If you ever have the occasion to install a door stop, be sure to get one with a heavy spring, because 1. puppies love to play with them, and b. they make that wonderful "thwannng" sound. -via Arbroath
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
A prehistoric creature found in the Canadian Rockies has been named Siphusauctum gregarium, which is both a new genus and species. It lived 500 million years ago, when the area now nickenamed the "Tulip Beds" was underwater.
Link -via TYWKIWDBI
(Image credit: Royal Ontario Museum)
Siphusauctum has a long stem, with a calyx – a bulbous cup-like structure – near the top which encloses an unusual filter feeding system and a gut. The animal is thought to have fed by filtering particles from water actively pumped into its calyx through small holes. The stem ends with a small disc which anchored the animal to the seafloor. Siphusauctum lived in large clusters, as indicated by slabs containing over 65 individual specimens.
Lorna O'Brien, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto and her supervisor Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, report on the discovery today in the online science journal PLoS ONE.
"Most interesting is that this feeding system appears to be unique among animals. Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms," said O'Brien.
Link -via TYWKIWDBI
(Image credit: Royal Ontario Museum)
NASA has released a high-definition image of the Earth it calls Blue Marble 2012.
A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.
The original Blue Marble image was taken in 1972 by astronauts aboard Apollo 17. Until today, it was my desktop image. NASA has made the new image available for download in several sizes. Link to story. Link to image. -via Buzzfeed
(Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring)
On March 21, 1920, the Sandusky Register reported on an astonishing invention in which W. W. Macfarlane, traveling in a car (driven by a chauffeur), held a conversation with his wife back at the garage -500 yards down the road! The article is reprinted at Paleofuture. Link
DeviantART member viria13 put modern fashions on Disney princesses (and Anastasia, too). The artwork is lovely, but can someone tell me who "Kida" is? Link -via The Daily What
A misdirected email connects two people 9,000 miles apart who turn out to share more than the same name. This is the latest animation from the Rauch Brothers for StoryCorps. How do they find such great stories? This is one that is included in StoryCorps new book All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps which will be available February 2. Link
If you don't toss your cookies on a regular basis, you leave a trail behind as you surf the web. But making any sense of that trail is a science that may be beyond the reach of automated analytics -at least for now.
The Google ad preference page shows my interests, which is actually evidence of my work plus the interests of the three teenage girls who also use my computer, often without changing to their own Google accounts. Then it guesses that I am male, age 24-34. Wrong on all counts. How is this useful to advertisers? These analytics are based on categorizing individuals based on the perceived behaviors of groups. In real life, we call that discrimination and try to teach our kids not to do it. Either way, there's a lot of room for error. How wrong are they about you? Link -via Metafilter
Ars Technica’s Casey Johnston has started a fun new game: find out what Google guesses is your age and gender. These “inferred demographics” are based on the websites you visit and are tracked by a Google cookie; they are used for advertising purposes. Given Google’s controversial announcement Tuesday that users will not be able to opt out of new privacy changes, learning what the company thinks about you seems particularly useful, and informative.
The Google ad preference page shows my interests, which is actually evidence of my work plus the interests of the three teenage girls who also use my computer, often without changing to their own Google accounts. Then it guesses that I am male, age 24-34. Wrong on all counts. How is this useful to advertisers? These analytics are based on categorizing individuals based on the perceived behaviors of groups. In real life, we call that discrimination and try to teach our kids not to do it. Either way, there's a lot of room for error. How wrong are they about you? Link -via Metafilter
Artist Scott Garner gives us a depiction of a bowl of fruit on a table, named "Still Life." But this interactive artwork is anything but still! Link -via The Daily What Geek
Instructables member TigrisLi make a tank for her kitten out of cardboard, and posted the instructions so you can make one, too! Even if you don't want a kitty-sized cardboard tank, don't miss the short film she made of her kitten using it to blow the enemy away. Link -via Laughing Squid
Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? You can win even if you don't know!
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
Check out the What Is It? Blog for more pictures of the details of this mystery thing. Good luck!
Update: the pictured item is a meat cleaver with an attached combination tool, which is for sale at eBay. The first person to identify it was Michael S. Gatlin, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! Chuck Farkley came up with the funniest answer:
Chicken
Pablo Picasso
1934
mixed media with cleaver
So Chuck wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop, too! Thanks to everyone who played this week. See the answers to all this week's mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
When Larry Met Sergey is the highly condensed story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin and the company they named Google. Scroll down for each chapter (slowly, because the graphics are in layers) and watch the men's hairstyles and clothing change over the years. Link -via the Presurfer
This makes no sense at all, but does that matter when a video has cats and boots and other stuff? It's even got a catchy chant! Animation by Henry Edmonds, with music by Robert Clouth. -via Buzzfeed
After the fire department came and found someone had pulled a false alarm, Louisville Metro Police responded to a call about a man acting very strange. They arrived to find Jose Veras of Radcliff, Kentucky, in an apartment building laundry room, stuffing money into a washing machine.
Veras was arrested for trespassing. He apparently has a mistaken notion of what money laundering really entails. Link -via Arbroath
When officers arrived they allegedly found cash, "laying all over the area." Police also say that several residents were out in the hallways complaining about Veras was banging on their doors and running around.
Police eventually found Veras on the first floor in the laundry room, allegedly trying to stuff money into a washing machine. Officers say he did not live at the apartment, had no reason to be there and -- what's more -- was the one who pulled the fire alarm in the first place.
Police say they found over $1,000 scattered throughout the halls and in the washer.
Veras was arrested for trespassing. He apparently has a mistaken notion of what money laundering really entails. Link -via Arbroath
Comic artist Stephen McCranie has been very busy the past few months, and the result is a new book called Mal and Chad: Food Fight! featuring boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad. To publicize the book, Stephen is running a special Fill in the Bubble Contest at his website. Your caption could win you a personalized comic portrait and the book! Link
New York comedian Mark Malkoff visited every Starbucks in Manhattan, raced a Big Wheel against a bus, and treated people to free cab rides. His latest stunt is to take a trip to Los Angeles and avoid hotel bills by bunking at various celebrity's homes. Thirteen of the people he contacted said, "Sure!" -Thanks, Mark!
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