| Real-Life Application of Nanotechnology: How it Helps You Shave Better Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:56 PM CDT  Quick: what do you think of when you hear the word "nanotechnology"? High tech robots crawling through your bloodstream battling cancer cells? Well - that may be coming in the future, but nanotech is actually here - in a more humble form of shaving!
Here’s a perfect example of how nanotechnology is now entering the realm of practical products for better living for ordinary folks: Could your morning shave get any smoother? You bet - and no, this isn’t about some new 16-bladed razor from Gillette. Adding more blades seems to have reached the limits of practicality, and has forced razor researchers to take a closer look at the blades themselves. In the FX Diamond, nanotechnology is being used to coat each blade, greatly extending their durability. Electric razors are also trumpeting nanotechnology these days, one example being the Panasonic Arc electronic razor. The Arc features whirling blades impregnated with nanoparticles that make them sharper.
Read more about the real-life applications of nanotechnology at WebUrbanist: Link 
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| Things to do with Coffee Grounds After Brewing Coffee Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:55 PM CDT  What do you do with the coffee grounds after brewing coffee? Most of us throw them in the trash, but Life Hackery blog writes that they’re actually worth keeping for other things. For example:
Fridge Deodorizer – Storing different types of food inside the fridge can produce a nasty mixture of odors. Remove those pungent smells with a bowl filled with coffee grounds. Place the bowl inside your fridge and your coffee ground deodorizer will gradually absorb all unwanted scents. If your fridge is packed with stored food, just add more grounds and a few drops of vanilla to your deodorizer so that it can absorb more odors. Skin Exfoliant – Rubbing your skin with coffee ground extract seems silly but it is actually a good idea. The extract removes dead skin cells, which results in better-looking skin. It can save you hundreds of dollars since this simple product can practically replacesseveral pricey sessions with your dermatologist.
Check out 9 other alternative uses of coffee grounds here: Link 
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| Best Treehouse Ever! Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:54 PM CDT  Something worth doing is worth doing well is probably Steve Norris’ life motto. The Ontario, Canada, father of two decided that his children’s treehouse would be the best treehouse EVAR!
Here’s what he did: It’s equipped with electricity and cable TV. There’s an intercom so Norris can talk to his kids if they’re having a sleepover, and a urinal that drains into a pail beneath the structure. A smoke detector is wired to the house, so family members can be alerted to any smoke, whether they’re in the treehouse or not. A revolving light clicks on when the treehouse’s trap door opens (where a rope ladder drops down). Old fire horns that Norris snagged from the University of Waterloo blare if an intruder tries to break into the fort. "It sounds like an air-raid back in Berlin. But I had to do it for my peace of mind." Even the family’s Jack Russell-cross, Sammy, has his own ramp. Norris made it after the dog fell near the top of the wide, stair-like ladder. The roof is sealed and welded on tight, and the floor is sturdy enough to hold an adult. Stephen sleeps in a loft bed, Ryan on a mini-futon and their father on a pull-down bed.
April Robinson of The Record has the story: Link (Photo: David Bebee / The Record) 
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| The “Bloop” and Other Mysterious Sounds of the Earth Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:54 PM CDT  Noise Addict blog has a neat post about some of the strangest and most mysterious sounds from the Earth (some with audio clips). Like this one, nicknamed "The Bloop," for instance:
At various times during the summer of 1997, an ultra-low frequency sound that rose rapidly in frequency over about one minute was detected at 50 degrees S, 100 degrees W. The sound was detected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array (which was U.S. Navy equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines), and was loud enough to be heard on multiple sensors, up to 5000km apart. Scientists dubbed it the "Bloop" (not to be confused with the "Boing ".) Although the sound matches the profile of a living animal, it is much louder than any known creature can produce. Any creature that could produce such a sound would have to be many times larger than the largest whale. You can hear a very short recording of the sound here . The recording is short because it’s been sped up 16x to make it audible to you and I. Some people link the Bloop to Cthulhu, a mythical creature from an H.P. Lovecraft story as the noise originated from an area near the mythical sunken city of R’lyeh from the same story.
Link 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Welcome, Rich White Oligarchs! Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:53 PM CDT 
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart put up this cheeky billboard to welcome those "rich, white oligarchs" attending the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities! Found at east-lake.net 
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| Thief Stole (and Kept) Thousands of Bicycles Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:52 PM CDT  I can easily imagine a thief stealing and then selling a stolen bike. Or a dozen bikes. But 2,396 stolen bikes? Here’s the strange story of Igor Kenk, who single-handedly made Toronto the bike capital of North America:
Clearly this collection has been growing for a very long time. His shop even had a reputation as the place to go to buy back your stolen bike - but no one knew for sure that he was the one stealing them. Rumor has it he was waiting for a big energy crisis where the world as we know it would come to an end and he could make a killing reselling the rest. Over ten thousand frustrated bicycle theft victims have perused Igor’s reclaimed collection of stolen goods but only a few hundred bycles have been returned. He is now facing dozens of counts relating to the thefts alone, but the story doesn’t end there: raids on Igor Kenk’s house and myriad storage places revealed crack, cocaine and pounds of marijuana … as well as a stolen bronze statue of a centaur and snake in the heat of battle. How that fits in is anyone’s guess.
Link (Photo: Eye Weekly) 
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| Fleshmap “Listen”: Body Parts in Music Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:52 PM CDT 
What body parts do artists of various music genre most often sing about? As part of their Fleshmap art project, Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg looked at the data from rock to jazz to hip-hop to find what body parts are most often mentioned. Link - via Buzzfeed (no surprise there, a lot of booty in hip-hop!) 
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| Rotating Grid Optical Illusion Posted: 23 Aug 2008 12:51 PM CDT  This is pretty trippy: David OReilly found that a large grid rotating at a certain speed will appear to group itself into smaller grids, rotating independently.
It appears the persistence of vision effect overrides our knowledge that this is a single grid and divides it up optically. This only seems to work on a uniform grid (I also had interesting results with a brick formation), but the effect is lost when using a checkered texture.
Link 
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