Category: Cool sights

Celebrity geeks

Cracked.com routinely cranks out great articles, and their recent “8 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Geeks” is no exception. I first opened this up (courtesy digg) figuring it would just be of interest to me. But since the first celeb listed is the uber-sexay and even smarter Natalie Portman, I figured I could post here just so I could post an eye-candy pic of Ms. Portman.

natponerd3_clip.jpgWhen Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman was 10 years old, a representative of Revlon found her at a pizza parlor and asked her if she wanted to model. Portman turned her down and said that, all things considered, she would much rather act.

. . .

By the time she got her bachelor’s, she had studied four languages in addition to Hebrew, the language of her birth, had been published in professional science journals twice, killed an ass-load of aliens, and generally made us look like big human-shaped piles of poo. Seriously, when we were 10 years old, we wanted to be doctors or space cowboys or, at the very least, fire fighters. The closest we’ve gotten so far is one of those little shiny red fireman helmets.

I’ve been a fan of hers since watching Léon (aka The Professional for us in the US – which, BTW, is when I became a fan of Jean Reno as well). And I’ve long know she was intelligent. But I had no idea just how brainy she was. Smart, way damn sexy, so, so, so very pretty, and she can deal an alien ass-kicking to make your eyes pop out. And have I mentioned she super hot?

[tags]Natalie Portman, geeks, Stuff I want, Eye Candy[/tags]

Cyst removal

Shelley recently posted this snip about the removal of a parasitic cyst from a young girl’s brain.  She even included a video (which I’m not embedding due to my recent climax-like explosion of video posts) plus a bit of information on the nature of the cyst, the danger of removing, and just what happens to the brain around the cyst after it is removed.

The cyst is a hydatid cyst, which is the result of a parasitic infection by tapeworm larvae(Echinococcus). Generally speaking, it does not occur in the USA, but rather occurs in Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, the southern part of South America, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and southern parts of Africa. The cysts, which are initiated by one larvae, eventually come to house thousands of tapeworm larvae. So it is very important not to rupture the cyst during its removal, else the host could easily die.

I’m normally squeemish in regards to video of medical procedures, but this is just such an interesting procedure.  ScienceBlogs rock.

Now I’m hungry.  Be back after I fix a bite of early lunch.

[tags]Cyst, Parasite, Brain surgery, Hydatid cyst, Shelley, Retrospectacle, ScienceBlogs[/tags]

Candy art – M&Ms make good geometric patterns

This isn’t exactly new news, but it’s not ancient history so it can still get a post by me.  A talented young nursing student has a knack for crafting M&M art in her spare time.

This is what my soon to be wife created with several bags of M&M’s and three days.

And while that might not look like much from that angle, when you get the full on look at it, it’s really pretty cool.

Continue reading “Candy art – M&Ms make good geometric patterns”

The ultimate in LCD durability

I can’t help you with the spoken portion of this video, but I assure you that visually all your questions about the durabilty of Asus’ new sapphire-crystal protected LCD are well covered in the crossbow testing portion of the video.

I don’t know what it costs, but given how pricey watches are with sapphire crystal protection, I’m betting a big screen covered with the same is really expensive.  On the other hand, that’s a damn fine looking bit of protection. Probably because sapphire crystal is pretty frikkin’ hard. Sadly, the monitor is not widescreen, the only really noticeable flaw for the display. (via /.)

How it’s made – Jawbreakers

I love chomping on jawbreakers.  Pretty much any sugary treat is fine by me, but the durability/long-lasting nature of jawbreakers make them really good treats.  So when I saw the How It’s Made segment on jawbreakers, I thought it would be worth sharing.  Pay attention to how they form the compressed powder centers, particularly.  They use 5,000 pounds of pressure to compact those so they can start forming the harder shells around that.

Yummy. Just watching that makes me think I need to buy some more jawbreakers.  There’s nothing quite like sucking on some sweet hard balls for a long time, is there?

Target practice

In my on-going, but rarely expressed any more “I heart Cory Doctorow” readings and postings, I found this awesome set of firing-range targets he had chance to use recently. His description of the experience (he’s Canadian, after all, with all the associated lack of a 2nd amendment) makes it all worth reading.

For an extra five bucks, you could opt to replace your standard black silhouette target with one of these. I called them “Ron Jeremy threatens McCauley Culkin” and “We told you to stop dating your junkie boyfriend, dear! Our sort doesn’t swap fluids with the laboring classes!” You could also opt for Saddam or Osama.

I, too, noticed the McCauley Culkin look-alike, but totally missed that Ron Jeremy was his associated perv. Would Michael Jackson be better in that role? Cory’s followup also makes mention of the missed licensing opportunities this images suggest. I think he’s on to something. Anyone know a firing range that offers something comparable, but perhaps more full of fun or win?

How It’s Made – Chicks

Just watched an episode of How It’s Made (truly one of the greatest television programs ever), and saw this amazingly cool segment on how chicken farming chicks are brought about.

Oddly, the version we watched had the exact same narration, only it was performed by a male announcer.  Anyway, this is interesting and funny at the same time.  The handling of the chicks is funny, and makes me think the little birds are wondering “Dude, what the fuck?” through much of the process.

Moebius transformations revealed

Today, the Blahg will help smartify you.  You may be a part of the large group of people who consider themselves non-mathified and non-mathy capable.  But with the help of the YouTube experts (and honestly, that’s two words you will rarely see together in a legitimate context), you can learn how Moebius transformations work.

So simple to understand visually, but probably still ass-kicking hard for most of us to do numerically.  Still, I just thought it looked so cool that I needed to share.

[tags]Moebius, Transformations, Mathified, Mathy, Moebius Transformations, YouTube, experts, Mind blowing[/tags]

It’s called Christmas

Heard this one on the radio this morning.  I liked it as a happy song telling off all those involved in the pussification of America for calling Christmas something else.

Of course, I’m ignoring the overly religious secondary message, but that’s because I prefer to focus on the part that tells people what ‘tards they are.

[tags]It’s called Christmas, With a capital C, YouTube, Christmas, Holidays, Happy holidays[/tags]