unique and interesting: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Queen's Day In The Netherlands

Today is Queen's Day here in the Netherlands. It's a national holiday. Queen's Day celebrates the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. The tradition started on 31 August 1885, on the birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, later Queen Wilhelmina. Since...

A collection of awfully Photoshopped Russian wedding pictures.Ah well, as long as they're happy. That's what's importa...

It's William and Kate on the balcony. But they don't kiss. They throw cakes to the oncoming plebs. Move William up and down the balcony using the cursor keys. Hold space to power up your throw. Release space to throw. Let Them Eat Ca...

10 Natural Wonders To See Before They Disappear

You've heard the grim timelines: if warming continues, the Great Barrier Reef will be bleached by 2030; glaciers in the Swiss Alps, on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and in Glacier National Park will disappear in under 40 years; and Arctic ice melt will send polar bears into extinction. The immediacy of these timelines...

The finger-nose stylus for touch screens is developed by British artist, designer, and inventor Dominic Wilcox. He says:I sometimes use my touchphone in the bath. I know it's stupid. One problem I encounter is that when I put my left hand in the water...

French photographer Vince Bousserez put together series of miniature plastic people carrying out everyday activities. The idea came to Vince four years ago while he was in a model train shop.(thanks Co...

Will The Royal Wedding Break The Internet?

If The Presurfer can't be reached this afternoon (European time) it's not my fault. Blame Prince William and Kate. When they kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, all bloody hell could break loose online.Twitter feeds will be buzzing. Photos will...

The World's Smallest Runway

It's the world's smallest runway. And it's moving.YouTube link(thanks Co...

A vast patchwork of kaleidoscopic colour, the tulip fields of the Netherlands are clearly nothing to be sneezed at. From the air it looks as though a giant toddler armed with a box of super-sized crayons has been let loose on the Dutch countryside......

Pollution is a problem for many cities in the world and has been a threat to the environment in developed countries. Efforts are being made to overcome the growing pollution in the world but for some cities it's too much and those are the ones where...

Scott Weaver's Rolling Through The Bay

Scott Weaver's amazing piece, made with over 100,000 toothpicks over the course of 35 years, is a depiction of San Francisco, with multiple ping pong ball runs that allow you to go on 'tours' of different parts of the city.Vimeo l...

Chris McIntosh's first recliner was not your standard La-Z-Boy - it was electric-powered and capable of going 15 mph. Now a freshman at the University of Southern California, McIntosh spent his youth building ad-hoc vehicles, so when the chair's paltry...

Can you imagine a world without Facebook? Well, I sure can because I'm not using it. But a lot of people get lost in Facebook. Some could even be called addicts. What would the world do without Facebook? How big a role does Facebook really play in our...

Think current U.S. political campaigns are nasty? It's not a modern development. Political campaigns have always been nasty. The attack-pinback has long been a tool of partisans and politicos.(thanks Li...

Royal Wedding Products For Dudes

From the The Guy Bauer Half Hour: Want to show off your love for Prince William and Kate Middleton but afraid of losing your reputation as a 'cool dude?' Now you can show people how much you love The Royal Wedding without looking like a sissy! You're a man, right? Act like it. Buy 'bad ass' things with...

Ball Clock

The Ball Clock gives you a fun and unique way to see what time it is. The balls on the top two ramps represent the minutes and the balls on the bottom ramp represent the hours.(via Miss Cellan...

After years of speculation and conspiracy theories, the White House has released President Obama's birth certificate. Declaring that he and the country have 'better stuff to do' than fight about where he was born, President Obama released his long-form...

Like many biologists, German Oliver Zompro spends thousands of hours looking at specimens of dead animals. He found his first new species when he was twenty. By the age of thirty he had named dozens of wild new forms. While other people around him did...

An Exclusive Baby Dinner

Nutricia is a Dutch company specialized in dairy products and baby food. To launch their latest ingredient range of Olvarit baby foods, they organized an exclusive tasting-dinner in a Michelin starred restaurant. And they invited some very special guests: babies.YouTube link(thanks Co...

A Dog's Wor...

The British royal family never seems to lack attention from the press - witness the hype surrounding the marriage of Prince William, second in line to the throne, and Kate Middleton. Queen Elizabeth's rule does extend across the world; she's the sovereign...

Artist and graphic designer Allister Lee works out of his studio in Toronto, Canada, where he makes commercial art for companies like Nike, Stussy, Miskha, and Adidas. Because he only uses black markers in his art and advertising graphics, he also happens...

Russian Bear Approaches Highway

A bear in Russia walks right up to some people parked on the side of the road.YouTube l...

Do you want to look like a hacker in the movies? You know, those people who, lurking behind a green-glowing computer monitor, just bash on the keyboard while a code is produced on the screen. Want to show your colleagues that you are able to break into...

Paper is a medium that most of us only use for jotting down our ideas and writing down notes, and think that there is no other use of paper except writing. However, some imaginative artists out there have created spectacular pieces of artwork out of...

Please, feed the Cursor Monst...

Office Chair Racing Championship

More than 50 people participated in Germany's third annual office chair championships on April 16th, racing each other on a downhill course in the town of Bad Koenig, The contestants were free to adapt their office chairs for race conditions, but were not allowed motors to propel them down the cordoned-off...

This is the ultimate geek chair, designed by Benjamin Rollins Caldwell of BRC Designs. He named theses pieces of furniture 'The Binary Chairs' and they were created using computer parts.(thanks Ralu...

No one knows exactly how long beer has existed on this fine earth of ours. Its earliest recorded mention dates back about 8,000 years ago, and many historians believe it to be much older than that. From the first use of hops in the 800s, to the invention...

Facepalm is a colloquial term referring to the physical gesture of striking one's own face in a display of exasperation. It is similar in function to a sigh. In Internet discussions, the term is used as an expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief,...

Migration

The annual wildebeest migration takes place in the Masai Mara, Kenya and the Serengeti, Tanzania. It is known as the 'Great Migration' and is one of the most iconic events in Africa. One of the largest obstacles the migrating animals face is the mighty Mara River.Filmed by Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas...

Today it is 25 years ago that at 1:23am on April 26th, 1986, a routine safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear station went wrong, resulting in an explosion in one of four nuclear reactors.Moscow was slow to admit what had happened, even after increased...

Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is change over to black and white, but some parts are left in color. This is usually achieved by using layers and masks in photo editing software. Here are some selective color pho...

French artist Juliana Santacruz Herrera has transformed the streets of Paris using braided strips of colourful fabric. Seeing the many cracks and potholes of the city as the 'canvas' of her project, the site-specific pieces are a playful addition to...

The Real Story Of Einstein Sticking Out His Tongue

A Sony advertisement for the Cybershot with Sweep Panorama that explains the story behind the famous Einstein photo.YouTube l...

Known as technology demonstrators, these pioneering stealth aircraft remained top secret for years after their final flights before being declassified. They are categorised as black projects and operated from the secret Groom Lake test site in Nevada,...

Marshmallow Peeps are colorful marshmallow confections made in the shape of chicks and bunnies. Not long ago, people came up with a new use for Peeps: making them into art. Here are fifteen of the most creative Peep dioram...

image creditIt has been a sacred site for thousands of years known to the Kaytetye aboriginal people of Australia as Karlu Karlu and is known as such in four local languages.When first seen by Europeans in the nineteenth century, however, it was not...

From Me To You

What's so special about the picture below? Do you see it?It's one of many great GIFs made by Jamie Beck, a photographer who lives in New York City.There are a lot more on her site, From Me To You.(via J-Walk Bl...

Moviebarcode is a blog that publishes images from movies compressed into barcodes. The picture above shows every still frame of the 1994 film Pulp Ficti...

Many Western women make high-heels a part of their daily wardrobe. The relationship women have with their shoes often becomes the butt of jokes and a point of dismissal, often on the following points: Do women need to own so many shoes? Do they need...

image creditDid the Easter Bunny leave you anything this year? The tradition of the Easter Bunny is hundreds of years old and has its roots in the Rhineland. It was introduced in to the US by Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century....

What is wireless technology? It's a bit freaky, that's what it ...

There are two choices of toilet paper orientation when using a toilet roll holder with a horizontal axle parallel to the wall: the toilet paper may hang over or under the roll. The choice is largely a matter of personal preference, dictated by habit....

Easter Pooch Concert

Happy Easter!YouTube link(thanks Lin...

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. Now that car is for sale on eBay. The car is...

Easter eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. The egg is a pagan symbol of the rebirth of the Earth in celebrations of spring and was adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.The oldest...

Woman Uses Motorized Wheelchair

A motorized wheelchair using a lawnmower as an engine.YouTube link(thanks Co...

Rumors About Detection Of 'God Particle'

The world's largest atom smasher - the Large Hadron Collider, a 17 mile-long particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland - is rumoured to have found the Higgs boson, the subatomic particle otherwise known as the 'God particle'. The speculation is based on a leaked internal note.The Higgs boson is...

If you push an unmanned bike forward, it will roll straight without falling over (for a little while, at least). Andy Ruina, a Cornell University professor of mechanical engineering and a cyclist himself, has spent the past 25 years trying to figure...

Tom Hanks Is A Lot Of Animals

Pictures and GIF's of Tom Hanks as an anim...

Located on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, 'Safe House' by architectural office KWK Promes is a two-storey residential house that aims to provide a feeling of maximum security for the residents. True to its name, the most distinguishable element of...

There are a lot of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur one day and the world will end. We've all heard of December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican...

Never Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.Why?They don't like it!Vimeo link(via Everlasting Blo...

image creditIt is an ancient tool, created over two thousand years ago when people thought that the Earth was the center of the universe. They are often referred to as the first computer and however debatable that statement might be there is one thing...

The Master Theorem is a group of puzzle-solvers founded by a mysterious figure known only as M. The puzzles are not of the Sunday paper kind of stuff, but more like James Bond/Wired/code-breaking kinds of things. The whole thing started as a geeky secret...

Bert

Real life version of Bert of Sesame Street made by Nacho Diaz.(via Boing Boi...

A group of friends who used to try to one up each other with crazy and often unbelievable facts decided to put some of those on the web to share. Zidbits explores the most interesting tidbits of knowledge and factoids from all over the internet. It's...

A doghouse with a solar hot-water radiant-heating system and a green roof that retains rainwater, creates oxygen, and improves insulation. Colored LED lights to brighten things up and a Web-enabled wireless video camera to keep an eye on the d...

Architectural Magic

An apartment building in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, USA, has recently been remodeled to include four precious car parking spaces while maintaining the historical Victorian facade. See Beausoleil Architects for more information on the details.YouTube link(thanks Co...

image creditIn 1951 the Festival of Britain showcased the best of British and gave the nation an excuse to have a jolly good knees up and forget about the hardships the previous decade had wrought upon them. That was sixty years ago. 2011 Will see a...

Some people have always been trying to get out of their debt to the government. There are a wealth of loopholes and accounting tricks with which a savvy individual can minimize their payment to the IRS, but for some people that's still far too much to...

From children's fantasy themes to bold architecture. Meet twelve modern bedroom design ideas that shows your place to dream can also be a dreamy pla...

Smiling Face Ring

Smile with this Smiling Face Ring.(via J-Walk Bl...

The First Television Remote Control

Young people won't probably believe this but back when TV really mattered, you had to get up to change channels. I do remember but that's because I'm old. Here's a 1961 promotional movie introducing the first television remote control.YouTube link(thanks Co...

The magic that happens inside of a whiskey barrel has always intrigued whiskey drinkers. But unless you are a whiskey drinker who owns a distillery, it's next to impossible to witness the transformation of the distillate from clear to brown, and the...

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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Friday, April 22, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011