25 February 2011
Pachimon Playing Cards
Kyuradorosu - Vampire monster from Chiba
Raru - Monster bug from the tropics
H - Hydrogen monster from Egypt
Betarasu - Fifth-dimension monster
In the early 1970s, the Kewpie Corporation (maker of Kewpie brand mayonnaise) produced a deck of promotional playing cards featuring various pachimon kaiju (imitation monsters modeled after creatures from popular movies and TV shows).Link via Pink Tentacle
24 February 2011
23 February 2011
22 February 2011
21 February 2011
Psykopaint
YouTube
Click image to enlarge
Psykopaint is a free, web-based application that allows the user to upload a photograph and select a paintbrush and painting style to create a "painted" version of the photo. Although the app selects the colors, the user can choose to create his or her own individual painting style.
Comments on the site mention that Psykopaint is currently being used with autistic children and with other challenged populations.
Via The Presurfer
19 February 2011
House Votes To Eliminate Funding For American Public Broadcasting
170 million Americans connect through 368 public television stations, 934 public radio stations, hundreds of online services, and in-person events and activities ... More than half of all Americans use public media each month.Click here to find out how you can help to save public broadcasting.
Today [19 February 2011], the House voted to eliminate funding for local public television and radio stations. The House vote was 235-189.
Hot To The Infinite Power | The Infinity Chili
Measuring 1.17 million on the Scoville Scale - an official measure of spicy heat - the Infinity chilli is so hot that it carries a health warning. Grown by Nick Woods, 39, the chilli - which was grown in a greenhouse - made it to the Guinness Book of Records after out-spicing the previous title holder, the Bhut Jolokia, from India. Mr Woods, who runs his own business Fire Foods from his home in Grantham [U.K.], said he grew the record breaking chilli by accident.
He explained: "I didn't set out to grow it, it's really easy for chillies to crossbreed in a greenhouse, one day I just saw this new chilli plant growing. When I tried it tasted nice at first, like an odd fruity taste, the effect is delayed. Then it hit me. All of a sudden I felt it burning in the back of my throat, so hot that I couldn't speak.
“I began to shake uncontrollably, I had to sit down, I felt physically sick. I really wouldn't recommend anybody eat it raw like that.” Former RAF worker Mr Woods started his chilli business five years ago after being given a plant by a friend.
Click image to enlarge
Arbroath
Big Think | Your Behavior Creates Your Gender
Judith Butler is a post-structuralist philosopher and queer theorist. She is most famous for her notion of gender performativity, but her work ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, mourning and war.Link
She has received countless awards for her teaching and scholarship, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a Rockefeller fellowship, Yale's Brudner Prize, and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award.
18 February 2011
Brain Imaging | A Beautiful Mind
Broad Overview of a Human Hippocampus | Tamily Weissman, Jeff Lichtman and Joshua Sanes
Fluorescent proteins with confocal microscopy | 2005
It was the hippocampus as no one had ever seen it, illuminated in radiant hues. The image is called, aptly, a Brainbow, the colors serving a scientific purpose by highlighting specific neural structures. Yet their choice also reflects an artistic bent; scientists display the brain not the way it is (an undifferentiated gray) but the way we want to see it, “painted” with bursts of fluorescent color.Another image from the article:
This image, created in 2005, is one of many that Carl Schoonover, a doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior at Columbia University, has collected in his recent Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain From Antiquity to the 21st Century (Abrams). As science has probed the brain’s structure and function, scientists have had to rely on art to translate their discoveries to visual form.
Human Cerebral Cortex | Alfonso RodrÃguez-Baeza and Marisa Ortega-Sánchez
Scanning electron microscope | 2009
Proto via 3 Quarks Daily
17 February 2011
Sunday 20 February Is Hoodie Hoo Day
Every 20 February in the Northern Hemisphere, folks are encouraged to go outside at noon, wave their arms around and shout, "HOOOOODIE HOO!! HOOOOODIE HOOOO!!" to frighten winter away and welcome spring.
Hoodie Hoo Day is a copyrighted holiday, created by the folks at WellCat.com.
R.I.P. The Pillsbury Doughboy
Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.The Writing Hood
Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.
Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was considered a very smart cookie, but wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.
Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, and three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.
Thanks, tomB
16 February 2011
Woman Dies In Cubicle, Not Found Until Next Day
A Los Angeles County employee lay dead and slumped over her desk in an office cubicle for what could have been as long as a day before anybody noticed, police say.Newser | Gizmodo
Rebecca Wells, a 51-year-old auditor who had recently become a grandmother, was found by a security guard Saturday afternoon, KTLA reports. She had last been seen alive at 9am Friday morning, say detectives, who suspect she died from a stroke or heart attack.
Wells was working in a building with around 1,000 cubicles, a county spokesperson says.
14 February 2011
Man Found Dead With Parrot Sitting On His Head
A man was found dead with a parrot sitting on his head.Mirror | Arbroath
Police discovered the 3ft macaw pecking at Brian Wright, 67, after neighbours raised the alarm. Sharon Richards, 47, whose mum lives nearby, said last night: “There was a bad smell coming from the house and we called the police. “He’d been in there for three weeks with his fire switched on at full whack, and it wasn’t a pretty sight."
“The parrot he kept was in there, sitting on his head and pecking away at him.”
Eccentric Mr Wright, of Birmingham, had two boats, four cars, 12 bicycles, two motorbikes and an old caravan in his garden. The parrot, which is understood to be healthy, was given to a family friend.
Bisou | A Welcome Reprieve From Winter
We sat out on the deck today for the first time since late fall. It's 65 degrees and sunny and even the 30 mph wind gusts didn't spoil the fun. Here's Bisou, dirty face and all, enjoying the sunshine.
13 February 2011
Flowers Wilt. Chocolates Melt. Roaches Are Forever.
Can't decide on what to get that special someone for Valentine's Day? Sometimes the answer is all around us, and right where it's been for millions of years—like cockroaches! How better to express your appreciation for that special someone than to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after them?Your donation will help the Wildlife Conservation Society conserve endangered species around the world.
Naming a roach in honor of someone near and dear to your heart shows that you've noticed how resilient, resourceful, and loyal that person is. Or maybe it's in recognition of your one and only's virility, or strength in the face of high radiation. You're not afraid to say, "Baby, you're a roach!"
But not just any roach ... He or she is a Madagascar hissing roach, the biggest and loudest of these stalwart insects. Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo has 58,000 of these brown, iridescent beauties, and they need names. With a $10 donation, one of them can be named by you. How sweet!
We'll send a truly memorable certificate of honor to that certain someone explaining that there's a special insect living at the Bronx Zoo with his or her name on it.
BBC News | How The Egyptian Protesters Organized Tahrir Square
Click image to enlarge | Click here to explore the protesters' camp.
Image: Reuters
Wall of Martyrs
Memorials of protesters who died during the uprising have been erected at the "wall of martyrs".
Friends of the victims put up pictures and accounts of how they died.
Some are very graphic and accuse the police of brutality.
Cairo's central Tahrir Square was the focal point for anti-Mubarak protesters during 18 days of demonstrations. As the protest neared its peak, the BBC's Yolande Knell took a tour of the area.BBC News via Brooklyn Mutt
12 February 2011
Snow Monsters Of Japan
Hakkoda Mountains, Aomori prefecture | Source
Mount Moriyoshi, Akita prefecture | Source
Ghostly trees covered in snow and rime ice -- known as "snow monsters" or juhyou (frost-covered trees) in Japanese -- are a celebrated feature of the winter landscape in mountainous areas of northern Japan.More photographs at Pink Tentacle.
RSA | Language As A Window Into Human Nature
YouTube | RSA
Steven Pinker is a distinguished professor of psychology at Harvard University where he conducts research on language and cognition. Here he shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.
11 February 2011
Orphaned Baby Bats Saved In Australia
Luke Marsden
Torrential rain has brought chaos to Australia, and not just to the humans who live there. The Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre saved 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks. Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs.The Presurfer
The surviving youngsters will be bottle fed and kept either hanging on clothes lines or in special intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks.
10 February 2011
NPR Valentines
NPR invites you to share the love on Valentine's Day, "public radio style." Check out all eight cards.
Getting High On Snake Venom
Naja naja - Indian spectacled cobra
The addiction journal Substance Abuse has two cases of people using snakebites to get high.
... Mr. PKD, a 52-year-old married male with a history of substance use for past 34 years started taking alcohol at the age of 18 and over the years he added cannabis, benzodiazepines, and opioids over different periods of time and in varying combinations to produce the desired effects.The other case involves a man who “subjected himself to being bitten once on his left foot by a small Indian cobra (Naja naja). The patient described the experience as a blackout associated with a sense of well-being, lethargy, and sleepiness” ...
Two months before contacting our center, the patient learned of the intoxicating effects of snake venom through some of his friends and, as reasoned by the patient, he decided to try it in order “to experience the kick the other substances now lacked.”
With the help of the nomadic snake charmers common in India, the patient subjected himself twice to the snake bite over his left forearm over a period of 15 days. There was no local tissue injury at the site of the bite apart from the bite marks.
The patient described a feeling of dizziness and blurred vision followed by a heightened arousal and sense of well-being lasting a few hours; a more intense state of arousal than he would experience with pentazocine injections. The patient was not able to identify the snakes used but was apprehensive about the risks involved in the process.
PubMed: Snake bite as a novel form of substance abuse: personality profiles and cultural perspectives
MindHacks
09 February 2011
Assembler 3
Detail
This game requires patience and a sure touch. The goal of each level is to get the green shapes to balance within the green outlines by moving the objects around to create supporting platforms or confining structures. Levels get increasingly complicated with the addition of water, blocked areas, etc.
Link via Super Tight Stuff
Affetto | Uncanny Robot Baby
YouTube | Neatorama
Facial motion test of Affetto, which is an child robot that is currently under development in emergent robotics laboratory at Osaka university for simulating infant cognitive development. Its face is created realistically so as to be treated as a human being by human caregivers, not as a robot.Much less creepy than the Yotaro Baby Simulator. I predict a Japanese remake of "Child's Play."
08 February 2011
The PTable | Interactive Periodic Table
Click image to enlarge
Detail
If you are a lover of the beautiful intricacies of the periodic table, this awesome, dynamic site will amuse you for hours. Just load the PTable and start clicking. With everything on one page, you can swap data, visualize trends, select data subsets, view historical information and symbol origins, change languages, and change layouts among simple, with names, with electron configuration, and inline inner transition metals.
And it's pretty, too.
Newborn Royal Antelope Calf
San Diego Zoo
A male Royal Antelope calf was recently born at the San Diego Zoo. In April, 2003 San Diego became the first zoo in the Western Hemisphere to have a Royal Antelope birth. These shy nocturnal Antelope are the smallest Antelope species, measuring just 10-12 inches high and weighing only 9-10 pounds when fully grown.Zooborns
07 February 2011
Monkey Monday | Crying Baby Colobus Monkey
Image via AP
A month-old Abyssinian Colobus cries in Japan's Nogeyama Zoological Gardens.
06 February 2011
GOOD | Most Popular Infographics Of 2010
#3. Looks at the books that parents most often ask to have removed from libraries.
Gay penguins, Twilight's vampires, and Holden Caufield all made the cut.
By Stanford Kay.
#6. Shows how many millions of prescriptions for psychiatric drugs are written in America.
By Stanford Kay.
#7. Looks at all the injury reports at the [Burning Man] festival for the last three years.
By Hyperakt.
GOOD Infographics
05 February 2011
Submitted For Your Approval | Talky Tina
Entertainment Earth Exclusive! One of the most talked about items revealed at San Diego Comic-Con is here, available to order for the first time ever! This authentically reproduced black-and-white Talky Tina Doll Replica from The Twilight Zone is a lifelike exclusive that stands 18-inches tall and features rotocast Vinyl head, arms, and legs; soft fabric body and fabric clothing; rooted hair; eyelids that open and close; and a talking mechanism.Neatorama
Talky Tina comes with a certificate of authenticity and speaks the following memorable phrases:
"My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much."
"My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you."
"My name is Talky Tina, and you'd better be nice to me."
"My name is Talky Tina, and you'll be sorry."
"My name is Talky Tina, and I'm going to kill you."
Tuluba | Baby Elephant Bath Time
Tuluba, a six-month-old African Bush Elephant, lives at the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna with his mother, Numbi. "Tuluba" means "big ears" in Wolof.
Buzzfeed
Tezak | The Four Icon Challenge
Kyle Tezak:
Lately I’ve been working a lot with icons. Trying to capture the essence of an object or idea with only a few lines and at the same time maintaining its elegance is pretty much design in a nutshell. That’s what is so great about icons, they’re tiny poems. I decided it would be a fun project to attempt to sum up some of my favorite books, movies, historical events, anything, with just four icons; the meat and potatoes.Link | Nag on the Lake | Tezak on Dribble
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