Artist Iori Tomita produces theses colorful transparent specimens not by photo editing, but by transforming the animals themselves.
...Tomita first removes the scales and skin of fish that have been preserved in formaldehyde. Next he soaks the creatures in a stain that dyes the cartilage blue. Tomita uses a digestive enzyme called trypsin, along with a host of other chemicals, to break down the proteins and muscles, halting the process just at the moment they become transparent but before they lose their form. The bones are then stained with red dye, and the brilliant beast is preserved in a jar of glycerin. The extensive production takes five months to a year, but the result is an arresting look at the inner workings of underwater life.
These ants ate so much that their transparent abdomens swelled up to display their meal color! You can easily tell which ants moved from one blob to another. The photographer is unknown, and there is speculation that the ants are eating drops of Terro ant killer with food coloring added. Link -via The Daily What
by Meg Muckenhoupt, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA Illustrations by Gavin Schnitzler, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
On a hot night in August, while strolling in Prague, Horton the elephant peered through the fog With his portable telescope tied on a string He looked at the heavens and spotted… a thing!
So Horton stopped walking and stared at the spot. “That’s funny,” thought Horton, “It was there, now it’s not.” Then he saw it again! Just a faint bit of fuzz He certainly thought it wasn’t there—but it was! “I’ll name it!” said Horton, “But what is it? Where?” He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there But small speck of ice floating far past the air.
“I say!” murmured Horton. “Stuff my trunk in a sock! I’ve spotted a terribly far-away rock! So you know what I think? I think that there must Be a splendid new name for this lump of star-dust. Even though it is quite a diminutive size, Too small to be seen by an elephant’s eyes...
But it looks very spherical, round at the girth, Just like the planets Mars, Venus, and Earth I’ll just have to name it. Because, after all, A planet’s a planet no matter how small.”
“Humpf!” humphed a voice. ‘Twas a sour old sloth Who cleared his thick head with a very slow cough. “Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin! A planet that small? There never has been!”
The planets and that thing are just not the same! They don’t occupy the same orbital plane! That thing’s not a planet—not even a dwarf. It’s an asteroid merely, for all that that’s worth.”
She ended the sentence at twenty past one, Exactly five hours since she had begun. But Horton was patient, and waited to say Why he thought this very new planet should stay.
A schoolbook that both postdated and outlived its time.
by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff
Mathematics teaching has been cocked up — well and properly and officially — for a good long while, thanks to Edward Cocker and his amply-titled textbook Cocker’s Arithmetick: Being a Plain and Familiar Method Suitable to the Meanest Capacity for the Full Understanding of That Incomparable Art, As It Is Now Taught by the Ablest School Masters in City and Country.
Published in 1667, and later reprinted in more than 100 editions, the book was a standard in British grammar schools for several generations. Foreign schoolteachers also took Cocker to their bosom.
A Man of Words, Word, and More Words, Plus More Words The 34-word title exemplifies the book’s approach to explaining things clearly. One could (although the author would probably not) sum it up in three words: don’t be terse.
Here, for example, is how the book takes the student in hand — nearly in handcuffs, really — to explain the so- called “Rule of Three.” This passage appears on page 88 of the book’s 47th edition, published in the year 1736:
Observe, that of the three given numbers, those two that are of the same kind, one of them must be the first, and the other the third, and that which is of the same kind with the number sought, must be the second number in the rule of three; and that you may know which of the said numbers to make your first, and which your third, know this, that to one of those two numbers there is always affixed a demand, and that number upon which the demand lieth must always be reckoned the third number.
The book’s very first page accustoms the student to what lies ahead. You might enjoy reading this aloud:
Unit is number; for the part is of the same matter that is his whole, the unit is part of the multitude of units, therefore the unit is of the same matter, that is the multitude of units; but the matter of the multitude of units is number; therefore the matter of units is number; or else, if from a number given no number but subtracted, the number given remaineth; as suppose 3 the given number, if as some suppose, 1 be no number, then if you subtract 1 from 3, there must remain 3 still; which is very absurd.
Words After Death Scholars now debate whether Edward Cocker actually wrote the book (the first edition was published nine years after his death). Some suggest the whole thing is just a pastiche of other people’s writings, issued by a greedy publisher. No matter. Like many of today’s textbooks, authorities deemed it authoritative, and it came to enjoy widespread use. In that respect, as perhaps in others, this antique textbook is a very 21st-century piece of work.
References Cocker’s Arithmetick: Being a Plain and Familiar Method Suitable to the Meanest Capacity for the Full Understanding of That Incomparable Art, As It Is Now Taught by the Ablest School-Masters in City and Country, Edward Cocker, 1677, John Hawkins [publisher], London.
Bonus Cocker’s Life and productive death are the subject of an essay called “Who Was Cocker,” in the July 1884 issue of The Bibiliographer. You can read it online.
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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.
This article caught my eye because only a couple of days ago I explained to my daughter why pajamas were invented: because once upon a time we wanted to keep our expensive daytime clothing clean and wrinkle-free because it was difficult and destructive to clean them. An essay at Etsy explains more about the way clothing used to be. In 1900, a new dress could cost a couple month's wages. Thanks to overseas labor, modern machinery, and synthetic fabrics, it only takes abut an hour to earn the price of a discount store dress.
As clothes have become cheaper, our clothing consumption has gone through the roof. In 1930, the average American woman owned an average of nine outfits. Today, we each buy more than 60 pieces of new clothing on average per year. Our closets are larger and more stuffed than ever, as we've traded quality and style for low prices and trend-chasing. In the face of these irresistible deals, our total spending on clothing has actually increased, from $7.82 billion spent on apparel in 1950 to $375 billion today. And the discounters are reaping the rewards.
Sixty pieces of new clothing a year? Really? Even my growing children don't buy that much! Link -via Boing Boing
Rain Price of American Fork, Utah rode the bus to school every day. During the past year, the bus drove by his house after picking him up at the bus stop. And every day, his dad would be there in front of the house, waving.
"When he did it the first day, I was in shock," Rain said. "It's my first day of my sophomore year."
The embarrassment was a thrill for his father.
The second day of school, there he was again, only this time Price was wearing a San Diego Chargers helmet and jersey. Day three, it was an Anakin Skywalker helmet, and the next day, swim trunks and a snorkel mask.
Other kids started to take note.
"Most of them like it, and we roll down our windows and wave. It's fun," Rain said.
His dad admits it took a lot of effort to keep it up, but said it was "a way of letting him know that we really care about him, but do something a little different." He described it as "a father's way" of saying I love you.
Rain's father wore a different costume almost every day of the school year, including a white wedding dress once. Link to story. Link to website. -via Metafilter
"The boy's alive and we're going to send someone to save him...and we're going to get him the hell out of there." -from Saving Private Ryan
FACT OR FICTION?
In 1998 Saving Private Ryan gave moviegoers an infantryman's view of the 1944 invasion of Normandy on D-day. The film follows Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and the survivors of his unit as they battle their way onto Omaha Beach. Then, instead of getting a hoped-for rest, they get another dangerous assignment -to go behind enemy lines and find a missing soldier, Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). Private Ryan's three brothers have all recently died in combat and, in accordance with War Office policy, the last living son must return home alive to his family. Private Ryan must be "saved."
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan won five Academy Awards and the admiration of World War II veterans who said the movie faithfully depicted their experiences. The film renewed interest in the men who fought at Normandy, but filmgoers also wanted to know of there was a real-life Private Ryan.
THE REAL PRIVATE RYAN
Sergeant Frederick "Fritz" Niland
The fictional Private Ryan was inspired by Sergeant Frederick "Fritz" Niland -a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division and 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. Just after midnight on D-day, June 6, 1944, a plane dropped Sergeant Niland into France. He was supposed to land near the city of Carentan, but -like Private Ryan- got "lost" when his plane was hit by enemy fire and he had to jump miles away from his target.
Fritz, 24, was born in Tonawanda, New York, the youngest of four brothers, from oldest to youngest, Edward, Preston, Robert, and Fritz. Their mother Augusta "Gussie" Niland, later recalled that the brothers had always been best of friends. They graduated from Tonawanda High School and attended local colleges, but they were all attracted to military service. Their father had been a Rough Rider with Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War, and they grew up listening to his war tales. By spring 1944, they were all overseas: Robert was a mortar sergeant in the 82nd Airborne, Preston was a lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Division, and Edward was flying B-25s for the Army Air Force in the Pacific. Robert, Preston, and Fritz were all stationed in England, waiting for the invasion of Europe.
Now that we are into June, it's time to roll out a formal welcome to two new Neatorama authors who joined us in May! Both Shane McGlaun and Adrienne Crezo are experienced writers who are making significant contributions to our collection of "neat" stuff.
Shane McGlaun is a freelance technology and automotive writer with some of the biggest technology sites online. You can find Shane’s work on SlashGear, Technabob, and a lot of other places on the web where geeks hang out.
Adrienne Crezo is a writer of non-fiction, short fiction, literary reviews and to-do lists. She is the Managing Editor of the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, a regular contributor to MentalFloss and Geeks Are Sexy, a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle and member-at-large of the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. Online, she can be found on her site (AdrienneCrezo.com), but in real life she usually just hangs out near the coffeepot.
You can see pictures of both Shane and Adrienne on our authors page. And you'll also want to catch up on the exclusive articles we posted this week.
Jill Harness gave us 4 “Facts” That Have Changed Since You Were In School. If you live long enough, a lot of your education will be superseded by new information.
On Friday, John Farrier posted 15 Facts You Might Not Know about Knight Rider.
Tiffany gave us a lot of facts we can use for self-defense in Welcome Back Black Widow Spider, which you'll find at NeatoBambino.
On Memorial Day, I thought it appropriate to bring you the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader article Five for Fighting, the story of the Sullivan brothers, who joined the US Navy and served together in World War II.
Mental_floss magazine gave us 4 Little Creatures That Pack a Big Scientific Punch.
Where mythology meets biology: Anatomy of the Centaur came from the Annals of Improbable Research.
In this week's What Is It? game, the object in question was undoubtedly a pair of glasses. But we needed more than that for an answer. Steve Pauk was the first one to know these are sniper’s glasses; they were specifically made for the sharpshooters of the Civil War. However, he did not select a t-shirt. The funniest answer came from Randall: “Eye training glasses, for G-men in the 30’s. They helped develop that penetrating gaze that made the two-bit punks squirm like a toad in a vice while they were getting ‘the treatment.’” Randall wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
For you young folks, an "arcade" was a place where people could go to play games on "arcade machines." It was fun! You could socialize, hone your fine motor skills, and spend all your money! See a collection of classic arcade games from the 19th century through the space age at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
Actor James Arness, who protected the citizens of Dodge City as Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years (1955-1975) on the TV series "Gunsmoke" has died of natural causes. He was 88.
In an era when TV actors typically chewed the scenery, Arness had a credible, commanding presence by hardly uttering a word. A typical scene found a dozen cowboys riding up to the town jail intent on busting out a prisoner pal.
Dillon faces them all down.
"The first move anybody makes," he says, with a slight shake of his head, "I cut you in two."
Arness' defiant but rueful delivery is so understated, he makes Clint Eastwood seem like a loudmouth.
No wonder "Gunsmoke" wore so well. And became the last word on a programming craze that some seasons found as many as 30 Westerns on the air. When "Gunsmoke" went off in 1975, it was the only Western left.
Arness left a message for his fans on his website, planned ahead of time to be posted at his death. The Huffington Post has more on Arness' life and career. Link -via Uncle John's Blog
Did you know that June is National Bathroom Reading Month? Uncle John's Bathroom Reader is celebrating by holding a contest called the "Power Bowl," where you can win up to $2,500 to remodel your bathroom "reading room"! The exact prize will depend on how many people enter.
LEVEL 1: Greenbacks for towel racks 100 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $100 Home Depot gift card
LEVEL 2: Cash for a new can 500 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $250 Home Depot gift card
LEVEL 3: Bread for a new head 1,000 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $500 Home Depot gift card
LEVEL 4: Wherewithal for a new shower stall 2,500 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $1,000 Home Depot gift card
LEVEL 5: Cheddar to make your whole bathroom better 5,000 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $2,500 Home Depot gift card
I believe we can scare up some entries, don't you think? Get yours in now -the deadline is June 30th! Link
Did you know that in the 1940s, it was forbidden to use the word "tornado" in a weather forecast? Since there was no way to accurately predict a tornado, there was no use in causing panic. Even after the Air Force found a method of predicting the storms, no one wanted to say it -until 1952.
Only a few weeks after signing on as WKY-TV’s weatherman, Harry Volkman made broadcast history. The Oklahoma City station was near enough to Tinker Field that they could pick up weather alerts issued to personnel at the Air Force Base. On the afternoon of March 21, 1952, station manager P.A. “Buddy” Sugg learned that a “tornado risk” for central Oklahoma had been announced by meteorologists at the Base and he instructed Volkman to relay the information on the air. Volkman hesitated, worried that he could very well be arrested (since the word “tornado” was still officially verboten by the FCC), but Sugg told him, “They’d arrest me, not you; you’re just following my orders.”
Harry Volkman informed viewers of the impending storm, using the word “tornado” during a weather broadcast for the first time and probably saving some lives in the process, as that particular storm system ended up being the ninth deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history.
Mental_floss has more tornado history: the first account of a tornado in America, the first accurate forecast, the first photographed tornado, and more. Link
ER Stories has a first-hand account of the destruction in Joplin, Missouri, when a tornado ripped the town apart on May 22nd. Dr. Kevin Kikta was on duty at the emergency department of St. John’s Regional Medical Center at the time.
“Like a bomb went off. ” That’s the only way that I can describe what we saw next. Patients were coming into the ED in droves. It was absolute, utter chaos. They were limping, bleeding, crying, terrified, with debris and glass sticking out of them, just thankful to be alive. The floor was covered with about 3 inches of water, there was no power, not even backup generators, rendering it completely dark and eerie in the ED. The frightening aroma of methane gas leaking from the broken gas lines permeated the air; we knew, but did not dare mention aloud, what that meant. I redoubled my pace.
We had to use flashlights to direct ourselves to the crying and wounded. Where did all the flashlights come from? I’ll never know, but immediately, and thankfully, my years of training in emergency procedures kicked in. There was no power, but our mental generators were up and running, and on high test adrenaline. We had no cell phone service in the first hour, so we were not even able to call for help and backup in the ED.
Dr. Kitka goes on to describe individual patients and their injuries, as well as the response from medical and emergency workers and others who pitched in to help. Link -via Monkeyfilter
A bicycle can be an art medium just as much as a canvas or a wall, right? Imagine riding around on this flamingo bicycle, with all eyes upon you! This is just one of Ten Unique Bikes (many of them roadworthy) compiled in a list at Unique Daily. http://uniquedaily.com/2011/06/top-10-unique-bikes/
