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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Peacock Spider

Courtship and mating behaviour of the Australian peacock spider Maratus volans.



YouTube link

related post:
Peacock Spider - Australia's Show Off Super Hero Spider


(thanks Cora)

Cat Converters


Are you strapped for cash but loaded with cats? Then swap something furry for dosh in a hurry. Cat Converters will turn your spare bit of fluff into valuable stuff. Tell Cat Converters about your surplus pussy, and they'll tell you what you can claw back. Get cash for your cat, money for your moggy and loads of loot for any kitten that's cute.

Pic Nic Pants


Pic Nic Pants by Italian design company Acquacalda.

Fashion imposes forms to whom finding a function seems a must. Pic Nic pants take advantage of the usual cross-legged position to become a comfortable surface useful for the consumption of a meal outdoors. Laterally pants have an orientable pocket for drinks.

10 Infamous Hoaxes

They made fools out of thousands of people. Here are 10 infamous hoaxes.



YouTube link

(thanks Miss Rare)

Show My Street


Show My Street is a very fast front end for Google Street View.
Type your address and there it is, faster than you can type.

The Most Dangerous Race On Earth

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Two competitors stand side-by-side, waiting for the signal to begin their race. If they're a little more nervous than your average race competitors, there's a good reason: this is not your average speed trial. The track for this event is a 750-meter (2,500 foot) drop down the side of a cliff, and a wrong move can mean something far more terminal than a sprained ankle or a twisted knee.

The competition is the World BASE Race, and the title up for grabs is 'The World's Fastest Flying Human Being.' To win, participants must race each other to the bottom of a cliff using only a wingsuit, the law of gravity - and nerves of steel.

Friday, March 30, 2012

When Opium Was For Newborns And Bayer Sold Heroin

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There was a time when mothers gave their babies opium, people bought hallucinogens at the local bar, and anxious patriots sent hypodermic needles and cocaine to soldiers as a present.

Today we have Bayer Aspirin. It relieves headaches. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they had Bayer Heroin. It was most often a cough syrup, though it probably took care of headaches as well. This, and many other drugs were used for everyday maladies. The period between 1870 and 1918 was called The Great Binge - and people shoved everything into their bodies that they could.

The World's Biggest Color Party

The Festival of Colors - The world's biggest color party.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Largest-Ever Paper Airplane Takes Flight


Arturo Valdenegro, a 12-year-old Tucson resident, made paper aviators everywhere look minuscule by comparison last week. In the skies over the Sonora desert in Arizona, the Pima Air & Space Museum launched the biggest paper airplane ever constructed - a paper airplane based on Valdenegro's design - into the sky, accelerating it to speeds topping 100 miles per hour before it came crashing down.

The plane weighed 800 pounds and stretched 45 feet long with a 24-foot wingspan. The museum constructed it out of falcon board, a kind of corrugated cardboard, as part of its Giant Paper Airplane Project, the goal of which is to generate interest in aviation and engineering among young people.

Friday Cartoon By Mark Anderson


Mark Anderson is a professional cartoonist from the Chicago area. His cartoons have been published in Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Woman's World and the Saturday Evening Post, to mention just a few. Among his clients are GM, General Electric, FedEx, Microsoft, and IBM.

Cholafied


Cholafied comes from the mind of an LA kid who grew up in the 90's. It's Sharpied eyebrows, black lipliner, and the fumes from a can of Aqua Net. It's a product of LA where Cholas, celebrity pop culture, street art, and stupidity are rolled up together like one of those bacon wrapped hot dogs sold on Hollywood Blvd.

It's for everyone who would draw Chola makeup on their yearbook pictures and give them gangster girl names. It's for the world to bask in the glory of the original double rainbow - a pair of Cholafied, Sharpied eyebrows. Cholafied was created by Michael Jason Enriquez, an advertising student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Brady Cash Custom Cadillac Baby Stroller

This little stroller has air-ride, lights under the car, and even fire out of the tailpipes.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Guitarist Lowell Levinger Talks Vintage Banjos And The Late Earl Scruggs

Vintage banjo collector Lowell Levinger is perhaps best known to 1960s music fans as 'Banana,' the bushy-haired guitarist and keyboards player for The Youngbloods. Today, Levinger is the proprietor of Players Vintage Instruments, where he buys and sells vintage guitars, mandolins, banjos, and other musical instruments.

He also performs bluegrass and folk music for families under the name Grandpa Banana. Recently, Collectors Weekly spoke with Lowell Levinger about vintage banjos and the evolution of the instrument, from its African roots to its role as a bluegrass staple.

(thanks Ben)

The 5 Most Secluded Cultures In The World

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Despite the proliferation of humans and technology, there are a surprising number of communities around the globe that remain almost entirely untouched by modern civilization. Their traditions may appear indecipherable to us, but it's likely they've existed much longer than our own.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Urbex - The Art Of Urban Exploration

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Most of us now live in towns and cities and you might assume that these areas are fully mapped out and known to all. However, some places become unseen or out of bounds and, left to their own devices, become almost geographical blind spots. But some of these off-limits areas are infiltrated - with some startling photographic results.

Talking Birds

Two parakeets talking together.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

In Search Of Moon Trees

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Did you know that scattered around our planet are hundreds of creatures that have been to the Moon and back again. None of them are human. And most are missing. They're trees. Moon trees. Moon trees are trees grown from 500 seeds taken into orbit around the moon by astronaut Stuart Roosa during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

Most of the Moon trees were given away in 1975 and 1976 to many state forestry organizations, in order to be planted as part of the nation's bicentennial celebration. Trees were also planted in Brazil, Switzerland, and Japan. Today it's not known where all the trees were planted because nobody kept a record. NASA scientist Dave Williams has found some of them and he's looking for more.

Messing With Mother Nature: The Macquarie Island Ecosystem

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Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica. The island was exploited mercilessly, but various plans to repair the damage had their own unintended consequences. Introducing a non-native species to control another invasive species can backfire and escalate the situation to ridiculous and tragic levels.

The ecology of the island was affected soon after the beginning of European visits to the island in 1810. The island's fur seals, elephant seals and penguins were killed for fur and blubber. Rats and mice that were inadvertently introduced from the ships prospered due to lack of predators. Cats were subsequently introduced deliberately to keep the rodents from eating human food stores. In about 1870, rabbits were left on the island by sealers to breed for food. By the 1970s, the then 130,000 rabbits were causing tremendous damage to vegetation.

You Never Have To Drink A Warm Beer Again


Few things can ruin a party like warm beer. You can pack ice around it all you want; you're still going to be waiting half an hour for it to get cold and you'll probably still crack it open too soon. LG unveiled a new refrigerator that comes with the handiest feature since the built-in ice maker: a Blast Chiller that can cool a can of beer or soda to ice cold in just a few minutes.

The compartment cools at an accelerated rate and swirls the air inside to keep the temperature evenly distributed. A 12 oz. can of soda or beer can be chilled to ice cold in five minutes. In eight minutes, the same can happen with a bottle of wine or two soda cans.

Intelligent Parking

The Cardok is the underground parking solution that doubles your parking space and provides greater security than a locked garage. The Cardok is a sealed steel container so no water can get in below ground.

There is a perimeter gutter at the surface to collect rain water and as a final back up a sump with an electric pump at the very base for collecting any water from a wet car or when the unit is opened in heavy rain.



YouTube link

What Can You Find In An Email Header?


Whenever you receive an email, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. While you typically only pay attention to the from address, subject line and body of the message, there is lots more information available 'under the hood' of each email which can provide you a wealth of additional information.

You really wouldn't ever need to look at an email header unless you suspect an email is a phishing attempt or spoof, if you want to view routing information on the email’s path, ot when you're a curious geek. Regardless of your reasons, reading email headers is actually quite easy and can be very revealing.

(via Look At This...)

EnemyGraph


On Facebook you can list your friends. EnemyGraph is a Facebook application that allows you to list your enemies. Most social networks attempt to connect people based on affinities, but people are also connected and motivated by things they dislike.

EnemyGraph was developed in Dean Terry's research group in the Emerging Media + Communication program at UT Dallas principally by Bradley Griffith with assistance from Harrison Massey.

(thanks Yvonne)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The 10 Biggest Catches In The World


Some animals are just bigger than others.
Check out some of the most epic fish and crustaceans ever caught.

Amazing South-Korean Illusionist Jaehoon Lim

South-Korean illusionist Jaehoon Lim, a.k.a. The Birdman.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Popcorn Healthier Than Fruits And Vegetables?

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Popcorn's reputation as a snack food that's actually good for health popped up a few notches as scientists recently reported that it contains more of the healthful antioxidant substances called 'polyphenols' than fruits and vegetables. Scientists explained that the polyphenols are more concentrated in popcorn, which averages only about 4 percent water, while polyphenols are diluted in the 90 percent water that makes up many fruits and vegetables.

In another surprising finding, the researchers discovered that the hulls of the popcorn - the part that everyone hates for its tendency to get caught in the teeth - actually has the highest concentration of polyphenols and fiber.

(via Neatorama)

Accident


But his head is alright.

(via Criggo)

Nelson Mandela Centre Of Memory


In partnership with the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, the Google Cultural Institute has helped to bring Nelson Mandela's archive online. The multimedia archive includes Mr Mandela's correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa.

The archive also include the earliest-known photos of Mr Mandela and never-before seen drafts of Mr Mandela's material for his book 'Conversations with Myself,' the sequel to his autobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom.'

Frame Of Mind

A magical picture frame.



Vimeo link

Tearjerkers Make People Happier

People enjoy watching tragedy movies like 'Titanic' because they deliver what may seem to be an unlikely benefit: tragedies actually make people happier in the short-term. Researchers found that watching a tragedy movie caused people to think about their own close relationships, which in turn boosted their life happiness.

The result was that what seems like a negative experience - watching a sad story - made people happier by bringing attention to some positive aspects in their own lives.

Wiki Paintings - Encyclopedia Of Paintings

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Wiki Paintings is a project that aims to create a high-quality and well-structured online repository of fine art. Wiki Paintings filling system is based on the principle of wiki, i.e. free filling and editing the contents of the site by anyone who wants to participate in the project.

The quality and reliability of the information will be ensured by consistent moderation of all the updates. The site presents both public domain artworks and works that are protected by copyright.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Newly Discovered Mozart Piece Performed

A piano work experts attribute to Mozart as a child prodigy (it is believed to have been written when he was as young as 10) was performed for the first time since it was found last year after apparently being left in an attic for centuries. The lively 84-bar passage was played on the composer's piano in a room of his Salzburg home by virtuoso Florian Birsak.

The Mozarteum Salzburg Foundation, which staged the event, said the manuscript was found last summer as part of a 160-page book of handwritten piano music at the attic of a house in Tyrol was being cleared from centuries of detritus.



YouTube link

More about this at Newsday.

(thanks Miss Rare)

12 Of The Most Winding Roads Around The World

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There are different types of roads and they are spread everywhere: over the mountains and valleys, through villages and cities. Usually in the mountains the roads are winding due to the unfavorable terrain for building. Also, these roads provide fabulous views of the surroundings and because of that many travelers love to ride through these areas. This is a list of 12 of the most winding roads around the world.

Google Doodle Pays Tribute To Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe


Google's doodle today pays tribute to legendary German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on his 126th birth anniversary. The building in the doodle is the SR Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, regarded as one of the masterpieces of van der Rohe. The building comprised only glass and steel in its exteriors.

Expressive Scenes From The Life Of Sparrows

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Photographer Urs Shmidli from Switzerland was able to capture many expressive scenes from the life of sparrows. Urs was watching the sparrows since two years in his garden. Enjoy these amazing shots.

(thanks Cora)

The Man Who Made Things Fly

Avios is a new travel rewards currency that turns things you buy into flights. Sort of a new Airmiles. This video shows the making of some of the Avios adverts where they make a washing machine, lawnmower, BBQ, and a petrol pump fly.



YouTube link

(thanks Will)

How Do Cats Survive Falls From Great Heights?


Cats' remarkable ability to survive falls from great heights is a simple and predictable matter of physics, evolutionary biology, and physiology, veterinarians and biologists say. With scientists unwilling to toss cats off buildings for experimental observation, science has been unable systematically to study the rate at which they live after crashing to the ground.

From the moment they are in the air to the instant after they hit the ground, cats' bodies are built to survive high falls, scientists say. They have a relatively large surface area in proportion to their weight, thus reducing the force at which they hit the pavement. Cats reach terminal velocity, the speed at which the downward tug of gravity is matched by the upward push of wind resistance, at a slow speed compared to large animals like humans and horses.

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The Concrete Bunkers Of Albania

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There are approximately 750,000 concrete bunkers in Albania, also called 'concrete mushrooms' for the way they look. The bunkers were commissioned by the former dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha.

An ally of the Soviet Union and a strong believer in Western invasion, he built these bunkers to protect his country. Until today, they remain useless. Or almost useless. Some people use them as homes for animals and agricultural tools.

Handpresso Auto - The Espresso Machine For The Car


If you can't make it through a single day without downing several cups of coffee, then you probably have ten bucks set aside for your coffee allowance every day. That adds up to a lot over time, so you'd probably better off making a one-time investment in something like the Handpresso Auto machine.

(thanks Cora)

Monday, March 26, 2012

Happy Kitchen Candy Hamburgers

This is weird. Happy Kitchen Candy Hamburgers is a powdered candy set sold in Japan. When water is added, the powder can be coaxed into looking like a doll-sized fast food meal.



YouTube link

Honda's Wonderful Open-Hearted Wagon Concept


Honda believes you and your four-legged friend should be able to travel together in comfort, and supports dogs and their drivers with a range of fun events. The W.O.W. Concept is all about helping you keep your pup at your side and have more fun together.

The special features start with seats that can be transformed into a crate where you can safely leave a dog, and flexible vents that introduce streams of fresh air into the cabin. It'll make dog's life on the road more comfortable.

Dutch Museum Discovers 'New' Van Gogh Painting

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A painting dismissed for years as the work of an unknown artist has been identified as a piece by Vincent Van Gogh, after x-rays revealed an image of two wrestlers fighting underneath the floral still life. 'Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses' has hung in the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the town of Otterlo, in the eastern Netherlands, since 1974, but doubts over its authorship have dogged the painting for decades.

In one of Vincent van Gogh's letters, he describes a work-in-progress depicting two male wrestlers. But no such painting was known to exist. The discovery of the hidden wrestlers, made possible by recent advances in x-ray technology, now confirms its authenticity.

Cramming People Into A Thing: A Photo History


Phone Booth Cramming was a late-1950s fad with a simple premise: cram a phone booth full of people and take a picture before the people on the bottom suffocate. As you can imagine, this pastime was most popular among college students, and led to international rivalries.

Yes, kids, this is the kind of thing we thought was fun back before we had video games... and when we still had phone booths. But this practice of people-packing goes to places weirder than phone booths, as you'll see in the historic and bizarre images.

Dodds Serta Trek

Funny commercial from Dodd's Furniture & Mattress in Victoria, Canada.
Don't 'klingon' to your old spring mattress.'



YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

10 Famous Clock Towers From Around The World

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A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more (often four) clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. This is a list of 10 famous clock towers from around the world.

(thanks Bosko)

The Epic Failed Predictions For The End Of The World


The looming doomsday of the Mayan calendar ending has been subject to both speculation and a movie script. History is littered with doomsday predictions that were ultimately debunked. They go back hundreds and hundreds of years, and we are still here. So why is it that some people suddenly believe that just because the Mayan calendar doesn't continue after a certain date in December the world is going to end?

This infographic shows the epic failed predictions for the end of the world.

(via Bit Rebels)

James Cameron Reaches Ocean's Deepest Point


This morning, James Cameron arrived at the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the ocean. His depth on arrival: 35,756 feet (10,898 meters). The National Geographic explorer and filmmaker (Titanic, Avatar) reached the bottom after a 2-hour-and-36-minute descent.

Folded into a sub cockpit as cramped as any Apollo capsule, Cameron is now investigating a seascape more alien to humans than the moon. Cameron is only the third person to reach this Pacific Ocean valley southwest of Guam - and the only one to do so solo.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Rivers Of Lava On Pulama Pali On Hawaii Island

A surge of lava spews out of a rupture in the lava tube system and is heading down steep cliffs. This strong flow is being supplied lava from Kilauea Volcano's Pu'u O'o Crater four miles to the northwest. The rupture was at the 1600-foot elevation about four miles northwest of Kalapana Gardens, and directly above the old Royal Gardens subdivision.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Animal Footprint Shoes


A series of shoes by Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre that have been modified to leave realistic animal footprints. Lasserre has been using the shoes to leave animal tracks in cities in Canada and America since 2011.

(via Nag on the Lake)

Email In The 18th Century: The Optical Telegraph

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More than 200 years ago it was already possible to send messages throughout Europe and America at the speed of an aeroplane - wireless and without need for electricity. Email leaves all other communication systems far behind in terms of speed. But the principle of the technology - forwarding coded messages over long distances - is nothing new.

It has its origins in the use of plumes of smoke, fire signals and drums, thousands of years ago. Coded long distance communication also formed the basis of a remarkable but largely forgotten communications network that prepared the arrival of the internet: the optical telegraph.

(thanks Stanley)

Cutest Otter Ever!

Otto the otter is the cutest otter ever!



YouTube link

(thanks Adam)

How 5 Super-Rich Places Got Such Fancy Names

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Did you know that Martha's Vineyard was named after a daughter of explorer Bartholomew Gosnold? Originally the name was applied to a much smaller island. The larger island was actually called Martin's Vineyard, after the captain of the ship Gosnold was sailing on, for much of its history. Eventually the feminine name came to stand for the larger island as well.

Find out how Beverly Hills, The Hamptons, Fisher Island and Nob Hill got their fancy names.

Let's Have A Shatnerpalooza!

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Whether you love Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, Comedy Central's Roasts or have just happened to watch any program over the last decade that was interrupted with a Priceline commercial, chances are, you just can't get away from William Alan Shatner.

Last Thursday was Shatner's 81st birthday. Here are some fun facts about the successes (and failures) of one of the entertainment industry's most pervasive characters.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Marmite Toast

Marmite is a food spread made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing.
You either love it or hate it.



YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

Isla


It looks like a black and white photo, but it is actually made out of half a million fish hooks. Cuban artist Yoan Capote and thirty assistants spent six months nailing them into place on plywood.

(via Neatorama)

The Bizarre Ways That Dogs Like To Sleep

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Some dogs sleep in bizarre positions.

The Vegetable Song

The Vegetable Song - Video and music by Si Bennett.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

Image Of The Entire Sky


Nasa released an image of the entire sky as observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The sky can be thought of as a sphere that surrounds us in three dimensions. To make a map of the sky, astronomers project it into two dimensions. The projection used in this image of the sky, called Aitoff, takes the 3-D sky sphere and slices open one hemisphere, and then flattens the whole thing out into an oval shape.

In the mosaic, the Milky Way Galaxy runs horizontally across this map. The Milky Way is shaped like a disk and our solar system is located in that disk about two-thirds of the way out from the center. So we see the Milky Way as a band running through the sky.

The Staggering Beauty Of Iceland's Glacier Lagoon

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Even in a country well known for its astounding natural beauty, Jökulsárlón stands out. The combination of majestic floating icebergs, the giant icy blue lagoon, the contrasting black of the sandy shore and the soaring dome of the nearby Vatnajökull ice cap is so breathtaking, it hardly seems real.

It's no wonder this amazing lagoon is one of Iceland's most popular natural wonders. Jökulsárlón's hypnotic beauty draws tourists, photographers and film crews alike to its shores. It has been featured in advertisements, movies, and even on a postage stamp - not to mention, of course, countless computer wallpapers across the world.

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Buranovo Grannies

This year, Russia is sending the Buranovo Grannies (known in Russia as Buranovskiye Babushki) to the Eurovision Song Contest with an anthem appropriately dubbed 'Party For Everybody.' If they win, they will build a church in their town of Buranovo Malopurginsky in the Udmurtia region.



YouTube link

You're Driving All Wrong


If you're a conscientious motorist who still does everything the way your driver's-ed instructor told you to, you're doing it all wrong. For decades, the standard instruction was that drivers should hold the steering wheel at the 10 and 2 positions, as envisioned on a clock. This, it turns out, is no longer the case. In fact, driving that way could cost you your arms or hands in particularly gruesome ways if your airbag deploys.

Instead, many driving instructors now say you should grip the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock. A few go even further, suggesting 8 and 4 to avoid the airbag mechanism as much as possible, but what formal research has been published on the varieties of hand positions suggests that this may lessen your control of the car.

Friday Cartoon By Mark Anderson


Mark Anderson is a professional cartoonist from the Chicago area. His cartoons have been published in Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Woman's World and the Saturday Evening Post, to mention just a few. Among his clients are GM, General Electric, FedEx, Microsoft, and IBM.

Largest Loop The Loop In A Car

The largest loop the loop in a car measured 12.87 m (42 ft 2.69 in) in diameter and was achieved by Chinese Li Yatao from the Car Team of Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. The loop was made from steel. It was 3.68 m (12 ft 0.88 in) wide and weighed 33,000 kg (72,752 lb). The car used was a Lotus L5 Sportback.



YouTube link

The 6 Most Extravagant Royal Gestures Of All Time

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Being a member of royalty entitles you to a life of luxury and leisure; one where extravagance is as every day as eating. Raised in regal surroundings, royalty are used to an environment of ostentation and grandeur. It is easy to understand why when a royal makes a gesture, it is equally grand as their upbringing. But some royal acts are so extravagant as to defy expectation.

(thanks Danny)

No Man's Land

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Roughly 30% of the Earth's surface is land. And where there is land, there is a nation (or multiple nations) ready to claim it as its own. In fact, some of the world's strangest disputes have been over pieces of land so small as to inspire bemused disbelief. Outside of Antarctica, almost every square foot of land is claimed by at least one nation.

Almost, because of an 800 square mile trapezoid-shaped piece of land call Bir Tawil. Bir Tawil sits between Egypt and Sudan, as pictured above. And neither country wants the land; in fact, either would be quite happy if the other took it.

The Joy Of Washing Your Brush

Bob Ross (1942 - 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He is best known as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, a television program that ran for 12 years on PBS stations in the United States.

During each half-hour segment, Ross would instruct viewers in the art of oil painting using a quick-study technique that kept colors to a minimum and broke paintings down into simple steps that virtually anyone could follow. One of the things he frequently did was washing his brush. And he enjoyed doing it.



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Make Me Mod! Top 10 'Mad Men' Essentials


With the return of 'Mad Men' to AMC this Sunday, Sterling Cooper's attractive staff will raise the bar for contemporary cubicle-dwellers for the fifth season in a row. Along with the show's cast, we'll be thrown into the turbulence of 1966, when neon-colored plastic and the ubiquitous Twiggy kicked Mid-Century Modern to the curb.

No doubt the characters will weather radically shifting social norms, a polarizing foreign war, and all kinds of inappropriate office politics with the grace of dapper, blueblood New Yorkers, martinis always in hand. Here are 10 Mod essentials, circa 1966-ish, to smarten up your workday and make you feel worthy of Roger Sterling's approval.

(thanks Lisa)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Man Flies Like A Bird

This video shows Dutch engineer Jarno Smeets flying like a bird using custom-built wings. In the video, shot at a park in the Hague in the Netherlands on March 18, Jarno Smeets is seen using his arms to flap the wings as he appears to successfully achieve take-off, flight and landing.

Mr Smeets claims to have worked with neuromechanics expert Bert Otten to create a design based on the mechanics used in robotic prosthetics which helps to give his muscles extra strength. The Internet is buzzing whether this is fake or not. In a poll done by The Telegraph 43% think it's fake, 25% say it's real and 31% say they can't say for sure.

Computer Generated Imagery specialist have seen the video and couldn't find any traces of CGI. Scientist can't agree whether this is real or not. Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters says he didn't see evidence that it was faked.



YouTube link

Website Human Birdwings.

More about this at Gizmodo

update: It's a hoax. The Internet Bird Man fessed up to the hoax on a Dutch TV show. It turns out he even made up his name. Jarno Smeets is actually a Dutch CGI artist named Floris Kaayk. (thanks Adrian)

Look-Alikes

Muppets Finally Recognized With A Star On The Walk Of Fame


The Muppets finally got a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame. Shouldn't this have been done a long time ago? Check out Kermit the frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, Pepe, Sweetums and Walter posing for their big Hollywood moment.

The Coolest And Most (Un?)Necessary Mustache Products You've Ever Seen


Mustaches of all sorts are the 'in' thing to not only grow, but have in your home and other random places. Some people love this facial hair trend so much that they got inspired to create some of the funniest mustache inspired products.

(thanks Cora)

Guy Plays A Cat Organ

Henry Dagg performs 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' on his organ made out of fluffy toy cats.



YouTube link

Sarah Palin's Dirty Little Secret


Aaron Fleszar asks to share his story for the sake of freedom and democracy.

My name is Aaron Fleszar and what I would like to share with you the most devious plot to overthrow America. After years of mocking internet income opportunities I discovered a number of patterns and what appears to be a code. This code was acted upon leading up to the election in 2008 to create the illusion that the organization behind it is in control of our country.

The people behind this code are positioned to make billions through the destruction of the economy. The Feds are mad I broke this code and in an effort to save embarrassment they are breaking every law on the planet to keep a lid on this.

Top 10 Weirdest Instruments Featured In Popular Rock Songs

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Being in a rock band is every teenage boy's dream. What they don't seem to realize is that you don't necessarily need to play a 'standard' instrument to get there. In fact, many of the popular rock songs that we all know and love feature some pretty strange instrumentation.