Video Explores What Its Like Turking For A Living

There are a legion of people out there who take surveys, undergo psychological tests, record search engine rankings and transcribe audio files for a living, taking whatever job comes up on the Mechanical Turk job list.

These people are part of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing program, a place where people are paid paltry sums to complete HITs (Human Intelligence Task) and build up a feedback rep. The work is often mind numbing, and generally pays a buck or two an hour, depending on how fast you can work and how lucky you get with the queue.

Have you ever heard of the Turkers? There's about a half million of 'em online, and every day they're turking for a living.

Neat Facts About Easter

What the heck does "Easter" mean? Why do we celebrate a bunny that hides multi-colored Easter eggs? And why do we eat ham for Easter? There are so many strange questions around this spring holiday, but you can find the answers to them all in this fascinating TopTenz article filled with fascinating facts about Easter -including some truly unique ways to celebrate.

Neat Facts About Easter

Taxidermist Makes "Cute Forever Friends" with Dead Rats

(Photo: Adam Carter/CBC)

Ankixa Risk is an artist and taxidermist in Hamilton, Ontario. She specializes in taking dead rats and posing them in human situations with appropriate clothing and props. Risk uses rats donated by pet rat owners and rats from a local reptile supply company. In the latter case, she skins the rats and returns the meat for reptile consumption. The CBC describes her work:

That presentation varies – one of those “forever friends” is a rat riding a bike. Another is a graffiti artist rat holding a spray can. Next to that is a mounted, mythical Jackalope – a jackrabbit with antelope horns.

“I just realized I’m wearing the same skirt as she is,” she says, pointing to another one of her stuffed buddies.

(Photo: Casual Taxidermy)

Risk sees taxidermy as a great hobby and creative outlet. That's why she's now teaching classes on the subject open to the public. She calls these lessons Casual Taxidermy. The CBC reports that they're popular:

In some circles, taxidermy is even growing in popularity and becoming a bit of a fad. Her classes are small, but keep selling out. She’s even heading to the east coast this spring to teach there, too.

-via Nag on the Lake

Taxidermist Makes "Cute Forever Friends" with Dead Rats

20 Things You Might Not Know About Community

The gang from Greendale Community College recently made their triumphant return to….wait, they’re not on broadcast TV anymore, are they?

Nope. New episodes of Community are being shown on Yahoo Screen , but aside from that little viewing dilemma the new season is shaping up to be pretty good.

Paget Brewster and Keith David have joined the cast, the budget is still big enough to afford plenty of the fantastic fantasy segments we’ve come to expect from the show, and Dan Harmon is back in the driver’s seat.

(Image Link)

And speaking of Dan Harmon- do you know who got him back at the helm after that nasty dustup with the Sony execs? Jeff freakin’ Winger himself Joel McHale that’s who! Joel insisted Dan come back after a failed fourth season left everyone wishing they had Changnesia.

Find out more cool stuff about your favorite show set in a community college with 20 Things You Might Not Know About Community over at mental_floss . Now if you’ll excuse me I’m late for Creative Cheese class.

20 Things You Might Not Know About Community

Problem: Drunk People Keep Falling on Train Tracks. Solution: Turn the Seats 90 Degrees

Spoon & Tamago reports that data scientists at the West Japan Railway Company analyzed 2 years worth of information of a recurring problem: drunk people at train stations walking right off the platform and onto the train tracks.

They anticipated that the drunks just wandered aimlessly onto the tracks accidentally. But security camera footage revealed that they tended to stand up from seats and walk straight off the platform like they knew exactly where they were going.

(Images: Kobe)

So the train company is experimenting with a possible solution. Assuming that drunks will move in more or less a straight line after standing up, they turned seats perpendicular to the train tracks. They will see if this results in fewer drunks on the tracks in the future.

Problem: Drunk People Keep Falling on Train Tracks. Solution: Turn the Seats 90 Degrees

Baby Clapping Before Birth

(YouTube link)

What is the sound of an unborn baby clapping? There isn’t any, unless mom and the doctor sing along. Jen Cardinal underwent an ultrasound at 14 weeks in which they could clearly see the baby clapping his/her hands. The singing went on during a replay, and they toggled the ultrasound to make the song work while Dad took a cellphone video. So it’s a remix, but certainly a neat one. Jen says there were three claps in all during the procedure. -via Viral Viral Videos

Baby Clapping Before Birth

Knitted Full-Body Captain America Costume

(Photo: David Alvarez Photography)

Cosplayer Fangirl Physics made this Captain America costume, which is made entirely of assembled knitted pieces. She doesn't carry the Captain's shield, but she has a pair of knitting needles in her bag to fight freedom's foes.

I would love to see a complete assembly of the Avengers in knitted costumes.

-via Fashionably Geek

Knitted Full-Body Captain America Costume