(via Crig...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Neatorama - Presurfer Give-Away
To spread word about NeatoShop's newest products, Neatorama in cooperation with The Presurfer is doing another give-away. Neatorama is giving away 3 products.One 3d Steampunk Robot Magnet, available as Bludger Class, Drone Class, or FOP Class. One set...
A Phone For Lonely Cats, Dogs, And Humans
On April 7, 2011, Mark Kroll of Crystal Bay, Minnesota patented a 'Domestic Animal Telephone.'A large number of individuals have mammalian pets in their homes. These are typically dogs or cats. When the pet owners are away at work they often would like...
Frank And Louie Is A Cat
No, that's not a typo in the headline above. Frank and Louie is a cat who was born with two faces so he has two names. The cat has earned a spot as the longest lived Janus cat in the new edition of the Guinness World Records.Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces, are extremely rare and...
Cities In The Sights Of Deadly Volcanoes
image creditImagine living your life with a beautiful mountain as the backdrop to your city... a beautiful mountain that is actually a volcano that could erupt at any time, obliterating your home and causing widespread devastation. Well, hundreds of...
Anatomy Of An Apple Rumor
When Apple launches a new product - like the expected iPhone 5 launch next week - it's often the last step in a long news cycle that began months, sometimes years, in advance. Where does that process begin?Almost always, with a whisper online that's...
Thursday, September 29, 2011
How Blind People Use Paper Money
Blind film critic Tommy Edison demonstrates how a visually impaired person may organize their money... and sometimes get ripped off.YouTube link(thanks B...
What Does Your Favorite Muppet Say About You?
We all have our favorite Muppet. Mine is The Great Gonzo.But what does your favorite muppet say about y...
The State Of The Internet 2011
The Internet is a strange, huge beast. It is getting bigger, faster and more mobile each day. Ferocious social networks fight each other to be on top and gain more of our attention and personal information. An entire economy is generated from our browsing...
IT Glossary
Do you know what a repeating coil is? Or a daisy chain, a shoutdown line, a rotary hunt, or a baud rate?The IT Glossary explains it all. It's a dictionary for technical words and computer ter...
Mark Malkoff's Free Cab Rides
Comedian Mark Malkoff offered New Yorkers free cab rides for an entire day. He hired a cab driver and kept the meter running for fourteen hours straight! New Yorkers could either Tweet or Facebook message him for rides which resulted in hundreds of requests.Along the way they did fun stuff that's never...
The Origins Of 7 Common Superstitions
image creditHalloween is coming up soon and what better time to talk about superstitions than a holiday focused on spirits and symbolism. Whether you're superstitious or not, discovering the origins of these common beliefs is a fascinating look at religion...
Thanks For Teaching Us
Whether it was Mrs. Engles in the 2nd Grade or Prof. Reich sophomore year, amazing educators have challenged us to be better thinkers, dared us to change career paths in a single lecture, and inspired us to believe that, with a little hard work, a better future is possible.ThanksForTeaching.Us is a...
Vintage Maps Trace The Meandering Mississippi
For anyone obsessed with beautiful maps, these colorful and informative examples tracking the many paths of the lower Mississippi are a dream come true. The monumental collection was produced in 1944 by Harold N. Fisk, who drew in a rainbow of colors...
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The U.S. State Capitals Supercut
All the U.S. State capitals as spoken by different stars in different movies.YouTube l...
Beards From Below
Beards From Below is a website about beards, from below.You must grow a beard in order to have a beard from below. Begin the process by not shaving. Occasionally look up and ask your friends if you have a beard from below yet. Since friends usually lie,...
Cat Scratch Turntable
Cats scratch furniture to mark their territory or exercise their muscles. If you don't want them to shred your favourite couch into tiny pieces, give them this Cat Scratch turntable. The decks come flat packed and fold together into a simple structure...
Kids Create Bellagio-Style Water Show In Swimming Pool
Kids doing a choreographed routine using water guns in a neighborhood pool.YouTube link(via Along Came a Story....
12 Of The World's Coolest Rooftop Bars
image creditTop-shelf cocktails, fine cuisine and unparalleled views of some of the most exciting cities in the world - what can beat that? These 13 sky bars represent the coolest, most chic rooftop recreation spots in Bangkok, London, Mexico City, Melbourne...
The Toughest Little Bird You've Never Heard Of
image creditThey're nothing to look at. They're not colorful. They seem so ordinary, in mottled brown, black and gray. But you'd be so wrong. Bar-tailed Godwits are special. They are the only birds known to fly more than 7,000 miles nonstop. That means...
The Heaviest Map Ever?
The level of detail and accuracy in this tiny re-creation of Manhattan island is truly astounding. The fact that it was hand carved out of a huge block of marble makes it even more impressive, and at two and a half tons incredibly heavy too.Put on display...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Fun With Sphero
Sphero is the world's first robotic ball controlled from your smartphone. Weave in and around obstacles or feet, or just try to outrun the family pet. Sphero will be available for sale in retail and online stores in late 2011 at an estimated retail price of $129.99.Vimeo link(thanks Co...
Dead Sea Scrolls Online
image creditTwo thousand years after they were written and decades after they were found in desert caves, some of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls went online for the first time in a project launched by Israel's national museum and web giant Google....
Does It Really Take More Muscles To Frown Than To Smile?
image creditIt's a common phrase used in an attempt to change the mood of a potentially unhappy person or to invoke optimism. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But is the saying true?Does it really take more muscles to frown than to smi...
Google Celebrates 13th Birthday
What better way for Google to mark its 13th birthday than with one of its own Google Doodles? Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. Page...
Mario And Fafa Build A Time Machine
Mario and Fafa of the Glove and Boots show build a time machine.YouTube link(thanks Jo...
Coffee Drinking Linked To Less Depression In Women
image creditFor many women, the mood-elevating effects of a cup of coffee may be more than fleeting. A new study shows that women who regularly drink coffee - the fully caffeinated kind - have a 20 percent lower risk of depression than nondrinkers. Decaf,...
Great Egret Rising
image creditWith its all white plumage that can often reach a meter in height, the Great Egret is a sight to behold as it soars up in to the sky. Considered safe, only a century ago the species was highly threatened. Discover how and why the species...
Ghost Cars Of The World
Some cars are in such a bad shape they shouldn't be allowed on the road. The sheer logistics required to make these cars marginally road-worthy boggle the mind. Driving them is similar to boarding an abandoned roller-coaster, as you never know if there...
Monday, September 26, 2011
Yosemite Bears
Two baby bears play in the street while Mama watches from nearby.YouTube link(via Miss Cellan...
Smell Of Books
Smell Of Books is an aerosol e-book enhancer.Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there's something missing from your reading experience? Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don't smell right? Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital...
Alpine Lakes Wilderness
image creditThe Alpine Lakes wilderness consists of 390,000 acres of rugged wilderness spanning the Cascade Range of Washington state and parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest. There are over 700 mountain lakes and over 300...
Bistro
Bistro is a darkly comical film by Sean Gray. Starring BAFTA-winning actor Peter Capaldi, Alex Macqueen and Neil Edmond. A hungry restaurant diner gets a lot less than he bargained for.Vimeo link(via Everlasting Blo...
Top 10 Misused English Words
The most misused word on the Internet is 'ultimate.' Type 'ultimate' into Google and thousands of hits come up, pretty much all of them using it as 'the best.' But from Latin, it means the last in a list of items. Many people who've had to proof read documents start to develop a kind of compulsive 'tutting'...
Japanese Restaurant Serves World's Largest Sushi Portions
A restaurant in Japan's Aichi Prefecture has become famous for serving arguably the world's largest sushi dishes, up to 20 cm in diameter and nearly 6-kg-heavy. The Umewaka Restaurant in Anjo City, Japan is unlike any other sushi restaurant in the world.Here...
25 Abandoned Yugoslavia Monuments That Look like They're From The Future
image creditThese structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place, or where concentration camps stood. They were designed by different sculptors and...
Sunday, September 25, 2011
What We See Inside Our Brains
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experience. The left clip is a segment of the movie that the subject viewed while in the magnet. The right clip shows the reconstruction...
The Ruins Of Bannerman's Island
image creditAbandoned, neglected and decaying, at first sight you may think that Bannerman's Castle is located in Europe, perhaps a Scottish remnant from the days of the lairds or a site in Ireland forsaken by retreating British aristocrats.Yet Bannerman's...
Dodgeball - Red Vs Blue
Dodgeball is a game in which players try to hit other players on the opposing team with balls while avoiding being hit themselves. This was the biggest gathering ever recorded for a game of dodgeball. According to the offical numbers, there were 3,975 people and a total of 750 balls.YouTube l...
Singing Google Doodle Puppets
Yesterday Google celebrated Jim Henson's birthday with a doodle featuring six original Muppet characters. YouTube user 'TekkenRulezz' edited six different Google Doodle videos together to create a chorus of one of The Proclaimers' biggest hits, 'I'm Gonna Be.'YouTube l...
NASA Sounds
NASA has released a collection of historical sounds as ringtones (both MP3 and the iPhone’s M4R format). You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's 'One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' every time you get a phone call. Or, you can hear the memorable words 'Houston,...
Scopitone: '60s Music Videos You've Never Seen
image creditA Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. Before MTV mid-1960s American hepcats gathered around 500-pound, 7-foot-high contraptions to watch 16-millimeter Technicolor films of B-list pop stars gyrating to their latest...
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The Presurfer Is 11 Years Old Today
The Presurfer is 11 years old today. And you, dear readers, made the past 11 years a delight. Thank you so much!Don't forget to visit one of my favorite blogs. Without the people behind Everlasting Blort, Kevin and Julie, there would be no Presurfer...
Google Celebrates Jim Henson's Birthday
Today Muppets creator Jim Henson would have been 75. And in his honor Google has rolled out its doodle. The Jim Henson doodle features six original Muppet characters whose shapes suggest the Google logo. But as you mouse over them, you'll find that they...
Celebrities As Russian Generals
George Dawe was an English portrait artist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon's invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Tumblr blog 'replaceface' uses digital copies...
Tom Selleck's Moustache
Everyone knows that the greatest and most iconic contribution to cinema is Tom Selleck's moustache. So great is it that there isn't a single film that would not be improved by the inclusion of Tom Selleck's moustache.YouTube l...
The Last Words Of 25 Famous Dead Writers
image creditWhen you've dedicated your life to words, it's important to go out eloquently.The last words of 25 famous dead write...
Most Poisonous Frogs on Earth
image creditThe most poisonous frogs in the world are also the most beautiful frogs in the world. These frogs use their poison solely for self-defense, not to kill prey, and what a good defense against predators it is. Many of them are poison dart frogs...
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thousands Of Strange 'Nazca Lines' Discovered In The Middle East
Peru's Nazca Lines, the mysterious geoglyphs etched into the desert centuries ago by indigenous groups, are world famous - and now thousands of similar patterns have been found in the Middle East. Satellite and aerial photography has revealed mysterious...
Can Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light?
image creditThe speed of light is the Universe's ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his special theory of relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it. But puzzling results from...
Words That Are Difficult To Translate Into English
Mamihlapinatapai is Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The word is difficult to translate into English. Its meaning is 'a wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people with each...
Yoga Outreach - Zombies
We always assumed that the reason zombies were so stiff was because of some mutated virus that's coursing through their systems. This clip sets us straight on what their real problem is.Vimeo link(thanks Cra...
The Purpose Of Bird-Egg Coloration
image creditWant to see an enduring source of scientific dispute and perplexity? Go to your refrigerator, open a carton of eggs, and look at their speckles. Bird-egg coloration has been studied for more than a century. In a review in the Journal of Avian...
Adult Adoption
Adoption is just for babies and little kids, right? Wrong! Adoption is the same legal process whether the individual is a child or an adult. Adult adoption is key to the success of Japanese family firms.What happens when the heir to a family business isn't up to the job? Not great things, apparently....
Man Wins Dumpling Eating Contest, Then Dies
image creditA Ukraine dumpling-eating contest - in the town of Tokmak - to find the person who could eat 10 of the dough balls most quickly went horribly wrong when the 77-year-old champion keeled over and died. The winner, Ivan Mendel, had just won...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Tata Nano Goes 'Bling'
Strange. The world's cheapest car manufacturer reveals what probably is one of the most expensive cars in the world. The Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market. It was launched as...
The Wow! Gorillas Exhibition
image creditAn army of 60 life-sized gorilla models have gone on display outside City Hall on the south bank of the Thames in London to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Bristal zoo and to raise awareness of how the animals' habitats are being threatened....
How Do You Spell Gaddafi?
Each time Libya appears in the news, scores of newspaper editors go bananas. Once possessed of faculties that could detect a breaking story as readily as a dangling participle, these poor souls are now reduced to a jabbering stupor, as though they had...
Hairdressers Tools From 1928
Pictures of hairdresser's tools from 1928. Pore openers, hair straighteners, hair curlers, heat setting heat setters, and the like.(via Everlasting Blo...
Personal Transport Pods At Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport in London, UK, has begun to transport passengers in computer controlled, driverless, car-sized personal laser-guided travel pods. The system reduces the time it takes business passengers to move from the terminal to the car park by 60%.YouTube link(thanks Co...
The Past And The Future Of Famous Logos
Stock Logos reviews the history of the logos of Apple, IBM, Xerox, Microsoft, LG, Volkswagen, Starbucks, Google, GAP, Nokia, Firefox, and Motorola, and imagines how they will look like in the futu...
The True Story Of Captain Kidd
image creditWilliam Kidd (c. 1645-1701) was a Scottish sailor remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that...
Sakhalin, 1894 - 1905
The Sakhalin Island near the Far Eastern coast of Russia was inhabited until the 19th century only by its ancient natives: the Nivkhs in the north and the Ainu to the south. Most Ainu relocated to Hokkaido when the Japanese were displaced from the island...
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
How Many Continents Are There?
A continent is a large continuous mass of land like Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Europe and Asia are sometimes considered a single continent, Eurasia.In the United Kingdom the Continent (capital C) still invariably means 'the mainland of Europe' as distinct...
The All Ireland Scarecrow Championship
image creditThe All Ireland Scarecrow Championship is part of Durrow's annual 'Howya' Festival, Ireland's Festival of Friendshi...
Interview With Psychedelic Poster Pioneer Wes Wilson
image creditWes Wilson is an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters. He invented a style that is now synonymous with the peace movement, psychedelic era and the 1960s. In particular, he is known for inventing and popularizing...
Zeus And The High Voltage tC
Advertisement for the Scion tC High Voltage Series 7.0. Scion is division of Toyota. Zeus unleashes his power on the Scion tC. He's only made 2200 of them because he has other things to do.YouTube link(thanks Annet...
Pakistani Truck Art
Pakistani truck drivers have a long tradition of painting their vehicles. It started out as a way for truck drivers to take reminders of home with them on long journeys, and over the years drivers have used everything from wood, metal, jangling chains,...
A Planet With Two Suns
Kepler 16b is a planet with two suns. The planet was recently discovered by the space-based Kepler satellite. Although multiple star systems are quite common, this is the first known to have a planet.Because our Earth is in the orbital plane of both...
Glass Igloos With Magnificent Northern Lights Views
The Igloo Village in Kakslauttanen, Finland is like the Rolls-Royce of ice hotels. Each igloo is equipped with glass that allows you to gaze at the northern lights and millions of stars, all while relaxing comfortably in your warm room.Built from special...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Great Remote Round Up
A remote controlled car rounds up some cows.YouTube link(via Blame It On The Voic...
How To Make American Cheese
image creditWhat exactly is American cheese? The American cheese that you find on supermarket shelves isn't cheese made in the traditional way. Instead, it's either a blend of cheese and additives, or it's a highly processed mixture of ingredients such...
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