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2009/06/02

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McNuggitini: The McDonald’s Chicken McNugget Martini

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 05:12 AM PDT


Photo: Leah

McDonald’s food is often the butt of jokes, but those days are gone if foodie Georgia Hardstark of The State That I Am In blog and her friend Alie Ward of Curiology have their way.

You see, they’ve concocted that could surely be called as the perfect alcoholic beverage/dinner/dessert, the McNuggitini:

Recipe by Alie and Georgia

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

2 McNuggz (plus more for snacking)
1 tub McDonalds Brand Barbeque Sauce (plus more for licking off pinky finger)
1 lg. Mcdonalds Brand Chocolate Milkshake (plus more for bringing all the boys to the yard)
1 bottle Vanilla Vodka (recommended brand: Absolut)

Open the McDonalds bag. Eat one McNugg each, followed by two bites of the Filet-o-Fish (make sure you don’t tell anyone that you eat Filet-o-Fishes).

Mix three or four shots of vanilla vodka in the McDonalds Brand Chocolate Milkshake, followed by one shot each directly into your mouth.

Rim each martini glass with McDonalds Brand Barbeque Sauce, and pour milkshake/vodka mixture into the glass. Garnish with a McNugg (which is to be swiped along barbeque sauce rimmed glass after the milkshake has been finished, and consumed with pure, unadulterated glee).

Details at This Recording blog: Link - via Didn’t You Hear?

Walking “Caterpillar” Gel

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 05:11 AM PDT

Forget electronics, the coolest thing in robotics may just be something squishy like a walking gel that inches along just like a caterpillar:

Shingo Maeda and colleagues made the colour-changing, motile gel by combining polymers that change in size depending on their chemical environment. This is based on an oscillating chemical reaction called the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The result is an autonomous material that moves without electronic stimulation. [...]

Polymers used in the gel shrink and grow in response to ruthenium bipyridine ions, alternately losing and gaining electrons in the cyclical reaction. That effect has been known for some time, but hasn’t been used to make a self-locomoting material on such a scale before, says Maeda.

Link (with video clip) - via Cliff Pickover’s Reality Carnival

Das Hugs: Squiggly, Modular and un-Boring Radiator

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 05:10 AM PDT

Who says that radiators have to be boxy and boring? Take a look at this squiggly DAS Hugs modular radiator that can be molded into any shape you want. As long as it resembles squiggly noddle, that is: Link - via Cribcandy

Planet In Action: Ship Simulator

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 05:09 AM PDT

Wanna-be pilots have Flight Simulator, Microsoft’s iconic computer game, but what about those who want to steer a cargo ship? Enter PlanetInAction’s "Ships", an online simulation that uses Google Earth to let you get in touch with your inner helmsman and steer your own fleet of ships from barges to the cruise ship Queen Mary 2.

Link | YouTube Clip - via Kris Abel’s Tech Life

Magritte’s Dog Found: This is Not a Dog With a Pipe

Posted: 02 Jun 2009 05:08 AM PDT


Photo: PB Abery at LIGC ~ NLW [Flickr] - via Cute Overload

Photographer Percy Benzie Abery took this photo of a dog with pipe in its mouth in Wales c. 1940-1950. I believe he may have found René Magritte’s long lost dog.

Homemade R2D2s

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 08:38 PM PDT


The Bay Area R2 Builders showed off four fully-functioning R2D2 units at Maker Faire. They cost around $10,000 to build, and take a couple of years of work. Link to video report. Link to website.

Canned Meat, Fish & Bugs From Around the World

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 08:33 PM PDT


Potted meat product, quail eggs, snails, and armadillo? Sure I’ll try anything once. I never realized how many canned meat products were out there.

A whole chicken. That jelly is pretty off putting.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by notoriousnicholas.

5 Kidnap-For-Ransom Stories

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 12:17 PM PDT

Holding a person for ransom makes big headlines, but years later or in another placec, you may not be familiar with these stories that gripped the public in their time.

The kidnapping and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., son of aviator Charles Lindbergh occurred in 1932 and was one of the most horrific crimes of its time, prompting the "Lindbergh Law", which made kidnapping a federal crime. (Prior to, it was classified as a local crime.)

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by smellslikepurple.

Skyscrapers of the Not so Distant Future

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 12:17 PM PDT

I have always found skyscrapers to be so majestic, and beautiful. Here are some soon to be finished skyscrapers, as well as a few still in the design phase.

International Commerce Centre. West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Estimated Completion: 2010. Apparantly, this building was going to be even longer, but they were forced to scale it back, since city ordinances don’t allow buildings that are taller than the surrounding mountains.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by notoriousnicholas.

10 Common Phenomena Explained

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 12:17 PM PDT

This article gives answers to how ten everyday things work. These are some interesting facts to know, and you can surely use them to impress your friends. Some examples of what’s explained are sunscreen, joint cracks, freckles, hiccups, and the falling sensation that some get while lying in bed. Below is an excerpt from the section about the falling sensation:

Have you ever woken up to a falling sensation and a strong muscle twitch as you are simply lying in bed? This phenomenon is known as hypnagogic myoclonic twitch or "Hypnic Jerk," and studies have shown that roughly 70% of people have experienced it. There is no definitive answer on why this happens, but most scientists have agreed on the following explanation. When you are falling asleep your muscles become very relaxed and enter what is essentially a state of temporary paralysis. While your body is making this transition the brain can misinterpret the sudden relaxation of the muscles and instead think that you are falling. Instincts kick in and send signals to your muscles to jerk you upright which leads to a rude awakening. Studies have found that "Hypnic Jerks" occur more frequently with people who suffer from sleep anxiety, fatigue and discomfort because the brain is more easily confused. Either way, it is a normal part of the sleep process and poses no real danger.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Snappy.

The Astounding World of the Future

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 12:16 PM PDT


[YouTube - Link]


Voted Best Short Film at the New York Comedy Festival, a tongue-in-cheek look at the thin line between Utopia and dystopia.

- via buzzfeed

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

Outsourcing Elderly Care -to India!

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 10:35 AM PDT


Steve Herzfeld confronted the decisions that haunt most of us eventually. His elderly parents needed round-the-clock care, but he couldn’t afford the quality of nursing home he wanted for them in Florida. So he sent them to Puducherry, India!

Looking back, Herzfeld says the main thing he would have done differently would have been to hire staff before their arrival: it took him five difficult weeks to find a nurse.

But once staff had been found, he could give his parents a much higher standard of care than would have been possible in the US for his father’s income of $2,000 (£1,200) a month. In India that paid for their rent, a team of carers - a cook, a valet for his father, nurses to be with his mother 12 hours a day, six days a week, a physiotherapist and a masseuse - and drugs (costing a fifth of US prices), and also allowed them to put some money away.

Could this be the wave of the future? Herzfeld, whose parents died a few years after moving to India, knows this plan would not work for everyone, but he admires the caring way that his parents were treated in India. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Steve Herzfeld)

To Bee or Not to Bee

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 10:18 AM PDT

Keeping bees is illegal in New York City. That doesn’t mean there are no beekeepers in the city; they just keep their bees hidden on rooftops. Now a resolution to legalize beekeeping is on the table, and many are interested in starting a new hobby.

Beekeeping classes in New York City were brimming with students this spring, partly because of publicity after a city council bill was introduced to legalize beekeeping.

On one Sunday in April the student beekeepers gathered for a live demonstration of hiving.

Afterwards they got two boxes; one with about 20,000 live bees, and another smaller one with the queen bee inside.

National Geographic has a video report, including an appearance by an underground beekeeper who is allergic to bee stings! Link -via Digg

The Infomercial Slogan Quiz

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 10:11 AM PDT


Some TV infomercials play so often that you can’t help but memorize their slogans. Others, not so much. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your memory on 12 products “as seen on TV”. I scored 67%, even though I only knew one answer. Link

The Woman Who Moved Her House Brick by Brick

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 05:07 AM PDT

In 1947, after the love of her life passed away unexpectedly, May Alice Savidge bought a house to restore.

A few years later, she was told by the town council that her house was to be destroyed to make way for a road. Needless to say, May didn’t take that lying down: she fought the town … and lost. But Savidge never gave up:

In 1969, when she was 58, the bulldozers reached her gate. Her response was to number each beam and pane of glass so that her home could be reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Dismantling the heavy oak timber frame, held together with tapered wooden pegs, was both difficult and dangerous. A team of local demolition contractors helped May. She traced over a sample of brickwork using greaseproof paper and crayons so that she would know which bond to use and how thick to lay the mortar.

She continued to live in the house as it was taken down, sleeping beneath the stars in the freezing cold. [...]

She found a site in the seaside town of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, and obtained planning permission and laid foundations. A lorry made the round trip to Norfolk 11 times to carry every part of the house.

So began a life of hardship. She had no electricity and worked by the light of Victorian paraffin lamps. She used an alarm clock to set herself targets each day, noting how many nails she extracted from oak beams per hour, as she dismantled the house and prepared for rebuilding. [...]

Two years later, the framework was fixed to the foundations by a local carpenter and May started to infill the brickwork. She had no experience of brickwork, but was determined to lay every single brick perfectly.

It would be another eight years before the roof tiles were put in place and the property made watertight.

By the time she was into her 70s, however, May had moved in and the house stood proudly in its new gardens, each old oak beam in place, the brickwork nearly complete and many of the walls plastered.

Savidge continued to work on the house until she died at the age of 82. Her niece, Christine Adams, continued the job to finish the house and now recounts the amazing life story of her aunt: Link - via Cellar IotD

The Axe Calendar

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 05:06 AM PDT

Sure it’s a little bit sexist, but at least it’s creative! When Gee Seoul ad agency created this giant "calendar" ad for male deodorant Axe on the side of a female dorm. You get the message, I’m sure.

Larger pic at directdaily: Link

Designer Gas Mask by Diddo Velema

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 05:05 AM PDT

Just because the apocalyptic scenario of a bioterror attack is (always) around the corner, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice fashion for safety. Behold the designer gas masks by Diddo Velema:

Deep down, we are afraid we may never be satisfied. An expanding archive of branded myths and icons feeds this fear. Designer Gas Masks is an attempt to visualize this state of mind. Because it is only by first acknowledging and then challenging fear that we will all be able to breathe a little easier.

Link (Don’t miss his shark attack wetsuit!) - via why not?

Twitter Quote Cross Stitch

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 05:05 AM PDT

What do you get when you mix Twitter with a crafster? How about this twitter quote (michael Ian Black) put in cross stitch, by Julie Zidel of You Heart.Us:

I’m not really sure where I should begin here. I guess we should go way back the beginning, last Wednesday. I’m in the office sitting at my desk eating lunch and making my daily rounds through facebook, flickr and twitter. I take a look at my twitter favorites page. The tweets on this page. These tweets range from the the funny to the mundane to the completely absurd but they all have one thing in common. They amuse me. I thought it was a shame that people were out there living life and not even knowing what they are missing out on. Then it hit me! It is my duty to spread the joy through cross stitch.

Link - via Craftzine

Inhale Exhale Flipbook by Matt Shlian

Posted: 01 Jun 2009 05:04 AM PDT

Remember the flipbook you had as a kid? Well, paper engineer (that’s what he calls himself) Matt Shlian has just turned that concept upside down. Technically, that may be inside out. Or maybe front to back. Who knows! Just take a look at his mind-blowing Inhale Exhale cutout Flipbook and weep: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
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