If you’re not really up for burials or cremations (or if your religious beliefs bar those options), then you have another alternative when the time comes to bite the dust. It’s called resomation, and it’s pretty much like cremation except without the fire.
The process basically involves the body being submerged in a solution of potassium hydroxide and water inside a tank. Pressure and heat is then applied to the tank for approximately three hours. At the end of the process, the body’s soft tissues are broken down into its basic components (amino acids, sugars, salts, and peptides, among other chemicals). You are reduced to greenish-brown liquid and bones.
It’s an interesting and eco-friendly alternative. Check out the news report below for more on resomation.
Hailed as the world’s cheapest car (it has a retail price of $3,000), the Nano micro-car is made by Indian automaker Tata, a 66-year-old Mumbai-based company. The Nano had a waiting list of 100,000 upon its release in 2008, but sales declined over the succeeding years. According to speculations, the dip in sales wasn’t just due to safety issues but the dip may be connected to the negative notion of owning the world’s cheapest vehicle.
In an effort to boost the Nano’s sales, Tata has made a jewel-encrusted version of the car with 194 pounds of hand-crafted 22-karat gold, 10,000 precious and semi-precious stones, and 33 pounds of silver. The chariot-looking car originally worth $3,000 is now valued at $4.6 million. Tata plans to drive the car around the country.
Sometimes – which usually means always – it’s a bad idea to use Google Translate when trying to translate non-English phrases to English ones. Because, admit it, something always goes wrong during the translation process.
Just take these following signs of business names for example. The owners obviously meant well (who wouldn’t want their products or services to sell?) and probably wanted to cater to English-speaking customers, but their translated signs turned out to be too hilarious to take seriously.
What’s more relaxing than boating on a lake on a nice day or chilling on a hammock? Why, relaxing on a hammock boat, of course. The creative invention is basically what it sounds like: hammock + boat = hammock boat. It looks simple enough; from the picture, it looks like somebody took a hammock with a hammock stand, and added some “improvements.” The balancers seem to have been made from hollow tubes. Add the canvass roof, and get yourself a pair of oars stuck together and you’re off a-sailing in your very own hammock boat.
We’re just assuming here of course, since the photo itself doesn’t give any descriptions, only that it was seen at the UC Picnic Day in 2003.
Gold (Au, from the Latin word aurum) is the oldest precious metals on Earth. In 2001, gold cost USD 400 an ounce – now the price for gold has risen to USD 2,000 per ounce. Gold is pretty much embargoed in various mints, forts, and heavily guarded facilities, keeping its prices up. Though that may be the case, people still buy gold (in bars and coins) especially when the economy is bad. Apparently one can purchase gold from a number of places, including that ATM that churns out gold and Harrods, a department store in London.
If you want to know more about this recent rise in gold prices – among other random facts about gold – then click play below.
You blink to lubricate your eyes and to help keep your eyes to focus longer. It’s also a way to keep your eyes protected from irritants such as dust, wind and other objects. Most people don’t know much about blinking (except that it seems like a natural body action/reaction), so here are a couple of fascinating facts about blinking.
Babies do not blink as much as adults. According to one study, babies blink only twice or even less over the course of a minute. As they grow older, they blink more frequently. By the age of 14-15, they start blinking as much as most adults do. There are two possible explanations for babies blinking less: 1. They sleep so much that they don’t need to lubricate their eyes as much as adults do, and 2. Babies are too busy working their eyes to take in visual information that they do not work their eyelids as much.
All creatures blink except for animals without eyelids, as well as snakes and fish. The interval of each blink and the occasion during which a creature blinks differ. Goats blink every 30-60 seconds, while rats blink when they sneeze.
A person’s blink patterns determine whether the information being shown to him is important or not. According to a study, when important information is being shown or given to a person, the person will blink less. When he isn’t taking in as much information (or if the information is considered unimportant to him), he blinks more.
Author of How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science Russ Parsons and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross talks about the science of cooking, sharing some fun facts about the food. Did you know why dark meat is dark or why onions make your tear up? Here are some fast fun facts:
What makes dark meat dark? Well, it’s all about the exercise chickens get. Chickens don’t fly often, and they don’t fly all that far when they do. They walk around more often so their leg muscles are more developed. The leg parts also get more blood circulating around them than the breast muscles, leading to darker colored meat.
What is it with onions and their tear jerking effects? Onions are basically like nerve agents. They have tiny vacuoles that contain different chemicals. The vacuoles are disrupted when an onion is cut, releasing the chemicals which then mix with each other. The chemicals continue mixing together until they form a kind of sulfuric gas that either goes up one’s nose or into one’s eyes. The sulfuric gas (aptly called lacrimators) is responsible for irritating you and making you cry.
Here’s a bonus fact for you: what makes chili peppers hot? The burning sensation in your mouth is caused by capsaicin, the active ingredient in peppers.
Sometimes, you are called upon to point out something (like the dots over an i or a j and man-boobs), and you describe them since you didn’t know they were actually called something. There are a few everyday things that you probably didn’t know had names, and BuzzFeed has listed some of them to educate us.
The dot over an i or a j is called a tittle. It’s basically a mark made to distinguish characters in different languages. On the other hand, we’re pretty sure you’ve heard of the term man-boobs or moobs before, but the condition actually has a proper name: gynecomastia. On the other hand, the pins and needles sensation you feel when a body part falls asleep is called paresthesia while phosphenes refers to the lights you see when you close your eyes tightly.
Wamble is the sound your stomach makes when it rumbles, while dysania is the state when you find yourself glued to your bed in the morning. If you want to learn more things you didn’t know had names, you can follow the link below. Before you go though: rectal tenesmus is the feeling of incomplete defecation. We all know the feeling but not the name.
Your house is a place where you unwind and rest,so it’s important that your home is comfortable. You’d want your home to have all the basic necessities (bedroom, living room, outdoor living area, kitchen, toilet and bath) so that you won’t have to go out again to get whatever it is you think you need. You’d think too that having all these comforts mean that your house has to be big or normal-sized at the very least, but that’s where you’re wrong. The following are five of the smallest houses in the world, and they provide the same comforts as any-sized home.
Toronto’s little house
This house covers some 312 square feet of space and is wedged between two normal-sized homes. Its previous owner renovated the home to make it more efficient and to make it appear more spacious than it really is. This house has also become a bit popular over the Internet due to its size.
Eco Bike Trailer
Originally designed by Paul Elkins, the eco bike trailer was first built to get around the Burning Man Festival. A wind turbine powers the trailer while appliances such as the oven and heating system are all solar-powered.
Smallest house in Great Britain
This small house only measures 3.05 x 1.8 meters and can be found on the Quayside at Conwy. According to records, a fisherman as tall as 6 foot and 3 inches used to live in this small house.
Single Hauz
The “hauz” looks almost the same as a roadside billboard. Polish creators Front Architects say that this humble abode can be built on almost any space, even over a body of water. Ideal for modern, independent and single people who are also concerned about their environment.
Tumbleweed Houses
Jay Shafer’s creation may be small – sometimes smaller than a person’s walk-in closet – but it doesn’t lack the basic necessities. It has a bedroom, bathroom (with shower and toilet), workspace and a living space. Other designs of the Tumbleweed house include a porch so that the resident can sit out front to enjoy the view.
If you’re the type who commutes to and from work daily, you’ll know that having an umbrella ready is a good thing, especially during the rainy season. Regular umbrellas already do a good job at keeping your head and parts of your body dry when it pours, but there are a couple of new umbrella designs that promise more than just keeping you dry. Some of the designs promise to keep most of your body dry even during a heavy downpour, while other designs are made with other purposes in mind.
The Dogbrella
Understandably, you’d want to keep your best friend and pet dry when you take him out for a walk when it’s raining. Full Body Umbrella
The only part of your body that will end up getting soaked are your shoes – assuming you’re not wearing rain boots.
Dualbrella
If two people are under one umbrella (even if it’s a big one), one or both of them will still get wet. The dualbrella’s design is perfect for covering both individuals under it.
Cup Holder Umbrella
Only a hot cup of coffee can beat a gloomy and cold morning under the rain.
Light Drops Umbrella
This is perfect to use during a heavy downpour at night because you’re still visible to most motorists on the streets.
