Beautiful, out-of-phase pendulums

[OK, now my night has been made twice in ten minutes. -egg]

Beautiful, out-of-phase pendulums: “

This Harvard physics apparatus uses a series of pendulums of varying lengths, swinging together, to make a mesmerizing dance:

The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations.

Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg [Am J Phys 59(2), 186-187 (1991)] at the University of Maryland. The particular apparatus shown here was built by our own Nils Sorensen.

Pendulum Waves

(via Kottke)


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Water Bears FTW

Itty Bitty Critter Committee to join human astronauts on Shuttle Endeavour: “funcrypta06.jpg

Oh, sure, human astronauts will be on board Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 mission set to launch Monday. But so will five microscopic life forms: Water Bears, also known as Tardigrades (shown above); the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans and Bacillus subtilis; and the archaea Haloarcula marismortui and Pyrococcus furiosus. More about ‘Shuttle LIFE’ here, via the Planetary Society.

Tardigrades image via Google Knol.


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Golden-age short-change cons

Golden-age short-change cons: “While some of the techniques laid out in ‘Tricks of Short Change Artists,’ from the Oct, 1930 issue of Modern Mechanix may have shifted over the years, the principles remain largely unchanged. I could read about con artists all day long — I’ve only been conned once (that I know about), but I still reel with the knowledge that someone managed to pull off a trick that combined conjuring, social engineering, and connivery to separate me from a small-to-mid-sized wad of cash.



Organized short-changing of filling station attendants is becoming common and it is evident that there are a great many artists engaged in this branch of the business. The tricks are many and varied. One favorite is to offer a twenty in payment of a bill. On getting the change, the stranger will count it over and discover that five or ten dollars are missing. The method is to fold over the five or ten and hold it between two fingers underneath another large bill in one hand, while asking the station attendant to count the change in the other hand. This trick has been the means of cheating a great many oil station men. The loss is # seldom discovered until check-up time at night.

Another method of making change appear ‘short’ a bill of any denomination is the use of a clever sleeve attachment. It is merely an elastic running up the coat sleeve; at the end is a spring paper-fastener. The con man merely sends one bill from his change up his sleeve, and the dealer can, of course, see no method of accounting for the loss excepting the most obvious one. that he has made a mistake!

Tricks of Short Change Artists (Oct, 1930)


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Bob Jaroc’s Black Moth Super Rainbow video using busted B/W teevees

Bob Jaroc’s Black Moth Super Rainbow video using busted B/W teevees: “

Hypertalented filmmaker Bob Jaroc created this video for Black Moth Super Rainbow’s track The Sticky. Yes, those are graphics generated by circuit bent television sets. The song is from Black Moth Super Rainbow’s latest album, Eating Us.

Video made from modding a bunch of old b&w tvs, playing the seperate parts from the track through them and taping the results + a go on the aftereffects mystery train.

Bob Jaroc on Vimeo


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The Immortal Horizon

[Hey, not that far from us! On the way to SMS! -egg]
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The Immortal Horizon: “

Probably the best thing you’ll read all day: a fantastic article by Leslie Jamison on the demented Barkley Marathons:

The runners’ bibs say something different each year: SUFFERING WITHOUT A POINT; NOT ALL PAIN IS GAIN. Only eight men have ever finished. The event is considered extreme even by those who specialize in extremity.

What makes it so bad? No trail, for one. A cumulative elevation gain that’s nearly twice the height of Everest. Native flora called saw briars that can turn a man’s legs to raw meat in meters. The tough hills have names like Rat Jaw, Little Hell, Big Hell, Testicle Spectacle—this last so-called because it inspires most runners to make the sign of the cross (crotch to eyeglasses, shoulder to shoulder)—not to mention Stallion Mountain, Bird Mountain, Coffin Springs, Zip Line, and an uphill stretch, new this year, known simply as “the Bad Thing.”

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