unique and interesting: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year

I want to thank all Presurfer readers for making it another amazing year. I also like to thank those of you who help me out every now and then by sending links. You know who you are.

May the New Year bring you love, happiness, serenity, success, and good health.

If you don't know what resolution to make on New Year's Day, the New Year's Resolution Generator can help. Just click on 'Gimme More', pick a resolution and stick to it.
The New Year's Resolution Generator was made by graphic designer Monina Velarde.

Black Devil - Moscow Ride On Yamaha R1

A motorcyclist high-speed 25-mile ride through Moscow traffic. There are a lot of these videos to be found on YouTube. And it seems that some people find this exciting and amazing. I find it unbelievably dangerous and stupid.

YouTube link

(thanks Christian)

Sharing widget AddThis, which is installed on more than 7 million domains and reaches more than one billion users per month, released an infographic with some interesting statistics about about our sharing habits.

(via Mashable)

21 Cool Cutlery, Flatware and Silverware Designs.

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For thousands of years traders on the Silk Road have used the Crescent Lake oasis as a last stop off before they face the hardships of the Gobi Desert. Six kilometers from the city of Dunhuang, the oasis has persevered throughout the millennia. However, it may now be reaching its Waterloo.

(thanks Robert-John)

Shoes That Clean The Floor

The FOKI is a floor cleaning shoe. It has two rotary cleaners underneath each shoe to sweep up dust and kill bacteria. They're cordless but there's a LED display on the side to indicate battery levels.

(via Everlasting Blort)

No matter what the species, it seems we all have this innate feature built in us to just adore cute, cuddly, and sweet looking creatures. Perhaps it's a nurturing factor, an aesthetic factor, or just the fact that cute animals look so innocent and lovable that we want to reach out and embrace them or simply smile at their fun behavior.

Some animals, however, even as endearing and sweet as they may seem can do much more harm than you might ever imagine. In fact they could even kill you. Check out some of the cutest creatures on the planet that truly can knock you dead.

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The seemingly bizarre tintype shown above is an example of a nineteenth-century image created using the 'hidden mother' technique Most infants during that time were photographed with their mothers holding them.

The intended picture was ultimately headed for a frame or mat, so the child would sit in the mothers lap for the photo. When the picture was taken, the mother simply was cropped out to serve as the backdrop.

(via Neatorama)

The Atlantic Ocean can be an unforgiving place at the best of times. During the Second World War, combatants on both sides were at peril both from the ocean and the enemy. On 12 September 1942, the British ship RMS Laconia, which was armed, was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat 156.

Yet that was not the end of the story. What unfolded was a tale of heroism and events both remarkable and ultimately truly unfortunate for many of those involved. The U-boat surfaced, its commander hoping to capture the senior crew of the ship. The horrified crew instead saw over 2000 people in the water. Then, the U-Boat commander Werner Hartenstein made an extraordinary decision that went beyond all protocol.

(thanks Robert-John)

St. Luke's Bottle Band At Letterman

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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In the late 1560s Diego de Landa wrote of how Maya books, or codices, of 'ancient matters and sciences' had been burned because they contained 'superstition.' Just four codices survived, only one of which, the Grolier Codex, has remained in the Americas.

Maya codices consist of long strips of paper made from the bark of the fig tree, and are several feet long. Codices are folded in concertina fashion, much like a modern map, allowing much of the book to be viewed at any one time as required. The paper was prepared with a layer of limewash on which the scribe painted.

(thanks Mr Ghaz)

Deep beneath the ice of Antarctica, the world's strangest observatory has finally reached completion. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a gigantic telescope at the South Pole that is designed to detect elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos that travel through Earth at the speed of light.

Construction of the telescope ended last weekend although it has already been collecting data for several years. Very little is known about neutrinos, but they are believed to carry information about the birth of our galaxy and the mystery of black holes.

The Bionic Body Shop

Want to improve your body? Go to the Bionic Body Shop where you can buy a bionic eye ($30,000) to partially cure blindness, a cochlear implant ($95,000) to partially cure, a powered exoskeleton ($15,000), or a ventricular assist device($150,000).

Of course, there is no such thing as a Bionic Body Shop. Yet! This was made by IEEE, the technology magazine, and they show what a bionic body shop of the future would look like.

(via Singularity Hub)

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It's already been established that a woman's diet can affect a baby's health, but it now appears that mothers aren't the only ones: what a father eats can have an impact on his children's heatlh as well. A new study details how paternal diet can increase production of cholesterol synthesis genes in first-generation offspring.

The study shows that environmental cues, including diet, influence genes in mammals from one generation to the next, suggesting paternal environmental effects may play a more important role in complex diseases such as diabetes and heart disease than previously believed.

This mouse hat is hand knitted with extra soft wool. Plenty of stretch.

(via Everlasting Blort)

Ten Things Web Users Should Fear In 2011

As in the real world, cyberspace has bad neighborhoods. But unlike the real world, risks in cyberspace are not easy to spot - and the location of those digital bad neighborhoods can change all the time. When security experts look back at 2010, they will see a major turning point in the world of cyberscares. The virtual and the real collided in new, dramatic ways and the Internet will never be the same.

Gone for good is the glamour of annoying outages caused by hackers sending e-mail attachments and launching Web page attacks. Now, computer criminals are being credited with stalling a rogue nuclear power plant program, and with bringing world diplomacy to its knees. Things are getting serious.

Ten Things Web Users Should Fear In 2011.

Hawaiian Caterpillar With 'Claw Of Death'

Eupithecia is a large, worldwide genus of inchworms (moths in the family Geometridae). The Eupithecia in Hawaii are unique because of the particular ecological niche they fill - they are predators, while nearly all other known caterpillars are plant feeders only.

YouTube link

via NeatoHub)

Department stores such as Sears and K-Mart began using the boom box in their marketing as early as 1983. Merriam-Webster pins it at 1981, and defines the boom box as 'a large portable radio and often tape player with two attached speakers.'

As the masses began to embrace this assemblage of electronics gadgets as an indespensible form of portable entertainment, it became an icon of popular culture. The Vintage Boom Box Museum provides a retrospective, including photos, facts and accounts.

A team at Cornell University's Computational Synthesis Lab are building a 3D food printer which they hope one day will be as commonplace as the microwave oven or blender. Just pop the raw food 'inks' in the top, load the recipe - or 'FabApp' - and the machine would do the rest.

'FabApps' would allow you to tweak your foods taste, texture and other properties. Maybe you really love biscuits, but want them extra flaky. You would change the slider and the recipe and the instructions would adjust accordingly. The goal is to blow the lid off cooking as we know it and change the future of food production.

The 'Stringbike' totally rethinks the traditional drivetrain of a bicycle. According to the Stringbike creators, the placement of the chain and gears on one side of the frame on a traditional bike causes a subtle, although not unnoticeable, asymmetrical pedaling experience.

The Stringbike virtually eliminates these subtle toque differences by creating a totally symmetrical drivetrain. It's essentially like having two chains on each side, both connected to the rear hub - only it's high-strength cord, not chain. Better yet, there's no grease.

(thanks Cora)

The Many Moods Of Batman

(via BuzzFeed)

Town Loses Its Time Capsule

Imagine this. In 1985 you buried a time capsule containing coins, news clippings and a bottle of New Coke. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of your village, you want to dig it up. There's one problem. You don't know where it is.

That's exactly what happened in the town of Kimberly in Wisconsin, USA. The capsule was buried near the municipal building but had to be dug up in 1997 when the building complex was remodeled. From then, it's not clear where - or even if - it was reburied. They are now using a metal-detection device to help them find the wayward time capsule.

The picture above shows a part of South Railroad Street in Kimberly. The capsule could be buried right there. You never know.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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It's the size of a barn door, weighs more than an elephant, and is one of the most famous and coveted paintings in the world. It's the Ghent Altarpiece - also called Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (in Dutch: Het Lam Gods), after a central panel showing hordes of pilgrims gathered to pay homage to the Lamb of God.

The painting was begun by Hubert van Eyck, who died in 1426 whilst work was underway, and completed by his younger brother Jan van Eyck. The painting has endured six centuries of war, theft and intrigue.

(via Unique Daily)

Browse the distribution of racial and ethnic groups from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, based on samples from 2005 to 2009. Because these figures are based on samples, they are subject to a margin of error, particularly in places with a low population, and are best regarded as estimates.

At Mapping America you can find out where in the United States have more immigrants been settling in recent years? Why have they been moving to those areas? How does the interactive map of the New York metropolitan area reflect what demographers say about racial integration?

Robert LeRoy Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, who created the world famous 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!' newspaper panel series, radio show, and television show which feature odd 'facts' from around the world.

Robert Ripley was an eccentric man and an avid traveler. Places like India and the Orient were unconventional areas for the American traveler during the 19th century, however Ripley's obsession drove him to these areas to study the local customs and speak with people in the area.

Over the years, Robert Ripley collected an amazing collection of oddities and stories that serve to entertain the public even today.

(thanks Lauren)

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Crayons have been a favorite of children for over a hundred years. Ever since the first Crayola crayons were introduced back in 1903, children around the globe have been making the world around them come alive through their pictures and drawings.
The most popular crayon color is the color blue.

For decades, the World Database of Happiness has tracked how happy people are.There are 4 categories: not at all happy, not very happy, quite happy, and very happy. As it turns out, most of us are mostly happy, even when things aren't going so well.

Here's a look at how happy some people said they were (on average) over the last 30 years.

When you are a Dark Lord of the Sith sometimes you have to take time out - after all, ruthlessly controlling a galaxy far far away is a tiring and thankless task.

Occasionally you need to remember what (or who) you once were. What better way to do so than to take a vacation and relive some of the joyous activities of your adolescence?

(thanks Robert-John)

Unique Game For Party Amusement

From Modern Mechanix, January 1933: A unique game for party amusement.

'Spike the Potato' is a highly entertaining game for any party. All that is needed is a single large potato, a number of paper cones and some needles. When you roll the paper cones into shape, slip a needle or pin into the small end and daub it with glue.

This, when dry, will hold it in place. At the same time, glue the edge of the paper fast. Then pull a small tuft of cotton into a fluffy ball and after rubbing some glue on the inside of the open cone end, push the cotton in.

(via Modern Mechanix)

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Some really cool and unusual mailbox designs - all of them made with recycled and repurposed items.

(via Dark Roasted Blend)

related posts:
9 Wacky Mailboxes From Around The World

How To Suck At Facebook.

290+ Social Media Resources From 2010

Mashable has a list of nearly 300 in-depth features, galleries and how-tos from the past year to help you navigate the social media world. You'll find everything from how to enhance your Facebook profile, find videos and music, contribute to a charity and just about any other topic you can think of.

Beers Filling Up Through The Bottom Of The Cup

GrinOn Industries has designed and fabricated the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System, the fastest dispensing system in the world which fills at a rate of up to nine times that of traditional beer taps. How it's done? With refrigerator magnets. As you can see here.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Unusual Locomotion is a site about unusual off-road vehicles. Often, these vehicles will remain at the prototype stage because they are too eccentric, too expensive compared to the improvements, or too far ahead of their time.

Unusual Locomotion aims to summarize and share some more knowledge on the evolution of these vehicles and their techniques. It still includes documentation of classic 4x4, 'unusual' construction machinery and reports of visits of 'old iron' museums.

Why The Kids Don't Blog And Grandma's On Facebook

Teenagers are abandoning blogs, while members of the 'G.I. Generation' are flocking to Facebook. These are two of the findings in a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The central finding of this year's report is highly intuitive: Across the board, people are using the Internet more. Email, search engines, health information, news and podcasts, product sites, travel sites, banking sites - all were accessed more, by the old and the young alike.

Nanotechnologists at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have produced the 'world's smallest Christmas card.' It can apparently fit onto the surface of a postage stamp 8,276 times, or onto a real holiday card some half a million times.

Merry Christmas

For decades, militaries have weaponized Christmas songs, symbols, and sentimentality for psychological warfare and propaganda purposes. Here are some bizarre tales about ersatz Christmas cards during World War II, controversial Christmas trees, and decking the halls in the Colombian jungle.

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Imagine being looked in the face by a mighty prehistoric-looking beast – the words largest venomous living reptile on earth. A meat eating monster, growing up to impressive lengths of 10 feet long is the renowned giant - the Komodo dragon.

Jelly Wobbler

A machine for wobbling jelly, operated by a foot-pedal accelerator.

YouTube link

Think you know yourself like the back of your hand?
Here are 28 strange facts about the human body that may surprise you.

Shoes With Faces

American designer Gwen Murphy makes shoe sculptures. She's a brilliant artist who collects pairs of old shoes and transforms them into wonderful works of art. By using acrylic paint and clay each pair of shoes gets a personality of its own.

The Dalu Robot restaurant, which opened this month in Jinan in northern Shandong province, is touted as China's first robot hotpot eatery where robots resembling Star Wars droids circle the room carrying trays of food in a conveyor belt-like system.

More than a dozen robots operate in the restaurant as entertainers, servers, greeters and receptionists. Each robot has a motion sensor that tells it to stop when someone is in its path so customers can reach for dishes they want.

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You meet them sometimes: people who just seem to have been born out of their time, somehow not quite at home or comfortable in the time period in which they find themselves.

As far as his art is concerned, this is certainly the case with Giuseppe Arcimboldo. You might, unless you know his work already, think that the above was created at some point in the twentieth century.

related posts:
Winter - Extraordinary Fiberglass Sculpture By Philip Haas

(thanks Robert-John)

BMW Bike Vs BMW Bob

World Stunt Champion Chris Pfeiffer from Germany is a maniac! Check out his BMW G450X chicken run with Christoph Langen (four-times Olympic medal winner) in a BMW designed Olympic Bobsleigh at the Innsbruck Olympic Run.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

A look at a few stylish custom scooters straight from the streets of Japan.

The Curious Evolution Of Holiday Lights

In 1882, the look of the holiday season changed forever. Instead of decorating a Christmas tree with candles, Edward Johnson, inventor and vice president of Thomas Edison's electric company, strung 80 red, white and blue light bulbs on his scrawny evergreen. The whole thing rotated six times per minute on an electric crank.

More than a century later, those 80 bulbs have multiplied into hundreds of millions of tiny electric lights - perhaps billions - decorating homes. From those first simple strings of bulbs to computer-controlled LED light displays, here is the curious evolution of the holiday light bulb.

My Blackberry Is Not Working

British comedians Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield in a hilarious sketch. Ronnie Corbett returns to the shop to complain his Blackberry isn't working.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

I've told you before and I'm telling you again: the Internet is about cats. And now that it's Christmas time, so here are some cats in Christmas trees.

10 Fascinating And Unexpected Origins Of Words

Language is a fascinating thing. The words we use today are drawn from, and have evolved for, today's usage from a wide variety of sources. One source is someone's name. An eponym is a word that has its origin in a person's name.

Here's a list that contains 10 eponyms and their fascinating origins.

(via Look At This...)

Dog Judo: I'm Crying This Christmas

YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species. The ancient humans have been dubbed 'Denisovans' after the caves in Siberia where their remains were found. A study in Nature journal shows that Denisovans co-existed with Neanderthals perhaps around 50,000 years ago.

This provides confirmation there were at least four distinct types of human in existence when anatomically modern humans first left their African homeland. Along with modern humans, scientists knew about the Neanderthals and a dwarf human species found on the Indonesian island of Flores nicknamed The Hobbit. To this list, experts must now add the Denisovans.

14 Cool Computer Keyboard Mods And Designs.

(via NeatoHub)

A low-cost solution to keep on biking. One of the cyclists at Dutch Bike Co. was caught without studded tires when it started snowing in Seattle. But there's nothing that a box of zip ties can't fix! This MacGyver trick isn't new, but now that winter is here, it's worth bringing up once more.

(thanks Cora)

Scientists Breed A Mouse That Sings

Japanese scientists have produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered 'evolution' which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language. A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their 'Evolved Mouse Project,' in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

They checked the newly born mice one by one. One day they found a mouse that was singing like a bird. The 'singing mouse' was born by chance but scientists hope that the trait will be passed on to future generations.

Two things: First, the mouse in the picture accompanying this post is probably not the mouse modified in the Japanese laboratory. And second, this is nothing new. It has been done before. Here's a video of a singing mouse.

YouTube link

(via J-Walk Blog)

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Lake Bled in Slovenia has had visitors for thousands of years. Little wonder when you consider its mild climate and beautiful surroundings. The lake has an island, tear-shaped and the only real island in the virtually land-locked country.

When people say that a place is like something from a fairy tale often they are exaggerating. Not so with Bled Island. Formed by a glacier it is every inch worthy of that description.

(thanks Robert-John)

A fanny pack, sometimes called a belt pack, belly bag, Buffalo pouch, hip sack, bum bag, or moon bag, is a small fabric pouch secured with a zipper and worn at the waist by a strap around the hips or waist.

Fanny packs reached the peak of their popularity in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Today, however, fanny packs are considered unfashionable in some countries.

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The Encyclopedia Astronautica is a reference web site on space travel maintained by space enthusiast and author Mark Wade.

A comprehensive catalog of vehicles, technology, astronauts, and flights, it includes information from most countries that have had an active rocket research program, from Robert Goddard to the NASA Space shuttle to the Soviet Shuttle Buran.

(thanks Cora)

But Is It Art?

Performance by Danish artist Christian Falsnaes. He says: I make my body available for the creative output of the audience (I am the brush, the audience is the painter). Then we leave the gallery and take the street to dance. Everybody sings 'Lose yourself' by Eminem.

YouTube link

When you're baking cookies for Christmas, it isn't quite enough to do one batch of cookies. After all, if you're going to bake only one day out of the year, it's probably for Christmas and you may as well go all out.

A great cookie plate should have a variety of cookies that are all distinct in appearance, so your guests don't need to ask what's what and you won't get bored after eating just a few.

(via Interesting Pile)

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What could be more annoying than picking up a manuscript that is written in a language you cannot translate? Even in the age of the internet, where instant translations are available on demand, there remain examples of written language that continue to defy the efforts of the best code-breakers. The truth may well be out there, but will we really ever know it?

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It's kind of morbid but one of the last vehicles on which you would expect to see a vanity license plate is the trusty old hearse - a form of transportation originally built with one purpose in mind: to carefully, and without smirk more often than not, carry the dead from A to B.

Over the years however, many of the older generation of hearse have been bought by members of the general public, and have subsequently become an everyday vehicle for that small section of society with a penchant for these oddly compelling cars. Of course, as happens with some owners of more traditional cars, a number of hearse owners have further personalised their body-carriers with vanity license plates.

(thanks David)

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Friday, December 31, 2010

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Friday, December 24, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010