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11 reasons to follow @ellie_gonsalves on Instagram. I can’t even decide which of these pics to stare at.

What you're looking at here is the first ever machine to be able to "self-assemble". In other words, go from one state to another that can be used for...something. Without a human having to ever touch a button or issue a direct command.

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[via]

THE 90S IN ONE PHOTO

This 1963 Starfire hardtop coupe (chassis 636303550) is described as a 93k mile example with many factory options including power seat and A/C, though neither is currently in working order. Reportedly previously owned by a Michigan couple who used it exclusively during summers, it is said to run well and appears to be in quite decent shape, with general patina suggesting it may be largely original as well. Find it here on eBay in Mancelona, Michigan with a $13,500 BIN.

Maan Hamadeh performs Beethoven's 'Für Elise' in a bunch of different styles (followed by some music from Titanic) while waiting for his flight at the Prague Airport.

[maan hamadeh/via]

Origin's "On The House" deal, which randomly gives away free PC games, is doing a very good thing today, because it's giving away Wing Commander III. One of the greats.

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“This. Rules.” — Cassie Bolding

Don't you hate it when you're driving at night and some jerk driving the other way forgets to turn his headlights off? That might not be an issue anymore in the city of Shenzhen in China where drivers who don't turn off their high beams will be forced to stare at them for five minutes.

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A group of researchers used where "notable individuals" were born and place of death, based on data from Freebase, as a lens into culture history. The video explainer below shows some results:

From Nature:

The team used those data to create a movie that starts in 600 bc and ends in 2012. Each person's birth place appears on a map of the world as a blue dot and their death as a red dot. The result is a way to visualize cultural history — as a city becomes more important, more notable people die there.

Before you jump to too many conclusions, keep in mind where the data comes from. Freebase is kind of like Wikipedia for data, so you get cultural bias towards the United States and Europe. There are fewer data points just about everywhere else.

Therefore, avoid the inclination to think that such and such city or country looks unimportant, focus on the data that's there and compare to what else is in the vicinity. From this angle, this is interesting stuff. [Science via Nature | Thanks, Mauro]

A group of researchers from MIT, Microsoft Research, and Adobe Research are experimenting with seemingly inanimate objects as a proxy for sound in the vicinity. They call it the Visual Microphone.

When sound hits an object, it causes small vibrations of the object's surface. We show how, using only high-speed video of the object, we can extract those minute vibrations and partially recover the sound that produced them, allowing us to turn everyday objects—a glass of water, a potted plant, a box of tissues, or a bag of chips—into visual microphones.

See the demo in the video above. It's impressive. It's also great that there's another use for high speed video other than watching water balloons pop and guns fire on the Discovery Channel.

Find more details on the project here.

Surveys show that the average service time at a McDonald’s drive-thru is longer than three minutes, but some McDonald’s in Florida believe they can cut a chunk of time off of that time — or your next meal is free.

According to the Miami Herald, certain South Florida McDonald’s (it doesn’t list which ones) are guaranteeing that weekday lunch-hour (noon to 1 p.m.) customers will get their order within a minute after paying.

Customers get a timer when they pay at the first window and then trade in that timer at the next window where they get their food. If it’s been longer than 60 seconds, their next meal is free.

However, it’s important to note that the only guarantee is that it will only take 60 seconds between paying and picking up your food. You could still see a substantial wait in line before you pay.

The three-minute average service time for McDonald’s is from QSR Magazine’s annual survey of the fast food drive-thru experience. QSR measures service time as “the time from when the vehicle stops at the order station to when the entire order is received, including change.” So that is going to be slightly longer than the time frame being measured at the Florida McDonald’s.

And like other guarantees where the refund is store credit instead of cash, the hope is that the customer will return and spend more money in addition to the credit.

If anyone in South Florida wants to try the guarantee, it’s apparently going on through Aug. 29.

[via Time.com]

Democrat sends taxpayer-financed mailer implying support from veterans. Unfortunately, one of the fake military personnel on the mailer – a woman trying to look like she’s in the U.S. Navy – is wearing an insignia from the World War II-era German Luftwaffe. There’s dumb, there’s really dumb, and then there’s Democrats.

Thanks Rich

 

Sure, Pizza Hut thinks it’s being all revolutionary with its cookie pizzas, and infinite variations on stuffed crusts but the chain isn’t taking things nearly far enough. Have they tried putting an entire cookie pizza layer on top of a pizza? They have not. Yet. One brave man, Michael J. Hudson, has tried such a feat. The result looks horrifying. And amazing. And horrifying.

The inspiration for this pizza came from the pre-packaged DiGiorno frozen pizza including frozen chocolate chip cookies, but Michael went even further and used a separate tube of Toll House brand cookie dough. (When the pizza-and-cookies combo pack debuted, Consumerist called it a “watershed moment in American obesity,” an assessment that we stand by.)

I am a person with an unhealthy love of both pizza and cookies, but this actually turned my stomach. Proceed at your own risk.

Here’s how it all began: two packages of frozen food, a man, an oven, and a dream.

my apologies @besthandleever http://t.co/LNdX2YLU8x—
michael (@michaeljhudson) August 04, 2014

One Brave Man’s Dream Was To Put Cookie Dough On A Pizza And He Did It [Buzzfeed Food] (via Foodbeast)

Previously: The Ultimate Headshot Fails Compilation

[failarmy]

Thanks Keith