Neatorama

They Paid You For That? 7 Pointless and Crazy Science Experiments Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:56 AM PST Have you every read about some new science experiment or research study that just seems… well, stupid? If you’ve ever gotten to the point where you’ve wondered what other bogus things they’ll pay people to learn about, you’re in luck. Here’s 7 of the most ridiculous studies ever: Sex, Drugs and Science If this first group of studies show us anything, it’s that scientists are as drugged up and crazy as the junkies up the street from me. Elephants on Acid: If you were going to see the effects of LSD on an elephant, wouldn’t you start with smaller doses and progressively increase the dosage until there was a noticeable change in their behavior? I sure would. But the researchers on this one aren’t like you and me. Instead the researchers working on this one started off by injecting the poor beast with 3000 times the dosage needed for an average human, despite the fact that elephants weigh around 50 times what the average human weighs. Within two hours, the animal died. The scientists defended their actions by saying they had used LSD plenty of times and were sure it was safe. They then concluded, “elephants are highly sensitive to LSD.” Apparently another scientist found their results to be suspicious, so he gave elephants LSD in their water. In his study, the elephants acted a little funny, but were totally fine. Source Turkey Arousal: We’ve all heard stories detailing how stupid turkeys are -like the one that says they’ll drown if you leave them in the rain. Well, some of those turkey stories may be bogus, but two Penn State researchers discovered that turkeys are so stupid they can be trained to be aroused by little more than sticks. Their experiment consisted of creating a model female turkey that could be progressively deconstructed. The scientists would then gauge the turkey’s interest in the “female” and then remove some parts of her body and try again. They were expecting the birds would lose interest after is was stripped down enough. Surprisingly, the turkeys were aroused even when the model became little more than a stick with a head. I guess this not only shows how stupid turkeys are, but how perverse they are too. Source | Photo Via Vicki’s Nature [Flickr] Semen As an Anti-depressant? I always thought scientists were supposed to be unbiased. I mean, if you’re hoping for certain results, might that affect your research? Obviously these researchers bypassed that concept, by attempting to prove that semen works as an antidepressant. They decided to study this theory by interviewing college women who were sexually active. Their conclusions proved that women who had sex without condoms were less depressed than women who used them. Of course, their research was extremely preliminary and they didn’t even bother to take into account additional factors, like the fact that women not using condoms are more likely to be in serious relationships. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that this might play into someone’s relative level of happiness. But like I said, this study was about as unbiased as all those tobacco company ones that couldn’t connect smoking with cancer. Source | Photo Via Zen [Flickr] Paging Dr. Obvious The rest of these studies are amazing -in that someone actually bothered to research things so obvious: Head Banging is Bad For You: Who would have ever thought that aggressively and repeatedly throwing your head up and down would be bad for you? Gee, I never would have imagined that spinal damage and brain trauma could have resulted from head banging. Obviously, I’m being sarcastic. After years of dating a metal head, I can assure you that head banging can certainly make you retarded…or at least, it doesn’t help your intelligence at all. The only good thing researchers found was that head banging is unlikely to leave you unconscious. What is really funny is the researcher’s suggestions for the metal genre. They suggest metal bands play more mellow tunes and less “beat oriented” music. They also urged label to place anti-head banging warnings on their cds. Oh, and listeners were advised to start listening to “adult-oriented rock” instead of heavy metal. Yeah, that’s gonna happen real soon. Source | Photo Via Cayusa [Flickr] Male science nerds likely to be virgins: Hmmm, who is most likely to be a virgin, a party-girl, a jock, or a nerd? Think about it. No surprise here; male science nerds between 16 and 25 are the most likely to not have had sex. At least the study provided some legitimate reasons for this statistic, rather than the typical “nerds are pimply and boring” theories of popular media. The study reasoned that these nerds were the population segment least likely to be in situations where they would meet potential lovers. Apparently, doing homework and going to the library doesn’t help you meet chicks. Hey, at least they’re being productive. Interestingly, female art students were the most sexually active. Source | Photo Via Miss604 [Flickr] Bullies Like Seeing Pain: If bullies were compassionate they would sit around crying whenever they picked on people. The fact that they don’t do so might just indicate that they are mean. Why did anyone need to set up a study to confirm that bullies enjoy seeing other people in pain? An interesting thing about this study is that it was the first time anyone used fMRI to evaluate how respondents reacted to different emotions. Instead of being empathetic like the brain of a normal person, bullies mind’s activate their reward centers when they see videos of other people being picked on. Source | Photo Via ZZClef [Flickr] Television Viewers Are Unhappy: It’s common knowledge that television and other forms of entertainment are a way for people to escape their problems. If you run home to watch tv instead rather than hanging out with friends, you might be unhappy. Did we really need a scientist to tell us that people who socialize are generally more happy than people who sit at home watching tv all day? What’s more crazy is that they needed over 30 years of data to back up their claims. The only unique thing the study discovered was that many viewers are actually addicted. (Marx was right about television, is this evidence that the scientists are commies?): “Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure and long-term misery and regret,” said Steven Martin, co-author of the study. “People most vulnerable to addiction tend to be socially or personally disadvantaged. For this kind of person, TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It’s habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.” Funny, I’ve was using the audio/visual equivalent of heroin the whole time I was researching this. I swear I could quit any time. Source Now that I’ve written this, I think I’ve got a couple of ideas I could get funded. For example, are people happier when they’re warm at home or cold in the middle of nowhere? Or maybe I could find out if donkeys really die when they take a bunch of cocaine and other drugs at a bachelor party. Do you guys have any ideas for awesome studies?

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:55 AM PST This one is fantastic: cartoonist extraordinaire Nina Paley has just released her animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues, with 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. The story revolves around Sita, a goddess separated from her Lord and husband Rama and the present-day break up of animator Nina whose husband left for India and dumped her by email. Nina Paley wants to release the animation 100% DRM-free, but in order to do so, she has to raise $50,000 to pay the holders of some of the musical compositions used in the film (you can help here at QuestionCopyright). Official Website | Watch "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told" at Reel13: Link | NY Times article about Sita Sings The Blues - via Super Punch

The World’s Most Covered Songs Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:53 AM PST Quick: what are some of the world’s most covered songs? Our very own Stacy Conradt (who btw just got an awesome Haunted Mansion-inspired tattoo) did a nice job in covering the 10 most covered songs in history. This one is my favorite: 10. The Look of Love, Dusty Springfield. Written by Burt Bacharach and originally sung by Dusty for the first Casino Royale soundtrack in 1967, it’s been covered a lot. Just a few include The Zombies, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Bassey and Diana Krall. Link - via i met a possum

Hello Kitty + Gloomy Bear = There Will Be Blood! Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:52 AM PST What do you get when you cross Hello Kitty with Gloomy Bear? Oh, yes - there will be blood … For you who don’t know, Gloomy Bear is the creation of Mori Chack [Flash] as the anti-thesis of cuteness. The bear is violent and eats humans. Steve Levenstein of InventorSpot explores this most unusual Hello Kitty product yet: Link - via Rue The Day

R2-D2, Subtitled Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:52 AM PST Do you ever wonder what R2-D2 was saying in the Star Wars movies? YouTube user Mortal Wombat (of meanestbear blog) went to the trouble of translating "Artoo’s" machine chirping into English for all of our enjoyment: Link (Embedded YouTube clip, warning: foul yet funny language) | If you like that, here’s the second part: Link (ditto)

Girls Gone Grabblin’: Catching a Catfish With Your Bare Hands Posted: 02 Mar 2009 12:51 AM PST I’ll never understand the South. Take, for instance, its idea of fishing. You don’t need a rod and reel - just dive into the murky water (!) and grab yourself a catfish with your two hands. Here’s a tribute video of attractive Girls Gone Grabblin’ - catfish grabblin (or noodling, if you want to call it that): Link

Turning The Place Over Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:47 PM PST [YouTube - Link] In 2007, British artist Richard Wilson created one of the most amazing public art ever, using a building in the Liverpool city center: The most daring piece of public art ever commissioned in the UK, Turning the Place Over is artist Richard Wilson’s most radical intervention into architecture to date, turning a building in Liverpool’s city centre literally inside out. [...] Turning the Place Over consists of an 8 metres diameter ovoid cut from the facade of a building in Liverpool city centre and made to oscillate in three dimensions. The revolving façade rests on a specially designed giant rotator, usually used in the shipping and nuclear industries, and acts as a huge opening and closing ‘window’, offering recurrent glimpses of the interior during its constant cycle during daylight hours. Find out more about Turning the Place Over here: Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by solartrash.

Brine-filled Sinkholes in the Great Lakes Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:40 PM PST Sinkholes can develop on the floor of the Great Lakes, just as they do on land.  Interestingly the lake-bottom ones can then fill with brine, rather than fresh water, as water percolates out of the bedrock saturated with minerals.  This acidic, sulfate-rich, hypoxic environment supports a variety of extremophile organisms. Now, researchers are discovering that these unusual sinkholes are home to extraordinary communities of microscopic bacteria. The organisms are not new to science, but preliminary genetic analysis is showing that they are relatives of bacteria that live in the subglacial lakes of Antarctica. Others are functionally similar to the extremophile bacteria living on the black smokers of the deep ocean. Link - via naacal From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

More Photos and Info on Light Pillars Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:38 PM PST In January Neatorama linked to a Daily Mail story about light pillars.  This week Environmental Graffiti offers an explanation re the physics involved, and how they can be created by street lamps and car headlights (The embedded image shows light pillars above an Alaskan ice-skating rink). National Geographic also has a set of five impressive photos of this phenomenon. Colourful light pillars often appear in winter when snow or ice crystals reflect light from a strong source like the sun or moon. Aided by extreme cold, light pillars appear when light bounces off the surface of flat ice crystals floating relatively close to the ground. The pillars look like feathers of light that extend vertically either above or below the light source, or both. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

Who is Going to Tell Him to Get Off? Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:38 PM PST What would you do if you noticed this coyote didn’t pay his fare? Seattle Transit Blog has the big pic: This photo illustrates one danger of building light rail to the far-flung suburbs: unwanted riders. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Lee.

Ninja Bear Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:36 PM PST [YouTube - Link] Claude is a 6-year-old orphan Asiatic black bear, a resident of the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima.  His ability to twirl sticks like a ninja is jaw-dropping - so good that it looks fake, but there are other videos at Japanator (with a baseball bat) and here. - via video From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

Dino Bone Pillows Posted: 01 Mar 2009 07:01 PM PST Technically, they’re “soft interior objects,” not pillows. Either way, they look pretty cool. Link via OhGizmo

Kevin Garnett stars in Monty Python and the Holy Grail Posted: 01 Mar 2009 01:05 PM PST As part of Gatorade’s new branding campaign (apparently research shows more people will buy sugar water if it’s called “G”), TBWA/Chiat/Day and Tarsem teamed up to make a brilliant parody of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Enjoy this ten minute film, as King Kevin Garnett and various other athletes go on a quest for hydration. Can’t say it made me want to buy more . . . G, but I’d buy a pagan Kareem and his talking goat herald toy in a second.

Origin of Hi-Tech Names Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:48 AM PST Rob Lammie of our pal mental_floss blog wrote a very nifty post about the origins of 8 tech names. For instance, ever wonder why it’s called a Tivo? Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing” the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing” it? “Bongo” and “Lasso” are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV” and the engineering acronym “I/O,” which stands for “input/output.” Little did they know their noun would become a verb and their oddly-named invention would forever change the way people watch television. Link Previously on Neatorama: Evolution of Tech Logos

Other Vaders by Adam McCauley Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:47 AM PST In this comic titled "Other Vaders," artist Adam McCauley imagined a world where the Sith Lord had gone out to do other things like being country music star or a real estate mogul instead of a Star Wars villain. Link

Man’s Revenge Against City Hall: Sex Shop! Posted: 01 Mar 2009 11:40 AM PST Here’s a "man fights City Hall" story, with a twist: when Old Town Alexandria’s architectural review committee forbid Michael Zarlenga from altering historic property and renovating his store, he decided to exact a little revenge: To many in Old Town Alexandria, the sex shop that opened recently on King Street is nothing short of scandalous, a historical desecration just blocks from the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. But to Michael Zarlenga, it’s justice. Zarlenga spent $350,000 on plans to expand his hunting and fishing store, the Trophy Room. He worked with city officials for almost two years and thought he had their support — until the architectural review board told him he couldn’t alter the historic property. Furious and out of money, Zarlenga rented the space to its newest occupant, Le Tache. "I can’t say I didn’t know it would ruffle feathers," said Zarlenga, 41. "Actually, I was hoping for a fast-food chain because I thought that would be more annoying to the city." Allison Klein of the Washington Post has more on the story: Link (Photo: Tracy A. Woodward) Previously on Neatorama: Man Fights City Hall … With Signage

Non-Reversing Mirror Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:57 AM PST Andrew Hicks, a mathematician at Drexel University, have created a mirrored surface that is bent in a way so the image you see is not reversed (not a mirror image). From the New Scientist: By calculating how to vary the way each of tens of thousands of points on a mirror’s surface reflects light he can create mirrors that do amazing things. For example, reflecting text without reversing it or capturing a full 360º scene without distorting objects. Link - via geekologie From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by philosophile.

Poppen’s Special Kids Racer Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:49 AM PST Inspired by some old Indianapolis racing books, Joseph Ihnat of Whiting, Indiana designed a 1930s-style race car sized to fit a four-year-old.  He used some old kitchen equipment, including a Smoky Joe barbecue grill, for parts. The body is riveted sheets of aluminum, except for the nose piece which is made from a porcelain enameled roasting pan lid, cut in half, with the handle removed. The front bumpers are from a 1950s kitchen canister sliced in half, the headrest is made from an old chocolate malt shaker cut lengthwise, and the radiator cap is a lid from a maraschino cherry jar.  Ihnat found some 18-inch bicycle wheels for proper scale, and added "six exhaust stacks per side, providing plenty of pretend V-12 power." “I upholstered the seat by cutting foam swimming pool noodles in half lengthwise and covering them with naugahyde.” – Joseph Inhat Link - via dinosaursandrobots From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Foxes Roosting at the Top of a Tree Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:47 AM PST A family of foxes in Ipswich, England, have ditched their usual habitat in an underground burrow, and gone with something with a better view. Baffling wildlife experts, they have chosen to nest 30 ft up a tree! (Photo: Caters News Agency) Julian Roughton, of Suffolk Wildlife Trust, said it was an ‘unusual’ nesting place for foxes. ‘Foxes are quite inquisitive creatures but this is unusual behaviour for them,’ he said. ‘They must feel very safe in the tree and it might be that they are enjoying a sunny spot.’ Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.

Nanotechnology Explained with Puppetry Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:44 AM PST [YouTube - Link] Graduate students Patrick Bennett and Ryan Miyakawa at UC Berkeley made an entry for the "What is Nano" video competition, where people submit their explanations of what exactly nanotechnology means. However, instead of a boring lecture with slides, they made an amazing Sesame Street-style musical, complete with homemade puppets! (The singer is Glory Liu) Link to competition. - via physorg From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by easf.

Everything is Amazing Yet Nobody is Happy… Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:34 AM PST [YouTube - Link] Comedian Louis CK was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien explaining how amazing everything is, and yet nobody is happy. You’d think with all this technology and instant gratification, we would at least realize how lucky we are. From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.

The Oldest Hotel and Company in the World Posted: 01 Mar 2009 10:28 AM PST The Hoshi Ryokan hotel, located in Ishikawa prefecture Japan, has the dual distinction of being the oldest company and hotel in the world still operating today.  It was founded in the year 717 A.D. and is still operated by the same family over 40 generations later!  One night’s stay will cost you $350 with breakfast and dinner included, and as this is a traditional style ryokan, there are many cultural activities to witness. Link - via ho-shi From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

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