unique and interesting: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Rorschmap

Rorschmap is a Google Maps mashup created by James Bridle that turns the view into a kaleidoscopic image. Just type your location and click 'Go.' Here's my home town as a kaleidoscopic image.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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Found in Eastern Africa ranging from Somalia to Kenya there is a slightly odd looking long-necked creature that is reminiscent of a giraffe but that is one thing it most certainly is not.
With large eyes and ears and an incredibly slender neck, you may be forgiven for thinking that the Giraffe-necked Antelope was actually thought up in the Disney Studio rather than occurring in the wild steppes of East Africa.

This unusual and elegant beast is a great survivor - and it possibly owes its continued existence to its wonderfully long neck. When you realize how high the animal stretches in order to feed, you can imagine many an African folk-story being handed down through the generations to explain how it came to get that way.

Adorable Baby Sloth Yawning

Is there anything more adorable than sleepy baby animals? Yesterday I showed a video of a sleepy Asian Sunbear cub. Here's another one. A yawning baby sloth.

YouTube link

Create Huge Messages

Gzaas is a web service to create huge messages. And to associate them to links that you can paste anywhere. If you want to say anything to a friend via Internet you'll find the possibilities of making your message more powerful are limited. The fonts used in social networks are boring. That's when you use Gzaas.

A Mushroom Death Suit

Jae Rhim Lee is a visual artist, designer, and researcher whose work proposes unorthodox relationships between the mind/body/self and the built and natural environment. The Infinity Mushroom will be a unique strain of fungi that will be trained to decompose bodies and remediate the industrial toxins in bodies. Using mycological tissue culture and growing techniques, Jae Rhim Lee is training fungi to consume her own body tissue and excretions.

The Mushroom Death Suit is basically a fitted organic cotton suit with a crocheted netting on top in a pattern resembling the growth of mushroom mycelium, and the netting is where the Infinity Mushroom spores will initially grow.

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Most of us spent some chunk of our formative years in one museum or another. Scifi addicts are no strangers to the pleasures of accumulation, organization, and presentation of knowledge (not to mention obsessive collections of stuff).

Sometimes that knowledge is of a broad subject which is well-regarded. Sometimes it's a little more niche-oriented. Have a look at the weird, wild, and wonderful museums that no one expected to see.

Sleepy Bear Can't Stay Awake

A sleepy Asian Sunbear cub falling asleep.

YouTube link

Artist Steve Lambert has probably the most awkward (his words) '404 not found page' on the Internet.

A very creepy horse mask.

No one is quite sure where it came from or what it means, but the creepy horse head mask has popped up all over the internet in recent years. Some like it simply because it's weird, others use it to make the world a more surreal place.

This website has a few ideas about what you can do when you wear a horse head mask as a disguise, but we suggest you get your own and try things out for yourself.

9 Hours Capsule Hotel

The '9 hours' is a Japanese capsule hotel with a difference. They expect you to stay just 9 hours in the hotel, 1 hour to shower, 7 hours to sleep, and 1 hour to rest.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

How Big Companies Got Their Names

Naming your startup or business is no easy task and one of the most important aspects for successful branding and marketing. You need to have a powerful, informative and unique name that people will only associate to your specific company. Of course, that is a lot easier said than done. How did some of the biggest companies come up with their names.

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Today we have to deploy increasingly sophisticated measures to secure our possessions and deter would-be thieves. Past decades have introduced key cards, number pads and Total Recall style biometric scanning.

As these more advanced security measures become further integrated into our everyday lives, remember that sometimes the best form of protection is a great big lump of reinforced steel.

(thanks David)

One-Man-Band Street Performer In Croatia

A one-man-band street performer in Rijeka, Croatia, called Cigo Man Band. His real name is Mileta Cvijanovic-Cile.

YouTube link

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Would you be able to defend yourself and your loved ones if someone were to physically attack you? It's a question most of us don't want to consider, but violence is, unfortunately, a fact of life. Thankfully, regardless of strength, size, or previous training, anyone can learn several effective self-defense techniques. Here's how to prepare for and stay safe in common real-world violent situations.

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South African anthropologist Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana.

But while Shakespeare's skeleton could reveal clues about his health and death, the question of the man's drug use depends on the presence of hair, fingernails or toenails in the grave. Thackeray conducted a study which found evidence of marijuana residue on pipe fragments found in Shakespeare's garden. Some Shakespearian allusions, including a mention of a 'noted weed' in Sonnet 76, spurred Thackeray's inquiry into whether William Shakespeare may have used the mind-altering drug for inspiration.

Bacon Wrapped Eggs

What you need: 1 package of bacon, 1 box of eggs, shredded cheddar, crumbled goat cheese, or any cheese you like, chopped herbs such as chives, dill, and thyme.
What you get: bacon wrapped eggs.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

MS-DOS has turned 30 years old this week. Microsoft's first desktop operating system was launched on July 27, 1981, after Microsoft bought the full rights to QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), the PC operating system the company acquired from Seattle Computer Products.

During its life, several competing products were released for the x86 platform, and MS-DOS itself would go through eight versions, until development ceased in 2000. Ultimately it was the key product in Microsoft's growth from a programming languages company to a diverse software development firm.

It's a replica of an iconic car that is guaranteed to turn heads. The two-seater soft-top car is for sale at the rock-bottom price of 2,200 Euros ($3,145). And, unlike the original, this working version of Fred Flintstone's car has its own motor, meaning the driver and their passenger won't have to rely on their feet to power the prehistoric ride.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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For a long time, food photographs tended to be shot and composed the way people were used to encountering their food: laid out on a table setting and shot from an overhead perspective. Stylists accordingly arranged the food to appear good from above, with the items arranged flat on the plate and clearly separated from each other.

Later, romantic lighting, shallower angles and more props came en vogue. Most recently, the prevailing trend in food photography is to present the food as simple, clean and naturally as possible and with little props, often using effects such as selective focus, tilted plates, and extreme close-ups.

15 Essential Food Photography Tips.

Magic World

Created by French artist François Abélanet, 'Anamorphose' was an ephemeral garden on display in front of Paris' main city hall the Hôtel de Ville.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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Nature tells you a story, of solace and existence. Similarities can be found in the things surrounding us but what is most astonishing is when water bodies cry for attention; through their various intriguing shapes and outlines, we look but we do not see.

10 Strangely Shaped Lakes.

Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. A diver usually goes so fast that you can't see their facial expressions.

But when a photographer freezes them in the middle of their dive you see very expressive faces. For us, that looks funny. Or weird. I guess it's a combination of holding their breath and the effort it takes to complete the jump.

(via Miss Cellania)

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In 1903, 3,000 teddy bears were sent by ship from Germany to America only for them to disappear. Some claim the bears were the first ever made and would now be the most valuable in the world.

So what happened to them? In the Steiff museum, in the German town of Giengen, the mystery of the missing bears is explained to the visiting children with a tale that they were lost at sea. The idea of shipwrecked teddy bears captures the imagination, but is it true?

Dog Vs Girl Car Race

A dog races a girl in a toy car... and wins.

YouTube link

They can sit and stay - and are excellent at playing dead - but this room full of obedient dogs will never go walkies again. The odd-ball collection of 51 stuffed dogs is the star attraction at the picturesque Castle Bitov in the Czech Republic. The castle's last owner, the eccentric Baron Georg Haas, was an animal lover.

His favourite style of four-legged friend was the humble canine, and he eventually had more than 200 in the castle grounds. When the playful pets passed away, the baron buried the majority of them. But, for a select few, the baron had loftier plans - and the handiwork of the local taxidermist is still being enjoyed today.

(via Nag on the Lake)

Tired of feeling like people are judging you for gawking at your iPhone all day? Feel like you're always 10 seconds from some big dude punching you in the face and making your iPhone his iPhone?

Enter the BookBook. It's a case that makes your iPhone look like.. a book. More specifically, it makes your iPhone look like a little itty-bitty Bible. Which is great, because no one can judge you for reading a Bible. And who would steal someone's Bible?

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of Captain America comic books have been sold in a total of 75 countries. For nearly all of the character's publication history, Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers.

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The History Of Captain America.

(thanks Ritu)

Backseat Driver

Backseat Driver is the world's first mobile application that you can enjoy driving from the backseat of your car. You can take a virtual drive linked by GPS to your actual driving route.
Or... you could just look outside of the window and enjoy the real world.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Mark Malkoff is a comedian/filmmaker in New York City. He sets out to see what crazy stunts he can get away with at the Apple Store. See the video on his site which answers the questions, Would the Apple Store allow someone to bring in a goat? Would the Apple Store allow someone to get their iphone repaired while dressed as Darth Vader?

(thanks Mark Malkoff)

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From the Vatican in Italy to ancient mosques in Iran, the world's most beautiful ceilings tend to be intricate masterpieces created centuries ago with the brushstrokes of a famous painter, dazzling ceramic tiles or panes of colored glass. But what about the ceilings of the modern world?

These 15 cool, crazy and amazing ceiling designs, all created within the 20th and 21st centuries, range from affordable solutions in small restaurants to stunning atria by world-class architects.

You're at an outing or a dinner table with friends but itching to check your email or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or whatever digital hit of serotonin you prefer. Have you ever 'gone to the bathroom' in order to check email or come up with a socially appropriate excuse to pull out your smartphone just so you can check your @ replies on Twitter?

A new British study backs up that Internet usage is increasingly becoming an addiction. Out of 1000 people surveyed after being cut off from the Internet for 24 hours, 53% reported feeling 'upset' about being deprived of online access and 40% said that they felt lonely after not being able to connect to the Internet. Participants described the digital detox akin to quitting drinking or smoking.

Waterfall Flows Upwards In Extreme Winds

Winds battering southern Australia have been so strong that spray from waterfalls south of Sydney has billowed up into the air.

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Select a Smurf. Smurf it up, make it smurf and smurf it on Facebook or Twitter. You can also get an embed code to show your Smurf on your site. Smurf Yourself.

(thanks Cora)

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Microsoft received much Twitter flak after a small PR account for its Xbox system encouraged followers to remember recently deceased musician Amy Winehouse by purchasing her last album on the company's entertainment marketplace, Zune. After about an hour of retweets Microsoft tweeted a follow up.

Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse 'download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you. With Amy Winehouse's passing, the world has lost a huge talent. Our thoughts are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time.

One thing's for sure, feature films aren't getting any better. Every year has its sprinkling of truly bad movies, and 2011 is no different. So let's grab our surf board and tackle this year's turd tidal wave. Here's Movie Moron's round-up/preview of the top 10 worst movies of 2011.

(thanks Sheridan)

The Village

The Vilage is a tilt-shift time-lapse video by Pedro Sousa from Portugal.

Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

How to get more comments on your web site.

(via Geeks are Sexy)

The at sign (@), also called the atmark, at symbol, or commercial at, is formally an abbreviation of the accounting and commercial invoice term 'at the rate of.' In recent years its meaning has changed to also mean 'at' in the sense of 'located at,' especially in email addresses. Increasingly, @ is also used as a prefix to user names (e.g., @username) on social websites such as Twitter to denote a link, attribution or indirect reference.

The History Of The @-Symbol.

Yacht Island Design created a concept for a 'Tropical Island Paradise' yacht that looks like an idyllic, floating island. There's an open swimming pool, a waterfall, a helicopter landing pad, a deployable beach deck and a volcano. Yes, that's right, a volcano.

Click on the 'Tropical Island Paradise' link on the designers site to see more photos.

(via Damn Cool Pictures)

Robot Mimics Human Emotions

EMYS (EMotive headY System) is a robot developed by researchers from the Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland. The robot is supposed to mimic human emotions using facial expressions.

YouTube link

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For most people washing your car involves a bucket of soapy water, a sponge and chamois leather. But for some drivers with top of the range sports cars that simple method just doesn't cut it. Now though, those owners can treat their Ferrari, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins to ultimate all-star treatment - a £10,000 ($16,284) 'car spa' which is the world's most expensive car wash.

The Dubai based car wash, named Monza Ultimate Detailing and Protection, is particularly popular with car loving British expats living in the Gulf Kingdom. The picture above is not related to the Dubai car wash. It's just some Ferrari being washed on the streets of Amsterdam.

Dutch train passengers running late to their appointments have a quicker option for getting across Overvecht Station in the city of Utrecht - and that option isn't a new flight of stairs or an elevator.

Design firm HIK Ontwerpers recently installed a slide in the newly renovated station to add a little fun to the everyday lives of commuters. Officially called a 'transfer accelerator,' the slide was installed in this underutilized area as part of HIK Ontwerpers ongoing urban installations series.

(thanks Cora)

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A star-gazer has come a little bit closer to the final frontier - after spending 18 months photographing the night sky. With just an ordinary digital camera, Alex Cherney from Melbourne, Australia, turned thousands of snaps into an incredible time-lapse video of the cosmos.

Using long exposures to allow more light in, these breath-taking pictures from the southern tip of Australia demonstrate how he captured the dramatic way the sky changes at night.

(via Look At This...)

Overtime

The story of a group of Kermit-like puppets who find their creator lying on his bench and have to eventually come to understand his death. Written, directed and animated by Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland and Damien Ferrie. Music by Sielberman Ochestra, Ornadel and the Starlight Symphony Mills and Mark Nelson.

Vimeo link

Test Your Vocab

Test Your Vocab is a research project to measure vocabulary sizes according to age and education, and particularly to compare native learning rates with foreign language classroom learning rates. It functions by means of a test: the first part with a handful of words to determine the general vocabulary level, and a second part with a larger but narrower selection of words to determine the vocabulary level with greater precision.

My total vocabulary size is estimated to be 17,800 words. That's not bad since English is not my native language. Most adults fall in the range 20,000 - 35,000, with the exact median score being 27,123 words. Test Your Vocab.

(via Today I learned something new)

George, a Great Dane, is the biggest dog in the world. He stands nearly 4ft high at the shoulder, 7ft long and weighing nearly 18 stone (114 kilo).

Listen To Your Heart

Mike Rowland has a master's degree in electro acoustic composition. Listen To Your Heart is a song composed by Mike, used as the soundtrack for a beautiful Emperor Penguins documentary.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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According to a study in the journal Current Biology, every polar bear alive today can trace its ancestry to one mama bear that lived in Ireland during the last Ice Age. And what's more, she wasn't even a polar bear: She was a brown bear. An associate professor of biology at Penn State University said that her team studied DNA extracted from ancient bear bones.

When the team looked at the nuclear DNA, they found that brown bears and polar bears began to evolve separately from each other around a million years ago. But the mitochondrial DNA, the kind you inherit from your mother, told a very different story. They diverged only about 20- or 30,000 years ago. And that difference is intriguing, and it means there's something weird going on in the history of polar bears.

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From an air balloon to a lamp and from a watch to a toaster, Darth Vader has inspired a lot of designers.

With all that's going on in the world today, stress relief is very important so why not have some fun with it. The Infectious Disease Stress Balls come in several colors and offer you a chance to squeeze some stress out of your daily routine as you pretend that your hand is being consumed by a rare and deadly disease.

While the thought of this may sound terrible, it might actually help take your mind of all the stressful things that were previously getting to you and it usually gives everyone a few good laughs.

(thanks Cora)

Cat Vs Dog

Izzy and Sammie grudge match.

YouTube link

(thanks John)

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Virtual Tourist is a site where people can share travel advice and experiences. They announced their 3rd Annual World's Ugliest Buildings List.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but then again, so is ugliness and the members of travel website Virtual Tourist have some very strong opinions about buildings that fall into the latter category. With this in mind the site has announced its 3rd Annual List of the World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings.

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They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what about a cherimoya? Never heard of it? Cherimoya is a fruit native to the highlands of South America that Mark Twain once called 'deliciousness itself.'

While you may be a pro when it comes to pears, avocados and mangos, there are plenty of fruits considered delicacies in other countries. From durian to salak, discover 10 exotic fruits that are cherished around the world.

related posts:
10 Weird Exotic Fruits
10 Must-Try Exotic Fruits

Photography-Themed Rube Goldberg Machine

YouTube link

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Below the sidewalks of London there is a remarkable network of tunnels and chambers, put in to place by Victorian engineers, the final step in a process which took centuries. For over a thousand years there had been a shipping dock at the mouth of the river - its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon fleot which means a tidal inlet. Yet it was not destined to persevere as a river in its own right.

(thanks Robert-John)

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Singer Amy Winehouse was found dead at her apartment in London yesterday. She was 27. Last month, Winehouse canceled the remainder of her 12-city European concert tour. The singer had a history of battling drugs and alcohol. Amy Winehouse recently left a British rehab program that a representative said was intended to prepare her for the European concerts.

How To Lower The Temperature Inside Your Car

You come back to your car only to find it's very hot inside because the vehicle has been standing in the sun for some time. You could turn on the air conditioning. But there's a better way to lower the temperature inside your car. Open the window on the driver's side. Then open and close the door on the other side five times or more.

YouTube link

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill that officially classifies beer as alcoholic. Until now anything containing less than 10% alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff. The move will allow ministers to control the sale of beer in the same way that spirits are controlled.

Although vodka has long been the traditional tipple in Russia, beer has soared in popularity, being marketed as a healthier alternative to spirits. Over the past decade, beer sales in Russia have risen more than 40% while vodka sales have fallen by nearly 30%. Correspondents say it is common to see people swigging beer in the street and in parks as if they are drinking soft drinks.

(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

I Like Looking Like Other People celebrates that awkward moment at work when you realise you're wearing pretty much the same thing as someone else.

Skull Yourself

Whether you're pig-headed or a puddinghead, now you can create your own skull. Upload a photo, make it fit, place some markers and get yourself a wicked skull without a headache. Here's my skull.

(via No Subscription Required)

New Zealand Bans Weird Baby Names

New Zealand's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages is cracking down on parents who want to give their little bundle of joy names that are too creative. In the past two years, the country has banned 102 names deemed to be too out there. The list includes Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King and Knight. Those names were banned because they were deemed to be too similar to titles.

The name Messiah has also been turned down, as have requests to name kids 89, C, D, I and T. As well, the agency has refused to give a pass to full stops, asterisks, virgules and other punctuation marks.

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What things can you do when you're underwater? You could carve a pumpkin. Or play a game of cards or a tennis match. You can even get married underwater.

10 Bizarre Underwater Events.

Sewer Geyser Lifts Car

This happened in Montreal, Canada. Wait till the 35-second mark when it really gets going.

YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

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Car mascots (or hood ornaments) used to be installed on the exposed radiator caps of cars and even when radiator caps disappeared, hood ornaments were still used. These objects were often intricate works of art and today are highly prized by collectors. We still see company logos on all models of cars today of course, but here's a look at just a small selection of hood ornaments from days gone by.

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There is a world of incredible mysteries around us, all of which are amazing. Science and history just add to wonder and weirdness of that world. These 17 mysteries are all very real, very wonderful, and don't need the supernatural to try and figure them out.

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Gambiarra is the Brazilian practice of makeshifts, the art of resorting to quirky and smart improvisation in order to repair what doesn't work or to create what you need with what you have at your disposal. Gambiologia is the 'science' that studies this form of creative improvisation and celebrates it by combining it with electronic-digital techniques.

Gambiologia is also the name of a collective of artists - Fred Paulino, Lucas Mafra and Paulo Henrique 'Ganso Pessoa' - who mix this art of improvisation with DIY culture and technology to develop electronic artifacts.

Weird Water Experiment

This is an experiment you can do at home. It's known as the Leidenfrost effect which is a phenomenon in which a liquid, in near contact with a mass significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer which keeps that liquid from boiling rapidly.

YouTube link

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Space Shuttle Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the International Space Station in triumph yesterday, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last, rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears.

Hours later, after 13 historic and momentous days, Atlantis was then towed into its hangar at the Orbiter Processing Facility, ending not only its two-week mission, but a 30-year shuttle programme which has long been the pride of America.

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Here's the technology problem: you've got a warm, moisture-emitting object that also contains relatively dry components that you need to get from point A to point B with their form, heat, and chemical composition intact. Oh, and the top of the object is covered with a sticky, viscous substance. And you need to be able to do it by the millions, so the solution has to be cheap and mass producible.

The solution to this problem is the modern corrugated pizza box, which helps get a big chunk of the three billion pizzas sold each year in the United States to happy customers.

(via Miss Cellania)

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Did Einstein flunk math? What was the thought experiment that led Einstein to general relativity? Why did it take so long for Einstein to get a Nobel Prize? Did Einstein believe in God?

20 Things You Need To Know About Albert Einstein.

Dutch TV And Radio Tower Collapses

This happened last Saturday here in the Netherlands in a town called Hoogersmilde. A fire broke out at the top of a TV and radio tower and some time later the mast came down. No injuries have been reported. The language in the video is Dutch.

YouTube link

Automotive Color Popularity Report

Displaying the most popular car colors from different parts of the world.

The multi-media resource center for the DuPont 2010 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report contains high-resolution photos and other graphics to support your stories. Included are visuals specific to each region and individual country covered in the report.

Here are the top vehicle colors in Europe. Mine is a metallic blue one.

(via J-Walk Blog)

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Sunday, July 31, 2011

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Thursday, July 21, 2011