This makes a great addition to Warming Glow’s 101 Halloween corgis post we featured last weekend.
[Via]
Corgi Dressed As Serenity from Firefly [Picture]
Spectacular Science: The Lifecycle of a Mushroom [Video]
Thomas Beg‘s super-informative and eerily familiar short animation, Spectacular Science: The Lifecycle of a Mushroom, is admittedly “inspired by 1920’s animation such as the Silly Symphonies series and other early Walt Disney shorts.” But it goes a bit further than Mickey’s steamboat trip downriver–this little animation is packed full of information about the lifecycle of Amanita muscaria, the common toadstool. My favorite part is the snake-charmer nod during the basidiospore sequence.
Spectacular Science is a collaborative project between the University for the Creative Arts & the University of Kent which aims to provide a wide audience with access to scientific knowledge and support the education of students in science subjects.
The Royal Data Throne [Pictures]
A toilet made of circuit boards? Why not. We’ve got one that costs a cool six Gs (still saving up, sigh) and there’s always the one-of-a-kind Cylon tp dispenser to round out your bathroom geekery.
(Un?)fortunately, the Royal Data Throne is just a sculpture. At a foot tall and just five inches wide, the mini-toilet comes equipped with zero comfort amenities and all the weirdness of being a toilet made of circuit boards. And it can be yours for only $350.
If toilets aren’t your thing, then you’re in luck — pcbcreations has all kinds of PCB geekery up for grabs.
[g.tdw]
HDTV turns 75
The world’s first regular high-definition television broadcast took place 75 years ago. Of course it wasn’t 720 lines, but it was arguably the birth of what we know as television today.
The broadcast came from Alexandra Palace (pictured) in London on November 2nd, 1936. It came seven years after the first broadcasts aimed at a public audience rather than purely being a demonstration of the technology, and six years after the first series of regular schedules with programming five days a week. (These broadcasts used as few as 30 vertical lines.)
However, the 1936 broadcast, by the British Broadcasting Corporation, was distinct in two ways. It was the first to feature an entirely electrical broadcasting system by Marconi-EMI as opposed to John Logie Baird’s system that also involved both mechanical equipment and chemical processing of film in tubs of cyanide, causing a delay of almost a minute in transmitting “live” pictures. A BBC worker of the time noted ” Working in the Baird studio was a bit like using Morse code when you knew that next door you could telephone.”
It was also the first to have more than the 240 lines of Baird’s improved system. The 405-line display of the Marconi system was considered so spectacularly detailed in comparison that it was described at the time as high-definition. It became the standard in the United Kingdom until the late 1960s.
When the BBC decided to launch regular transmissions 75 years ago, officials were uncertain which system to opt for, it being something of a chicken-and-egg situation as to which types of sets people would buy. For this reason the first six months of broadcasts were made in each system from separate studios. A toss of a coin meant that the first broadcast was in the Baird system, with the same presenters repeating the same performance for the Marconi system immediately afterwards.
The first’s night’s broadcast included speeches by broadcasting chiefs, followed by a variety performance including musicals star Adele Dixon, accompanied by a symphony orchestra, performing a song concluding:
There’s joy in store
The world is at your door –
It’s here for everyone to view
Conjured up in sound and sight
By the magic rays of light
That bring Television to you.
(Picture credit: BBC)
Run For Your Lives in a Zombie-Infested 5K
Some of you might be runners. Others might wonder why on earth you would want to run if nothing’s chasing you. Here’s a race for all of you!
Run For Your Lives is part 5k race, part obstacle course, part zombie apocalypse training ground. Taking place in cities across the U.S. next year (currently Atlanta, Boston, Indianapolis, Seattle/Portland, Pittsburgh, San Diego/Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Austin), the event requires runners to race through a series of obstacles while dodging volunteer zombies, with the goal of reaching the finish line before being turned themselves.
Pre-registration is open for all cities for both runners and spectators, and soon you’ll be able to sign up as a zombie as well. You know, if you’re a zombie, and looking for some brains to eat… these will be ripe for the picking, assuming you don’t mind doing a little cardio.
The first race was in Baltimore last month, and below are some images of the carnage captured by flickr users rswatski and metalchris. Looks like a good time!
Images:
Hay Maze / Chris / CC BY-NC 2.0
BRAAAAAAIIIINSSSS! / Chris / CC BY-NC 2.0
Zombie Bride / Rob Swatski / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
/ Rob Swatski / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Hay bale maze zombie / Rob Swatski / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Zombie Triple Attack / Rob Swatski / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) Trailer [VIDEO]
As I’m writing this, the first official GTA V (Grand Theft Auto V) trailer is going to be available in barely a minute!
Edit: Thoughts? :)
The #SciFund Challenge: Crowdfunding for Science
Science funding is a little hard to come by in the US as of late. The good news is that in this Age of the Internet, the opportunity to help researchers get the support they need is just a click away. The SciFund Challenge is best described as Kickstarter for scientists: research teams post their projects, potential crowdfunders choose those they’d like to support, and BAM. We’re all doing science.
For the next 43 days, RocketHub will be hosting the SciFund Challenge to get some interesting projects set up and running. You can help by visiting the SciFund homepage and choosing the research that interests you. Consider a donation your Chrismahanukwanzakah gift to humanity.
It’s practically required that I mention the duck sex project here, but there are other studies up for crowdfund support — like this one about the evolution of stress-induced hypermutation, and another for developing a method of delivering vaccines to countries with low healthcare access using social media, and this one which will look at algae domestication — that can all use your help. FOR SCIENCE.