Giant 15-pound crab sold to aquarium

Meet Claude, a 15-pound giant crab caught off the coast of Tasmania last month. He would have made one heck of a crab boil, but the fisherman who caught him sold him to a British aquarium for nearly $5,000.

Claude is expected to weigh up to 30 pounds when he's full grown. I wonder how much Old Bay Seasoning that thing would need?

Spreading random acts of meh

(via Buzz Feed)

Compact fluorescent light bulbs: More hype than value?

Paul Wheaton isn't a huge fan of compact fluorescent light bulbs. They don't give off a pleasant light, and they aren't all that energy-efficient. Wheaton explains:

I used to like fluorescent lights and then I changed my mind.

As the years passed, I found more and more folks like me, and more and more reasons to be uncomfortable with fluorescent lights. When some people see that I don't use them, they try to tell me about how great they are. When I try to explain why I prefer incandescent, I nearly always get a dismissive wave - signaling that I am clearly a fool and whatever tripe I am about to utter is clearly not worth their time. This article represents a glimpse into that tripe.

If you leave all of the lightbulbs in your house on 24/7, then replacing all of the incandescent light bulbs in your house with CFL light bulbs will save you money. For people that typically leave lights off when not in use, it turns out that incandescent light is cheaper than fluorescent light - the exact opposite of what we have been told all these years.

With a little knowledge, you can stop wasting money on CFLs. Both in the short term and the long term. The long term stuff includes tax issues and the toxicity tie-in which leads to superfund cleanups and medical bills.

In a nutshell:

• CFLs do not last as long as is claimed
  
• Many CFLs provide 42% less light than claimed
  
• CFLs put out 20% to 30% less light as they get older

With these three things alone, I will make a rock solid case of how incandescent lights are cheaper than CFL. But there's more:

• CFLs are subsidized to make them appear cheaper
  
• the toxicity of a CFL is downplayed
  
• there are better ways to save electricity than fiddling with bulb type
  
• There are incandescent bulbs that are claimed to last longer than fluorescents
  
• There are new incandescents coming out that give off more light per watt

Read the rest here.

Morale-boosting stadium seating idea

There comes a point for most of us sports fans when beating the after-game traffic jam is more important than seeing our team endure yet another loss. I was reminded of this at a recent Minnesota Timberwolves game. It was well into the fourth quarter and the Wolves were losing. Looking around the arena, I noticed a growing sea of blue from all the emptying seats. A few minutes before the final horn, the building looked as vacant as it did during pregame warm-ups.

Imagine how the players must have felt. Right when they needed their fans the most, they looked up and saw something like this:

Pregame warm-ups at the Target Center (via)

The problem: Most stadiums and arenas install seating that is dominated by a single color, so it's pretty obvious when those seats are empty. Team morale suffers. The solution: Install multicolored seats. The random arrangement of various colors would give the illusion of a full stadium, regardless of how bad the home team stinks.

The end result would look something like Estádio Municipal de Aveiro in Portugal, a stadium that looks full even when it's empty:

Now isn't that more cheerful?

The highlight of any school day

So true.

(via Iowa Girl Eats)

Henri, the existential cat

(via The Militant Pacifist)

How fast can you read?

Anne Jones has won the World Speed Reading championship six times. She has been clocked at 4,700 words per minute, with 67% comprehension. How fast can I read? Oh, let's just say I'm a bit slower than that. Check out your own reading speed by clicking the link below.

Source: Staples eReader Department

Ron Paul: The video game

Daniel Williams is a professional programmer and co-founder of RonPaulSwag.com. His latest project is a libertarian video game entitled "Ron Paul: The Road to Revolution."


Here's the game description from Daniel's fundraising site at Kickstarter.com:

The Road to REVOLution is a sidescrolling platformer action/adventure game, reminiscent of console classics like Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog.

You play the role of Ron Paul and make your way across all 50 states collecting Gold (sound money) and Delegates.

The game is full of original artwork and gameplay mechanics. Indie Game Development at its finest, the game is designed, programmed, conceived, and produced by me, D.S. Williams.

The game is built in HTML5, and will hopefully be converted into apps for i* and android platforms.

Collect Delegates to ensure your seat as the President, collect Gold Coins to unlock branches of the Federal Reserve where you defeat bosses and progress your quest to end the Federal Reserve.

Features:

• 50+ Levels designed around each of the United States
  
• 13 Boss Fights representing each branch of the Federal Reserve
  
• Challenging puzzle-platformer element. There's no 'beating up monsters until they're dead' aspect. You must guide the baddies through each level.
  
• original soundtrack
  
• bonus unlockable characters

The game will be free to play in your browser. I hope to develop mobile versions of the game as well.

I'll definitely be checking it out.

Old Soviet arcade machines

Welcome to the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines! Currently featured: Morskoi Boi (Sea Battle).

You can play the game online here.

(via Kottke)

Squirrel vs. rat trap

If you're at all familiar with squirrels, then you'll find this video ends pretty much the way you'd expect.

Are flying cars FINALLY within our reach?

PAL-V (Personal Air and Land Vehicle), a company in the Netherlands, has introduced a flying car prototype that has successfully completed several test flights in the past two weeks. Still in its development phase, the PAL-V1 is expected to sell for around $300,000.


The introduction of the PAL-V1 came within a week of U.S. flying car company Terrafugia announcing the successful test flight of its $279,000 Transition.


Not exactly the Jetsons, but it's closer than we've ever been before.

Maggots on a plane

Over the last decade, airline travel has grown more and more unbearable. Now, passengers can't even count on getting a decent packet of peanuts.

Victoria Cleven found that out the hard way while on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne. In the middle of eating her bag of trail mix, she glanced down and noticed that hers had come with extra protein...in the form of live maggots.

"I couldn't talk," Cleven said. "I was nearly throwing up. I was beside myself." She did, however, hold her composure long enough to take a quick video of her discovery:

Time lapse panorama of Hitchcock's Rear Window

This incredible piece was compiled by Jeff Desom:

I dissected all of Hitchcock's Rear Window and stiched it back together in After Effects. I stabilized all the shots with camera movement in them. Since everything was filmed from pretty much the same angle I was able to match them into a single panoramic view of the entire backyard without any greater distortions. The order of events stays true to the movie's plot.

(via Kottke)

"Get out of a ticket free" card

There seems to be this notion among many law enforcement officers that they shouldn't be bothered with pesky things like speeding tickets, and many think that officers who would ticket another LEO aren't fit to wear a badge. As one former Chicago policeman puts it: "Any cop who writes fellow cops petty citations deserves to be a Pariah with nobody to back him or her up in an emergency."

Naturally, some people believe this kind of professional courtesy should be extended to family members of LEOs. That's where LEO ProCards come in:

LEO ProCards are plastic, credit-card sized "Professional Courtesy Cards" intended for the sole use of the officer's immediate family member or relative. The purpose of the Law Enforcement Professional Courtesy Card is to provide just that, "Professional Courtesy" during a Minor Traffic Infraction.

Scratch-n-sniff: A whole new way to enjoy the internet

Scratch-n-sniff technology is new, but as it improves it may become a regular feature on many web sites. You can try it out here. Simply scratch the image on your screen, lean in, and take a whiff.

Not working? Click here.