Clipmarks | abramsv's clips

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: Some little-known practical tips about your body, such as:
If your throat tickles, scratch your ear. If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side - etc.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Neat tricks to teach your body

Some little-known practical tips about your body

1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear.

2. Your right ear is better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech (good tip for spies!) The left ear is better at picking up music tones.

5. Clear your stuffed nose!

Forget Sudafed. An easier way is by alternately thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger.

7. Cure your toothache

Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger... reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent

15. If your hand falls asleep

rock your head from side to side. It'll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute.

Tags: health

Why Bread and Water Is Bad For You

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:15:33 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: something that I definitely did not suspect... Hard to believe, but it's true! A new evidence, statistically proven

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Why Bread and Water Is Bad For You

1. BREAD IS DANGEROUS

Research on bread indicates that

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.

2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.

4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.

5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!

7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.

8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.

9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.

10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.

11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

2. WATER IS DANGEROUS

A student at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

* and only one (1) knew that the chemical was water.

Tags: humor, food

Magical Tropical Rainforest

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:06:11 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: most fascinating environment, endangered and unique (photos)

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Tropical Rainforest (photos)

Tags: nature, photography

Cutest Robots - not a toy!

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:43:50 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: Build your own retro-future, one rusty robot at a time

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Robots and Such

Build your own retro-future, one rusty robot at a time:

Cute Little Army of Robots

Bennett Robot Works are the "Original Art Robot Sculptures" (looking every bit like props from the "Robots" animated feature). They're made from "found objects": wood, metal, and various strange stuff found in the basement and at garage sales. There is an endless catalog of them on this site. Each robot is a miniature delight; and together they are as addictive, as an assortment of mini donuts.

If you read old newspapers, you'll see that robots were more well-behaved in the past: this one "STEAM-POWERED DREADNOUGHT CERBER" was even employed as a police enforcer in Victorian London: (more here)

Tags: technology, vintage

Craziest Military Vehicle Ever

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 06:14:08 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: So, what's the most unusual military vehicle you can think of? How about a moped armed with a 75mm cannon.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Mystery Photo: One Seriously Empowered Motorcycle.

The Little (Vintage) Scooter That Could... Maybe

Any ideas what it is exactly? Can it fire??

UPDATE:

It's the work of the French Military!

"So, what's the most unusual military vehicle you can think of? Maybe the Japanese airplane-launching submarine of WW2? Or perhaps the Soviet attempts to build a flying tank? Or perhaps the 1000 ton rolling fortress the Germans tried to build in WW2? All quite odd, I agree, but barely made it past the drawing boards. For us, the oddest is a moped armed with a 75mm cannon.

After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina."

Apparently, recoil was not a problem whatsoever, and this little moped could (and did) wreak serious havoc.

Tags: military, motorcycle, weird, technology

Most spectacular view in the Solar System

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 04:48:48 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings. The Cassini Orbiter on its mission in deep space caught this rare occasion of Saturn eclipsing the Sun.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Most Spectacular View of Saturn

SATURN ECLIPSES THE SUN

Incredible opportunity to take possibly the most stunning photograph in the Solar System

Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings. The Cassini Orbiter on its mission in deep space caught this rare occasion of Saturn eclipsing the Sun.

This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The mosaic images were acquired as the spacecraft drifted in the darkness of Saturn's shadow for about 12 hours, allowing a multitude of unique observations of the microscopic particles that compose Saturn's faint rings.

Earth - a pale blue orb

Cassini casts powerful eyes on our home planet, and captures Earth, a pale blue orb -- and a faint suggestion of our moon -- among the glories of the Saturn system. You can certainly marvel at how small and yet endearing our home planet looks. By the way, there is another famous image of Earth as a pale dot - view it here

Panoramic Rings

The rings are awash in subtle tones of gold and cream in this view:

Tags: space, photography

Half car - half plant

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:06:59 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: the green solution?

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Half car - half plant

Is it a plant? is it a greenhouse? No, it's a breathing, green car. You heard it right, General Motors has designed a photosynthetic car called, brilliantly, the Hummer O2.

Designed, mind you. Not created. They envisage that, were it to ever see the light of day (oops - a pun), the Hummer 02 would "breathe" through algae-filled body panels that would transform carbon dioxide into oxygen and release the gas back into the environment.

It sounds to me like they're going to have algae coming out of their ears as it grows and grows. And frankly, they're kidding themselves if they think that taking algae from the sea and making it grow on in transparent cars is going to save the planet. But hey, you can't fault them for being creative. And they won the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge for their pains. There's more info and some great graphics here.

Tags: science, technology, cars, plants, environment

Heavy Machinery Acrobatics! - funny

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 06:08:40 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: Heavy trucks, tractors and cranes are in deep trouble in this hilarious collection of photos. MUST SEE!

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Heavy Machinery Acrobatics!

Sometimes machines may need a little extra... exercise.

(... and saying "Oops!" just doesn't cut it any more)

Tags: funny, technology, weird

Little-known Facts About Japan

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 05:16:11 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: Everything you always wanted (or did not suspect you wanted) to know about Japan, but did not know where to ask.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Little-Known Facts About Japan

Everything you always wanted to know about Japan,
but did not know where to ask

Q. Why do Japanese people say that women deliver their babies in the TENTH month?

Japanese do not count calendar months

Q. "Why do Japanese people say that they have blue traffic lights when they are really green?"

historically, Japanese people considered green to be a shade of blue.

Q. Why do Japanese school girls wear sailor suits?

It is based on the British navy uniform

Q. Many Japanese people have told me that instead of seeing a "man in the moon" in the moon's craters, they see a rabbit. Where exactly is the rabbit?

Q. I have long wondered how Japanese people look words up in the dictionary. They can't alphabetize their words, so how do they find them?

the words are organized by sound

Q. Why do haiku have to have exactly 17 syllables?

Japanese has a very limited number of sounds, almost all words end with vowels,

Go and read the rest of that huge list of cultural oddities and interesting facts. Discover, for example, why Japanese writing is rather vertical than horizontal ( because the letters were usually written on tortoise shells), why Japanese houses do not have basements, and is it true that most Asian babies have a blue spot on their butt when they're born... (yes it's true, it's a dense collection of Melanin-containing cells on their lower backs). The page is constantly updated with new answers, so visit there more than once. Or better yet, go visit Japan, what are you waiting for?..

Tags: travel, culture, language

The Cutest Picture Ever... and others

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 04:32:55 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: some mysterious cuties - many more on the page

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

The Cutest Picture Ever... What Animal Is This?

Something that not only a mother could love...

Tags: nature, animals, photo, funny

Autumn in Japan - photo gallery

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:48:07 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: "The Autumn Color" photography competition was organized among Japanese bloggers on Yahoo Japan (homepage of this contest here). During the months of October and November, they gathered thousands of pictures, of which these are only a few examples. Witness the supernatural beauty of Japanese landscape and the sublime quality of "Autumn in Japan." Many more are on the source page.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Autumn in Japan

Fantastic Colors and Sublime Glory
along Japanese Autumn Trails

With winter fast approaching, we'd like to linger a bit more among the few available signs of autumn. As it happens, the trees are still "aglow" in Japan.

Tags: nature, photography

Electric Light Decoration of Trucks in Japan

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 08:46:31 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: What happens if a Japanese truck "dies and goes to heaven?" It becomes one of the glorified "Decotora" trucks! Decorated trucks, vans and semis glow in the night with million lights, adding to the incredibly bright Tokyo street scene.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Electric Light Truck Decoration in Japan

"Decotora" Trucks Shine in the Night

They might not look very refined in the daylight, but at night they shine in the most inimitable way. If you meet such an embellished apparition on a highway at midnight, it may either scare you off the road, or cause you to start to believe in alien encounters. The amount of chrome on these babies is probably equal to a monthly chrome production of a small African republic. I have to admit I'm still scratching my head after seeing this.

Tags: auto, design

Most confusing intersections?

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 04:40:13 GMT

clipped by: abramsv
clipper's remarks: most confusing intersections in the world? check out these in Russia and Israel.

Clip Source: thrillingwonder.blogspot.com

Incomprehensible Intersections

...and Spaghetti Junctions

Western drivers are understandably confounded and rightfully annoyed, when faced with such traffic-routing masterpieces as these: (see the whole list of them in Wikipedia here).

but this junction in Moscow wins the "Arrrrgh!" contest:

follow the arrows on the picture

Israel

These directions are helpfully provided on the official Highway 6 web page. But if you are an "experienced driver" and never ask for directions, you may be out of luck :)

According to the Russian auto forums, this is not a unique occasion. Perhaps one day they will discover a junction so confusing and bizarre that it will curl upon itself in the fourth dimension and come out say... in Israel.

Tags: travel, automobile