Neatorama

---

• The Perfect Gifts For DIYers
• The Zodiac Killer's Final Cryptogram Solved
• It’s A Dog Leash Made From Apples
• The Next <i>Star Wars</i> Movie
• Mummy GI Tracts Yield Evidence of Early Hospice Care
• Throwing a Washing Machine with a Trebuchet
• The 25 Best Photos of the Northern Lights
• Space Station Spiders Found a Hack to Build Webs Without Gravity
• Just Enough Room Island Has Just Enough Room for a Single House
• Nikon Offering Free Online Photography Classes This Holiday Season
• A Japanese Master Chef Cooks A Rolled Omelette

The Perfect Gifts For DIYers Posted: 11 Dec 2020 10:28 PM PST It's that time of the year again when you'll have to think about what gifts you should give to your friends. Fortunately, there are some articles out there on the Internet, such as this one, which might give you great ideas of what to give this season. Engadget suggests 5 DIY kits that make excellent gifts, for both kids and adults who love DIY stuff. Check out the site for more details. (Image Credit: StackCommerce/ Engadget)

The Zodiac Killer's Final Cryptogram Solved Posted: 11 Dec 2020 10:23 PM PST The Zodiac Killer, who murdered at least five people in 1968 and 1969 and claims to have killed many more, sent taunting letters to California newspapers. One of the messages consisted of a series of letters and symbols in a code that no one could decipher. Many tried, and we even posted about a guy who claimed to have solved it in 2011. Now a team of codebreakers operating in three different countries say they have finally deciphered the letter known as cipher Z340.  I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH The FBI has accepted their decryption. The video above explains how they did it. You can read more at the San Francisco Chronicle, or if that's blocked by a paywall, at Zodiac Killer Facts. -via Metafilter

It’s A Dog Leash Made From Apples Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:12 PM PST This is the vegan dog leash made by Project Blu, a pet accessory business based in Wales. This leash, unlike other leash, is made from apple skins with an organic polymer. But don't think that this dog leash is extremely weak just because it's made of fruit, as this leash is stronger than the ones made of leather. Project Blu has other environment-friendly products aside from the leash, such as collars, harnesses, and even poop-bag handlers. Through their Kickstarter campaign, they are offering, for a limited time, special early-bird prices available now… [...] And, with every sale made, the company plants a tree in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects to help combat deforestation. On a mission to remove pollution from the pet industry, Project Blu wants to revolutionize the pet product market offering products that are sustainable, affordable, and built to last. Cool! (Image Credit: Project Blu/ Good News Network)

The Next <i>Star Wars</i> Movie Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:12 PM PST pic.twitter.com/e3N00xCr5i — Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 10, 2020 Disney announced a few details about the next Star Wars movie during a livestream Thursday. The movie is already titled Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. It will be directed by Patty Jenkins, who gave us the 2017 movie Wonder Woman. Jenkins posted the above video about the same time as the announcement. Rogue Squadron is a known entity in Star Wars lore, referred to in comic books and video games, but the plot of the upcoming film is not yet known. It has been said that the story will take place after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, which gives it a blank slate for what happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is scheduled to premiere in 2023. -via Boing Boing

Mummy GI Tracts Yield Evidence of Early Hospice Care Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:10 PM PST A mummified body buried near the Rio Grande between 1000 and 1400 years ago reveals not only a diagnosis, but his end-of-life care. A microscopic-level study of his digestive tract revealed the cause of death. The man suffered from Chagas disease, a parasite-born condition that led to a fatal case of constipation. With no cure available, his people went to great lengths to care for him. For the last two to three months of his life in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of modern-day Texas, the man starved. The final meals he did consume seemed to consist entirely of a food that his people rarely relied on for sustenance: grasshoppers. First, though, his family or community took care to pluck the extraneous bits. "They were taking off the legs," said Karl Reinhard, professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. "So they were giving him mostly the fluid-rich body—the squishable part of the grasshopper. In addition to being high in protein, it was pretty high in moisture. So it would have been easier for him to eat in the early stages of his megacolon experience." Reinhard studied two other cases of hospice care in North America from hundreds of years ago, revealing how community members would do the very best they could to feed an ailing loved one. -via Strange Company (Image credit: Ryan Wood)

Throwing a Washing Machine with a Trebuchet Posted: 11 Dec 2020 08:56 PM PST Engineer and madman Colin Furze (previously) had plenty of spare time during lockdown, and so he built a huge trebuchet. This video is about testing it and adjusting the aim. Watch him chuck a washing machine at about five minutes in! And a clothes dryer at 7:30. They also sling a bicycle and a heater, which don't get much distance, but display a lot of destruction, if you're into that sort of thing. -via Digg

The 25 Best Photos of the Northern Lights Posted: 11 Dec 2020 08:56 PM PST Capture the Atlas has 25 winners in its Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition. If that seems generous, the photo above, titled "The Hunt's Reward" by Ben Maze is an image of the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, taken in Tasmania. Captured in this image is a trifecta of astronomical phenomena that made for some of the best astrophotography conditions one can witness in Australia, namely, the setting Milky Way galactic core, zodiacal light, and of course, the elusive Aurora Australis. On top of this, a sparkling display of oceanic bioluminescence adorned the crashing waves, adding the cherry on top to what was already a breathtaking experience. The photo below, "Turbulunce," was captured by John Weatherby in Iceland.    The forecast on this night was for a solar storm, and it did not disappoint. After the first sign of green in the sky, the group decided to book it out to the Sólheimasandur plane wreck. It was a group effort, but we managed to light the plane from the inside with two colored LED lights that a participant brought. Hearing the group's screams in the dark from seeing a KP6 aurora for the very first time was something I'll remember for the rest of my life. That's only two of the 25 fantastical images you can see and read about in the winner's gallery at Capture the Atlas. -via Kottke

Space Station Spiders Found a Hack to Build Webs Without Gravity Posted: 11 Dec 2020 08:55 PM PST As you clean the cobwebs from the corners, you can take comfort in the fact that the ISS has spiders, too. Those are experimental spiders, deliberately taken aboard to see how space conditions affect web-building. In fact, spiders have flown into space for more than ten years, but now it appears there is a breakthrough in our understanding of the way orb spiders build webs in microgravity. From the research paper:  Under natural conditions, Trichonephila spiders build asymmetric webs with the hub near the upper edge of the web, and they always orient themselves downwards when sitting on the hub whilst waiting for prey. As these asymmetries are considered to be linked to gravity, we expected the spiders experiencing no gravity to build symmetric webs and to show a random orientation when sitting on the hub. We found that most, but not all, webs built in zero gravity were indeed quite symmetric. Closer analysis revealed that webs built when the lights were on were more asymmetric (with the hub near the lights) than webs built when the lights were off. In addition, spiders showed a random orientation when the lights were off but faced away from the lights when they were on. We conclude that in the absence of gravity, the direction of light can serve as an orientation guide for spiders during web building and when waiting for prey on the hub. It appears that in the absence of sufficient gravity, the spiders saw the light source as a substitute for "up." Read a short version of the study's findings, plus a look at previous experiments with spiders in space at Gizmodo.  (Image credit: Richard Fuller)

Just Enough Room Island Has Just Enough Room for a Single House Posted: 11 Dec 2020 08:55 PM PST Among the Thousand Islands (actually more than 1,500) at the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River between Ontario and New York is a tiny island named Just Enough Room Island. It's a privately owned summer resort that has just enough room for the single house that was built on it. Atlas Obscura describes it: [..] Just Room Enough Island was purchased in the 1950s by the Sizeland family who were looking to create a holiday get away. They built a house on the tiny speck of land placing the walls right up to the edges of the island, creating a home that was just big enough to fit, and giving the island its quirky name. A pair of bench chairs were placed in front of the home and there was also a tree growing on one side. And that is all the room the island had. Photo: Omegatron

Nikon Offering Free Online Photography Classes This Holiday Season Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:24 AM PST Picture-taking will always be a part of any event in any season, so it would be great if you know some tricks that will help you take better photos. And if you're someone who plans on improving your photography skills this holiday season, then you might consider attending the Nikon School Online classes. Until December 31, Nikon is offering their classes at the best price: free! … you can stream all 11 of their photography courses just by signing up with your email. They've added a class on how to take better holiday photos to their original lineup of 10—which also features courses on the fundamentals of photography as well as others focused on creating video content, landscape photography, portraiture, macro photography, and even how to photograph children and pets. Each one is taught by industry professionals and offers practical tips, tools, and lessons that will have you taking better shots in no time. "The holidays are for making memories, and Nikon is meant for capturing them," says the company. "Come by for ideas, insider tips, and the technical advice to help you get your best holiday shots ever—the more the merrier!" You can stream all Nikon School Online classes on the company's website. Nice! (Image Credit: PIRO4D/ Pixabay)

A Japanese Master Chef Cooks A Rolled Omelette Posted: 11 Dec 2020 09:09 AM PST Professional people cooking food is really a fun thing to watch, and I know that I'm not the only one who enjoys watching these stuff. Watch this professional chef from Shunraku Kaiten Sushi Restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan break the eggs, mix the ingredients, and then put the oil in the pan (and then drain it), as he cooks a Dashimaki Tamago (rolled omelette). You might be able to pick up a skill or two as you watch it. Via Laughing Squid (Image Credit: KaitenSushiTV/ YouTube)

You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States