unique and interesting: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from The Presurfer. May all of your resolutions, dreams, wishes, and hopes come true. May you have a great New Year. May 2010 be your best year ever.

Remember the Dramatic Chipmunk, the famous 5-seconds video that conquered the internet in 2007?

LG, the South Korean electronics company recreated the Dramatic Chipmunk in their 'Borderless' campaign to promote the SL90, a full HD LED LCD TV.

(thanks Pernille)

Porsche Family Tree

The Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, UK, has lowered the water level in their tanks to prevent gas bubbles produced by turtles from triggering overflow alarms. Staff at the aquarium give turtles a seasonal treat of Brussel sprouts at Christmas which provide a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and fibre.

However, the turtles, like humans, are prone to heavy bouts of flatulence after eating the vegetables. Last year a turtle at a Sealife Centre triggered overflow alarms in the middle of the night after the splashes from gassy bubbles hit overflow sensors. This year, thousands of litres have been removed to lower the water by a six inches and keep the sensitive alarms clear.

A Blue Moon is an astronomical phenomenon. It's a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year.

The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years there is an extra full moon. And that's what's happening this year. The term 'blue moon' is commonly used metaphorically to describe the rarity of an event, as in the idiomatic expression, 'once in a blue moon.'

The Simpsons Intro Estonian Version

Funny advertisement for Estonian TV, shot like The Simpsons intro parody with real people in a small village in the Estonian countryside.

The Republic Of Molossia

The Republic of Molossia is a sovereign, independent nation, located in and completely surrounded by territory of the United States. Molossia is located in the western United States, a tiny enclave in the State of Nevada and a second enclave in Southern California.

The Molossian nation was established in 1977. It was a kingdom for over twenty years, followed by a People's Democratic Republic, which then became today's Republic in 1999.

His Excellency, President Kevin Baugh is the current leader of Molossia. The Republic of Molossia has its own Navy, Naval Academy, Space Program, Railroad, Postal Service, Bank, tourist attractions, measurement system, holidays, online movie theater, online radio station, and even its own time zone.

Celebrities, Now and Then.

(thanks Nick)

Philco PC

SchultzeWORKS designstudio of Pasadena, USA, designed the Philco PC. The design of the Philco PC was inspired by the 1954 design classic Philco Predicta, as well as an eclectic mixture of modern minimalism, the steampunk movement, and antiques.

The result is a design aesthetic that blends multiple elements of the familiar, but with some surprisingly fresh styling that just so happens to house a state-of-the-art Windows PC.

YouTube is the world's online video portal, but if a recent patent application filed by Google is any indication, it may be looking to become an interactive gaming portal as well.

The patent, 'Web-based System for Generation of Interactive Games Based on Digital Videos,' was filed by Google earlier this year but published this month. The Google patent seems to detail a system where the creation of video annotations can be used for gaming-like mechanics and video behavior change.

10 Words You Need To Stop Misspelling.

8 Things Every Geek Needs To Do Before 2010

Since nothing satisfies like the quick achievement of a short-term goal, here are eight things every good nerd needs to to before the ball drops later this week. These tasks comprise a quick to-do list that will leave you feeling competent and prepared for the decade that approaches.

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment

Curb-mining is the act of finding furniture and art on the street. Blu Dot, a Soho based furniture company, is attempting to track the curb-mining habits of the New York City residents by leaving chairs scattered throughout the city.

Using a built-in tracking device, the chairs tweeted their whereabouts for several days. Finally the Blu Dot team came a knockin' and interviewed some of the lucky owners in the video.

(thanks Cora)

Other than the so called 'humane' mouse traps where you catch the mice in a box and release them outside, I think mouse traps are cruel devices. On the other hand, I don't want them in my house. People have trapped mice all the time and have done that for years.

Jake Easton developed a 'better' mousetrap which detects and exterminates everything in sight. This shoebox-sized powerhouse would make Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor proud. Like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer, the robotic 'Better Mousetrap' goes to the extreme to detect and destroy its target.

(thanks Steve)

Growing Up Heroes is a new photo blog by Belgian comic book fan Franz Donovan that aims to provide visitors with a pretty emotive and reflective look on how heroes affected many of us when we were growing up.

(thanks Ken)

Never A Year Like '09

Octomom. Balloon Boy. Tiger Woods. If there's one thing for sure in this world, it's that as long as people are acting reckless, insane and just plain stupid, there will always be plenty of material available for JibJab's annual 'Year in Review' videos.

Please Scroll

The 'page fold' is the line below which your average web viewer will not be able to see the contents of a page without scrolling down. The majority of users don't mind scrolling when visiting web pages, as long as there's a good reason to do that.

Welcome to the world wide web, an interactive medium in which screen resolution statistics are trivial, browser viewports are variable, and scrolling behaviour is a standard.

In early 1999, Canadian company RIM (Research In Motion), known for its handhelds and its wireless modems, introduced a device for mobile email called 'BlackBerry.'

Unlike the Palm VII, BlackBerry didn't try to be fancy - no 'web clippings,' no huge touchscreen, no handwriting recognition, and no massive flip-up antenna. Instead, RIM's device was almost singly focused on delivering a killer email experience with a scroll wheel, relatively comfortable QWERTY keyboard, and true push service.

Ten Years Of BlackBerry.

Did you know that 43,339,546 gigabytes are sent across all mobile phones globally every day. That's enough to fill 63.9 trillion 3.5" diskettes.

A Day On The Internet.

Chinook Helicopter Water Rescue

The British Special Boat Service (water-based version of the SAS) landing an inflatable launch inside a Chinook helicopter. The pilot lowers the helicopter halfway into the water so the seals can come in.

(thanks Cora)

Most of us associate Cancun, Mexico, with Spring Break, and really, this location has so much more to offer than tequila slammers and skimpy bikini's.

Cancun is also a popular tourist destination for families or couples looking for an eco-friendly and archaeological site that will stimulate the mind and not empty your wallet.

(via Lauren)

Friends are the one thing you can rely on when you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to just listen to you rant. People have friends, so why can't animals.

Dogs have always been known as man's best friend, so why can’t animals have best friends of their own. Whether it's among their own species, or across a different spectrum of species, animals need a best friend too.

Crosswalks don't have to be boring; they usually are, but they don't have to be. Here are 22 interesting examples of crosswalk art.

(thanks Nick)

15 Biggest Internet Controversies Of The Past Decade

The Internet has been a breeding ground for controversy from the start. Part of this is a result of the fact that the Internet is the great neutralizer; it empowers everyone to have a voice.

As the first decade of the new millennium ends, let's examine some of the most infamous and scandalous events that started, happened, and/or escalated on the web.

(via Miss Cellania)

This hydraulic cantilevered drawbridge consists of a single giant arm that lifts the road section way up into the air. The bridge can be found here in the Netherlands in the city of Leeuwarden and it's known as the Flying Bridge or Slauerhoffbrug.

Here's an aerial view of the bridge.

Did you know that the number 12 is the smallest abundant number, the only number that is equal to the sum of 3 raised to its digits, the smallest number that is equal to the sum of its digits plus the cubes of its digits, and is the weight of the modular discriminant as a modular form?

Number Gossip by Tanya Khovanova will tell you everything you wanted to know about numbers but were afraid to ask.

Eight classic cases of hoaxes and fakes by the Archaeological Institute of America.

Why do fakes get made? Why do people fall for hoaxes? Greed, pride, revenge, nationalism, pranks, and gullibility mix in an archaeological setting. There's no avoiding it - fakes are everywhere. Jane Walsh of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History says, 'any museum - I don't care what museum it is - has fakes.'

While some hoaxes have humorous elements, this is a serious problem. Fakes pollute the archaeological record and skew our understanding of the past. The infamous Piltdown Man, which matched conceptions of what an early hominid should look like, misled scientists for decades. Crystal skulls were first faked in the later 19th century, when little was known about Mesoamerican religious practices. Today, they are still taken as real by many people.

(via Neatorama)

Science blog 'Ask A Biologist' held its annual Ugly Bug Contest. This year the contestants were aphid, carpenter bee, cockroach, coreidae, crane fly, honey bee, Jerdon's jumping ant, paper wasp, scorpion, and a snakefly.

And the winner is: the snakefly.

(via Everlasting Blort)

Megan of 'Not Martha' made tiny gingerbread houses that are meant to be perched on the edge of a mug of hot chocolate.

(thanks Cora)

Home Schooled

Home Schooled is a comics series by American artist Ash Jackson and co-written 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, which started on May 16, 2005.

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: 0 Up.

click on the picture for real size

Visit the Home Schooled Webcomic.

Scientists Fooled By A Match Box Trick

James Randi is a stage magician and scientific skeptic, best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

The JREF sponsors The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge offering a prize of US $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties.

Here's a funny story by James Randi, recorded at a California IT lecture.

The Lamborghini Ankonian concept car was designed by Slavche Tanevsky. The supercar concept has an aggressive design, and is downsized to account for a more environment-friendly status, though it does not include any hybrid or similar technologies.

The mid-engined supercar has a narrow and rather complex-looking body, with a garnishing of GT proportions. Thin OLEDs embedded between the surfaces function as headlights, and while all those lines may look weird, the Ankonian supposedly makes the best use of it all. The concept was named after a bull type famous for black hair, and since the designer had some help from professional designers at Lamborghini and Audi, the finished model has impressive looks.

Jim Denevan makes temporary drawings on sand, earth and ice that are eventually erased by waves and weather.

He made the largest artwork in history. It's nine miles in circumference and can be found in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA.

(thanks Cora)

Prototype 'Peardrop' Car 1952

Video of a 1952 British minicar going by the name 'Peardrop.'

The most interesting way to study the American Civil War, is to watch the war unfold on the pages of original Harper's Weekly Newspapers. Harper's Weekly was the most popular newspaper during the Civil War, and it featured stunning illustrations, and in depth stories on all the important people and events of the war.

The American Civil War Newspapers is a work in progress. Presently 1861 through 1864 are completed, and the 1865 issues through May are complete.

Going into the year 2000, the general feeling was that the game industry was ready to put away childish things. The era of Nintendo and kiddie entertainment was over, and the videogames of the future were about multimillion-dollar budgets, mind-blowing photorealism and 'digital actors' playing out their parts with human realism thanks to 'emotion engines,' etc.

Instead, it went down like this: A whole bunch of companies dumped a whole lot of money down the next-gen sinkhole, and the number of publishers that could be counted on to deliver bleeding-edge entertainment without going broke in the process dwindled to just a few.

Wired's list of the most influential games of the past decade includes, therefore, many games that made big leaps and defined what would come to be traditional aspects of the big-budget grand adventure, and others that pushed the reset button on game design.

Who Is The Cutest?

That's obvious, isn't it?
Click here and see who is the cutest.

Everyone loves a mustache, but why do boys get to have all the fun? This set of seven stylish mustaches is made specifically to accentuate feminine features. Styles such as 'The Grandma' and 'The Frida' let you pick the fashionable facial hair to accessorize your look.

Each furry lip ornament has adhesive backing and is made of synthetic hair in a girlish shade of pink. Goes great with almost any outfit.

There are few authors who have had as profound an influence on the fantasy movie genre as Roald Dahl. It's not just that so many of his stories have been adapted for the screen, but also that he was himself a fantasy screenwriter.

You might think you know a Roald Dahl movie when you see one, but a couple of his masterpieces will surprise you.

The development of computer graphics has made computers easier to interact with, and better for understanding and interpreting many types of data. Developments in computer graphics have had a profound impact on many types of media and have revolutionized the animation and video game industry.

Historical Timeline of Computer Graphics and Animation.

The formula for a joyful Christmas movie is pretty simple - sentiment, comedy, Christmas cheer. So why are there so many Christmas turkeys? It's our own fault, at this time of year we become less discerning about what we'll pay to see, out of a desire to watch something Christmassy.

So studios just pump out any old crap with 'Christmas' or 'Santa' in the title, knowing they're guaranteed to make a quick buck. So while there is an abundance of choice, here are the Top 10 Worst Christmas Movies.

(thanks Sheridan)

Beer Troubleshooting.

Pictorial Guide To Avoiding Camera Loss

Have you lost your camera recently? Mislaid it somewhere in a national park? Left it in a taxi? Anyone can be a victim of the thoughtlessness and/or sleepiness that can lead to Camera Loss. You can't prevent cameras from getting lost, but you can do something so your camera can be found very soon after it has vanished.

Australian writer Andrew McDonald says you have to take some photos - which you never delete from your camera - so when someone finds your camera they are able to locate you and return the lost property to its rightful owner.

The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem) was a notable problem for both digital (computer-related) and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.

While no globally significant computer failures occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000, preparation for the Y2K bug had a significant effect on the computer industry.

My friends at Urlesque look back at the now-hilarious 'End of Times.'

(thanks Lindsey)

A cow weathers the financial storm that threatens to decimate the world or barn whichever is the finer. Winds may blow, foreclosure notices appear like spots on an adolescent's chin but there is an udder world out there.

Happy Holidays.

(thanks Cora)

image credit

Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. Heterochromia refers to a difference in coloration and is a result of the relative excess or lack of melanin. It may be inherited, due to genetic mosaicism, or due to disease or injury.

The affected eye may be hyperpigmented or hypopigmented. Heterochromia of the eye is of two kinds. In complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color from the other. In partial heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from its remainder.

Cartographic pareidolia is the compulsion to see maps everywhere. Strange Maps has a collection of accidental maps.

There seems to be some uncertainty about whether using mouthwash could cause a false positive breathalyser result. Time for a little experiment.

(thanks Andy)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all Presurfer's readers.

Alma

Alma is a CGI animated short created by Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas. A little girl walks the streets of a quiet town and finds a strange store full of beautiful dolls. She enters the open door. The movie is both beautiful and disturbing.

Izzy The Iguana.

(via Grow-A-Brain)

The Cherpumple is the desert version of the Turducken. It's a three-layer cake with a pie stuffed in each layer. Cherpumple is short for CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE pie. The apple pie is baked in spice cake, the pumpkin in yellow and the cherry in white.

(thanks Cora)

The Necky

Just in time for winter and the cold weather.
It's The Necky, the most magical scarf type-thing ever!

(via Everlasting Blort)

Bad Paintings Of Barack Obama.

Thanks to a hoarder who held on to a scuba diving tank for 41 years, the record of air samples from the southern hemisphere has been extended by over 8 years. A 76-year old scuba diver from Beaumaris, Australia, handed over his air tank, which he last filled in 1968 but never used, to the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research labs in Melbourne.

They said that they had the oldest air and I thought, no they haven't, I've got the oldest air, John Allport, the tank's owner said. The air archive maintained by CSIRO started in 1978, and contains samples of clean air from a station at Cape Grim, Tasmania. It's the oldest such archive in the world. Now with Allport’s tank, last used in 1970, the record has been extended further.

(via Boing Boing)

When the snow falls, everyone becomes Michelangelo, and begins sculpting. Typical adornments are a carrot for a nose, some sticks for arms, maybe some coal eyes and buttons, even a hat and scarf. But you can do a lot more than that with snowmen.

(thanks Nick)

Tape Measure Masters

Beware of the ninja like skills.

(thanks Cora)

Here's a depressing little game for the festive days. Every Day The Same Dream is a short existential game about alienation and refusal of labour.

You play a white-collar worker who goes through the same routine every day. It looks like the game repeats itself over and over again but there really is a way to break away from the monotony of your life. I finished the game and like I said, it's really depressing.

What Do Blind People See?

This question - which comes from an anonymous Boing Boing reader, asking for his or her formerly toddler own self - may sound like a zen koan, but it has an answer. And probably not the one you're expecting.

So, what do the blind see?

Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion, has signed a one-year contract with the former Brawn GP team, now owned by Mercedes. The German, who will be 41 on 3 January, has signed a contract and the deal will be announced imminently.

Michael Schumacher will partner compatriot Nico Rosberg in the team that won the drivers' and constructors' titles in 2009 in its former guise as Brawn. Schumacher signed up to reunite with Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn, who masterminded all seven of his titles.

The Known Universe

A 6-minute film from the American Museum of Natural History. The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

A collection of funny 'Christmas 2.0' cartoons.

(thanks Andi)

Kim Peek, the man who inspired the 1988 movie 'Rain Man,' died last Saturday of a sudden heart attack. Peek, 58, was likely the world's most famous savant, enduring mental handicaps while at the same time possessing extraordinary gifts of memory and recall.

Kim Peek had a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social developmental disabilities, possibly resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie Rain Man. He was not autistic and likely had FG syndrome.

(thanks Jennifer)

American artist Marshall Astor made a bronze Rubik's cube while he was in college as an independent study project.

(via Neatorama)

U.S. To Capture Cow Farts To Save The Planet

In the future, America will harness cow farts to curb pollution and power the grid. It sounds like a joke, but it's actually a real promise. By 2020, dairy industry emissions will be reduced by 25%, largely by persuading dairy farmers to capture methane gas.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this at the Copenhagen climate change summit this week. Farmers will be able to buy anaerobic digesters that convert cow, errr, emissions into electricity.

Science News For Kids

Science News for Kids is a web site devoted to science news for children of ages 9 to 14. They offer timely items of interest to kids, accompanied by suggestions for hands-on activities, books, articles, Web resources, and other useful materials.

Kids have the opportunity to comment on and grade the subject matter, get ideas for science projects, and try out mathematical puzzles. At the same time, Science News for Kids offers teachers creative ways of using science news in their classrooms.

Perfect for the sadistic baker in your life.
Dismembered Gingerbread.

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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009