(YouTube link)
Some students will do anything to put off studying for finals. These guys are from UT Austin. The top comment at YouTube:
That was dumbest thing ive seen all day. I'd watch it again.
-via The Daily What
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
-via The Daily What
This photo is actually named Bunch of Winers. Tom Magliery used Wite-Out and a Sharpie to give these fruits their personalities. See a collection of a variety of funny fruits from many artists at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Flickr user mag3737)
Nicole Maines and her brother Jonas were born identical twins, but they look very different at age 14. Nicole was named Wyatt at birth, but showed signs of female identity from a very early age.
Nicole, who has been living and attending school as a girl for years, underwent treatment to delay puberty and is looking forward to surgery and hormone treatment to complete her gender reassignment. The twins' story raises questions about identity: not only do they have the same genes, but they have shared the same environment since they were conceived.
The Boston Globe has the story of Nicole's physical transformation as well as the reactions of her family, schoolmates, and others. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)
Once, when Wyatt appeared in a sequin shirt and his mother’s heels, his father said: “You don’t want to wear that.’’
“Yes, I do,’’ Wyatt replied.
“Dad, you might as well face it,’’ Wayne recalls Jonas saying. “You have a son and a daughter.’’
That early declaration marked, as much as any one moment could, the beginning of a journey that few have taken, one the Maineses themselves couldn’t have imagined until it was theirs. The process of remaking a family of identical twin boys into a family with one boy and one girl has been heartbreaking and harrowing and, in the end, inspiring - a lesson in the courage of a child, a child who led them, and in the transformational power of love.
Nicole, who has been living and attending school as a girl for years, underwent treatment to delay puberty and is looking forward to surgery and hormone treatment to complete her gender reassignment. The twins' story raises questions about identity: not only do they have the same genes, but they have shared the same environment since they were conceived.
The Maineses decided to tell their story, they say, in order to help fight the deep stigma against transgender youth, and to ease the path for other such children who, without help, often suffer from depression, anxiety, and isolation.
The Boston Globe has the story of Nicole's physical transformation as well as the reactions of her family, schoolmates, and others. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)
You've heard of First World Problems, but now here's a site for cat problems. The problems of pampered, indoor cats with permanent homes, that is. After all, misery is relative. Link -via I Can Has Cheezburger
This is what happens when you put your birds in the same room as your computer or game system. Togepi the cockatiel knows the Mario Bros. theme by heart. Next thing you know, he'll be beating Superman at the game! -via The Daily What Geek
These cute cookies with melting snowmen on top were made by professionals at Truly Custom Cakery, but they explain how you can make your own. The tutorial even shows you how to make a melting snowman throwing a snowball! http://www.trulycustomcakery.com/tutorials/25.html -via Fuzzy Dave's Carousel of Wonderosities
by John Trinkaus, Baruch College, City University of New York
John Trinkaus was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize in literature for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him. Since that time, he has repeatedly gotten annoyed, collected data, and written monographs.
This new study is the third in a series Professor Trinkaus is publishing in the Annals of Improbable Research. The first, “Hand Sanitizing: An Informal Look,” appeared in AIR 15:6. The second, “Hand Sanitizing: Another Look,” appeared in AIR 16:3.
What Was Noted When
On the morning of the first day following the storm evidence of passenger vehicle roof cleaning — as contrasted with merely clearing a viewing port for the front and rear windows — was observed.
On the second morning, fire hydrant snow clearing was noted. Some owners of homes near a fire hydrant sometimes choose to clear a working area around the hydrant — to permit fire persons access in case of an emergency.
Day 1 — Details
On the first morning the writer positioned himself beside the two city-bound lanes of a 4 lane state highway. As passenger vehicles passed their roofs were viewed for the presence of snow.
For the purpose of this study, they either had snow or they did not have snow. If a vehicle surface had both clear and snowy sections, it was not counted for there was no way of telling if some snow had been purposely cleared or simply had been blown off as the vehicle was driven. If the roof was clean and dry, without any trace of snow, again, for the purpose of this enquiry, it was not counted. It was assumed that the vehicle had been garaged during the storm. Of the 1,000 “qualifying” vehicles noted, 473 (47%) were sedans and 527 (53%) SUV’s (sport utility vans). One hundred forty-two (30%) of the sedans had roof snow, and 469 (89%) of the SUV’S had roof snow.
Day 2 — Details
On the second morning, the writer drove through the area consisting or modestly sized and priced single family homes observing fire hydrants. For the purpose of this enquiry, only two states of the world were considered: the area around the hydrant was purposely cleared, or it was not. If there was a question of “status,” no note was made. One hundred hydrants were observed. Nineteen (19%) were cleared; eighty-one (81%) were not.
The methodological limitations of this study, such as subjective judgment, the use of only one observer, convenience sampling and the inability to replicate the enquiry, are recognized.
Similarly, acknowledged are such setting boundings as: use of a single community, absence of consideration of any applicable ordinances, lack of consideration of prevailing cultural norms and practices, and the want of factoring for other variables, such as day of the week and the prevailing weather following the storm.
Thoughts About The Findings
However, it might well be reasonable to advance some thoughts about what the findings or this enquiry could suggest about social morality. Ease seemingly plays an important part in the practice of social morality. If it is not too difficult for folks to do, they will probably do what society says is right. Removing snow from the roof of a sedan is certainly less of a job than clearing snow from the roof of a SUV. Too, leaving snow around a fire hydrant is easier to do than shoveling it away. Surprisingly, self interest does not appear to be too much of a modifier. Removing snow from a vehicle roof makes for safer driving. Removing the snow from a fire hydrant makes for more effective and efficient fire-fighting.
[caption id="attachment_57290" align="aligncenter" width="495" caption="Satellite image, taken two days after a snow storm of the general region containing the suburb (of a large city) where this study was conducted. Photo prepared by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC."][/caption]
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
John Trinkaus was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize in literature for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him. Since that time, he has repeatedly gotten annoyed, collected data, and written monographs.
This new study is the third in a series Professor Trinkaus is publishing in the Annals of Improbable Research. The first, “Hand Sanitizing: An Informal Look,” appeared in AIR 15:6. The second, “Hand Sanitizing: Another Look,” appeared in AIR 16:3.
(Image credit: Flickr user purplemattfish)
To glean some indication as to the number of drivers who clean the snow off their vehicle’s roof, and the number of people who shovel snow off fire hydrants, a small, informal enquiry was conducted during the first two days following a major snowstorm during the winter of 2010. The locale was a suburb of a large city in the Northeast.What Was Noted When
On the morning of the first day following the storm evidence of passenger vehicle roof cleaning — as contrasted with merely clearing a viewing port for the front and rear windows — was observed.
On the second morning, fire hydrant snow clearing was noted. Some owners of homes near a fire hydrant sometimes choose to clear a working area around the hydrant — to permit fire persons access in case of an emergency.
Day 1 — Details
On the first morning the writer positioned himself beside the two city-bound lanes of a 4 lane state highway. As passenger vehicles passed their roofs were viewed for the presence of snow.
For the purpose of this study, they either had snow or they did not have snow. If a vehicle surface had both clear and snowy sections, it was not counted for there was no way of telling if some snow had been purposely cleared or simply had been blown off as the vehicle was driven. If the roof was clean and dry, without any trace of snow, again, for the purpose of this enquiry, it was not counted. It was assumed that the vehicle had been garaged during the storm. Of the 1,000 “qualifying” vehicles noted, 473 (47%) were sedans and 527 (53%) SUV’s (sport utility vans). One hundred forty-two (30%) of the sedans had roof snow, and 469 (89%) of the SUV’S had roof snow.
Day 2 — Details
On the second morning, the writer drove through the area consisting or modestly sized and priced single family homes observing fire hydrants. For the purpose of this enquiry, only two states of the world were considered: the area around the hydrant was purposely cleared, or it was not. If there was a question of “status,” no note was made. One hundred hydrants were observed. Nineteen (19%) were cleared; eighty-one (81%) were not.
(Image credit: Flickr user chbrenchley)
LimitationsThe methodological limitations of this study, such as subjective judgment, the use of only one observer, convenience sampling and the inability to replicate the enquiry, are recognized.
Similarly, acknowledged are such setting boundings as: use of a single community, absence of consideration of any applicable ordinances, lack of consideration of prevailing cultural norms and practices, and the want of factoring for other variables, such as day of the week and the prevailing weather following the storm.
Thoughts About The Findings
However, it might well be reasonable to advance some thoughts about what the findings or this enquiry could suggest about social morality. Ease seemingly plays an important part in the practice of social morality. If it is not too difficult for folks to do, they will probably do what society says is right. Removing snow from the roof of a sedan is certainly less of a job than clearing snow from the roof of a SUV. Too, leaving snow around a fire hydrant is easier to do than shoveling it away. Surprisingly, self interest does not appear to be too much of a modifier. Removing snow from a vehicle roof makes for safer driving. Removing the snow from a fire hydrant makes for more effective and efficient fire-fighting.
[caption id="attachment_57290" align="aligncenter" width="495" caption="Satellite image, taken two days after a snow storm of the general region containing the suburb (of a large city) where this study was conducted. Photo prepared by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC."][/caption]
_____________________
This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2010 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
A look back at an ovoidal innovation and other work compiled by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff
The name of inventor Hiram S. Dotts is now less well known that it once was. So, too, are his inventions, two of which—perhaps Dotts’s most enduringly influential—are described here.
[caption id="attachment_57286" align="aligncenter" width="429" caption="Detail from the patent for Dotts’s improved egg-opener."][/caption]
Be it known that I, HIRAM S. DOTTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Thoburn, in the county of Marion, State of West Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Egg-Openers, of which the following is a specification.
So begins the text to U.S. patent #696,016, granted March 25, 1902 to Hiram S. Dotts. Mr. Dotts’s description, despite dealing with a subject of great technical complexity, is nearly poetical. Dotts (and/or his lawyer, E.B. Stocking) reduces the device, and its place in the world, to just 41 words:
This invention relates to egg-openers, and to particularly to a construction embodying jaws movable in their relation to each other and toward an egg in order to fracture the shell thereof upon a peripheral line extending in a single horizontal plane.
[caption id="attachment_57287" align="aligncenter" width="367" caption="Detail from the patent for Dotts’s improved cigar-tip-protecting-label technology."][/caption]
Just over thirteen years later, on December 7, 1915, Dotts received a patent for a device in an almost wholly different field of endeavor. In his words (and/or those of his attorney, E.B. Stocking):
Be it known that I, HIRAM S. DOTTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Marianna, in the county of Washington and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cigar-Tip-Protecting Labels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.
This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in cigar tip-protecting labels, the object being to provide a combination tip protector and label so constructed that the label will be held in position on the cigar by the tip protector.
However well Dotts was known to the public during his lifetime, his fame is now surpassed by that of other inventors, many of whom knew or know little or nothing firsthand about how to make improvements on egg-openers or cigar-tip-protecting-labels. It is possible that readers of this article will rectify or perpetuate this state of affairs.
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
The name of inventor Hiram S. Dotts is now less well known that it once was. So, too, are his inventions, two of which—perhaps Dotts’s most enduringly influential—are described here.
Dotts’s Egg-Opener
[caption id="attachment_57286" align="aligncenter" width="429" caption="Detail from the patent for Dotts’s improved egg-opener."][/caption]
Be it known that I, HIRAM S. DOTTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Thoburn, in the county of Marion, State of West Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Egg-Openers, of which the following is a specification.
So begins the text to U.S. patent #696,016, granted March 25, 1902 to Hiram S. Dotts. Mr. Dotts’s description, despite dealing with a subject of great technical complexity, is nearly poetical. Dotts (and/or his lawyer, E.B. Stocking) reduces the device, and its place in the world, to just 41 words:
This invention relates to egg-openers, and to particularly to a construction embodying jaws movable in their relation to each other and toward an egg in order to fracture the shell thereof upon a peripheral line extending in a single horizontal plane.
Dotts’s Cigar-Tip-Protecting-Label Innovation
[caption id="attachment_57287" align="aligncenter" width="367" caption="Detail from the patent for Dotts’s improved cigar-tip-protecting-label technology."][/caption]
Just over thirteen years later, on December 7, 1915, Dotts received a patent for a device in an almost wholly different field of endeavor. In his words (and/or those of his attorney, E.B. Stocking):
Be it known that I, HIRAM S. DOTTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Marianna, in the county of Washington and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cigar-Tip-Protecting Labels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.
This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in cigar tip-protecting labels, the object being to provide a combination tip protector and label so constructed that the label will be held in position on the cigar by the tip protector.
Dotts’s Legacy
However well Dotts was known to the public during his lifetime, his fame is now surpassed by that of other inventors, many of whom knew or know little or nothing firsthand about how to make improvements on egg-openers or cigar-tip-protecting-labels. It is possible that readers of this article will rectify or perpetuate this state of affairs.
_____________________
The article above is from the September-October 2008 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
The following article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV.
When TV characters cook, the results are often disgusting.
Drink: Flaming Homer
Show: The Simpsons (1991)
Origin: Homer is bored at home one night -forced to watch his in-law's vacation slides- and he doesn't have any beer, so he makes a cocktail from whatever he can find. He pours the leftover bits from several liquor bottles into a blender, along with the accidental addition of "Krusty's Non-Narkotic Kough Syrup." Homer thinks it tastes okay... but it's even better after it's lit afire by a stray cigarette ash. "I don't know the scientific explanation, but fire made it good," Homer says when he recreates the "Flaming Homer" at Moe's Tavern. Moe then steals the idea and starts serving the drink (for $6.95) and renames it "The Flaming Moe."
Show: South Park (1998)
Origin: When the Sundance Film Festival comes to town, the soul-singing school cafeteria cook Chef (voice of Isaac Hayes) opens a stand to sell cookies to tourists. His most popular item: His "Chocolate Salty Balls." It's a blatant double entendre, and Chef even sings a song about them: "Hey, everybody, have you seen my balls? They're big and salty and brown!" The song (which reached #1 in England) gives the recipe: cinnamon, egg whites, melted butter, flour, unsweetened chocolate, brandy, vanilla, and sugar. (Curiously, it doesn't call for salt.)
Origins: This cocktail, a martini, invented by booze-swilling playboy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), combines Thanksgiving food with booze. It's made from two ounces of potato vodka, four ounces of cranberry juice ...and a bouillon cube for that poultry flavor. Barney remarks that it "tastes just like a turkey dinner."
Continue reading
When TV characters cook, the results are often disgusting.
Drink: Flaming Homer
Show: The Simpsons (1991)
Origin: Homer is bored at home one night -forced to watch his in-law's vacation slides- and he doesn't have any beer, so he makes a cocktail from whatever he can find. He pours the leftover bits from several liquor bottles into a blender, along with the accidental addition of "Krusty's Non-Narkotic Kough Syrup." Homer thinks it tastes okay... but it's even better after it's lit afire by a stray cigarette ash. "I don't know the scientific explanation, but fire made it good," Homer says when he recreates the "Flaming Homer" at Moe's Tavern. Moe then steals the idea and starts serving the drink (for $6.95) and renames it "The Flaming Moe."
Show: South Park (1998)
Origin: When the Sundance Film Festival comes to town, the soul-singing school cafeteria cook Chef (voice of Isaac Hayes) opens a stand to sell cookies to tourists. His most popular item: His "Chocolate Salty Balls." It's a blatant double entendre, and Chef even sings a song about them: "Hey, everybody, have you seen my balls? They're big and salty and brown!" The song (which reached #1 in England) gives the recipe: cinnamon, egg whites, melted butter, flour, unsweetened chocolate, brandy, vanilla, and sugar. (Curiously, it doesn't call for salt.)
(Image credit: Garnished Adventures)
Drink: Thankstini
Show: How I Met Your Mother (2005)Origins: This cocktail, a martini, invented by booze-swilling playboy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), combines Thanksgiving food with booze. It's made from two ounces of potato vodka, four ounces of cranberry juice ...and a bouillon cube for that poultry flavor. Barney remarks that it "tastes just like a turkey dinner."
Oskar the blind kitten (previously at Neatorama) has grow into a good-sized cat -and he has a Facebook page. In this video, he wrestles that strange thing we call a Christmas tree. His friend Klaus watches from the sidelines. -via The Daily What
Eighteen-year-old Daniel Ganziano had a savings account at TCF Bank, but he spent his money. The account eventually only had $4.85 cents left, so Ganziano quit making withdrawals. But the bank didn't.
Ganziano's mother tried to get the fees waived, with no luck. So she paid it and asked for a bank supervisor to contact her. A few weeks later, with no call from a supervisor, she told the story to a consumer columnist at the Chicago Tribune. That same day, the bank agreed to refund all the fees. Daniel Ganziano said he learned something from the experience: don't trust banks. Link -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Flickr user Alan Cleaver)
He had all but forgotten about the account until he received a letter from TCF on Oct. 12 saying six days earlier, it had charged him a $9.95 "monthly maintenance fee" because his account had too little money in it.
The $9.95 charge made his account overdrawn by $5.10, which triggered another fee. At TCF, any account overdrawn by more than $5 is charged a $28-a-day overdraft fee. The net result: Ganziano was $33.10 in the hole.
By then, his nascent savings account was in a downward spiral. At $28 a day, the charges were adding up quickly.
When he and his mother went to the nearest branch that weekend to close the account, they were told they would first have to pay the accumulated fees, which totaled $229.10.
Ganziano's mother tried to get the fees waived, with no luck. So she paid it and asked for a bank supervisor to contact her. A few weeks later, with no call from a supervisor, she told the story to a consumer columnist at the Chicago Tribune. That same day, the bank agreed to refund all the fees. Daniel Ganziano said he learned something from the experience: don't trust banks. Link -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Flickr user Alan Cleaver)
Jen Clarke of West London opened four eggs in a row that were all double-yolked. The odds of such a thing happening must be astronomical -or are they?
Many factors can affect these odds, like the possibility that a certain chicken or flock laying several eggs that ended up in one carton, or the sorting of eggs by size. There are other factors as well, explained in this BBC article. Link -via Metafilter
According to the British Egg Information Service, one in every thousand eggs on average is a double-yolker. They're not sure how they've come to this figure but you would like to think that the British Egg Information Service was able to supply useful information about British Eggs, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt.
So, if the probability of finding an egg with two yolks is 1/1000 - then to find the likelihood of discovering four in a row you simply multiply the probabilities together four times. One thousand to the power of four brings us to the grand total of one trillion - that's the new-school US-style trillion with 12 zeroes.
If true that would mean the event that occurred in Jen's kitchen was a trillion-to-one event. But is it true? No is the short answer.
Many factors can affect these odds, like the possibility that a certain chicken or flock laying several eggs that ended up in one carton, or the sorting of eggs by size. There are other factors as well, explained in this BBC article. Link -via Metafilter
Dutch architects MVRDV designed these skyscrapers planned for South Korea. It's called The Cloud, and is described as "a pixelated cloud" with towers rising through it.
Okay, now that you've seen the picture, what are you thinking? The architectural firm was caught off-guard by complaints from those who looked at the plan and saw the World Trade Center towers exploding. That's the first thing I thought of, but MVRDV insists that the resemblance is coincidental. Read more about the controversy at Co.Design. Link -via The Daily What
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