With the impending swine flu epidemic upon us, here’s a timely look at some post-apocalyptic survival instructions for mankind.

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the “guides” themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology.

[...]

What’s most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization.

link

A stainless steel soap is a piece of stainless steel, usually in the shape of a soap bar. Its purpose is to neutralize or reduce strong odours from the hands, present from handling odorous ingredients such as garlic, onion or fish.[1] The shape of a soap bar is purely decorative and any piece of stainless steel, such as a spoon, can be used for the same purpose.

There are similar applications, such as stainless steel disks in shoes and dishwashers, that are used to absorb odors. [2]

In the absence of plausible chemical explanations of why this may work, or experiments using controls, it is unknown whether the stainless steel soap is actually effective. Stainless steel soaps are often advertised for use with water; so it is likely that sulfurous compounds either dissolve directly in the water or are catalyzed by the steel, if indeed the odour removal is measurably greater with stainless steel than any other substance.

link

If you have about 720 SCSI hard drives lying around (hey, who doesn’t?!), why not turn them all into a neat, hardcore-ly geeky Christmas tree?

link

Somebody assembled an entire wall consisting of 500 clocks, and every 12 hours, the clocks form a phrase that’s actually readable. That is, if you’re French.

link

More than 130,000 inflatable breasts have been lost at sea en route to Australia.

Men’s magazine Ralph was planning to include the boobs as a free gift with its January issue.

The cargo is worth about $200,000, which is another blow for publisher ACP’s parent company PBL, which is already in $4.3 billion of debt.

A spokeswoman for Ralph said the container left docks in Beijing two weeks ago but turned up empty in Sydney this week.

The magazine has put out an alert to shipping authorities to see if they have the container, but if they don’t turn up in the next  48 hours it will be too late for the next issue, she said.

Ralph editor Santi Pintado urged anyone who has any information to contact the magazine.

“Unless Somali pirates have stolen them its difficult to explain where they are,” Pintado said.

“If anyone finds any washed up on a beach, please let us know.’

link

{Image: Salma Hayek’s boobs, not actually one of those missing}

Ismet Dural, professional circumciser. And this is his business card. Imagine what they’d do for the OB-Gyne.

via

Presenter above explains excitedly how this boarded-up shop in Lancashire is in the same state as it was in the 1960s, frozen in time, like magic.

link

One of the most spectacular, if fearsome looking, Roman medical instruments is the vaginal dilator or speculum (dioptra). It comprises a priapiscus with 2 (or sometimes 3 or 4) dovetailing valves which are opened and closed by a handle with a screw mechanism, an arrangement that was still to be found in the specula of 18th-century Europe. Soranus is the first author who makes mention of the speculum specially made for the vagina. Graeco-Roman writers on gynecology and obstetrics frequently recommend its use in the diagnosis and treatment of vaginal and uterine disorders, yet it is one of the rarest surviving medical instruments. Specula are large and readily recognizable and should not have suffered the same degree of destruction as thin instruments, such as probes, scalpels and needles. As a source of bronze, however, they may have been more subject to recycling than the smaller instruments.

From “Surgical instruments from Ancient Rome“

The Swedish physician Gustav Zander‘s institute in Stockholm, founded in the late nineteenth century and stocked with twenty-seven of his custom-built machines, was the first “gym” in the sense that we know the word today. His mechanical horse was an early version of the Stairmaster, a contraption for cardiovascular fitness designed to imitate a “natural” activity. His stomach-punching apparatus evokes contemporary “ab-crunching” machines. What makes Zander so important, for anyone trying to trace the Cybex family tree, is what happened when his machines, created in a European cultural context, immigrated to the US in the early twentieth century. They are prototypes of the workout equipment now ubiquitous in American life.

link

Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.And with prices starting at less than 5,000 euros ($7,488), the jewels are not solely the preserve of the jetset.

“Some people find it helpful to go to the cemetery and grieve, and they leave their grief in the cemetery,” said Algordanza Chairman Veit Brimer. “There are some people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have this farewell.

“Astonishingly these are mainly Christian people. They say: ‘Why should I say goodbye? I’ll see my husband in 15 years in heaven anyway,’” Brimer said in his office overlooking the town of Chur and its surrounding steep mountains.

The technology for making artificial diamonds was first pioneered by General Electric in the 1950s, and mirrors nature by subjecting carbon to huge pressure and temperature.

Algordanza — which means “remembrance” in the local language Romansch, spoken in some parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons — is one of a handful of companies offering artificial diamonds that have sprung up as the technology has improved.

link

{Intriguing:  Woman turns dead dad into a diamond}