Here’s a superconductor that has been frozen in liquid nitrogen, allowing it to float above a magnetic field in three-dimensional space. Yes, it’s levitation, like David Blaine without the camera tricks. It floats upright, then remains in the position when turned upside down.  It can even travel around a magnetic track floating at different heights. The scientists accomplished this by harnessing the power of- OH MY GOD BUILD ME A HOVERBOARD RIGHT NOW!

Quantum trapping uses a stable magnetic field to “clamp” this super-frozen, super-thin disc in three-dimensional space. With the stability of quantum trapping, the disc will hang in space even when the whole apparatus is inverted. Quantum mechanics deals with the motion and interaction of matter on the subatomic level, which means physics concerning particles smaller than the individual atoms that make up matter.

In the video is a single crystal layer of crystal sapphire, paired with a ceramic layer. The super thin layers are then cooled to -301 Fahrenheit (-185 Celcius). At these frigid temperatures, the ceramic becomes a superconductor and conducts electricity with no resistance at all.

In addition to electricity, the disc also experiences the Meissner effect. Hang on, it’s not that difficult. This Meissner effect explains the magnetic properties of superconductors. Normally, a magnetic field would pass through a disc, attracting or repelling all parts at the same time. But when the disc is a superconductor, the magnetic field travels around the disc and only forces itself through the weakest points. It’s at these points where quantum mechanics takes over. The disc becomes trapped in space, a concept aptly named quantum trapping. [DiscoveryNews]

I’m not sure what happens after the video, but I assume it involved the inventor gently stroking a hairless cat while cackling maniacally.

Not to be outdone, the other day I invented a new type of sandwich that allows me to eat it three times faster than a normal sandwich. The way I accomplished this was by holding a handful of bread in one hand, and a handful of turkey in the other, which I would then dunk into the twin receptacles of mayonnaise and mustard, respectively, that I had placed before me, then combine them all in my mouth, which tasted almost like a regular sandwich. The time I saved allowed me to get 35% bloggier.

THAT'S LEVITATION, HOMES!

Almost all of my favorite documentaries are in some way or another about odd subcultures (American Movie, King of Kong, Anvil, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Spellbound), and what’s an odder subculture than magicians?  Make Believe (via FilmSchoolRejects) is a documentary about teen magicians.  It’s all the awkwardness of being a teenager combined with the awkwardness of magicians, which is enough awkwardness to spawn a thousand Birdemic remakes.  Make Believe was executive produced by King of Kong director Seth Gordon and directed by Kong assistant editor (a much bigger job on a doc than it is on a narrative feature) J. Clay Tweel.  Yes, J. Clay Tweel. I can’t say whether that was his birth name or if he changed it to sound more magiciany. Needless to say, this looks fantastic.

“The World Magic Seminar is… If you’re a teen, and you’re doing magic, you can’t miss it.”

“I don’t have too much friends, my friend is magic.”

“Kristin could be… the greatest lady magician that ever lived.”

THE GREATEST LADY MAGICIAN THAT EVER LIVED! That’s a bold statement, but then look at her levitate those metal rings. Anyway,Make Believe played the LA and Austin film festivals last year, and you can check it out now on Showtime or VOD, or when it opens in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles next month. The only kid I’m worried about is the one doing magic in Africa.  BE CAREFUL, DUDE. One day you’re pulling playing cards from behind peoples’ ears, the next they’re accusing you of shrinking the chief’s penis.  Unless you want people showing up at your hut with baskets of severed albino hands demanding you cure their wife’s infertility, you might want to move.  Magic is all political over there. So I hear. Of course, I get all my information about Africa from my racist uncle.

I wonder if this is how the Hip Hop Magician got his start.

Japan enjoys a well-deserved reputation for all things batpoop loco, but India is headed to the top of the crazy chart with a bullet. Between bulldozing the Slumdog kid’s shanty like the villain in a Brendan Fraser movie, making a movie that makes Michael Bay’s movies look like cinema verité, and my personal favorite, hiring larger, more violent monkeys to control the population of smaller monkeys, India is easily my favorite story setting of the year. More to the point, today in wacky news stories, the popularity of Harry Potter (note: NOT Hari Puttar) has spawned an owl-trapping trend.

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blamed fans of Harry Potter for the demise of wild owls in the country as children seek to emulate the boy wizard by taking the birds as pets.
The hit books and films, which are popular in India, feature a snowy owl called Hedwig who is a feathered sidekick for the Potter character and used to deliver mail.
“Following Harry Potter, there seems to be a strange fascination even among the urban middle classes for presenting their children with owls,” Ramesh said Wednesday, according to comments reported by the BBC.
Researchers found that a growing number of owls were being trapped, traded or killed in black magic rituals. [AFP via AV Club]

My favorite part of the story is the way the modern effortlessly co-exists with the ancient, almost as an afterthought.  “A western book about a boy magician has spawned a trend of pet owls among the urban middle class.  Oh, and some actual sorcerers have also joined in, hoping to use the owl parts for black magic.”

Sidenote: This Indian guy would make Harry Potter his bitch. God knows what he had to do to make that sloth bear so happy.

Nic Cage hasn’t paid his FilmDrunk tenant rent in over three months, but that’s okay because he always makes us laugh with his lucky crack pipe stories. Also immensely entertaining is when he conducts interviews about The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and talks about how his sorcerer father, magic and America’s teachers are the reason that he chose to do the movie. No, not the card game, broheim, but thanks for trying.

Star-Telegram, let me hold your bra for you:

“My father was the sorcerer in my life,” Cage says. “He was a professor of comparative literature and a philosopher and very interested in stimulating young minds to think and use imagination. He wasn’t interested in money, but in social work. He was Balthazar Blake…” [Cage's character from The Sorcerer's Apprentice...this guy-Ed.]

“This is my homage to teachers — to honor the teachers making no money to enlighten young people’s minds. It’s all about imagination combined with willpower. To me that’s what teachers do. They are sorcerers educating the apprentices. That’s what magic is all about.” [source]

Look, I’m sorry but I had to queef really hard in the middle of that second part -I just couldn’t keep it together. We’re all still talking about a Jerry Bruckheimer project, aren’t we? Oh good, because for a moment there I thought this was a biography on Jaime Escalante. Look The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was made to juice the wallets of parents everywhere, not teachers. I’ll trust the man when it comes to iguanas and Pyramid tombs, but I refuse to sit here farting, thinking about how he’s created an homage to his sorcerer father and America’s educational system. Then again, if by some unexplainable reason this all happens to be true, Nic Cage has once again PWND the universe. In which case it’s now your move, God.

-Chodin

We’ve known for some time that The Smurfs would be getting the Alvin and the Chipmunks treatment (BIG F*CKING GLASSY EYES! DANCING TO POPULAR MUSIC!).  We’ve also seen Hank Azaria in costume as Gargamel.  But today for the first time, we see an official picture of the smurfs.  Oh I know, I was as smurfed as you are.  Smurf me up a super-lame lead, USA Today.

The Smurfs are three apples tall, according to creator Peyo.  Of course, that doesn’t mean much in the Big Apple.

(*riding by on biplane*)  OOOOOOHHHHH SNNNNAAAaaaaaaaappppp…..

Of course, the original Smurfs was about Gargamel wanting to eat them, and implied cannibalism was quickly deemed too edgy for the generation of twinks we’ve raised on Zac Efron and The Disney Channel.  Changes had to be made.  Script, cast out thy consequences.

Eating the Smurfs was always Gargamel’s unfulfilled goal, but that’s one idea the filmmakers decided to scrap. “We all wondered whether we would be making a family version of Sweeney Todd,” jokes producer Jordan Kerner (Charlotte’s Web). Now, Gargamel simply wants to capture the Smurfs to serve as charms, whose mystical essence will make his inept magic more powerful — and dangerous.

A bad guy trying to eat you?  I don’t get it.  That’s stupid.  A bad guy trying to collect you like Pokemon cards?  Great, makes total sense now.  They also report that there’s also a new character, “Gutsy”, who they describe as “brave to a fault.”  I’m sure he’ll be right at home with the other new smurfs, “Bloggy” and “Participation Ribbon.”  WAIT!  DID SOMEONE SAY MAGIC??

This movie needs more Nic Cage.  There should be a smurf named Nic Cage.  He teaches the other smurfs magic with his ridiculous hair.