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Cocaine and LSD in the Air of Spanish Cities Posted: 14 May 2009 12:00 PM PDT If the residents of Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, seem a little bit high, that’s probably not because they’re high on life. Instead, it may just be because of the cocaine and LSD found in the air. Yes, you read that right: A new study has found the air in Madrid and Barcelona is also laced with at least five drugs - most prominently cocaine. The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government institute, said on its website that in addition to cocaine, it found trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid -a relative of LSD - in air-quality control stations in the cities. But authorities say that the amount is so miniscule that there’s no reason for alarm: Link (Photo: cuellar [Flickr])

Guinea Pig Coats Posted: 14 May 2009 11:58 AM PDT Psst! Got a guinea pig? Chances are, fluffy (guinny or piggy or whatever it is you call a guinea pig) is cold and needs a custom-made guinea pig coat. But where would you get one? eBay to the rescue! A seller named sydneybear has got you (and your guinea pigs) covered. Eliot Glazer of Urlesque has the roundup in the blog’s Today in eBay feature: Link

Facebook Justice: Fighting Crime with Facebook Posted: 14 May 2009 11:58 AM PDT Stupid criminals who love to brag about their crimes aren’t new, but add social networking to the mix and police have a new tool to bust them. It’s a new kind of justice … Facebook justice! Asylum has a nifty post about the 6 crimes solved by the popular social networking website. For example: Lesson #1: If you spray paint a special tag all around town, you might not want to brand it to your Facebook page. We totally get the need to broadcast talents to friends on Facebook — that’s what it’s for, right? But unless you’re Banksy, your masterful tags probably won’t go over too well with the feds. That’s why, when specific tags were appearing all over Winnipeg, officers received a tip directing them to Facebook, where they found the same designs on an 18-year-old’s page. Lesson #2: If you get caught on surveillance camera, just because you don’t have a mug shot on file doesn’t mean your face isn’t already out there for the finding. Smile! … Or not. The Queenstown police of southern New Zealand nabbed their first Facebook crook after they caught a good shot of a burglar looking directly at the security camera after removing his mask. Quickly after posting the shot to their two-month-old page, tipsters sent suggestions and they identified the 21-year-old thief. Link

Dad Photographed Kids Every Day for 13 Years Posted: 14 May 2009 11:57 AM PDT Photo: Munish Bansal, South West News Munish Bansal is a proud father of two, with a bit of a photography obsession: he has photographed his children every day for 13 years (so far)! Accountant Munish, 36, from Gillingham, Kent, said: ‘It started when I took a picture of Suman on the day she was born. ‘I did the same the following day, and the day after, and the day after that. Before I knew it, she had turned one and I had 365 images. ‘It seemed a shame to stop, so I kept going - and did the same when Jay came along. Now I’ve got thousands and thousands of pictures of my two beautiful kids in each and every stage of their lives.’ Link

Got $15,000? You Too Can Intern at HuffPo! Posted: 14 May 2009 11:55 AM PDT Want to "jumpstart your career in the blogosphere" with an internship at one of the world’s largest blogs? Arianna Huffington’s blog Huffington Post, currently ranked #1 by Technorati, has an opening. But there’s a catch: you have to pay at least $15,000 … Forget a paying internship. Forget working for free. You’re going to have to fork over more than $13,000 if you want to intern at HuffPo. Oh, and did we mention you’d only be there for two or three months? At least you get to pick which office you’d work at — New York or D.C. Incredibly, so far 10 people have bid on the internship, which is "valued" at $500, on online auction site charitybuzz.com. HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington donated the internship. Link

Tiny Susan Boyle Doll Posted: 14 May 2009 10:55 AM PDT When "Uneekdolldesigns" creator Debbie Ritter saw Susan Boyle on YouTube she just had to make a doll version of her! The result is a 5 inch clothespin doll that really does well represent Susan! I cheered for her over and over when I heard her sing… In fact, I even got teary eyed- why? Because she was showing everyone that beauty comes in different packages, and not to judge something because it isn’t carried in a pretty and sparkling package. Link - via fluffybricks From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Maeveone.

Glowin’ for Science Posted: 14 May 2009 10:53 AM PDT Since Osamu Shimomura discovered Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in jellyfish back in the 1960s (his work earned him the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry along with Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien), the science of biology has never been the same. Since then, this incredibly useful tool (I even used it in my dissertation way back when) has found its way to transgenic pigs, dogs, and even cats. NatGeo News has a nifty photo gallery of the various "glowing" animals - some of which crossed the line from science into commerce (the fluorescent GloFish). This one above is the GFP Rhesus Macaque Monkey, used to study Huntington’s disease by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Link - Thanks Marilyn!

Texas Museum Lands Michelangelo’s Earliest Work Posted: 14 May 2009 09:14 AM PDT When you were 12 or 13, you liked to draw monsters, didn’t you? Michelangelo did, too! The Kimbell Museum, located in Fort Worth, has acquired a rather unique piece of painting history.  The painting, The Torment of St. Anthony, is considered the earliest painting by legendary Rennaisance master Michelangelo (1475-1564), done when he was around 12 or 13 years of age.  It is only one of four known to exist in the world, and the only such painting by the master to be exhibited in the United States. Long held in private hands, apart from isolated showings during the 19th and 20th centuries, The Torment of St. Anthony has been hailed, by turns, as both a prototypical Michelangelo and as a work of questionable pedigree. The consensus today holds with Michelangelo. A 2008 Sotheby's auction in London offered the painting in a preliminary range of $200,000-$300,000. Once the acceptance of authenticity had spread, a bidding frenzy surged to approximately $2 million, paid by a New York-based dealer named Adam Williams. Williams cinched the authenticity further with a regimen of X-ray examinations, which revealed alterations that can only belong to a primary-source work-in-progress. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Optical Illusion - Why A Curveball Confuses Batters Posted: 14 May 2009 09:11 AM PDT A curveball will slowly shift by a couple of feet at most, but to the batter it seems to suddenly jump several feet.  Watch this animation of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year winner to experience how this occurs. In baseball, a curveball creates a physical effect and a perceptual puzzle. The physical effect (the curve) arises because the ball's rotation leads to a deflection in the ball's path. The perceptual puzzle arises because the deflection is actually gradual but is often perceived as an abrupt change in direction (the break). Our illusions suggest that the perceived "break" may be caused by the transition from the central visual system to the peripheral visual system. Like a curveball, the spinning disks in the illusions appear to abruptly change direction when an observer switches from foveal to peripheral viewing. Link - via josephfosco From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by josephfosco.

Man vs Cat in The Great Race Posted: 14 May 2009 06:48 AM PDT Martin Humphreys of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England has a one-eyed cat named Midge he adopted from a rescue center 12 years ago. For five years now, Midge has accompanied Humphreys on his daily run and hates to finish behind him. When his workplace offered a £1,000 competition for employees to fulfil a dream, he won after proposing a children's film about Midge's peculiar talent. The result, The Great Race, has been selected for the Short Film Corner at Cannes and Mr Humphreys, who wrote, directed and penned the theme song for the eight-minute production, is flying out to the French Riviera to show it to Hollywood executives. It is believed to be the lowest budget offering at the festival – the opening night film, Pixar animation Up, cost $150 million to make. Midge is not attending the film festival. Link to story with film trailer. Link to video report. -via Arbroath

Shark Attack Hat Posted: 14 May 2009 06:46 AM PDT Look what’s eating this kid! Craftster member 3RaysOfSunshine knitted this awesome hat for his/her son, who wanted a “mean shark”. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Goths in Hot Weather Posted: 14 May 2009 06:44 AM PDT I live in a small town in Kentucky, and the only time you see more than a few young people in Goth clothing is during our annual festival, in the heat of August. Now I’ve found a niche blog that addresses a question I’ve pondered: how hot can they be in all that black Victorian attire? Goths, I love ‘em! I even used to be one for a bit (well, I was a Didi-Goth for at least 6 months). But there’s one thing that troubles me about our cheery friends: what to do they do in summer? All that makeup, long black leather and rubber must get very sticky. I think we should show our respect for these poor unfortunates, struggling to stand out from the vanilla crowd despite blazing temperatures and sunshine that puts the rest of us in shorts and vest tops. Goths in Hot Weather posts pictures of people in Goth fashion and rates them on how Goth and how sweaty they appear. Link -via b3ta

Homemade Tabletop Pinball Posted: 14 May 2009 06:41 AM PDT Instructables member seamster made this wooden tabletop pinball game out of bits and pieces he had saved over time, like drawer knobs, dowels, rubber bands, and a recycle tool table. The ball is from a computer mouse! Link -via Unique Daily

What is it? Game 99 Posted: 14 May 2009 05:24 AM PDT W00t! It’s time for our collaboration with the What is it? Blog - can you guess what this object is for? Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL, let others play. No prize this week, so you’re playing for bragging rights only. For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

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