Thursday 22 October 2009

The Blob Robot

Very cool new concept. It's simple in theory, surprised it hasn't been developed before.


via The Blob Robot | Scienceray



Monday 24 August 2009

Low-income Kids Report First Sexual Intercourse At 12 Years Of Age In New National Study

Low-income Kids Report First Sexual Intercourse At 12 Years Of Age In New National Study: "A new study of nearly 1,000 low-income families in three major cities found that one in four children between the ages of 11 and 16 reported having sex, with their first sexual intercourse occurring at the average age of 12.77."

12. That's 12.

Friday 22 May 2009

Ida, the missing link

Take that, creationists.

http://www.revealingthelink.com/


Tuesday 12 May 2009

Knife blade in temporal lobe causes a headache

Check out the xrays in the article!

Abstract
Massive alcohol intake usually resolves in a banal headache. We report a case of a patient presenting with acute alcohol intoxication in which the ensuing “hangover” was due to a knife blade deeply retained in the brain parenchyma. This case underlines the unpredictability of retained foreign bodies without a high level of suspicion and a detailed description of the circumstances of admission.
Keywords: stab wound, brain, headache, alcohol intoxication


Retained knife blade: an unusual cause for headache following massive alcohol intake


Tuesday 28 April 2009

Possibly the best freestyle bike rider in the world

Even if he is the best freestyle bike rider in the world, he doesn't have even a tiny bit of the flair Nicole had in BMX Bandits.



Friday 17 April 2009

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Extreme Sheep LED Art

I was disappointed to find out at the end it was an ad for Samsung, so I’m warning you up front, but it’s still pretty cool if it’s real, hard to tell if it’s real or not though.

Monday 6 April 2009

DIY Emergency Cricothyrotomy Keychain

For all of those times when you find yourself having to save someone’s life because they can’t breath through their mouth, you can buy LifeStat, The Emergency Pocket Airway Tool. Yours in brass/aluminium for only $125, or as a gift for that special someone, 24k gold plate for $250.

Don’t know how to perform an emergency cricothyrotomy? It’s just 7 easy steps:

Dr. French, inventor of the Emergency Pocket Airway and an Ear, Nose, and Throat Physician, states the following:

  1. In an emergency, unscrew the device from the end threaded onto the key ring.
  2. Unscrew the other end. A trochar and cannula will slide out.
  3. Perforate cricothyroid membrane or other accessible area of airway with trochar threaded within cannula.
  4. Withdraw trochar after it and cannula are within lumen of trachea.
  5. Thread small end of outer casing into hub of the cannula, thereby extending the length of what has become a breathing tube.
  6. Spontaneous or assisted breathing now possible. Ambu or respirator adaptable.
  7. Apparatus may remain in position during subsequent attempt at oral intubation.

The Pope Condom

From http://blog.iwhc.org/2009/04/the-pope-condom/

Friday 3 April 2009

Songs of Praise (with subtitles)

I love these types of vids. Can’t get enough of them.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Icelandic biotech company deCODE Genetics slides towards bankruptcy

“This might seem like a simple case of yet another biotech out-stripping its capital - but it's sadder than that. While it appears that deCODE made some poor strategic decisions in a business sense, it did use its unique assets (i.e. access to the DNA, health and genealogical records of a large proportion of the Icelandic population) to answer fundamental questions about human genetics. A remarkable number of the genome-wide association studies published over the last couple of years have come from deCODE (I've heard the company described as "a biotech that acts like an academic research institute").”

Genetic Future : A train wreck in slow motion: deCODE Genetics slides towards bankruptcy

Cult mother pleads guilty but with resurrection clause in plea

A cult mother let her baby son starve to death after he started refusing to say amen after a meal. She pleaded guilty, but with the condition that if the son is resurrected her plea will be withdrawn.

Melbourne Catholic Church embraces testing to ID gay priests | Herald Sun

I don’t even know where to begin on how wrong this is. There are so many levels of wrong, I don’t even have the energy to go through them.

Melbourne Catholic Church embraces testing to ID gay priests | Herald Sun

Wednesday 11 March 2009

127 jalapenos in 5 mins

I'm not convinced these jalapenos are actually hot - only the big dude is sweating at the end, and he looks like he'd be sweating after standing up for 5 mins anyway. They are drinking milk after though, so there must be some heat there I guess.



Chimps invent new termite tool

The old method of using a stick for termite harvesting was driving some chimps bananas so they invented a new tool....



Tuesday 10 March 2009

Finally Tonight, religious apparitions in 2008



Seinfeld stars will reunite on Curb

Wonder how many squillion dollars they are each getting?

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25158597-10229,00.html


Thursday 5 March 2009

Did You Know?

I see one of these every year, but this one is brilliantly done.


Wednesday 25 February 2009

More experiments with drugs on insects

You might remember I posted about bees on cocaine, here's some more testing they've done on spiders. (Yes I know spiders aren't insects but close enough.)




Tuesday 24 February 2009

Vigilantes and police in Nigeria detain goat for stealing a car

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat handed to them by a vigilante
group, which said it was a car thief who had used witchcraft to change
shape.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Nigeria police hold 'robber' goat

Hair weave saves woman's life

"I've invested a lot of money in this weave and now it done saved my life."<br /><br /><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12180986">http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12180986</a><br /><br />

Friday 20 February 2009

Big Melons (PG)

Probably NSFW.


Wednesday 18 February 2009

Bike Parking in Japan

This is amazing. Because bicycles are the main form of transport in Japanese cities, there is a huge parking shortage. They just pile them up together at the bike racks. This video shows an alternative initially, which is basically a bike garage like a parking garage, then shows the new automated structures, which have to be seen to be believed!




Friday 13 February 2009

Thursday 5 February 2009

Maps of War

Maps of War is a great site that shows via flash expansion & contraction of various empires over history. The Middle East one is great, as is this one, the history of religions:

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Transformers 2 Superbowl Spot

I know a lot of people didn't like the first movie, but I thought it was OK, and this one looks pretty good too. Some great transforming sequences!

(2009) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Official Movie Site

Monday 2 February 2009

Extinct animal resurrected (briefly) by cloning

So there's this goat species, and they all died in 2000, so they take some DNA from skin samples and clone it, just like they did Dolly the sheep. And just like the many, many Dolly the sheeps with lung problems, and Dolly the sheep who also had lung problems, the cloned goat dies withing 7 minutes due to lung defects. The scientists that did it think this is great and we can bring back lots of extinct species. Can these cloning scientists see a pattern here? That maybe, oh, I don't know, cloning doesn't work? That maybe they should back off before we really do have a Jurassic Park? And how is it a clone if it's got defects? Isn't a clone meant to be a clone?

Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning - Telegraph

Thursday 29 January 2009

I can feel my arteries clogging just reading the recipe

"massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven
through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce"

The Bacon Explosion - Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. - NYTimes.com

Thursday 22 January 2009

The Cleveland Show sneak peak

Introduces some of the new characters on The Cleveland Show, the Family Guy spinoff.

The Cleveland Show video: The Cleveland Show on TV.com

DIY bulletproof backpack

Is this good? Bad? Certainly it's sad that there's been enough shootings in schools to make this product even viable, but I wonder how you'd make your kid feel if you bought one of these for them.

Ballistic Panel for bullet proof safety

Monday 19 January 2009

8 Best Non-Human Tool Users

Some of these are well known to most, but they're still pretty freaky!

Clever Critters: 8 Best Non-Human Tool Users | Wired Science from Wired.com

How to tie the world's fastest shoelace knot

It's hard not to admire the sheer dedication of Ian Fieegen, who had a dream in 1982 of creating the world's fastest tying symmetrical shoelace knot, and achieved it. From such an ignominious start has erupted the world's best shoelace site.

Ian's Shoelace Site

My favourite page is his history of the "Ian Knot" (which anyone who had a knot book as a kid, like me, knows is really a reef knot even though he never admits it):
Ian's Shoelace Site - History of the Ian Knot

A very useful page is the Secure Knot.

Not quite as cool as the dude who collects mechanical pencils, or the dude that reviews little notebooks, but still pretty cool....