Help Japan poster

This is making the rounds on the interweb. I'm not sure of the source, but it's a great poster for Japan.  I tip my hat to the creator and hope it gets adopted.

Video: Man has 82 tattoos of Julia Roberts

I like Julia Roberts. In fact, I just watched Mystic Pizza, her break-out movie, for the fifth time.  But I am proud to say that I have exactly zero tattoos of her anywhere on my body.  On the other hand, Miljenko Bukovic, a Mexican-born newspaper vendor has spent roughly $4,000 over the past 10 years tattooing his body with 82 images of the silver screen godess. Here's his story:

Remembering the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown

Image by Allie's.Dad via Flickr

This is a good time to reflect on the U.S.'s worst nuclear disaster: Three Mile Island. This accident happened in 1979 and inspired the disaster movie "The China Syndrome". It resulted in a release of radioactive gases after a partial meltdown of its core. The accident began at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the failure of plant operators to recognize the situation because inadequate training and other human factors, such as industrial design errors relating to ambiguous control room indicators.

The reactor was finally brought under control, although full details of the accident were not discovered until much later, following extensive investigations by both a presidential commission and the NRC. The Kemeny Commission Report concluded that "there will either be no case of cancer or the number of cases will be so small that it will never be possible to detect them."

Maps: Japan and USA nuclear power plant locations

Japan is fighting to contain the situation at two of its  earthquake damaged nuclear power plants. Here's an interactive map of all of Japan's nuclear reactors, followed by one of the U.S.

Here's a look at nuclear power plants in the USA:

What's really deep down inside the earth

And here's the real thing from the American Institute of Physics.

Man demolishes neighbour's house over $80 debt

El Paso County Sheriff's Office

 This is one nasty neighbour whose debt you definitely do not want to be in. Jack Herbst, 63, was arrested in Colorado on suspicion of felony criminal mischief after allegedly causing $250,000 worth of damage to his neighbor's property with a front-end loader. Herbst apparently went on the rampage over an $80 unpaid debt. Looks like a nice enough guy in his mugshot.

Part of the good neighbour policy I'm sure. Read more at the Colorado Springs Gazette. 

Amazing photos of Australia's "crooks" in the 1920's

These photos are part of an amazing collection of photos from the Sydney, Australia Justice & Police Museum exhibition entitled "Crooks". The photos were taken by Australian police in the 1920s of "individuals they thought were, or were likely to become, professional criminals."  What a great slice of history.

 See more photos here

Something strange seen in Japan tsunami video

Let the conspiracy theories begin and the doubters move in. Here's one for the UFO crowd as well. It's likely a helicopter but lets not let that get in the way of the doubters.

Amazing footage of Polar Bears with Super SpyCam

This is some amazing video of Polar bears and the super spy cameras used to photograph them. Watch as the mother discovers  the hidden camera.

From Treehugger.com: "Downer [Filmmaker John Downer] employs three types of cameras to track the lives of two mother bears as they lead their clubs across Arctic Norway in search of seal hunting grounds for the den's survival. Not letting any of the frozen conditions get in the way of filming, the three cameras each offered a unique way of capturing the bears. The Snow-cam, disguised as a lump of snow, was equipped with four-wheel drive and tundra wheels to get across land and ice. The Blizzard-cam is rigged with propellers, allowing it to reach speeds of 37 mph, while the Iceberg cam was thoroughly waterproofed to maneuver between sheets of ice and under water to capture the polar bears swimming under the ice." Check out what the cameras look like here.             Read more on TreeHugger.

Odd: Cows have magnets in their stomachs

Image via Wikipedia

This is one of those strange facts ..... farmers feed cows magnets. There is logic in this magnetic delicacy. When cows graze they end up eating a lot of different junk, including metal objects, such as nails. These can obviously damage the cow internally.  The magnets attract the metal objects and keep them from moving further. Stranglely, no mention of how the magnets and objects make it out of the cow. Maybe they are there for life. Here is a better explanation from ehow.com:

"When a cow grazes in a field, she often eats more than just grass. Cows can also accidentally eat metal objects such as nails, wire or staples. To stop this, a cow magnet is fed to a cow and travels to her first stomach (cows have four digestive compartments that are generally considered four stomachs) to stop her from digesting the metal. The magnet will settle in a cow's reticulum or rumen portion of her stomach, so if a cow eats any metal, it is attracted to the magnet and does not go any further."

Read more: What Is a Cow Magnet? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6612634_cow-magnet_.html#ixzz1GOOqPNTc

The cyborgs have arrived: 40 years of cyborgs in an graphic

Do not resist! Cyborgs walk among us. They have been around on the silver screen for over forty years.  Check out this great graphical guide to cyborgs from EgoTV.

Guide dog guides man and blind dog

Graham Waspe's guide dog Edward developed glaucoma and had his eyes removed. Blind like his master. Now they both have a guide dog: Opal. Opal is doing double duty looking out for his human and canine charges.

The first home VCR circa 1963

Hard to even think about VCRs in today's world, but there was a time when they were the height of technology. Behold the Telcan: a fixed-head  videotape recorder,  intended for use in home-taping of television programs. The recorder, mounted on the top of a television cabinet, used quarter-inch tape running at 120 ips past fixed heads, carrying two 15-minute tracks. Smokin' hot!

Related articles

• 'Sony treasure' led the way in miniaturising electronics (theage.com.au)

Very cool 60 second adaptation of "Inception" using Victorian woodcut animation

This 60 second adaptation of "Inception" uses animated Victorian woodcuts to tell the story. It was an entry in a Jameson's whisky competition by Wolfgang Matzl.

Did "Supermoon" cause Japan's earthquake?

The interweb is flush with rumours that this month's 'supermoon' - a full moon coinciding with the moon's closest approach to earth - will bring earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. On March 19, the moon will be 221,567 miles from Earth - the closest it's been since 1992. It could appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual. But will this cause mayhem on the planet? Has it already caused this devastating earthquake? Not a chance say the experts.  The Bad Astronomy blog, which debunks scientific misconceptions, completely rejects any link between the SuperMoon and the Japan quake. Author Phil Plait, an astronomer, states emphatically:

"I do hope I can help mitigate the panic and worry that can happen due to people blaming this earthquake on the so-called "supermoon" -- a date when the Moon is especially close to the Earth at the same time it's full. So let me be extremely clear:

Despite what a lot of people are saying, there is no way this earthquake was caused by the Moon.

The idea of the Moon affecting us on Earth isn't total nonsense, but it cannot be behind this earthquake, and almost certainly won't have any actual, measurable affect on us on March 19, when the full Moon is at its closest."

Newest hot surfing destination: Dakhla in the Sahara

Dakhla in the Western Sahara is billing itself as the latest hot surfing destination. Before you laugh out loud, have a look at this Reuters video. It has the waves and wind to provide excellent surfing dude. Not sure about the babes in sting bikinis, though. Surf's up Mohamed!

Tsunami time travel map

Here's the tsunami map from the 8.9 magitude earthquake that struck Japan today. Check of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for more info.

Dentist fired for farting

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This dentist is a gas. The British General Dental Council is removing Matthew Walton, 35, from the official Dentist's Register next month for farting and belching in front of patients and staff as well as a variety of other offences. The complaints against Walton include:
• Breaking wind during appointments
• Telling a patient he had bad breath
• Making derogatory comments about unemployed patients
• Pushing a nervous teenage patient back into his chair, telling him, "You will sit and let me do it."
Walton admits to some of the offences, but but has denied some of the allegations of poor conduct. Read more on BBC

Graphic: U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world

Intuitively, you would think countries like China would have the highest rates of incarceration, however, the U.S.  takes the lead role in this race with a rate of 743 per 100,000 people. China's rate: 120. Even evil empire state Iran's rate is significantly lower at 222. The rates can be skewed with definitions of incarceration (people can be "detained") and medieval punishment practices, such as poking out eyes, cutting off hands and stoning, yet given Canada's rate of 117 per 100,000, you realize something is very seriously wrong. Have a look at this excellent graphic by GOOD.is

If you had bought 100 shares of Microsoft from their IPO 25 years ago ...

If you had the hindsight to have purchased 100 Microsoft shares at the $21 IPO price March 13, 1986,  and sat on the investment for 25 years, it would have ballooned into 28,800 shares after  nine stock splits and be worth about three quarters of a million dollars today. Then again had you sold on Dec. 1, 1999, when Microsoft's stock price reached its peak, you would have taken in $1.4 million. Could have, should have ..... Read more on Networkworld.

http://www.networkworld.com