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 1949, after the accession of Queen Juliana, Queen's Day is Queen Juliana's birthday on 30 April. Although Queen Beatrix's birthday is on 31 January, she officially celebrates her birthday on 30 April. Yes, I know, that's a bit confusing.

Queen's Day is known for its 'freemarket' all over the country, where everybody is allowed to sell things in the streets. Other activities during the day are children's games, individual musical performances, and music concerts. During the celebrations as reference to the colors of the House of Orange-Nassau, people dress in the color orange.

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

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 Cake.

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 prompts flocks of curious eco-tourists to travel to environmentally fragile areas.

Here are 10 areas under threat - some lesser known than others - that can still be visited responsibly.

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 without thinking, it gets wet and unusable for touchscreen navigation. It's too risky to try to hold and navigate with one hand.

I found that I could use my nose to scroll but I couldn't see where my nose was touching precisely. It was at that point that I came up with this idea of a nose extension 'finger' that would allow navigation while my phone is firmly held by one hand.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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 Cora)

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 be uploading. Web sites will be serving up live streams of the royals. It's possible that all this hullabaloo could shut down major websites, stall wireless networks and, generally, grind the digital chatter to a pace that would frustrate even the commonest of commoners.

It's pretty difficult to predict what exactly will happen to the Internet's pipes when the British royal wedding takes place. It's possible major websites will crash because of a traffic influx but the fact that the wedding starts at 6 a.m. ET means that quite a few people in the United States will wake up to watch it after it's already happened. That may lessen the burden on the Internet.

(via J-Walk Blog)

The World's Smallest Runway

It's the world's smallest runway. And it's moving.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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... if the lines weren't quite so perfect. The vibrant blues, reds, pinks and yellows sprawl as far as the eye can see.

Tourists have flocked to catch a glimpse of these spectacular quilted farmlands in all their technicolour glory. But like a rainbow, this colourful landscape is a short-lived phenomenon. When the flowers are gone, the land will be cultivated for a rather more mundane crop of vegetables.

(via Everlasting Blort)

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 it hit the hardest.

Here are the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

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 link

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 electric motor burned out, he decided it was time for a monster makeover.

To upgrade the recliner, he removed the electric motor he had installed, the motor's controller, a pair of batteries, and other parts. He bought a nine-horsepower, four-stroke dirt-bike engine, which fit perfectly in the space beneath the seat, and welded on a fixed rear axle so the engine could power both rear wheels instead of just one.

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 lives?

(thanks Ritu

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 Lisa)

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 their faces on it.

YouTube link

(thanks Guy)

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 Cellania)

Obama's Birth Certificate

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 Hawaii birth certificate yesterday and asked that the 'sideshows and carnival barkers' stop raising the issue.

No troubles finding my birth certificate. Here it is.

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 crossword puzzles and drank lattes, he explored the world, one animal at a time.

Then, one day, things changed. He was looking through specimens when he found something more interesting than anything he had ever seen before. It was a fossil that looked like a cross between two different kinds of animals. It had the wrong mix of parts. It was - he would come to convince himself - a single individual of an entirely new order of beasts.

(via Boing Boing)

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 Cora)

A Dog's World.

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 of 15 Commonwealth realms in addition to the United Kingdom. But she's not the only royal out there.

Here's a look at where monarchies - and sultanates and emirates, which are similar systems - still exist around the world.

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 to be amassing the world's largest collection of black markers.

He started with less than a dozen markers back in 2002, and now has close to 600. When he gets to 1,000, he plans to call The Guinness Book of World Records.

(via Nag on the Lake)

Russian Bear Approaches Highway

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

YouTube link

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 some top security computer system?

With Hacker Typer you can. Just press any key on your keyboard and it looks like you actually know something about coding.

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 paper. They refer to it as Paper Craft or Paper Artwork.

Please, feed the Cursor Monster.

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 road. Most had mounted inline skater wheels for greater speed.

Racers also wore helmets, knee pads and elbow protectors, as contestants reached speeds of up to 35 kilometers per hour (21.7 mph). Some sat on the chair, others lay on their stomachs. The prize eventually went to Luxembourg native Pierre Feller, who timed in at 26.59 seconds, setting a record.

YouTube link

small>(thanks Cora)

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 Raluca)

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 of the drum roaster and hydrometer in the early 1800s, to the discovery of pasteurization methods later that century, there are plenty of great beer-related innovations to speak of.

Here's a brief highlight of some of the useful inventions and innovations in the past hundred years or so that have enabled us to enjoy beer the way we do today. And some of the not so incredible (but maybe fun?) beer-related innovations of our time.

(thanks Cora)

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, disgust or general woe. It is also used when the person making the gesture does not believe that words can express the level of idiocy being displayed.

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 - two brothers from the United Kingdom - a combination of telephoto video clips and wide-angle time-lapse sequences illustrate the scale and drama of this incredible spectacle.

Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

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 radiation was detected in other countries. The lack of information led to exaggerated claims of the number killed by the blast in the immediate area. Contamination is still a problem, however, and disputes continue about how many will eventually die as a result of the world's worst nuclear accident.

The Big Picture stories in photographs.

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 photos.

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 grey urban setting.

Long lengths of dyed fabrics are braided and then coiled into the shallow breaks in the street. Often made up of a combination of bright colours, the resulting effect creates a graphic and visually-arresting contrast to the city's palette. See more on Juliana Santacruz Herrera's Flickr stream.

(thanks Marvin, via Laughing Squid)

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 link

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, USA, popularly known as Area 51.

These groundbreaking designs tested low observable technologies and proved that stealth aircraft could operate deep behind enemy lines with a high degree of survivability. Together, they helped return the element of surprise to air warfare.

(via NeatoHub)

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 dioramas.

image credit

It 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 long before the place had been given a new name - The Devil's Marbles. Many of the 'marbles' are poised, almost at tipping point it seems and with spectacular visible effect.

(thanks Robert-John)

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 Blog)

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

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 to be so high? Is it really sensible to spend so much on shoes?

While it's true that an individual woman's presence is so much more than the footwear she has chosen for the day, shoes can influence our interactions with others: they change how we walk, how we stand, and how others perceive us.

(via ackackack)

image credit

Did 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. But what does the Easter Bunny do with the rest of the year? Jump about madly is our best guess, going by these pictures. Behold the wonder of bunnies!

(thanks Robert-John)

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

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. In surveys of consumers and of bath and kitchen specialists, 70% of respondents prefer over.

Despite being a trivial topic, people often hold strong opinions on the matter. Defenders of either position cite advantages ranging from aesthetics, hospitality, and cleanliness; to paper conservation and the ease of detaching individual squares. Should the paper be over or under? This infographic puts things in perspective.

Easter Pooch Concert

Happy Easter!

YouTube link

(thanks Linda)

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 powered by a Ford 3 litre V-6 engine mated to an automatic transmission. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang rolled out of the workshop in June 1967 and was registered with the number plate 'GEN 11' given to her by Ian Fleming.

The vehicle is being offered by Profiles in History, a dealer in historical manuscripts and original entertainment memorabilia. The current bid is $1,000,000.

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 tradition is to use painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery. These eggs are often hidden, allegedly by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning. Otherwise, Easter eggs are generally put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a bird's nest.

Woman Uses Motorized Wheelchair

A motorized wheelchair using a lawnmower as an engine.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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 predicted to exist by the particle physics theory known as the Standard Model. The Higgs boson, physicists believe, bestows mass on all the other particles and was crucial to forming the cosmos after the Big Bang.

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 out why.

When you're riding, you think you're going in a straight line. But really you are falling to the right, steering to the right, falling to the left, steering to the left, and constantly making these corrections. The wheels have to be under the bike's center of mass to keep it upright. But if there's no person to do that steering, then it has to come from automatic effects. Cornell University in cooperation with Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands investigated what causes the bicycle to do this automatic steering.

Tom Hanks Is A Lot Of Animals

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

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 the design is the moveable exterior wall components that allow the house to be completely closed to its environment or open and connected to the rural landscape.

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 Long Count calendar.

Here is a very useful notification service. You can sign up to receive a handy email alert whenever the world is going to end; your alert will tell you when the world will end and who has prophesied it, giving you time to find shelter in a network of caves or say goodbye to your loved ones.

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 Blort)

image credit

It 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 for sure without a doubt. Astrolabes are objects of immense mystery and beauty.

(thanks Robert-John)

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 society at Columbia University.

The Master Theorem features a weekly puzzle that goes out at midnight between Wednesday and Thursday and members compete to solve it quickly. To join, prospective members either need to solve one of those weekly puzzles or be invited by a current member. Once beyond the curtain, there are more puzzles hidden throughout the site, for which members can earn Seals, which are pretty much like web 2.0 badges for solving various mini-puzzles.

(thanks Allison)

Bert

Real life version of Bert of Sesame Street made by Nacho Diaz.

(via Boing Boing)

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 science themed website that explores topics others may not know, yet occasionally wonder about.

Zidbits answers questions like: Why are some people lactose intolerant? Why is Pluto no longer a planet? Who was the secret President? What is the hottest temperature?

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 dog.

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 Cora)

image credit

In 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 multitude of celebrations of the Festival's anniversary. Among them is Urban Fox.

(thanks Robert-John)

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 pay.

However, high profile tax evaders don't always manage to escape to the Cayman Islands to grow old with their tightly grasped dollars; indeed, the IRS has managed to claw back some of the dollars owed to it. What's more, those caught dodging the charges they're obliged to pay can, sometimes at least, face stiff penalties as a result of their transgressions.
Here are 10 infamous tax evaders who didn't slip through the net.

(thanks Ritu)

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 place.

Smiling Face Ring

Smile with this Smiling Face Ring.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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 Cora)

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 many flavor, aroma, and taste complexities that are added before finishing the journey as aged whiskey.

The Age Your Own Whiskey kit from Woodinville Whiskey Co. puts you in the Captain's seat for aging your whiskey to perfection. The kit includes two 750 ml bottles of 110 proof White Dog un-aged whiskey, a 2 liter aging barrel, pouring funnel, two tasting glasses, and step-by-step instructions.

(via Laughing Squid)

Pages - Menu

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