Category Archives: Science

101 bottles of diet coke, 523 mentos, 2 mad scientists

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If Monty Python were physics majors…they might come up with this. Forget the Dancing Waters; we present The Dancing Sodas!

Update: we DID present them. Now they’ve cruised through YouTube and insisted that everyone take the video down. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted (and if I weren’t annoyed with them I’d put a link to their site. But I am)

Double UPDATE: Okay, their friend has posted their side of the story, and I’m not so pissed off as I used to be. The video is available here, and the mad scientists (one of them’s even madder than I thought; he’s a LAWYER!) get a bit of revenue every time someone watches it there. My computer here won’t play that vid, but if yours will, it’s worth watching, to say the least. I note that revver will allow you to embed the video in your Myspace or whatever, but since that doesn’t work with WordPress we won’t be doing it here.

Via Sploid:

Two men in Maine have proven that the recipe for miraculous fun has only two ingredients: Diet Coke and Mentos.

In a three-minute video (Watch it in Quicktime here or on Youtube here), Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz show how this simple food combination can create astonishing geysers of carbonated, sugary goodness. They set off 100 Diet Coke bottles in an elaborately choreographed display worthy of the Bellagio fountains. They also venture into some detail about the physics and chemistry behind it, dispelling the popular notion that gum arabic may be the key to the mystery…

If you enjoy this kind of insanity, check out the rest of the blog here. You can also click on the Science or Weird categories in the sidebar over there. Squid too, Squid is good.

Today in Enteroctopus Dofleini Movie News: It Came from Beneath the Sea

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Captain Nemo and the Giant Pacific OctopusHere it comes.
[sho' nuff]

What is it?
[the Giant Pacific Octopus]

Is it real?
[no, it is an early work by Ray Harryhausen, master model monster]

A Tidalwave of Terror Engulfs the Screen as the Raging Monster from the Dawn of Creation Attacks the World of Man.
[they just don't alliterate and hyperbolize like they used to – Michael Bay excepted]

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA!!!

The H-bomb Blasted It Loose from the Depths of the Pacific, But Not Even the H-bomb Can Kill It.
[because we have to work out our existential nuclear guilt somehow]

San Francisco Doomed!
[Save the Filmore!]

Golden Gate Bridge Uprooted!
[Tacoma Narrows 2.0!]

Buildings Topple!
[Yeah, I'm thinking the time is right for a comeback for this flick]

Thousands Die in Streets!
[see above]

West Coast Reels Under Holocaust as the Men and Weapons of the Atomic Age Battle to the Death Against the Ageless Monster of the Deep
[five bucks on the ageless monster of the deep]

WHAT CITY WILL BE NEXT?
[is this voting-enabled?]

Valley of Gwombi

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A video tribute to one of my favorite movies of all time, the immortal cinematic masterwork The Valley of Gwanji, the James Franciscus cowboy dinosaur flick.

After a confusing opening scene in which some gypsies argue about a vague legend, we meet our hero: Tuck Kirby, as played by James "They Couldn't Get Heston" Franciscus. GwanjiposterKirby is a rootin'-tootin' turn-of-the-century cowboy with peroxide hair and unbelievably large and perfect teeth. Kirby has come to a small Mexican town to purchase a circus act for Buffalo Bill's show…

The centerpiece of it all, of course, is the allosaurus named (what else?) Gwangi who becomes the focus of our heroes' attentions. After taking down another dinosaur, Gwangi is quickly targeted to become the headlining act in T.J.'s circus. Anyone else who thinks this is a bad idea, raise your hand.

Ah, what does this dope know? It was a stroke of genius, as you can see from the following trailer. Gwanji is just so frickin' cool that he's automatically elevated to "Squid" tag.

today in million year-old blind crustacean news

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From Reuters, via Boingboing. And reminiscent of the Kiwa Hirsuta of earlier this year. Wonder how long it'll be before this woman has designed a nice crochet pattern for the little blind Israeli scorpion?

In a real-life version of The Transition of Juan Romero, miners in Israel have blasted open a cave which had been sealed for millions of years, exposing a unique ecosystem entirely isolated from the rest of the world. Scientists made, of course, hasty efforts to seal off the area, citing the need to study further, but those two whom the name Huitzilopotchli is familiar need no flimsy pretenses to give the area wide berth.

Blind Crustacean...now there's a band name!

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered a prehistoric ecosystem dating back millions of years.

The discovery was made in a cave near the central Israeli city of Ramle during rock drilling at a quarry. Scientists were called in and soon found eight previously unknown species of crustaceans and invertebrates similar to scorpions.

"Until now eight species of animals were found in the cave, all of them unknown to science," said Dr Hanan Dimantman, a biologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He said the cave's ecosystem probably dates back around five million years when the Mediterranean Sea covered parts of Israel.

The cave was completely sealed off from the world, including from water and nutrients seeping through rock crevices above. Scientists who discovered the cave believe it has been intact for millions of years.

"Every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," said Dimantman.Huitzilopochtli

Samples of the animals discovered in the cave were sent for DNA tests which found they were unique, he said. The cave has been closed off as scientists conduct a more detailed survey.

"This is a cave of fantastic biodiversity," Dimantman said.

matches the pocket protector

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and the short-sleeved dress shirt.

Ipod Tie