Should the US Drinking Age be Lowered to 18?
The current U.S. drinking age of 21 is not working, according to more than 100 college and university presidents. They have signed a statement calling for a public debate to rethink and lower the drinking age to 18:
"Kids are going to drink whether it’s legal or illegal," said Johns Hopkins President William R. Brody, who supports lowering the drinking age to 18. "We’d at least be able to have a more open dialogue with students about drinking as opposed to this sham where people don’t want to talk about it because it’s a violation of the law." [...]
Several students interviewed yesterday at Johns Hopkins said lowering the drinking age could reduce binge drinking. "I think alcohol is seen, a lot of times, as a forbidden thing, and people want it," said Jamie Hittman, 20, a junior from Columbia. "It’s almost like contraband. Once you get it, you have to drink all of it."
Katie Buckheit, 19 and also a junior, said if people were exposed to drinking at a younger age, they would be more mature about it. "Maybe I’m being idealistic, but in Europe you can drink once you can see the bar," she said. "I think we should maybe take a lesson from
what other countries are doing."But Laura Kranish, an 18-year-old sophomore from Silver Spring, said students would drink as much they do no matter what the drinking age is.
What do you think? Should the drinking age in the US be lowered to 18? Would that help reduce binge drinking or lead to higher alcohol-related accidents?
Bigfoot, we hardly knew ye!
I realize that the truth hurts sometimes, and believe me, I’m feeling the pain terribly at the moment.
It’s my solemn duty to our readers to announce that last week’s announcement of scientific proof of the existence of “Bigfoot” was all a carefully planned hoax. The hoaxters even purchased a cheap, full-body gorilla/Bigfoot costume, placed it in a freezer and photographed it as “proof” of Bigfoot’s existence.
A nation weeps.
Two unusual Olympians
This is a silly but endearing video from NBC of Al Roker and Matt Lauer performing Rhythmic Gymnastics in Beijing while fellow team member Brian Williams looks on.
Of slightly more interest, perhaps, is the “behind the scenes” video where Canadian rhythmic gymnastics superstar Alexandra Orlando teaches them their routine.
Roker and Lauer recorded a similar video of themselves during the 2004 Olympics. Synchronized swimming was their sport that year.
[Embedded videos from NBC at Huffington Post]
Map of Springfield
Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan plotted a map of Springfield, the hometown of The Simpsons! See the huge size to read all the sites you may know from the TV show, and an interactive version as well. Link -Thanks, Em!
Image posted by Flickr user Dan Cameron. PS: Congratulations, Dan, on the birth of your new son!
Lego Desert Zombie Hunt
Justin Vaughn built a cool diorama of zombie hunters!
Inspired by Max Brooks’ books, The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, and fueled in part by the flurry of post-apoc mocs, I set out to depict some zombie plague survivors on the hunt.
See an entire Flickr set of the Desert Zombie Hunt. Link -Thanks, Sion Lee!
More Retro Batman
(YouTube link)
Andre Perkowski got such a great response on his “Silent Shadow of the Bat-Man” (previously at Neatorama) that he produced a three-part serial as a follow-up. It’s called “Arkham After Midnight”. This is Chapter One: “Mark of The Mad Hatter”
Big globs of setup concerning Arkham Asylum… madness! surreal delirium!
Hallucinations! Screaming lunatics! Obsessive supervillains! That amazing
triumph of conceit over technology, the incredible “Bat-Gyro.” All this and the
trippiest final two minutes you ever needed to see.
To keep up with further adventure of retro Bat-Man, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel. Link -Thanks, Andre!
Around the World Record in a Helicopter
Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik flew a helicopter around the world in 13 days, breaking the record for helicopter speed. The previous fastest round-the-world flight was 17 days, set in 1996. Kasprowicz and Sheik completed their journey by landing in New York yesterday.
The first week went off without a hitch. Kasprowicz and Sheik made it from New York to London in a stunning 40 hours and 41 minutes, shattering the previous record by a whopping 35 hours. Europe was a piece of cake, but Russia — as they expected — was a bear.
They arrived on the 13th, but construction at one airport and a fuel shortage at another cost them almost a full day. Things went from bad to worse after taking off from the Siberian city of Magadan — the oil temperature in one of the copter’s two engines rose so high Kasprowicz had to shut it down to avert crippling damage. They finally sorted things out with some help from local mechanics, but they lost still more precious time.
The route took the pilots through 15 countries. Link
(image credit: Grand Adventure 2008)
Grotesques and Gargoyles
deputydog takes you on a tour of the world’s most bad-ass grotesques and gorgoyles. Pictured is a fish-footed man at the Pena National Palace in Sintra, Portugal. Link
Update: Commenter Ângelo Fernandes identified this picture as Adamastor, a Portuguese mythological figure. -Thanks!
The Taste of the Imperial March
(YouTube link)
A woman with synesthesia described what it’s like to taste different musical chords. Professor Funk, who is not a synesthete, tries to recreate the sensation using the Imperial March from Star Wars. -via Of Two Minds
A Wedding to Remember
It was a wedding to remember: the cake … the party … and the taser? Yep, here’s a story of how some hard-partyin’ newlyweds get to spend their
first night of wedded bliss in the county jail …
"The crowd was trying to hold back the groom from mouthing off more, but finally he broke free, and they had to take him down," Sepic said of police. "He was heading for the officers. . . . Then the bride moved in and tried to interfere."
As the newlyweds struggled on the ground, a police officer used a Taser on Somora, 29, police said. Pastuszwska, 28, was holding her new husband tight, and was shocked as well, Skowron and authorities said.
"Imagine the kids and grandma seeing the bride and groom getting Tasered on the floor," said Skowron. "In my opinion, the police totally overreacted."
Previously on Neatorama: World’s Worst Wedding Night: Groom Tasered, Bride Tossed in Jail (apparently not so rare!)
The Biggest Hole in the World
It’s a diamond mine in Mirna, Siberia. It measures 525 m deep and 1.25 km in diameter. The suction from the hole is so powerful that helicopters flying over it have crashed. Link via Absolute Moral Authority
Michael Phelps Vs. Goldfish: Who is Faster?
With his epic 8 Olympic golds, Michael Phelps is definitely one of the fastest swimmers in the world. But just how fast do you think he swims? And how does Phelps stack up to the world's fastest fish? Neatorama investigates:
Though it's hard to measure the swimming speed of large fish in the
wild, most sources believe that the fastest fish is the Indo-Pacific Sailfish
(Istiophorus platypterus), that has been clocked in excess of
68 mph (110 km/h). Over short periods, they could swim even faster really, really fast. In
a series of speed trials at the Long Key Fishing Camp in Florida, one
sailfish took out 300 feet of fishing line in just 3 seconds! (Source:
Australian
Museum Fish Site).
Okay, so that's a little unfair. Let's try something slower.
A lot more research has been done on goldfish. According to Davison & Goldspink, a goldfish can be trained to swim at about 0.86 mph (1.38 km/h) Source: J. exp. Biol (1978) 74: 115-122.
For Michael Phelps, let's take his 100 m butterfly: 50.77 seconds for 100 m. That's a puny 4.4 mph (7.1 km/h) - about the speed of a brisk walk, actually, but still faster than a goldfish.
But wait a minute, you say, that's not fair since we failed to normalize the swim speed as compared to body length (Phelps, for one, is much much longer than a goldfish). No problem, it's easy enough to convert.An average goldfish is 8.5 cm, so its swim speed translates to about 4.5 Phelps is 6'4" (1.93 m) so this translates to about 1 body length/sec.
Here's the final comparison:
| Goldfish |
Phelps |
Sailfish |
|
| Absolute Speed | 0.85 mph (1.37 km/h) |
4.4 mph (7.1 km/h) |
68 mph (110 km/h) |
| Body Length sec | 4.5 |
1 |
90 |
So. There you have it. Michael Phelps. Slower than a goldfish.
Busted … by GPS Turtle!
Bad idea: growing marijuana.
Really bad idea: growing marijuana on U.S. park land
Neatorama worthy: getting busted by a turtle equipped with a GPS tracking device.
You might call him a pint-sized crime fighter. A box turtle equipped with GPS helps police nab a suspect growing marijuana in Rock Creek Park.
Just south of the DC/Maryland line, a turtle wearing a GPS device for research purposes makes an amazing discovery. "The ranger in charge of the program discovered the turtle in the middle of a marijuana field," Sgt. Robert Lachance of the U.S. Park Police says. [...]
Growing marijuana on U.S. park land is never a good idea, and it’s illegal. So U.S. Park Police set up surveillance. Sgt. Lachance says, "We soon discovered we had a culprit who was actively working the field."
Link - via bioephemera
Funniest People’s Court Interview: What’s So Difficult About Being You?
I don’t know a whit about what went on during the proceedings, but this People’s Court interview is mesmerizingly strange - even funny.
Check out what this guy said about how he felt after facing "The Ultimate Court of Opinion": Link
Update 8/18/08 - The guy’s name is Joe Somar. YuppiePunk and G4 The Feed have more info - Thanks KimIsAwesome!
The Best, Worst, and Weirdest Computer Ads of Yore
Earlier this month, Rob Beschizza of Boing Boing Gadgets has a mega post of 101 of some of the best, the worst, and the weirdest computer and video games ads of yore: Link - via Picdit
Swedish Bagpipes
Think that bagpipes are a unique form of Scottish aural torture? Think again: behold the sakpipa, the Swedish bagpipes!
Yes. Pictured at left are "
sakpipasäckpipa," which date from Medieval times. The tradition dwindled down to a single practitioner before undergoing a revival in the modern era. You can even listen to an MP3 recording of that old favorite - "Krigsvisa om danskarna" - about war with Denmark. Note the catchy lyrics:"Armar, tarmar, lår och ben, sig upp i luften svinga,
och hela mänskokroppar med, sig stora flugor flinga…"Which roughly translates as -
"Arms, guts, thighs and bones are flying through the air.
And whole human bodies too, attracting big flies."
Julian Wolkenstein Photography
Photos: Julian Wolkenstein
I think Julian Wolkenstein is trying to tell us something! Check out more the neat artworks of this award-winning photographer: Link [Flash] - via B Become Boh
Man Confessed Murder for a Bucket of Chicken
Tremayne Durham is a big guy. And he likes to eat. So when he was sitting in an Oregon jail waiting for trial for murder, all he could think about was food. So, when the prosecutors offered this unusual plea deal, Durham bit right in:
Durham was sentenced Wednesday to life behind bars with a chance for parole in 30 years after pleading guilty last month to aggravated murder for Adam Calbreath’s brutal slaying.
Multnomah County, Ore., Judge Eric Bergstrom agreed to the unusual plea deal - which included buckets of fried chicken, pizza and lasagna - because it saved the expense of a trial and possible appeals. A murder trial could have cost the county about $4,000, officials said.
Durham’s insatiable need for greasy food - which included gorging on KFC and Popeye’s chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake, along with a pizza, two calzones, lasagna and ice cream - cost Oregon taxpayers only $41.70. Bergstrom signed off on the deal, and the killer downed the food in two sittings - the first a few weeks ago, and the second on Wednesday. [...]
Don Hons, 32, a friend of Calbreath’s who attended the sentencing, said Durham deserved no favors - but told The Oregonian newspaper he was glad the judge made the food deal in order to get the killer locked up.
"If a couple buckets of chicken are going to help to get a conviction, then get some biscuits to go with it," he said.
Link - via iPood:Blag
The Muppets Take the Internet
I love short video clips of Statler and Waldorf of The Muppets that are goin’ round the Web.
It turns out that there’s a slew of Muppets videos on YouTube as the Swedish Chef, Gonzo, Beaker, Sam The Eagle, and of course, Statler & Waldorf now have their own YouTube accounts.
Joe Hennes of ToughPigs has some of the funniest "Viral Muppeting" clips: Link
Guess-the-Google Flash Game
Guess-the-Google by Grant Robinson is fun little online game based on Google’s image search. Actually, it’s image search in reverse - you’re presented with 20 images and have to guess the keyword: Link - via The
Monkey Buddha
Weng Weng: The Next 007
Forget 007. The baddest secret agent/super spy is the 2′6" tall Weng Weng [wiki] or Agent 00 as he’s known in the Philippines (in the movie For Y’ur Height Only)
Here’s a clip of Weng Weng in action, by John R by the R Room, with songs by THE CHUDS: Link [embedded YouTube] | See also these post by Boing Boing
The Likelihood of Death
We all have a 100% chance of dying -eventually. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss tests how well you know the odds of dying in different situations for different people. I scored 100%, because, well, I read a lot. Link
Olympic Village in Cards
(YouTube link)
Brian Berg took 20 days to construct this model of the Olympic Village in Beijing out of 140,000 playing cards! Link -Thanks, Geeks Are Sexy!
Previously at Neatorama: The Olympics in Lego
Spaghetti Cat
(YouTube)
Mistake or prank? Either way, you can’t help but laugh. The smallest things can turn out to be the funniest! -via Arbroath
Symbiosis
The spider needed something to attach its web support line to, and the morning glory needed something to climb. It may be a stretch to call this true symbiosis {wiki}, but I can’t think of a better term. This picture was taken in the entrance to my basement.
La vie des animaux selon les hommes
(YouTube link)
The life of animals, interpreted by man. -via The Underdog Victorious
Terminator Skull Modded into a DVD Player
Here’s something really cool: someone’s modded a Terminator skull into a DVD player! No words if the eyes glow whenever you fast-forward a boring scene. (If you know the back story to this mod, I’d love to hear it!): Link - via GeekAlerts
Rise of the (Rat-Brained) Machines
Following the Terminator story, we go to this groundbreaking invention by professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading and colleagues: a robot with a living brain!
Meet Gordon, probably the world’s first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.
Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon’s primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday. [...]
Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit — it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link. The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.
From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick. "Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat — or human — brain, he added.
Link | New Scientist Tech article - via Scribal Terror
Fan-Made Next Batman Movie Poster
Sometimes, fan-made art are so impressive that they rival those slick posters produced by the studios. Here’s a perfect example:
/Film readers Max B and David B have sent over this fan made poster for a possible sequel to The Dark Knight. Seems like the artist, like most everyone I have talked to, wants The Riddler to attack Gotham City in the next film. But yes, it is just a fan creation (If the question mark didn’t give it away). But the rest of the poster is well done.
Link - via Always Watching (who noticed the subtle addition like the Zodiac cypher and the newspaper article written by Vicki Vale (a reporter played by Kim Basinger in Tim Burton’s Batman)
See the rest of Neatorama:
