Clipmarks | Brimstone's clips

Humans Can Learn to "See" With Sound

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:11:23 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: I saw this once, on Ripley's Believe it or NoT

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Several animals, such as bats, dolphins, whales, and some shrews, are known to use echolocation—sound waves bounced off nearby objects—to sense what's around them.

Inspired by a blind man who also navigates using sound, a team of Spanish scientists has found evidence that suggests most humans can learn to echolocate.

Daniel Kish, executive director of World Access for the Blind in Huntington Beach, California, was born blind. He taught himself to "see" using palate clicks when he was a small child.

Kish is able to mountain bike, hike in the wilderness, and play ball games without traditional aids.

"It was very difficult to persuade some people to take part in the experiments, because most [of our] colleagues though that our idea was absurd," Martínez said.

After just a few days of training, the students had all acquired basic echolocation skills, the scientists report in the March/April 2009 issue of the journal Acta Acustica.

EARTH HOUR PICTURES: Before & After the Lights Went Out

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:43:31 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Brisbane, Australia, Before Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Brisbane, Australia, During Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Toronto Before Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Toronto During Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Sydney Before Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Sydney During Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Perth, Australia, Before Earth Hour

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Perth, Australia, During Earth Hour

Tags: news, environment

The Story of Stuff

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:25:24 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: I watched this a two months ago.

I implore you to download the 20min film.

Clip Source: www.storyofstuff.com

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Tags: waste hierarchy, sustainable, environment

The Octopus and the Orangutan

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:19:54 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: Are humans truly more clever than their animal kin or are they just more keen to prove it?

Clip Source: www.thegreenguide.com

Are animals intelligent in the same way we are? Are they, for instance, capable of having a conversation? Do they formulate a goal -- escape, for instance -- and plot the means to arrive at it, including deception and bribery?

some true animal behavior

Displeased with her meal, a dolphin mimics her keeper's "time out" behavior by withdrawing to the far side of her tank.

Mastering his own grief, a chimpanzee attempts to console his keepers when another chimp dies.

An orangutan ties a rope from her plucked hairs, uses a banana peel as a grappling hook to steal a mango outside her cage, and conceals the uneaten seed in the septic tank.

An octopus shows her displeasure at being fed a slightly "off" shrimp by carrying it over to the drain and tossing it in, maintaining eye contact with her keeper all the while.

A group of killer whales likes to lie in wait and splash men wearing suits.

An elephant plays the xylophone, and learns to appreciate discordant notes she rejected at first.

Tags: animals

Weird Food Gadgets

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:04:43 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Genetically Engineered Beer Could Combat Cancer

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

AK Ice Tray Makes Cold, Hard Bullets

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Chew on This: Gadgets Made of Meat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Drive Bay Toaster is Disturbingly Real

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Brass Knuckle Corkscrew Helps Spill Some Claret

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Booze Bra Hides Full Bottle of Wine

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

The Future of Dining: Cutlery Pens

Tags: strange

Bionic Eyes

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:14:12 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Most advances in retinal implants concentrate on restoring, not enhancing, sight. But there’s hope yet for superhuman vision, and without surgery: A team at the University of Washington has created a contact lens assembled with functional circuitry and LEDs.

Potential uses include virtual displays for pilots, video-game projections and telescopic vision for soldiers.

Gang Wars-Theodore Roosevelt

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:10:50 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: You dont have to be South African to get the humour, but it does help

Clip Source: news.iafrica.com

Cape Town's infamous Americans gang says the departure from Table Bay of the US aircraft-carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was a "cowardly retreat by a gang of rival wannabe Americans", and has reclaimed the bay as Americans territory.

"Apart from being gross infringement of established gang copyright, it's just rude," said Fielies.

He said that gang bosses had immediately ordered a drive-by shooting to assert the Americans' claim to the bay.

However, he said, the strike had not been as effective as they had hoped, as Loverboy February's speedboat had been confiscated by Cape Nature Conservation a month ago and the assault team had been forced to use Uncle Salie's rowing boat.

"Yesterday morning Operation Roosevelt Se Ma Se P**s was launched," he said.

"At the same time our operations centre on Uncle Salie's couch sent the captain of the ship a message via MXit threatening him and his crew with immediate knifing, one time."

Tags: humour

Oh The Hair Thieves

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:18:36 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: The hair thieves, they come in the night… Steal your hair, they do!

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Women in Myanmar not only have to watch out for pickpockets when they're commuting, shopping or walking down the street, but also hair thieves

Long-haired women in crowded areas have fallen victim to surreptitious hair snippers who steal their hair to sell

"My long hair was cut while I was on my way back from the office. I found out only when I got back home,

Many women in Myanmar have waist- or knee-length hair which they wear in a ponytail, making it easy for thieves to snip off the hair and sell it as extensions

The report said the price of hair has increased as demand for hair as an export or raw material rises. A viss (1.6 kilograms; 3.5 pounds) of hair is worth between 400,000 kyats (US$320; €235) and 500,000 kyats (US$400; €290), it said

Tags: news

2008 worst writting winner

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:53:38 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: Like a mechanic who forgets to wipe his hands on a shop rag and then goes home, hugs his wife, and gets a grease stain on her favorite sweater -- love touches you, and marks you forever

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

"Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."'

won a Washington man this year's grand prize in an annual contest of bad writing.

Garrison Spik, a 41-year-old communications director and writer, took top honors in San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

The contest is named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" famously begins "It was a dark and stormy night."

Entrants are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.

Other noteworthy submissions:

"'Toads of glory, slugs of joy,' sang Groin the dwarf as he trotted jovially down the path before a great dragon ate him because the author knew that this story was a train wreck after he typed the first few words.

Tags: writing, fun

Harry Potter we know your secret

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:17:51 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: Scientists Are Closer Than Ever To Invisibility

Clip Source: www.efluxmedia.com

The scientists at the University of California, Berkeley are extremely close to a major scientific break-through

on developing a material that could make people and objects invisible

At first, they were only able to cover thin two-dimensional objects so the progress’ announcement was received with great enthusiasm, presenting great potential for numerous activities, such as military applications

The materials used in the study are called metamaterials, and their properties help deflect the light around objects, in a way that does not create shadows or reflections

metamaterials are composed of metal and a series of circuit board materials such as Teflon, fiber composite and ceramic

The study

will be detailed later this week in the journals Science and Nature

Tags: science, science fiction

Before the Gunfire, Cyberattacks

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:13:05 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.

Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.”

Internet experts in the United States said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20,

Tags: news, war

Let Me UPRAYEDD You

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:57:32 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: I really loved this movie, it was so dumb, but fuuny

Clip Source: www.upgrayedd.com

You see gentlemen, a pimp's love is very different then a square's...

Tags: movies, film, humour

Funny Sign Spotting

Wed, 28 May 2008 12:39:32 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Street signs for snowmobiles? Only in Canada! Near Chauvin, Alberta, Canada, to be precise.

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Looks like they've been busy in Fifty-Six, Arkansas.

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Slow down or you're a dead duck in Cape Tribulation, Australia.

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

What's right? It's anybody's guess at the Dead Sea in Israel.

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Your leg is missing. Surprise! (Near Key Largo, Florida)

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Mmm-hmm. And I suppose that's not a rat trap. (Shopping center in Creve Coeur, Missouri)

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

Looks like it's time to switch to "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" on this Wyoming highway.

Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

For this church in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it's no stone tablet, but it'll do.

Multi-yolk eggs

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:10:09 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: recently my dad, bought a carton of 18 eggs, all contained double yolks. This worried me, as I believed that it was rare occurrence.

I'm still going to tell him to ask this farmer he is using hormones, has using hormones is also a method to get double yolks

Clip Source: www.slashfood.com

Double-yolked eggs are reasonably common for ducks and chickens, despite the fact that we so rarely see them in stores.

It is estimated that 1 in 1,000 eggs (out of 50 billion produced annually in the US) have double yolks

Eggs increase in size as the number of yolks increases, but most of them are caught by "candling," or holding the egg up to a light source to reveal a shadow of what is inside the shell, and used for other egg products instead of being mixed in with single-yolks

Stores that do offer the eggs usually have one local source for them. The chickens, ducks and other birds that lay them have a genetic tendency to produce the eggs, so if a farm is stocked with such birds, most of their eggs with have double yolks.

Far less common are multiple yolk eggs, including triples and quadruples, like the one pictured above. Apparently, the greatest number of yolks found in one egg was nine!

Tags: multi-yolked eggs, nature

Sneakers, Nazis, and a Family Feud

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:11:51 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: ..."a certain arm's length rapprochement has emerged between the corporate cultures. Locals joke that it has now even become acceptable for employees of the two companies to date--almost"-Forbes.com

Clip Source: www.businessweek.com

Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers
Who Founded Adidas and Puma
and the Family Feud that Forever
Changed the Business of Sport

During World War II, Rudolf was convinced that Adolf, better known as "Adi," contrived to have him sent to serve with German forces in Poland. After the German surrender, Rudolf retaliated by denouncing Adi to the Allies for allegedly assisting the Nazi war effort

Bizarrely, the bickering brothers continued to share a villa, with their wives and children

Rudolf and employees loyal to him formed a rival shoe company called Puma

Adi renamed his outfit Adidas

So great was the animosity between the brothers that the whole town became embroiled. Residents declared their loyalty to either Adidas or Puma according to the shoes they wore and sometimes refused to speak to members of the other side

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Adidas managers contrived to get Puma shoes impounded by Mexican customs and may even have arranged for a Puma rep to be arrested and jailed

Tags: sport, books