R.I.P. Michael Jackson :(

I've always been a huge Michael Jackson fan. To me his music will always be timeless.

Like the rest of the world at this very moment I am still in total and utter shock at his death.

Love him, or hate him there's no denying the man was a legend in the music industry.

And I choose to remember him that way.

R.I.P Michael to say you'll be sorely missed is an understatement.

Heading overseas

In mid-March of this year I had mentioned that I was getting ready for a trip back home to visit my family.

Well that day has finally arrived, and my mom and I are heading out to the airport today for a night flight (my first) back to Poland.

It's going to be an interesting experience since it has been twelve years that I last stepped on a plane.

I'm dreading the take-off and landing (once we're in the air I'm hoping to just relax and sleep for most of it).

I'm nervous but I'm also excited and happy to be going on the first real vacation in many years.

I hope I can keep my mom from stressing too much about not being able to smoke for at least 10 hours *lol*. Wish me luck.

I don't know how frequently I'll be able to blog, if at all (since I'll be gone till mid July). It may be very sporadic.

But hopefully I'll be able to write a small update now and then. I should have plenty of things to talk about when I return.

Till then....

World's weirdest furniture

Fancy a desk that looks like it's puking its guts out? You're in luck! Plenty of the world's most buzzed-about designers will happily sell you furniture that will make your children cry. Here's some of the most terrifying designs in recent memory:

From the back, Jason Miller's Wooly Chair looks like it's just been covered in an alpaca throw...

...but then you see it from the front, and there they are, staring at you...THE EYES:

This chair by Jurgen Bey sports what must be a record-setting tumor:

This bed, also by Bey, would go perfect in the home of Hannibal Lecter:

Of couse, our man Lecter likes memorializing his kills. Ergo, this coffee table, with an interior that looks like the splatter pattern at a crime scene:

We weren't kidding about the puking furniture. Nacho Carbonell's "Skin" line has an elastic coating. Simply remove all the chairs innards, and you've got a handy cubby hole:

Poor Nacho. Much like Dr Frankenstein, he's doomed by his creations. Here, he's apparently been swallowed alive by this settee:

Next to a childhood spent torturing animals, this rocking chair by David Pompa is probably a decent indicator of serial-killer tendencies:

Um, remember the dead grandma in Psycho? With a little help from Hannes Grebi, she's got a comfy replacement for her rocking chair. Scream all you want. There's no one around for miles:

This psychotic, ravenous frog apparently crawled out of Hella Jongerius's studio, and won't relinquish its territory on top of this table:

Perhaps if you're keeping a gimp in your basement, you might consider this hammock, by Bless:

So it's the year 2100. You're watching your holographic TV, munching a Soylent Green sandwich. The natural world is a distant memory, which only appears as a furniture pattern on this couch by Gaetano Pesce:

Also in 2100, the world is rife with genetic experiments gone wrong, such as these human/animal hybrids that pose as furniture before slurping your brains out with a straw:

Sleep tight!

And I thought the vending machines were bad! *LOL*.

Source: fastcompany.com via Neatorama

Tip-of-the-tongue moments explained

Nearly everyone has tip-of-the-tongue moments, but bilinguals seem especially prone to these momentary lapses in vocabulary, says Jennie Pyers, a psychologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

One possible explanation is that similar-sounding words compete for our brain's attention. Since bilinguals know twice as many words as monolinguals, there's more chance for tip-of-the-tongue experiences.

"Often when we're having tip-of-the-tongue experiences, words that sound the same come to mind," Pyers says. "There's a sense that you do know the first letter; there's a sense that you might know how many syllables it is."

Alternatively, they could occur when our brains recall rarely used words, Pyers says. "It's much easier to retrieve a word like 'knife' than 'guillotine'."

Since bilinguals, by definition, speak two languages, they are bound to use many individual words less frequently than monolinguals.

In hopes of narrowing down these explanations, Pyers' team compared 11 Spanish-English bilinguals with 22 people who used English and American sign language (ASL). Since the signers' second "tongue" makes no use of sound, there is no opportunity for sound-alike words to elicit tip-of-the-tongue experiences, says Pyers, who is fluent in ASL.

To provoke tip-of-the-tongue moments, the researchers showed the bilinguals, as well as a control group of 22 English monolinguals, pictures of dozens of different objects and challenged the volunteers to name them in 30 seconds. The viewed objects – which included axes, weathervanes, gyroscopes, nooses and metronomes – were obscure enough to elicit tip-of-the-tongue experiences in all but one participant.

As with previous experiments, monolinguals had fewer tip-of-the-tongue experiences than bilinguals, about 7 words versus 12, out of a total of 52 – though Pyers' team counted only instances where the volunteer knew the word.

However, Spanish bilinguals experienced roughly the same number of tip-of-the-tongues as sign language bilinguals. This rules out the possibility that similar-sounding words compete for our brain's attention in tip-of-the-tongue experiences.

More likely, tip-of-the-tongue experiences occur when we're trying to recall rarely used words, Pyers says.

"People often have tip of the tongue experiences for proper names, again because we don't use them very frequently," she adds.

Source: newscientist.com via Neatorama

Roger Federer back in the day

Very insightful or should I say prophetic interview. I think Roger can put a check mark beside all of his aforementioned dreams. That's what I call ambition!.

Roger Federer Sampras equation ad

Ouch.

Bold Nike very bold. I really hope Pete has a good sense of humor....

World's weirdest vending machines

Vending machines have been around since the first century AD. By today’s accounts, even the first vending machine, which dispensed holy water to temple visitors, was weird.

The tradition continues. This month alone, Germans released a 24K gold bar vending machine, and an Italian entrepreneur exhibited a machine that makes pizza from scratch. These machines are featured along with 8 other oddities below:

Dog-O-Matic

Source: Slippery Brick

The Dog-O-Matic, an automatic dogwashing machine, is a hit in the town of St. Max, France. Inventor Romain Jarry wants to launch it in Britain next year, but claims that “at the moment people are still getting used to the idea,” according to the Daily Mail. That’s probably because the device looks like a canine waterboarding machine. “It doesn’t take long to wash the dog,” he said. “The longest part is the drying. The dogs don’t seem to get bored. They just sit there and they come out clean.” If your dog makes it through without trauma, your wallet won’t: It costs $21 to wash a small dog, $35 for a medium dog, and $49 for a big animal.

Instant Judaism

Source: Jacob Richman

This vending machine sits in Jerusalem’s central bus station, where it sells booklets on Jewish traditions and laws. The purpose of the sponsoring organization, Hadaf Hayomi, is to “spread Torah knowledge worldwide in a beautiful manner.” Not sure how beautiful vending machines are, but they’re certainly spreading the message. (From Jacob Richman’s blog).

Gold-to-Go

Source: Wirtschaftswoche

Online discounter Gold-Supermarkt.de launched the “Gold-to-Go” machine in May to address increasing demand for the precious metal within Germany. The machine sells 1 gram, 24-karat gold bars, and updates prices every 10 minutes. The company plans to install 500 machines in train stations and airports Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The tiny bars are hardly a good investment: Goldbugs pay 31 Euros cash for a bar worth about 21 Euros. But you can’t beat the bars for novelty points.

Pet Beetles

Source: PhotoMann

According to Doug Mann, who took the picture above, some Japanese kids like to keep rhinoceros beetles as pets. The roadside vending machine above sells them for 100-300 yen each. The males, which have long horns protruding from their heads, are especially coveted. Department stores in Japan also sell the bugs.

Call-a-Ball

Source: We Make Money Not Art

If the urge to play a game of pick-up soccer with your friends ever hits, Call-a-Ball will provide. This soccer ball dispensing machine spits out an RFID-embedded ball when you send an SMS with the vending machine code on it. You can also register to have the machine send a “challenge” message to your friends via SMS. When you’re done kicking, just pop the ball back into the machine.

Schoolgirl Panty Machine

Source: PhotoMann

No, it’s not an urban legend. Though Japan’s famous used schoolgirl panty vending machines were purportedly banned in 1993, individuals continued to report their existence around the country until at least 2001. The panties are supposedly worn by schoolgirls before they make it into the vending machines, where they sell for upwards of $50 a pop.

EWWWW

Rolls Royce-o-Mat

Source: NYTimes

Miami’s Mondrian South Beach hotel boasts one of the world’s fanciest vending machines. The specially designed Semi Automatic machine only takes credit cards. In return, it deposits a variety of luxury items, including 24-karat gold handcuffs, designer vases, jewelry, and a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (rental only). According to the New York Times, an anti-recession T-shirt is among the machine’s bestsellers.

Marijuana To Go

Source: Geekologie

The pot vending machine featured above dispensed up to 1oz/week of prescription pot. Approved users could choose from five strains, which they would receive in a vacuum-sealed plastic capsule. The machines were installed in California in early 2008, then seized by DEA agents not long thereafter.

Let’s Pizza

Source: NowPublic

“Let’s Pizza,” a vending machine released by Italian entrepreneur Claudio Torghele, makes pizza from scratch in less than 3 minutes. All you need to do is choose one of four types of pizza, pay $4.95, and watch as the machine creates a fresh pie. The machine mixes and presses the dough, adds sauce and toppings, and bakes the pizza in an infrared oven. At the end of the process, you pick up the steaming pizza on a cardboard tray. If you’re a hygiene freak, or simply in a hurry, you could become fast friends with the “Let’s Pizza.”

Tie Vending Machine

(Source: SurferJerry.com)

Another Japanese vending-machine oddity, in case a paper shredder or cup of coffee gets the better of your old tie.

Source: businesspundit.com via Neatorama.com