unique and interesting: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Smallest Frog In The World

The smallest frog in the world is the Monte Iberia Eleuth (Eleutherodactylus iberia). It was first discovered in 1996 on Mount Iberia, from which the animal gets its name, and exists in only two small regions of Cuba. Much remains unknown about this small creature.

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The Meerkat - if any species of animal had a right to be a little irritated by the name we have gifted them, this is one. Of course, they are blithely unaware of any names we might choose to call them, but this small mammal from the heart of Africa is anything but a mere cat.

There are many interesting facts about meerkats but it is not any form of cat, even though you could be forgiven for thinking it was some sort of distant relative. In fact the word comes from Afrikaans (which is a form of Dutch) and the animal was given the name because of a misidentification. 'Kat' is indeed Dutch for cat and the word 'meer' means lake.

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Steve Michaels is the proprietor of the Hobbit House. One day, he was building a small underground guest home for family and friends when the contractor's son mentioned that it looked like a Hobbit House. From then on, all of his attention and energy has gone into making it a first class Hobbit Abode and Village.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. The Hobbit House of Montana is a well appointed hobbit hole of which even Bilbo Baggins would approve.

(thanks Cora)

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Why would anyone pay $500 for a rusty piece of barbed wire? Well, if the 18-inch long specimen is the only known example of a patent from 1907, some folks might pay even more than that. This isn't the stuff you see today by the side of the road, although the design of barbed wire has not changed that much in more than 100 years.

What gets barbed wire collectors excited are scarce examples of wire manufactured from 1874 through the first decade of the 20th century, when barbed wire was a multi-million-dollar business and everyone wanted a piece of the action.

(thanks Lisa)

Century Style Dance

A viral for Westfield Stratford City, London, UK. The film is a 100 year countdown to the grand opening of Westfield Stratford City on September 13th 2011, and celebrates a century of East London fashion, dance and music. The film was shot over 4 days in east London locations with hundreds of costume changes.

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(thanks Vincenzo)

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David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, believed to have been the oldest surviving member of the first generation of Delta blues singers, died last Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96.

His career spanned nearly the entire recorded history of the blues, from its early years in the Mississippi Delta to its migration to the nightclubs of Chicago and its emergence as an international phenomenon.

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Can light bulbs be anything but functional glass baubles? There are artists that prove that bulbs have a secret life that only green-fingered repurposing can shine a light on.

(via Dark Roasted Blend)

What goes on in your mind when you're in bed? When you sleep your body rests and restores itself. However, sleep is an active state that affects both your physical and mental well-being. Sleeping is a natural cycle of activity in the brain and consists of two basic states: rapid eye movement (REM) anbd non-REM sleep, which consists of four stages.

How Toilet Paper Is Made

How toilet paper is made.

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image from Google Maps

Does the above image look familiar? It should be if you've used or are still using Windows XP. It's one of the most famous wallpaper images showing a blissfully relaxing vista of green rolling hills and a bluer than blue sky.

The wallpaper, probably one of the most viewed images of all time, is aptly named 'Bliss.' Here in the Netherlands the image was called 'Ireland,' which has mistakenly led many to believe that that's where the image was taken. But it was not. Have you ever stopped to wonder where the image was taken, or who took it? In fact, the image is so crisp you might have assumed it wasn't real at all.
Who took that picture and where is it?

The most misused Social Security Number of all time was 078-05-1120. In 1938, a wallet manufacturer decided to promote its product by showing how a Social Security card would fit into its wallets. A sample card, used for display purposes, was inserted in each wallet. The company vice president thought it would be a clever idea to use the actual SSN of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher.

Even though the card was only half the size of a real card and had the word 'specimen' written across the face, many purchasers of the wallet adopted the SSN as their own. In the peak year of 1943, 5,755 people were using Hilda's number. As late as 1977, 12 people were found to still be using the SSN.

(via Bits & Pieces)

High Speed Video Of Popcorn Popping

Color high speed video shows a close up of popcorn popping on a hot plate.

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(thanks Cora)

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Surrounded by technology and urbanity we may be, but the human brain remains profoundly hard-wired for responding to animals. When people are shown pictures of animals, specific parts of their amygdalas - a structure central to pleasure and pain, fear and reward - react almost instantly.

Put another way, glimpsing a bird at the feeder or a shark on Animal Planet could invoke cognitive tricks inherited from ancestors who walked on four legs in shallow water.

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They are specters from our collective childhood, observed from behind half-finished sandcastles. They move purposefully along the beach, captivating young onlookers with the promise of magical treasure. They are metal-detector guys. The archetypal loners. Sealed off from the world by giant headphones, happy to reward young tagalongs with a bottle cap.

Here's an introduction to the tools of the trade and the inner life of the modern treasure hunter.

(thanks Stanley)

Birth And Dissipation Of Hurrican Irene

Over the past week, Hurricane Irene has battered Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, North Carolina, and the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast U.S. At peak intensity, Irene reached Category 3 hurricane status with sustained winds of 125 mph.

This animation of visible and infrared imagery taken every 30 minutes by the GOES-13 satellite shows Irene's evolution from her birth as a tropical wave on August 19th, the landfall events in the Caribbean, North Carolina, and New York, and the eventual dissipation on August 29, 2011.

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Over two thirds of Europeans are satisfied with their lives in spite of the euro crisis and fears surrounding the single currency. This is the conclusion of a new study by the non-profit BAT-Foundation for Future Studies for which more than 15,000 members of the public in 13 different countries were interviewed.

The most positive outlook on life came from the people of Denmark, with almost all of those interviewed (96%) saying they were happy. Second on the list is Greece, followed by Italy, France and the Netherlands.

The Strange History Of Ramen Noodles

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Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn. Ramen is of Chinese origin, however it is unclear when ramen was introduced to Japan.

Find out more about the strange and twisted history of Ramen noodles.

As citizens ransacked the sprawling lair of Colonel Gaddafi, for the first time discovering the extent of riches enjoyed by their bloodthirsty tyrant, a number of unusual items have been looted. Perhaps the most surprising, however, was the album, filled with pictures of America's former Secretary of State. Colonel Gaddafi had previously hinted at a serious admiration for Miss Rice.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television in 2007 he said: 'I support my darling black African woman. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders... Leezza, Leezza, Leezza... I love her very much. I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin.

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In 1896 American photographer Walter McClintock west for a federal commission investigating national forests. McClintock became friends with the expedition's Blackfoot Indian scout Siksikakoan. When the commission completed its field work, Siksikakoan introduced McClintock to the Blackfoot community of northwestern Montana.

Over the next twenty years, supported by the Blackfoot elder Mad Wolf, McClintock made several thousand photographs of the Blackfoot, their homelands, their material culture, and their ceremonies.

(via Nag on the Lake)

BeetleCam Captures Animals Close Up

BeetleCam is a homemade gadget that allowed two British brothers (Matthew and William Burrard-Lucas) to bring you stunning images of Africa's most dangerous wildlife. The spectacular closeups of lion prides, elephant herds and huge cape buffalo's were all made possible by the remote-controlled gizmo who trundled around the roughly-terrained bush of Katavi National Park in Tanzania.

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(via Miss Cellania)

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The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever. But the vast majority have not been identified - and cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years.

The approach of the scientists accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fishes and birds. And the number came out as 8.7 million - plus or minus about a million. If this is correct, then only 14% of the world's species have yet been identified - and only 9% of those in the oceans.

On September 4, 1985, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that a firefighter from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of a painting of a crying boy were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that The Sun was organising mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers.

Steve Punt, British writer and comedian, investigated the curse of the crying boy. The conclusion reached was that the prints were treated with some varnish containing fire repellant, and that the string holding the painting to the wall would be the first to perish, resulting in the painting landing face down on the floor and thus being protected.

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Cars parked inside homes. To some it may seem ridiculous or even a bit snobbish. To others who cannot bare to have their beautiful ride out of their sight, their cars serve as the best accessory, adding to the decor of the house either by serving up a punch of color, elevating the level of modernity and luxury, or enhancing the specific style of the very surrounding rooms.

Is Your Blog Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Do you write like Shakespeare or Britney Spears? This test evaluates your blog's language and tells you what grade reading level it falls into using the Flesch-Kincaid test. The Presurfer's reading level is College! Is Your Blog Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

image from 20 Million Miles to Earth

Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator. He created a brand of stop-motion model animation known as 'Dynamation.' With a plethora of films under his belt ranging in genres from sci-fi to ancient myths, nearly each and every one of his movies has become a permanent fixture in pop culture thanks to one common denominator among all of them: the monsters!

There's nothing quite like wondering which mythological creatures or prehistoric beasts will appear in his films to menace the B-movie actors on screen, or debating which ones were truly the best of the best. Who's better? The cyclops or Medusa? The Beast from 20,000 fathoms or the giant crab? Here are the 11 greatest Ray Harryhausen monsters.

(via Look At This...)

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The British Museum says Bill Posters will be prosecuted.
Who is Bill Posters?
And why will he be prosecuted?

My Little Top Gear

A worryingly well-executed video mashup of the My Little Pony cartoon and Top Gear. Jeremy's morphed into Rarity, Hammond's Fluttershy, James is Pinkie Pie and the Stig's Twilight Sparkle.

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(via Autostrada)

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Almost three hundred years ago the Russian inhabitants around Lake Onega decided that they needed two new churches - the old ones had burned down in a fire. It was decided that the island in the middle of the lake, Kizhi, would be the ideal place for their new place of worship.

So began the construction of a pair of what have become two of the oldest exclusively wooden churches in the world. All who see them agree - they are multi-story, multi-cupola, single-block masterpieces.

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Spanish training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano is one of the oldest and largest ships that sail the world, and soon to be 100 years old. The ship has visited over 68 countries and 181 different ports, passing 12 times through the Strait of Magellan, and has obtained 8 Boston Tea Pots while surfing the longest distance in 124 hours continuous sailing.

Duck Tron

Tron is a 1982 American science fiction film. DuckBrand.com is a company that sells duct tape. They made a Tron-style advertisement.

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There are a lot of strange hotels in the world. One of the strangest is the Capsule Hotel at the boulevard of Scheveningen near The Hague in the Netherlands. Your room is a bright orange survival pod which once saw service on an oil rig platform.

Originally built in 1972 and unaltered apart from the addition of a lock on the outside and an 'emergency' chemical toilet inside. While not everyone's luxury choice, each pod provides cosy protection from the elements for up to three occupants.

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A fire hydrant is an active fire protection measure and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal water service to enable firefighters to tap into the water supply to assist in extinguishing a fire. Here are 26 cool fire hydrants.

Old Beer Trucks

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(thanks Cora)

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While some may say the likes of 'OMG' have no place in a civilised language, others beg to differ. Now the acronym looks set to stay after being immortalised in the latest edition of the Chambers Dictionary. The somewhat irritating expression, short for 'oh my God', is joined by a whole raft of new words said to be reflective of modern Britain.

In a move which may horrify traditionalists, the century-old reference guide has also adopted 'BFF', a term popularised by celebrity heiress Paris Hilton meaning 'best friend forever.' A quarter of the new words are derived from the internet - while others come from street slang, rap music and text speak.

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Treading deep underground, German photographer Sven Fennema explores the realm of the dead - a place where people were buried long ago. The labyrinthine tunnels of the old, abandoned crypt of the cemetery of Laeken in Belgium lie before him, full of mementos, grave plates, and the traces left by those who loved and came to pay their respects to the deceased.

Be Carefull Pulling Out

After being stopped by a police officer for driving to fast, be carefull pulling out.

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(thanks Cora)

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Oak Island is a 140-acre island in Lunenburg County on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Oak Island is noted as the location of the so-called Money Pit and the site of over 200 years of treasure hunting. Repeated excavations have reported layers of apparently man-made artifacts, but ended in collapsed excavations and flooding. Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the pit is a natural phenomenon, likely a sinkhole.

The most common theory, however, is that pirates buried their treasure there and set up a series of traps to protect it. Captain Kidd and Blackbeard are both believed to be owners of the alleged booty. Other wild ideas range from Marie Antoinettes jewels to the Ark of the Covenant.

(thanks Stanley)

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Those who ask the difficult questions, like Why are we here? From where do we derive morals? and What does it all really mean, when you get right down to it? have given humanity amazing philosophical insights and ethical guidance.

Unfortunately, thinking too much about these issues can sometimes also lead to the brains of those philosophizing rejecting the difficulty - feeling the pressure just a little too much! Then again, maybe it's a wee bit of madness that leads great philosophers to try to seek out the answers in the first place.

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Many buildings haven't lasted for more than 200 years. Modern technology has increased exponentially over the years, but I still have some doubts that today's Wal-Marts could stand as long as these gems of the ancient world.

Do Not Fall Asleep At Mike E. Winfield's Comedy Show

A guy falls asleep at Mike E. Winfield's comedy show. See what happens.

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(thanks Matin)

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Do you know where Big Bone Lick State Park got its name from? Or Saddleback Butte State Park? Big Bottom State Memorial Park? Ha Ha Tonka State Park? When you see these names, you tend to say to yourself, 'Does that mean what it sounds like?' In most cases, no.

The Origins of Weird State Park Names.

You Know You're A Designer When...

You know you're a designer when... you look at the mirror and see there's a pimple on your face and you just want to press 'Stamp' and do the 'alt+click' on your face.

The top ten best musicals, of the manly kind. Musicals need defending. Not because they're not great, but because they're the sort of movies that will have your editor raising his eyebrows if you want to do a list about them. Here are ten great movie musicals that cover the whole spectrum of manliness, from male chauvinism to chivalry.

(thanks Sheridan)

500 People In 100 Seconds

Eran Amir made a stop-motion within a stop-motion video created using 500 people in Israel holding 1500 photos. The music is 'Malinkovec Valzer' by Maxmaber Orkestar.

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(via Laughing Squid)

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Have you ever stopped to contemplate the existence of rubber barf? It opens up enough philosophical quandaries to make your head spin. Who would ever think of such a thing? Why would he feel the need to manufacture it?

Fortunately, Stan and Mardi Timm, the foremost experts on famed novelty company H. Fishlove & Co., have the answers to these vexing questions. The couple even got a personal tour of the factory where 'Whoops,' the original fake vomit, is still churned out.

(thanks Lisa)

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A collection of cool and creative sofa designs from all over the world.

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Cadillac has chosen the backdrop of this week's classic car festivities in Monterey, California to debut a new concept convertible called the Ciel, which means 'sky' in French. The four-seat, four-door drop top was designed to be the ultimate carriage for a drive up the coast, as well as hints at Cadillac's aspirations to offer flagship luxury products in the future.

Walking The Park

Yesterday I posted a video about some art project called Walking On Infinite Grass. Here's another take on that. It's a class project from the Dalhousie school of Architecture. The project was meant to look at the idea of manufactured environments, like the ubiquitous North American lawn.

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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of the technology giant and will be replaced by chief operating officer Tim Cook. Mr Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Jobs' biological parents were Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian graduate student who later became a political science professor, and Joanne Schieble, an American graduate student who went on to become a speech language pathologist.

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There are a lot of unusual restaurants in the world. Restaurants were the waiters are monkeys, or robots, or children. Restaurants situated in trees, in ferris wheels, on islands only reachable by boat, or below sea level.

10 Unusual Restaurants Found Around the World.

Walking On Infinite Grass

I don't know what to think about this. I guess it must be art.

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(via Everlasting Blort)

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Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The concentration of the killings at the weekend, and within a few streets of each other, has indicated to many that the Ripper was employed during the week and lived locally. Others have thought the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat, who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area.

Despite the many and varied theories about the identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, authorities are not agreed on a single solution and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred. Asylum puts some of the accused under the microscope and explains why they almost certainly were not 'Saucy Jack'.

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The Dyatlov Pass incident refers to an event that resulted in the deaths of nine ski hikers in the northern Ural mountains on the night of February 2, 1959. It happened on the east shoulder of the mountain Kholat Syakhl. The lack of eyewitnesses has inspired much speculation. Soviet investigators determined only that 'a compelling unknown force' had caused the deaths.

Investigators at the time determined that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow. Though the corpses showed no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. According to sources, four of the victims' clothing contained substantial levels of radiation.

Orangutan Cools Off Like A Human

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(via Bits and Pieces)

All About Explorers is a web site developed by a group of teachers with fake information to show students that not everything that they read on the internet is true. Although the Internet can be a tremendous resource for gathering information about a topic, students often did not have the skills to discern useful information from worthless data. Here's an example about Christopher Columbus:

Christopher Columbus was born in 1951 in Sydney, Australia. His home was on the sea and Christopher longed to become an explorer and sailor... In 1942 he set sail with three ships. On October 12, 1942 Columbus landed on an island southeast of Florida. He claimed this island for Spain and named it the Indies, and named the native people of the island Indians.

Columbus returned to Spain in 1939 and was hailed as a hero. He was known as the first person to walk on American soil. A huge parade was held in his honor. He appeared on Larry King Live and became quite famous around the world.

Many of us walk through life caught up in our own view of reality, but if you take a moment and stop to look at the world around you, you may wonder what it looks like through someone else's eyes. Have you ever wondered how other people see things? Some people have perfect vision while others can barely see anything without some sort of assistance, either from glasses, contacts, or other forms such as LASIK surgery.

Take a visual tour through many various perspectives and see through the eyes of people with different types of eye disorders.

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Although launching food in space is a necessity, it doesn't mean it has to be boring. The original space menu was bland, odorless and lacked texture, but times have changed and adding some flavor is essential for extended periods astronauts spend in orbit. You can't expect an average meal on the International Space Station to be like a night at the Ritz, but no one's complaining.

The ambiance of orbital dining apparently more than compensates for lackluster meals. But astronauts have a few standby favorites as well as the occasional special treat. Dinners in space have come a long way since the start of the Space Age, but which cosmic gastronomic delights are the best?

Orange County Chopper Builder

Build your own chopper at Orange County Choppers. Start with a rolling chassis, then add wheels, a tank, a fender set, an exhaust system, and handle bars. Give the bike a paint job and pick a background. Here's the chopper I created.

(thanks Francesca)

Take a 3D self-guided virtual tour of the entire United States Air Force Museum located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. You can navigate from gallery to gallery either by using a drop-down map or by following navigational arrows connecting the individual nodes. Icons indicate hot-spots where you can get additional information such as videos, audio or links to online resources.

(thanks Cora)

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Cross-bred between a serval - an African wild cat - and a domesticated cat this unique animal gained popularity towards the end of the 20th century. They can weigh as much as 14 pounds, are very loyal like dogs and can be walked on a leash. However, you will have to pay at least $20,000 to buy a Savannah Cat.

Ultimate Batting Practice - Skeet Ball

Two weeks ago I posted a video about a guy smashing pitchbacks like a video game. That was of course fake. As is his next video. He now crushes clay pigeons in target practice. It's good editing though.

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(thanks Derek)

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Though our perception of time can be stunningly precise it can also be curiously plastic. Some moments seem to last longer than others, and scientists don't know why. Unlike our other senses, our perception of time has no defined location in our brain, making it difficult to understand and study.

But now researchers have found hints that our sense of time stems from specialized units in our brain, channels of neurons tuned to signals of certain time lengths. The workings of the brain are far from simple, however, and the channel-based model doesn't explain why, for example, time seems to pass more slowly when we are in a life threatening situation like falling off a roof or a car crash.

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You may not think that there is much to know about the sunflower. After all, the plant is virtually everywhere. Yet it has a something more than a simple, straightforward history and is more of a globe trotter than you may imagine. Its story has the historical and continental sweep of a Hollywood epic, from the pre-European Americas to Tsarist Russia and back again.

When Algorithms Control The World

If you were expecting some kind warning when computers finally get smarter than us, then think again. There will be no soothing HAL 9000-type voice informing us that our human services are now surplus to requirements. In reality, our electronic overlords are already taking control, and they are doing it in a far more subtle way than science fiction would have us believe. Their weapon of choice - the algorithm.

Behind every smart web service is some even smarter web code. From the web retailers - calculating what books and films we might be interested in, to Facebook's friend finding and imaging tagging services, to the search engines that guide us around the net.
It is these invisible computations that increasingly control how we interact with our electronic world.

Reverend Bruce Howard

It's Seattle televangelist Reverend Bruce Howard. It appears he's having fun.

YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

Betty White, who played Rose Nyland in the 1980s hit The Golden Girls, has been rated as America's most trusted celebrity. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the 89-year-old star is the one we'd most want promoting our products. The top 3 most trusted celebs are: Betty White, Tom Hanks, and Sandra Bullock.

On the flip side, the poll also inquired about the least trusted celebrities. This required no rocket science: just look at the tabloids to see who is the most scandal-prone. The top 3 most untrustworthy celebs are: Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen, and Britney Spears.

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A ghost ship is a supposedly haunted or ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman. The same term is also used to describe derelict ships found adrift with their entire crew either missing or dead, such as the Mary Celeste or the Baychimo. It may sometimes also be used to refer to ships which have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, such as the Clemenceau.

Here's a top ten list of ghost ships.

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British author Alex Bellos is known for his book 'Alex's Adventures in Numberland,' which is published in the US with the title 'Here's Looking At Euclid.'
Alex wants to know your favorite number and why. His survey is part of a project he is researching concerning how humans relate to numbers.

Seven is still the global favorite, dominating every class, nationality, gender, religion and age category. Seven is being chased by a small pack of prime numbers, especially 11 and 13.

Airport Employs Holographic Staff

An airport in Paris, France has employed holographic staff to welcome passengers to boarding gates. Of course, this is nothing new. Airports in Luton and Manchester in the UK launched holographic staffs to help passengers through the security process.

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

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A collection of photographs of people everywhere lucky enough to find a few winks.

(via ackackack)

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011