Good Read for the Weekend

Every 48 years, a bamboo forest in northeast India flowers and goes to seed. This is always followed by a plague of rats, which was filmed for the first time in 2008. Watch the NOVA program here. (via Metafilter)

Watch a computer recreation of the Hudson River plane crash, with audio from control-tower dialogue. How they stay so calm, I'll never know.

According to a recent study, people who work more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills than those who work a standard working week. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Toyota Wants to Build Car From Seaweed. When the tranny finally gives out, you might make a delicious soup from the remains.

Why is There no Birth Control Pill for Men? There are several reasons that all boil down the difficulty of reconciling "men" and "control".

What happens to belongings left behind when a home is foreclosed? The process is called a "trashout", and it will make you cringe. (via Boing Boing)

X-Rays in the News. I find it amazing what people can live through, and also amazing how we love to see into their bodies.

Most incompetent people don't recognize that they are incompetent. Doesn't that make you just a little nervous?

Boneyard

Nobunny "Boneyard" Video from Owen Cook on Vimeo.
A song by No Bunny. Video by Owen Cook. (via Everlasting Blort)

Fun and Funny Links

The Blowjob. You know you want to check this video out. Believe it or not, SFW.

I'm sure there's been someone in your life like this. If not, then maybe someone wants to put a sign up about you and are just too polite to do it.

Isn't pole dancing supposed to be a, you know, girl thing?

World`s Most Accurate Pencil Sharpener. I bet after all this, the guy writes with an ink pen and chews on his pencil.

Appropriately Named is an entire blog dedicated to nominative determinism. That means the career follows the name.

7 Celebrity Careers That Launched by Accident. Remember that the luckiest people in the world are the ones who take advantage of opportunity when it presents itself.

Mel Gibson vows revenge on chickens in The Colonel. Harland Sanders himself would get a kick out of this.

A cat answers an office phone. This is not animated or manipulated; he just does it.

Information and Good Reads

Ironworkers spray paint the names of children with cancer on construction beams as they build a new hospital. It thrills the kids, and in a fashion immortalizes them. (via Metafilter)

Graphic artist Jonathan Jarvis created a visual rundown of the factors causing the economic meltdown. The two-part animated video is the simplest of the many explanations I've seen.

A cancer victim sells the rights to film her death for a reality TV series. What seems like a bid for attention is her way of providing for the two young sons she'll leave behind.

Where Are They Now: Advertising Icons. The Gerber baby, the Dutch Boy, and Wendy were all real people who went on to excel in very different areas.

How Much Stuff Do You Really Need? If your house was on fire, you'd figure out quickly that you don't need any of it.

Beauty Affects Men's and Women's Brains Differently. While men calculate where to find a thing of beauty, woman sort those things into categories, which may be an evolutionary response.

The Science of Nostalgia. Things were always better back when we didn't remember them so well.

A comparison of cells in the human body and stars in a galaxy. It makes you wonder what amazing patterns are beyond the realm of our understanding. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Of the 160 or so space launch failures, here are five of the worst.

Whistling Dog

Fun and Funny Links

How to demolish a house in one fell swoop. You need a cannon, some explosives, and lots of friends to celebrate with.

The Arcata Eye Police Log is the best local police blotter on the net. By "best", I mean most entertaining for those of us who have no idea where Arcata is. (via Metafilter)

The new viral video from Samsung is full of cute animals and clever jokes. That's what it takes to get free advertising on the internet.

The goose is after the dog, and it won't stop. Ever. It's the Terminator Goose!

Part Two of the Rocky Horror LOLcats is up! And part three, too!

The Nine Weirdest Public Service Announcements Ever Made. So what, if they get your attention, they've done their work.

Back to the Future: The Alternate Ending. If Doc overshot his target when traveling to the future, something totally unexpected might happen!

Robin Hood's "Oo De Lally," Translated Into 13 Languages. (via mental_floss)

Cat Saves Man from Alcoholism

Hey, whatever works. (via Gigglesugar)

A Day in the Life of Abbey Road

As busy at the road is with everyday traffic, people still pose for pictures to recreate the Beatles' album cover art. (via Neatorama)

Fun Weekend Links

Oscar Links 2009. The Academy Awards are this weekend!

The Arcata Eye Police Log is the best local police blotter on the net. By "best", I mean most entertaining for those of us who have no idea where Arcata is. (via Metafilter)

The new viral video from Samsung is full of cute animals and clever jokes. That's what it takes to get free advertising on the internet.

The goose is after the dog, and it won't stop. Ever. It's the Terminator Goose!

Part Two of the Rocky Horror LOLcats is up!

The Weirdest News Stories of the Week.

Information and News Links

Honeybees: Masters of Utility. These strangest of insects are builders, soldiers, and manufacturers, and our agriculture depends on them.

Presidential Cocktails: History of the White House Wet Bar. Even the president who supported Prohibition had his private stock.

5 Things You Think Will Make You Happy (But Won't). Some honest-to-goodness great information from Cracked. (via Gorilla Mask)

7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable. It's all about social connections, and they just aren't the same online.

99 ways to make your PC blazingly fast. Most of these are for Windows users.

8 Popular Pirates Who Were Actually Losers. Despite their romantic reputations, Most pirates lived short, dirty, and unpleasant lives.

Add this to the growing list of reasons humans aren't so special, after all: Monkeys can subtract.

Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned? Depending on how you define "genius", both nature and nurture may be required.

Le Café

From the French band Oldelaf with Mr. D.

5 New Alternative Meats

Meat consumption usually means beef, pork, or chicken. Mutton and venison are common also. My favorite Indian restaurant avoids both beef and pork for religious reasons, but sometimes offers goat as an alternative to chicken. In the past few years, rising food prices and concerns about the environment are leading people to try new and different sources of meat. Here are five you may have never thought about.

This is a post I wrote for mental_floss.

Image by Flickr user Michael Scheltgen.

Links for Fun

See a growing gallery of cats who have been rudely awakened by their owners. Doing that can get you killed in your sleep.

The guys from Top Gear find out it's not so easy to drive an eighteen-wheeler, especially in the Alps! (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Ten Reasons Facebook Is for Old Fogies. #11. I'm on Facebook.

Escape from City 17 is a story based on the video game Half Life. It was made on a $500 budget, although you 'd never guess by watching.

71 pictures of odd things seen in subways (some NSFW). Aren't camera phones the greatest thing ever invented?

Two musical puns that will make you groan and giggle.

Good Reads for the Day

Is magenta a color, or just something our brains made up? It doesn't exist in the light spectrum, but it exists somewhere.

How the Crash Will Reshape America. You more you know, the better prepared you'll be for the changes ahead. (via Metafilter)

What if life began on earth more than once? Scientists are looking into the possibility that there may be life forms that don't connect with our evolutionary tree at all.

The Voyager probe is carrying a record album of music and sounds away from the solar system. Here are the songs aliens may find someday.

Take a peek at NASA's Constellation program, which will replace the space shuttle. The first test flight will be in July. (via Bad Astronomy Blog)

Klan Economics in Black and White (But Mostly White). For decadess, it operated like a pyramid scheme for bigots.

Traditional media is in trouble, if not dying out already. How will we get our news in the future?

Put some random people in a group, give them a task and soon enough a leader will emerge. Learn how to recognize, or be, that leader.

Fun and Funny Links

LOLcats do The Time Warp.

Ten Fun Facts About Miniature Golf. The sport has come a long way from The Ladies Putting Club. (via Neatorama)

Kittens, Inspired by Kittens has already inspired a remix.

Romance minus the schmaltz: 29 falling-in-love movies we actually believe in. The range of these films leads me to believe nobody has seen all of them.

This animator has my life figured out. It's called Procrastination.

Sebastian's Voodoo is the award-winning story of a voodoo doll come to life. And he's the hero of the story!

The Top 5 Weirdest Mating Calls. I'm a bit disillusioned at the penguin call; I hoped it would be more like this.

Anti-Gravity Quarter Stacking. Is this really possible, or is there some super glue involved?

The Money Song

From Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Injured Storm Trooper

This has never happened before. (via Unreality)

Indochina

A late 19th century film by the Lumiere brothers. Colonialism is illustrated by Asian children picking up rice thrown by two white women, as if they were feeding birds.

Valentine for Perfect Strangers

The most weird, random, and endearing Valentine ever!

Friday the 13th Informational Links

Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky? Because people will believe anything.

The Top 18 Most Addictive Drugs On Earth. Number one was easy to guess, but some of the others were surprises. (via Interesting Pile)

NASA procedures for cleaning the bathroom on the International Space Station include taking tricorder readings to find fungus and bacteria. Except they call the device LOCAD-PTS.

Executives at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley say they want to repay bailout money quickly. Suddenly, it appears that business is easier without government restrictions.

The science of shark repellants. A lot of different ideas have been tried, but they're really difficult to test. Any volunteers?

Cracking the case of the poison processed peanuts. The process reads like a mystery novel, with more at stake than in any fictional whodunnit.

25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis. It took so many failing so spectacularly to get us into this mess.

The weirdest news stories of the week.

Kittens, Inspired by Kittens

(via Boing Boing)

Fun and Funny Links

Devolve Me is a generator that turns you into one or more of our prehistoric ancestors. See what it did to me!

Boys will be boys.

The 6 Most Insane Moral Panics in American History. As if we didn't have enough real problems to worry about.

Rob from Improv Everywhere gets on an escalator and gives out high fives to 2,000 people. He got lots of smiles in return!

Silicone Breast Implants: How Big Is Too Big?

The Sad Man's Kama Sutra. (via Neatorama)

Sweet Treats for Valentines Day. You don't need a sweetheart to indulge yourself in sugary snacks for the holiday.

8 TV Ads That Hate Women. We need no more evidence of a lack of women as advertising executives.

Red Jellyfish

(Live Leak link) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=338_1233923564
Amazing effects occur when the camera light pierces the deep sea darkness. This clip is from The Blue Planet series from the BBC. (via Unique Daily)

Kitty Enjoys a Graham Cracker

(via I Am Bored)

Information and Good Reads

20 "Trials of the Century" of the 20th Century. Because "Trial of the Decade" probably wouldn't sell as many newspapers. (via Neatorama)

Oliver Sacks talks about losing his sight and the hallucinations left behind. If I ever go blind, I hope I get the kind in which people wear funny hats.

The 15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry, or human technologies inspired by nature. After all, there is no better designer than Mother Nature.

1966 GE College Bowl: Agnes Scott vs. Princeton. How a crew of mere girls knocked off the Ivy League boys, and what happened to the team members since.

If you have any plans to go to Iraq and see the sights, keep in mind they won't be expecting you. Maybe you should read about this Italian tourist's experience.

The Ten Most Interesting Jack The Ripper Suspects. It reads like a list of the most eccentric people of the era. (via Gorilla Mask)

Scientists think they have found the birthplace of Zeus. Or, at least, the place where mythology says Zeus was born.

Why you never sign an arbitration agreement. At least if you read enough fine print to know what you are signing. (via Metafilter)

Kostnice Ossuary: Chapel of Bone. This video takes you inside the church where the furniture and decor are made of human remains.

Late last month, the Army announced data showing the highest suicide rate among soldiers in three decades. Here's one soldier's story.

Fun Links

The internet is made of kittens.

Kelburn Castle in Scotland got a makeover from two Brazilian street artists. An 800-year-old fortress is not where you'd normally expect to find graffiti!

Is it a sex toy? Is it a computer peripheral? It's both! It's a Joydick!

The 5 Most Ridiculous Lies Ever Published as Nonfiction. Or at least, the ones that were eventually exposed.

10 Things Science Fiction Got Wrong. Why let science get in the way of a good story?

A classic money scam. Watch closely and see if you can keep up.

Animals that Only Bite Tourists. When you are traveling, be aware that there may be a bit of poking fun going on …especially if you’re told of a scary local animal to beware.

The Circle of Life: Jocks vs.Nerds.

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge, 1888

I earlier posted what was labeled as the earliest motion-picture in existence. This is earlier!

Filmed on paper filmstrips, this is Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince's second known film, produced in October 1888. Only photographic copies of it survive today.

(Thanks, Sobriquet!)

Good Reads

President Obama wants to limit executives from companies that accept bailout money to a salary of half a million dollars a year (more than he makes as president). The New York Times explains how difficult that will be for Wall Street employees.

Hugh Rienhoff's daughter has a rare genetic defect that doctors can't identify or treat, so he took it upon himself to sequence her DNA. It's not an easy task if you don't have a business, or university, or laboratory of your own.

You might think taking pictures of dead babies is morbid. Those who have lost a child are grateful for the memories preservd by a group of photographers who provide this service.

Fossils of a pregnant four-legged semi-aquatic ancestor of the whale lead scientists to believe they gave birth on land. It was probably a requirement from their HMOs.

Taking Traffic Control Lessons — From Ants. And why not? Ants are efficient, cooperative, and determined to reach their destination.

Some say it's time to put sex back in sex education. In other words, maybe we should teach kids more than how to avoid pregnancy and STDs. (via Metafilter)

Built in 1844, the Atlantic Avenue tunnel was New York's first subway tunnel. Forgotten, then rediscovered in 1981, the tunnel is now open for tours.

Titanoboa cerrejonensis was a prehistoric snake that grew up to 15 meters long and could swallow crocodiles whole! Luckily, it would never be able to hide on a plane. Bonus: here are some other prehistoric giants.

Academic Earth has thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars. This is like attending Ivy League classes without that annoying tuition. (via Metafilter)

Links to Learn Something From

5 Horrific Serial Killers (Who Are Free Right Now). You gotta wonder what these parole boards are thinking ...or smoking. (via Gorilla Mask)

The secret formula of embalming chemicals that keep Rosalia Lombardo looking so lifelike for 89 years has been found and revealed.

Fast Lane to the Future. India's new national superhighway has the potential to link different cultures, languages, and classes. With accompanying videos.

The history of the desk that sits in the Oval Office. The story is much more than you ever imagined.

The Top Ten Dirtiest Hotels. Reading the details made my skin crawl. And itch.

"A most decided humbug." George Hull raked in the money exhibiting the Cardiff Giant. His followup, The Ape-Man from Colorado, didn't go over quite as well.

A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis: Unemployment Rates. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Six types of geniuses, based on Dave's observations at Caltech. Recognize anyone you know in these?

Cat on the Head

This cat insists on the best seat in the house, especially when he's not in the house! (via Arbroath)

Fun Friday Links

"Is this real life? Is this going to be forever?" A young boy's first experience with anesthesia becomes a flashback for adults who watch him on video.

In interactive graphic of Twitter chatter during the Super Bowl. Move the slider to see what people were Tweeting during each minute of the game.

Cute cat enjoys a graham cracker. He'd really go crazy for a s'more!

10 Surefire Ways to Score Oscar Recognition. The same type roles keep winning, so there is no question why we see the same types of movies every year.

How much energy did it take to blow up the planet Alderaan? No wonder the Death Star cost so much to build!

A Brief History of Stop-Motion Animation. Oh yeah, lots of examples are embedded with this article. (via Neatorama)

Top 10 Moments Caught on Google Maps Street View. The ridiculous little slices of life that will go down in infamy. (via Gorilla Mask)

Sit on My Face

Monty Python live at the Hollywood Bowl.

Playtime!

Charles-Edward is nine months old. Here's a time-lapse of his activities, with adult interaction mostly edited out.

Fun Links

Sitcom Aliens. The "fish out of water" character was always the funniest on the show.

Travis Pastrana accomplishes an amazing tricycle jump. This would be an amazing jump no matter what kind of child's toy he used.

Ten YouTube Comments Translated into Standard English. I'm glad someone did it; YouTube is a language I have trouble learning.

What every reality show contestant needs to know. These ten tips will help you advance, or at least help you not make a fool of yourself.

Some particularly unusual units of measurement. If you have trouble converting miles to kilometers, wait until you try converting Smoots to Portzebies.

Cat gets run over by a car. Don't be afraid to look. (via YesButNoButYes)

A hippo runs over Rudy, because he didn't listen to the advice of those who had gone before. Another delightful story in the series called Congo Memoirs.

The Bizarre World of Ferrofluid. Watch liquid that not only dances, but can form a chorus line better than the Rockettes.

The Day the Music Died

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper all died in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959. Hard to believe that's 50 years ago.

Odd and Extraordinary Beauty Pageants

You know about the Miss America and Miss Universe beauty pageants. You are probably also aware of child beauty pageants, bodybuilding contests, transsexual pageants, and pageants for married women. Then there are these odd beauty pageants.

read more | digg story

Good Reads

Long-exposure photography makes for some cool effects. Just don't jiggle the camera!

The Stories Behind 10 Famous Food Logos. The oldest ones seem like friends in our cupboards, even if they are fictional characters.

The clash between Chinese and Swedish table manners highlights how different cultures define manners and intimacy. Commenters add how other cultures would react.

Boulder City, Nevada is the home of the newest and largest solar plant in America. 167,000 solar panels are ready to provide juice to homes in California.

The Proliferation of Kingdoms. What were once just plants and animals are now divided into six kingdoms under three domains.

Change is happening already. Starting this summer, the biotech firm Geron will treat a small group of spinal-cord injury patients using neurons derived from stem cells, marking the first time embryonic stem cells will be tested in humans.

Why some people can't put two and two together. Dyscalculia is the numerical equivalent of dyslexia.

Slice has a descriptive List of Regional Pizza Styles. In some places they consider it normal to put the sauce on last! (via Metafilter)

Photo editors from major news services look back at the Bush presidency through the images they published.

The Penis Song

From Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.