unique and interesting: July 2010

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Keyboard Man

The crazy things people put on YouTube. First there was Keyboard Cat.
Now there's Keyboard Man, a guy impersonating Keyboard Cat.

(via b3ta)

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While most people see summer as a chance for some fun in the sun, swimming and tanning aren't the only things going on at the beach. In fact, each year, artists from all over the globe meet in the sand to show off their sculpting skills.

(thanks Jessie)

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Bohol in the Philippines is home to a dramatically unusual geographic feature - the Chocolate Hills. A shame, but a certain Mr Wonka has not been visiting (and neither is this the entrance to the fabled land of the Oompa Loompas).

In the summer the lush green grass that covers the hills turns brown and it is this, rather than any fictional intercession which gives the place its name.

(thanks Robert-John)

Tim Halperin: She Runs

Music video of Tim Halperin performing 'She Runs'. The video is one continuous dolly shot (it was done in one single take) and cost $500. It's meant to look like a stripped down elementary school play. The video was directed by Jonathan Combs and Joe Childress.

(thanks Joe)

Edible, flavored and naturally biodegradable gelatinous drinking cups. The cups are made entirely out of agar agar (a gelatinous substance made from red algae) and cast in different flavors, such as lemon-basil, ginger-mint, or rosemary-beet, each specifically designed to compliment a corresponding drink.

(thanks Jamie)

Pencil sculptures by Dalton Ghetti. Dalton uses three basic tools to make his incredible creations - a razor blade, sewing needle and sculpting knife. He even refuses to use a magnifying glass and has never sold any of his work, only given it away to friends.

(thanks Cora)

Small animals such as birds and squirrels rarely live to their maximum life span, usually dying of accidents, disease or predation. Grazing animals accumulate wear and tear to their teeth to the point where they can no longer eat, and they die of starvation.

Maximum life span is usually longer for species that are larger or have effective defenses against predation, such as bird flight, tortoise shells, porcupine quills, or large primate brains.

Basil Marceaux: The Next Governor Of Tennessee?

Who should be Tennessee's next governor? Why not this fellow? His name is Basil Marceaux and if you vote for him he will 'immune you from all state crimes for the rest of your life.' He opens with, 'I'm Basil Marceaux.com.'

(thanks Cora)

Car thieves have their favorite colors of cars to steal. These are white, black and silver. What they don't like is pink.

So, if you don't want thieves to steal your car, get a pink one.

Tokyo's 'Oldest Man' Had Been Dead For 30 Years

Officials had planned a birthday celebration to honour Mr Kato but they found him dead. He was thought to be the oldest man in Tokyo - but when officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato on his 111th birthday, they uncovered mummified skeletal remains lying in his bed.

Mr Kato may have been dead for 30 years according to Japanese authorities. They grew suspicious when they went to honour Mr Kato at his address in Adachi ward, but his granddaughter told them he 'doesn't want to see anybody.'

The recent decoding of a cryptic cup, the excavation of ancient Jerusalem tunnels, and other archaeological detective work may help solve one of the great biblical mysteries: Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The new clues hint that the scrolls, which include some of the oldest known biblical documents, may have been the textual treasures of several groups, hidden away during wartime - and may even be 'the great treasure from the Jerusalem Temple,' which held the Ark of the Covenant, according to the Bible.

The world's first ice cream van for dogs will open for business at a 'pet party' in London's Regent's Park tomorrow.

The van will serve canine-friendly flavors such as 'Dog Eat Hog World' - a chicken and gammon sorbet - and 'Canine Cookie Crunch,' a more traditional vanilla ice cream, albeit sprinkled with dog biscuits.

(thanks Cora)

If one examines two variables in a man's apparel - the shirt and necktie - their permutations and variations have been few. They have evolved very slowly during the nation's 234- year history.

Has the time arrived for men's necktie styles to break out from tradition, and undergo mutations in shape, form and function? In theory, men should be able to start the day searching through a closet full of necktie types, each for a different occasion or mood.

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As hotel freebies go, those miniature bottles of shampoo and conditioner really aren't very exciting. Certainly not compared to the products and services that certain hotels are doling out to guests.

From loaner e-readers loaded with books to personalized doggie welcome baskets, these extras show how these properties are taking hospitality to a whole new level. Here are 15 hotels that give extravagant goodies for guests to enjoy for free.

(thanks Jessie)

Researchers poring over Google Earth images have discovered one of Earth's freshest impact craters - a 45-meter-wide pock in southwestern Egypt that probably was excavated by a fast-moving iron meteorite no more than a few thousand years ago.

Although the crater was first noticed in autumn 2008, researchers have since spotted the blemish on satellite images taken as far back as 1972, says Luigi Folco, a cosmochemist at the University of Siena in Italy.

Slow Motion Video Of A Lightning Bolt

Multiple tower upward lightning flash captured at 9,000 images per second in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA. A preceding downward positive ground flash triggers upward leaders from seven towers, three of which are visible in the video. The minute-and-a-half video covers less than two seconds of real time.

(via Neatorama)

Shocantelle Brown says:

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SPECIAL OFFER For a limited time only get our FREE COMB!!! Ask for Shocantelle Brown. Say goodbye to tension with a head massage and new extensions!!! Praise.

(thanks Cora)

Weirdo Toys is the home for all those random toys that most people have left behind. The site is dedicated to showcasing the quirky, neat, bizarre, sometimes forgotten and downright ugly toys.

Whether it's a fleamarket, dollar store, garage sale or a toystore, they all contribute to the ever-growing population of weirdo toys.

You may have heard the rumor that swirled briefly last month about an Internet 'kill switch' that could power down the Web in the case of a critical cyber attack.

Those rumors were largely overblown, but it turns out there are now seven individuals out there holding keys to the Internet. In the aftermath of a cataclysmic cyber attack, these members of a 'chain of trust' will be responsible for rebooting the Web.

A minimum of five of the seven keyholders - one each from Britain, the U.S., Burkina Faso, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, China, and the Czech Republic - would have to converge at a U.S. base with their keys to restart the system and connect eveything once again.

Jay's Tiny House Tour

Jay Shafer has been living in a house smaller than some people's closets since 1997. His decision to inhabit just 89 square feet arose from some concerns he had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because he does not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space.

(thanks Cora)

A huge collection of photographs of movie stars.
Pictured above are Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra.

Joel Scilley designs and constructs custom wood turntables. Most of his turntables are one-of-a-kind wooden creations that are meant to be touched, and are fun to look at and use.

(via Everlasting Blort)

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Harrier and Jaguar is the new installation by artist Fiona Banner and is on display at Tate Britain. Banner has grasped the discomfiting significance of these weapons of war.

The incongruity of the setting in which these decommissioned fighter planes find themselves helps to build the tension between our perceptions of these machines and our objective experience of them.

(thanks Robert-John)

Lawnmower On A Stick

Meet Steve McGranahan. He is the world's strongest Redneck. And today you'll get to see him work in his garden with his lawnmower on a stick.

(thanks Cora)

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The one with its own satellite, the ones that made you, and the Mama of them all.
20 Things You Didn't Know About Viruses.

Ninjas were the assassins, spies, and secret agents of Japan at the time of the samurai.

Legend has greatly embellished accounts of their activities, which, together with popular movies and comic books, has created a myth of the ninja as an invincible and deadly secret warrior.

You've seen these men in black everywhere, usually in a group, threatening a movie hero. But how much do you really know about the dark warriors of feudal Japan? It's time to separate the men from the myth.

One of the issues that affect public health and health administration officials is the concern about the food supply. Food-borne illnesses are very real, and there are worries about what happens when we start tampering with the food supply ourselves.

In recent years, the public has become concerned about genetically modified food. Animals and plants are genetically enhanced, cloned and otherwise altered in order to increase yield, resist pests or for other reasons. Here are 25 interesting studies and infographics about genetically modified food.

12 Rags-To-Riches Celebrities

With luxe red carpet fashions, million-dollar estate sales and shows like MTV Cribs and E! News focusing on celebrity wealth, it's easy to forget that most stars didn't grow up rich. In fact, quite a few standout celebs started out poor or underprivileged, only to find financial security when they struck out on their own.

From an Oscar winner who grew up in a trailer park to a TV star born in prison, here are 10 celebrities who transformed themselves from down-and-out to rich and famous.

Adele Enersen from Helsinki, Finland, tries to imagine what her baby dreams about and takes photographs of it.

Did you ever wonder how much energy or how much power athletes expend when performing? Certain sports require a small amount of energy to be very precisely directed, while other sports require a large amount of energy to be exerted in a very short amount of time.

This infographic takes a visual look at how much energy athletes in some of the most popular sports are expending.

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Bizarre, but true. A few years ago scientists discovered that the larvae of the Sand dollar are able to clone themselves. When they were exposed to the mucus of their natural enemies - fish - they demonstrated a unique defense mechanism.

Sand dollars cloned themselves which meant more or less that they halved their size. It is thought that this new smaller size helps them to avoid detection by fish and so increase their survival chances.

(thanks Robert-John)

Volkswagen Canada has created a site that features a 'virtual drive' asking users to help mix the soundtrack with controls that add a variety of visual tidbits to the scenery with every push of a button.

(thanks Cora)

10 Most Colorful Towns On Earth

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The eye often wearies of red brick, gray steel and beige stone. For this, the solution is house paint. When an entire neighborhood assumes the colors of the rainbow, even the front gardens pale in comparison.

Throughout the world, there are ten particularly stunning towns that resemble freshly opened packages of crayons - offering a respite from our dismal urban surroundings and reminding us that our personal environments need not be so bland.

Proper Opossum Pedicure

I've always wondered how to give my opossum a proper pedicure.
Now I know.

(via Everlasting Blort)

It was Forrest Gump's momma that said 'there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes.' Here are 12 of the best 'I'm a gamer' shoes.

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be one of the world's oldest doodles - an ancient scrawl carved onto a rock by a caveman 4,500 years ago. Cambridge University experts believe the crudely etched circles are the Neolithic version of a modern office worker's scribbles on a post-it note.

The 6.6in (17cm) chunk of sandstone was discovered by an amateur archaeologist from the bottom of a deep quarry in Over, Cambs., during a university fun day.

Das Tub

Lost in the frozen depths of the Atlantic a German U-Boat crew find themselves on a collision course with objects stranger than they can fathom. The truth leaves them bathed in confusion in this submarine drama of domestic proportions.

(thanks Cora)

Tips for Single Ladies (1938).

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There were once thousands of caravanserai, staging posts for the weary traveller, dotted throughout Asia, North Africa and the South-Eastern parts of Europe.

The Silk Road, an important and extensive trans-continental network of routes, was dotted with them. Many caravanserai still survive, but more, like the one in the Lut desert of Iran are abandoned and slowly turning to dust.

(thanks Robert-John)

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Geeks are Sexy scoured Flickr for some of the best Comic Con Creative Commons-licensed cosplay photography of the event.

(thanks Yan)

Aliens Vs. Coffee Machine

An amazing Sci-Fi animation.

(thanks Cora)

Every kitchen has it's own rhythm and hum, and now you can play along.
Mix Stix Drumstick Kitchen Spoons are classic indispensable beechwood spoons, morphed into drumsticks.

So now you can rock out when you're not stirring, paradiddle on the stockpot and give that mixing bowl a rimshot.

Erial Ali creates Celestial Soul Portraits.

After Erial Ali has had a phone consultation with you, you send him a high-quality photo of yourself. An image that represent how you like to be seen. Erial meditates and 'tunes into you,' to 'get your unique Essence.' Once Erial really 'gets who you are,' he magically transforms the image you provided into a Celestial Soul Portrait of you.

Say you're escaping - by water - from Alcatraz. Could you make it? You have to swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park, San Francisco. Enter your swim speed and press the 'Swim' button.

(thanks Cora)

The Night Light Table is a collaboration between designers Charlie Crowther-Smith and Richard Bannister. They wanted to design something that emitted an ambient glow that also functioned as a piece of furniture.

Newport (Ymerodraeth State Of Mind)

A parody of Jay Z and Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind. This spoof version features actors singing about their love of Newport in South Wales.

(thanks Michael)

A road train is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada to move bulky loads efficiently. The term road train is most often used in Australia. In the U.S. and Canada the terms triples, Turnpike doubles and Rocky Mountain doubles are commonly used for longer combination vehicles.

A road train consists of a relatively conventional tractor unit, but instead of pulling one trailer or semi-trailer, the road train pulls two or more of them.

A Field Guide to Typestaches helps figuring out the personalities of fonts.

(via Boing Boing)

Toyota's 'A Glass Of Water' Challenge

Toyota believes that driving with a glass of water on your dashboard would lower your fuel consumption by 10%. Of course, they don't want you to actually drive with a glass of water on your dashboard and you also don't have to drive a Toyota.

All they want is that you apply the principles of driving with a glass of water. You can do this by simply imagining a glass of water on your dashboard while driving.

Chopsticks Played On Phone

Someone spent 3 weeks learning to play Chopsticks on four phones. He could have just downloaded the ringtone for free but we'll let him have his moment before we tell him.

(thanks Cora)

Funny helmet designs created by Russian advertising company 'Good.'

(via 2leep)

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Something amazing is happening near the quiet French town of Treigny in the historic region of Burgundy. Something that has not been attempted for hundreds of years is slowly appearing - a full scale medieval chateau is being painstakingly built entirely by hand. This is a thirteenth century chateau rising in the twenty first century.

(thanks Robert-John)

London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects.

London Lives provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances. Facilities are provided to allow users to link together records relating to the same individual, and to compile biographies of the best documented individuals.

Voca People: The History Of Music

The history of music performed by Israeli a cappella group the Voca People.

Chicken soup may be good for the soul, but some people swear that it's also good for the body. Many people reach for a steaming bowl of chicken soup whenever they've got a cold, while the equivalent remedy in Japan is ginger tea.

But are these home cures, passed down from generation to generation, really therapeutic? Experts about folk remedies from around the world tell us if they've got any merit.

(thanks Jessie)

Cockatoo Loves Ray Charles

I love the music of Ray Charles. So does Frostie the cockatoo.

Design company Mmiinn, a collective (Jeong-Min Lee and Hyoung-Min Park) based in Seoul, South Korea, have created an optical illusion sealing tape that looks like hinges.

(via Boing Boing)

The olm (Proteus anguinus), a foot-long salamander nicknamed 'the human fish' because of its fleshy skin and tubular shape, is certainly a strange-looking animal. This animal is most notable for its adaptations to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat. The olm's eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed.

But beneath the surface, they're even weirder: Olms can live for 100 years, far longer than any other amphibian. Scientists have no idea why.

Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television, the Comic-Con convention has expanded over the years to include a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, anime, manga, animation, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels.

Are You a Comic-Con Dork?

German designer Andrew Kupresanin has designed Nadia, a little black camera that contains an 'aesthetics inference engine,' which assesses the artistic quality of a potential shot.

Rather than display the image, the screen on the back of the camera shows only a percentage value that indicates how good a photo you're about to take. As you shift positions and angles, the number changes, approaching 100% as you approach the ideal pic.

Now that you can buy a sandwich in a can, have you ever wondered what other off-the-wall products are out there?

From an odor-absorbing Better Marriage Blanket to the Solar-Powered Lighter, check out this list of 9 silly inventions that leave us wondering what the inventor was thinking.

(thanks Jessie)

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So, what is a tesseract? You could say they are mysterious objects from the fourth dimension and you would be pretty much right. So, here is everything you ever wanted to know about tesseracts but were too afraid to ask.

(thanks Robert-John)

American Cities Pre-1950

A photographic journey through American cities, pre-1950.

Important Inventors And Inventions Of All Time

A site full of interesting facts about inventions and their inventors.

Joseph Gayetty invented toilet paper in 1857. His new toilet paper was composed of flat sheets. Before Gayetty's invention, people tore pages out of mail order catalogs and before catalogs were common, leaves were used.

Unfortunately, Gayetty's invention failed. Walter Alcock later developed toilet paper on a roll. Again, the invention failed. In 1867, Thomas, Edward and Clarence Scott were successful at marketing toilet paper that consisted of a small roll of perforated paper.

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While most people gripe about their jobs once in a while, they'd probably agree they could be doing a lot worse. But what if those 'worse' jobs actually paid better? Fortunately, that is exactly the case with some less-than-ideal vocations, which step it up in the wages department to compensate for difficult working conditions.

Based on the 2008 national average income here are 9 undesirable jobs - from embalmer to sewer inspector - that make up in earnings what they lose in desirability.

(thanks Jessie)

Follow fictional characters from movies, TV, and literature. Here are the most entertaining of those feeds.

(via Neatorama)

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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Monday, July 26, 2010

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010