Polyphonic Overtone Singing

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Overtone singing is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out of the lips to produce a melody.

This resonant tuning allows the singer to create apparently more than one pitch at the same time while in effect still generating a single fundamental frequency with his/her vocal folds.

It is believed the art of overtone singing has originated from south western Mongolia in today’s Khovd and Govi-Altai region.

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Truly eerie to hear what the human voice is capable of producing.

Video via Ann-Marie Hefele.
Photo via Friday Night Linguistics.
Quoted text and photo via Wikipedia.

Matterhorn Anniversary Celebration

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In preparation for the anniversary celebrations, Swiss mountaineering specialist Mammut, together with the Zermatt mountain guides traced the route over the Hörnligrat ridge in a chain of lights, paying homage to the first ascent of the roped party with Edward Whymper.

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Edward Whymper (27 April 1840 – 16 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865; four members of his party were killed during the descent.

Whymper was convinced that the Matterhorn’s precipitous appearance when viewed from Zermatt was an optical illusion, and that the dip of the strata, which on the Italian side formed a continuous series of overhangs, should make the opposite side a natural staircase.

On the descent, Hadow slipped and fell onto Croz, dislodging him and dragging Douglas and Hudson to their deaths; the rope parted, saving the other three.

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Awe-inspiring how the once heroic can now be accomplished for the service of a photo shoot ad campaign.

Photographer Robert Bosch for Mammut. Secondary quote via Wikipedia.

A Mountain Villa That is Free to Stay In (If You Can Reach It)

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The structure, with 9 beds, is located at an altitude of 2531 meters in the Julian Alps, on the crest of the Foronon Buinz in the group of montasio along the trail equipped Ceria-Merlone, which starts from fork Lavinal Bear for a breathtaking route altitude the giant stone. It is a refuge for climbers and hikers, for lovers of the mountain.

The material was transported by helicopter altitude with 18 trips; waiting on top, a team in difficult conditions and with limited space constructed the property all within a single day.

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Now, if they put Internet satellite access in there, I would be totally up for hiking up there.

Via Architect John Pesamosca. Translation from the Italian by Google Translate.

Lab-Grown Penises

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Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine could be offering new hope to men with genital abnormalities or injuries in as little as five years, thanks to one of their many tissue engineering endeavors: lab-grown penises.

Back in 1999, they became the first in the world to successfully implant a lab-grown organ into humans — a bladder. Since then, they’ve transplanted engineered vaginas into women born with defects or without vaginas entirely.

[T]he team [has] managed to grow 12 functioning penises for rabbit subjects. After grafting them on to the recipients, all tried to mate with a female, eight successfully ejaculated, and four produced offspring.

All Western obsessiveness with sexuality notwithstanding, it’s not difficult to see the benefit of this for victims of traumatic battlefield or other injuries as well as significantly improved transgender operations.

That being said, countdown to transplants for purpose of penile enlargement in 10…9…8…7…

Wake Forest School of Medicine via IFLScience!.

Maps of U.S. Cities Drawn As If Of Tolkien’s Middle Earth

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Mapsburgh produces delicate hand-cut paper street maps, fantasy maps in the style of Tolkien, and other cartographic art.

A few years back, I made a map of the area between my house and my then-girlfriend’s house, carefully cutting out the spaces in between all of the streets to create a delicate, lacy vision of our city. When she unwrapped it on her birthday, she took a look at it and said “You should sell these on Etsy – people would pay money for these”.

With that bit of encouragement, Mapsburgh was born. It provided a great way to combine my interest in art with my love of maps (I have a PhD in Geography from Clark University).

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Cartographic cleverness.

Stentor Danielson via Maspburgh. Available for purchase on Etsy.

Two Sentence Horror Stories

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About a year ago, Reddit user meiguess opened the door to the horrors that lurk in the minds of humanity by proposing submissions of horror stories – each only with two sentences.

Some of the results are truly epic:

  • I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy check for monsters under my bed”. I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy there’s somebody on my bed”. (Juan Ruiz)
  • Growing up with cats and dogs, I got used to the sounds of scratching at my door while I slept. Now that I live alone, it is much more unsettling.
  • My grandmother told me that it was a gift to see the angel of death in front of people’s houses, to know that he’d be collecting someone there soon. I thought it was a gift too, up until the day I began to see it in front of every house.
  • My sister says that mommy killed her. Mommy says that I don’t have a sister.
  • Don’t be scared of the monsters, just look for them. Look to your left, to your right, under your bed, behind your dresser, in your closet but never look up, she hates being seen.
  • I can’t move, breathe, speak or hear and it’s so dark all the time. If I knew it would be this lonely, I would have been cremated instead.
  • “I can’t sleep” she whispered, crawling into bed with me. I woke up cold, clutching the dress she was buried in.

And my own contribution:

“I am afraid I have an admission to make, my dear”, he confessed with one slow shake of his head as he knelt to place a hand upon her belly. “Human women rarely survive the birth of one of my little princes”.

Image via WallpaperVortex.com
Via Reddit.

Mummified Fetus Reveals In Utero Surgery

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[Dating from the 19th century], scientists discovered a mummified fetus who appears to have undergone an embryotomy. It’s a surgery that dismembers the fetus while it is in the womb, when traditional delivery methods are impossible to perform.

[T]he body had been taken apart and placed roughly back together, like a human puzzle. The skull had been severed from the spinal column and had been cut in several places. Additionally, limbs and bones within the axial skeleton had been detached or dissected.

Along with the fetus, the researchers found items such as rosaries, clothing, jewelry, and shrouds for wrapping deceased bodies.

For the curious, the very earthquake that indirectly revealed the fetus was the one that resulted in six scientists being convicted of manslaughter in 2012 for not adequately predicting the earthquake.

Yeah, incredibly stupid.

Via IFLScience!.