Entries from July 2007 ↓

Found this amazing photo essay of marine life living under the Antarctic Ice flows. The photographer, Norbert Wu, worked in Antarctica from 1982 to 1996. He took these off of the coast of Antarctica in partnership with the U.S. National Science Foundation. The photos in the slide show and more are available in his book, Under Antarctic Ice.
Check out the slide show at Time magazine: Life Beneath Antarctic Ice

If you want more photos of Antarctica, check out Dry Valleys of Antarctica

I’m sure you have heard of people using the back light on their cell phone as a temporary flashlight. I’ve even done it myself. That back light can be pretty bright.

This apparently happened to a group of surgeons in Argentina. It seems that they were in the middle of an appendix operation when the lights went out. For some reason the backup generators didn’t kick in immediately like they were supposed to. So a family member gathered up the cell phones of people in the hallway outside of the operating room and used them to provide light for the surgeons. The surgeons were then able to continue the surgery with the light provided by the cell phones. Pretty amazing.

Via EnGadget and Rueters.

Lately, I’ve been listening to Matisyahu quite a bit. His music is a little different, and he doesn’t fit any particular genre. Most of the music world can’t quite decide what to classify him as. Because of that, you probably won’t hear his music on any terrestrial radio stations. I would classify his music as reggae, with a little rap thrown in.
Despite not being played on the radio much, he is getting a lot of recognition in the music world for the quality of his performances, and the lyrics of his music. His songs are really amazing. Watch the music video of Jerusalem below to see what I mean.

Check out his MySpace Music page for more samples of his music: Matisyahu
Also, here is a link to the CD on Amazon: Matisyahu - Youth

Do you have a strange or weird smile? If you do, then this is probably the product you need. From the land that brought you square watermelons and personal mech suits, comes the smile trainer. Just put this little strip of rubber in your mouth, and it will help train your facial muscles to have the perfect smile. This is one of those products, that could only come from Japan. I just can’t see any American company selling this. LOL

Via TokyoMango: Rubber Gadget Teaches You How to Smile

The Smithsonian magazine has a great article about the history of house cats. Cats have been around humans almost as long as dogs. The ancient Egyptians revered them as sacred, mummified them when they died and buried them in special cemeteries. Today there are about 90 million house cats in the US.

The best quote in the entire article was by Carlos Driscoll, one of the researchers studying the history of cats. He said,

“We think what happened is that the cats sort of domesticated themselves”

That single quote, so fits the image of a house cat.

Check it out: A Brief History of House Cats

50 redheads in New York got together and rode the subway to a Wendy’s to protest its racist mascot. Videos and pictures of the entire event are posted at Improv Everywhere. The entire event was staged the Improve everywhere group as a joke. Of course, no one but the “protesters” knew it was a joke. Some bystanders even got in on the action without knowing it was all staged. Pretty funny.
Via The Presurfer: Redheads

Harptallica is a Metallica cover band with a bit of a twist. All of their music is done with harps. The video above is their rendition of “The Unforgiven,” one of the classic Metallica songs from the self titled black album. The music actually is pretty good. Who would have thought that Metallica songs would sound so good as harp music.
Check out their official site for more songs you can listen to. Harptallica

A company in the UK called Touch Bionics, has developed the first artificial hand with individually powered digits. The hand is controlled entirely by the nerves that remain in the patients arm. So a person who has this hand installed can receive almost the full use from the prosthetic that they had from their own original hand. Pretty cool.

Via Engadget: Touch Bionics i-LIMB bionic hand

This is seriously one of the funniest videos I’ve seen. Kayvan Novak, a comedian in the UK has created a hilarious video to go with a prank call he makes to an electronics store. In the call, he pretends to be a foreigner, who thinks he must pronounce the many acronyms used by the electronics industry just as they are spelled. So DVD comes out Doovde.

He so frustrates the store clerk, who had the bad luck of answering the phone, that the clerk ends up hanging up. Apparently the video is for a new show called FoneJacker.Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath: Joovc Doovdé Player

[Edit] The video above seems to have been removed. I found another one, but it has embedding disabled. So Here is a link to it. fonejacker - doovde

JapanProbe has a story about a Japanese supercar made entirely out of wood. Apparently it is a promotional vehicle made by a furniture company in Japan. The car has a max speed of 80km/h. It’s pretty cool looking.

The video below is in Japanese, but it does show the car in action.

Via JapanProbe: Japanese Wooden Supercar