Confused by which Star Trek movie you're watching? Not anymore!

Alright, This is a picture of the Sun.

It looks like some sort of fuzzy ball of lint, but this is an image of our host star the Sun. What you see are filaments of plasma on the surface.

Free Candy!!

Justin Bieber sucks, this dude should have been a star.

The dude blew away judges in Kazakhstan Pop Idol and then faded into obscurity.

Behold the Mimic Octopus

Many cephalopods such as octopuses and squid have amazing control over their skin color and texture, both to hide them from would-be predators AND to give them a leg up (8 legs up?) on their prey.

Apart from the bright blue eye spot, this octopus is very successfully camouflaged.

Oh, and to put it to rest: don't worry about the plural of octopus. Strictly speaking it's 'octopodes' because the -pus ending is Greek (as opposed to Latin). Nobody uses that though, so octopi or octopuses is just as good.

Blizzard Nerd stumps Company reps

Quite possibly the best pumpkin carving ever.

BIRDS ALL OVER YOUR BODY

YOU'RE THE BIRDMAN

Run and sell that... homeboy

Looks like Antoine Dodson of "Bed Intruder" fame has come out to pitch an iphone app that alerts you to nearby sex offenders. Try not to use it in Ohio or your entire screen will be full of red dots.

Bullets hitting things

Bees and Flowers

I don't know how many of you knew about this, so I figured i'd show you something cool. Humans have decent eyesight (well most of us do), but our vision encompasses just a tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. We can't see ultraviolet or X rays, and we can't see infrared, microwaves, or radiowaves. When we look at a yellow flower, all we see is yellow. Bees can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, and many species of flowering plants have flowers with patterns only visible in UV. The leading theory is that these patterns serve to help guide bees to them.

The visible spectrum (left) and the false-color UV (right). Obviously the UV part isn't actually "red": we don't have a word for whatever color it really is because our brains can't make sense of it. 

:3

Alright I just saw this video of a budgie that makes R2D2 noises. It's amazing.





If you want to learn more about birds I'm sure that bird on head could help you with that. She's got a bird and a blog, and doesn't afraid of anything.

Creepy Doll Lady

I don't remember when I found this site, or even how. Hell, I don't even remember bookmarking it. Long story short, it's a set of galleries of creepy repainted dolls.  The most upsetting by far is the male doll on the left, who the painter has seen fit to adorn with a five o'clock shadow despite all the dolls being proportioned like children. There are dozens of galleries of these creepy dolls, in different clothes and different poses. I challenge you to make one of the pics your desktop wallpaper without having nightmares tonight.

OH NO NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! OH GOD THEY'RE IN MY EYES

QUICHE

Quiche is delicious, let me tell you. The tl;dr of a quiche is that it's like a pie full of omelet. Everybody likes pie. Like tourtiere, this is a pie you eat for a meal. Can you believe that shit?

The real business is that is it so much more than just a pie made of omelet. You have an awesome flaky crust and a filling that is egg based, but lighter in texture than an omelet.

You can put whatever you want into it, but one of the classics is quiche lorraine. It is named Quiche Lorraine because of the character Lorraine McFly in Back to the Future. Yes, Marty McFly's mother invented the quiche lorraine (the scene was cut out of the movie). There is literally nothing bad about it. It's gruyere cheese and bacon. It's a pie with cheese and bacon in it. The only way it could possibly get better is if it also contained winning lottery tickets.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. You like spinach? Hell yes you do. You like it because it's tasty and is full of vitamin A and some other shit too. I bet you could put that shit into a quiche if you wanted. You know, maybe sweat down some onions in butter on low heat and cook them til they're translucent, then saute some spinach up in there. mix it with some beaten eggs and cream, a tiny bit of flour, a tiny bit of nutmeg,  and pour that delicious liquid into a pastry crust that you had blind-baked earlier (or bought I guess). If the stars are aligned just right, you could bake it in an oven at 350F until a pin poked into the center came out clean.

You could call it... quiche florentine.

LOOK AT THIS MOTHERFUCKING QUICHE. LOOK.

More Nudibranchs!

Man bothers cop with dildo

Fallout New Vegas unboxing video - hilarious

Dude giving you the play-by-play of what you get when you purchase Fallout New Vegas...

Nudibranchs

These marine gastropods are typically brightly colored to discourage predation - they themselves are voracious predators. I'll picspam later but for now, check out this one.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH FALLOUT NEW VEGAS.

Aging is a disease, and this man wants to cure it.

No, this is not Rasputin.

Some of you might know this gentleman: Aubrey de Grey. He's an Englishman who has taken up the quest to annihilate age-related diseases. Don't let him catch you calling it immortality - a claim that many journalists love to bandy about when referring to de Grey. Immortality is the necessary endpoint of his quest, but increased health into old age is the real subject. He aims to rally biologists, gerontologists, and geneticists to tackle aging on a cellular level. To that end, the Methuselah foundation (named after the biblical character) has created a contest to substantially increase the lifespan of mice.

Recently de Grey's group has put up a new contest - one that will reward the first research group to develop a fully transplantable human organ, grown from the ground up. The idea? If an organ is failing, simply swap it out for a fresh one.

There's a great wired interview available here for those of you who are interested.

Who wants to live forever?

New research shows that increased intake of branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine) can raise the median lifespan of mice by 12%. Take care to note that the MAXIMUM age at death was not raised, but the average age at death.
It is thought they act by increasing productivity of mitochondria and staving off the ravages of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are implicated in DNA damage and disruption of cellular function.

After a little searching I found that BCAA supplements have been available for bodybuilding for some time, and although it isn't the fountain of youth, it may be beneficial.

INCEPTION

YouTube Doubler

environmentally friendly jaguar

This is the Jaguar CX75. It combines electric motors and microturbines. Microturbines are a technology that WAS used in some cars in the 1950s, but ultimately abandoned because American consumers rejected the near-silent turbine tech because they didn't sound like the roaring V8s they were accustomed to.

At any rate this car, when finished, will be very quick - 0-60 in 3.4s with a top speed of 205 mph. It won't be cheap either - estimates come in at $300,000USD.

Jaguar CX75. Click to embiggen

Suddenly, no visitors?

Hits crashed hard the last couple of days, what gives?

Harry Enfield - LOADSAMONEY

A sad announcement.

Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot has died at age 85, of causes undisclosed. He was the originator of fractal geometry - the famous Mandelbrot set was named after him. Below is a zoom into the mandlebrot set, showing increasing complexity the more you zoom in.

GIMME PIZZAAAAA

Need a study break? Think again.

A new study has shown that your willpower is linked to how you think willpower works.
In essence, your perceptions and beliefs are far more powerful than you realize.

The study split students into two groups - one was told that willpower was a 'limited resource' that you needed to replenish with rest/breaks from the task at hand, and the other was told that willpower was inexhaustible.

Those who were told that willpower was limited ended up procrastinating 35% more on demanding tasks, and ate 24% more junk food. Those who were told that willpower was unlimited ended up powering through tasks and procrastinated far less.

Just think about it. Apparently was have an inexhaustible supply of mental effort on call. That's pretty impressive, and it has implications for addiction and obesity treatments.

Last year's 500 carat monster diamond

Sourced from the Cullinan mine in South Africa - named after the 3000+ carat Cullinan diamond.I am not sure of the fate of this 500+ carat diamond but it looks exceptionally clear and free from inclusions and imperfections.

Interactive BATMAN/JOKER Breakdance!

Check this out. Batman and the Joker have a breakdance competition in the subway. It's interactive, so you have to choose a character and choose his moves!

U GONNA GET GRAPED

Nanotechnology - Water bouncing on carbon nanotube array

This ultra-high speed film shows the superhydrophobic (water avoiding) nature of a carbon nanotube array. The force of surface tension in the water droplet is much greater than the attractive force between the droplet and the array, so the water remains a droplet instead of spreading out and soaking into the array.

Many everyday objects have hydrophobic coatings: eyeglasses, automobiles, kitchenware, carpets, and some clothing.

THIS IS THE FUTURE OF VIDEO GAMES

I'm sure some devs warned marketing that FPS games on kinect would make people look like retards... but they went ahead with it anyways.

Valve announces DOTA 2!!!!

Not surprisingly, Valve + Icebox have announced the sequel to DotA, DOTA 2.

DotA developer + Valve making an announcement tomorrow!

Apparently Valve and Riot! games have been battling over the trademark for DOTA / Defense of the Ancients. I don't know who's going to win, or what Valve has in mind for its announcement. Is Valve going to release a source-based steam-enabled champion battlan game?

Time (tomorrow) will tell!

League of Legends

Edit: fuck this game

Flying Fish

I can't believe this shit. They can stay in the air for nearly a minute...

Robbie Roadsteamer and Aaron the King Wizard - River City Ransom

SUPER HOT UPDATE LoL Edition

I'm fucking TERRIBLE at League of Legends.

It's unbelievable.



Oh shit did you also hear about Google... they have been test driving automatic/computer controlled cars.

Internet company Google is testing cars that can start, steer and stop without a human driver.

Google says its engineers have test driven more than 225,000 km using seven test cars. The cars have been tested on several California roads, including San Francisco's winding Lombard Street.

The cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic, as well as detailed maps to navigate the road ahead.

Google says the cars are safer than those with human drivers because they can react more quickly and effectively. However, during all tests humans were available to take over the controls if needed.

Jon Stewart just chillin out with a bunny.

George Carlin telling it like it is.

Blogging Update

I love to read blogs. One of the ways I can catch up with you guys and read your blog is if you put your blog link in your profile. That way, myself or any other fans can just take a look at your profile in order to get linked to your blog. It's a great way of getting yourself out there.

Canadian Thanksgiving > American Thanksgiving.

Not that I'm hating on Americans or anything, but our version of thanksgiving is superior. The primary reason is timing. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, a full two months before Christmas. This leaves exactly enough time to a) not be tired of turkey anymore and b) Lose the weight incurred by gorging on thanksgiving dinner. Americans have Thanksgiving in November... hardly enough time to regain turkey lust OR lose the post-turkey day blubber.

I will admit that I'm touched (aroused?) by the heartwarming story of how pilgrims nearly starved to death and were subsequently saved by north american indians, only to be repaid with smallpox and genocide. Your thanksgiving STORY is better.

COOKING PRO TIP: Before cooking your bird, jam butter between the skin and the meat. Try to get it everywhere. You can use a compound butter too if you like. Also, when you baste it.. instead of using water, use some half-decent white wine. Gravy with wine in it is godtier.

Looking to buy a new computer? Check this out.

This guide is originally from /g/. It might be a couple of months old, but what this means is that the prices in the guide have fallen. Remember to search for the lowest prices for individual components, and go with retailers you trust. If you find a low price at a retailer you've never heard of / has bad ratings, see if you can get that component price matched with a more reputable retailer.
I got my last set of components at http://www.ncix.com/ , a Canadian retailer. I did my price comparisons at www.shopbot.ca. Your mileage may vary, of course.

If Prop 19 gets passed... even bears are gonna smoke weed.

Look at how happy this pepper is. Look.

Some of the most amazing volcano footage ever!

THE MUPPETS ARE NOW DIAMONDS.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Fan Remix

This game looks like it gives the official Sonic Team's Sonic 4 a run for its money. Apparently this is a real playable game, and not just a clever 3d animation.
I think they did a great job with the character animations, and they kept the physics true to sonic 1 / 2.

Special visitor in TF2!

What the fuck, Oprah giving out gifts in TF2?

NYC Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want food stamps being used for soft drinks

In an attempt to curb childhood obesity, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and his health commissioner want to ban the use of food stamps to purchase soda.

"City statistics released last month showed that nearly 40 percent of public-school children in kindergarten through eighth grade were overweight or obese, and that obesity rates were substantially higher in poor neighborhoods. City studies show that consumption of sugared beverages is consistently higher in those neighborhoods."

Personally I think it's a great idea. Food stamps are meant to help poor families get the nutrition they need to stay healthy. Soft drinks have no nutritional value in them, so it stands to reason that they should not be eligible for purchase with food stamps. Yeah, everyone needs a treat or whatever once in a while, but the government food stamps are for necessities, not treats.

It IS true that the USA's agriculture has an artificially skewed price structure (cheap meat, cheap starch, expensive veggies... thanks subsidies!), but estimates put soda pop purchases around 100 million dollars of the 2 billion dollars worth of food stamps. Allocating that 100 million dollars to fresh and healthy food would definitely have a positive impact.

Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You (Live)

Hunt's Ketchup pulls HFCS from their products!

While there are still detractors of the claim that HFCS = shit, some companies seem to be responding to consumer dissatisfaction.

Personally, I highly doubt that enough companies will make the same positive change that Hunt's has - the US corn industry is too mighty. If Pepsi turns "Throwback" into a permanent product... there might be some hope.

 

New Hunt's 100% Natural Ketchup Features Five Simple Ingredients

OMAHA, Neb., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hunt's®, a ConAgra Foods brand, is pleased to announce that it has removed the high fructose corn syrup from every bottle of its ketchup products. Hunt's 100% Natural Ketchup brings forth the naturally rich tomato flavor of Hunt's tomatoes and contains only five simple ingredients: tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt and other seasonings, with no high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients or preservatives.

Hunt's 100% Natural Ketchup began rolling out to major markets nationwide in mid-April. Consumers should be able to find product on shelves everywhere by mid-May. Suggested retail pricing for the new Hunt's ketchup recipe is the same as the previous recipe. 

SMOKE KETCHUP EVERYDAY

the hungarian sludge spill is really bad. wow.

An aluminum plant in Ajka, Hungary spilled some nasty red shit which has killed more than 100 people so far. It's gotten into a nearby tributary and will be flowing into the Danube river. 40 square kilometers have been polluted with this shit. I'm sure the company will face no consequences! Photos AP.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network OST: In Motion

It's nice to hear the 909 closed hihat coming back. Also there is a lot of moogy bass and c64 arpeggios on this OST.

Japan. That is all.

Dude programs an audio multi-effect in on commodore 64

They said it couldn't be done.

Sharecropping with Kendall

Inception soundtrack makes everything sound epic.

I don't give a damn if you've never seen the movie. This soundtrack will make the most mundane activity seem like the whole world is at stake.

You could be taking a piss, you could be checking your email, or microwaving a god damn burrito. To the Inception soundtrack, you are checking your email for reality altering viruses. you are taking a piss to save the world. That burrito is the one thing that stands between you and oblivion.

Incidentally if you haven't seen the movie... it is excellent.


BWOWWWWMMMMM

Russian FOAB - "Father of all Bombs"

Apparently this bomb outclasses the previous champion for "biggest goddam conventional bomb", the american MOAB, by quite a bit. It's got 4 times the yield (44 tons TNT equivalency) and 2 times the destructive radius as the american MOAB, despite weighing a good 1000kg less.

So there was a furry at work yesterday...

I'm not quite sure why, but there was a dude in a fox suit at work yesterday. He was ADD bouncing around the lobby while another gentleman took pictures of him. I wasn't able to take any pictures but he looked kinda like this.

wat.

State of the blog address

Hey guys, I've noticed a few more folks have followed recently. Glad you like what you see on this blog, and I'm sure some of you have blogs of your own you'd like me to check out. I will take a peek at them when I get home today. I'm sure you've got some cool posts.

More Minecraft. Yep!

Started a new map. This is what I found. Giant overhangs and a lava fountain in the middle of the central one. This shit is gonna be dangerous since the giant shadowy area will keep monsters alive for much longer than usual. Since I usually have no regard for my safety, I will likely die a ton.

Wanna fight the forces of evil? it's easy!

One of the greatest YTP videos ever made. Easily.

Inkjet printers waste horrendous amounts of ink.

This is just criminal. If you ever wondered why your inkjet printer is constantly crying out for ink refills... take a look at this.




There's a reason why companies can sell printers for 50 dollars. It's because they piss through the ink so fast they recoup all the money lost on the printer sale in a matter of months. All I can say is next time, I'm buying a laser printer.