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Huge attic bee hive falls through bathroom ceiling

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:15:01 +0000

Redditor Underdog106 found a huge beehive in his attic and called for a beekeeper to help him with it. Before the keeper arrived, the hive actually fell through the attic into his bathroom below -- the previous owners had used 1/4" sheetrock for the bathroom ceiling -- and split open. The accompanying photoset documents the sad and weird business of trying to save the colony and get it packed for shipping, amid a great ooze of honey and comb spread all over the bathroom.

Jerry the bee keeper was supposed to come today at 5pm. It was a very warm day in Columbia. The bee hive was heavy and the structure detached and fell through the ceiling. It turns out the old owners of the house used 1/4 inch sheet rock for the ceiling in the bathroom. Which is absurd and ridiculous. Jerry came as soon as he could, and he drove an entire hour to get here. The hive fell 3 hours before he was supposed to come today. What are the odds? Seriously. What are the F%^$KING ODDS. But all is well.
Most of the hive fell. As you can see. But we were still able to save around 12,000 out of the estimated 30,000 bee hive.

I have been noticing bees in my apartment for a few weeks now. Finally decided to check the attic. And yes. That is a full on colony. It was a huge adrenaline rush when I recognized what I was looking at. [UPDATE] And seriously, you will not believe this. (imgur.com)

My Little Pony fans successfully register a 501(c)3 charity for fannish good works

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:00:44 +0000

The Brony Thank You Fund spun out of a ~~Reddit forum~~ Indiegogo fundraiser for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ("bronies" and "pegasisters"). After raising money to run an ad thanking the show's creators for doing such a great job, the organizers donated the hefty excess balance to Toys for Tots. The project continued to gain momentum and it is now a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization through which fans of My Little Pony can make tax-free donations that will be funneled to worthy causes. They claim that they're the first media-related fandom to register as a charity -- I'm pretty sure that some science fiction conventions are run as 501(c)3s, though.

The Thank You Fund Enters a New Phase (via /.)

Grandson explains reddit-restored, 60-y-o navy portrait to amazed Grandad

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:15:18 +0000

Stephen sez, "I recently helped set my grandad get set up on his new PC and spotted a photo of him from when he was about 20 years old. It was in a sorry state, so I emailed it to myself and posted it on Reddit, where the community came together and restored it beyond its original state! It was amazing what they did, and so I printed off everyone's contributions and framed my favourite. I then got my girlfriend to record the moment I gave my Grandad, so that I could share it with the people who did the work! The result is a funny, yet heart-warming video."

Reddit and I give my 87yo Grandad a wonderful gift! (Thanks, Stephen!)

What happens when you forget pizzas in the oven for weeks

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:44:42 +0000

A friend of redditor BigBoppinBill forgot some pizzas in the oven for "a few weeks." The result? A kind of glorious fungal jellyfish.

This calls to mind the timeless wisdom of the Jazz Butcher's classic, loony, over-the-top song, Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present: "Do you know what happens when you leave a fish in an elevator?/You don't?/Well, here's a clue/Fish is biodegradable/THAT MEANS IT ROTS."

A friend of mine left two pizzas in his oven for a few weeks... (i.imgur.com) (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Awesome amateur horror makeup

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:15:26 +0000

Click above for full-on grodiness

Redditor ImNotJesus has a friend who does her own amateur horror makeup. She's pretty amazing -- check out the ultra-gross fool-the-eye gaping eye-socket wound above.

A good friend of mine does horror makeup regularly. What do you guys think? I'm going to surprise her with the support. [X-post from /r/horror] (i.imgur.com)

8-year-old's invention for keeping books dry in the bath

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:45:37 +0000

This ingenious technique for safeguarding books from falling in the bathtub was invented by redditor Crash-From-Space's 8-year-old daughter. The suction cup came from the plumbing aisle at Home Despot.

Never drop a book on the bath again. My 8 year old daughters invention. (imgur.com)

Unboxing a mysterious trunk in the attic

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:56:32 +0000

Reddit user Lumpytuna found a trunk of wonderful old junque in her attic and videoed the unboxing, as well as posting a great inventory set to Imgur. The ensuing discussion is lively and funny.

Pics! Some of the more interesting contents of the chest in my attic. (imgur.com) (via Reddit)

Homeless man's A/B test of generosity based on faith

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:58:35 +0000

Redditor Ventachinkway caught a photo of a homeless man conducting a clever exercise in behavioral economics disguised as an inquiry into the levels of spontaneous generosity as determined by religious creed or lack thereof.

When I passed him he proudly announced "The atheists are winning!" (i.imgur.com) (via Glinner)

Japanese folk music glitch hop

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:14:28 +0000

Daniel Ryan describes his music as "a mix of Japanese folk music and glitch hop." This isn't normally my sort of thing -- I pretty much only listen to music with words -- but I played this one three times in a row this morning. There's a lot of clever stuff going on here that I lack the vocabulary to describe but possess the aesthetic apparatus to appreciate. According to one redditor, the folk song is this track off the Samurai Champloo soundtrack.

Nagasaki

Monochrome 1920s costumes

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:00:20 +0000

Redditor Royally_eft's friends dressed up as monochrome people for a 1920s theme party. The effect's very good, especially shot against a colorful snack-aisle. Here's the inspiration for their costumes.

grayscale costumes for a '20s party (imgur.com)

Reddit co-founder calls Larry Page to get Google to join the anti-CISPA fight -- your help needed too!

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:29:51 +0000

Evan from Fight for the Future sez, "In the hours before the House Intelligence Committee's secretive, closed-door markup on privacy killing bill, CISPA, we had to unleash our secret weapon. CISPA threatens to invalidate every privacy law on the books and give companies full legal immunity when they share our private data with the government. That's why the tech giants that stood with us during SOPA (Google, Facebook, and Twitter) haven't said much about CISPA. Our chief Internet Defender, Reddit-Cofounder Alexis Ohanian, helped us make this video of him calling Google and asking to speak to CEO Larry Page about that fact that if CISPA passes, every privacy policy on the web will be a total joke."

Sign the petition, kill CISPA, save the Internet (again!).

Google, Twitter, & Facebook: What's your privacy policy? (Thanks, Evan)

Store wants $5 browsing fee to deter "showrooming" by online shoppers

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:23:41 +0000

A specialty food store in Brisbane, Australia posted this sign, demanding a $5 deposit from people who enter the shop, refundable with your purchase. They are trying to curb "showrooming" -- when customers of online businesses use brick-and-mortar competitors as showrooms to check out goods before they order them. As Consumerist points out, this is likely to be a self-defeating strategy:

If customers aren’t buying, the seller needs to figure out why and adapt accordingly. If this store’s prices are truly the best, then maybe it should be offering a price-match guarantee. If it truly offers products that aren’t available elsewhere, then how are these showrooming shoppers buying these items from someone else? Perhaps people are just curious and want to see the prices and have no intention of buying anything anywhere? Think of how many times you’ve looked at Amazon just out of curiosity. Window-shoppers are part of the retail equation; it’s up to the retailer to either ignore them or turn them from looky-loos into bona fide buyers.

I'd go further than this. It takes a lot of retail exposure to turn some browsers into buyers -- you might see something in a shop, think about it, and go back.

Further, getting people into the shop is a significant expense for most businesses. Once a person is in your business, you have lots of opportunities to try to convert that person into a buyer, in an environment that you control (see NYC Fifth Ave retailers, who run their escalators in an alternate-reverse pattern so you have to wind your way past all the high-impulse goods and displays to get to the top floor; or grocers who put the milk at the back of the shop). Adding literal barriers to entry is utterly self-sabotaging.

Finally, the idea of imposing a head-tax on everyone entering the shop is especially misguided. It means that a customer who thinks he can talk his wife/kids (or husband, friends, whatever) into accompanying him into the shop while he grabs something on the way past is doomed to not making a purchase. What's more, the retailer loses the chance to convert some of those tag-alongs into customers.

Store Combats Showrooming With $5 ‘Just Looking’ Fee [Consumerist/Chris Morran]

(Photo: BarrettFox on Reddit)

Jimi Hendrix on a gayageum

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:09:47 +0000

Luna Lee performs Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" on a gayageum, a "traditional Korean zither-like string instrument" (Wikipedia). She freaking nails it. There's lots more if that strikes your fancy.

Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna (via Reddit)

Science extravaganza on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:48:01 +0000

Later today, you can interact with some of the best science writers around — Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, Virginia Hughes, and Brian Switek — in an epic science edition of "Ask Me Anything". They'll be taking your questions on everything from parasites to dinosaurs, beginning at 2:00 Eastern.

Custom Zelda motorcycle helmet art

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:00:10 +0000

Ara did a beautiful job decorating redditor phrenetiKz's motorcycle helmet with a monochrome, line-art Zelda motif. There's a wallpaper of the whole thing, too.

Local redditor finished her Zelda artwork on my helmet...AKA my Zelmet

Reversible Journey hoodie

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:37 +0000

Redditor Volpinazzurra made her own reversible hoodie inspired by the hero of the indie-game smash Journey. Alas, the labor that went into this makes it uneconomical for wider production and sale ("it took me way too long to be profitable!") but Volpinazzurra says she's considering offering the pattern for sale.

I wondered why no one had thought to make a Journey hoodie.... So I made a Journey hoodie! (via Waxy)

Exhaustive list of useless crap that has accumulated in various labs

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:07:06 +0000

An epic Reddit thread entitled "These fucking scissors" has lab-techs and scientists compiling an exhaustive, definitive list of all the weird, useless crap that has accumulated in their labs, and the reasons why none of it can be thrown away. A couple of my faves:

Specialized Glassware of Uncertain Use
You don't know where it came from. You have no idea what it does and you can't find it in a lab catalogue anywhere. Even your advisor doesn't know who bought it or what it's for. It eats up space that could be put to better use for graduated cylinders or Erlenmeyer flasks, but in a way, it commands a sense of respect, even reverence. It has always been there and always will. You are sure it was unspeakably expensive when it was purchased, whenever the hell that was, and for that reason no one in the last 30 years has had the heart to throw it out. Your advisor thinks maybe someday someone will use it again. You think maybe someday you'll steal it and make a sweet bong or something out of it. But you ultimately find you can't. It's a piece of history, it is beautiful, and even though you don't know what the fuck it is for, you want future generations of laboratory serfs to have the opportunity to ponder its purpose.
Expensive, Useless Stuff From Back When The Group Had Money
Years ago somebody needed 10mL of a super-expensive reagent. Having just gotten some grant money, they bought 2L of it. Now you have $2000 worth of something you will never use, but you can't throw it away because it's too expensive.
Vintage Liquid Chromatograph
It used to belong to the Plant Biotech department, but they got funding for a new one, and your professor is sure he'll fix it up as good as new and get great GPC results out of it. The white elephant has successfully migrated into another two years of idleness.

These fucking scissors

Marriage proposal in the form of a physics paper

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:52:41 +0000

Redditor bogus_wheel is a physicist in Sydney, Australia. Her boyfriend of seven years submitted a marriage proposal in the form of a physics paper that tracks their relationship (with a graph!). It is a beautiful piece of physics romance!

My boyfriend of 7 years and I are both physicists. Here's how he proposed to me. (imgur.com) (Thanks, Mark M!)

Is the "secret" room at Houston's ZaZa a voyeuristic sex-dungeon for rich weirdos?

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:56:37 +0000

A redditor called joelikesmusic reported that a friend of his had been checked into a weird, narrow dungeon-like theme room at the Hotel Zaza in Houston (it's got lots of theme suites -- I once stayed in their awesome space-themed one with my family, on the way to my honeymoon). When he complained, the front desk apparently told him that it was a mistake -- no one was supposed to use that room.

The ZaZa's management told the press that it was a "prison" themed room, and that there was no mystery, but intrepid redditors have been examining the pictures (especially the portrait of Jay Comeaux, a banking exec from the disgraced Stanford Banking Executive, and have been spinning out theories about secret societies and rituals in the comments.

However, one commenter called lejefferson makes a plausible case that the room is a sex-dungeon with a one-way voyeur's mirror, used by rich weirdos:

What person that you know keeps a creepy picture of a guy over their television. This is obviously a secret room either personal or for a small group of people for sexual liasons/ S&M prostitution or worse. The mirror and small space of the room also indicates there is a good chance that the mirror is two way and that people could pay to come watch the sexual/S&M events occuring. The photo of a Stanford Banking Executive, (Jay Comeaux), on the wall further indicates that this is a high society sex room. The fact that the clerk said, "This room isn't supposed to be rented out" indicates that there was a big mistake and they didn't want anyone to find out about the room. The bricks on the wall line up exactly with the placement of the mirror suggesting that they do not continue behind it but that this is a two way mirror.

ZaZa insiders question - what's up with room 322? (self.houston) (via Super Punch)

Strawberry that looks like a bear

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 13:36:25 +0000

Behold: the StrawBEARy, a miraculous mutant fruit discovered by Redditor Taybow, and put into the Internets for the greater glory.

Found a strawBEARy! (imgur.com) (via Neatorama)

86.54% liked this

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:37:03 +0000

Science blogger Matt Springer analyzes the surprisingly fascinating math behind Reddit upvotes.

Rainbow-colored igloo

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:00:15 +0000

This beautiful, rainbow hued igloo was designed by Edmonton's Brigid Burton, who wanted to entertain her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend (an engineer student), visiting from New Zealand over winter break. Burton froze cartons full of colored water and left the boyfriend, Daniel Gray, to do the rest, building the structure out of 500 ice-bricks.

Made a coloured ice igloo while visiting my gf in Edmonton, Canada. The local news station did a story on it. News article in comments (imgur.com) (via Colossal)

DELETE MY BROWSER HISTORY Medicalert bracelet

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:45:23 +0000

Medicalert bracelets can apparently be had with any arbitrary string for about $50. This gag-gift from an anonymous redditor is a rather funny choice.

A medic-alert bracelet like this might be sensible. (i.imgur.com)

Correlation between autism diagnosis and organic food sales

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:17:35 +0000

Redditor Jasonp55 has a neat demonstration of the perils of confusing correlation with causation, and his well-chosen example makes this a potentially useful chart for discussing this issue with friends who won't vaccinate themselves and their kids.

/r/skeptic, I was practicing GraphPad and I think I may have discovered the 'real' cause of autism... (imgur.com) (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Super Mario belt depicting the final level of the game

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:40:19 +0000

This handmade custom Super Mario belt, depicting the final level, was apparently created by Etsy seller SalukiFeathers, though the belt is not actually available through that store. The corresponding Reddit thread is kind of a mess, with the poster claiming that the belt was made as a Christmas gift for himself and/or his brother, by his sister, and so forth. Nevertheless, this definitely falls into the category of "awesome nerdcraft," and also, "shut up and take my money."

Super Mario Leather Belt with the exact layout of the final level in the original Super Mario :) (imgur.com) (via Reddit)

Calvin and Hobbes guitar refurb

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:07:53 +0000

Redditor Ellepea27 painted this great Calvin and Hobbes illustration on a guitar she's refurbishing with BigWiggly1. She painted it over the course of six hours in one sitting. The idea is to put a clear-coat over it and make it into a playable instrument.

My girlfriend and I are refinishing my old guitar. She did the paint job. (i.imgur.com)

Chemis-tree

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:47:00 +0000

Breokz uploaded a photo of "Xmas at the lab of Avans University of Applied Science." Chemistry may all be "pretty colors and things that go bang," but it sure makes for a festive tree.

True Chemistree (imgur.com)

Darrell Issa proposes 2-year ban on Internet legislations, will appear in Reddit AMA today to discuss

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:00:55 +0000

Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) has pretty good credentials as a friend of the Internet, being one of the early Congresscritters to stand up to SOPA and PIPA (though there's the little matter of sponsoring a corporatist bill to limit open access for state-funded research). He's introduced a bill called the "The Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA)" which proposes a two-year moratorium on Internet-related legislation. Presumably, this would give Internet freedom activists a couple years to prepare an offense game, rather than having to always be reacting to pro-surveillance and pro-censorship proposals from Hollywood and the DHS.

Issa's appearing in a Reddit AMA today at 1030h Eastern to discuss the bill.

The Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA)

Eyeball caught in a swirling drain

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:05:31 +0000

Liammmin, a redditor, caught this incidental eyeball in a swirling drain. The origin story has a good moral: "My friend said something around the lines of 'Liam, you take too many photos.' So I ran around the room taking photos of everything and showing him all of them, then this happened and we got spooked." -- the moral being, "If you want to double your success rate, triple your failure rate."

Tried taking a picture of a sink draining, wound up with a picture of an eye instead. (X-post r/mildlyinteresting) (i.imgur.com) (via Super Punch)

Positive pregnancy test diagnoses man's cancer

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:17:26 +0000

If you are a lady, and you think you might be pregnant, you can take an at-home test to find out. You simply pee on a stick. Whether the results are measured in pink lines, blue lines, plus and minus symbols, or a "pregnant"/"not pregnant" digital readout, all the home pregnancy tests on the market are really looking for the same thing — Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).

HCG is a pregnancy hormone. It's produced by the placenta, a temporary organ that only forms in female bodies when an embryo has attached to the uterine lining. And so it was kind of weird when a male friend of a Reddit user known as CappnPoopDeck peed on a home pregnancy test and it came back positive.

Turns out, HCG can show up in men, too. And when it does, bad things are happening. You might have seen this story on Gawker earlier this week, but the science behind it is so crazy that I wanted to discuss it in a little more depth.

First, let's talk about HGC in ladies. The specific cells that produce HCG are called trophoblasts. At the point where a human is quite literally nothing more than a ball of 70-100 cells, trophoblasts form the outer layer. The mochi to our ice cream center, if you will. These cells eventually grow into the placenta, but at the earliest stages of pregnancy, their primary function is to rip through flesh and secure the embryo to uterine wall. Seriously.

I'm going to quote from Jon Cohen's excellent book on miscarriage, Coming to Term, because it has heavily influenced the mental pictures I see when I think "trophoblast".

Successful implantation occurs only if the embryo properly "invades" the lining of the uterus, which requires that the placenta's trophoblast cells penetrate deeply, boring into maternal arteries to shunt blood to the growing baby. If the mother did not stop the trophoblasts' drilling, they might burrow so deeply into her uterus that she could hemorrhage and die. [He goes on to explain how the female body prevents this. Although he notes that, sometimes, it doesn't work.]

Fun!

The outermost cells in a layer of trophoblasts are called syncytiotrophoblasts. These are the cells that actually produce HCG, which plays a huge role in making sure that you actually miss that first missed period. The chain of command works like this: When you ovulate, you release an egg from a follicle on your ovary. But that follicle doesn't just instantly disappear afterwards. Instead, it hangs out, producing progesterone — a chemical that is instrumental in preventing you from shedding your uterine lining and having a period.

On a normal, non-pregnant cycle, progesterone levels will go up for a bit, but then the spent follicle — the corpus luteum — will wither away. Your progesterone levels will drop. And you'll ride the crimson wave.

But, if you're pregnant, the corpus luteum doesn't go away. It keeps on producing progesterone, and no period happens. What keeps the corpus luteum alive and kicking? Human chorionic gonadotropin, that's what.

So why on Earth would HCG end up in a man?

When that pregnancy test came back positive, CappnPoopDeck made a rage comic about it, and posted it to Reddit. The very first response, from a user named goxilo, was this: "If this is true, you should check yourself for testicular cancer. Seriously. Google it."

Yes, HCG in men can be a sign of a rare (and dangerous) form of testicular cancer — choriocarcinoma. This is a cancer made up of syncytiotroblastic cells, said Katherine McGlynn, a senior investigator with the National Cancer Institutes. The tumor secretes HCG because that's what syncytiotroblasts do. They secrete HCG. And they don't particularly care whether they're secreting it into a man or a woman.

But how do they get into a guy, to begin with? That's where things get really weird. The truth is that nobody is entirely certain, McGlynn told me. But there are a couple of theories. One possibility is that these syncytiotroblasts that turn cancerous were leftovers — remnants of the time when that guy was just a ball of 70-100 cells. One way or another, they persisted in his body and then started to grow out of control.

The other theory: Somehow, normal cells in the man's testes just start regressing, reverting to one of the earliest forms of cells in a human's life cycle. Either way, one thing is certain, "It's exactly the same cell as in the placenta," McGlynn said.

The bad news: Choriocarcinomas move really fast. They're more common in men under 30 and the prognosis is usually bad, because most of the time nobody catches them until they've already spread to other parts of the body, especially the lungs. In that, CappnPoopDeck's friend is incredibly lucky. Both that he decided to pee on a stick for LULZ and that his friend posted the news to Reddit. In a follow-up, CappnPoopDeck reported that doctors found a very small tumor in his friend's right testicle. But they found it early enough that it's going to make treatment much easier.

The good news: Men should know that their chances of developing a choriocarcinoma are extremely rare. A 2002 paper in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine reported that only about 2 men in 100,000 will get any kind of testicular cancer. Pure choriocarcinomas — the dangerous kind that I'm talking about here — make up less than 1% of those diagnoses. It's not clear whether CappnPoopDeck's friend has a pure choriocarcinoma, or a much-less-deadly form of testicular cancer that happens to incorporate some syncytiotrophoblasts.

Either way, McGlynn wanted to make it clear that you all shouldn't feel like you need to run out and stock up on home pregnancy tests. In fact, at least twice during our interview, she marveled at how amazing it was that this story even happened. "The actual odds of the man having this particular cancer, and then using a pregnancy test, are sky high. It's kind of amazing that this happened," she said.

Read More:
• Read the Gawker story about this case
• Read the original Reddit thread
• Read a history of home pregnancy tests, which includes a lot of information about HCG
• Read a full research paper about a different case of testicular choriocarcinoma

Photo: Shutterstock