Artist Stuart Semple uses soap and helium to create floating foam clouds in the shape of smiley faces. A machine he developed makes and releases them, thousands at a time, in public places. Link (with video) -via Metafilter

(Live Leak link)

He can’t help the facial expression -he was born that way! -via Arbroath

Eggshells are a wonder of nature. They are the perfect packaging for bird babies and the food they need. Eggshells are full of calcium. And they have a great many uses after you take the yolk and the white out. I put all my eggshells in the compost as a matter of habit. I didn’t know they were also good for repelling bugs and deer, and I certainly have never thought of putting them in the coffee! Find twelve ways to use eggshells at The Daily Green. Link -via Digg

(YouTube link)
Leave it to the Japanese to invent a musical instrument with a face that looks like a cartoon character. The Otamatone was developed by toy company CUBE Works and Maywa Denki, an art collaboration of the Tosa family that specializes in nonsense machines. -via the Presurfer

These V-Houses were designed by Heinz Legler for use as eco-friendly shelters. They are in temporary use for workers is a forest near Yelapa, Mexico, but have proved so popular that more have been ordered to house resort guests. They feature solar panels, composting toilets, and a greywater system to reuse as much water as possible. No excavation needed to set these treehouses up, just stick them in the ground! Link -via Digg

This toilet paper dispenser looks like a giant tube of glue! No need to squeeze this tube, just pull the toilet paper out. The back end is sealed with Velcro, so you can easily add more paper. Link -via Unique Daily

Tactical Bacon is ready-to-eat bacon packed 54 slices to a can for $15.99. It has a ten-year shelf life, which makes it perfect for your underground apocalypse shelter. But when you open it, you’ll have to eat all 54 pieces or else refrigerate them. Link -via Gizmodo

Research into the subject of why humans cry (and animals don’t) has produced several theories. Some say it’s to shed harmful chemicals from the body. Others theorize that crying is a holdover from the way infants communicate needs. And some have said that the process just makes us feel better. Now we have a new theory.

"Crying is a highly evolved behavior," said researcher Oren Hasson, an evolutionary biologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "My analysis suggests that by blurring vision, tears lower defenses and reliably function as signals of submission, a cry for help, and even in a mutual display of attachment and as a group display of cohesion."

Crying as a social behavior? What do you think? Link -via Digg

The Chance and Community Chest cards in the standard Monopoly game were redesigned last year. This Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test how well you remember the old designs. Can you match the text with the images from the cards? I scored 7 out of 12, which is pretty good considering I haven’t played Monopoly in decades. Link

Photo: Brian Ulrich

Photographer Brian Ulrich has spent the last few year examining “the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live.” His latest project captures the beauty and sadness of empty stores and failed businesses.

Most recently a new project began in 2008 entitled Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes and Dead Malls. In the recent economic downturn some of the very stores I photographed at the beginning of the project are now emptied and laid barren in the hulking empty architecture of the big box, mall or store.

Link -via Metafilter

James Hayes-Bohanan, Ph.D. is a professor of geography AND a scholar with the Vanderbilt University Institute for Coffee Studies. His website Geography of Coffee is full of information about coffee around the world, including the places coffee is produced, shipped, and sold. You’ll also find out about fair trade and the politics of the coffee business. Of course, there are also coffee reviews and instructions for making the perfect cup. Link -via the Presurfer

That’s a pretty daring title for an internet list, but I was only familiar with a couple of these (including the bonus). Honestly, have you ever heard of a pink fairy armadillo? It’s also known as the Lesser pichiciego (Chlamyphorus truncatus) and it’s native to Argentina. Link -via Interesting Pile

Japan is facing an aging population and a shortage of nurses. the robotics industry, on the other hand, is booming. Introducing RIBA, which stands for “Robot for Interactive Body Assistance”. RIBA can pick up and carry people weighing as much as 135 pounds.

The cheery-looking machine has long, multi-jointed arms embedded with an array of tactile sensors that help it optimize the lifting and carrying of humans. For safety purposes, RIBA’s entire body is covered in a soft skin molded from an advanced lightweight urethane foam developed by TRI. The soft skin is designed to ensure the comfort of patients while they are being carried. In addition, the arm joints yield slightly under pressure — much like human arms do — further increasing the level of comfort and safety.

Link (with video) -via Digg

A new study shows that elderly people who are overweight or obese have significantly less brain tissue than those of normal weight. The difference was 4% for overweight people and 8% for the obese in a study of 94 people in their 70s. The volunteers were followed for five years, and anyone who showed cognitive impairment was excluded from the final sample.

"The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than their healthy counterparts while [those of] overweight people looked 8 years older," said UCLA neuroscientist Paul Thompson, senior author of a study published online in Human Brain Mapping.

Much of the lost tissue was in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain, the seat of decision-making and memory, among other things.

It is not clear whether weight gain caused a reduction in brain tissue, or if a smaller brain contributes to weight gain, or there are other factors contributing to both. http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/08/25/as-waistlines-widen-brains-shrink.html -via Lifehacker

(image credit: Flickr user erat)

Mark Wattson of Swindon, England was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix in August. He thought the doctors must have made a mistake, since his appendix had been removed in July! Nevertheless, his appendix was removed in a second surgery.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Mr Wattson said. "I told these people I had my appendix out just four weeks earlier but there it was on the screen for all to see.

"I thought: 'What the hell did they slice me open for in the first place'?"

And that wasn’t the end of his troubles.

The blunder has left Mr Wattson jobless, as bosses at the shop where he worked did not believe his story and sacked him.

Wattson is considering taking legal action against the hospital. Link -via Arbroath