Neatorama

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• The History of The Universe in 13,799 Dominoes
• The Three Mrs. Watsons
• Making Virtual College More Like College
• This Device Can Detect Lead In Minutes
• Ways To Overcome Fear of Death
• Growing Up In Green Areas Affects Your IQ
• Dogs Turn Green Because of Grass
• Cardistry Master Boomerangs a Card Behind His Back
• Coast Guard Fires at Shark That Crashes Swimming Party
• This Oversized Backscratcher Has Your Back Covered
• How I Deal With Kids Playing in My Driveway
• A Chinese Scholar is Domesticated by His Cat
• Frasier the Sensuous Lion
• A Brief History of Salt and Pepper
• The Facts and Fiction of Chicago's Prohibition-Era Bootlegging Tunnels

The History of The Universe in 13,799 Dominoes Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:48 PM PDT Kurtis Baute set up thousands of dominoes in order to tell the story of the universe. The more you watch this, the crazier you realize it is. Not only does he set up and topple 13,799 dominoes, he also narrates a timeline of the universe as it happens, with each domino representing a million years. The timing had to be precise, the props along the way had to work without disturbing the dominoes, and a screwup would come with a high price -that's a lot of dominoes to reset! I believe the sparkler didn't work right, but he didn't stop, and they edited it nicely. Just designing this idea had to be a ton of work! But don't get distracted by overthinking all that, or by his obvious nervousness and heavy breathing. The story Baute is telling is fascinating in itself. -via Geekologie

The Three Mrs. Watsons Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:10 PM PDT When a man marries three women and they all die, one starts to question the circumstances. Was it really spinal meningitis, or something more nefarious? Still, you would think that anyone with a lick of sense would space the murders out so that they didn't form an obvious pattern. The third death occurred in 1907. Poseyville, Ind, April 1. Zack Watson, of Wadesville, has undergone a peculiar experience. On March 15, two years ago, his wife was seized with convulsions and died in a few hours. He soon remarried and last March, a year almost to a day from the death of the first, Mrs. Watson, the second wife, died of the same disease. Then he married the third time and yesterday his wife died of the same illness and almost in the same manner. However, it wasn't all that long after the third Mrs. Watson died that the true cause of death was determined. The answer to this real-life riddle is even stranger than murder. See if you can guess what happened before you read the conclusion to the story at Strange Company. You'll find further information in the comments.

Making Virtual College More Like College Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:10 PM PDT While online classes are the safest way to get an education in 2020, it's not like being there. Administration and faculty members at colleges and universities have their hands full trying to deliver online classes, so it falls to students to deal with a social life -or lack thereof- during a virtual school year. One team at the Stanford Women in Computer Science Innovation Challenge jumped at the opportunity to create Club Cardinal, an online version of the Stanford University campus that students can inhabit online and meet up with each other through both avatars and video chat. "We made Club Cardinal as a project to allow students to experience university life again when so many campuses were shutting down and sending us home due to Covid," says Allison Zhang, one of Club Cardinal's creators and a sophomore at Stanford. Club Cardinal is a free website designed to look like a game version of "the Farm," Stanford campus's affectionate nickname. After registering with a stanford.edu email address, users choose avatars and are assigned dorm rooms, which they can decorate with furniture and other items from a virtual store. They can explore the virtual Stanford campus via a map featuring campus landmarks, such as the Oval, Meyer Green, Main Quad, Green Library and the late-night eatery known as TAP. Each location has its own Zoom room for video chatting with other users whose avatars are nearby. Club Cardinal users accumulate money for decorating dorms by spending time on the platform and can store those savings in a virtual bank. Students at other schools are setting up virtual campuses in Minecraft and other virtual reality platforms. Read about the new way to wander through a college campus at Smithsonian. Now if they could just do something about the tuition costs...

This Device Can Detect Lead In Minutes Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:50 PM PDT Lead is a substance that is very harmful to humans, especially to children. This is why many institutions have implemented guidelines to help monitor the lead content in food and water, as well as children's toys. It is difficult to do so, however, as laboratory-based tests take days. But maybe it doesn't have to be that way in the near future. Rutgers researchers have created a miniature device for measuring trace levels of toxic lead in sediments at the bottom of harbors, rivers and other waterways within minutes… "In addition to detecting lead contamination in environmental samples or water in pipes in homes or elementary schools, with a tool like this, someday you could go to a sushi bar and check whether the fish you ordered has lead or mercury in it," said senior author Mehdi Javanmard, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. More details about this over at TechXplore. Amazing! (Image Credit: Azam Gholizadeh/ TechXplore)

Ways To Overcome Fear of Death Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:50 PM PDT Most of us fear death. But is death something that we should fear? After all, it is a natural process. Everything that we see in this universe is finite — all of them have an end. In other words, death is something that shouldn't be feared, but rather accepted. It will be hard, however. With these things in mind, how do we, at the very least, decrease our fear of death? Jane Wu has some tips for us over at QDT. What are your thoughts about this one? (Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

Growing Up In Green Areas Affects Your IQ Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:50 PM PDT If ever you have kids, then consider living in a place full of parks and lawns, as well as other greenery, as these could improve children's IQ, apparently. A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Belgium has found that children who grow up in areas with little greenery are at risk of scoring lower on IQ tests. In their paper posted on the open access site PLOS Medicine, the group describes their study of children's IQ and the amount of greenery where they were growing up, and what they found. Prior research has shown that children who grow up in areas with less greenery experience more cognitive problems than those who grow up in greener areas. In this new effort, the researchers have found that growing up with less greenery can also reduce a child's intelligence. Details about this study over at MedicalXpress. (Image Credit: Tama66/ Pixabay)

Dogs Turn Green Because of Grass Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:49 PM PDT Want to dye your dog's hair without spending a penny? If yes, then just do this: let your dog play on freshly cut grass, and see the results after a few hours. It's a win-win situation, actually: you get to dye your dog's hair, while he gets to have fun. The only downside to this one, however, is that you don't get to pick the dog's color — it will always be green. But hey, the dogs love it, and I have pictures from Sad and Useless that will prove it! See the pictures over at the site. (Image Credit: Sad and Useless)

Cardistry Master Boomerangs a Card Behind His Back Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT View this post on Instagram Wasn't expecting to land it, pleasantly surprised 😏 #cardistry A post shared by SEAN O. 📱 (@notseano) on Aug 23, 2020 at 9:44am PDT Sean O. is a master of cardistry: the flourishing movement of cards in complex movements, seemingly without effort but actually only through talent and long practice. In this routine, he twists a deck (I'm sure there's a proper technical term in the field) while tossing one card swinging around his back and back into the deck. -via Born in Space

Coast Guard Fires at Shark That Crashes Swimming Party Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT The USCGC Kimball, which is based in Hawaii, held a swim call on Wednesday. That's when the ship halts and allows crew members to go for a swim in the ocean. They posted a rescue swimmer and watchmen because it's always a bit dangerous to conduct a swim call. Why? Well, there are sharks in the area. And while about 40 swimmers were in the water, an 8-foot shark swam up to them. One coastie armed with a rifle fired shots at the shark very close to his shipmates. According to Good Morning America, everyone made it safely back on board--including the unicorn floatie that you can see drifting at the end of the video.

This Oversized Backscratcher Has Your Back Covered Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT Because normal-sized backscratchers only scratch a small part of your back, why not upgrade to this oversized backscratcher which could cover a large area? The plastic rake measures 7.5″ across at its widest point, and has 15 tines that flex to match the contours of your back. The tool only costs $24.99, which is pretty affordable, in my opinion. What do you think? (Image Credit: Redneck Backscratcher/ The Awesomer)

How I Deal With Kids Playing in My Driveway Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT CanyonChasers gets an alert from his security system when someone comes onto his property. A surveillance camera shows who it is. This summer, it went off every evening at about the same time. What is he going to do about it? I think you'll enjoy the scheme he came up with. -via reddit

A Chinese Scholar is Domesticated by His Cat Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:27 AM PDT Vancouver author and Chinese history buff Xiran Jay Zhao introduces us to the poetry of Lu You, who lived 800 years ago. A few of his poems, written over a span of years, tells how he became a cat person simply by getting one cat to protect his books from rats. decided to do a separate thread for this so here we go: how Song dynasty poet Lu You poem-liveblogged his descent from cat owner to cat slave 800 years ago The year is 1183. Down On His Luck scholar-official Lu You gets a cat because rats keep munching on his books. 1/? pic.twitter.com/MdMgVdiY5V — XIRAN, Chinese History Educational Memer (@XiranJayZhao) August 28, 2020 Subsequent poems hint that the cat later gets fish to eat, and then a rug to sleep on, and even catnip. Then come more cats. Eventually (we don't know if it's the same cat) his cat doesn't even bother with rats, and Lu You doesn't mind because he has become a cat person. But that's not the only term that could be used. thank you for the hella vintage cat content!!! — isweedan (@isweedan) August 28, 2020 Read the entire sequence (eight poems) in this Twitter thread, or at Threadreader. Those who have cats will understand completely. -via Metafilter

Frasier the Sensuous Lion Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:01 AM PDT A lion named Frasier managed to sire 35 cubs in an 18-month period, despite the fact that he was an elderly cat, 19 years old when that particular adventure started. Frazier became famous for his feat, and even starred in a movie- although he was less successful as an actor than as a leonine sex symbol. Learn Frasier's story in the above video from Popular Science. -via Digg

A Brief History of Salt and Pepper Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:00 AM PDT Why do salt and pepper always go together, and why are they the only two additives found on all restaurant tables in Western nations? It wasn't always this way, and to find out how it happened, BBC Ideas gives us a short history of both salt and pepper. -via Laughing Squid

The Facts and Fiction of Chicago's Prohibition-Era Bootlegging Tunnels Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:58 AM PDT In Chicago, the Uptown tunnels connect the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge with several theaters and other businesses underground. Why would tunnels be built connecting unrelated businesses? Stories abound of the 1920s, when Prohibition made the liquor trade illegal, and Al Capone made a fortune supplying the city with booze.    Numerous theories about the tunnels' purpose abound, largely surrounding the Green Mill, a 1920s speakeasy and now classic jazz club. It was founded as Pop Morse's Roadhouse in 1907, a place for mourners to gather after funerals at the two nearby cemeteries. In 1910, it was sold and renamed the Green Mill Gardens, complete with bathrooms in the basement. During Prohibition, the bar became a speakeasy with Capone connections, so people theorize the tunnels were used to run alcohol up to the bar, fueled by the fact the trap door is still in use behind the bar and alcohol kept in the basement. Others claim the tunnels were used as escape routes during police raids; folks could scamper underground and emerge elsewhere in Uptown as if nothing happened. Other ideas suggest illicit card games and liquor storage. But the tunnels were not built with booze running in mind. Still, it's not a great leap to think that these shenanigans may have happened. Read the real story behind the tunnels under Chicago, particularly the Uptown tunnels, at Mental Floss. (Image credit: Flickr user Keith Cooper)

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