Category: Weird

I’ve watched this eleven minute video three times and still have no idea what the “relationship between geometry and audio” is…but it’s pretty damn neat to watch.

Welcome to the dark history of the world’s favorite comfort food. It all begins with two arch-enemy nations, Japan and China. Though their mutual hatred stretches back over the years, when these countries first made contact around 400 A.D., they were friendly. The Chinese were much more advanced, and the Japanese played eager students, learning such skills as how to write and how to make paper. They even borrowed the Chinese calendar and the Buddhist religion. But by the late 19th century, Japan was feeling superior to its former teacher.

In 1895, the small nation dealt China a humiliating defeat in a naval battle. As spoils of war, they annexed the province of Taiwan and wrestled control of Korea away from Chinese influence. Flexing its empire-building muscle further, Japan soon took over more of China, and in the process, assimilated aspects of its culture. Most notably, martial arts, as well as parts of their cuisine.

And that’s where the Ramen enter the story, although by a different name. In 1910, two Chinese cooks at Tokyo’s Rairaken restaurant introduced a signature dish with salty broth and noodles. They called it Shina Soba.

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Manufacturing and retail could get a much- needed boost from a newly- developed 3D chocolate printer. In the long term the technology could be used by customers to design many different products themselves — tailor-made to their needs and preferences.

According to industry trade journal Ward’s, which added up both reported vehicle registrations and historical trends, the total crossed 1 billion sometime last year.

The vehicles include passenger cars, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks, and buses, but not off-road or heavy construction vehicles.

The total at the end of 2009 was about 980 million, and with strong growth in emerging regions–particularly China, now by far the world’s biggest car market–the number powered past the 1-billion mark sometime last summer.

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A Siberian Husky riding in the passenger seat while on the freeway in California.