This Blog is moving

For everyone who reads this blog, I'm posting this to let you all know that it's moving to a new domain. I finally set up my own domain to host my blog. For the moment this is the only one that is moving. But I'll probably move the others sometime in the near future.

The new address is http://www.WhatJamieFound.com

Please update any feeds or links you have.

Amazing 3d pool art

The above swimming pool has tile mosaics on the bottom and sides of the pool to create a 3D effect. The artwork reminds me of the chalk art of Julian Beever. Imagine swimming in this pool. I would love to have something like this in a pool of my own. Of course, I would have to have a pool before I could put that kind of thing in it. Also, I expect it would be pretty expensive. Follow the link for a lot more pictures.

FreshHome: Amazing 3D Swimming Pools

3000 year old bee hives found

Archaeologists working in Israel have found evidence of a thriving beekeeping industry in the city of Rehov. The hives date from around 900 BC and are the oldest examples of beekeeping ever found. Beekeeping has been found before in ancient texts and artwork, but this is the first time that any examples of intact hives have been found.

Via PhysOrg: Archaeologists Discover Ancient Beehives

Cymatics: Demonstration using salt

Cymatics is the study of the effects of sound waves on physical items. Such as water or in the case of the video above, salt. The amazing thing is the patterns formed in the loose salt by nothing but the sound waves. The sounds in the video are actually pretty jarring. So you may want to keep the volume on your speakers on low.

Via Neatorama: The Effect of Sounds Waves on Salt

Book sculptures

Brian Dettmer creates art by sculpting and carving books. His work is amazing. He currently lives in Atlanta Georgia. But his art has been on display all over the world.

Check out the rest of his art at Haydeé Rovirosa Gallery: Brian Dettmer

Holiday

Yesterday was a holiday here in the US. So I spent the whole day building a deck on my house. It came out pretty good, but I wasn't able to spend any time posting on this blog.

Sorry about that.

For more pics of my new Deck follow the link: New Deck

American Revolutionary war letters

Clements Library at the University of Michigan has posted a large number of scanned letters from the Sir Henry Clinton collection. The letters are all reports detailing troop movements and strategic information gathered by spies on both sides of the war. Really amazing stuff.

Check it out: Spy Letters of the American Revolution

Via Presurfer

Friday Morning fun: Groovy Dancing Girl

The dance moves that this girl runs through are amazing. Really cool to watch. And of course, I like Techno.

:)

Light drawing

Using long exposures and light sources ranging from sparklers to Christmas lights, Eric Staller has created light drawings in photographs. The coolest thing is that these were all done using ordinary film back in the 70s. No computer enhancement or modifications required.

Check out a whole gallery at Centripedal Notion: Eric Staller: Light Drawings

An illustrated coffee chart

Did you ever wonder what was in those fancy coffees? Or for that matter, how to spell or pronounce them? Well, then the illustrated coffee chart is for you. Lokesh Dhakar has kindly made up the above chart for your comparison. Now you can easily tell what it is you are ordering at that Starbucks down the street.

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

The Manhattan of the desert

Shibam, Yemen is home to some of the oldest skyscrapers in the world. Some of them date back over 500 years. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks. There are about 500 surviving tower houses, rising 5 to 9 stories high. the city has been in existence for about 2,000 years. But most of the city's houses come mainly from the 16th century.
The city was first settled as a result of ancient incense trade routes. Later it became the capital of the Hadramawt under Islamic rule. Because of it's location on an elevated piece of ground in the river floodplain, and a desire of it's inhabitants to live within a protective wall, houses were built vertically.

Via DeputyDog: the world’s first skyscrapers

The Future of Image networking

I just watched the most amazing video of a new product called Photosynth from Microsoft. This post may be a little more technical than most of my posts here, but I was so blown away by the possibilities of a system like this, that I had to post about it. In the video a Microsoft Live Labs Architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas gives a demonstration of Photosynth.
The Photosynth application uses algorithms to interpret, categorize image data and create links between related images and other data from anywhere on the net. Basically it's building a "Visual Web" on top of the existing Internet.



For the original source of the video above go to TED: Talks Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo

A Bubble Bath in the Ocean?

Yesterday the shore front of New South Wales Australia was transformed into a mass of bubbles.

From Daily Mail:

Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards’ centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales. One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.

Sea foam is not actually that uncommon of a sight. Here in my hometown of Pensacola Florida, you can often find bubbles and foam on the beaches. What is uncommon is the sheer quantity of foam produced.

Check out the article at Daily Mail: Cappuccino Coast: The day the Pacific was whipped up into an ocean of froth

Via Neatorama

Dust storms around the world

Dark Roasted blend has an interesting article on dust storms. It has a ton of pictures, mostly from the Middle East and Northern Africa. The picture above is of a dust storm advancing in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. It's advancing at a speed of 40 miles per hour and is over 4,000 feet high.

Check out the article for a lot more pictures.

Dark Roasted Blend: Dust Storms!

For some more pictures of dust storms, check out my previous post of dust storms over Iraq.

Taking your dog skydiving?

Xtreme pug skydiving is the title of this video. And it's pretty interesting. This guy thought he would take his dog skydiving with him. LOL
I'm not sure what would posses you to do that. It just doesn't look fun to me. Though the dog looks like he is having a great time.

How snakes survive without eating

Just read this fascinating article on PhysOrg about snakes. Snakes can survive up to two years in the wild without eating anything. They do this by lowering their metabolism and using stored fat. The amazing thing is that they can lower their metabolism up to 72%. And this is on an animal that already has an extremely low metabolism to start with.
The scientists conducting the study, examined three species of snakes. The python, the rat snake, and the rattlesnake. While examining them, they starved the snakes for 6 months. The amazing thing, is that even though the snakes lowered their metabolism, they continued to grow in length for the entire period.

Personally I hate snakes. I can't imagine ever having one as a pet. But articles like this one and the one about the rattlesnake bite I posted a few weeks ago, really interest me.

Check out the article: How Snakes Survive Starvation

YouTube having trouble this morning

Not really sure what is going on, but it seems that YouTube is having some type of outage this morning. So the posts on this blog that point to YouTube, are not working right now.
Hopefully whatever is wrong will be resolved shortly.

Ordinary guys send a camera into space

A group of guys in Alberta, Canada sent a balloon 22.27 miles up. Right to the edge of space. The balloon had a Nikon Coolpix P2 camera attached. The camera was set to take one picture a minute. Once the balloon reached the edge of the atmosphere, it burst. Coming down to a soft landing due to an attached parachute. The pictures they were able to take are amazing.

Check out their site: Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiment #3
Via Gizmodo: Ordinary Guys Send Picture-Taking Balloon 22.27 Miles High

It seems like lately Canada is the place to be if you are interested in fun space projects. First we had the skydive from space, and now the balloon project.

Ron's Slip n' Slide Extravaganza

It seems that building home made slip n' slides is the thing to do these days. First you had the 535 foot slide and now you have Ron's Slip n' Slide. It's only 60 feet long, but personally I think this slide is way more dangerous.
In fact, I'm not sure I would want to get on it. That whole jump and the end of the slide just doesn't look that safe.

Via Gizmodo: How to Mod your Parents' House into a 60-Foot Slip 'n' Slide

Coin Stacking hobby site

Mitch Fincher a Civil Engineering student at Texas Tech University has created a site devoted to penny stacking. On the site there are numerous pictures of elaborate structures made with pennies and other various coins. All of the structures are made by simply stacking the coins. No glue or other stabilizers are used. The weight of the pennies holds the entire structure up.

Check out his site for some amazing pictures of stacked coins. And if you have a large quantity of coins laying around, read his directions on how to get started with your own coin structures.

Mitch Fincher: Coin stacking

Art from straws and paper plates

Tara Donovan is an artist who makes massive sculptures from small items found in everyday life. The picture above is made from thousands of clear plastic drinking straws. Other art installations are made from Styrofoam cups, pencils, paper plates, and buttons. All of the art is really amazing.

Check it out at Ace Gallery: Tara Donovan
Via Neatorama: Tara Donovan’s Mega Sculptures Made From Everyday Objects

What I'm listening to: FlyLeaf

This week I went back to a favorite from last year. Not exactly old, but not the latest release either. I really love the single, Fully Alive. In fact, I like pretty much the whole CD. It's a little darker than some CDs I have, but not so dark that it is depressing. Its almost the exact opposite of the Matisyahu CD I was listening to just a few weeks ago. This group is one of those very rare metal groups with a female lead singer.




And if you want to buy the CD, its for sale on Amazon right now for $12.98.

Redheads going extinct

Fewer than 2% of the worlds 6.5 billion people carry the gene for red hair. Because of this, scientists think that red hair may be extinct by 2060.

Red hair is a result of a mutation in northern Europe thousands of years ago. The mutation is recessive. So red hair is rare unless both of the parents have the gene. Due to increased globalization, it is becoming less likely that a person carrying the gene will partner with another who also carries the gene.

The only place where the gene is still prevalent is in Scotland. it's estimated that 40% of Scots carry the gene, with about 13% actually having red hair. So if you are a redhead, like those in the Redhead Wendys protest, you have a much better chance of passing that gene down if you move to Scotland.

Via Neatorama: Redheads Face Extinction

Catching Spider webs

Rocky Fiore is an artist who captures spider webs. He captures them and mounts them on glass for display. Some of the webs that he has captured are truly amazing. What caught my eye, was a video he did for Cool Hunting. in the video, he shows how he captures the webs, using only varnish, spray paint, and glass. Check out the video below.



For pictures of Rocky's art check out his site: World Wide Webs

Deer jumps over a biker

Found this video of a deer jumping over a biker. It's amazing that no one got hurt. Thought this was interesting enough to post, even though lately I seem to be posting a lot of wildlife videos. There was the tiger leap, the lion buffalo brawl, and the hammock bear. Oh, and I almost forgot the sheep surfing goat.

A stapler that doesn't use staples

If you are like me, you are always pulling staples out of documents and reports. The things are pretty annoying to take out. So that is what interests me about this item. this is a stapler that doesn't use any staples. Instead it cuts a little flap in your document and folds it in on itself. Doing what a staple would do, but without the staple. Pretty cool.

Check it out at ThinkGeek: Staple Free Stapler

An animated Picasso painting

Michael Tavarez has created this incredible animation of Picasso's girl with a violin. The animation is really amazing.

For more animation by Michael Tavarez, check out his site: The Work of Michael Tavarez

What happened today in the past?

The History channel website has a great page that will tell you what significant events happened on this date in the past. It automatically shows you today's date, but it also allows you to enter any date you want.
For a big history fan like me, I was a history minor in college, this site is great! Did you know that on this date in 1911, the first around the world telegram was sent? Or that on this date in 1975 the Viking 1 probe to mars was launched?

Check it out: This Day In History

535 foot slip 'n slide

SomethingAwful forum member Bruiser, has gone and created a 535 foot Slip 'n Slide on some property he owns. The thing looks awesome! I wish I had the resources and the land to put up something like this.
Check out the pics of the slid in action at the SomethingAwful forums: I built a 535 ft. Slip 'n Slide

Rattlesnake bite horror

This post is a little more on the gross and gruesome side. Justin Schwartz was bitten by a rattlesnake while on a hiking trip in Yosemite National Park, California. He was bitten very badly on the palm of his hand. The venom of the snake bite ate away and killed the flesh of his palm and lower arm. It took over 13 surgeries to restore his hand an lower arm back to usefulness after the bite.
At each step, Justin and his relatives documented his recovery with pictures and descriptions of what had been done to his hand. The pictures are amazing, though they are also a little gross looking.
Check out his story here:Justin's Rattlesnake bite, and for the pictures look here: Justin's Rattlesnake bite pictures.

The first 100 .Com domain names

A blogger has gone through the trouble of tracking down the first 100 .Com domain names registered. So if you were wondering which companies were the first to jump on the Internet bandwagon your in luck. The list is pretty interesting, both because of who is on it, as well as who isn't.

Check it out: The 100 oldest domains on the internet.

Via WebbAlert: Webb Alert

Ice caves in Nepal and Alaska

The virtual cave has an amazing gallery of ice cave pictures from the mountains of Nepal and Alaska. Some of them are absolutely breathtaking.

Check them out at The Virtual Cave: Glacier Caves

If you want more Ice photos, check out Dry Valleys of Antarctica or the Harbin Ice Festival

Goat goes sheep surfing

Found this video on Nothing To Do With Arbroath. This little goat kid seems to think that the best place to hang out is on the back of a sheep. LOL

Crossing the Pacific in a Rowboat

Roz Savage, a 39 year old management consultant, is attempting to row across the Pacific in a souped up rowboat. Last year she rowed across the Atlantic.
This year she is attempting to cross the Pacific in a series of three steps. The first step is taking place now. Starting in California, she is going to row 2,300 miles to Hawaii. After a break to rest, she will continue the trip by rowing from Hawaii to Tuvalu, a 2,600 mile trip. From there, she will take the final step to Australia, 2,300 mile stretch. All in all, an amazing trip.
Through the whole trip she will be tracked via GPS, and will be blogging about her progress using a laptop and a satellite Internet connection.
Check out her website here: RozSavage.com
Via Neatorama: Rowing Across the Pacific Alone