You had a lot of fun naming the fifty nifty Unites States in ten minutes. Now for the real challenge: how many of the 192 countries who are members of the United Nations can you name in ten minutes? I got nearly half of them. The nerve-rattling clock and my typing skills betrayed me. Link -via the Presurfer
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
25-year-old drummer Nargiz started the Burka Band, Afghanistan’s first all-girl band ever two years ago. Their song “Burka Blue†was released in Germany in 2002 and became a club hit. The band has never performed in Afghanistan and is now inactive.
Of course it was a joke to sing in the burkas, but it was also necessary to wear them. If people in Afghanistan knew who the members of the Burka Band were, we could be attacked or killed because there are still a lot of religious fanatics here, says Nargiz, who hasn't told any of her friends that she has played in the Burka Band.
Push play or go to YouTube. Link to article. -via Arbroath
Can you name all 50 states without consulting a map? I admit I consulted the map in my head as I did this quiz from Ironic Sans. You have ten minutes from page load to type in all 50 states. Yes, spelling counts. I did it in just over four minutes. It would have been much faster except I skipped Nevada and had to search my mental map for it. Link -via Metafilter
From Not So Noisy, the folks who brought you Human Space Invaders, watch the stop motion art project Human Pole Position. This video will join a proud but recent tradition of bringing video games to the real world. Push play or go to Daily Motion. -via Dump Trumpet
Precious Images is an Oscar-winning short film by Chuck Workman, featuring 500 movie clips in seven minutes. I was surprised to realize that I have seen and enjoyed just about all of these movies! Push play or go to YouTube. -via Grow-A-Brain
One of the drawbacks to the widespread use of electric cars has been that they’re usually pretty ugly. The Tesla Roadster will change that perception. It runs on 100% electricity, for 250 miles per charge at about a penny per mile. Plus it goes from zero to 60mph in about 4 seconds. These cars are sold out now, but reservations are being taken for the 2008 models. Link -via Dump Trumpet
Taman Safari animal hospital in Java, Indonesia have four babies in their care who normally wouldn’t get along. A pair of baby orangutans and a pair of Sumatran tiger cubs (both endangered species) were rejected by their mothers, and are being raised in the hospital’s nursery, where they became inseparable friends. In the wild, tigers eat orangutans. Link
The European Space Agency launched the Rosetta space probe {wiki} in 2004 to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It should reach the comet by 2014. Rosetta has just passed Mars, and sent back some beautiful photographs.
In the lead image above, an orange (red), green and near-UV colour filter composite image of Mars is shown; the UV channel (the blue color) has been enhanced. The enhanced UV signal clearly shows the presence of the cloud system covering most of the Martian disk.
Link
There’s the newfangled thing that people do with computers, and it’s amazing! It’s called “Internetâ€. This CBC report from 1993 makes me want to try it! From the comments:
1993 "Sorry I'm late, I was on Internet."
2000 "Sorry I'm late, I was on the Internet"
2007 "sry im L8, i was on Teh Internets"
Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer
Admit it, you’ve always wanted to become one of the Knights Who Say Ni. {wiki} You’ll be partway there with this hat. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Stringfever is a group of three brothers and a cousin who play electric stringed instruments. In this video, the four play Ravel’s Bolero on one electric cello! Push play or go to YouTube. Link to the band’s website. -via Ursi’s Blog
I made this with the Portrait Illustration Maker. Any resemblance to actual persons would be surprising to me... just kidding! In case you can’t recognize my hurried attempts, this is supposed to be Neatorama authors Alex, Gail, and me. I don’t know what the others look like. Go try it yourself! Link
Stop-motion video artists PES produced the Human Skateboard video last year. Push play or go to YouTube. Now Sneaux Shoes invites you to make your own version! At Human Skateboarding, find instructions for creating your own stop-motion video, then upload your videos (or still photos) to share and show off. Or just see what other people have produced. http://www.sneauxshoes.com/humanskateboarding/index.html
New York artist Tom Duncan creates multimedia pieces based on his childhood memories. He was born in Scotland at the beginning of World War II. An unhappy family and wartime danger inspired him to turn to art as a small child. Some of his pieces deal with bomb shelters and nazis. His family moved to the United States in 1948, where his teenage hangout was Coney Island. This intricate sculpture, entitled “Dedicated to Coney Island†has lights and carnival rides that move! Link -more photographs here.
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