Thou art incendiary. Thou sendest me up in sparks... - Linda Albertano
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Heavily stapled phone-pole
Behold, the glory of a thoroughly enstapleified telephone pole, snapped last week in Toronto.
Typewriter key jewelry
Etsy seller Buster and Boo does a nice line in vintage, moderately priced jewelry and decorative art made from vintage typewriter keys from the 1920s and 1930s.
- Typewriter repairmen in photos
- Beautiful old typewriters in photos
- History of the typewriter through vocal sound effects
- NYC writer's space throws out last remaining typewriter user ...
- Prints made from typewriter parts
- Typewriter stays relevant in technology-saturated world
- Trove of classic typewriter info
O_O
Video Link (via reddit)
Hurricane Earl IV
Xeni posted a great NASA image of the 2010 Hurricane Earl earlier this afternoon, which got me hunting around for some information on Hurricane Earls past. After all, this is not the first Earl. There've been three others, as well as some lesser Tropical Storms of the same name. The naming lists for these things are used again every seven years, and individual names are only retired after they've been attached to a particularly damaging storm. Earl, so far, has not.
When the names do get retired, replacing them isn't easy. According to Time magazine, there's a whole list of types of names that aren't allowed. Over the years, the meteorologists in charge of naming have resorted to flipping through the weirder end of baby name books and adding friends' names to the list.
Time: How are hurricanes and tropical storms named?
Above: Hurricanes Earl and Danielle in their 1998 incarnations.
Another oil rig explosion, and the science of dispersants
Another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded today. All crew members survived. Right now, nobody knows whether or not the explosion caused a leak in any of the seven wells that the rig collects from. There have been reports of an oil slick on the water near the fire, but that could just as easily be from the finite amount of oil stored on the rig—which would still a spill, but a significantly less problematic one.
Other than that, there's not really much information out about this right now. If anybody's learned anything from Deepwater Horizon it seems to be that you're better off, PR-wise, if you don't have to correct everything you say two days later.
To give you something to chew over in the meantime, though, Deep Sea News has been doing a really interesting series on the science (such as it is) of oil dispersants. It's interesting, not just because of the basic facts, but also because it gets into the details of why we don't know more.
Dispersants must be applied successfully and have a high effectiveness once in ocean waters. This sounds easy, in principle--once you've perfected your Corexit formula in the lab, just spray it from a helicopter, and voila! Except there are a lot of factors which you also have to take into account: the composition of the oil spilled, sea energy, whether the oil has been subjected to weathering at all, exact type of dispersant used and the amount which you sprayed, and ocean temperature/salinity.
Thank goodness for all those lab tests over the years which figured all this stuff out, you say. Um, well actually it seems like even designing simulation experiments is difficult, and different tests can report different effectiveness scores for the same dispersant. It is difficult to accurately scale up lab tests in order to predict dispersant action on real spills. Older studies used methods and analyses which have since been discredited. Wave-tank tests can probably provide upper limits on dispersant effectiveness, but there are SEVENTEEN (!!) critical factors that require strict control for accurate results (Fingas 2002). Field tests in open ecosystems are even worse for measuring the fate of oil and controlling variables. In terms of measuring dispersant effectiveness, tank tests, field tests, and lab tests all disagree. Awesome.
Part 1: How effective are dispersants on real oil spills?
Part 2: How toxic are dispersants?
Part 3: Do dispersants really promote degradation of oil?
Image of a random oil rig: Some rights reserved by kenhodge13
Preschoolers being radio-tagged
Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Preschoolers in Richmond, California are being handed RFID jerseys when they get to school. The ACLU points out that in addition to the privacy concerns, these are not secure tags. It has the potential to make kidnapping and stalking very easy."
The editors of Scientific American said it well back in May 2005: "Tagging ... kids becomes a form of indoctrination into an emerging surveillance society that young minds should be learning to question."
Don't Let Schools Chip Your Kids
(Thanks, Mary, via Submitterator!)
- Video of a guy implanting an RFID chip into his hand
- How to hack RFID-enabled credit cards for $8 TV
- Credit-card companies killed Mythbusters segment on RFID ...
- RFID Rube Goldberg device
- Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will ...
- HOWTO kill/block an RFID
- Disney kills its spy-on-your-kids phones
Lowbrow Tarot Deck
Curator and artist Aunia Kahn selected a group of 23 lowbrow/pop surrealist artists to interpret one card each of the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. Hi-Fructose has a sneak preview of 14 of the cards, which will debut October 1 with a full show at Los Angeles's La Luz de Jesus Gallery, a book, and of course a deck of cards. Above left, card back by Daniel Martin Diaz; right, The Devil by Chet Zar
The LowBrow Tarot Card Project preview (Hi-Fructose)
UPDATE: You can see the entire show at the La Luz de Jesus site here.
Cartoonist Pete Emslie posing with Julie Newmar
I can't stop looking at this photo of talented cartoonist Pete Emslie posing with my favorite Catwoman, the beautiful Julie Newmar.
My Name is (Hurricane) Earl
How astronauts see Hurricane Earl. This image acquired by NASA two days ago: The relatively placid view from the International Space Station belied the potent forces at work in Hurricane Earl as it hovered over the tropical Atlantic Ocean on August 30. With maximum sustained winds of 135 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, the storm was classified as a category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale as it passed north of the Virgin Islands.
Looking for Bigfoot in Minnesota
Yesterday, while flipping through my Minneapolis Continuing Education fall catalog, I noticed a class on the Great Mysteries of Science, which turned out to be lake monsters, Sasquatch and UFOs. The class was to be taught by a retired University of Minnesota professor who has since participated in an expedition to study said Sasquatch.
Now, this surprised me, because I had previously pegged Bigfoot as one of those coastal elites, who spent all his time in the Pacific Northwest and shunned the forests here in flyover country. But, apparently, Sasquatch is a Real American after all. In fact, sightings are common enough in northern Minnesota that the Bigfoot Field Research Organization recently organized a Sasquatch search party up there. Forty-two people went along, including my friend, travel journalist Frank Bures, who wrote about the experience of "'squatch hunting" for Minnesota Monthly magazine.
We'd been split into 15 camps, and we were carrying an armament of investigative equipment: night-vision scopes, walkie-talkies, GPS, infrared cameras, thermal-recording devices, video and audio recorders, and more. Someone handed me a thermal imager, which would show bright heat signatures of the living things in the forest. I scanned the area around us but saw nothing except a few warm rocks and something that may have been a raccoon.
"We've got some activity here," came another report across the radio. "They're walking around our site." Whenever the group laughed, apparently, there was a rustling in the woods. When they laughed really hard, there was even more rustling.
Those lucky bastards!
Just that morning I had seen the ghost of a footprint in the soft sphagnum near the other group's tent. It looked not quite human, but not quite ape. It had toes, but it was hard to tell what kind of biped might have made it. Two of the people in that camp, a young couple who had once recorded sounds thought to be a Sasquatch running through their hometown near Cass Lake, had heard many strange noises and seen odd shapes just beyond the light of their campfire the previous night.
"We can hear it walking past our tent," they now called over the radio. "It sounds like it's wearing corduroys."
"So," someone in our group replied dryly, "Sasquatch isn't very stylish."
The article contains more science than you might expect. After being told about the alleged Sasquatch's alleged ability to "zap" potential prey into submission with ultra-low frequency sounds, Frank muses on the vast gulf between the deeply silly Sasquatch and the Sasquatch which may, at least, have some tenuous connection to reality.
From Bigfoot's invisible energy beams, it's not far to the edge of the cliff that many enthusiasts have happily thrown themselves over, leaping from simple zoological fact into a morass of New Age nonsense. ... Even if I did want to believe, these things make it very hard.
The notion that there are small populations of unknown primates around the world got an unexpected boost when Scientific American published a cover story in 2000, titled: "We Were Not Alone." It began: "Our species had at least 15 cousins. Only we remain. Why?" The article said our last relative died out 25,000 years ago. But a 16th cousin was added in 2003, when the existence of the "hobbit," a human-like creature that scientists believe died out 12,000 years ago, was confirmed in Indonesia.
For years, locals in that country had told stories of Orang Pendek, a small hairy person that lived in the forest, yet such tales were dismissed as folklore. Now that science has begun to rewrite the evolutionary family tree, the question arises: Are we really alone?
Recently, scientists with more than a few credentials have started to take that question seriously, people like primatologist Jane Goodall (who, in 2002, told Talk of the Nation host Ira Flatow, "You'll be amazed when I tell you I'm sure they exist") and Jeff Meldrum, an anthropology professor at Idaho State University. In his book, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, Meldrum looks at the assembled evidence and finds that some Sasquatch footprints have a midfoot joint that's common in nonhuman primates while others have toe prints running lengthwise instead of across the foot. And new examinations of the old Patterson-Gimlin footage suggest the figure's torso and limbs don't match typical human anatomy.
But what about the zapping? Seriously? Zapping?
... After all, as Meldrum pointed out, it was recently discovered that tigers stun their prey with a blast of infrasound just before they pounce.
They zap them.
Image: Some rights reserved by Wayne_Parrack
Rob Cockerham's quest for a solid ice beer tray
Rob say: "I spent way too much time making a solid-ice beer tray, but I still feel it was worth the effort. To be truly complete, I should have test floated it in a pool or hot tub, but the bottle opener kept short-circuiting my experiments."
Laser cut and 3D printed decorative objects derived from geography
Fluid Forms is a 3D printing and laser-cutting company that produces a wide range of objects based on maps, satellite images, and other photos. They started off with topographical maps of physical places printed in sterling silver with pinbacks, and now they've expanded their repertoire. The new offerings include necklaces with steel charms based on your photos, or maps (inexplicably, these are marketed as "necklaces for men," though I can't imagine why they're not unisex -- the same charms are also available as earrings) and acrylic/wood clocks with finely cut lines reproducing streetmaps.
I love the idea of using "emotionally significant" places as motifs for jewelry and other decorative items. On the 3D printing side, it's a clever way of giving everyone a ready-made, personally important 3D mesh to use as the basis for an object.
Kids' Rube Goldberg machine
Here's video of the triumphant success of an elaborate kids' Rube Goldberg machine, created at an "informal Rube Goldberg summer camp for kids ages 3-8." I know nothing about this summer-camp, but it seems like one of the great Good Things of our era -- especially judging from the awesome elation of the kids after the successful run!
How to Get a Beach Ball Into a Galvanized Bucket (the Hard Way)
White tiger turning black
A white tiger cub born at the Vandalur zoo in Chennai, India is turning black. From The Telegraph: Biologists believe a large presence of melanin, the dark skin pigment, is the likely reason for its unusual colouring.
Tigers' skin colour is determined by the presence of black and yellow pigments. In most tigers, the colour yellow dominates over black to give them their characteristic colouring.
"In this cub, the reverse has happened — black is the dominant colour," senior zoo biologist Dr Manimozhi told The Times of India.
"It is the dominance of yellow pigment that enables tigers to survive in the wild," he added. "In fact, this is the reason why most white tigers are found only in zoos and not in the wild," Dr Manimozhi said. "White tiger cub in Indian zoo turns black"
Mario mural
JenG sez, "NBC4 offers a few great pictures of Columbus College of Art & Design students playing with this interactive 8-bit mural. The mural depicts classic moments from Super Mario Bros., positioned without Mario or Luigi so passers-by can hop into level 1-1."
CCAD Students Create Interactive Mural (Thanks, Jen G!)
(Image: Ken Aschliman)
- Four-storey Mario mural made from Post-Its
- Gamer/anime mural
- Painstakingly painted Megaman 2 bedroom walls
- Super Mario Bros theme performed by an RC car on a row of liquid ...
- Custom Mario levels used as rhythm section for anime theme medley ...
- Mario and Luigi: warrior plumbers tee
- Profane Super Mario ranter plays hardest level ever
- Violinist plays Mario soundtrack in real time
- Stop-motion Super Mario made out of sticky notes
- Super Mario cardies
Quiznos sandwich: reality versus advertising
Quiznos's food photographers and stylists are apparently some kind of latter-day sorcerers, judging from the ad-versus-reality photos of their "Baja Chicken Sandwich" product, as snapped by Sarah, a Consumerist reader.
Fast Food Advertising Vs. Reality: Quiznos Baja Chicken Sandwich
- Ridiculous gut-busting food-ads lampooned
- Photos of fast food in ads and in real life
- Study suggests fast food logos make us more hasty and impatient ...
- Fast-food toxicity comparison chart
- The Perfect Turkey Doesn't Really Exist
- Baconator: fantasy vs reality
- Obedience To Authority at fast food joints
- Sugar Information explains how sugar won't make you fat
Mopion cargo bike
Our friends at Biomega designed this cool-looking cargo bike for Puma. PUMA Mopion is rock steady for the daily grind. It mixes city bike features, and cargo bike features, making it a sturdy companion. It comes with a super-size innovative front carrier for heavy duty transport of your groceries or other needs. Developed for city dwellers, Mopion features a light aluminum frame, making it a one-of-a-kind lightweight cargo bike weighing only 22 kilos. The geometry holds the body in a slightly inclined, but still heads-up position for navigational ease and exceptional balancing. PUMA Mopion
Mad Men discover the laptop computer
Mad Men's Ken Cosgrove and Harry Crane stumble upon a MacBook Pro about 40 years before its time. What did the web look like in 1965? From a terrific Rolling Stone gallery of behind-the-scenes Mad Men photos by James Minchin III.
Wendy's restaurants beverage-handling training songs
Consumerist reader SteveDave has dug up a pair of 1990s-vintage Wendy's training videos explaining how to serve beverages. They're masterpieces of shitty, squirm-worthy industrial video, especially the insincerely rapped "cold beverages" short (they should have just licensed the kick ass G Love and Special Sauce song). Looking at the Submitterator queue, I see that Cassandra found this one last week, too -- thanks, Cassandra!
