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2011/12/30

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4 Amazing Powers of Chili Peppers

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:05 AM PST

The hottest thing about chili peppers isn’t the way they taste; it’s everything else they can do for you.

1. THEY STRANGLE CANCER

Human cells aren’t the happy-go-lucky characters we’d like to imagine. In fact, our cells commit suicide on a regular basis, via a process called apoptosis. Unlike the messy deaths that happen when a cell is injured or diseased, apoptosis is a peaceful passing, wherein an otherwise healthy cell reaches the end of its life span, then shuts down, shrinks, and is absorbed by its neighbors. But with certain types of cancer, the natural process of apoptosis doesn’t occur. Unwilling to go quietly into the great night, cancer cells rage on, refusing to die, continuing to multiply,  and eventually forming tumors.

That’s where chili peppers come in. New studies have shown that capsaicin -the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their kick- may be the key to controlling cancer cells. During the past few years, research has indicated that capsaicin can induce apoptosis in cancer of the lungs, pancreas, and prostate. In the case of prostate cancer, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles found that capsaicin also slows the cancer’s ability to grow. This means chili pepper treatments could be lifesavers for men who’ve survived one bout of cancer but are at risk of another.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that people should feast on pepper-only diets just yet. Right now, there’s little evidence that gorging on chiles will prevent healthy males from getting the disease. In fact, thus far, all research tests on capsaicin have been limited to Petri dishes and some very unlucky mice. That said, scientists remain optimistic about the pepper’s potential to help control the disease.

2. THEY PROTECT MEN AT SEA

Any good sailor knows that barnacles are bad news. If enough of these water-dwelling pests clamp onto a boat’s hull, it becomes less hydrodynamic. In fact, barnacle build-ups can force ships to use as much as 30 percent more fuel. That’s why many seafarers choose to safeguard their vessels by coating them with anti-barnacle paint. The only problem is that these paints are generally filled with toxic chemicals and metals.

Fortunately, in the early 1990s, an American sailor named Ken Fischer came up with a better idea. While chowing down on a Tabasco-laced sandwich, Fischer realized that barnacles might not share his love of spicy food. His hunch was right. Before long, Fischer was making millions off his pepper-based repellant, Barnacle Ban.

Surprisingly, barnacles might not be the only sea creatures averse to chili peppers. The Kuna tribe of Panama reportedly still sails with strings of chilies tied to their boats. The peppers supposedly make the ships (and the Kuna themselves) less appetizing to sharks.

3. THEY NUMB THE PAIN

In addition to killing cancer and fending off barnacles, capsaicin has the ability to dull pain. When it hits the tongue, the spice activates pain receptors that fire up the burning sensation. But after a while, the same process depletes the body of Substance P, a chemical involved in the perception of pain. The message “ouch” stops getting through to your brain, and your discomfort fades.

Medical science has already turned this trick into an over-the-counter cream for arthritis, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Have you noticed that after a trip to the dentist, you talk funny and can’t move parts of your face? That’s because traditional anesthesia temporarily deadens your senses to the extent that you lose control over those body parts. In October 2007, however, researchers at Harvard Medical School announced that they’d used capsaicin to numb rats without rendering them immobile. The researchers first injected rats with capsaicin and then with a local anesthetic. As the capsaicin flowed through the pain receptor pathways, the anesthetic followed in its footsteps, deadening any discomfort while leaving the rats free to scurry about their cages.

In the future, this could mean better painkillers -ones that could make it possible for women in labor to be mobile after an epidural or allow dental patients to move their faces normally after getting a filling.

4. THEY MAKE YOU FORGET HOW BAD THEY TASTE

Although pepper fanatics are always itching for new ways to assault their taste buds, chilies aren’t actually addictive. Numerous scientific studies have shown that chili peppers don’t induce physical cravings, withdrawal, or loss of control -the classic signs of addiction. Yet, there is something about peppers that keeps people coming back for more.

(Image credit: Flickr user Esteban Cavrico)

Scientists think that when pain receptors come into contact with capsaicin, it triggers the body to release endorphins -chemicals that bind to the same receptors in the brain as opiates such as heroin and morphine. And while endorphin highs from peppers aren’t like the ones in Trainspotting, they can provide enough of a euphoric kick to keep people engaged in the actions that release them, such as jogging or bungee jumping. This observation may go a long way toward explaining why humans are the only mammals that keep eating chili peppers, even though the sensation burns. Scientists believe that the little high we get from the spice has helped us convince ourselves that we like the taste. The truth is that we do the same thing -for the same sort of pleasurable payout- with other bitter flavors such as coffee, tobacco, and beer.

(Title image credit: Flickr user cMeFiSh (What’s Next)

__________________________

The above article by Maggie Koerth-Baker is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the September-October 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!

Fark's Headline of The Year Contest

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:50 AM PST

The best thing about Fark is definitely its headlines, which is why the site’s Headline of the Year contest is so darn fun -especially the one in the Geek tab.

While you can click over to the site to find your own favorite and to see the winner, I personally like “Gene fights cancer, but also causes cancer. What the hell is your problem, Gene?”

Link

Melting Snowman Cookies

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:42 AM PST

It’s always sad to see snowmen melt, but when they’re this sweet, it’s hard to be too upset. I want to make these one day, the idea is just so simple and the outcome is delicious and cute.

Link Via The Mary Sue

The Harley Quinn Paradox

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:30 AM PST

At the end of the year, the Comic Alliance likes to rundown the changes in comics over the last year via charts. I’m particularly fond of this great graph showing fan interest in Harley Quinn versus the amount of bare skin she has showing.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Baby Otters Playing In A Tub

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:17 AM PST

(Video Link)

Who knew they made such weirdly adorable noises?

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

Brain Error Street Art

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:33 PM PST

Brain Error

Timm Schneider a.k.a. Kong, the German designer behind the Cartoon Eyes Street Art and many other projects, has a new thing going. This time he’s putting up error messages on advertisements. The message reads:

An Error has occurred in your brain

This process has caused fatal boredom and therefore will be closed permanently. Please save all thoughts in progress and reboot your brain. [error code |-(42]

Link via Nerdcore

Brett Domino Trio Rocks Their Cover Of Earthquake

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:59 PM PST

(YouTube Link)

These geektastic electronic musicians play the kind of songs that make you want to click your left mouse button excessively while nerding out online.

They have a style all their own, part electronic, part hip hop, with some nerdcore rapping thrown in. Their songs would make the ultimate soundtrack for nearly every video game ever made, plus you can dance to it!.

Speaking of video games, this time around the trio plays their own version of the song Earthquake by Labrinth using an app game called Grabatron.

It’s catchy, rugged enough to appeal to the hip hop heads that might get an earful, and I would have played their tracks non-stop in my walkman back in the day, as I worked at getting my initials on the high score pages of my fav arcade games. Geeks up, schmucks down!

–via GeeksAreSexy

Tubalr Wants To Change The Way We Watch YouTube Vids

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:33 PM PST

Have you ever wished for a way to filter through all the crap on YouTube and find the music videos you’re craving in a world devoid of music television? (MTV is clearly no longer about the music, thanks guys).

Well, the makers of Tubalr want to help, and their service will make cutting through the nonsense, and getting to those sweet music videos by your favorite bands, a snap. Here’s a bit more about how it works:

Looking past the fact that Tubalr has a downright ridiculous name (is that supposed to be tubular? Tuba Lore? Two-baller? No idea), it's quite great. You punch in an artist name, then pick either "only" (to play only that artist's videos) or "similar" (to play videos from similar artists.) It queues up a big playlist, and you can go about your business as the tunes play on. Think Pandora's concept, mashed up with Youtube's music video archive.

I wonder if this will become popular enough to make stations like MTV reconsider their reality TV programming in favor of playing  music videos all the time like the good old days. Probably won’t happen while there is still money to be made off the Jersey Shore phenomenon, but a guy can dream can’t he?!

Link –via TechCrunch

Long Out Of Print Blade Runner Sketchbook Is Now Online

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:11 PM PST

The Interwebs are so full of goodies that every day is like Christmas day for those who are willing to dig around. One such gem is the Blade Runner sketchbook, chock full of production designs from the original movie by Syd Mead and Ridley Scott (among others), now in an embeddable format!

So, forget about shelling out hundreds of dollars to get your hands on a copy, follow the link to ComicsAlliance and check out this awesome book in its entirety for FREE! And, if you have a blog of your own, embed that sucker and pass it on. It’s too good to keep to yourself.

Link

Fashion Designers Take On Traditional Christmas Trees

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:54 PM PST

If you thought your Christmas tree was outlandish this year, take a gander at these wild and wacky trees, created by some of the world’s top fashion designers.

There are trees designed by Gaultier (pictured above), Vuitton, Chanel, Trussardi and Christian Dior, among other fabulous fashion moguls.

They take conventional and turn it upside down, creating some of the most artistic and innovative designs for what is normally just another tree adorned with ornaments and lights. Check out the other 15 fab trees at the Flavorwire link below, before the trees get taken down for the new year.

Link

A Gallery Of Weird Chinese Inventions

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:48 PM PST

The inventions that make up this gallery are strange, unquestionably handmade, and many seem quite useful.

Like the one man paddle submarine pictured above, they look like clever and inventive ways to get around, and may not seem so strange when your town gets hit by a flood.

However, personal safety clearly wasn’t a consideration when these inventions were built, and some of them look like they might explode right in your face!

Link

Turning Earthquake-Destroyed Town Into Art

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:56 PM PST

In 1968, the town of Gibellina in Sicily, Italy, was destroyed by an earthquake. Its residents decided to rebuild the town in a nearby (and hopefully more stable) location, thus turning the original site into a ghost town.

That's where art stepped in. Juergen of the travel blog for91days wrote

Between 1985 and 1989, a Sicilian artist named Alberto Burri used the old city’s ruins as the canvas for his most audacious work of modern sculpture. The resulting concrete cemetery is a bold piece of art, a comment on death, and a moving tribute to the devastated city.

Burri covered the streets of Old Gibellina with concrete, preserving the layout of the blocks. Walking around his monument is unsettling. You’re not just standing on the gravestone of a city, but actually tracing the lines of its corpse. Block after block of grey concrete rises from the concrete ground, like the ghosts of buildings. They’re high enough to peer over, so that the rest of the graves are always visible, along with the verdant valley stretching out into the distance.

See more pics: Link - Thanks Juergen!

Behind-the-Scenes: Journey of Your Checked Bag

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 04:53 PM PST

What happens when your luggage pass through those black rubber flaps at the airport? Delta Airlines sent a camera through the conveyor belts to give you a glimpse of a day in the life of your luggage.

Hit play or go to Link - via Laughing Squid

Dalek Bunny Just Wants to Snuggle You into Extinction

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 04:25 PM PST

Lea Hernandez’s bunny wabbit just wants to be loved. There’s no reason to be afraid.

Link -via The Mary Sue

For Sale: The UK's Enormous Bomb Shelter Designed to House the Government during a Nuclear War

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 04:07 PM PST


(Video Link)

Built in the 1950s, this bunker in Wiltshire could house and feed 4,000 people for three months. The United Kingdom designed it to house the government if the worst happened during the Cold War. Watch this video tour of its facilities and make an offer. It’s up for sale.

Link -via Boing Boing

S’more Quesadillas

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:58 PM PST

The main problem with s’mores is that they break apart and get messy with the first bite. Fortunately, Nick of Dude Foods, the culinary innovator who introduced the world to the chocolate covered deep fried triple double Oreo and the 25-cheese pizza, has once again moved the human race forward. He’s developed the s’more quesadilla. Now someone explain to me why there’s no Nobel Prize for the culinary sciences.

Link -via That’s Nerdalicious!

Geek Dream Job Opening

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:54 PM PST

Professor Stephen Hawking is looking for an assistant. Originally, the job was to be for a technician who can maintain and troubleshoot his computerized voice system -and that’s still the most important part of the job description.

An informal job ad posted to the famed physicist’s website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel, and able to repair electronic devices “with no instruction manual or technical support.”

Hawking has long struggled against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which left him almost completely paralyzed.

He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but a wheelchair-mounted computer helps synthesize speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesizer’s robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking’s wheelchair — isn’t just for speaking.

It can connect to the Internet over cell phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office.

The updated job description also says the assistant will help with travel arrangements, lecture preparations, and dealing with the press. Travel is required. The position is funded by the University of Cambridge. Link to story. Link to job description. -Thanks, Shaun!

Dubsteppin' Grandma

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:44 PM PST


(Video Link)

Or, more precisely, she’s dancing to dubstep music. She’s no Marquese Scott yet, but the 94-year old grandmother of YouTube user chucklepley can bust out the moves.

-via Geekosystem

Grand Theft Auto IV Burger in Real Life

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:36 PM PST

Rampaging around Liberty City builds up an appetite, so it’s a good idea to stop at Cluckin’ Bell for a burger. The folks at Gourmet Gaming decided to make that gaming experience real by making their own. You can find their recipe at the link.

Link -via Kotaku

The Rational Calendar

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 02:52 PM PST

Tired of holidays falling on different days of the week year after year? So is former NASA astrophysicist Richard Conn Henry. That's why he designed the so-called rational calendar:

Irritated with inconsistency and beguiled by the possibilities of a steady-schedule world — “Every institution in the world has to change their calendar. Sports schedules. Every company. The dates of holidays have to be reset. And it’s all totally unnecessary,” he said — Henry went to work. [...]

According to Richard Conn Henry’s calendar, eight months would each have 30 days. Every third month would have 31 days. Every so often, to account for the leftover time, a whole extra week would be added.

The upshot: Years would proceed with clockwork regularity, with no annual re-jiggering of schedules required. Each day would occupy the same position as it had the previous year and would in the next. Were this 364-day calendar, known officially as the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, adopted on the first day of 2012, both Christmas and New Year’s Day would forever fall on Sunday.

Brandon Keim of Wired Science has more: Link

One Of The Hardest NES Games Ever Translated To English

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 02:24 PM PST

Have you ever heard of a game called Takeshi’s Challenge? Probably not, since this game from 1986 has only been available for the Famicon (Japan’s NES), and all the in-game text is in Japanese, up until now.

Dedicated retro game enthusiast and ROM modder King Mike has finally cracked this bad boy wide open, translating the text to English and making the game available as a ROM for NES emulators.

Takeshi’s Challenge is famous for featuring some of the most ridiculously hard challenges ever found in a video game, like a boss who is rumored to take over 20,000 hits to defeat, and is thought to be creator Takeshi Kitano’s prank against gamers.

So, if you like your video games to be impossibly challenging, and you enjoy chucking game controllers against the wall in frustration, then Takeshi’s Challenge is the game for you! Personally, I no longer have any controllers to spare, so I think I’ll watch somebody else play this one.

Link –via Joystiq

Hilarious Sentimental New Years Cards

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 02:22 PM PST

Want to tell people how you’re really feeling about the coming of a new year? Then send out one of these hilarious Ecards from some ecards. They’re guaranteed to make the recipient think twice about what is motivating them to act in an uncharacteristic manner due to the changing of the calendar year.

There are nearly 50 of these comical ecards for you to share and enjoy at the link below. Just don’t expect drunk people to get it, so you’d better spring it on them when they’re sober. Take that revelry!

Link –via Super Punch

This Trailer For Kiki Trick Is Utter Madness

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:56 PM PST

(YouTube Link)

This trailer for the upcoming video game release Kiki Trick will have you wondering just WTF is going on. The game is from the makers of Wario Ware, which is full of crazy moments and utter nonsense, so the fact that this trailer is so off the wall is not surprising.

What is a surprise, however, is the fact that this trailer somehow represents actual gameplay footage! What in the world is this game going to make you do, cure a stomach ache by taking antacids, or telling a scary story while huddled around a candle?

The Kiki Trick team sure has stepped up the lunacy scale, and even Japanese gamers are scratching their heads on this one. Enjoy two minutes of madness, Japanese gamer style.

–via Joystiq

Did Columbus Bring Syphilis to Europe?

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:54 PM PST

Christopher Columbus may have brought smallpox that devastated the Native American populations, but according to some scientists, they've got him (and those Europe colonists) back by returning the favor with syphilis:

Armelagos, a pioneer of the field of bioarcheology, was one of the doubters decades ago, when he first heard the Columbus theory for syphilis. “I laughed at the idea that a small group of sailors brought back this disease that caused this major European epidemic,” he recalls.

While teaching at the University of Massachusetts, he and graduate student Brenda Baker decided to investigate the matter and got a shock: All of the available evidence at the time actually supported the Columbus theory.

“It was a paradigm shift,” Armelagos says. The pair published their results in 1988.
In 2008, Harper and Armelagos published the most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis ever conducted on syphilis’s family of bacteria. The results again supported the hypothesis that syphilis, or some progenitor, came from the New World.

Link | The History of Syphilis at Wikipedia

Amazing Sculptures Made Using Matchsticks

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:48 PM PST

These incredibly detailed sculptures were made by UK artist David Mach, who uses thousands of matchsticks pressed into a clay mold to form the likeness of Chaplin, Marilyn and Ben Kingsley, among others.

Mach uses Japanese matchsticks because their heads come in all sorts of different colors, and color is definitely an important part of his works (note the crazy color combos of the Marilyn busts at the link).

Mach feels that a fun way to finish a show is to set one of these beauties ablaze and let it burn away, so he sets aside a few from every show to torch. Now that’s what I call hot headed!

Link –via DesignTAXI

Are We Still in The Great Recession?

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 12:51 PM PST

The Government told us that the Great Recession ended in 2009, but why does it still feel like we're in one? That's because we are actually still in a recession, silly! Well, according to economist Richard Koo of Nomura Research Institute:

This kind of recession Koo is talking about is not a technical recession. After all, the economy is technically growing -- slowly, imperceptibly, like the turning of the earth. But upon closer inspection, we're in a shadow recession he and other economists call a "balance sheet recession." That means that just about everybody in the Western World -- households, corporations, and sometimes even governments -- is focused on paying off our balance sheets (i.e.: paying off debt) at the same time. That's nice for our balance sheets. But it's a horrible way to jumpstart a weak economy.

Koo does the yeoman's work of drawing the picture of balance sheets in the United States and some major European economies. The jagged lines are a bit of an eyesore, but they tell a simple story. Between the IT Bubble and the Housing Bubble that book-ended the 2000s, households (in red), corporations (in blue) or both borrowed lots of money, year after year. Then the recession hit, and our incomes fell, and we started running surpluses by saving more of our money.

Derek Thompson of The Atlantic boils it down for us: Link | Or read Richard's full paper [PDF]

The Secret to Wendy's Success: Round-ish Burgers

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:38 AM PST

If you've eaten at a Wendy's fast food joint recently, you've noticed that their restaurants have a bit more customers. Indeed, Wendy's is set to outpace Burger King to claim the number two spot in burger sales (behind the behemoth McDonald's).

What's Wendy's secret? It seems like the company has graduated from asking "where's the beef?" to "what shape should it be?":

After struggling in third place for years, Wendy’s underwent a change in ownership in 2008, after which it spent a year and a half overhauling its menu. The brand undertook extensive consumer tests on every element of its dishes, from potatoes to pickle slices (it opted for crinkle-sliced over plain). One breakthrough came when Wendy’s executives realized that customers perceived their burgers as overly processed because of their square shape. Although they’re actually fresh, their shape was giving them a bad rap among the more discerning diner Wendy’s was trying to court.

Martha C. White of TIME's Moneyland blog has the story: Link (Photo: Paul Vernon/AP)

CANAF Championship

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:13 AM PST


(YouTube link)

The Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF) concluded last month in Ghana, and Liberia won the tournament by defeating Ghana in the final game 4-2. Link -via Buzzfeed

Would You Want George Lucas to Keep Making Star Wars Movies?

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:46 AM PST

It’s not such a simple question, considering the history of the movie franchise. Are bad Star Wars movies better than no Star Wars movies?

All of these questions are very much tied together. We all want MORE Star Wars movies, I think that's not really up for debate for fans. But we want them to be GOOD, and recently that would seem to mean wrestling complete creative control away from George Lucas, something it's clear he shouldn't have. The first three Star Wars films were a collaborative effort between many, many people, but now? Lucas is supreme overlord of the property, and the new trilogy was him from start to finish. If the same rules applied to new movies, would you even want him to make them?

The debate at Unreality magazine has commenters pouring out their feelings. Link

The 25 Most Powerful Songs of the Past 25 Years

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:44 AM PST

Mental_floss magazine dug up songs that made the news in the past quarter-century. They may be from a different era, and most of them aren’t particularly popular or critically acclaimed (although some are), but they all made a difference in the world one way or another. Many different ways, actually. Read the stories of each and every song at the blog. Link

Newsflash: Fiction is Sometimes Medically Inaccurate

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:41 AM PST

When you watch a movie or TV show featuring characters in your own profession, it’s natural to criticize the fact that the writers are not as familiar with that profession as someone who actually does it for a living. It would be nice to get professional credit for such criticism, wouldn’t it? A doctor from the Netherlands managed to get his study published in a medical journal from research obtained by reading romance novels. The eight novels were set in the world of medicine, and the actual medicine in this fiction was found to be “sometimes incorrect.”

CONCLUSION: The doctors novels which were studied give an unbalanced and distorted view of medical practice. The medical information was sometimes incorrect, partly due to lack of knowledge by the author, partly due to incorrect translation from English. The reality of medical practice was not represented accurately in either of the series investigated, although the medical information in the 'Doctors novels' series appeared to be accurate more often than that in the 'Dr. Anne' series.

I wonder if he got a grant for this. Read more at Improbable Research. Link

Crocodile Captures Lawnmower

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:38 AM PST


(YouTube link)

Elvis the crocodile lives at Australian Reptile Park near Sydney. He did not appreciate the noisy lawnmower that was invading his territory, so he captured it and pulled it into his underwater home. Elvis stood guard over his catch until park staff could lure him away with kangaroo meat. When they recovered the mower, two of Elvis’ teeth were still embedded in the engine casing from the attack! Link -via Arbroath

More Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:38 AM PST


Images: Viktor Hertz/Flickr

We posted about Viktor Hertz' Honest Logos on Neatorama before, but a post by Alice Yoo of the always neat My Modern Met reminded me to check out his new designs: Link - via My Modern Met

130-year-old Sound Recordings

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 07:55 AM PST

Alexander Graham Bell and his Volta Laboratory Associates began research into recording sound in the early 1880s. They tried a variety of recording mediums, such as glass, wax, rubber, and metal. The experimental materials were eventually donated to the Smithsonian Institution, but they were not played back for fear of damaging the original material. But new technology is able to detect the recorded sound without scratching the cylinders and discs.

The recordings in the museum's collection are in fragile condition due to their age and experimental nature. Until now, the technology to listen to the recordings without damaging the discs and cylinders was not available. The noninvasive optical technique used in this project to scan and recover sounds was first studied by Berkeley Lab in 2002–2004 and installed at the Library of Congress in 2006 and 2009. The process creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder. This map is then processed to remove evidence of wear or damage (e.g., scratches and skips). Finally, software calculates the motion of a stylus moving through the disc or cylinder's grooves, reproducing the audio content and producing a standard digital sound file.

The new preservation laboratory at the Library of Congress has hundreds of early recordings, including 200 from Volta Laboratory, to work on, and four of them are digitized for you to listen to at the Berkeley Lab website. Link -via reddit

Kraków's Amazing Nativity Sets

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 07:21 AM PST

The Polish city of Kraków has a rich tradition of building fanciful and elaborate Nativity sets, known in Polish as szopki, that dates back to the arrival of Franciscan friars in the city in the Thirteenth Century. These have become tremendously popular and a cultivated craft:

To bring in a national color, historical figures from local legends were added to the scenes. Many other Biblical figures like King Herod and the Holy Family started making appearances too. By the eighteenth century, the figures had become movable, with stick puppets and string marionettes being introduced. While all this was taking place at Church, the excitement had gotten out of hand as decided by the Bishop Teodor Czartoryski, who banned the plays from churches in 1736. Only immobile scenes were permitted in church, the live puppet shows being passed down to the people. This was the beginning of the szopka as it is known today.

Some szopki are six feet tall! View several more pictures of them at the link.

Link | Photo: Lukasz Zoladz

Award-Winning Animated Short of Plato's Cave

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 07:06 AM PST


(Video Link)

In his Republic, presents an allegory of the value of philosophy and the nature of knowledge that is popularly known as Plato’s Cave: to the unenlightened mind, the world is filled with confusing ideas, like shadows on the wall of a cave, that only reflect truths not yet discerned. Michael Ramsey’s stop-motion animated presentation of this story won first place at the USA Film Festival Short Film and Video Competition in 2008.

Link -via Nerdcore (which has a different animated short narrated by Orson Welles)

What Is It? game 207

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST

It’s once again time for our collaboration with the always interesting What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Or can you make up something amusing?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you’d like in separate comments. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don’t include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For another picture from a different angle, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
@

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