Entries Tagged 'amazing' ↓

Barry Ritholtz sez,

In doing the research for the “Bailout Nation” book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars.

People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Well, this is just about the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a lightning bolt that’s shooting down from the sky, shot in slow motion. I’m not sure exactly how fast this camera is, but it’s got to be shooting at a speed faster than the Casio EX-F1 can shoot at, at least at a resolution this high. Whatever, who cares? Just watch this and prepare to be blown away.

[Today's Big Thing]

Ah, goatees. The preferred facial hair of nerds, fat guys, bikers and Mark Wilson. If you’re looking to make sure your goatee is as neat and even as possible, you’re going to need a little assistance. Say hello to the GoateeSaver.

The GoateeSaver is a little contraption you use by putting part of it in your mouth and biting down. This leaves the bulk of it on your face, making you look like you’re wearing a robotic respirator of some sort. This chunk covers up your goatee, allowing you to shave around it and achieve the perfect shape every time.

It seems effective enough, although it clearly wouldn’t work with more adventurous goatee shapes. What if you want to make it pencil-thin? You know, for the ladies? And what if you want to let your goatee go down your neck under your chin? Well, in that case you’ll need to just rely on your steady hand. [Product Page via Las Vegas Sun via Dvice]

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

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Flickr’s Pixelsurgeon has remixed a bunch of BBC news-footage in which the anchors, having signed off, just look at one another with relief and sit silently waiting for the fade-out, calling the result, “The Day There Was No News.” The effect is nothing short of wonderful.

Mr Jalopy adds, “Somehow, this silent newscast is more eerie than normal boombastic version of the days events.”
Link

(Thanks, Mr Jalopy!)

We knew that boomerangs work in space because Takao Doi tried one in the International Space Station last month. Now, thanks to JAXA’s obsession with cameras we have proof on video. The usual skeptics who think that Elvis is really the only human that ever went to the moon—and still lives there—will be happy. [JAXA via Pink Tentacle]

University of Pennsylvania roboticists—who talk like robot versions of Alan Alda—have developed modular artificial creatures capable of recomposing themselves in case that they are destroyed—effectively taking the first step towards global annihilation, thank you very much. Happily for Humanity, they are far from T1000, and closer to Jerry Lewis, as the (quite funny, yet sad) end of the video shows.

Composed of 15 modules arranged in groups of five, each of CKbot’s clusters have a module with a 20fps camera, a blinking LED, and a accelerometer to reconstruct the entire robot, tied by magnets. Each of the other 12 modules have an embedded computer, proximity sensors, and a servo motor with 180 degrees that allows for a rotational range of about 180 degrees.

When the main mini-Voltron-wannabe gets destroyed and the clusters are disconnected, they self-right up themselves detecting its orientation according to gravity (don’t keep looking like an idiot and start running now.) Once they are on position, the cameras search for the unique LED patterns, and then two closers start to approach to each other at glacial speeds (by this time, you should have reached the weapons storage and grab a shotgun, five machine guns, and a grenade launcher.) When the two first modules connect, the start searching for the third one (you may fire now) until the finally assemble again, forming a single entity that would inevitably destroy you if we didn’t tell you the steps above. Yes, somewhere in the future, this advice will save your life. [New Scientist Tech]

Radar asked Bill Geerhart to send follow-up notes to the serial killers he wrote in the late 1990s, posing as a 10-year-old. The killers promptly replied (both in 1998, and recently).

in the late ’90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.

As it turns out, no group hates to disappoint a child more than convicted killers, all of whom responded promptly to Billy’s questions about dropping out of school. Their letters, published here for the first time, range from criminally insane to downright sensible, offering snapshots of the personalities behind some of America’s most hideous crimes. Recently, Radar asked Billy to follow up with his mentors as a college student. Link

polossatik says: “Klara.be (belgium art radio/channel) did an experiment with Belgian painter Luc Tuymans (who’s paintings go for million usd). What if you take art out of its usual context and expose it in the street? Would people even notice it?”

Funny video shows a dog who won’t go through a screenless screen door.

UPDATE Claudia points out that cats (Dutch, ones anyway) are as clueless as dogs when it comes to screenless screen doors. Link