Giant cardboard-robot suit

Jason Lentz' carboard robot suit attempts!

SUPER-fixed gear bike

Forget about fixies, Grand Rapids, MI design company Jruiter has created a really cool prototype for a minimalistic inner city bike. The design is so simplified to the point that it doesn’t even have a chain, instead the pedals directly drive the back wheel. Of course the next logical step would be to remove the brakes.

Shanghai banning pyjamas in public

Shanghai will host the World Expo next year, and city officials are preparing for the influx of foreigners with a campaign to ban citizens from wearing their pajamas out in the streets.

Paper folding documentary

The trailer above is for Between The Folds, a new feature documentary film presented by PBS's Independent Lens. You can view the whole film on PBS on December 8 or at one of Independent Television Service's free Community Cinema screenings upcoming around the country.

Anti-whaling pirate speedboat unveiled

The Sea Shepard Society has unveiled their newest speedboat, which looks pretty stealth... and advanced tech for an activist organization...

Documentary on Crazy Cat Ladies Trailer

A curry a day keeps the doctor away

The BBC has been publishing articles about the wonderful health benefits of Turmeric. Apparently it has just been found to 'kill cancer cells dead', relieve the suffering due to arthritis, and prevent Alzheimers. Yum!

Photos of Egyptian Animal Mummies

For more, see the Nat Geo gallery from the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

Friends With You Skywalkers Mini Doc

Cannabis protects the brain from binge drinking

Marijuana may protect the brain from some of the damage caused by binge drinking (drinking more than 4-5 units of alcohol in one night), according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego performed brain scans on 16- to 19-year-olds in three groups: binge drinkers, binge drinkers who also smoke pot, and those with very little drug or drinking experience.

Binge drinkers showed damage in their white matter. But those who drink and smoke showed more damage than the control group in only three of eight areas of the brain. In seven of the areas, their brains were in better shape than the binge drinkers.

Researchers said in a news release from the Marijuana Project that the result was unexpected.

They said it could be that marijuana somehow stops alcohol from damaging brain cells.

The study was published online by the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology.

Astronomer Carl Sagan on Stoned Insights

A friend once told me that famed astronomer and noted head Carl Sagan wrote notes from his high self to his sober self to trust in his stoned revelations. I haven't confirmed that, but Sagan was definitely into the wacky tobaccy. In 1969, Sagan contributed a piece about his marijuana use for the book "Marihuana Reconsidered." Sagan wrote under the pseudonym of Mr. X, but he was later confirmed as the author.

From Marihuana Reconsidered:

When I'm high I can penetrate into the past, recall childhood memories, friends, relatives, playthings, streets, smells, sounds, and tastes from a vanished era. I can reconstruct the actual occurrences in childhood events only half understood at the time. Many but not all my cannabis trips have somewhere in them a symbolism significant to me which I won't attempt to describe here, a kind of mandala embossed on the high. Free-associating to this mandala, both visually and as plays on words, has produced a very rich array of insights.

There is a myth about such highs: the user has an illusion of great insight, but it does not survive scrutiny in the morning. I am convinced that this is an error, and that the devastating insights achieved when high are real insights; the main problem is putting these insights in a form acceptable to the quite different self that we are when we're down the next day. Some of the hardest work I've ever done has been to put such insights down on tape or in writing. The problem is that ten even more interesting ideas or images have to be lost in the effort of recording one. It is easy to understand why someone might think it's a waste of effort going to all that trouble to set the thought down, a kind of intrusion of the Protestant Ethic. But since I live almost all my life down I've made the effort - successfully, I think. Incidentally, I find that reasonably good insights can be remembered the next day, but only if some effort has been made to set them down another way. If I write the insight down or tell it to someone, then I can remember it with no assistance the following morning; but if I merely say to myself that I must make an effort to remember, I never do.

Living close to Nature improves mental health

BBC reports that being around nature reduces depression, anxiety and a host of physical ailments:

Research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health says the impact is particularly noticeable in reducing rates of mental ill health.

The annual rates of 15 out of 24 major physical diseases were also significantly lower among those living closer to green spaces.

I guess living in a city is more shitty.

More crazy clouds

From Wired. Looks like an upside down ocean.

Cloud Halo hovers over Moscow

From the Telegraph:

Talking to the Daily Mail, a spokesman from Moscow's weather forecasting service said: "Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west - this is how the effect was produced.

"This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive," he added.

"If you look closer, you can see sun rays coming through that cloud. Most likely, the sun was setting when the video was being made.

"If you observe clouds regularly, you may see many other astonishing things. Clouds of the same class may look absolutely different in different areas," he said.

What actual Mayans are saying about 2012

From blogger Maggie Koerth-Baker:

When your three-year checkbook calendar runs out, does that signal the end of the world? No? It's pretty much the same for the Mayan calendar and 2012.

In fact, the idea of a countdown to cataclysmic apocalypse is a Western, not Mayan idea, say some Mayans who are getting fed up with the hype. You can read more about their perspective in this AP article: "2012 Isn't the End of the World, Mayans Insist."

Another important thing to think about: The amount of money being raked in by woo-woo charlatans (and, now, big entertainment companies) who are all capitalizing off what amounts to willful misinterpretations of Mayan legends, traditions and science. My college anthropology professor (and expert in Central and South American archaeology) John Hoopes had some interesting thoughts on this...

I'd like to see more of the revenue from the hyping of 2012 mythology through books, movies, conferences, and websites go directly to the living descendants of the ancient Maya whose cultural heritage and intellectual property is being appropriated without their knowledge or consent for the financial benefit of non-Maya hucksters.

This raises a lot of questions about who owns traditional knowledge. I don't claim to have the answer, though. There are a lot of wrinkles and complications, including the good possibility that the living Maya probably have no legal standing when it comes to these issues. But I suspect it has much more to do with what's ethically responsible than with legal obligations.

I don't know that I know the best way to handle this, either. But, whether or not the living Maya should be paid for the use (or misuse) of their ancestors' ideas, I personally see a lot of racism at play in this story. Not the white hood sort of racism, sure. But I'm don't think I have a better word for what happens when the largely white and wealthy American New Age community co-opts and exoticises the traditions of a marginalized native people and then ignores those people when they say, "That's not what our traditions mean. Please stop misrepresenting us."

stop-motion building art

"cloud" cloud

Artist Ron English did some sky writing with the word cloud dissolving into clouds..

Nasal spray developed to improve memory

Long term memories are primarily encoded from the day's events during REM sleep (which is why pulling all-nighters cramming for an exam is a bad idea), now scientists have found that a nasal spray containing the immune system hormone interleukin-6 can help boost that REM sleep long-term memory formation. Smart drugs!

Giant Balloon monsters

Giant monsters made from balloons! Click the link for more.

Art mosaics made from free sample paint chips

Free samples of paint chips (like benjamin moore style) can be used to make pixellated mosaic paintings for free.

Slices of human body as seen by MRI

Looking at slices of MRI data (from the visible human project) going through a human body look a lot like cuts of steaks.

Fashionable, tattooed Goldfish

Apparently, a new trend in China is to get laser-tattooed goldfish, with lucky symbols on them. Unluckily however, they are much more expensive than non-tattooed goldfish.

Mayans "played" pyramids as instruments

I remember at Chichen Itza, clapping by the pyramid made really cool sounding chirpy echoes... apparently, they have found these same musical properties with a number of other pyramids, leading to the hypothesis that the Mayans played these pyramids as instruments in religious ceremonies (perhaps mushrooms were involved?).

Women warrior tribe in Ukraine

In response to a sexist culture, a group of women in the Ukraine have formed a women-only tribe, living in the mountains, learning self-defense, science and self-sufficiency.

Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska. Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts...

That shit will fuck you up

Scientists trying to solve the problem of how to get stem cells into the brain in the least harmful manner have discovered that snorting them might be the best bet.

Medical tubing sculpture

This is a nice sculpture made from braided medical tubing with timed (food) coloured fluid being pumped through it:

Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

Who owns what? "Organic" companies

Here is a map of what parent companies (some not so nice) that own "green" organic brands:


There have also been pesticide tests to determine what fruits and veggies are most important to buy organic and which are not-so-important.

Here are the must-buy organic fruits and vegetables:

* Apples
* Cherries
* Grapes, imported
* Nectarines
* Peaches
* Pears
* Raspberries
* Strawberries
* Bell peppers
* Celery
* Potatoes
* Spinach/lettuce


Don't worry about going organic with these fruits and vegetables:

* Bananas
* Kiwis
* Mangos
* Papaya
* Pineapples
* Asparagus
* Avocado
* Broccoli
* Cauliflower
* Onions

Pirate Bay sinking

With the sinking of Pirate bay. Here is a link to 25 torrent searching alternatives, including copies of the PB before it sank.

Water usage

Here is a graph showing how much water is used for a variety of things. Note how much water is used to develop animals for use as meats.

How-to wheat paste

Artist Gaia shows the process of doing wheat-paste street art.

Ants build lifeboat to protect their queen

Fire ants in the Amazon adapt to flooding by building a living raft to protect their queen.

Living root bridges of India

When the War-Khasis tribe in Meghalaya needs a new bridge to cross one of the many criss-crossing rivers of the cherrapunji region, they don’t build one. They grow it.

The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they’re extraordinarily strong – strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time.

Because they are alive and still growing, the bridges actually gain strength over time – and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunji may be well over five hundred years old.

Squirrels learn how to steal

Gray squirrels learn about stealing from watching other squirrels:

The study suggests that squirrels are primed to recognise other squirrels as potential food thieves. It also shows that they learn more quickly from real life observations.

Corresponding author Dr Lisa Leaver of the University of Exeter, said: “Our study is significant because it is the first to show that grey squirrels learn from observing others. It adds to growing evidence that all kinds of animals, from humans and other primates to many species of birds, learn from observation and that they have evolved to learn quickly about those things that are most important to their lives – in the case of grey squirrels, gathering and storing nuts.”

Glass microbiology

This artist has made a number of virus and bacteria glass works of art.

Runpee tells you when to go pee during a movie

Runpee.com lets you know what the best times to go and urinate during a movie so you don't miss anything important.

Mammatus Clouds

Mammatus Clouds are a meteorological phenomenon caused by sagging cellular accumulations produced in clouds of ice and water, and usually mean a fierce storm is trying to develop.

noby noby boy hat and scarf

Noby noby boy hat and scarf for sale on etsy.

Trail in clouds

Clouds with trails of an intercontinental ballistic missile test fired from an american base.

Augmented reality iphone apps 2

Sekai Camera, the augmented reality iPhone app that tags and overlays information about products and places, debuted in Tokyo today at a press event held at the Spanish luxury designer Loewe. Here's a video showing how it works — basically, when your camera scans a certain tagged item, it shows up on the screen along with a description, pricing, etc. Video by Nobi Hayashi.

WorkSnug looks for wifi hotspots with comments on how nice places they are to work:

Oliver Sacks explains what hallucinations tell us about the human mind

Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations.

Psychedelic tumor visualization site

This medical site has gorgeous, psychedelic medical visualizations explaining cancer tumor growth.

Relative efficiency of energy use in transportation

You might think that aeroplanes are the most fuel-guzzling way to get around (compared with, say, a Prius), but because they are filled with people, the truth is surprising.

U.S. Trade deficit

U.S. trade deficit with other countries:


U.S. currency exchange rate relative to other countries over time:

Man sues for overdose of Ketamine

VANCOUVER - A Campbell River man has received $63,000 in damages for an "out-of-body experience" in which he said he saw God after being accidentally overdosed with the painkiller Ketamine while recovering from back surgery in Vancouver General Hospital.

Explainist blog is worth watching

http://www.explainist.com/

Some useful links found therein...

Liveplasma helps you find movies that you might like when you state one you do like.

Newsmap shows google news headlines and related stories in an easy to visualize manner.

Amount of solar panels needed to power Earth?

Just 496,905 square kilometers. That's really nothing compared to the total world area: Less than the surface of Spain (504,030 square kilometers) covered with solar panels, distributed across deserts and areas with almost 24/7 sun, all year around.

micro-LED contact lens computer screen

There is now a working, yet crude in its resolution contact lens computer monitor that contains a matrix of LEDs to produce the screen information. Apparently, they are wearable for 20 minutes, and contain antennas to transmit the screen data wirelessly from a portable computer. Pictured here is one in an (unwilling yet able) cyber-rabbit's eye used in the prototype testing.

Mysterious Tubular Clouds Defy Explanation

These long, crazy-looking clouds can grow to be 600 miles long and can move at up to 35 miles per hour, causing problems for aircraft even on windless days.

Known as Morning Glory clouds, they appear every fall over Burketown, Queensland, Australia, a remote town with fewer than 200 residents. A small number of pilots and tourists travel there each year in hopes of “cloud surfing” with the mysterious phenomenon.

Similar tubular shaped clouds called roll clouds appear in various places around the globe. But nobody has yet figured out what causes the Morning Glory clouds.

This shot was captured by photographer Mick Petroff from his plane near Australia’s Gulf of Carpenteria.

Belarus develops school uniform that makes tin foil hats obsolete

"Authorities in Belarus, the last authoritarian regime in Europe, are considering introducing a new school uniform that would protect schoolchildren from electromagnetic radiation that comes from their mobile phones. The phones would be stored in a special pocket. The government is apparently very excited about it."

^^A non-Belarusan take on the tinfoil hat!

Keralan village of the twins

A small village in Northern Kerala in South India has a disproportionate amount of identical twins. The village of Kodinji has a population of 15000, and 460 of them are twins. Doctors think maybe there is something in the water!

Visualization of drug classes

Here is a Venn diagram of drug classification by type and effect.

And yes my friends... Cannabis stands alone at the centre of this world!

Microsoft in racial photoshopping incident

Microsoft Poland has edited an advertisement to remove a black man in the picture by replacing his head with that of a white head.

The original ad:


and the replaced head ad (without changing the hands!)


They didn't replace any of the other heads (that of the Asian man for example)

Some have said that in pairing a white man's head with a black man's hands, Microsoft is displaying a commitment to racial harmony. And others have suggested that the photo was altered at least in part because Microsoft's Polish site is intended for a country that's predominantly Caucasian. But that doesn't explain the company's decision to retain the Asian head. And many have criticized the company's decision to alter the photo - not to mention its photo editing skills.

Today, Microsoft responded by saying it was sorry. "We are looking into the details of this situation" The company has not addressed the laptop in the middle of the photo. It appears to be an Apple MacBook. But like the black man's head, the Apple logo seems to have gone missing.

Farming in the Kitchen

Phillips has made a biotower self-contained kitchen farm that you can buy (looks like it would be a bit pricey though!)

This Philips non-spherical-biosphere is a self-contained farm for that produces hundreds of calories of various food sources a day. Its five-level design breaks down like this:

Levels 1 and 2: Plants
Level 3: Algae
Level 4: Fish and Shrimp
Level 5: Organic Waste

From what we can tell, the system is designed to cascade nutrients from the top to the bottom (back to the top). Optical fibers capture and redirect light to the plants during the day, while methane capture from organic waste can power lights at night. The algae create oxygen for the fish.

The secret to being a computer guru

click on the pic to zoom

Mexico legalizes small quantities of drugs

Mexico has just passed a law allowing for legal possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use.

The maximum amount of marijuana considered to be for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

Apparently, although the previous law made it hard to prosecute anyone anyways, because saying you were addicted made it a mental health issue, the fuzziness of the law allowed for demands for bribes by corrupt police and extortion. Also, free government health-care to reduce dependency is encouraged. This is a significant step in the midst of a violent organized crime drug-war (primarily profiting from exports to the States), and a step in the direction of sovereignty since the U.S. government really doesn't like this tolerant attitude.

Dolphins creating bubble ring toys to play with

This is a video of a phenomenon that marine biologists have seen in the wild but here is shown by captive dolphins; of blowing bubble rings and shapes as temporary underwater toys. Looks like fun!


Dolphin Play Bubble Rings - The most amazing home videos are here

Glowing Bombs

More weird stuff from the bottom of the ocean.

Newsbox Flower box

An artist in Toronto is converting flyer/newspaper boxes into urban gardens. How long these last (one day?) i don't know, since they are squatting in-use newspaper boxes i suppose their refilled daily/weekly or monthly. i guess the most benefit lies in circulating the photos to people to brighten their day.

Swedish Pirate Party wins seats in parliament

In the latest Swedish election this June, the Pirate party has won 2 of the 20 available seats in parliament getting more than 7% of the popular vote (Sweden has a proportional representation system). Because minority governments in Europe often make coalition governments with small parties, this might make these 2 seats very important in swinging the development of policy:

According to political analyst Stig-Bjorn Ljunggren if, as expected, the Pirate Party wins seats in the Swedish parliament in elections next year, it could well find itself the kingmaker between the country's two established political blocs.

"You have two blocks in parliament: one green and red, and one blue. And if a third party comes into parliament they could choose which one of these two parties will form a government.

"They (the Pirate Party) will sell the post of prime minister to the party that gives most to them," he said.

And the prime minister has not ruled out doing a deal with the party.

Why this success in Sweden? Well apart from the benefits of a proportional representation system as opposed to a "first past the post" system like in North America, there is also differences in culture (according to the BBC):

And then there is Sweden's liberal culture, part of which is the principle of Allemansratten.

"Allemansratten means everyone's right. It's an important part of Swedish culture and identity," Katrine Kielos, a columnist on Sweden's best-selling daily tabloid Aftonbladet, explained to me.

"It means that the law of trespass is very weak in Sweden, so you have the right to access somebody's property in a way that is not possible in other countries."

There is also a new Pirate party that has just been registered in the UK, and a small US party (Good luck with that one!) The German Pirate party recently won 1% of the popular vote in the last election, and one member of parliament from the ruling Social Democrat party has switched allegiance to the German pirate party, giving them a seat.

laser

let's make our laser do this.

Tofu Sukiyaki Recipe

Tofu Sukiyaki Recipe

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
14 oz fried tofu, cubed
1/2 cup onion, chopped (a quarter of a large onion)
1/4 cup green onion, chopped (three medium green onions, white and green parts)
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup raw mushrooms
fresh ginger
fresh garlic
1/2 napa cabbage
1/2 cup enoki mushrooms
1/4 cup soy sauce (for sauce)
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce (for sauce)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (for sauce)
1 tsp sesame oil (for sauce)
1 tbsp brown sugar (for sauce)
2 tbsp garlic powder (for sauce)
1 tbsp ginger powder (for sauce)

Serve on rice is nice

Berlin leftist arsonists targeting luxury cars

There has been a rash of car burning done by anti-gentrification arsonists in Berlin with an average on one luxury or police car burning up per night over the last six months.

A mysterious, single page website, brennende-autos.de (Burning Cars of Berlin), shows the number of cars set alight and where the crimes occurred, revealing clusters in ''richer'' areas, or in suburbs where gentrification and redevelopment are changing the demographic of local neighbourhoods...