The Cry Baby is on sabbatical ....

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Are you prone to mind control? Take this test.


Are you prone to mind control? Psychologist Richard Wiseman gives you the chance to find out how suggestible you are in this video. Give it a try. You might be surprised. Once you are under our control, send Cry Baby money – lots of money! (From New Scientist)

Very cool video: Lake Tahoe Milky Way time lapse


This time-lapse of the night sky at Lake Tahoe is spectacular. The images were made with a Canon 5D MKII by Justin Majeczky. The video consists of images taken every 35 seconds.


Lake Tahoe Milky Way Night Time Lapse from Justin Majeczky on Vimeo.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Inforgraphic: Where the next earthquake will strike


This graphic from awesome.good.is was prepared before the 9.0 earthquake in Japan, but after the Haiti quake. It looks at the likelihood of quakes in different regions and how powerful the quakes will be. Not too far off in the case of Japan, although the intensity was well above the prediction.

Very Funny Video: Hitler plans "attack" on SxSW 2011


Never knew Hitler and his posse were planning to hit SxSW? Watch as he and his boys plan there assault.

Porn star Brittany Andrews survives Japan's earthquake



Great news. Porn star Brittany Andrews was in Japan when the earthquake hit Japan, but she is OK. Actually I've never heard of her, but what the hell. I won't even ask what she was up to over there. She posted to her Facebook page to keep her fans informed:

5:47 a.m. Friday - I am finally back in my room. Worst earthquake Ive ever been in. My hotel was on fire. I was jammed in the stairway for 2 hours with everyone screaming panicking praying. It was like sardines. Jammed. It was awful. Its been 6 hours of hell. No English had no idea what was going on.

5:48 a.m. Friday - It was like 110 degrees in hallway packed of people. Its been 6 hours of hell. Aftershock after aftershock. I was very scared for my life. Fire on 2 floors. Im still shaking and there are still aftershocks... All Airports closed.

Researchers show they can hack in and take control of cars wirelessly




Hacked dash
Researchers have revealed that they can hack into car's computer systems and take control of the vehicle.  The researchers were able to control everything from the car's brakes and door locks to its computerized dashboard displays, by accessing the onboard computer through GM's OnStar and Ford's Sync, as well as through the Bluetooth connections intended for making hands-free phone calls. This is scary. 

Read the whole story on Technology Reveiw

Video: Don King Has Ph.D in Caucasianism


... and he's a Republicrat. Classic Don King. Fun to watch. 

Video: Painting with WIFI


Very cool video. Device was designed to "paint" with WIFI signals and creates this beautiful and mysterious art.


Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

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


Three Mile IslandImage 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.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

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.










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


A picture of a Hereford bull. Taken by the US ...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."

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.