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GamesArchive for May, 2011
Why doesn’t this kind of meal take place on my street?
According to reports, the table set up in this photo was a whopping 918 feet (280 meters) long. And as you can see, it winds all the way up the street in Xijiang Town, a Miao ethnic minority village in Guizhou province, southwest China.
In an earlier post, we took a quick look at the amount of food wasted around the world each year. On the heels of this news, there’s been a new food-related issue gaining attention in the media. Brace yourself, because it might sound crazy: What if we grew meat in labs? I know, I know: [...]
Ooooo, would that I had €800 to €1,200. That is the base price for the head of Saint Vitalis of Assisi, the patron saint of genital and bladder disorders, which is to go on sale from a family’s private collection in County Meath, Ireland. The head, encased in glass and metal that appears to have been made just for it, is not evidence of the incorruptible nature of saints, as it’s mainly a skull adorned with a wreath. What’s more, it doesn’t even positively belong to the Italian-born saint, who died in 1370.
Well I’m all grown up now.
Yes, Julie and I have discussed the reality and inevitability of sexbots before on the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast and now Chinese developers have created sperm-collecting robots designed to stimulate human males and collect their genetic material. As you’ll see in the following video, the whole thing looks like one of Doctor Who’s Daleks, except with an unsettling-looking apparatus on the front instead of a death ray. The things debuted at China International Medical Equipment Fair in Shenzhen, China last month. Let’s watch:
I read at ZDNet that scientists have found a way to transmit data over fiber optic lines using a laser at a blistering 26 terabits per second transmission rate. That’s 26 trillion bits per second! There are eight bits to a byte. A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold about 50 gigabytes of information. That means that, theoretically, you could transfer more than 60 dual-layer Blu-ray discs of information per second with this method.
Meditation isn’t merely the domain of Buddhist monks and new-age peaceniks. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I examine the neuroscience behind meditation. We’ll break down the basic variants of meditation as well as what’s actually going on inside our brains in these moments of mental formlessness. What can we learn from the inside of a Buddhist’s skull and how can the practice benefit us? Yes, we’ll even discuss Nirvana.
Any place this hauntingly beautiful warrants a good legend. Here’s how legend explains Halong Bay: A dragon descended from the sky and spat pearls into the water to protect Vietnam from invading foreign ships. The pearls transformed into islands; the ships turned away. Dragon wins.
“Pearl” is right, when it comes to these island rarities.
Ah, the music of the spheres! I’ve blogged previously on the sonification of space physics data, ranging from stuff as low-key as the SolarBeat flash-based music box to the University of Sheffield’s own “solar music.” Now here’s another one.
NPR’s Studio 360 recently aired an excellent story on a blind astrophysicist named Wanda Diaz which really drives home some excellent points about how we listen to the cosmos. You can stream the full audio piece (as well as a short excerpt of astronomical data converted into synthesized music) right here at the Studio 360 home page. Here’s an excerpt:
I’d say the thing I liked best about the Wall Street Journal article this post is based on is that it satisfactorily explained why people were keeping the scabs at all. The Journal article concerns the recent arrival of CDC officials at the Virginia Historical Society’s exhibit “Bizarre Bits,” and the removal of an item on display, a smallpox scab that was discovered in the Society’s archives pinned to a letter sent from a man to his father in 1876.
I read over at NPR that Sony is facing a $3.2 billion-dollar loss this year. That’s bad news for the company, which had projected to climb out of a recent series of losses to return to profitability. And there are two big reasons why Sony won’t be seeing profits this year. One is due to the tsunami that hit Japan. The other is the recent attacks on the PlayStation Network (PSN). Together, these events cost the company billions of dollars.
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
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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
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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
