Car Tossing

When too much time meets a creative imagination.



At the end, watch for the firebomb.

Weird Britannia!

Time to point our telescopes of weirdness at "the old country", methinks.

Speaking of old, recent research carried out by the University of Michigan has revealed that US seniors are smarter than their UK counterparts. The study, lead in the US by Kenneth Langa, measured the recall abilities of over 8000 elderly Americans and over 5000 elderly Brits, and found that the yanks scored 1.4 more on the memory tests, out of a possible 24. Langa suggests that part of the difference was due to higher average levels of education and income in the US group, and higher levels of depression in the UK sample, but points out that nothing is certain at the moment. "It's like a view from 30,000 feet" said Langa (New Scientist).

And it's not just British brains that are shrinking, the UK's sheep are getting smaller as well. Because of a trend towards milder weather believed to be due to climate change, Sheep on the Outer Hebridean island of Soay are getting smaller at the rate of 100g/year, say researchers from Imperial College, London. Though it might seem that warmer winters and a greater abundance of food might make for bigger sheep, Tim Coulson, the professor leading the study, points out that fewer weaker and smaller lambs will die over winter, bringing down the average size (Telegraph).

Now, in some good news, UK campaigners have won a second victory in a three-year battle... to bring back a chocolate bar. The "Wispa Bar", made by European confectioners Cadbury, was introduced in 1995 along with a caramel laced version called the "Wispa Gold", only for both to be discontinued in 2003. This prompted some die-hard fans of the bubbly chocolate bar to start a petition to have it go into production again, resulting in a "limited edition" run of the original Wispa last year. When the 40 million bars produced sold out in just 18 weeks, Cadbury decided to relaunch the brand. Not satisfied with just one bar, campaigners have kept up the pressure, causing Cadbury to start producing Wispa Golds "for a limited period," as before. However to some commentators, this latest move looks more like slick PR than grassroots victory (Sky News).

More in extended >>

North Korean Beer Commercial

Benny-Hill-stye music, women with barely an inch of flesh showing-- The North Koreans have a lot to learn!

Forgotten and Unseen Electronics Part 27

If you sleep on the bus or train you can buy this. It's a sleep mask called the Noriko-san which has a scrolling display on it to tell people where your stop is so they can wake you up at the right time. It was made by Pyocotan (an inventor from Japan). I can't find a site where you can buy it but I did the find the site of the inventor:

http://www.pyocotan.com/

Early Slapstick and Boxing Cats

The more of these early Edison clips I see, the more convinced I become that the great inventor was a prankster nerd.

American Artifacts

Here's a neat site that offers lots of strange gadgets from the past, such as this "Radio Disease Killer."

the Simpsons Psychedelia

A nice video collection of the 10 best Simpsons' trips:

Vintage drug ads

Ahh, the good old days when you could buy dexedrine, opium, marihuana, cocaine, or heroin at the pharmacy.

Delightful collection of old pharmaceutical ads:
http://www.pharmacytechs.net/blog/old-school-medicine-ads

And for those especially fussy kiddies, there's Nembutol suppositories!

Celebrities Faces Upside Down

WARNING:
"Once viewed, the image cannot be erased from memory only over-written"

Definitely SFW but still assuredly highly unsettling, a photoshop contest to turn celebrity faces upside down:
http://www.freakingnews.com/Celebrities-Upside-Down-Pictures--2433.asp

Miss Thora Birch:

Breath-taking wave photography

The art of Clark Little, mostly taken from within the curl of waves, is amazing:
http://www.clarklittlephotography.com/gallery/

All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.