Thursday, April 30, 2009

"Spider 'Resurrections' Take Scientists by Surprise"

NatGeo:
Scientists at the University of Rennes in France collected three species of wolf spider—two from salt marshes, one from a forest. The team immersed 120 females of each species in seawater, jostling the spiders with brushes every two hours to see if they responded.

As expected, all the forest wolf spiders (Pardosa lugubris) apparently died after 24 hours. The two salt marsh-dwelling species took longer—28 hours for Pardosa purbeckensis and 36 hours for Arctosa fulvolineata.

After the "drownings," the researchers, hoping to weigh the spiders later, left them out to dry. That's when things began to get weird.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

"H.G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds' was an allegory about the injustice of European imperial rule of Africa, China and India."

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Book about vintage mascots



Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character features images of roughly 500 largely-obscure, abandoned, and forgotten mascots from 20th Century ads, including:

Monday, April 27, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Woman sends stripper to her 10 year high school reunion

Andrea Wachner decided to send a stripper to her 10-year high school reunion and had a film crew follow her around.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Hand in space

How the villains in Planetary received their powers:



A photo taken by of a "young pulsar":

Monday, April 13, 2009

"Twilight author Stephenie Meyer continues to dominate USA Today's Best-Selling Books list"

"Sales of her novels accounted for about 16% of all book sales tracked by the list in the first quarter of 2009"

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Fresh Twitter Icons




Inspired Magazine invited 14 artists to create unique Twitter icons. You can download the entire set here.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Computer tower



"Level 10" by BMW Group Designworks USA:
The inspiration for this approach the design team took right from the computer worlds themselves - expressiveness, virtual townscapes and futuristic game components served as orientation for the arrangement and the look of individual components.

Each high-quality component featured by the "Level 10" concept is enclosed within its own protective case, rendering it not only an integral part of the design but also guaranteeing interchangeability and transportability.

The concept also has an aesthetical answer to the physical necessity for best possible cooling, this also being associated with the virtual world of the gamer. The asymmetric arrangement of the robust vertical heatsink and the horizontally located individual components creates a strong architectural statement, clearly revealing the powerful cooling characteristics of the Thermaltake Gaming Tower.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Fun With Horses Girl Scouts Patch



Fun With Horses Girl Scouts Patch found at eBay.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Golfing off a cliff




The Legend Golf & Safari Resort in South Africa features a golf course with the "Extreme 19th hole":
Set high up on the impressive Hanglip Mountain and accessible only by helicopter, this par 3 hole is played from a vertical height of 430 metres. After a short, breathtaking helicopter flight, golfers have the opportunity of teeing off from one of three tee boxes, high up on the escarpment. With advanced technology in the form of four separate cameras and the latest tracking equipment, the golfer can follow and capture the tee shot and the flight of the ball.

The fairway is seeded with Cynodon grass and contoured to funnel the ball to the green below.  In celebration of the African Renaissance, the green has been shaped like the map of Africa and is protected by a large waste bunker.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Lego A-Wing




Suped up Lego A-Wing by Peter Morris.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

"Sharon Stone says she based her performance in Basic Instinct on Magic Johnson's no-look pass"

From the current issue of Entertainment Weekly list of classic movie villains:
When I started to work with Mr. [Michael] Douglas, I made certain that I paid such attention to him, without him knowing it at all times. I became obsessed with him--everything he did, everything he ate, everything he wore, the way he walked, the way he breathed--so that I could have a no-look relationship with Mr. Douglas.