Boing Boing » wonders http://boingboing.net Brain candy for Happy Mutants Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 De-frosting a building-sized refrigerator http://boingboing.net/2013/01/16/de-frosting-a-building-sized-r.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/16/de-frosting-a-building-sized-r.html#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:29:17 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=206142

The Fulton Market Cold Storage Company building in Chicago has been, well, storing cold things since the 1920s. But last July, the company sold the building and moved to a more modern facility outside town, leaving the old cold storage warehouse to be turned into offices.

But first, the new owners had to defrost it.

The Fulton Market Cold Storage building has ice-covered walls for the same reason a freezer can get covered in hard, packed ice. When you put something into a freezer — say, a giant slab of beef fresh from a slaughterhouse — that thing contains moisture. There's liquid trapped inside it. Over time, especially if it's not sealed very well, that moisture will turn into water vapor in the air. When temperature changes cause that vapor to condense back into liquid, it instantly freezes — turning to ice anywhere it touches.

In your fridge at home, that's just an annoyance. At the Fulton Market Cold Storage building, it was epic.

Besides the video above, you should really check out the amazing photos taken for the ice, pre-melt, by photographer Gary Jensen.

Via This Is Colossal

]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/16/de-frosting-a-building-sized-r.html/feed 28 Here is a video of a hissing cockroach giving birth http://boingboing.net/2012/02/15/here-is-a-video-of-a-hissing-c.html http://boingboing.net/2012/02/15/here-is-a-video-of-a-hissing-c.html#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:11:47 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=144186

So. That happened.

Interesting tidbit for those of you too horrified to watch: Hissing cockroaches apparently give birth upside down with their lady parts up in the air.

Another thing I learned: Animals giving birth is apparently a fairly popular YouTube genre. Check out the sidebar for cats, snakes, and more cockroaches.

Video Link

A hearty thanks to Amos Zeeberg, without whom I would never have seen this horrible thing.

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