Alfakennyone presented this puzzle a couple of days ago. Let's assume a steady rate of flow (inlet does not exceeed outlet), and no confounding factors such as air pockets or rust. Look carefully before you decide. Then check out the answer and explanation.
Then you'll want to see the animated version, showing the containers being filled with water, made by CorneliaXaos, who dedicated more than three hours to making it happen. Spoiler: eventually, your basement will be completely flooded. -via Boing Boing
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Harlech Castle on the Welsh coast was built by King Edward I in the 1280s. It still stands strong, and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. And now, the castle has a sentinel, in the form of a giant steel dragon named Dewi. Dragons are special to the people of Wales, and a red dragon graces its flag.
There was no pressure, then, on artist Anthony Peacock, who was commissioned to create Dewi in 2010. However, the piece is a triumph, made from 78 square meters of steel sheets which were first cut in to scale shapes. These were then welded on to a frame and polished, measuring in at 16 foot long, 11ft high and 10ft wide. Finally a total of twelve coats of lacquer were applied. All told almost 800 hours of work went in to fashioning this magnificent beast. If Llywelyn had had a dragon like this on side, the castle would quite probably never have been built.
See more pictures of Dewi the Dragon, and read the history of Harlech Castle at Kuriositas.
(Image credit: Flickr user Clive Roberts)
(Image credit: Ntsimp)
How to take advantage of the best bargain in the world: the USPS.
1. A BANK
W.H. Coltharp was in charge of building the Bank of Vernal, Utah, and wanted the edifice to be made of bricks from Salt Lake City. But it was 1916. Bricks were usually shipped via commercial freight wagon, and that was expensive. So Coltharp found a way to cut costs: ship bricks one by one. He ordered 15,000 bricks, individually wrapped, and had them shipped by parcel post. The shrewd scheme cost the post office a fortune.
2. LIVE CATS
Hey remember that weird racing swimsuit that we saw during the 2008 Olympics? That was the LZR Racer, developed through a partnership between Speedo and NASA. The seriously engineered full-body compression suit led to a slew of medals for those who wore them.
Those sponsored by swimwear companies other than Speedo actively revolted, insisting that wearing an LZR Racer was integral to their ability to remain competitive. Shares in companies such as Asics and TYR dropped when it became clear that they couldn't keep up, with TYR even filing an antitrust lawsuit in an attempt to put the brakes on Speedo's onrushing freight train full of gold medals.
Following the games, FINA (the international governing body of swimming) passed a ruling outlawing space-age materials and limiting the amount of a swimmer's body that can be covered by a swimsuit. Plus, this way everybody gets to see more of Michael Phelps' torso. Because that's what he needs. More torso.
So the suit was banned for giving an unfair advantage in a competition. That's the story of four innovations in a list from Cracked. The fifth item, the Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher, had nothing to do with competition, which only makes the story more maddening.
(Image credit: NASA)
If you can recall, it was two years ago that the robot company Megabots challenged their Japanese counterparts to a battle between giant robots. The Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry accepted the challenge. The idea was to pit Megabots' Mark 2 robot against the Suidobashi robot Kuratas. It was supposed to happen a year ago, but was delayed, and Megabots built a new giant robot. This week, they unveiled the new model called Eagle Prime, which is about as American a name as you can get.
Eagle Prime is the first MK3-class MegaBot from MegaBots, Inc. It weighs in at 12 tons, stands 16 feet tall, seats two, is powered by a 430 horsepower V8 LS3 engine, and costs a cool $2.5M. Cupholders come standard.
If and when the actual duel comes about, we will find out about it. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Garbage collectors aren't supposed to dispose of garbage cans, just empty them. But what if it's outlived its usefulness? How do you dispose of it? YouTuber sledguy910 had a garbage can that had holes burned into it, and after sitting around for a year or so, it had to go. It wasn't that easy.
This crew wasn't all that sure about what to do with a garbage garbage can, and even when they were, they had a hard time doing it. Lucky for us, there was a home security camera that caught all the action. With added narration. -via Digg
This little boy lost a tooth, placed it under his pillow, and received a dollar from the Tooth Fairy. He responded with a letter asking for a raise from a dollar to $5. This is the letter he got in return. In case you can't read the print, you can enlarge the original image here.
He does look a little perplexed at the official explanation. Considering he's about six or seven years old, it's probably not that easy for him to read, much less understand. But he's got another dollar just for asking, so that's probably a win in his eyes. Let's just hope the warning about keeping his teeth clean and cavity-free sinks in. -via reddit
On April 22, 1981, Randy Kobman skipped school to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Atlanta Braves at Riverfront Stadium. He was at the front of the second deck when a foul ball headed his way. Kobman reached out to catch it, and fell over the railing.
Thanks to some combination of fate and bench pressing, Kobman saved himself. As he was falling toward the field, Kobman tossed the souvenir ball away, reached back, and grabbed the railing he’d just cartwheeled past with his right arm. His body slammed against the facing of the upper deck, but he never lost his grip. He braced himself against the wall with his legs as his body swung around and held on. It was as clutch a play as Riverfront Stadium, or any stadium, had ever seen.
“I remember it clearly, just seeing the guy hanging up there, way up there,” Ray Knight, the Reds’ third baseman that day, tells me. “The rails at Riverfront were built so that they had an angle in toward the seats, so I saw him hanging up there, but I never knew how he actually grabbed the dang rail, the way it’s built. That was an unbelievable thing.”
The film clip of that fall was broadcast nationwide. But whatever happened to Kobman? Dave McKenna was recently reminded of the incident, and set out to find him. The result is an extensive update on Kobman, now 54, about that day he came close to dying, the publicity that ensued, and what he's done since then. -via Digg
The Disney comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids came out in 1989, and became a classic in the childhood memories of the internet generation. The movie was a critical and box-office success, and spawned several sequels. Rick Moranis starred in three movies in the series, and then retired from live-action film to raise his children as a single father. If you were a kid when Honey I Shrunk the Kids came out, you might not know these things that went into making the movie.
10. The original title was Teenie Weenies.
The final title didn’t actually come along until Moranis said it to his on screen wife during filming. Otherwise it was going to be a nod to an old comic strip from the 1900’s that inspire the film.
9. It was filmed in Mexico CityDespite the California look and feel the entirety of the neighborhood that you see was constructed on a back lot in Mexico City.
Read the rest of the trivia list about Honey I Shrunk the Kids at TVOM.
From the 1880s to the beginning of World War I, "ghost hoaxing" was a real problem in Australia. People would take advantage of local superstitions and a lack of police patrols to dress up a ghost and scare people. The costumes were often quite elaborate, especially with the advent of phosphorescent paint that made an apparition glow in the dark. The fad arose from the boredom of youth, but grew into a cover for serious crimes.
Australia during this period was very concerned about the threat of “larrikins,” who were rowdy youths out to cause mischief. Some of these larrikins regarded ghost costumes as suitable devices with which to commit crime and violence. A sort of urban warfare was fought, with ghost hoaxers on one side and, on the other, vigilantes and armed guards who were determined to shoot these pranksters with buckshot to end their mischief.
Under cover of a ghost disguise, even respectable middle-class citizens were caught trying to commit crimes. Read some of the wide-ranging cases of the "ghost hoaxers" at Atlas Obscura.
The huge public buildings the Ottomans built in Turkey were designed to last. And so were the decorative bird houses attached to the outside walls. These birdhouses were works of art as well as sturdy homes for wildlife.
The birdhouses were not simple concrete structures, but rather elaborate feats of miniature architecture that ranged from one-story homes to multiple-story bird mansions. Each was designed with a similar design aesthetic to the country’s larger buildings, simultaneously providing shelter to sparrows, swallows, and pigeons while preventing bird droppings from corroding the walls of the surrounding architecture.
In addition to providing shelter, the birdhouses fulfilled a religious vision. They were thought to grant good deeds to those that built the tiny homes.
The few surviving Ottoman birdhouses are hundreds of years old. See a gallery of the concrete birdhouses of Turkey at Colossal. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Caner Cangül)
Over several years, across several towns in Louisiana, there were multiple cases of entire families found murdered in their sleep by someone wielding an axe. The horrific murders began around 1909 and continued through 1912. A man was arrested, but another murder occurred while he was in jail. Police turned their attention to his 19-year-old daughter, Clementine Barnabet. A few months later, Barnabet confessed to 17 murders.
The El Paso Gazette was one of many to run with the Voodoo angle. After their story hit newsstands, several local papers also printed the possibility that the murders were connected to Voodoo. Around the same time, rumors were swirling that Clementine was the leader of some kind of cult called the "Church of Sacrifice," which was supposedly led by one Reverend King Harris, a Pentecostal revival preacher with a small congregation connected to the Christ Sanctified Holy Church. Police took Harris in for interrogation after rumors of religious involvement ran rampant, but the reverend had never heard of a "Church of Sacrifice," and was visibly shaken to think that his sermons could have possibly inspired a series of bloody ax murders.
There are problems with Barnabet's confession. Her story changed constantly, possibly reflecting the publicity and moral panic surrounding the murders. And the murders did not stop when she was arrested. There was also scant evidence that the sacrificial Voodoo cult even existed. But there was physical evidence, such as Barnabet's blood-soaked clothing. Read the mysterious story of Clementine Barnabet at Mental Floss.
In the 1850’s, the River Thames in London was an open sewer, responsible for thousands of deaths annually from cholera, typhoid, and dysentery, this because London’s drinking water was largely drawn from the River Thames. In 1858, the public outcry against the event that came to be known as ‘The Great Stink' was so severe that the British government decided that something had to be done about the ongoing pollution of the river, and it was.
A civil engineer named Joseph Bazalgette was tasked with finding an effective and economical solution to the enormous problem of cleaning up the River Thames, which ran through a mature city of nearly three million people. London was crisscrossed with roads, buildings, subway tunnels, drainage pipes, and the other infrastructure components, both above ground and below ground, that are found in major cities. He had his work cut out for him, but, luckily for London, he was more than up to the task.
The solution proposed by Bazalgette was to construct 1,100 miles of street sewers with 82 miles of underground brick sewers to intercept the raw sewage which until then had freely flowed through the streets of London. These intercepting sewers were to divert the sewage from the street sewers to far downstream where it could be collected and dumped, untreated, into the Thames to be carried away at high tide.
Bazalgette’s proposals met with fierce resistance and were rejected time and time again, but all this changed in 1858. That year the stench from the Thames was so overpowering that Parliament was unable to function and this became known as the year of the “Great Stink.” It prompted politicians into action and the Government gave approval and financial backing to the intercepting sewers proposals, amounting to 3 million pounds.
Read the intriguing (and profusely illustrated) story of Joseph Bazalgette and his ingenious intercepting sewer system at the Heritage Group.
Thanks to Neatoramanaut WTM, who wrote this item.
Fish aren't known for showing affection. Most fish do not want to be touched by humans at all. But Bon Shaw has a Blood Parrot Cichlid that craves human interaction. That fish really loves being petted!
This little guy just loves to watch me wherever I am in the room, he'll do anything to get my attention. And when I look at him he flares out his gills and dances from side to side just hoping that I'll come over to play. If I drop food in the aquarium he'll ignore it and hope to play. I have to walk away to get him to go find the food which has floated away by then. That said, in another tank I have a second Blood Parrot Cichlid that loves me but doesn't want to be touched. It's like having one dog and one cat. You just have to love the differences.
-via Tastefully Offensive
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
(Image credit: Stoned59)
Bob Dylan is a legend of legends in the music world. He is rock music's greatest poet. He's sold millions of records and albums and his live concerts have been unforgettable events since the sixties. In 2008, Bob was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Now, as if his career hadn't been incredible enough already, he won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Okay, let's take a look at a few other interesting facts about Mr. Bob Dylan.
1. Robert Allen Zimmerman briefly used the alias "Elston Gunn" before he adopted the first name of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas to become "Bob Dylan."
2. Dylan was so grief-stricken over the death of Elvis Presley that he didn't speak to anyone for a week.
3. He turned 76 in May, he has 11 grandchildren, and he drives a van with the bumper sticker: "World's Greatest Grandpa."
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