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Relax, no bears were harmed in the making of this video. This is a video about National Geographic photographer Michael Melford on an expedition to take pictures of bears. But that doesn't mean there's no excitement! And we'll see a bit of humor, too. -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
By the hand of Old Red Jalopy, we get to see what some classic movie characters -who happen to be cars- would look like if they were in the new Pixar film Cars 2. This one is, of course, the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard. See the other six at NextMovie. Link
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During the championship at Magny-Cours, two motorcycles become entangled, apparently by their accelerators. Or maybe they just like each other. -via The Daily What
Duncan Kitchin is a stargazer and a Doctor Who fan. He also has a rather large telescope that's too big to easily take inside and back out often. So he built a TARDIS box as a telescope shed! One side comes off, and the rest rolls away on wheels. When Kitchin is through with the telescope, just cover it up again and the instrument is protected from the weather. See more pictures at Astro Imaging Blog. Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog
The busy Dutch team were asked to rate a notional future robot vacuum cleaner’s personality traits for desirability, and it was determined that the robot should be calm, friendly, like routines, but definitely not be talkative *. The next part of the study involved a group of human actors, who were asked to act like a robotic vacuum cleaner displaying the desired characteristics which had been determined in part one.
The actors' routines were rated and they were found to be good vacuum cleaners. If you want to be entertained, you only need to add a cat. Link
Guy Swindell Fowlkes, 33, of Orlando, was working at the tent at Colonial Drive and Maguire Road but had made arrangements to work at another tent location, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the case. When his girlfriend asked about keys to a storage unit, Fowlkes said he did not have the keys and began an argument with her.
Fowlkes struck his girlfriend, who is pregnant, in the left side of her face, according to the report. He then went into the tent and began to light up fireworks, directing some of them at other employees. He also lit the fuse of two firecrackers and placed them inside the gas tank of an employee's car.
As police approached, they could see explosions in the distance. Fowlkes was charged with arson and battery. Link -via Arbroath
It's once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Can you make up something interesting?
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 win 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?
For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: Ladybuggs knew this was a knife designed to be used in a life raft. Here's the description from Rob at the What Is It? blog:
A US Navy life raft knife, part of the survival kit on a life raft, cork handle so it floats, holes make it lighter, rounded end so it won't puncture the raft, painted orange so it can be seen if lost overboard, also a lanyard to tie it to the raft
The Professor had the funniest answer -a hedgehog quill-scraper! Both winners will receive a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
Photographer Rob MacInnis takes portraits of barnyard animals. He takes easily as much care with livestock photographs as a fashion photographer would with his subjects. The group portraits will especially bring a smile to your face. http://www.robmacinnis.com/Farm/slideshow.html to portraits. http://www.robmacinnis.com/Panorama/slideshow.html to group panoramas. -via Metafilter
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The sun has reached its northernmost peak, as of 1:17EDT, so we are officially into summer now. It you live in the southern hemisphere, you've just passed the winter solstice. In honor of the occasion, Josh Cohen put together this short and sweet greeting. Link -Thanks, Josh!
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Bill Hammock, the Engineer Guy, explains how fiber optic cables work. I, for one, am amazed that glass can be spun thin enough to be flexible, and that light can travel through it around bends and corners. -Thanks, Bill!
Yes, the rules are pretty basic, but 78 of them are hard to keep track of if you're a beginner ...or a complete idiot. Latvian photographer Ivars Gravlejs put them all in one place because he's seen every one of these rules broken too many times. Link -via the Presurfer
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In this stop-motion animation made with yarn, everyone is born with a number indicating their supposed potential. The kid born with a zero has a long way to go to catch up. Can nothing ever be something? Produced by Australians Christopher and Christine Kezelos. -via Laughing Squid
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Shena took Cyriak's animation Cows & Cows & Cows and turned it into an interpretive dance. Now if Cyriak were to take the dancers out of this video and manipulate them into his vision of dance, that would be ...just like Cyriak. -via The Daily What
Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss challenges you to name the top 20 baby girl names for the year 2010. Now, we reported this at NeatoBambino a few weeks back when the list was announced, but referring to that would be cheating, wouldn't it... however, those of you who keep up with all things Neato will have a head start. A commenter at mental_floss said she got most of them by using the names in her child's day care group. You have five minutes: good luck! Link