I climbed a good number of trees in my youth. And with most of the larger ones, having to resort to either a ladder system or foothold boards nailed to the trunk to ascend. This new invention by a couple of young British designers is uniquely clever. I’d love to try this out!
Here’s a cool little LED lantern that charges with sunlight. Inflates to form a small cylindrical lantern and can be reduced to a small disc for storage. Really neat idea!
From the website:
Fully waterproof and shatterproof, with a built-in rechargeable battery, all-in-one Luci lanterns hold a charge for up to 12 hours and stay bright all night. Perfect for camping, boating or hiking, emergency breakdowns, power outages or hurricanes, home d̩cor, weddings or celebrations, Luci is ready for anything Рanytime, anywhere, any weather.
[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQ3G7jtzvk”]
This is a really cool interactive graphic of the known and unknown universe. You can zoom to the smallest described element to beyond the known universe in space. Hours of geeky info here.
Planet Money has an interesting history lesson on the Luddites. It appears we are doomed to repeat this history and if CGP Grey is correct, we have a lot to worry about. His Humans Need Not Apply video is below also.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/05/06/404701816/episode-621-when-luddites-attack
[youtube=https://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU]
image: morguefile.com
Here’s a project where Star Wars fans have taken it upon themselves to bring back the original Star Wars movie experience from 1977. I admit to being a bit of a purist, but these guys have gone so far as to add back in odd light flashes that most likely were a mistake and even the color of the clouds behind the 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning. I would align myself to the camp that some of the changes made in the special edition re-release went way too far, especially the Jabba the Hut scene, which I thought looked awful. Maybe now that Disney controls this franchise they may be more agreeable to release an unaltered, original version of the film. For now you can find more info about the “restored” version here.
UPDATE: A new version in 4K is currently in the works, info here. Although the version above is created from various DVD and Laserdisc sources, this one claims to be from an original 35mm print.
In fact, there already is a version that was created from an original theatrical 35mm print called the Silver Screen version. I’ve embedded it below from archive.org
GOUT
Here are two stories that show how good marketing turned a substance with low to mediocre value to be prized by the general public. Believe it or not diamonds are not as valuable as you may think, they just have good marketing. Crisco had to be sold as a replacement for something that didn’t need a replacement. Two great podcasts explain.
Planet Money Episode 335: Who Killed Lard?0/163834119/episode-335-who-killed-lard
Diamonds Are a Marriage Counselor’s Best Friend: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast
Found this on metafilter the other day, although it is a trained pet fish, it’s still a pretty good trick! Not to mention he’s running the camera too!
[youtube=”https://youtu.be/wwGvap79hN8″]
You may be surprised that fictional hospitals on TV do not have a very good track record compared to real life. According to research by Amir Hetsroni, an Israeli professor of communications, your chances of survival are pretty slim if you are a patient on a medical drama. From Freakanomics website:
He and his students watched numerous episodes of ER, Chicago Hope, and Grey’s Anatomy, keeping detailed coding books on every patient – their race, approximate age, their malady, the treatment, and whether they lived or died. Their resulting paper was called “If You Must Be Hospitalized, Television Is not the Place.â€
The study found that TV patients are nearly nine times more likely to die than actual patients.
You should check out the two Freakonomics episodes on healthcare.
How Many Doctors Does It Take to Start a Healthcare Revolution?
Listening to the podcast 99% Invisible I learned that palm trees are not actually trees. They are kind of a super grass, according to Jared Farmer who wrote Trees in Paradise: A California History. From the podcast, “palm trees don’t make bark or branches. If you cut them down you won’t find any rings in the trunk, all their roots grow in a compact ball…” This is an interesting story about palms in California and how demand has caused some mature trees to sell for as much as $20,000. Also great podcast.”
The animal world has it’s own super hero, Tardigrades a.k.a water bears! Just like Superman, they are able to withstand extreme temperatures, radiation, extreme pressures! According to wikipedia they “can survive in extreme environments. For example, they can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water (100°C), pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human, and the vacuum of outer space. They can go without food or water for more than 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.” And they look crazy weird, like a cross between a caterpillar and a bear. If only they weren’t microscpic, they could be the next Sea Monkeys!
In this video, Hank Green gives us the low down on these creatures.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H0E77TdYnY]
