at the cure-alls and tonics concocted in the 1800s, but know this: taken in large enough quantities, they'd make people forget what ailed them.
THE WAY WE WERE
In the 19th century, doctors were few and far between: which may have been a good thing, since medical practices weren't anywhere near an exact science. Patients took their chances: bloodletting, purging, sweating, and freezing were standard operating procedures. Blistering was also in vogue, based on the notion that the body could harbor only one ailment at a time. The theory was that the pain of raw blisters would drive out the pain of just about anything else. Many doctors carried a supply of acid and other skin scorchers. If they ran short, a hot poker from the hearth worked just as well.
ON THE CUTTING EDGE
Amputations were also popular; hence the nickname "sawbones" for doctors. There also was something called "trepanning" that involved drilling holes in the patient's skull to relieve pressure on the brain.
When electricity came into everyday use in the late 1800s, doctors quickly discovered the healthy jolt it could provide to their incomes. One doctor advertised a range of electric brushes, corsets, hats, and belts to cure everything from constipation to malaria.
IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?
Calling a doctor was a last resort. In some communities, the doctor moonlighted as the local undertaker. Mothers, who made their own home remedies, did most of the doctoring. Sometimes an apothecary, who could grind together a more exotic medication, was consulted. But in the 19th-century spirit of unbridled and unregulated American capitalism, it wasn't long before Mom got a little mass-produced help from the medicine men.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Eighty-two-year-old actor Victor Spinetti passed away on June 19th, reportedly from cancer. Perhaps not well-known to the general moving-going public, Vic was, nonetheless, both famous and popular with all us Beatles fans around the world. Victor is the only person to appear in both a Beatles movie and an Elvis Presley movie.
The Elvis film was a very bad secret agent/spy romp from 1967 called Double Trouble. Like most of Elvis' films, Double Trouble is very forgettable and is undistinguished in every way, but for the fact that it has Elvis in it. Also, like most Elvis films, the less said about it, the better.
I met Vic as a Beatles fan convention about twenty years ago. He was a very friendly, soft-spoken, cordial man. We chatted for a few minutes. I remember I told him he was great in A Hard Day's Night. He immediately said, "I'm also in Help! and Magical Mystery Tour." I have met thousands of thousands of actors in my time, but I have never met any actor who was so concerned with me knowing his full credits.
Besides his unique place in cinema history with the Beatles and Elvis, Victor is also the only actor to appear in three Beatles films. I guess because of his unique record, this is the reason he was so anxious to make me aware he was in all three of these films, not just A Hard Day's Night.
A gifted British stage actor, Victor was appearing in a musical in London called Oh! What a Lovely War one day when two long-haired young musicians entered his dressing room after a performance in 1963. They introduced themselves as John Lennon and George Harrison, members of the Beatles. Victor was aware of the band , who were already huge in England at the time (although they were still virtually unknown in America). They had come to ask him to be in their first film, which was to be called A Hard Day's Night.
"You've got to be in all our films," said George.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because me mum fancies you and she won't see the film unless you're in it," said George.
Continue reading
Eighty-two-year-old actor Victor Spinetti passed away on June 19th, reportedly from cancer. Perhaps not well-known to the general moving-going public, Vic was, nonetheless, both famous and popular with all us Beatles fans around the world. Victor is the only person to appear in both a Beatles movie and an Elvis Presley movie.
The Elvis film was a very bad secret agent/spy romp from 1967 called Double Trouble. Like most of Elvis' films, Double Trouble is very forgettable and is undistinguished in every way, but for the fact that it has Elvis in it. Also, like most Elvis films, the less said about it, the better.
I met Vic as a Beatles fan convention about twenty years ago. He was a very friendly, soft-spoken, cordial man. We chatted for a few minutes. I remember I told him he was great in A Hard Day's Night. He immediately said, "I'm also in Help! and Magical Mystery Tour." I have met thousands of thousands of actors in my time, but I have never met any actor who was so concerned with me knowing his full credits.
Besides his unique place in cinema history with the Beatles and Elvis, Victor is also the only actor to appear in three Beatles films. I guess because of his unique record, this is the reason he was so anxious to make me aware he was in all three of these films, not just A Hard Day's Night.
A gifted British stage actor, Victor was appearing in a musical in London called Oh! What a Lovely War one day when two long-haired young musicians entered his dressing room after a performance in 1963. They introduced themselves as John Lennon and George Harrison, members of the Beatles. Victor was aware of the band , who were already huge in England at the time (although they were still virtually unknown in America). They had come to ask him to be in their first film, which was to be called A Hard Day's Night.
"You've got to be in all our films," said George.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because me mum fancies you and she won't see the film unless you're in it," said George.
Domino artist FlippyCat (who brought us Vincent van Dominogh) uses his dominoes for an animated Canada Day greeting. -via The Daily What
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