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Space Music: NASA Mission with a Side of Aphex Twin
by Robert Lamb | February 23, 2011
If all goes as planned, the Discovery will blast off Thursday on one of the last three space shuttle missions (STS-133) ever. Among other things, the crew will bring along Robonaut2 and two small LEGO space shuttles to kick-off an educational Lego/NASA partnership.
You of course will have to stay here on Earth, but in addition to watching live footage of the take off you can enjoy a live mix of STS-133 mission control chatter and ambient, electronic and intelligent dance music. You’re hear Mission Commander Steven W. Lindsey as he leads the crew into orbit, along with the spaced-out sounds of such artists as Robert Carty and Aphex Twin.
How Indoor Skydiving Works – All the fun of skydiving with a lot less danger
by Marshall Brain | February 23, 2011
If you ever get on YouTube and type in “skydiving accidents”, you realize there are lots of different ways to die in skydiving… Many of these problems can be eliminated with indoor skydiving, where you get the fun of flying without the ground rushing toward you at 120 MPH. In the following video, you can [...]
Today’s Inspirational Moment – Zach Anner interviews Oprah
by Marshall Brain | February 23, 2011
Great answers and great questions between Zach Anner and Oprah Winfrey: See also: – Funny… and Inspirational – Funny… or inspirational… or both [[[Jump to previous - Zach Wahls – A stunning rebuttal of same-sex marriage bans by a 19-year-old college student]]] If you would like to follow Brainstuff on Twitter or Facebook, here are [...]
How Flashbang Grenades (AKA Percussion Grenades or Stun Grenades) Work
by Marshall Brain | February 23, 2011
It is fairly common to see flashbang grenades in movies. For example, in this trailer for the movie Salt, you see one land on the floor at approximately 1:15. It subsequently blows out the windows: You also see flashbang grenades in real life, mainly deployed during riots and protest marches to disperse crowds: The idea, [...]
Amazon takes on Netflix with movie streaming service for Prime – “As expected, Amazon has announced its new and improved Amazon Prime service that now offers more than 5,000 streaming TV shows and movies to customers. Those who already pay the $79 per year for Prime won’t have to pay any extra to get access [...]
New Hottest Pepper Found in England?
by Amanda Arnold | February 22, 2011
There’s a new pepper in town.
Former security guard and sauce maker Nick Woods, of Grantham, England, crossbred some chillis and came up with the infinity chilli, which has a record-breaking Scoville Scale rating of 1,176,182, according to the BBC. Are you familiar with the Scoville Scale? It’s my favorite of the scales because it measures the harmless agony peppers cause. For example, a jalapeno scores between 2,500 and 8,000 on the scale. The ghost chili pepper (bhut jolokia), which the India military uses for grenades to aggravate terrorists out of their hiding places, used to be the hottest pepper in the universe at 1,041,427, according to Discover. But not anymore.
I own a couple of cats and I have to admit, for the most part, they really aren’t all that impressive. Sweet, entertaining, hilariously bizarre at times? Sure, on good days. But if aliens landed on the planet and paid me a visit, I wouldn’t be tempted to try to wow them with life on Earth by thrusting in their faces a 10 lb. wiggling mess of fur armed with 18 tiny hole punchers that has the tendency to whine like it’s the end of the world when its food bowl gets halfway empty. If I had a “pet” cat 15,000 years ago, however, that might be a different story …
Stuff Mom Never Told You about Hysteria and Paroxysm
by Molly Edmonds | February 22, 2011
Good news, Stuff Mom Never Told You listeners! Instead of waiting for the end of the week to get a recap and source list for our two episodes, I’ll now be posting that information shortly after the episode is available! I know what you’re thinking, “What is this, Christmas?” But hopefully by posting a separate entry for each episode, you fine readers will have an easier way to comment on a particular episode. And our first episode this week is one that should surely get you talking — the history of vibrators.
A few weeks ago, a TechStuff fan posted a link to a YouTube video that managed to scare the pants off me (which is why I’m required by HR to wear, at minimum, two pairs of pants when I come to work). The claim in the video was that an inventor had discovered a way to perceive 3-D images on a television screen without the use of active 3-D glasses. Active glasses have shutters in them that open and close faster than we can see. The shutters synchronize with images on the television screen — each eye only sees one set of images. Your brain combines the two sets of images into a single image that appears to have the dimension of depth. The invention in the video seemed to achieve this by making you blink your eyes in sync with the television screen.
Maybe it’s “Mad Men” withdrawal (the writing, the characters and that fabulous retro fashion!) or maybe it’s the fact that the Oscars are right around the corner and so are those Oscar parties, but today I’m thinking about bars — budget-friendly home bars to be exact.
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
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
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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
