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2012/06/10

Neatorama

Neatorama

Swirling Spiral of Light Over the Middle East

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT


[YouTube Clip]

Last week, a swirling spiral of light was seen in the skies over Israel, Syria and other Middle East countries. Was it UFO?

Naw, turned out it was just the Russians:

The Voice of Russia reported that the country's Strategic Missile Forces conducted a test of the Topol ICBM from the Kapustin Yar firing range near Astrakhan in southern Russia on Thursday. Such a launch could theoretically be seen from areas of the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Alan Boyle of MSNBC's Cosmic Log has the story: Link

Monkey Orchid

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 09:00 PM PDT


Image: dendrofan/Flickr - visit Eerika's website for more gorgeous orchid photos

These orchids, found in the Peruvian cloud forest, is named the Monkey Orchid for the obvious reason.

From Kuriositas:

Its scientific name is Dracula simia, the last part nodding towards the fact that this remarkable orchid bears more than a passing resemblance to a monkey’s face – although we won’t go as far as to be species specific on this one. The Dracula (genus) part of its name refers to the strange characteristic of the two long spurs of the sepals, reminiscent of the fangs of a certain Transylvanian count of film and fiction fame.

Link 

Watercross: Racing Snowmobiles on Water

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 08:00 PM PDT


Photo: Joe Barrett/Wall Street Journal

What, you think that snowmobiles only go on snow? Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal explores the sport of watercross, where participants race snowmobiles on water:

Most people think snowmobiling is strictly a winter sport. Mr. McCurdy, a rider on the International Watercross Association circuit, disagrees. He and his fellow drivers wait all year to race their machines on northern lakes when there isn't a snowdrift or a patch of ice in sight.

"It's totally mind-blowing" for some people that snowmobiles can race on water, said Derek McPheeters, another driver and president of the association. "But they work excellent."

Link 

Hide and Seek From the Point of View of a Two Year Old

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT

Peekaboo! Redditor Wetwipey (Daniel Brace of Braceiller Productions) of put a head cam on his two year old daughter Olivia and then played a game of hide and seek with her.

The result is hide and seek, from the point of view of a toddler: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

How to Grill an Egg

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 06:31 PM PDT

We’ve posted a lot of clever egg recipes at Neatorama, including eggs cooked into onion rings, baked into avocados and fried in a waffle iron. Mark Sisson has an additional approach to suggest: cut a bell pepper in half, add an egg to each half, then place them on a grill. If you like a breakfast that fights back, add some Mexican chorizo and chili peppers. Remove them once the eggs are cooked through.

Link -via American Digest

Did Technology Help Kill The Union?

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT


Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Graph: BoogaLouie/Wikimedia Commons

If you're a political animal, then you'd already know that the victory of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in beating the recall election last Tuesday was heralded as yet another death knell in the popularity of labor unions in the United States (his opponents, however, argued that he won by outspening his rival by a 7 to 1 margin).

Indeed, as the graph above showed, union membership has been declining in decades. But what caused it?

Derek Thompson of The Atlantic argues that there's an economic reason to the decline in the power of the unions: the rise of technology. He pointed out the argument of Emin M. Dinlersoz and Jeremy Greenwood in "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Unions":

In the second half of the 20th century, the information age did a few things that badly hurt unions. First, robots replaced unskilled workers in factories. Second, IT created complicated machines and programs that required something more than assembly-line competence. (Third, although this isn't prominently featured in the article, multinational companies got savvier about offshoring cheap labor that wasn't automated.) Just as Ford's innovation had disproportionately empowered unskilled workers, who are more likely to unionize, the information age had had disproportionately empowered skilled workers, who are more likely to not unionize.

Link 

How to Kill a Reanimated Skeleton

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 05:30 PM PDT

By this point, we all know how to deal with zombies: aim for the head. Destroy the brain and you’ve put a zombie down for good. A hit anywhere else just wastes ammunition.

But what about reanimated skeletons? You’re far more likely to encounter them than zombies, which are just imaginary. Aiming for center mass or the head will probably accomplish nothing. Brian J. Noggle argues that your best bet is to shoot the skeleton’s pelvis:

Shoot a little high, you might be able to sever that spinal cord. A little to each side and low, maybe you'll put the skeleton on the ground and incapacitated. A direct hit will probably do both, leaving the skeleton to only crawl toward you, allowing you time to escape. Or, I suppose, it could ride C3P0-on-Chewbacca style on another skeleton. Regardless, it's one less coming after you under its own unholy power.

Link

P.S. Brian wrote the novel John Donnelly’s Gold, an excellent heist story set in a tech company.

The First Objects Created in the Universe?

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 05:00 PM PDT


Image: NASA/JPL

These faint objects above, imaged in infrared by NASA's Spitzer space telescope, may just be the very first objects created in the universe.

SPACE.com explains:

"These objects would have been tremendously bright," Alexander "Sasha" Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement Thursday (June 7). "We can't yet directly rule out mysterious sources for this light that could be coming from our nearby universe, but it is now becoming increasingly likely that we are catching a glimpse of an ancient epoch."

Spitzer spotted these ancient structures after observing two patches of sky for more than 400 hours each. The telescope sees in infrared light, the long-wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum that's less energetic than optical light.

Link 

E.T. Hand

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 04:53 PM PDT

E.T. Hand – $24.95

Father’s Day is June 17th. Don’t just phone home. Get your geeky Dad a gift he will really love. Get him the E.T. Hand from the NeatoShop. This great prop replica of E.T.’s hand has a light-up finger. The finger glows when pressed.

Warning: Dad may still try to talk you into pulling his finger. Whatever sound effect comes from that was not made by this awesome glove.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Father’s Day gift suggestions.

Link

Museum of Endangered Sounds

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT

"Imagine a world where we never again hear the symphonic startup of a Windows 95 machine. Imagine generations of children unacquainted with the chattering of angels lodged deep within the recesses of an old cathode ray tube TV. And when the entire world has adopted devices with sleek, silent touch interfaces, where will we turn for the sound of fingers striking QWERTY keypads? Tell me that. And tell me: Who will play my GameBoy when I'm gone?"

These questions led Brendan Chilcutt to embark on a mission to collect and preserve these sounds in The Museum of Endangered Sounds: Link - via Design Taxi

World’s Largest Coffin Is Actually a Restaurant Run by Undertakers

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 03:30 PM PDT

The food at this restaurant won’t kill you, but the ambiance will remind you of your own mortality. Allegedly, this is a picture of a huge coffin in Truskavets, Ukraine. Local undertakers built it to serve as a death-themed restaurant:

Single candles light the intimate tables, where patrons can order morbid dishes with ominous, vague names such as "Let’s meet in Paradise", or more the more distinctly death oriented "Forty Day Salad", which eludes to local mourning ritual of repeating memorial services 40 days after a soul’s sad departure.

Link -via io9 | Photo: kava.lviv.ua

The Industrial Life of Button Mushroom

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT

That delicious mushroom you just had with your salad wasn't harvested from a beautiful forest or an idyllic farm. No, neatoramanauts, every single step in the growing, harvesting, and processing of Agaricus bisporus, or the champignon or button mushroom is industrial in nature.

Take a look at this video clip by Havatec, which explains everything. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Kottke

Oh, a mushroom trivia for you: if you let that common button mushroom grow to maturity, you get portabello mushroom. Thought you've been eating two different kinds of mushrooms?

Shoulder-Mounted Laser Stands Guard over Your Personal Space

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 02:30 PM PDT

One way to defend your personal space is to carry a halberd while wearing a Strawberry Shortcake t-shirt but no pants. Not everyone, oddly enough, is comfortable with this approach. For them, Zac Ong may have a solution. His project, entitled Repel, features a rotating shoulder-mounted laser. When it detects that people have entered his personal space, it alerts him with LEDs and buttons that blink and spin with increasing speed as the intruder approaches.

Link -via Gizmodo

Ford Model A Half-Track

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT

This 1931 Ford Model A has been heavily modified to get it through the snowy winters of the Great Lakes region. You can swap the front wheels for skis, a process the owner describes as “like changing a tire.” It’s for sale on eBay.

Link -via Jalopnik

Restaurant Serves Meal on Table Suspended 50 Meters into the Air

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Stefan Kerkhofs’s Dinner in the Sky experience lets you eat a gourmet meal served on a platform held aloft by a crane:

Kerkhofs, who used to set up bungee-jumping and amusement part installations, partnered with marketing executive David Ghelys to develop Dinner in the Sky six years ago. The two now travel the world putting on dramatic dining shows.

Kerkhofs has designed and built 40 platforms and charges up to 250 euros ($310) a head for the experience, with Las Vegas, Barcelona, Paris, Monaco and Tokyo all popular destinations.

While the views from up above are spectacular, the aim is to ensure that the food is too, with some of the world’s top chefs preparing the meals. One recent menu included foie gras, lobster with lemongrass and crispy veal sweetbreads followed by a chocolate, caramel and coconut concoction.

The above screenshot is from one such event held in front of the Royal Palace of Brussels.

News Story and Video -via Glenn Reynolds

Breaking Bad Cross Stitch

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT

Too many cooks spoil the meth. So stay out of the kitchen until Walter is done. This cross stitch by Steotch adds a homey atmosphere to the lab.

Link -via Popped Culture

A Bee Hotel

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Would you like to encourage wild, solitary bees to live near your home? You can build a bee hotel that provides the amenities that bees on the go are looking for. Bundle together shoots of bamboo or just drill deep, wide holes into blocks of wood. Hang the assembly in a place that gets plenty of sunlight, but is sheltered from the rain.

Link | Photo: Friends of the Earth

Brain Cupcakes

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 09:30 AM PDT

Here’s some food for thought. DeviantART member CandyCasters made these cupcakes with brain cupcake toppers, cherry vanilla buttercream and maraschino cherries.

Link -via That’s Nerdalicious!

Trololo in Heavy Metal

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT


(Video Link)

To mark the passing of Russian singer and viral video star Eduard Khil, heavy metal cover specialist Erock made this snappy version of “I’m So Happy That I’m Finally Home.” One redditor refers to him as “smiliest person on youtube,” which is appropriate, since Khil grinned throughout the original performance.

-via reddit | Erock’s Website (warning: auto-sound)

Map of Texas Made out of Shotgun Shells

Posted: 09 Jun 2012 07:21 AM PDT

General Lee said, “Texans always move them.” And nothing encourages movement quite like 00 buckshot. Dolan Geiman made this display out of used shotgun shells nailed to wood. It’s a custom job and Geiman will make one for any state.

Link | Artist’s Website
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