Steve Mould, Britain's Brightest's "science guy," showed that if you put coil a 50' chain of magnets in a jar and then casually toss out one end, the whole chain goes berzerk leaps and cavorts like an innocent colt on crystal meth, defying gravity and gravitas. In this video, Earth Unplugged gets Steve to explain what's really happening.
Amazing bead chain experiment in slow motion - Slo Mo #19 - Earth Unplugged (via IO9) 
    
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I hope that’s cleared things up.
Thank you
My Favorite Thing Of All Time? This.
the blizzard two year stein
where my husband works, they give out service milestone gifts. today he got his two-years-of-service beer stein.
at 5 years he’ll get a sword and at 10 years a shield.
i like the order there: drink, arm, defend
next year i’ll have worked at the university for 15 years, at which point i get a paperweight.
nope, not kidding… a paperweight.
Record-breaking book domino chain at Seattle Public Library
(Boing Boing) The awesome library ninjas at the Seattle Public Library kicked off its Summer Reading Program by smashing the world record for a book domino chain. The chain was laid out in the library’s beautiful main branch, and was made up of 2,131 library discards and donations.
i squealed like an idiot during the whole 3-minute video.
Calgary-based artists Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett (previously) swung by Chicago this month and installed this amazing interactive lighting solution called Cloud Ceiling at Progress Bar. Constructed from hand-bent steel, reflective mylar, electronics, motion sensors, LEDs, and 15,000 re-appropriated incandescent light bulbs, the cloud is now a permanent fixture in the bar which opened earlier this week. Motion sensors embedded in the ceiling cause the cumulous surface of light bulbs to illuminate, effectively ‘mapping’ a lit path through the cloud as bar patrons move through the space.
Brown and Garret were featured in this space last year, for a similar interactive cloud installed at Nuit Blanche Calgary. You can learn more about Cloud Ceiling here.
Bent
#hike #losangeles #california #willrogers #yucca #plant #bloomed #noflowers #silhouette #stick #iphone4 #hiking #trail #hot #pacific #ocean #coastline #fog @princessfyza @jennnn25 (at Will Rogers State Historic Park)
Atheists unveiling monument by Ten Commandments
(Miami Herald) STARKE, Fla. — If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
That’s what American Atheists decided after challenging the installation of a Ten Commandments monument in front of the Bradford County courthouse.
The New Jersey-based group planned to unveil its own monument to atheism Saturday next to the Ten Commandments monument, and they believe it’s the first of its kind to be placed on government property. And the atheist group plans to keep putting them up as long as Christian groups keep putting up Ten Commandments monuments.
"We’re not going to let them do it without a counterpoint," said David Silverman, the group’s president. “If we do it without a counterpoint it’s going to appear very strongly that the government actually endorses one religion over another, or - I should say - religion in general over non-religion."
American Atheists sued to try to have the stone slab with the Ten Commandments removed from the courthouse lawn in this conservative, rural north Florida town best known for the prison that confines death row inmates. The Community Men’s Fellowship erected the monument in what’s described as a free speech zone. During mediation on the case, the group was told it could have its own monument, too.
So the atheists said OK.
What’s being unveiled Saturday is a 1,500-pound granite bench that will include quotes from Thomas Jefferson, as well as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the founder of American Atheists. It will also include a list of Old Testament punishments for violating the Ten Commandments, including death and stoning.
[image of David Silverman at veiled monument via American Atheists Twitter feed]
Want to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe that's genuinely challenging and hard? Try "Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe," in which each square is made up of another, smaller Tic-Tac-Toe board, and to win the square you have to win its mini-game. Ben Orlin says he discovered the game on a mathematicians' picnic, and he explains a wrinkle on the rules:
You don’t get to pick which of the nine boards to play on. That’s determined by your opponent’s previous move. Whichever square he picks, that’s the board you must play in next. (And whichever square you pick will determine which board he plays on next.)...
This lends the game a strategic element. You can’t just focus on the little board. You’ve got to consider where your move will send your opponent, and where his next move will send you, and so on.
The resulting scenarios look bizarre. Players seem to move randomly, missing easy two- and three-in-a-rows. But there’s a method to the madness – they’re thinking ahead to future moves, wary of setting up their opponent on prime real estate. It is, in short, vastly more interesting than regular tic-tac-toe.
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe (via Kottke) 
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Soldiers in Belarus found a little squirrel and brought it to the Warrant officer. The squirrel was very weak and about to die, so the officer took care of it and fed it like a baby every four hours.
Three months ago the guy left the army and now works as a taxi driver and the squirrel is always in his pocket no matter where he goes!
Be still my beating heart.
oh my god.
