Videos
Podcasts
Blogs
Quizzes
GamesArchive for August, 2010
Canon develops world’s largest CMOS sensor, shoots 60fps video in moonlight – “Did you ever think that you’d see a CMOS sensor measuring 202 x 205 mm? That’s 7.95 x 8.07 inches to our fine imperial friends. Its impressive size — about 40 times larger than Canon’s largest commercial CMOS sensor — translates to staggering [...]
World Record #145 – The largest water balloon fight in the world
by Marshall Brain | August 31, 2010
This water balloon fight had 4,000 combatants firing 120,000 pieces of water balloon ammunition – the largest water balloon fight ever. Here’s the video…
This t-shirt cannon is very similar to a potato cannon, as seen in How Spud Guns Work. The advantage of a potato cannon is that it fires much farther. The disadvantage is that it takes a lot longer to reload a conventional potato cannon because you have to open it up refuel it. That problem could probably be solved with a small butane tank…
A Brief, Violent and Painful Look at Kneecapping
by Josh Clark | August 31, 2010
A group of four kids coming home from the bars near my neighborhood last weekend were held up by some other kids, one of whom had a gun. While three (including two girls) were pistol whipped, one was shot in the knee or kneecapped in other parlance. I was running a search for news of the shooting, which soon turned into an investigation of the custom and effects of kneecapping.
How Sex Slipped into the Civil Rights Act
by Cristen Conger | August 31, 2010
You might naturally associate the 1964 Civil Rights Act with race, since the crux of the bill dealt with racial equality. But as many of us know, the legislation also bars employers from discriminating based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” However, ‘sex’ might have been left out in the cold were it not for — ironically — an anti-civil rights representative from Virginia and leader of the Congress’ Conservative Coalition (via Encyclopedia Virginia).
Thanks to my coworker Rebecca, I’ve just watched an interactive movie that leverages the power of HTML5 and pairs it with a song by the band Arcade Fire. It’s a clever application that partners prerecorded footage with images gathered from some Google applications. It also allows you to revisit your own past.
Today I am reporting on my eighteenth week (days 123 through 130) on the Dukan diet. I was very pleased to see a weight drop of 3.4 pounds this week, putting me at 181.2 and now within striking range of the 170s. I also rode my bike 71 miles on Sunday, which felt great. Here is how the week unfolded…
It turns out that there was another metal prefab house that pre-dated it. It was designed by the legendary Buckminster Fuller, and it came before he had invented the geodesic dome. It was called the Dymaxion House. It was a round aluminum and glass structure intended to be manufactured like an airplane to provide the perfect home. Although the Dymaxion house never made it into production, two prototypes were produced. One of them is at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan, as seen here…
I took the bulbs home, installed them, turned on the light and HOLY CRAP. I am no artist, nor any kind of color expert, but the light coming out of these bulbs was the ugliest light I had ever seen in my life. Leigh had a visceral reaction when she walked into the room: “What did you do???”
Though pay-per-view (PPV) video has been available for many years as part of cable and satellite television packages, people are getting into the habit of streaming PPV movies and TV shows over the Internet, and a couple of recent items in the news highlight the changes going on.
One of these was published just yesterday in The Financial Times by Matthew Garrahan and Richard Waters. According to their piece, YouTube is working on deals with the major Hollywood studios to offer digital PPV distribution over its site.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Have a Coke and a Smile
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
- The Painted Beauties of Bucovina
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
