Nov 11 2009 That....Sounds Dangerous -- I Must Try It!
This is a 9-second video of an evil mad scientist pouring liquid nitrogen in his mouth and blowing out vapor. Why? Because he's mad, yo! Even worse than that tea-loving mother with the big hat.
Though it may look like this scientist is actually drinking the liquid nitrogen, he says that with a bit of practice, "it is easy not to swallow liquid nitrogen and make cool condensed vapor come out of the nostrils."
I would have drank it. I would have drank it and asked for another one. Bartender, another cold one. No, another REAAALLY cold one. You catch my drift? I'm talking about liquid nitrogen. And I want two of those little umbrellas and a plastic cutlass with cherries AND YOU BETTER NOT CHARGE ME FOR THEM. Now, get ready to call the paramedics.
How Scientists Chill Out [techeblog]
Thanks to naas, who once drank liquid gasoline trying to siphon my gas tank. That's what you get!
Nov 11 2009 Japan Firm Makes Custom Barcode Art
D-Barcode is a Japanese firm that will design your barcode to look cooler than the standard bunch of lines. These are some examples of their work. But it doesn't come cheap! And, despite what you may have read above the urinal, neither do I.
It can be pretty pricey, though: $1,500 for a design, and $200 a year for licensing fees. If you want a code all your own, that can even cost as much as $4,000.
Now I know what you're thinking, "pfft, I could do that". But that's where you're wrong, because you and I both know you couldn't. Remember kindergarten? Remember how you couldn't keep the color inside the lines? Your parents thought you were retarded. Dad still does.
Nov 6 2009 Geekologie Reader Snaps Shot Of Moon Dog
I'm not going to lie to you (although I usually do), I had no idea what a moon dog was when Geekologie Reader em_kay11 sent me this picture (high-res version HERE) of one he took early Wednesday morning. Per Wikipedia:
A moon dog or moondog (scientific name paraselene, plural paraselenae, i.e. "beside the moon") is a relatively rare bright circular spot on a lunar halo caused by the refraction of moonlight by hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Moondogs appear to the left and right of the moon 22° or more distant. They are exactly analogous to sun dogs, but are rarer because to be produced the moon must be bright and therefore full or nearly full. Moondogs show little color to the unaided eye because their light is not bright enough to activate the color photoreceptors in humans.
Cool, a moondog! Can we keep it, daddy? Can we pleaaaase? I'll feed it and walk it every day. And if it ever moon-cheeses on the carpet I promise I'll clean it up and spray the area real good with pet odor-neutralizer and everything. No? Well how about a reptile? I like turtles.
Thanks em_kay11, now how about a mooncat?
Nov 3 2009 Laser-Cut Cash Rules Everything Around Me, CREAM, Get The Money, Dolla Dolla Bills Y'all
Scott Campbell is a famous tattoo artist who recently held an art exhibit appropriately titled 'make it rain', which featured stacks of laser-cut dollar bills. I dig it. And, not to brag or anything, but I made it rain once. Yeah, using an old indian dance. I AM THE L337 WEATHER WIZARD! Admit it, Harry. ADMIT IT OR GET ANOTHER LIGHTNING BOLT!
Hit the jump for five more of the awesomeness.
Aug 29 2009 Bokeh Filter Turns Light Blurs Into Shapes
The Bokeh filter is a $10 physical filter for your camera that turns out of focus light blurs in the background into shapes like hearts and stars and spirals (separate filter required for each). It works by magic. But not black magic, because you don't want to eff with that shit unless you absolutely have to.
One of the fastest growing fads in modern photography is bokeh shapes. Bokeh shapes are shapes of light in the blurred background of photos. These shapes are achieved by using a bokeh filter over the camera lens. Bokeh is a photography term derived from the Japanese word for blurred. Bokeh refers to the unfocused background in a photo.
The Bokeh Filter is a simple filter that clips onto the end of your lens. This filter blocks out pieces of light that cause the bokeh (blur) in your images to take the shape of the filter.
Neato. Now if they could just create a camera filter that makes my face look like Brad Pitt's, maybe I wouldn't be losing so many Facebook friends. I'M A MONSTER! Truck, monster truck. VROOM VROOM, I AM CRUSHING YOUR CAR!
Hit the jump for a video of the filter in action, directly from a camera.
Continue Reading " Bokeh Filter Turns Light Blurs Into Shapes "
Aug 13 2009 Pen Lets You Draw With Any Color You See
First of all, thank you all for the kind birthday wishes. I just went through and read them all and that was some seriously sweet shit you all said (I'm so eloquent). I almost cried, but then I wrestled a bear (and won) so that I wouldn't. But seriously -- thanks, I had the best birthday I can remember in a long time. BUT NOW IT'S THE 13TH! And you all know what that means, don't you? International Left Hander's Day! Two days in a row, baby!
The Color Picker pen by Jinsu Park is a drawing device that allows you to write in any color you can scan with the pen's color sensor. You just hold the Color Picker up to something, push a button, and PRESTO! it mixes the right amounts of blue, green purple and yellow to make the brown you were looking for. Unfortunately, the Color Picker is currently only conceptual, UNLIKE MY CEREAL PICKER! It's a spoon that, when you think about a certain kind of cereal, fills itself with that kind! I use it to invent new delicious breakfast morsels. *concentrating* Okay, so this one tastes like shit -- you've gotta try it!
Hit the jump for a couple more shots.
Continue Reading " Pen Lets You Draw With Any Color You See "
Jul 15 2009 Awesome: These Garage Door Covers
Style Your Garage covers are printed tarps made to attach to your garage door to make it appear your garage is something it's not. For example, this one makes it look like you're running a rotisserie chicken business. But the fun doesn't stop there! Hit the jump to see a bunch of my other favorites, then head to the site to see a ton more. They all retail for about $275 and were made for one piece garage doors, but can be modified (read: cut) to fit on sectionals. And speaking of sectionals, my new couch has a chaise. Ladies? First to make me a sandwich can sit on it (until I'm full, then it's dishes time for you)!
Hit it to see some other cool ones.
Jun 5 2009 Finally, I Can Sleep At Night: Researchers Develop Algorithms To Mimic Water Sounds
The watery sounds you hear in this video were all made using algorithms developed by researchers at Cornell, because, honestly, curing diseases can wait.
Doug James and Changxi Zheng, researchers at Cornell University, have developed a way to simulate the sounds of flowing or dripping water, which in real life are produced by tiny air bubbles that compress and expand due to surface tension, creating sound waves in the water.
So by using the geometry of a 3D scene, the Harmonic Fluids algorithm they developed can calculate where the air bubbles would have been created in real life and how they would have moved, which allows realistic accompanying sounds to be generated.
Now don't get me wrong, that's neat as hell, I just wish they would have made their research a little more useful in the real world. Like, I dunno, developing an algorithm to mimic the mating calls of prehistoric dinosaurs. Am I right? If we're not gonna cure cancer I should at least get laid.
Cornell Researchers Develop Algorithms To Simulate The Sounds Of Fluids [ohgizmo]
Jun 4 2009 Playstation Announces Own Motion Controller
Not to be outdone by XBox's announcement of Project Natal, Playstation brought their own motion controller news to E3. But, unlike Project Natal, which motion captures your entire body, the Playstation version relies on a magic dildo. This is a rather long demonstration of the device presented by two Sony engineers (one nervous, one stoned), so feel free to skip around. But not breakfast, that shit's important.
Thanks to Mister J, who once kicked Mister T's ass in a gold-off.
Mar 22 2009 I Need Some!: Mercury(II) Thiocyanate
Mercury Thiocyanate used to be made into "Pharoah's Serpent" fireworks similar to the "black snake" tablets you light and watch grow into a crusty snake. Unfortunately, it produces mercury vapors during the process so now the tablets are made out of a much safer sodium bicarbonate compound. Boo, I know. Still, wicked awesome if you can get your hands on some. Which, thanks to my ultra-sweet Geekologie connections, I just have. So -- are you thinking what I'm thinking? If you guessed, "glue-stick a bunch to my penis and try to impress women at the bar", you are. High-five! Haha, that was just glue-stick, I swear. Now watch this!
UPDATE: IT BUUUUUUUURNS! *helicoptering* Ladies?
Thanks to John, who once beat Mr. Wizard in a match-holding contest.
Mar 21 2009 Waveform Bracelets Are A Clever Idea
The Sound Advice Project was designed to help parents keep their kids off drugs by giving them a reminder of how much they're loved and how bad drugs are. In this case, it's a bracelet that says, in waveform, something like "you're way too cool for drugs", or, "drugs will make your penis shrink". Thankfully, for $18 you can go to the website and record whatever message you want. I decided to made one for myself with one of my favorite inspirational messages from the bible, "When in doubt, PEW PEW PEW". *WHA-PISSSH!* Whoa, what was that? You getting bible-belted, son!
Mar 19 2009 Segway Shmegway -- I Want A Cajun Crawler
Segways are stupid and have wheels. Cajun Crawlers are awesome and have little feet that can scurry you across the room like a bug quicker than you can say, "Gob would love this!"
Based on the work of kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, the Cajun Crawler holds up a Segway-style platform with a scary collection of steampunk-like mechanical legs, which can scurry across a floor with surprising agility. The project was built by a team of folks at the University of Louisiana.
Skip to about 1:00 for the action to begin. And action it is! My God that thing is creepy as all hell. One part of me wants to yell "ROBOT!" and smash it to pieces but another wants to ride it into the gently rolling surf until I'm submerged, where I'll be greeted by topless mermaids whom I will pose with and then post the pictures on my Facebook. Later that night, I'll come back with a snorkel and seduce one into living in my bathtub. Just like Tom Hanks in Splash, but with a harpoon.
Cajun Crawler swaps Segway wheels for Theo Jansen's creepy leg mechanism [engadget]
Thanks to Leon, The Short One and Phecda, who are cool with just walking.
Feb 28 2009 Astronomers Photograph the Eye Of God
Finally, a clear shot of God's eye.
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, aka (mercifully) ESO, has released an impressive image of the Helix Nebula captured by La Silla Observatory in Chile.
The nebula, lying at around 700 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius, has quickly been dubbed the "Eye of God", for obvious reasons.
I've got news for you folks: this is not, in fact, God's real eye. How do I know? Well you remember in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Germans finally opened the Ark of the Covenant? What happened? Precisely -- ghosts and shit flew out and shot through their stupid Nazi faces and killed them all. That one dude even melted. So, you still alive? Exactly.
Stargazers peer into the 'Eye of God' [theregister]
Thanks to Tim, who knows the true eye of God burns like a laserbeam.
Feb 26 2009 It's A Little Early: Hole-y Halloween Costume
It's never too early to start planning your next Halloween costume. In fact, I've got my costumes planned through 2016: Link, Link, Link, a Goron, a Zora, Link, a pirate, Dracula. Awh yeah, baby. But if you want to go as a guy with a wig on and a hole through his gut, go for it. All you need is a little LCD screen and video camera.
By using a travel DVD player strapped to my stomach, with video coming from a digital camera strapped to my back, it creates the illusion that I have a very large hole in my stomach.
Flickr user 'evanbooth', the creator, calls the costume the 'The Gaping Hole'. Which, ironically, is what I call the ex. *swish* Count it!
Hit the jump for a picture of the actual setup.
Continue Reading " It's A Little Early: Hole-y Halloween Costume "
Jan 25 2009 Eye Candy: A 1,474 Megapixel Inauguration Photo With Sweet Zoom-In Capabilities
Oh man, you can actually zoom in on faces in the audience and see the snot dripping.
But what you're looking at is not a single image. The photo, which was shot using a Canon G10 and Gigapan Imager, is comprised of over 200 different shots that were then combined over the course of six hours using Gigapan software. The final product has a resolution of 1,474 megapixels and a TIF file size of almost 2 gigabytes
Pretty freaking awesome. So go HERE to explore the image for yourself. It's fun, I spent the better part of five minutes celebrity-hunting in the audience. Thought I spotted Oprah, but it was just some no-name with a turkey drumstick.
Fullscreen Inauguration Gigapan Viewer
via
Panaramic Inaugural Photo [ign]
Thanks to Matt and Hanes, who were both invited to the inauguration but fell in the reflecting pool and had to go home and change clothes, missing it.
Jan 13 2009 Theater Can Be Fun: Real Life Super Mario
This is a piece of Japanese black theater in which people dressed in all black do a bunch of crazy shit that looks awesome. In this case, reenact some Super Mario action. I highly recommend checking it out. And for those of you that can't watch at videos at work, well, freaking quit already. You're under appreciated anyways.
Thanks to Arran, who did the exact same thing for the first level in Contra, but the theater burnt down before he could perform. I'm sure it would have been awesome, Arran.
Dec 8 2008 ISS Orbiting Toolbag Filmed From Earth
Remember last month when a NASA toolbag accidentally floated off into space during a repair to the International Space Station (if not, video after the jump. Skip to about 0:55 to see the loss)?
Endeavor astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper's loss has turned out to be an amateur star gazers' event of the season. The $100,000 tool bag slipped out of her reach and floated into space while she was trying to clean up a greasy mess on the starboard section of the space station. The tool bag is now dubbed ISS Toolbag and is orbiting the Earth. According to Space.com, Edward Light spotted the orbiting tool bag using 10 x 50 binoculars from his backyard in Lakewood, New Jersey.
The orbiting tool bag weighs approximately 30-pounds. It measures 20-inches wide and 12-inches long. The tool bag contains two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris bag. Given the size and dim magnitude of the orbiting tool bag, star gazers will need binoculars or a small telescope to view it.
The video above is actual footage of the bag sailing by. Go here and enter your ZIP code to find out when and were to look to see the toolbag for yourself. Alternatively, come over to my place around six when my roommate gets home.
Hit the jump for the loss video.
Nov 11 2008 Fake! Shadows Are Too Perfect, This Is From The Summer Blockbuster Never Back Down From Beating A Dead Horse: Real Life Photoshop
This is what Photoshop would look like in real life. If you think it's fake you can go this Flickr gallery to see its construction, then suck it. And if you think it's from the scene in Never Back Down where The Geekologie Writer stabs a commenter through their monitor, well, I can make that happen.
What Photoshop Would Look Like in Real Life [gizmodo]
Thanks to Harrison and Roberto, who are neither fake nor from a stupid freaking movie.
Oct 10 2008 Is It Too Late?: I'm Running For President!
I'm running for president. Click here to watch the amazing story of my rise to political prominence. Then go here to make the video with your own name. Or any other name. And it doesn't censor anything, so you can put whatever you want. At least I think so, but truthfully, I only tried Dick Dribblins.
2008 Election Coverage [tsgnet]
Thanks to Ryan and Hilda, who, with their votes combined, netted me a single vote -- Ryan ate his ballot.
Sep 10 2008 Mythbuster Inhales Sulfur Hexafluoride
Helium is 6x less dense than air and makes your voice sound like you just got kicked in the pickle. But sulfur hexafluoride is 5x denser than air and makes you sound like a badass supervillian. You've got to hear it to believe it. And while Adam made me promise at the beginning of the video I wouldn't try it at home, I had my fingers crossed. I hope I die!
Hit the jump for two more MUST SEE physics videos, one a supersonic jet creating a halo of water vapor, and one of sound waves on fire.
