[This is utterly awesome. -egg]
This short, smart video uses a Lego replica of the Antikythera Mechanism to demonstrate just how the ancient Greek celestial calendar worked.
Behind the Scenes: Lego Antikythera Mechanism
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[I really don’t quite know what to make of this site, but I like it. -egg]
You honestly think I give a fuck about what you wore today?
For real, real?
While you were outside of a Starbucks.
Tweeting low-res pics of your hindquarters.
Showing off your crotch blowout.
I was in a fucking mine shaft.
Fading my selvedge.
And reading Glenn O’Drama’s bio.
On my iPad.
You city slickers slay me.
You really do.
But I guess if Rozay is a dealer.
And Yeezy is a martyr.
Then y’all are some rugged motherfuckers.
But on the real.
When’s the last time you heard it like this?
Henley and suspenders.
Scragglepuss beard and lived in White’s.
Clay pomade and fucking boulders.
Do they let you bring a shovel to brunch?
At Balthazar?
Didn’t think so.
Just because I look like a 49er.
Doesn’t mean my swagger isn’t on a hundred.
Thousand.
Trillion.
I’m chillin’ in the Sierra Nevada.
Somewhere near Kings Canyon.
Prospecting for steez.
You’re drinking a Sierra Nevada.
Somewhere near Flatbush.
Prospecting for chicks with septum piercings.
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Glorious, elaborate, profane insults of the world: “An open Reddit thread entitled ‘What are your favorite culturally untranslateable phrases?’ rapidly degenerated into a collection of rollicking, profane, grotesque insults, each more alarming and delightful than the last. Read the whole thing, of course, but here are some of the less profane examples:
* The Dutch phrase for giving too much attention to insignificant details is ‘ant fucking‘.
* Afrikaans: ‘Jou mammie naai vir bakstene om jou sissie se hoerhuis te bou Vieslik!’ your mother engages in prostitution in order to raise funds for the building materials necessary to construct a brothel from which your sister will operate.
* German: ‘backpfeifengesicht‘ – a face in need of slapping
* Finnish: ‘Kyrpä otsassa‘ – a vulgar way to say you’re incredibly annoyed. It means that you have a dick in your forehead (should be visualized as hanging forward, rather than actually in your forehead, for some reason).
* Finnish: ‘pilkunnussija‘ – a comma fucker; someone who corrects little or meaningless things.
* Spanish: ‘Está tratando de cagar mas alto de lo que le da el culo‘ – He’s trying to shit higher than his ass can reach.
What are your favorite culturally untranslateable phrases?
(Image: Okay, so it’s funny., a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from andrewbain’s photostream)
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High-speed camera shooting FROM a train: “
Graeme Taylor shot out the window of a train at 210 frames per second, reversing the usual trick of shooting and slowing down a high-speed object from a stationary spot; rather, he shot a stationary spot from a high-speed object. The effect is something like a mundane bullet-time, where the world has stopped so that no one can do much of anything. It’s mesmerizing.
As Jason Kottke writes, ‘Wonderful illustration of the concept of frames of reference.’
Both glides were filmed by sticking a – relatively cheap – digital camera out of the window of a train as it arrived at a station. The ‘trick’ is the camera collects images at a rate of 210 per second – but the film is played back at 30 frames per second. So, every seven seconds of footage that you watch corresponds to 1 real second. At least at the start, one real second is plenty of time for someone to move into, then out of, the camera’s field of view, but isn’t enough time for them to really do much: hence, the frozen effect. It breaks down towards the end not because I’m doing something clever with the frame rates (captured or replayed), but simply because the train was stopping! Thus, as it decelerated, any given person would be in view for longer, and have more time to point an arm, take a few steps along the platform, or maybe even notice me at the window. Any such action captured is still slowed down seven-fold during playback, just as with my usual static captures.At least one other person has tried this before: Trey Ratcliff captured a station in Japan this way over a year ago, describing the effect as ‘Stuck in motion’. He also mixes in other slow motion footage and its inverse, time lapse photography, in this gorgeous video, Heartbeats of Time.
‘Pointless, action-free and totally mesmerising’
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[Fast and interesting. -egg]
Tom Scott’s Ignite London talk ‘Flash Mob Gone Wrong’ is a fictionalized account of just how badly a flash mob could go. It’s got an eerie ring of plausibility, largely because each of the steps leading up to the disastrous ending actually happened, just not all together. It’s a freaky way to spend five minutes.
Flash Mob Gone Wrong by Tom Scott, Ep 77
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[Pretty funny, I thunk. -egg]
I can’t wait to see how my kids react to this delightful video of kids reacting to viral videos.
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Snow Chihuahua (Boing Boing Flickr Pool): “
‘Cliffy Explodes,’ a photograph contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Andy Meehan of Bozeman, Montana, where it is undoubtedly very cold today. Who says Chihuahuas aren’t snow dogs?
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The Krzywy Domek (Crooked House) is part of a shopping center in Sopot, Poland. The 2004 structure looks like a set from Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari, but according to Wikipedia, it was “designed by Szotyńscy & Zaleski who were inspired by the fairytale illustrations and drawings of Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg.” Krzywy Domek
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[Oh please oh please oh please. -egg]
The University of Groningen researchers analysed glucansucrase from the lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri, which is present in the human mouth and digestive tract. The bacteria use the glucansucrase enzyme to convert sugar from food into long, sticky sugar chains. They use this glue to attach themselves to tooth enamel. The main cause of tooth decay, the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, also uses this enzyme. Once attached to tooth enamel, these bacteria ferment sugars releasing acids that dissolve the calcium in teeth. This is how caries develops.
Tooth Decay to Be a Thing of the Past? Enzyme Responsible for Dental Plaque Sticking to Teeth Deciphered
Photo by Shakespearesmonkey. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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