In which we discover all sorts of weird, wacky, beautiful, and thought-provoking things.
Welcome to this week's Freaky Friday column, in which we pause for a moment to take a deep breath (hold it… hold it… now exhale), slow down, relax, and start winding down in preparation for the weekend. As part of this exercise, I've gathered a few choice diversions for your delectation and delight. This week's humble offerings are as follows:
No. 1: I must admit that I do like to see magic tricks. On the one hand, I really enjoy the smaller sleight-of-hand tricks that are performed right under one's nose. On the other hand, I also delight in the larger, more spectacular offerings that leave you gasping out loud and thinking "How on Earth did they do that?" (Click here to see an amazing magic trick.)
No. 2: Is it true that my circle of friends is somewhat eclectic? The reason I ask is that a few minutes ago, Bruce, the guy who owns the building in which I have my office, approached me in the kitchen and said, "You certainly do have some strange guests." When I inquired as to why Bruce had this impression, he replied "Well, look at the guy with the goats in the back of his truck who was parked outside the front door of the building yesterday." Of course, I responded by saying "How did you know he was my guest?" To which Bruce replied (speaking slowly as though he was talking to an idiot): "Because. He. Had. Goats. In. The. Back. Of. His. Truck."
Hmmm, I guess he has a point. The reason this just popped into my mind is that my chum, Arthur Smith, is one of the world's foremost authorities on cosmic rays. Having said this, Arthur currently spends the bulk of his time farming, beekeeping, and making bars of soap. Arthur also keeps me informed of the latest developments in astrophysics, including, for example, a way to teach children all about the phases of the moon using Oreo Cookies (Click here to learn more.)
No. 3: Speaking of Arthur, he recently sent me another interesting snippet about the possibility of embedding tiny LEDs in special contact lenses and using them to make augmented vision a reality -- think Google Glass on steroids! (Click here to see more.)
No. 4: Are you familiar with the equation (bN)(S/N)Z = bSZ? You should be, because it could spell your doom. Suffice it to say that if you wish to survive a Zombie Apocalypse (see also my blog Zombie Tales For People With Brains), then you need to understand the implications of (bN)(S/N)Z = bSZ. (Click here to discover more.)
No. 5: As you may recall, I recently ordered a 3D Printer (I cannot wait for this little beauty to arrive). So you can only imagine my surprise to hear about a guy who uses 80,000 honey bees to "print" the most amazing 3D sculptures. (Click here to "bee" impressed.)
No. 6: Speaking of bees (gosh, I'm smooth), scientists used to say it was impossible for a bee to fly. Of course, many people were of the opinion that airplanes would never fly. Then they said that human-powered airplanes weren't possible. Of course each of these "impossibles" has eventually proved to be possible. The final bastion of this class of impossible was the helicopter. Many pundits have claimed that it's simply not possible to create a helicopter powered only by human strength. Need I say "Boing!" (Click here to see the impossible made possible.)
No. 7: Finally, speaking of human flight (I just canít stop myself), this reminds me of the classic YouTube video: Jeb Corliss "Grinding The Crack," which is augmented by an absolutely perfect soundtrack. If you haven't already seen this, it will completely blow you away (no pun intended). Even if you have already seen it, it's always worth another look. (Click here to have your socks blown off!)
If you know of any interesting sites you'd care to share, please email them to me at email@example.com for possible inclusion in a future Freaky Friday column.