Shapeshifter

Imagine you lived every month like December. Find out what shape your body would be in after 12 months. Shapeshifter is an interactive tool that looks at the health impacts of over indulging in food and drink.

(thanks Andrew)

A Powerful Message From Megan Bomgaars With Down Syndrome

You have to watch Megan Bomgaars, a Denver youth with Down Syndrome, whose forceful message of 'Don't Limit Me!' is a rallying cry for everyone.



YouTube link

(via Humanyms)

What's the Reno Cure for Valentines Gone Wrong? D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

image credit: Ken Lund

It's almost Valentine's Day, so naturally our thoughts turn to divorce. Actually, they don't, but the Hallmark holiday seemed like a good excuse to look back on those dark days when getting a divorce was officially frowned upon, suppressed by onerous state laws that actively discouraged the civil disunion of couples ready to be singles again.

In the 1930s, the unhappily married fled to Reno, where the town's finest hotels were strategically located near the Washoe County Courthouse. There, judges granted divorces with assembly-line efficiency. It didn't really matter why a husband or wife wanted a divorce, only that the plaintiff had been a resident of the great state of Nevada for a full six weeks.

(thanks Ben)

Cancer Australia - Patient Involvement

This animation tells the story of how someone affected by cancer can work with Cancer Australia to help create better outcomes for themselves and others.



Vimeo link

(thanks Stefan)

Swimming With Sea Turtles At Akumal

Akumal is a small beach-front tourist resort community south of Cancún, between the towns of Playa del Carmen and Tulum in Mexico. Akumal means 'place of the turtles' in the Mayan language. The beaches to the north and south are endangered Green Sea Turtle habitat.

(thanks Juergen)

2014 Romantic Movies Guide

Will you find romance in 2014? If it's at the movies, then yes. Here are the biggest and best romantic movies of 2014, whether it's about pure love or romantic-comedy. Just to warn you, the year doesn't start too well. Things pick up.

(thanks Sheridan)

Avalanche In South Tyrol

An impressive avalanche was caught on camera in Passiria valley in South Tyrol, Italy, last Thursday. The avalanche swallowed trees but caused no casualties. The avalanche stopped on the access road to the village.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

The Graves With The Hands

image credit: Henk Kosters

In a cemetary of the Dutch city of Roermond, you can find the 'graves with the hands.' On the protestant part of this cemetery colonel of the Dutch Cavalry J.W.C van Gorcum is buried. His wife, lady J.C.P.H van Aefferden is buried in the catholic part. Because of the difference in religion, they were not allowed to be buried together.

The colonel died in 1880 and was buried on the protestant part of the cemetery against the wall. His wife died in 1888 and was buried on the catholic side. Two clasped hands connect the graves across the wall.

Correction

(via Bad Newspaper)

The Upside Down Traffic Light

image credit: Doug Kerr

A traffic light that's different from all others in the US can be found in the small Irish neighborhood of Tipperary Hill. What makes it different is the fact that the lights are turned upside down - green first, red last. The history of how this happened is quite interesting.

When the city first installed traffic signal lights in 1925, local Irish youths, incensed that the 'British' red appeared above the 'Irish' green, threw stones at the signal and broke the red light. Members of a group called Tipperary Hill Protective Association addressed the town rulers. On March 17, 1928, the city leaders relented, and green was above the red light.

The Kandi Car Vending Machine

In China you can rent a small electric car from a vending machine. The machines are owned by Kandi Technologies. Renting a car will cost you $3.25 per hour. The cars are built in partnership with Geely, best known in the west as the company that bought Volvo. The vehicles are electric, with a range of 75 miles and a top speed of 50 miles per hour.



YouTube link

(via Everlasting Blort)

Monday Puzzle

The Presurfer, in cooperation with pzzlr.com, brings you a puzzle every Monday. Just to tickle your brain.

Regardless of the question, which of the following is the correct answer?
(a) All of the below.
(b) None of the below.
(c) All of the above.
(d) One of the above.
(e) None of the above.
(f) None of the above.

You can find the answer here.

Rangoli: Welcome Mat Of The Gods

image credit: Sandeep Shande

Throughout the predominantly Hindu country of India, a folk art has been practiced for many centuries. Known varyingly as Kolam, Muggu and Mandana, the art of Rangoli is created using dyed rice or sand, flour and the petals of flowers. It signifies a sacred welcoming zone for Hindu deities. It can be quite a welcome.

From Jay Leno's Garage: Decopods

A Decopod is a hand-fabricated tri-pod art deco scooter with an all-aluminum body built by Randy Grubb. With top speeds near 70 mph and matching helmets, it's as much fun as you can have.



YouTube link

Can Humans Hibernate?

image credit: Dan McKay

Hibernation is a suppressed metabolic state that falls under the umbrella-term of torpor or dormancy. Some animals exist in this state for the greater part of the year.
But can humans hibernate? Involuntarily? Yes. On purpose? Maybe.

Overloaded Vehicles In China

A collection of snaps, mostly taken on the highways of China and published by China Foto Press, reveal drivers who load up their vehicles far beyond their limits as they go about their daily business.

These pictures show ridiculously heavy trucks, bikes and tractors with goods piled up to 20 feet above their heads, leaning at unusual angles under the load.

(via Neatorama)

Are Crows The Ultimate Problem Solvers?

Recent research has found that some crow species are capable of not only tool use but also tool construction and meta-tool use. Crows are now considered to be among the world's most intelligent animals. Dr Alex Taylor sets a difficult problem solving task, will the crow defeat the puzzle?



YouTube link

10 Perfectly Camouflaged Animals

image credit

A lot of animal species in the world have developed camouflage that helps them find food and avoid being attacked by a predator. Camouflage varies from species to species, but an animal's environment is often the most important factor in how it appears.

(thanks Pavle)

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Sees 'Evening Star' Earth

image credit NASA/JPL

This view of the twilight sky and Martian horizon taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky.

Researchers used the left eye camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera to capture this scene about 80 minutes after sunset on the 529th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Jan. 31, 2014).

Trick Shot Titus

Titus Ashby is a 2 year old boy who makes trick basketball shots. He' appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and in viral videos with celebrities such as Bradley Cooper and Channing Tatum.'



YouTube link

How To Pour The Perfect Glass Of Beer Every Single Time

image credit

Pouring the perfect glass of beer is a lot harder than it looks, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can end up with a foamy mess. The way you pour a beer has a drastic effect on the thickness of that foam.

How To Pour The Perfect Glass Of Beer Every Single Time.

(via UniqueDaily)

Sweet! Batteries Made From Sugar

image credit

The standard battery for gadgets is lithium-ion, which stores a lot of energy for its weight. But lithium is a rare Earth element with most of the deposits located in Chile, Argentina, China and Australia. This is one reason the batteries in the average laptop are so expensive.

A team at the Tokyo University of Science, led by Shinichi Komaba, have been looking at sodium-based batteries, using sodium ions as the cathode and carbon from ordinary sugar as the anode. In this form, the sodium-sucrose battery stored 20 percent more energy than one made with conventional carbon.

Professional Driver Jackknifing A 53 Foot Trailer Into A Parking Space

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

How Facebook-Obessed Are You?

Answer 9 questions and this site will tell you hoe Facebook-obsessed you are. I'm not Facebook-obsessed at all. But that's maybe because I'm not on Facebook.

(via b3ta)

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

image credit: California State Parks

Millions upon millions of bright blooming poppies populate California's Antelope Valley, making it appear right out of an impressionist painting. Antelope Valley is dry and barren throughout the year. But from mid-February to late May, the meadows spring into life, coloring the fields in a medley of orange, yellow, pink, and green.

Apart from poppies, other wildflowers like owl's clover, lupine, goldfield, cream cups, and coreopsis add color to the countryside. In order to maintain the park's natural state, the flower fields are not watered nor stimulated by the park service.

A Restaurant Made Entirely Out Of Cardboard

image credit: Connie Ma

There is a restaurant in Taiwan where everything is made of cardboard. Everything, except (luckily) the food. Plates, cups, tables, chairs, light fixtures, and even the walls are made entirely out of recyclable material in Carton King Creativity Park restaurant in Taichung City, Taiwan.

This quirky concept was conceived by a former paper salesman Huang Fang-liang who wanted to make an environmental statement through his creative business. 'It’s to say that after using something, you can use it again,' he said.

Some Sort Of Musical Instrument

(via Bad Newspaper)

Matt Perren Lip Syncing 'Don't Stop Me Now'

UK teen Matt Perren took a picture of himself every day for three years to create a time-lapse lip syncing video for Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now.'



YouTube link

(via Geekosystem)

Why 'Fake' Snow 'Doesn't Melt' - Because It's Real

image credit YouTube

After a snowstorm hit Atlanta, rumors circulated that it wasn't snow. Some said that it was fake snow, either deposited via chemtrails, or made up of psychoactive substances, or nanobots. Some viewers, especially those who have not encountered snow before, could possibly be forgiven for believing the idea had some merit.

A rash of videos showed people torching snow, only to see it not melt, leaving a black char mark on the exterior of the white stuff... as if it were synthetic, and not just made of frozen water. Fed up with these misleading videos and dumb theory, astronomer and science writer Phil Plait took a lighter to snow in Boulder, Colorado, and got a similar result.

Ants Playing Chess Find New Solutions To Old Problem

Remove all the pieces from a chess board except for one knight. Then try to move the knight across all 64 squares of the board, touching each once. This so-called 'knight's tour' is very difficult to achieve for a single person, but mathematicians have calculated that there are a mind-boggling number of ways to pull it off.

Searching for new solutions to the knight's tour, University of Nottingham computer scientist Graham Kendall and a colleague turned to simulated ants. They used the ant colony optimization algorithm, a swarm intelligence technique based on the behavior of ants looking to find a path between their colony and a food source.

A Cloudy Lesson By Yezi Xue

As thing don't go according to plan, a grandfather cloud-maker and his grandson learn that good ideas come from happy accidents.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Friday Cartoon By Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson is a professional cartoonist from the Chicago area. His cartoons have been published in Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Woman's World and the Saturday Evening Post, to mention just a few. Among his clients are GM, General Electric, FedEx, Microsoft, and IBM.

How To Find Our Planet's Twin

image credit

To date, most known extrasolar planets are gas giants like Jupiter or Neptune. Lacking even a solid surface, they are worlds very unlike our own planet. As the search for other Earths continue, a true Earth twin must satisfy five characteristics.

Beyond The Gardens: The Plant Family Tree

The story of Kew Garden's Herbarium and its 7 million dried plant specimens, as told by acclaimed plant scientist and Keeper of Kew's Jodrell Laboratories, Mark Chase.



Vimeo link

Dark Art: Spectacular Illusions From The Golden Age Of Magic

image credit: Mary Margret

During the height of the live-magic era seeing was believing. On a nightly basis, heads were severed and reattached, horses levitated from the stage, and bullets were caught in mid-air.

To advertise these impossible feats, magicians at the turn of the 20th century commissioned vividly illustrated posters, emblazoned with exotic-sounding names and ominously scowling faces, daring you to doubt them. More than 100 years later, these posters still provoke an insatiable desire to see these illusions firsthand.

(thanks Hunter

In Kinshasa, Congo, Robots Direct Traffic And Pedestrians

image credit YouTube

While red light and speed cameras are increasingly common, we've yet to see machines enlisted that look like actual robots. In Kinshasa, the capital city of Congo, two large robots are being used in place of police officers to direct traffic and pedestrians.

(via Nag on the Lake)

17 Bizarre Aircraft And The Stories Behind Them

image credit

It's easy to love these funny-looking planes just for their sheer weirdness. But many of them were built to prove a point or to advance the science of aerodynamics.

Incredible Flying Robot Bird

A flying robot bird that mimics the real thing filmed in super slow -motion. The bird was created by German Markus Fischer and his Festo team. Festo is a privately owned German industrial control and automation company.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Surreal Things Washed Up On Florida's Beaches

image credit: c.e. delohery

Last year, a gigantic eyeball went viral when it washed up on Pompano Beach in Florida. People all over the world wanted to know the origins of the mysterious peeper. But it wasn't the first time a bizarre discovery had been made on the sands of Florida.

In fact, weird and wonderful things have been washing up here for years. It turns out it's not just holidaymakers who are attracted to Florida's beautiful beaches, but everything from giant Lego men to dead mermaids.

17 Famous Movie Homes Built With LEGO Bricks

With the big LEGO movie coming out this weekend, Movoto thought it would be fun to look at some of our favorite homes from famous films and try to figure out how many LEGO bricks it would take to build them. They looked at places from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Iron Man and more.

(thanks Travis)

10 Unbelievable Places That Are Hard To Believe Really Exist

image credit: marcovdz

The world is so full of natural wonders that new, amazing and unbelievable places can be discovered every day. These places from all around the world are, in their own right, beautiful.

Consisting of everything from individual monuments to expanses of water and ancient villages to modern cities, they may not all be attracting, appealing or aesthetically pleasing to everyone, but to some, they are some of the most stunning places on earth.

(thanks Pavle)

Neodymium Magnet In FAT Copper Pipe

See what happens when you drop a Neodymium magnet in a copper pipe.



YouTube link

The Legend Of The Makech

The Makech is one of the strangest fashion items ever. These are large beetles, found only in the Yucatán peninsula, with broad shells that can be decorated with little gemstones.

The beetles feed on tiny sporophores found in a certain type of wood, and can live up to eight months. Attached to a golden chain, they're worn as pendants by Maya women and kept as pets.

(thanks Juergen)

Baked Bramley Apples

Bramley apples are a cultivar of apple which is usually eaten cooked due to its sourness. This week is Bramley Apple Week and The Bramley Apple campaign have released this video that includes four sweet and two savoury recipes for you try out.



YouTube link

(thanks Lee)

'Seahawks' Don't Exist, Except When Winning Football Games

image credit

It's a little known fact, especially since they won the Super Bowl, but in actuality there is no bird in ornithology known as the seahawk. Multiple sources, including the Seattle Seahawks' own website admits that seahawks don't exist.

Ospreys on the other hand do. Those are the birds found throughout the Puget Sound area of Oregon which are also known as fish eagles or fish hawks. Ospreys are the only member of the hawk family that are exclusively fishers.

Gold - Visualized In Bullion Bars

There's surprisingly little gold in the world and this infographic shows all the gold ever mined.

(via Dark Roasted Blend)

The North American Southwest

YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Dripping Paint

Watch as paint drips down your screen.

(via Everlasting Blort)

11 Strange And Fancy 20-Sided Dice

image credit

For thousands of years, people have used dice in many different games. But the 20-sided die is perhaps most often used today in tabletop role-playing games. They're symbols of good times spent with friends exploring exotic worlds of the imagination.

Here are some of the oddest 20-sided dice ever made.

Amazing Parallel Parking Job

This happened in Russia. I'm not sure whether this is real or staged, but it's an amazing parallel parking job.



YouTube link

A World Obsessed by Cat Pictures

image credit

A recent study states that cats are among the three most spread and shared pictures on the internet along with pictures of babies and food. But, where did this obsession of taking pictures of cats begin?

Meet Harry Pointer, a British photographer that lived in the 1800's who made cats famous long before the internet. It all started when he photographed cats as they were going about their day. Then it occurred to him that he could do more, so much more. The cats he photographed afterwards in different funny poses that mirrored human activities became the ancestors of the modern lolcats.

Surgeon Wanted

Must have own tools.

(via Bad Newspaper)

The Coldest Spot In The Known Universe

image credit

Space has a reputation for being cold, but the tremendous chill of deep space is nothing compared to what NASA is preparing to create very near to Earth. Researchers are planning to generate a super-cold spot on the International Space Station to study the intricacies of quantum mechanics. How cold? It's going to be the coldest spot in the known universe.

The experiment being carried out in the ISS Cold Atom Lab is going to reach temperatures as low as 100 pico-Kelvin above absolute zero (pico denotes one-trillionth).

Arnold Maersk

The giant Arnold Maersk passing under the Bayonne Bridge 08/08/12 06:13 AM local. At 1155 feet long and 138 feet wide with draught of 41 feet, the Arnold Maersk is one of the largest container ships. The video was taken from the walkway on the west side of the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey, USA.



YouTube link

(thanks Cora)

Animals Did A Really Poor Job Of Predicting The Super Bowl Winner

image credit

For some reason, having animals predict the Super Bowl winner is kind of a thing. For slightly more understandable reasons, they're by and large not very good at it. Here's a somewhat definitive list of the creatures who placed their bets on the wrong team.

The Tallest File Cabinet In The World

image credit: redjar

In the middle of a field off Shelburne Street in Burlington, Vermont, USA, there is a stack of 11 rusty file cabinets welded on top of each other. The file cabinet tower extends to over 40 feet high and contains a total of 38 drawers.

Bren Alvarez, the artist responsible for this unexpected art installation, states that he intended the cabinet to have 38 drawers on purpose, representing the number of years of bureaucratic paperwork it took him to get his project going.

Water And Forts

The 'Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie' (New Dutch Waterline) is a 3 to 5 kilometre wide inundation zone stretching approximately 70 kilometres from Muiden past the city of Utrecht towards the east, down to the large river district and the Biesbosch.

Up until 1940 it was the main defence line aimed at defending the western part of the country against any attacks coming from the east and the south.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

Gone In A Split Second

image credit: Eric

There are moments when a photographer knows that they have almost no time to take a shot - and that in a second the opportunity will be lost forever. Whether the moment is caught by skill, luck or sheer accident, the results can be breath-taking. Here is a selection of amazing photographs which capture a moment otherwise gone in a split second.

Life Battery

If you were a laptop, what would your battery indicator look like? How much charge do you have left? I tried it and... uh oh!

Find out how much charge you have left.

Love In The Time Of Advertising

An animated musical love story about a young man who lives inside a billboard and is charged with updating the advertisements. When he falls in love with a beautiful lady living across the highway, he has to use the only method he knows to get his message across - advertising.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

Monday Puzzle

The Presurfer, in cooperation with pzzlr.com, brings you a puzzle every Monday. Just to tickle your brain.

image credit

A set of soccer games is to be organized in a round robin (e.g. every team plays a match against each other one time). If 45 games are played, how many teams participated?

You can find the answer here.

10 Novelists Who Started Their Careers As Lawyers

image credit

Becoming a paralegal opens the door to working in law, but it could also potentially be a jump-off point for other careers. Several well-known writers started off in the world of law and went on to become attorneys before taking what they learned on the job to craft bestselling novels, many of which include crime-based storylines.

Some of these writers even continued to practice while enjoying success in their second career in fiction. Here are ten novelists who started their careers as lawyers.

Porsche's First Car Found After Being Left In A Shed For 112 Years

The first Porsche car ever built has been untouched since 1902. Officially called the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, this electric car from 1898 has 'P1' engraved onto all of the key components standing for Porsche 1, done by the then 23-years old Ferdinand Porsche himself.

The P1 took to the streets of Vienna on June 26, 1898, making it one of the first vehicles registered in Austria. The car has now been moved to Stuttgart, Germany, where it can be seen at the Porsche Museum.

Red Bull Stratos - The Full Story

On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner ascended more than 24 miles above Earth's surface to the edge of space in a stratospheric balloon. Millions across the globe watched as he opened the door of the capsule, stepped off the platform, and broke the speed of sound while free falling safely back to Earth.

Now, GoPro has released new footage of the daring jump. From the airless freeze of outer space, to the record-breaking free fall and momentous return to ground - see it all through Felix's eyes as captured by GoPro, and experience this incredible mission like never before.



YouTube link

How The Scorpion's Venomous Sting Evolved

image credit

The sting in a scorpion's tail has been connected to common defensive proteins by scientists. Defensins are proteins common to many plants and animals that fight off viral, bacterial and fungal pests.

Researchers investigated the relationship between these proteins and the neurotoxins present in scorpion venom. Their results showed how just a single genetic mutation could convert such a protein into a deadly toxin.

(via Look At This...)

Great Ghost Cities: 7 Eerie Abandoned Wonders Of China

image credit YouTube

An ancient city made of intricately carved stone sits silent at the bottom of a lake, a replica of Paris complete with an Eiffel Tower is eerily empty, and a city leveled by disaster has been cordoned off indefinitely as a memorial to those who were lost.

China might just be home to more ghost cities than any other nation on earth, and most of them are of the modern variety, as the push for economic progress has led developers to get a bit ahead of themselves constructing vast communities, malls and amusement parks that never caught on with the public.

Huelux

Huelux is a video shot by Randy Halverson. It's a time-lapse video of the galaxy and storms from April through November of 2013.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

11 Sites Guaranteed To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

Presurfer reader Chris Winfield (entrepreneur, marketing innovator, strategist and speaker) has put together a list of 11 of his favorite sites that help him to see things from different perspectives. And The Presurfer is one of those sites.

He says: 'Each of these sites have a knack of finding interesting, weird and wonderful links that I wouldn't be able to find on my own. Well actually, I probably could find them but suspect that the time involved would be extremely counter-productive.' Thanks Chris!

The Campbell-Stokes Sunshine Recorder

image credit

Before the dawn of the computer age scientists who wished to record the amount of sunshine in any given place had to be inventive. A variety of sunshine recorders were invented, with the Campbell-Stokes Recorder quickly becoming the most popular. In fact many are still in use to this day.

Un Sacré Mariage!

Un Sacré Mariage! (One Hell of a Wedding!) is about an ordinary wedding which turns into the event of the year when the nun responsible for the music accidentally plays the wrong CD.



Vimeo link

(thanks Cora)

Tucker Plays Piano

Tucker, a one and a half year old Schnoodle, plays the piano and sings along at least 3 or 4 times every day. In spite of all of his practicing, he really isn't getting any better at it.



YouTube link

(thanks Michael)

30 Most Architecturally Impressive Prisons In The World

image credit: Vincent_AF

Life inside prison may not be the prettiest at times, but that doesn't mean prison buildings themselves need to be unattractive. Across the United States and internationally, inmates are doing their time or waiting it out pending trials in some very aesthetically appealing facilities.

Some of these are modern institutions while others have been standing for over a century and boast truly iconic architecture. Here are 30 of the most architecturally impressive prisons in the world.

Popular Science's Jacob Ward Talks About Flight School

The magazine's former editor-in-chief explains what it takes to become a citizen astronaut.



YouTube link

Dreams Of The Forbidden City: When Chinatown Nightclubs Beckoned Hollywood

image credit

In the 1940s and '50s, the shining beacon that called to young Chinese Americans with dreams of stardom was San Francisco's Chinatown, which had the largest district of Chinese-owned nightclubs between 1937 and 1964. These grand rooms with tables, a dance floor, and a cabaret show promised their clientele a 'taste of China,' but really, it was more China-by-way-of-Hollywood.

The Chinese American chorus girls might make their entrance in modest cheongsams, but would quickly discard them to reveal sexy burlesque costumes underneath. Elegant chanteuses sang popular American ballads in curve-hugging evening gowns, and dapper men sang and danced in tuxes and top hats. Collectors Weekly took a look behind the scenes.

(thanks Lisa)

What Are Nightmares Made Of?

image credit

Few studies have delved into the dark details and emotions associated with nightmares, and even fewer have used dream logs as a basis for analysis. So, what are nightmares made off? Pretty much exactly what you'd expect.