Wouldn’t That Be A Great Band Name?

I know you've had this thought at least once... you and your friends are sitting around, drinking a few brewskis (or shooters or whatever it is you drink). One of your friends says something completely off the wall and you think, "that'd be a great band name." Oddly enough, that is how some of the best known bands get their names. Other bands have their names chosen for them by record producers or managers (how boring). In the end, how a band gets its name seems to be as different from one band to the next as their various playing styles. Here is a comprehensive list, in alphabetical order, of some of the most popular bands in recent history and where their names come from. I admit that the list itself is not particularly weird, but the way some of the bands ended up with their current names definitely is.

Posted By: Nethie - Wed Jun 03, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Entertainment, Music, Odd Names

How To Steal a Parking Space—Don’t Try This At Home

Don't you hate it when someone steals your parking space?



Please don't try this -- WU needs every reader!!

Posted By: gdanea - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category:

Eyeborg

Rob Spence, a filmmaker in Canada, who lost his right eye has now replaced that eye with a camera. Engineer Kosta Grammatis designed a video camera and transmitter that would fit into a prosthetic eye. Just think of all the possibilities. Waring: video does contain a very brief scene of eye surgery in the beginning. Eyeborg

Eyeborg Phase II from eyeborg on Vimeo.

Posted By: mdb777 - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Body Modifications, Robots, Video, Experiments

Fright From Wrong

Was Casper the Friendly Ghost ever mean? Funny you should ask.....

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Drugs, Superstition, Cartoons, 1950s

Follies of the Mad Men #68

[From Life magazine for September 10 1956. Two scans, top and bottom.]

Yes, yes, this is precisely how we are all living, here in 2009!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Domestic, Family, Technology, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

Weird Wildlife

It's a law of nature that when you've got to go, you've got to go. So if you happen to be a penguin out on the antarctic ice, well, that's where you've got to go. Which turns out to be an extremely useful fact for scientists, who have used piles of penguin poo identified on satellite images to locate where penguin colonies form. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey hope to use the new technique to follow the penguins over many seasons and determine how much impact global warming is having on the species (Telegraph).

Meanwhile British beekeepers must be cursing that not all animals can be tracked by satellite so easily after an outbreak of bee-rustling has swept the coutryside. The spate of thefts has been provoked by rises in the price of honey combined with a shortage of bees brought about by disease. In the largest bee-heist so far, 18 hives containing over a million bees were stolen from a strawberry field they had been pollinating. According to John Howat of the Bee Farmers Association, pulling off such an audacious crime would require "inside knowledge" (BBC News).

And it's not just beekeepers who are missing their wildlife. A UK radio station that has broadcast nothing but a repeating loop of birdsong for 18 months as "filler" has finally shut down to make way for a new commercial station, and raised howls of protest from many of its half a million regular listeners. The twenty year-old recording, made in a wiltshire garden and used by the radio station free-of-charge, became a massive hit with people from all over Britain, including author Terry Pratchett, who found it a relaxing alternative to the usual radio fare. The replacement broadcast, Amazing Radio, plays music by unsigned bands uploaded to amazingtunes.com (Pocket Lint).

Finally, here's one story that almost missed the boat (ark?), swimming with stingrays may be harmful... for the stingrays. Scientists monitoring the sealife around the Camen islands have found that tourist excursions to pet the wildlife around the islands is leading to weaker immune systems and poorer health in the animals. Christina Semeniuk, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, cited collisions with boats, overcrowding and hand-fed squid forming an greater part of their diet as the main suspects. She pointed to other studies on bears, penguins, dolphins, and apes which also showed increased stress and illness due to wildlife tourism (Guardian).

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Crime, Science

Forgotten and Unseen Electronics Part 6

This is a new electronic that just came out a while ago. It's a lamp that dances to "Gonna Make You Sweat" which most people would know as Everybody Dance Now. If you're trying to annoy people at the office you can buy one here.

http://www.spencersonline.com/details/product.aspx?CategoryID=4C03FC90-C45D-43AB-9664-11034DCBF79D&productID=EB055201-A27A-42E6-BB1D-B5770F7CF0A8&osadcampaign=cj&utm_source=CJ&utm_medium=affiliate

Posted By: phantomspy1 - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category:

The Missing Link

Proponents of evolution have long stated that humans are descendants of apes but there has been no evidence of a link between the higher primates and their more distant relatives. Until now. A recent article in National Geographic claims that a fossil, found in Germany, links humans to... lemurs. Paleontologist Jorn Hurum lead the team of researchers who studied the 47-million-year-old fossil and claims, "This is the first link to all humans, the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor." Read the article here (there's video too).

Now I don't generally have a problem with thinking that my great, great, great (many greats) ancestors were apes. Especially judging by some of the men I've dated. But lemurs? Did any of you see the movie, Madagascar?

Posted By: Nethie - Tue Jun 02, 2009 - Comments (13)
Category: Animals, History, Science, More Things To Worry About

Ferrofluid sculptures defy gravity

How you get from the first simple example to the other demonstrations of ferrofluid is a mystery to me. But here's part of the explanation from the poster of the video:

"A ferrofluid (from the Latin ferrum, meaning iron) is a liquid which becomes strongly polarised in the presence of a magnetic field.

Ferrofluids are composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid, usually an organic solvent or water. The ferromagnetic nano-particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration (due to van der Waals and magnetic forces). Although the name may suggest otherwise, ferrofluids do not display ferromagnetism, since they do not retain magnetisation in the absence of an externally applied field. In fact, ferrofluids display paramagnetism, and are often referred as being "superparamagnetic" due to their large magnetic susceptibility. True ferromagnetic fluids are difficult to create at present."

First example seems like a science demonstration.



How you get from that to these?





At least this one tries to explain what is happening.



No matter how it is done, you must admit it is beautiful and weird.

Posted By: gdanea - Mon Jun 01, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category:

can you handle the truth?

Hi, Wu-vians! This used to be the offending post, until Alex closed it. I've removed the objectionable material, but retained the heading and re-opened the post. That way, anyone can still read the comments and add a comment here, in the appropriate place, if they wish to.

We're all about transparency at WU!

Posted By: hickory_johnson - Mon Jun 01, 2009 - Comments (17)
Category: