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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tennis

Here are Caroline Wozniacki (the world's number 1) and Dominika Cibulkova (the world's number 18) at the Tennis Classic 2011 exhibition in Bratislava, Slovakia. They seem to have fun.



YouTube link

Goodbye Steuben Glass

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Yesterday the Steuben glass factory in Corning, New York, closed its doors. Although the name was sold for an undisclosed sum to Corning Incorporated, which once owned Steuben, it's unclear if crystal objects such as the Gazelle Bowl will ever be produced again.

When Steuben opened in 1903, its biggest competitor was Tiffany, which introduced its iridescent Favrile line in 1894. Steuben co-founder and chief designer, Frederick Carder, countered with Aurene, whose shapes were more classical than Tiffany's and whose surfaces borrowed liberally from effects pioneered by 19th-century Bohemian glass artists.

(thanks Ben)

Google Celebrates Mark Twain's Birthday With A Doodle


Google celebrates Mark Twain's 176th birthday today with a doodle. The full-width illustration portrays an episode in the novel in which the protagonist is made to whitewash a fence.

Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called 'the Great American Novel.'

Landing Gear Failure: Plane Saved By Truck

The nose gear of a Boeing 727 malfunctions, yet the pilot lands the plane on the back of a Nissan Frontier with such precision nobidy on board noticed the difference. This is obviously an advertisement for the Nissan. Nevertheless it looks spectacular.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

A Decade Of Dog Trends


An infographic on the change in popularity of the USA's top 25 dogs over the past decade.

(thanks Danny)

12 Most Extreme Body Piercings

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Body piercing, a form of body modification, is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which jewelry may be worn. The history of body piercing is obscured by a lack of scholarly reference and popular misinformation, ample evidence exists to document that it has been practiced in various forms by both sexes since ancient times throughout the world.

Here are 12 most extreme body piercings.

(thanks Adrenaline and Bojan)

Hutchinson Serenity

Tire company Hutchinson has introduced the Serenity system of absolutely flat proof tires. Here's a great animated film to promote the new Serenity tire.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

The Hipster's Dictionary

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Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock that appeared in the 1990s. Hipster culture has been described as a 'mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior.'

The term itself was coined during the jazz age, when 'hip' emerged as an adjective to describe aficionados of the growing scene. 'Hip' eventually acquired the common English suffix -ster (as in spinster and gangster), and 'hipster' entered the language.

Here's a copasetic compendium of hep cat hype and swing-era slang.

(via Everlasting Blort)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Gumibyun

I don't know exactly what this is but I think it's called Gumibyun, a way to make your own Japanese candy.



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The Anglerfish Can Teach Us A Thing Or Two About Finding Our Other Half

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Some people enter into purposeful relationships and other people enter relationships purposefully. An idea is floating around that there is a missing piece in each of us, and we must find it immediately to survive. The concept is not uniquely human, as animals experience it also. But what if finding your other half really meant survival? Anglerfish face this reality every day.

The iProp Beanie


You've outfitted your iPod, now outfit yourself! Take a gorgeous new iProp beanie for a spin! The iProp beanie is the perfect propeller beanie. A high quality, soft rib knit cap, built with care and attention and made of 100% acrylic and a heavy-duty propeller.

(via Everlasting Blort)

10 World Leaders Who Dropped Out Of School

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Often, and usually with good reason, educational achievements and a successful career go hand in hand. Common sense tells us that solid, untroubled schooling is the best means of carving out a place for oneself in life. This may well be the goal of the education system, but it is by no means the rule for those who pass through it.

For some, their time at school did not constitute the 'happiest days of their lives.' Indeed, a number of major historical figures managed to attain wealth, power and influence in spite, rather than because, of their schooling. Here are 10 world leaders who dropped out of school.

(thanks Ritu)

Ormie The Pig

Ormie the pig wants cookies. But they're on top of the fridge. How to get them down?



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Field Of Light Blooms In The Night

The Holburne Museum in Bath in the United Kingdom is giving its visitors a new winter experience - and it makes a very cool change from the usual decorative lights we see at this time of year. Field of Light, the artwork of acclaimed lighting artist Bruce Munro, was switched on in the grounds of the Museum last Saturday.

(thanks Robert-John)

Image Tool Catches Fashion Industry Photo Alterations


A new photograph-analyzing tool quantifies changes made by digital airbrushers in the fashion and lifestyle industry. Psychologists have become vocally critical of such images: By employing an arsenal of retouching techniques retouchers create unattainable standards of both beauty and normalcy, ultimately leading to self-destructive body image disorders.

In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, image forensics specialist Hany Farid of Dartmouth University and doctoral student Eric Kee debut a computational model developed by analyzing 468 sets of original and retouched photographs. From these, Farid and Kee distilled a formal mathematical description of alterations made to models' shapes and features.

Classic Novels' First Covers

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Ever wonder what your favorite book looked like when it was first published? While many classics - The Great Gatsby, Catch-22 - have retained their iconic, original covers over the years, others have changed with the times. Here are 20 beautiful, surprising, or otherwise notable first covers of classic novels.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Fast Go-Kart

A go-kart shaped as a mini van.



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Cats Reading Books

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Do cats read books? Yes, of course they do? Because a literate cat is a happy cat.
Cats Reading Books.

Mushroom House

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The Mushroom House is a contemporary residence in the town of Perinton, New York, sited in a moderately-wooded ravine adjacent to Powder Mills Park. The house was constructed for attorney-artist couple Robert and Marguerite Antell between 1970 and 1972.

The Mushroom House itself comprises four 80 ton pods which rest on reinforced concrete stems of 14 to 20 feet in height. These fan out from three feet in diameter where they connect to the pods to five feet at the base. One pod serves as the living and dining area, one as the kitchen, and two as sleeping areas.

Website Made Of Chocolate

Sagres is Portugal's leading beer brand. This year, Sagres brewed a new product: Sagres Preta Chocolate, a chocolate flavoured stout beer. Without a TV campaign and very few print materials, Sagres challenged their digital agency to create an online activation for their new product.

Given this challenge, the agency's creative team believed that if Sagres made a chocolate beer, the perfect way to launch it was also to create a website made of chocolate.



Vimeo link

You can see the chocolate website here. It's in Portuguese.

(thanks Cora)

Geodesic Magic - There's No Place Like Dome

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Geodesic domes have been with us for over fifty years but are still hardly common. Partly or fully spherical, they consist of a shell of great circles which rest upon the top of a sphere.

The first dome that could be called 'geodesic' was designed after World War I by Walther Bauersfeld, chief engineer of the Carl Zeiss optical company, for a planetarium to house his planetarium projector. Here are some of the more famous on the planet.

Boarding A Moving Train

A designer has come up with a unique and futuristic solution for speeding up rail travel: he wants to get rid of the stations. Paul Priestman, director of British design group Priestmangoode, is the man behind the 'Moving Platforms' concept, which he believes could potentially revolutionize the rail industry.

The idea is to have a city-wide network of trams that travel in a loop and connect with a high-speed rail service. The trams speed up and the high-speed train slows down and they join, so they dock at high speed. So the moving tram would 'dock' with a moving train, allowing passengers to cross between tram and train without either vehicle ever stopping.

Spoon Guitar

Hannes Coetzee from South-Africa plays the guitar with a spoon.



YouTube link

(via Waslijn)

How To Make A Decent Cup Of Coffee With Cheap Coffee Grounds

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You stayed the night at a friends house, and they only have that awful Maxwell House or Folgers stuff from Costco or Walmart, and you're used to those freshly roasted, burr ground beans from your favorite coffee roasting country.

You like your coffee black and hot, but it's clear they do not. Or maybe, you stayed at a hotel and the nearest café is miles out of the way and there's no way you can make it there.
What's a coffee fan to do?

Fantasmagorie

Fantasmagorie is an 1908 French animated film by Émile Cohl (born Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet). It is one of the earliest examples of traditional animation, and considered by film historians to be the first animated cartoon. To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings.

In 1908, chalkboard caricaturists were common vaudeville attractions and the characters in the film look as though they've been drawn on a chalkboard, but it's an illusion. By filming black lines on paper and then printing in negative Cohl makes his animations appear to be chalk drawings.



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(thanks Cora)

Early Humans Fished Deep Sea


The world's earliest known fish hooks reveal that humans fished the open sea for much longer than previously thought. Researcher Sue O'Connor, an archaeologist at Australian National University in Canberra, and her colleagues have found evidence of prehistoric fishing gear and the remains of large fish such as tuna at a cave shelter known as Jerimalai, located in the Southeast Asian island nation of
East Timor.

Waterfox


Are you using the Windows 64-bit version and the latest Firefox browser? The Firefox browser only supports the 32-bit version for Windows. Now there is Waterfox, basically a 64-bit version of Firefox. The user experience is the same so Firefox users won't feel any difference.

Waterfox uses the same profile that Firefox does. Before running Waterfox, download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) otherwise it will throw you an ugly error. If you use Flash, Java and Silverlight plugins, you need to install the 64bit versions of those plugins after you install Waterfox. If you don't like Waterfox and want to uninstall it, make sure you don't have the remove personal data box ticked!

Video Coat

The Video Coat, designed by David Forbes, is a color TV set built into a lab coat. It's a 160 x 120 pixel color LED display, built on flex boards.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Talking Trash Through The Ages

A lerrycometwang is a fool, a simpleton. An abstractionist is a pickpocket. A gollumpus is a large, loutish, uncoordinated person. A cakey-pannum fencer is a street-seller of pastries.

History is full of silver-tongued scoundrels. So if you find yourself in a 19th-century battle of wits, best not to bring a dagger to a musket fight. Jonathon Green's new book, 'Green's Dictionary of Slang' is a 6,200-page lexicon spanning more than half a millennium.

AccuRadio


AccuRadio is comprised of hundreds of channels of music, spanning over 60 genres. There are hundreds of channels that you can personalize. You can skip songs you don't like, delete artists from the upcoming playlists, and mix various genres together in a single channel.

Each one of these has its own playlist of artists and songs. To start listening to one of these channels, click one of the blue tiles you see around the site. That will launch a new player window where you can control the channel.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Boy With Tape On His Face Puzzle


The 'Boy With Tape On His Face Puzzle' is a point-and-click game starring Sam Wills, a 32 year old professional New Zealand prop-comic currently residing in London. The Boy needs your help to open a present he's been given, use your mouse to click on things and see if you can solve the puzzle.

If you can't manage to save the puzzle but want to see how it ends, I created a link where you can find a complete walkthrough.

(thanks Cora)

Examples Of Early Spirit Photography

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Spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary attempt is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It was first used by American photographer William Mumler in the 1860s. Mumler discovered the technique by accident, after he discovered a second person in a photograph he took of himself, which he found was actually a double exposure.

Seeing there was a market for spirit photography, Mumler started working as a medium, taking people's pictures and doctoring the negatives to add lost loved ones into them (mostly using other photographs as basis). Mumlers fraud was discovered after he put identifiable living Boston residents in the photos as spirits.

8 Unusual And Strange Walls Around The World

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Walls have been built since ancient times to mark borders, protect kingdoms and settlements, or keep out unwanted people. In more recent times, walls have also been built to serve as memorials and structures of art.

Call From Jail

A man makes his one call from jail count.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

The Top 10 Uses For Olives

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My mother always told me not to play with my food. But sometimes it's just too funny.
Here are the top 10 uses for olives.

Alligator Infographic


An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). All about alligators.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Address Is Approximate

A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can - using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.



Vimeo link

The Monsters Of Villa Palagonia


Bagheria is a town in the province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. Without a doubt, the top touristic sight in the town of Bagheria is Villa Palagonia, a patrician villa built in 1715 by the architect Tommaso Napoli with the help of Agatino Daidone.

It's one of the earliest examples of Sicilian Baroque. However, its popularity comes mainly from the statues of monsters with human faces that decorate its garden and its wall, and earned it the nickname of 'The Villa of Monsters' (Villa dei Mostri).

(via Palermo For 91 Days)

related posts:
The Bone-Chilling Catacombs Of The Capuchin Monks

Virtual Spider


Afraid of spiders? Then this Virtual Spider is not for you. You can drag this pet spider around and feed it with a double-click of your computer mouse. You can even change the way it looks.

Doctor Who: A Beginner's Guide

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Everyone's seen it - that blue police box. If you've ever been to Britain or watch the BBC at all, it's popped up in advertisements, store-front ads and a ton of other places. Some know that it has something to do with a 'Doctor Who,' but not much more than that.

Like many hardcore fandoms, Doctor Who appears to outsiders as a strange world of wonder that they could never truly appreciate. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. As much as some Who-nerds may want to keep the fandom exclusive, it isn't nearly as difficult to get into as it may first appear. Check out Doctor Who: A Beginner's Guide.

Saks Fifth Avenue 2011 Holiday 3D Projection

Last Sunday, Saks Fifth Avenue debuted their new light show projection in New York called The Snowflake and Bubble Spectacular.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Cinemascapes


Award winning artist Aaron Hobson of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, found these beautiful photos while looking through Google Street View pictures. He says: Enchanted and remote landscapes typically only reserved for the eyes of it's inhabitants are now captured on camera by the automated and aesthetically-neutered Google street view cars.

LEGO Volkswagen Camper

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This 1962 Volkswagen Camper Van is made entirely out of LEGOs. It includes features such as the 'V' shape three-way color split at the front, rounded roof and window frames, opening 'splittie' safari front window, opening doors, and of course, the instantly recognizable pop-up roof.

It even embraces its counterculture roots with an interior lava lamp and a T-shirt in the window that says 'Make LEGO models, not war.'

related posts:
Volkswagen Bus Makes A Comeback In The Netherlands

Coming Soon: Computerised Contact Lenses


Imagine catching up with your texts, social networking and perhaps the news without having to log on to a computer or even glance at a smartphone. Messages and images would simply appear in front of your eyes, generated by a computerised contact lens. But until now the concept of info-vision had belonged to the realms of science fiction.

However, scientists have developed a prototype lens that could one day provide the wearer with all kinds of hands-free information. The lenses, which would be inserted and removed like normal contacts, could also be handy if you are indeed enjoying the great outdoors, allowing you to zoom in on distant views.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

'Brinicle' Ice Finger Of Death Filmed In Antarctic

A bizarre underwater 'icicle of death' has been filmed for the first time by cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson for the BBC One series Frozen Planet. With timelapse cameras, specialists recorded salt water being excluded from the sea ice and sinking.

The temperature of this sinking brine caused the water to freeze in an icy sheath around it. Where the so-called 'brinicle' met the sea bed, a web of ice formed that froze everything it touched, including sea urchins and starfish.



YouTube link

More information about the icicle of death at the BBC site.

(thanks Cora and Miss Rare)

Black Friday Consumer Fact Sheet


Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not actually a holiday, but many employers give their employees the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers.

It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year. Social media analysts at Mashwork monitored more than 270,000 tweets between Sept. 26, 2011 and Nov. 17, 2011 and found out where shoppers will be spending their money this upcoming Black Friday (whether it's online or in line), and what products they're going after.

Pow Wow

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A pow wow is a gathering of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning 'spiritual leader.' A modern pow wow is a specific type of event where both Native American and non-Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American Indian culture. Here are 50 pictures of a pow wow.

12 Famous Magic Tricks And Illusions Exposed


When a performer like Criss Angel, David Copperfield or David Blaine wows us with magic, most of us know that there's a logical explanation. When the magician pulls an endless scarf out of his closed fist or a bird flies out of an apparently empty hat, it's easy to accept that it's a simple trick, a sleight of hand.

But when that magician appears to make the Statue of Liberty disappear, turns a Bentley into a Lamborghini, or rises into the air before our eyes, it's a bit more difficult. We know it couldn't really have happened... don't we? Here are some of the great tricks that have dazzled us, caught us off guard, perhaps even made us wonder for a moment - and then turned out to have a simple, usually mechanical explanation.

It Sucks To Be A Turkey On Thanksgiving!

The New York-based Koren Ensemble is a team of artists, producing original theatrical content, featuring contemporary music, video, and comedy. 'It Sucks To Be a Turkey On Thanksgiving!' is composed and edited by Daniel Koren, lyrics are by Barak Feldman, and it is sung by some duplicated heads.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

15 Insects That Could Save Your Life

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Bee venom can control the harmful inflammation in joints that leads to rheumatoid arthritis. Scientists have shown the venom contains molecules that cause an increase in natural hormones in the body that regulate inflammation. It has raised hopes that bee venom can be used to develop new treatments that can help bring relief from the pain of arthritis and even prevent it from developing in the first place.

Here are 15 insects that could save your life.

(thanks Danny)

Sunday Brunch Cherpumple


Do you know what a cherpumple is? It's a cherry pie, an apple pie and a pumpkin pie, each cooked inside a separate cake, and then all cooked together inside another cake. Pastry chef David Lowery made a cherpumple for his guests at the Grand Geneva Resort in Wisconsin, USA.

(via Neatorama)

Amazing Images Of Baby Birds At Dinner Time

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If we go by the saying 'the early bird catches the worm,' these chicks must have gotten up at the crack of dawn, as they're catching big juicy worms - as well as insects - in their hungry little beaks. However, they're not getting these snacks from the ground but courtesy of their dedicated and ever-busy parents.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Benton The Dog

A dog walker's desperate attempt to control his unruly mutt as it chases a herd of deer in London's Richmond Park has become an internet sensation. A smartphone user was quietly filming a group of deer when the peace is suddenly shattered by cries of 'Benton! Benton!' As the shouting gets louder, the amateur cameraman spins around to see the entire herd stampeding across the park, chased by a loose dog and its despairing owner.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Setting It Straight


(via Criggo)

Volkswagen Bus Makes A Comeback In The Netherlands

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The Volkswagen Type 2, officially known as the Transporter or Kombi, informally as Bus or Camper, was a panel van introduced in 1950 by German automaker Volkswagen. To Europeans and Americans the Volkswagen Bus is a distant memory of days gone by. Once commonly used as every day transportation for all walks of life, the Bus has been sent to the vast pantheon of automotive history.

In Latin America the story is different, because Brazil still makes them. The Bus' popularity and desirability in Europe and the fact that they are still coming out brand new in Brazil created a magnificent opportunity for Volkswagen's Dutch operations and as of last month, the Bus is available as a 2012 model.

Edison Vs. Westinghouse: A Shocking Rivalry

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More than a century ago Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse engaged in a nasty battle over alternating and direct current, known as the 'War of Currents.'

Both men knew there was room for but one American electricity system, and Edison set out to ruin Westinghouse in 'a great political, legal and marketing game' that saw the famous inventor stage publicity events where dogs, horses and even an elephant were killed using Westinghouse's alternating current.

(via ackackack)

Lovely Owl

Molla the owl loves to cuddle.



YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

Groupon Deal Makes Bakery Mearly Go Bust

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Cake shop owner Rachel Brown from Woodley, UK, was forced to bake 8,500 orders for her specialty cupcakes after they were featured on discount website Groupon. Mrs Brown just wanted to drum up a bit of extra trade for her tiny company but realised she had bitten more off than she could chew when 8,500 customers took up her offer, forcing her to increase production from 100 cakes a month to a staggering 102,000.

The unexpected popularity of the deal meant she had to bring in 25 agency staff and the cost wiped out her entire year's profit and nearly made her go bust.

33 Haunting Black And White Photos Of Japan's Ghost Island

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Urban decay has never looked so beautifully eerie. Hashima, or Gunkanshima was a former coal mining community established in 1887. The mine was shut down in 1974 and the city abandoned. Now it has a new nickname: Ghost Island.

A Quick Guide To Starting A Beehive

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With Colony Collapse Disorder consistently chipping away at our global honeybee population, the art of beekeeping has become more important than ever. Since 2009, colony loss levels reached 29% and they increased to 34% come 2010. Compounded by a steady drop in beekeeping since World War II, it's a scary time for our bees considering just how important they are to our global food system.

Maybe you have been thinking of starting a beehive. Here's a quick guide.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Riding An Alpine Coaster With No Brakes

This is a single-pipe alpine coaster in Mieders, Austria. You reach the summit via a cablecar and then sit on a small car with a brake lever and off you go. But what happens when you take the ride without using the brakes.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

The Astounding Design Of Eixample, Barcelona

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Constructed in the early 20th century, Eixample (meaning 'extension') is a district of the Spanish city of Barcelona known for the urban planning that divided the district into octagonal blocks. Designed by Ildefons Cerdà i Sunyer, a Catalan Spanish urban planner, the district is divided in a grid pattern with long streets, wide avenues, and rounded street corners.

Despite being in the center of a thriving European metropolis, the Eixample district provides improved living conditions for inhabitants including extensive sun light, improved ventilation, and more open green space for public use. And of course, the result from the grid-like structure is astounding from above.

(via Look At This...)

Humans Of New York


Brandon Stanton lives in New York City. He wants to photograph everyone in the city.
His project 'Humans of New York' began as one man's effort to construct a photographic census of the city of New York. Over three thousand street portraits have been gathered toward this purpose. As they are collected, the portraits are plotted on an interactive map of the city.

Though hundreds of portraits have been gathered from all five boroughs, only Manhattan is currently viewable. Every day new photos are added of people from every neighborhood. Taken together, these portraits cover the entire spectrum of New York's population.

(thanks Brandon)

How To Make 'Rainbow Shots'

A tutorial on how to make 'Rainbow Shots'. You need vodka, blue liquor, pineapple juice, grenadine, and ice.



YouTube link

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons Since 1927

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Macy's is a U.S. chain of department stores. The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade has been a tradition of Thankgiving since 1924. It started out as a way for the employees of Macy's to say thank you to New York. Macy's started using balloons in their parade in 1927 and it has been tradition since. Here are the balloons they used from 1927 to 1968.

Pepper-Spraying Cop Becomes Internet Meme


The disturbing footage of Lt. John Pike, the police officer pepper spraying UC Davis students holding a peaceful protest has gone viral and launched a probe into police tactics by the university. It has also launched a wave of internet memes in which the pepper-spraying cop is photoshopped into various situations.

(thanks Marvin)

Oops!



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(thanks Cora)

How To Find Old Newspaper Articles Online

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Old newspapers and magazines offer a wealth of insight into history and critical events as they were unfolding at that time. In the past, the only way to get hold of this treasure trove of information was your local library where the back issues of certain newspapers and magazines may have been preserved.

Fortunately, the Internet and digitization of content has made everything just a click away and now you can access previous issues of old newspapers almost as easily as today's newspaper that's lying on your coffee table. Here are some of the best places on the web where you can find and read old newspapers and magazines online.

(via Look At This...)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Why Do Flies Like Beer?

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Ever wondered why flies are attracted to beer? Entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have, and offer an explanation. They report that flies sense glycerol, a sweet-tasting compound that yeasts make during fermentation.

Insects use their taste system to glean important information about the quality and nutritive value of food sources, said Anupama Dahanukar, an assistant professor of entomology, whose lab conducted the research. Sugars signal high nutritive value to flies, but little is known about which chemical cues flies use for food sources that are low in sugar content - such as beer.

What Happens Online When You Die?


What is the future of your digital self? You might not know what happens when you die but you can control what happens online. You are filling the internet with status updates, image and video creating new digital dilemmas such as: whether you want to live forever online, how to protect your privacy after death, how to maintain your digital legacy, who to appoint as your digital executor, and whether you would want to be digitally resurrected.

What Happens Online When You Die? is an interactive page that combines text, video and imagery to examine the key topics surrounding digital death. The article also features an infographic to show how to best prepare for your digital death.

(thanks Kristy)

Haenyu - The Indomitable Diving Grandmas Of Jeju Island

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The calm of the shoreline is interrupted by a whistling noise. Then, a strange, sleek shape breaks the surface of the Korean Strait, clasping its quarry. Yet there is no need to call David Attenborough just yet - this is no strange new species of seal. In fact, it's an elderly lady; one of the indomitable diving grandmas of Jeju Island.

(thanks Robert-John)

Weird Clouds

Ever seen this before? This video was taken in Singapore. Look in the middle of the video at the gap where the light and the darker cloud connect. Then read this article for an explanation.



YouTube link

Pictures Of Barack Obama Eating Ice Cream

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I love ice cream. So do a lot of other people. Even Barack Obama loves ice cream.

A Guide To Communist Mummies

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While these dictators and despots held unquestioned power in their lifetimes, they wielded no such control in death. Despite requesting to be buried or cremated, their comrades had other plans and they were turned into mummified waxy icons - each a human-corpse embodiment of the country they once ruled.

(via mental_floss)