Police officers in Pforzheim, Germany were called Tuesday to investigate an owl that appeared to be sick.
“A woman walking her dog alerted the police after seeing the bird sitting by the side of the road oblivious to passing traffic,” Frank Otruba, spokesman for the police in the southwestern city of Pforzheim, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
The Brown Owl didn’t appear to be injured and officers quickly concluded that it had had one too many. One of its eyelids was drooping, adding to the general impression of inebriation.
“It wasn’t staggering around and we didn’t breathalyze it but there were two little bottles of Schapps in the immediate vicinity,” said Otruba. “We took it to a local bird expert who has treated alcoholized birds before and she has been giving it lots of water.”
The owl will be released when sober. Link -via Arbroath
It is once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is for? You’ll have to state a specific purpose for this one.
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don’t include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
VIAGRA FOR YOUR AFTERLIFE
(Image credit: Flickr user sweart)
Packing for the hereafter just got easier. According to a Chinese tradition, when a person dies, mourners should burn replicas of household items so the deceased can enjoy these in the afterlife. The hope is that if the dead are appeased with burnt offerings, their ghosts will refrain from haunting the living. But like many traditions, this one has evolved to reflect the times. Today, it’s not uncommon to see mourners burning paper replicas of cars, laptops, credit cards, iPods, Louis Vuitton handbags, or even bottles of Viagra!
SPINNING INTO CONTROL
(Image credit: Flickr user Anton Kan)
For members of the Sufi Mawlawi order, pondering the nature of life can literally make your head spin. As part of the Sema ceremony, these “Whirling” Dervishes meditate by twirling in circles, an act that’s meant to bring them closer to Allah. But don’t mistake the spinning for carefree fun. In order to perform the centuries-old ritual, each dancer must undergo 1,001 days of training in seclusion during which they study music, poetry, and Sufi prayers. The clothing is also distinct; participants wear white gowns that flare out like poodle skirts, and they can twirl in ecstasy for hours.
more …
(L) The L Mighty Wallet (M) The Underground Mighty Wallet (R) NYC Subway Map Mighty Wallet – $14.95
You’ll never be lost at the subway with these Mighty Wallets from the NeatoShop! The clever and super-strong Tyvek-made wallets are printed with maps from various subway systems, like the ‘L’ in Chicago, the London Underground, and the NYC Subway.
As an added bonus, you’re camouflaging your money and cards inside what looks like ordinary ol’ maps: Link
Remember our post about the "magnetic slope" illusion that won the 2010 Illusion of the Year competition?
Well, the maker of that optical illusion, math professor Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan has more. Take a look at his clip, titled Impossible Motions 2: Link [Flash video clip] – via NPR
The amoeba species Dictyostelium discoideum slime mold (or dicty, as scientists lovingly call it) is one fascinating organism. For instance, its life cycle involves unicellular amoeba, then a multicellular slug that scoots around to find food, then a "fruiting body" to disperse spores to new growing areas.
Scientists have just discovered that the slime mold is even cannier than previously thought: it can also "farm."
Research described in Nature shows that a third of these spores contain some of the bacteria to grow at the new site.
Food management has been seen in animals including ants and snails, but never in creatures as simple as these.
The behaviour falls short of the kind of "farming" that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild.
But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one.
More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can "seed" a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria.
Brandon Schaefer created this poster of Bill Murray using elements found in the various movies starring the actor. Can you name them all?
When Mick Lauer (Newgrounds user RicePirate) discovered a review of the satirical Super PSTW Action RPG Flash game by irritated gamer axman13 and voice track by Deven Mack (D-Mac-Double), he was compelled to turn this epic review into a super epic animation.
Behold, Dot Dot Dot:
Watch it and weep: Link [YouTube Clip]
Image: Normal Jean [Flickr] – via EPBOT
Musician, artist, Jean of all trades and – obviously – Doctor Who fan, Normal Jean transformed her front door into a TARDIS.
See also:
You knew that it was just a matter of time till someone invented an Inception-themed food. Well, that time is now: Elie Ayrouth of Food Beast blog created the Inception Taco. He used 5 different Del Taco menu items to create "five dream levels of burrito for you to traverse with every bite"
Wait till you see the totem on the 4th level of the Inception Burrito: Link
In the art installation called Just in Time, or A Short History of Production, French artist Xavier Antin printed a book using a chain of four desktop printers of varying technologies from 1880 to 1976, using the output of one as input of another: Link – via The Ministry of Type
Patrick McCarthy, a Microsoft VP of Sales, took the proverb "Dress for Success" to its logical extreme that in order to get money, you should smell like money.
Here’s the perfume that will make you smell like a million bucks (literally):
"I really feel that people who wear this will feel more confident," McCarthy told AOL News. "I got the idea after reading a story about a Japanese study that showed a significant increase in worker productivity when the smell of money was pumped through vents into factories."
And when McCarthy went to his ATM and noticed how much he enjoyed the scent of fresh, crisp bills, he really smelled the potential for making a mint.
"[The odor of money] is a unique fragrance," he said.
David Moye of AOL Weird News has more: Link
Remember the The Simpsons opening sequence directed by the guerilla artist Banksy? Well, he’s uploaded the original storyboard of the now famous intro to his website. Take a look: Link – via Buzzfeed
This carnival ride concept is making my stomach queasy just looking at it, but my kids would fight for a chance to try it. What about you? -via The Daily What
Instant Love Inflatable Heart – $4.95
Are you feeling a little needy today? Do you need a little extra love and attention? The Instant Love Inflatable Heart from the NeatoShop is here for you. Just pop open the tin and blow yourself happy.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more inflatable fun | Valentine’s Day Gifts
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Joao Vieira wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Portuguese flight attendant Vera Silva, in a memorable way. So he booked a flight on which she was working. He worked with the pilot and flight crew so that he could get on the plane’s public address system and propose marriage to her. After a moment, she turned on a microphone from the opposite side of the plane and said yes. You can watch a video of the proposal at the link.
English Russia, a blog that presents readers with the oddities and wonders of Russia, has a collection of graphic work safety posters from the Soviet Union. They get rather blunt, but it would be hard to top the German masterpiece Forklift Driver Klaus.
Link via The Agitator
I don’t know the origin of this picture or the set of which it is a part, but it appears to show a man making a candle with bacon grease. Do you think that it would work?
Link via The Presurfer
Does this look like it would deter any bicycle thief whatsoever? See a collection of lock and logic failures for both bikes and bigger vehicles in a collection at Locksmiths-R-Us. Link -Thanks, David!
The Ames-Dryden (AD)-1 was an experimental aircraft developed by NASA during the 1970s. Its wing could pivot up to 60° to present the most efficient angle for a given flight objective:
The oblique wing was the brainchild of NASA aeronautical engineer Robert T. Jones, whose analytical and wind tunnel studies at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, California, indicated that an oblique wing, supersonic transport might achieve twice the fuel economy of an aircraft sporting more conventional wings.[...]
The oblique wing on the AD-1 pivoted about the fuselage, remaining perpendicular to it during slow flight and swinging to angles of up to 60 degrees as aircraft speed increased.
The swing wing concept was first evaluated by a small, propeller-driven, remotely-piloted research vehicle (RPRV) flown at Dryden in 1976. These early techniques for gathering data about the oblique wing aircraft were applied to the twin turbojet, piloted AD-1, which was flown from 1979 to 1982.
Instead of reprinting the studio posters, film distributors in some eastern European countries commission new posters for movies, and many are works of art. Monster Brains has a collection of Polish and Czech posters for Japanese monster movies, including this awesome Czech illustration for the film Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (Daikyoü Gappa). Oh yes, there are lots of variations on Godzilla, too! Link -via Pink Tentacle
Knifefish have a long doral fin that flutters back and forth to move the fish. Here’s a video showing one in motion. Scientists at Northwestern University thought that it could serve as a useful basis for an underwater robot, and so studied its movement:
Planning for the robot — called GhostBot — began when graduate student Oscar Curet, a co-author of the paper, observed a knifefish suddenly moving vertically in a tank in MacIver’s lab.
“We had only tracked it horizontally before,” said MacIver, a recent recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. “We thought, ‘How could it be doing this?’”
Further observations revealed that while the fish only uses one traveling wave along the fin during horizontal motion (forward or backward depending on the direction on the wave), while moving vertically it uses two waves. One of these moves from head to tail, and the other moves tail to head. The two waves collide and stop at the center of the fin.
The researchers then created a computer simulation of the fish and designed a robot to duplicate its movements:
The group took the robot to Harvard University to test it in a flow tunnel in the lab of George V. Lauder, professor of ichthyology and co-author of the paper. The team measured the flow around the robotic fish by placing reflective particles in the water, then shining a laser sheet into the water. That allowed them to track the flow of the water by watching the particles, and the test showed the water flowing around the biomimetic robot just as computer simulations predicted it would.
“It worked perfectly the first time,” MacIver said. “We high-fived. We had the robot in the real world being pushed by real forces.”
Link via Fast Company
It’s a jungle out there in the blogosphere, and if you’re going to survive, you’ve got to be tough. Show the world you’re hardcore, like Geekologie reader Jian did by getting this tattoo.
Link via Geekologie
A start-up company called Motivity developed this application for Foursquare. Ratio Finder lets users find check-in locations with the sharpest gender imbalances so that they can go there and, well, presumably flirt and such. Mickey Kaus writes:
A site called Ratio Finder uses GPS data from Foursquare check-ins to generate a map showing which restaurants have more men in them and which have more women in them. Combine this with the information on Facebook, Grindr, and Google, and soon you’ll be able to pick your restaurant by flipping through naked pictures of everyone eating there. Or that’s the direction we seem to be headed.
Pictured above is shot of nightclubs in San Francisco. Blue dots represent majority male locations and pink dots represent majority female locations.
Link via Super Punch | Official Website
Louis Mantin inherited a fortune and became a patron of the arts and of high living. He constructed a fine mansion in his home of Moulins, France and filled it with custom woodwork, relics from antiquity, and art. Mantin died in 1905, and had stipulated in his will that his home should become a museum in 100 years.
Mantin only had a few years to indulge his aesthetic fantasies. Knowing that his death was approaching, he made a will in which he made sure his treasured house would be saved.
“In the will, he says that he wants the people of Moulins in 100 years time to be able to see what was the life of a cultured gentleman of his day,” said assistant curator Maud Leyoudec.
“A bachelor with no children, he was obsessed with death and the passage of time. It was his way of becoming eternal.”
When the 100-year mark passed, the house remained abandoned and in no shape to open to the public. Isabelle de Chavagnac, a descendant of Mantin’s, threatened to exercise her right to inherit the mansion if it didn’t open as a museum. She didn’t really want the estate, but her actions forced the local government to allocate funds for renovation. The house then opened as a museum, as Mantin wished, in 2010. BBC News has a video tour of the home. Link -via Gizmodo
Moustache Mints – $3.95 | More Mustache Stuff
Attention, hipsters and mustache lovers! Now you can freshen up your breath and carry a mint shaped like the world’s most awesome/overused/so-overused-it’s-awesome real life meme.
That’s right – behold, the Moustache Mints from the Neatoshop (the ‘Stache Tin really does make it so much better): Link
(Hint: Also perfect for Valentine’s Day Gift for the hipsters in your life)
Because laser-totin’ killer military dolphins need that pesky thing called water, researchers are forced to make to with the next best thing on land: remotely guided super dog!
Trained dogs are smart enough to find bombs, drugs, people, and the safest way to cross the street — but only with a capable handler nearby. Now a new system developed at Auburn University could turn canines into remotely guided "super dogs" that can take on risky tasks.
"With our system you don’t have to be in eyesight, versus human guides that do have to be within sight," said David M. Bevly, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Auburn University who worked on the research.
In the past, remote guidance research focused on other animals or relied on invasive implanted electrodes to give commands. Instead, Bevly and his team created an external, real-time navigation system for trained dogs.
They designed a custom harness equipped with GPS, sensors, a processor and a radio modem that connects wirelessly to a computer system. The pack vibrates slightly on the left or right side and emits different tones to direct the dog.
Link (Photo: Samuel Ginn/Auburn University College of Engineering) – via Holy Kaw
They say that cacti are for people who can’t keep plants alive, but what do you do if your black thumbs kill even the hardiest cactus? Artist Shannon Gerard has the answer: crocheted cacti called Plants You Can’t Kill.
Like my other crochet projects, Plants You Can’t Kill are attractive on the surface while also speaking to our human insecurities. These pretty little cacti, aloe plants, flowering pots, ferns and other botanicals look darling on the windowsill but are particularly resonant with those of us who can’t keep the real thing alive.
After dozens of failed attempts at indoor gardening, I just decided to crochet plants my own damn self.
How do you like them avocados?
Link – via thank you, ok
If you’ve ever had to deal with debt collectors, you know that they’re relentless. How relentless? Let’s just say that they don’t let a little pesky thing like death deter them from getting back every penny they’re owed!
Here’s a fascinating story of how a woman who died in 1995 has been "signing" affidavits for the debt-collection industry:
Martha Kunkle has come back to life.
She died in 1995. Yet her signature later appeared on thousands of affidavits submitted by one of the nation’s largest debt collectors, Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., in lawsuits filed against borrowers.
Some regulators complain that the use of Ms. Kunkle’s name reflects an epidemic of mass-produced, sloppy and inaccurate documentation in the debt-collection industry. Lawsuits have surged as more borrowers fall behind on payments and collection firms turn to courts to get what they are owed.
After being sued for fraud, Portfolio Recovery Associates decided in early 2008 that any documents bearing Ms. Kunkle’s name had "defects" and shouldn’t be used when trying to collect debts, a company spokeswoman said.
Jessica Silver-Greenberg of The Wall Street Journal has more: Link
Like the proverb says, when life gives you lemon, make lemonade. Some entrepreneurial Chinese are finding that their country’s legendary traffic jam (how bad is t? One was so bad that it lasted for 9 days) actually present unique business opportunities:
As wider car ownership leaves roads more congested in the country of 1.3 billion, motorists can now escape by calling a substitute driver to take their cars to their destinations, China Daily reported Saturday.
As drivers are whisked away on the back of motorcycles, a car service employee sits in traffic for them, the state-run newspaper said.
The service is for "those with urgent dates or business meetings to go to, and those who have flights to catch and can’t afford to wait in a traffic jam for too long," Huang Xizhong, whose company offers the service in the central city of Wuhan, was quoted as saying.
Huang said he began offering the service last year after receiving a number of calls from desperate motorists, the report said.
The service is also available in the eastern city of Jinan, where drivers can pay more than 400 yuan ($60) to escape a traffic jam, the report said.
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