unique and interesting: April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Police In Denmark Stops Bicyclists And Hugs Them

Doesn't Denmark have the nicest cops? They stop cyclists and give them free helmets and hugs to show they care about their safety.

Dickens URL

Convert URLs into wonderful works by Charles Dickens. The fear of cryptic URLs, long or short, is now no longer a problem. Enter an ugly URL and you will be faced with beautiful words of Charles Dickens.

The Dickens URL for The Presurfer would be:

http://dickensurl.com/754e/He_had_a_cane_he_had_an_eyeglass_he_had_a_snuffbox_he_had_rings _he_had_wristbands_he_had_everything_but_any_touch_of_nature_he_was _not_like_youth_he_was_not_like_age_he_was_not_like_anything_in_the _world_but_a_model_of_deportment">

The outbreak of swine flu, first in Mexico then cases all over the world, has gotten a lot of people worried. Despite the existence of scarier diseases caused by exotic viruses like Hantavirus and Ebola, influenza still reigns as the number one infectious killer in modern times.

Unlike regular seasonal epidemics of the flu, there are also rare but deadly pandemics, i.e. cases of influenza that spread on a worldwide scale and infect a large proportion of the human population.
Here's a summary of the 5 deadliest pandemics in history.

Type Nesting.

Turban Man

Nihangs are the monk-warriors of an armed Sikh order. They wear big turbans which are quite a bit longer than the average turban, and it takes more than 45 minutes to tie them.

The Turban the man in the video is wearing is about 400 meters in length. Watch until the end to see the man wrap his head in all 400 meters of material.

(thanks Cora)

FEMA'S 'Scary Thing'

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has removed a children's coloring book from its web site following criticism over its inclusion of drawings of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The coloring book, titled 'A Scary Thing Happened,' is geared towards helping kids 'cope with disasters.'

The coloring book's cover montage includes a drawing of one of the Twin Towers on fire as a plane approaches the second building. The coloring book was created in 2003 for the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team and was illustrated by Marlys Jentoft, a 68-year-old grandmother of 10. In an interview, Jentoft said she was unaware of the recent criticism of the coloring book, but would redo the drawings if asked.

(thanks Dennis)

The El Camino swimming pool, homemade beer goggles, a schoolbus bomb shelter, and other great redneck inventions.

(thanks Nicholas)

It is no coincidence that the vast majority of the world's most famous buildings are used as offices. Governments and multinational companies that commission and inhabit such buildings are the only organisations with the power and money necessary to create constructions that are large, cutting-edge and ultimately impressive enough to
become famous.

Here are some examples of striking office buildings built from the mid 18th century, right up to 2004 and incorporates a range of styles and materials.

(thanks Andy)

Walk On The Wild Side

Funny animal voice-overs.

Ever heard of tourists in Florence, Italy, who became ill in the presence of great works of art? It's called the Stendhal Syndrome. Or what about Mud Wrestlers Rash, Dr Strangelove Syndrome, or Uncombable Hair Syndrome.

Top 10 Bizarre Illnesses.

Google has a map showing the cases of swine flu spreading in real time.

Ambrose Burnside was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War and later served as governor of Rhode Island and U.S. senator from that state. He was renowned for a kind of beard that was the opposite of the goatee: side whiskers and moustache, with a clean-shaven chin. The style was known, naturally, as Burnside's.

By itself, this word for his hairstyle had no meaning other than the name of its originator. But as memory of the general and senator faded, Burnside's was mistakenly heard as burnsides, a plural, seeming to refer to the two prominent sides of hair.

And so, through the effort of making a word make sense, sideburns entered American English and remained, allowing us to describe the look of Elvis Presley and others in the century to come.

(thanks Nicholas)

So much for eternal youth! Most respondents to the Reader's Digest global survey are just fine with their limited shelf life here on earth. Not even the younger crowd consistently chooses immortality.

In fact, more than 50 percent of those 45 and under in seven countries (including the United States) report that they don't want to live forever.

Ever wonder what it'd be like if Superheroes were just regular people like you and I? Like what if Superman had a job as a limo driver and he didn't necessarily have any superhuman powers?

When you add the element of costume and real life it winds up being pretty hilarious. Here are some cool pictures of people in superhero costumes doing normal 'human' things.

(via Optical Poptitude)

The Real Story of the Superheroes. (thanks George)

Photos from the Michael Jackson auction.

We've all seen chainsaw-carved sculptures before, but Randall Boni's masterpieces are simply amazing. No point in pointing out Randall is a world-renowned wildlife sculpture artist. Just have a look at his work and you'll see why.

(thanks Cora)

Jones' Good Ass BBQ And Foot Massage

Raise your hand if you are bored with regular barbecue places... That's what I thought. Rather than just sitting around I decided to help the community.

So with my new Target credit card i put a downpayment on an abandonded Chinese restaurant. And so, Jones' Good Ass BBQ And Foot Massage was born!

Airtrax Sidewinder

The Airtrax Siderwinder is a forklift truck that uses omni directional technology. Multiple cylindrical shaped tyres around a single axis help guide the forklift in all directions.

Facebook Group: World Leaders.

Got $75,000,000 to spare? You could buy this house, the most famous of all great estates on 40 acres in Round Hill.

(via corsinet)

On most educational websites children can play games that involve solving math problems or answering science questions.

But there's a far greater selection of fun games or sites that are also educational and wont bore your poor kid to death.

Top Educational Websites For Children That Are Fun.

LED In My Mouth

Sound and light programming by Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi.

(via Everlasting Blort)

World's Smallest.

Lost In Space

There are those who believe that somewhere in the vast blackness of space, about nine billion miles from the Sun, the first human is about to cross the boundary of our Solar System into interstellar space.

His body, perfectly preserved, is frozen at –454ºF; his tiny capsule has been silently sailing away from the Earth at 18,000 mph for the last 45 years. He is the original lost cosmonaut, whose rocket went up and, instead of coming back down, just kept on going.

The 'Lost Cosmonauts' debate has been reawakened thanks to a new investigation into the efforts of two ingenious, radio-mad young Italian brothers who, starting in 1957, hacked into both Russia's and NASA's space programmes – so effectively that the Russians, it seems, may have wanted them dead.

More info on this article:

The Lost Cosmonauts, website of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers.

Site debunking the brothers' claim.

A Flickr photoset of lunchboxes.

(via Grow-A-Brain)

There is more to the nettle than meets the eye. Normally, nettles are associated with that nasty sting that they give. You should you be foolhardy enough to examine them with bare hands or unfortunate enough to have a brother or sister willful enough to want to push you in to them.

However, they have many more uses than a tool in the escalation in to nastiness of sibling rivalry. So, what exactly can you do with nettles when you are bored?

(via Robert-John)

50 Surprising Ways To Boost Your Brain's Performance

Even if you think you're pretty smart or have a good memory, your brain is begging you to work it to its full potential. Getting stuck in the same routine, never exercising and eating junk food are all brain killers that decrease good cognitive function and increase your chances of memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's.

But with these 50 tips and ideas for flexing your brain power, you'll be able to boost performance right now and in the future.

April is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month in America. That's right: Someone has proclaimed this popular comfort food worthy of a monthlong celebration. Beloved and reinvented by even the most celebrated chefs, the grilled cheese has long-since outgrown its white bread and processed cheese days.

Here's a roundup of the best tributes to this American staple. From Tom Colicchio's french onion soup–themed masterpiece to a fried-egg-finished fantasy, these are definitely feta-than-life sandwiches.

(thanks Annie)

The array is intended only to convey some idea of the variety of shapes that have appeared, it does not give an adequate impression of the relative frequencies with which the different UFO shapes have appeared.

Home Schooled

Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson.
Co-writing by Silas Jackson.
The Presurfer will feature a Home Schooled cartoon every Monday. This is an absolute exclusive cooperation between The Presurfer and Ash Jackson.

Home Schooled is more or less a reflection of the wacky and occasionally interesting adventures of the artist, Ash Jackson, himself, with the aid of his friends, family, and other cohorts.

Title: Did You See The Sign?
It Says http://www.garageband.com/artist/Dennes

click on the picture for real size

Thousands of new food products are introduced to grocery shoppers every year. Not all of them are succesful. Which items are so wild that they've been removed from shelves permanently?

Here are some of the biggest food flops over the last 40+ years. Some of the items lasted only a few weeks, while others were available for a few years, but they all have one thing in common: you can't find these items at a grocery store near you.

(thanks Annie)

Japanese fashion usually brings to mind kimono, yukata, or the sailor school uniforms. And for many people around the world who are interested in fashion, the lesser known styles and subcultures of Japan are becoming more widely recognized.

The fashions on this list were worn at different times in Japan during the twentieth century and today. With some groups of Japanese teenagers these styles were extremely popular. They were viewed as creative and influential to fashion by some, and looked on with confusion and amusement by others.

10 Unusual Japanese Fashions And Subcultures.

all140.com Is a new site, aiming to bring you all the real-time news available on one site by extracting and finding qualitative information hidden on the most remote corners of the web.

Find the information you are looking for - in real time.

(thanks Franz)

Meat Cards are business cards made from meat.

We start with 100% beef jerky, and sear your contact information into it with a 150 Watt CO2 laser. Unlike other business cards, Meat Cards will retain value after the econopocalypse. Meat Cards do not fit in a Rolodex, because their deliciousness cannot be contained in a Rolodex.

Many men need little reason to shed their clothing. A little sunshine and whoosh! However, they do not realize - in many cases - that their semi-nudity can sometimes engender not quite the emotions that they supposed.

They may feel that it's worth it but here are a few 'becauses' - together with photographic proof - that beg to differ.

(via Robert-John)

AOL took down its Journals and Hometown services, and now Yahoo's following suit with its own GeoCities, the hosting service that once upon a dot-com bubble seemed to include half the personal sites on the Web.

Yahoo isn't currently providing a lot of detail about what users can expect from the shutdown process, other than that it'll happen 'later this year,' probably in the summer timeframe. More info on the GeoCities Help Page.

Pretty Woman By Edarem

A creepy looking old guy (Edarem aka The Schnoz) sings Pretty Woman.

10 Most Celebrated TV Show Hangouts

We tend to get drawn into our favorite TV shows; we know what the characters do for a living and are privy to their groups of friends. But in order to really love a sitcom or dramatic series, it must be set to perfection - in other words, it's all about the hangout spots.

From the Three's Company bar, Regal Beagle, to Beverly Hills, 90210's diner, the Peach Pit, these renowned places - where our favorite small-screen characters gathered - ignite big memories for those of us who loyally tuned in.

Check out these 10 famous spots where love, laughs and drama all unfolded - and where everyone definitely knew one another's names.

(thanks Annie)

Bored, listless and stressed at work? Perhaps it is time to divert your attention away from that for which you are getting paid and develop a few new strategies around passing the time between nine and five.

With these ten websites you will hopefully discover a host of time wasting ways to prevaricate. Enjoy - and don't get fired!
10 Winning Websites With Which To Waste Time At Work.

(via Robert-John)

Pavement art has grown in popularity over the years and there are few major cities left untouched by the paintbrush of these eccentric artists.

Aside from the traditionalist type pavement paintings where the artist replicates famous works of art, there are also those who very cleverly create optical illusions with their paintbrush. Take a look at some of these mind boggling three dimensional pavement paintings scattered across the globe.

(thanks Andy)

Not sure if I posted this one before, but if you want to save energy, use Blackle. Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. A given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.

(thanks Paul)

News stories about North Korea have been quite frequent recently, with their test launch of a rocket over Japan, withdrawal from nuclear disarmament talks coupled with a threat to restart their nuclear program, and their recent arrest and indictment of two U.S. reporters on its border with China.

Even with all this attention, photographs from North Korea are still restricted and hard to come by. One way around that has been for photographers to peer inside from across the border, a pastime that has also spurred a level of curious tourism in both neighboring South Korea and China. Collected here are a some recent photographs, looking into North Korea from the outside.

'Staying Alive' Featuring Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Roger Federer

(thanks Lisa)

Hot Rods are automobiles rebuilt or modified for high speed, fast acceleration, or sporty appearance.

A wide range of automobiles may be called hot rods, including some of those used in drag racing as well as those used in recreational cruising. They may be composed of used or new parts. Some are intended primarily for exhibition.

How To Take Excellent Portrait Photos

Simply put, a portrait is a representation of a person.They usually focus on a person's face, mood and expression. Traditionally portraits were sculptures or paintings however, in modern times, a photograph is the most recognized way of taking a portrait.

Here are some simple techniques to help you take portraits and also self portraits, to make the very best of your photos.

A mole is a pigmented spot on the outer layer of the skin. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, the majority of moles appear during the first two decades of a person's life, while about one in every 100 babies is born with moles.

A mole can be either subdermal (under the skin) or a pigmented growth on the skin, formed mostly of a type of cell known as a melanocyte. The high concentration of the body's pigmenting agent, melanin, is responsible for their dark color. Moles are a member of the family of skin lesions known as nevi.

Here are 10 of the greatest moles of all time.

(thanks Nicholas)

He Came From Our Peep Peeps

New parents Jack Black and Michael Cera take a moment to tell us just how proud they are that their one and only son, Andy Samberg, is hosting the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. Oh, and we learn a bit more on exactly how little Andy came to be.

(thanks Jaime)

The new IKEA PS 2009 collection combines the passion for good design and outstanding low prices with the economical use of resources and responsibility for people and the environment.

The collection shows the world surrounding us from different perspectives, collected in a number of inspiring stories - the IKEA PS Never Ending Design Stories.

(thanks Cora)

An entertaining and eye-opening article on the global outbreak of crazed 'shoe-icide' assaults on an elite roster of national leaders and villains.

The piece also features the bizarre history of shoe throwing that involves ancient Romans, disturbing church rituals, fortune telling and more.

(thanks Terry)

Some great examples of a balancing act.

Hi-Definition Slow Motion

A high-definition slow motion video made during a recent rugby competition in the Stade de France, Paris.

In recognition of Shakespeare's 445th Birthday, this Thursday, April 23, 2009, will be Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Shakespeare is a part of our everyday lives. He coined more than 1,700 words still in use in modern English and his plays influence the way we think about the world we live in.

How to Talk like Shakespeare:

1. Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage.
3. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.
4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back'd toads.
5. Don't waste time saying 'it,' just use the letter 't' ('tis, t'will, I'll do't).
6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns.
7. When in doubt, add the letters 'eth' to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
9. When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer's day. If that fails, say 'Get thee to a nunnery!'
10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

Any man-cub growing up in the UK of the early nineteen seventies had, by sheer species specific need, several (if not hundreds) of imported US comics in their lair.

There, amongst the muscle-growing techniques advertised by bewilderingly middle-aged looking men wearing something approximating the man-cub's mother's girdle, there would be something that could, would and did excite the curiosity of the pre-teen amateur biologist. The Sea Monkey.

(via Robert-John)

Popular in the 1980's, the mullet is a hairstyle in which the hair is left very long in the back but is cut short in front, on the top, and at the sides. Other names for this hairdo include 'hockey player haircut,' 'bi-level,' 'shag,' 'neck warmer,' and 'ape drape.'

Here are the 10 greatest mullets of all time.

(thanks Nicholas)

Bohemian Rhapsody Old School Computer Remix

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody performed by an 'orchestra' of vintage computer parts, including an Atari, Texas Instruments, an 8-inch floppy drive, a 3.5-inch hard drive, an HP ScanJet, and several oscilloscopes.

(thanks Cora)

Google News Timeline is a web application that organizes search results chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline.

Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies.

Despite tough economic conditions, large office complexes continue to be built in major cities throughout the world. It is great to see that so many of the new ones are being designed with a low environmental impact in mind.

This list comprises 10 existing and upcoming office buildings that are not only bold, beautiful and futuristic, but 'green' too.

(thanks Andy)

Evel Knievel's name is synonymous with 'danger' and 'daredevil' but, until now, not so much with 'data diagram.' Therefore, here's the first ever interactive infographic documenting the career of a modern superhero - a man who captured the imagination of a nation for the better part of two decades.

The infographic illustrates all of Evel's jumps. At a glance you can see when he made each jump, what he jumped over, what bike he used, how far he went and whether or not he sustained any injuries during the jump.

(thanks Ken)

The World's First Fully Sustainable Race Car

With a vehicle body made from potatoes, a steering wheel made from carrots, the ability to run on waste chocolate and vegetable oil, the 140 mph Environ-MENTAL is the first formula 3 race car designed from materials that are both sustainable and renewable.

Used by the WorldFirst Racing Team, a project of the University of Warwick's UK-based Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre, the team plans to show the automotive industry that designing and building an environmentally sustainable competition level race car is possible.

(via TG Daily)

Carousel

Philips announces the launch of the exclusive 'Carousel' movie to promote the eagerly anticipated Cinema 21:9 LCD TV. Carousel was made directed by Adam Berg.

(via chunneltv)

Google Similar Images

Google Similar Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words. Click the 'Similar images' link under an image to find other images that look like it.

Music is one of the few activities that involves using the whole brain. It's intrinsic to all cultures and can have surprising benefits not only for learning language, improving memory and focusing attention, but also for physical coordination and development.

Of course, music can be distracting if it's too loud or too jarring, or if it competes for our attention with what we're trying to do. But for the most part, exposure to many kinds of music has beneficial effects.

(thanks Olga)

Though we differ in the way we look and things we believe in, there's something we all share: emotion. Human emotion is innate in all of us; it's something we're born with and something we die with. Happiness, sadness, love, hatred, worries, and indifference - these are things that constantly occur in our daily lives.

Here are 40 powerful depictions of the human emotion. In these photos you'll see celebrations, sadness in defeat, raw anger, and everything else in between that makes us what we are… human.

Let's Begin Again

Let's Begin Again by John Rutter, accompanied with landscape pictures. Performed by the Lyons Township High School Choir.

(thanks Sterling)

As we get older, it's easier to logically dismiss some of the outlandish claims we heard as kids - never really needing to investigate if there's any truth behind them.

But some of these assertions - like whether eating too many carrots will turn you orange or if rice really does harm birds when ingested - tend to keep us guessing far into adulthood.

Learn the truth behind these common claims about food, drinks and more.

(thanks Annie)

Pages - Menu

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Friday, April 24, 2009

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009