ewwww
The hagfish (YouTube) is also known as the slime eel. It can also tie itself in a knot. Designer eel skin.
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The Magic of Disney
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Flickr shooter Stuck in Customs produced this incredible photo of the centerpiece from the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, using high dynamic range photography techniques.
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Mantis
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Fear me!
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HOWTO Make a room-sized cardboard play-castle
The Mr McGroovy’s Box-Rivets site has a killer set of plans for converting eight refrigerator boxes (they have tips for getting these for free) into a room-sized cardboard play-castle that your kids can run around in.
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Fan-made inflatable Vader takes to the sky
Benoit Lambert — member of the Belgian 501st Legion FanWars Garrison — takes over the skies in his amazing Darth Vader hot air balloon.
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Kid wrongly imprisoned for bomb threat – error due to Daylight Savings Time
A 15-year-old Pennsylvania high-school student was thrown in jail for 12 days because authorities believed he’d called in a bomb-threat. His voice sounded nothing like the voice that made the threat, but he had called the school at the time the threat was made… Or so they thought, until they realized that the call-logging program they used wasn’t honoring Daylight Savings Time.
Cody Webb was arrested last month, after Hempfield Area High School received a bomb threat on their student hotline � which provides a range of information to students about the school – at 3.17am on March 11th. They believed they’d found the culprit when they traced the phone number they thought was responsible to Webb.
Unfortunately, the school forgot that the clocks had switched to Daylight Saving Time that morning. The time stamps left on the hotline were adjusted by an hour after Day Light Savings causing Webb’s call to logged as the same time the bomb threat was placed. Webb, who’s never even had a detention in his life, had actually made his call an hour before the bomb threat was placed.
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Boss-proof your computer with a USB foot-switch
The Stealth Switch is a $40 foot-switch that lets you instantly change whatever is on you computer’s display into something innocuous. For instance, if you work in a macho environment where everyone reads ESPN sites, you can read your favorite blog about crocheting little cosplay outfits for your guinea pigs without having to worry about getting caught and being made sport of.
StealthSwitch is a microprocessor based computer privacy device. StealthSwitch uses patent pending technology to instantly and completely hide applications with a press of the footswitch. The applications are not just minimized, they are made completely invisible. No more minimizing applications, turning off the monitor, or re-booting when someone enters your office or cubicle. With a simple click of the foot switch, you can instantly hide the current window, hide all open windows, or hide all open windows except certain windows. And the best part – because the StealthSwitch, is under your desk, no one will notice. When they leave your office, simply click the foot switch again and your programs are back just the way they were. StealthSwitch, can also mute the sound, hide the taskbar, hide all desktop icons, and password protect the restore function all at the same time.
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Crocs banned in Swedish hospital for generating a “cloud of lightning”
A Swedish hospital has banned Crocs-brand plastic clogs because they build up static charges that zetz the delicate medical instruments:
Blekinge hospital in southern Sweden suspects the slip-on shoes, made by US firm Crocs Inc, are to blame for at least three incidents in which respirators and other machines malfunctioned. The mishaps caused no injuries.
Hospital spokesman Bjorn Lofqvist said staff wearing the clogs could turn into “a cloud of lighting” because of the static electricity.
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Esquire’s list of things worth shortening your life for
Esquire’s list of “60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For” is a pretty good one — I’ve done 19… So far. Mostly those pertaining to fatty food, drugs and tobacco.
1. Danger dogs.
The Tijuana delicacy — a hot dog wrapped in bacon, fried, and topped with mayo — has made its way to San Diego and Los Angeles, sold from carts outside stadiums, clubs, and wherever hungry drunks congregate. See also:2. Jersey breakfast dogs.
An East Coast derivative with scrambled eggs and melted cheese.3. Surfing Teahupoo, Tahiti.
Unbelievable swells that roll over a shallow coral reef. Catch a wave and you’re flying; bail and you’re bleeding.4. Giving a buddy a kidney.
You only need one. Hopefully.5. Black Cat espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.
A triple. Note the exceedingly heavy body, with chocolate, caramel, and dried-fruit notes. Also note that you’re vibrating. That means it’s working. intelligentsiacoffee.com.
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My Brief Career as a Phone-Sex Worker
This is an article in the Hartford Advocate which describes the author (Jennifer Abel) taking a job as a phone-sex worker just to see what it’s like. It’s a fascinating article.
Two words for anyone who wants to get rich giving phone sex: don’t bother. In theory, you can make up to 40 cents a minute, but to get that you have to do at least 60 calls a week with an average call length of 10 minutes or more. If your calls average six minutes or less, you only make a nickel a minute and risk being fired. (And you’re only paid for when you actually talk, not the time spent waiting for the phone to ring.)
But the deck’s stacked so a high average is hard to get. For example, you have to hang up if you get a call from a minor, but that means a five-second call bringing down your average. There’s no appeals process to say, “Yes, that was a short call but it doesn’t count.”
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Photos of fast food in ads and in real life
This is a great idea. These folks bought fast food items and photographed them, then placed the photos side-by-side with the photos in ads for the same product.
Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing
was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate
representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.
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Tiny themed prefab houses
The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company sells minuscule prefab dwellings with themed appearances — New England manor, Gypsy caravan, artsy mid-century modern, etc. They’re small enough to put up without a permit in most jurisdictions, but large enough to live (humbly) in them.
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Please don’t stare at the chimps in the zoo
Belgium’s Antwerp Zoo has posted a sign outside the chimp house asking visitors not to stare at the animals. Apparently, continued interaction with humans, through direct eye contact for example, is distracting one particular chimp named Cheeta from bonding with the others. From the Associated Press:
(Zoo spokeswoman Ilse Segers) said that Cheetah’s continued interaction with humans was “delaying the social integration of the animal in the group,” and isolating the ape from the others.
A sign posted on the glass enclosure requests onlookers not to stare at the apes. “Look away when an animal seeks to make contact with you, or take a step back,” said the sign. “Some individuals are more interested with visitors than their own kind.”
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Motley Fool: 27 second stock pitch video contest
Motley Fool is running a contest where they’re seeking the funniest 27 second stock pitch video you can come up with. The grand prize is $5000. As inspiration, they’ve posted a bunch of sample videos written by Daniel Rubin for stocks like Yahoo!, Netflix, Google, and Tivo. I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds talk of P/Es to be about as exciting as rolling a jar of pennies, so any attempt to make stock information tolerable, even entertaining, is probably a worthwhile pursuit.
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Tripod dog T-shirts are awesome
This girl Sonia started it to pay for her dog’s medical treatment as well as other dogs that are diagnosed with osteosarcoma and require leg amputation. So she makes these cute shirts and other stuff.
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Adjustable breast implants
These breast-implants can be adjusted after surgery, varying the size of your fake tits based on your post-operative feelings about them until you’re perfectly happy with your wobbly plastic boobs.
The Spectrum is a technologically innovative design that allows the surgeon to continue making adjustments to the breast after your breast augmentation operation. A small, removable fill tube is left temporarily attached to the breast implant after surgery. The tube is accessible to the physician by injection through the skin. In a simple office procedure, breast implant size can be varied until you have achieved the result you desire. At this point, the fill tube is removed (again, in a routine office visit) and a self-sealing valve immediately closes and seals the breast implant.
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Digital camera disguised as giant vintage locket
This gigantic vintage-esque necklace is actuall a Kodak 1881 camera, designed by Lindsey Pickett to look like an old locket. It has a pair of LCDs inside that display your photos. This is a neat idea, but man, that is one big locket — Flava Flav big.
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Armchair meets padded cell
The “Paddy Chair” is a cross between an armchair and a padded cell, described by designer Nick Melville as a “comfy chair for nutters.”
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Tiny perfect Hobbit doll-house
Back in 2005, LiveJournaller Obelia Medusa posted an extensive photo-record of her gorgeous Bilbo Baggins doll-house. It’s fantastically detailed with a huge larder stuffed with Hobbit food, teetering stacks of books, a clutter of Hobbit knick-knacks, and round doors and windows.
Link to work-in-progress shots, Link to finished project
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The Landlord
I’m a few days late, but can’t let the week evaporate without pointing to “The Landlord,” an internet video in which a famous celebrity argues with a child. No, not that one! Will Farrell and an irascible, tiny girl named Pearl McKay who likes to get her booze on, bitch. Video Link. Wired News has a related story .
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Magic 8-Ball vivisection
The Hanttula website has vivisected a Magic 8-Ball toy, revealing, among other things, an oracular D-20 in the middle. I roll to disbelieve.
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Gama-Go iPod case
Gama-Go makes superfun apparel and other cool merch designed by Tim Biskup, Chris Edmundson, and Greg Long. I just came across this tricky Gama-Go iPod case that disguises your MP3 player as a pack of smokes. Now only $14.99 from Urban Outfitters Online.
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Mursi tribeswoman with AK47 and iPod
Great photo entitled “Female member of Mursi tribe in Southern Ethiopia” — a woman with an AK47 and an iPod.
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Bone factory busted
Police in Keshia, West Bengal, India busted a human “bones factory” trading in illegal skeletons. Apparently, the perps supplied skeletons to medical students and folk doctors. From Reuters:
“We received complaints that several bodies were missing from graveyards and, while investigating the case, we stumbled on the secret bones factory,” (district police chief Peeyush) Pandey said.
The accused would take largely unburned bodies from Hindu cremation sites as well as from rivers where the dead are often disposed by the poor who cannot afford to cremate them, he said.
RobDurdle.com 
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