This Week at Neatorama
This coming Thursday is Groundhog Day! Get your Groundhog Day decorations out, put up the Groundhog lights, and let’s all sing Groundhog carols! Will the Groundhog see his shadow? Ya know, it doesn’t really matter, because whether he does or not, spring will be here in six weeks anyway. At least on the calendar. So we can say we’ve turned the corner on winter,and that’s what the holiday is all about. Happy Groundhog Day! Meanwhile, it’s time to catch up on this week’s best stuff from Neatorama.
Jill Harness collected 7 Amazing Stories of Lost and Re-Found Wedding Rings.
Eddie Deezen brought us The Origin of the Beatles Haircut.
Many thanks to National Geographic for providing Joel Sartore’s Biodiversity Portraits, which we posted at the Neatorama Spotlight Blog.
Goodbye, Farewell, and A*M*E*N was this week’s offering from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
Mental_floss magazine told us 10 Secrets of the Vatican Exposed.
The Psychoanalyst Says Your Gut Says… was a bit of nonsense from the Annals of Improbable Research.
In the What Is It? game this week, the pictured item is a meat cleaver with an attached combination tool, which is for sale at eBay. The first person to identify it was Michael S. Gatlin, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! Chuck Farkleycame up with the funniest answer:
Chicken
Pablo Picasso
1934
mixed media with cleaver
So Chuck wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop, too! Thanks to everyone who played this week. See the answers to all this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
The most-commented-on post this week was Raising a Gender-Neutral Child, which is not surprising. Coming in second was Can America Make the iPhone? (Hint: It’s Not About The Labor Cost).
Earlier this week, we were offline for a while due to technical difficulties. Our tech wizard worked all night and most of the next day to get it fixed, and we really appreciate that. If it ever happens again, we will try to post updates on Facebook, Twitter, and G+ so you’ll know what’s going on. Be sure to check back often! And if you need your Neatorama fix in the meantime, those social networking sites are the place to be for fun stuff, discussions, and extra contests you won’t find on the main page. Visit them every day!
What Are Fighting Games Missing? Pac-Man And Mega Man Of Course!
It’s a crazy concept, but Pac-Man and Mega Man are now part of fighting game history thanks to the upcoming release Street Fighter X Tekken! And, while Mega Man is fat and old in this game, and Pac-Man is piloting some clunky robotic body armor instead of simply chomping down on the opposition, I think they still make a colorful addition to the fighting game genre.
Combining a crazy assortment of characters into a fighting game worked for Super Smash Bros., so this doesn’t seem so far fetched to me. What does seem like a stretch, however, is the idea of a Pac person battling through a tournament full of fierce opponents without the aid of Power Pellets!
–via Destructoid
Misty Mountains Cold Never Sounded So Good
It’s impressive enough that ShadowCa7 decided to perform a musical version of J.R.R. Tolkiens “Over The Misty Mountains Cold/The Dwarven Song Of Old Wealth” and committed to doing all 27 verses, but the fact that she does all the harmonies by herself while playing acoustic guitar makes this a beautiful performance to behold.
It takes a bit of a commitment just to sit through the entire video, but it is so good from beginning to end, so throw up your hairy feet, pack a pipe and pour yourself a pint if you’re ready to go there and back again.
–via Topless Robot
Remixing Alien Theme Song On A Commodore 64
This is a crazy cool remix of the Alien video game theme song, a game which was released on the Commodore 64, appropriately being played on a Commodore 64, laptop and some other musical doohickeys. Add Southern Comfort as inspiration and a creepy green goblin looking mask and you’ve got old school awesome sauce. Makes me wish I still had my C64!
–via Obvious Winner
Could This Be The New Keyboard Cat?
No, this is definitely not the next keyboard cat, but Pancake could be part of KC’s band, like in the kitteh keyboard band of my dreams! In Pancake’s Meowsic Video, we see this tie clad little kitteh getting into some seriously heavy grooves, channeling Thelonius Monk on a kitteh shaped keyboard. It’s a meowsical delight!
–via BuzzFeed
The Oatmeal’s Delightful Valentine’s Day Cards
The Oatmeal is certainly the first site I think of for cards when I want to slide a note over to my secret crush at the Neatorama office. That’s why the site’s Valentine’s Day cards are just so darn wonderful… of course, that might also be why Zeon has a restraining order against me.
When Star Wars Meets Tank Girl
Falcon Girl is artist James Hance’s wonderful mash up of Princess Leia and Tank Girl. I don’t know about you guys, but I kind of want to see this become a whole comic book instead of just a cool poster.
Link Via BoingBoing
5 Doctor Who Episodes Based On Real Events
Did you know that the Daleks originated from Doctor Who’s take on the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The second serial presented on Doctor Who, a six-part story called “The Daleks,” was set on a distant world where the nightmare of 1962 actually came to pass; two nations, the Thals and the Dals, had been locked in an arms race for some indeterminate period of time, finally developing nuclear weapons, resulting in a full nuclear exchange between the two and irradiating the planet Skaro. The radiation was so severe that by the time our heroes arrive, the forests are petrified and full of mummified animals. Those who survived the exchange are now drastically mutated. The Thals have mutated full-circle, becoming a handsome race devoted to peaceful coexistence. They believe the Dals are either extinct or so horribly mutated that they cannot emerge from their frozen city. Neither is completely true; the Dals have mutated horribly, to the point where they have no skeletons and are no longer capable of independent life, but they have developed tank-like travel machines, equipped with life support and a formidable weapons system. They have become the Daleks.
For more interesting Doctor Who plots that originated from real events, don’t miss this great article on Mental Floss.
10 Science Holidays To Brighten Up Your Year
Let’s face it, most holidays already marked on your calendar are pretty boring -Valentine’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day…yawn. If you really want to geek up your wall calendar and ensure you celebrate holidays more appropriate to your specific interests, don’t miss io9′s round up of great science holiday including Pi approximation day (July 22) and Hagfish Day (October 17). Of course, since they’re all science related, certain other geek holidays are left out -after all, you can’t miss out on Towel Day.
10 Absolutely Adorable Bugs
We tend to think of insects as creepy and crawly, but not so much cute. But there are some bugs that are simply precious…maybe not as much as a puppy or kitty, but definitely cute nonetheless. If you dig on six-legged cutie pies, then don’t miss this great article featuring some of the most photogenic invertebrates around.
Pillow That Lets You Feel Your Sweetheart’s Heartbeat through a Pillow
(Video Link)
Joanna Montgomery invented Pillow Talk, a system for lovers who are far apart. Each person wears a chest belt that measures his/her heartbeat. A transmitter sends that rhythm to a pillow. Just hold it close to feel, in a small way, together.
Link -via The Mary Sue
Latin Just Got Deader: Botanists Turn Away from Latin Plant Names
Latin is a dead language, as dead as it can be. It killed the ancient Romans,and now it’s killing me!
But it’s payback time. In July, The International Botanical Congress voted to relax the rules that required that all new plant species be named in Latin. This move breaks with a tradition that botanists had maintained since the Renaissance. James Miller, a botanist at the New York Botanical Garden, explained why this change makes sense:
Miller is a big fan of the relaxed rule, which, along with another measure allowing species to be published in electronic journals alone, will remove bottlenecks in the process of getting new flora out there.
When he published the discovery of a small tropical tree called Cordia koemarae, he had to write a Latin description that ran to 100 words and included: “Folia persistentia; laminae anisophyllae, foliis majoribus ellipticis.” Roughly translated: The tree hangs on to its leaves, which vary by size. The bigger leaf blades are elliptical.
“The bottom line is that only a tiny percentage of us really learn much Latin and are really capable of writing a grammatically correct description,” he said. “It’s an additional encumbrance.”
Link -via @brainpicker | Image of the Roman poet Virgil via QuartierLatin1968
Battlefield 3 Case Mod
Master case modder Brian Carter made this amazing case. It includes rollbars, a USB-powered beverage cooler disguised as a first aid kit, and a spinning imitation minigun. Yes, that is a fake minigun. But we’ll probably see real ones on the next generation of super case mods. Look at more pictures and a video at the link.
Scratch-n-Sniff Jeans
Remember the experiment in which people didn’t wash their jeans for three months? Just think about how long you could prolong washing if you wore jeans that released a perfume when scratched. Shoot, why even bother taking a shower? You’re wearing sweet-smelling jeans. Let them do their magic.
Link -via DVICE | Photo: Naked & Famous Denim
Previously: Scratch & Sniff Business Suit
Home TARDIS Construction for Fun and Profit
(Video Link)
The awesomest viral video of the day is this gem hosted by YouTube user sillysparrowness. She built a (nonfunctional model of a) TARDIS. Why? “A woman isn’t complete without her own TARDIS.”
The construction is good, but her hilarious presentation and video editing make this the best home TARDIS construction project ever. She’d be a great companion for the Doctor.
-via Boing Boing
Chinese Soldiers Play a Game of Hot Potato … with a Real Bomb
Think you're tough? Probably not as tough as these Chinese soldiers, who played a lethal game of Hot Potato ... with live bombs!
During an exhibition drill in Hong Kong, last month, an elite garrison of 6,000 PLA troops staged a series of impressive exercises for the visit of the island’s chief executive, Sir Donald Tsang. Snipers shot tiny glasses, soldiers carried heavy logs and jumped through rings of fire, but nothing as incredible as a group of men playing a game of pass-the-bomb.
The lethal game is played by six soldiers standing in a circle with a dug whole in the middle. They pass an explosive satchel from one two another, counting down until it detonates. Just before it explodes, one of the soldiers throws it in the hole and they all leap away as the ground trembles and dirt starts flying from the pit. Any miscalculation could mean the end for all six players, but they don’t seem very intimidated by that. They just calmly pass the live satchel as if it were a simple bag.
5 Crazy Ways People Amused Themselves Before Television
Before television entered our homes, entertainment wasn’t an everyday thing -in fact, it was hard to come by. And people would go to see anything that was out of the ordinary for a little respite from the daily grind. Mental_floss dug up some rather obscure events that drew crowds desperate for amusement, like the Dionne Quintuplets. The five girls born in 1934 were put on display by the Canadian government in a special facility in which they could be observed through glass. Three million people filed through to see them over a ten-year period! Read the rest at mental_floss. Link
The Salad Towers of China
Attention cheapskates! How should you maximize the amount of food you can get from a single trip to the salad bar? By building the ultimate salad tower, of course: Link - via The Consumerist
Swap-o-matic
Swap-o-matic is a vending machine that doesn’t use money. Instead, you swap something you have for something you want! It’s also an art project that makes a statement about consumption and recycling, designed by Lina Fenequito with Rick Cassidy and Ray Mancini. It’s a cool idea, but where I live, it would either stay empty or would become filled with old tires and obsolete electronics -things you have to pay to get rid of. Link -via Laughing Squid
2012 Best Picture Nominees Recast with Dogs
How do you make the 2012 Best Picture Nominees even better? Recast them
with dogs!
That’s exactly what Next Movie did, and we’re not the least bit disappointed:
Link
- Thanks Andie!
The Best Place to Scratch on the Human Body
After curing cancer and other serious maladies of man, science turned its attention to solving the mystery of the best scratching spot in the human body.
Behold, the magic of science:
In the study, reported in the British Journal of Dermatology, healthy male and female volunteers aged 22 to 59 were made to itch by rubbing them with cowhage, a plant with tiny hairs that irritate the skin.
The itches were induced on three parts of the body – forearm, ankle and back. For five minutes participants were banned from scratching, while being asked to record how itchy they felt at each spot.
Then the researchers scratched each location themselves with a laboratory brush, to ensure a consistent technique. The volunteers were asked how pleasurable the sensation was.
Results showed that the itch was felt most intensely at the ankle, and that was also the spot where the pleasure of scratching was felt most keenly and persisted longest.
I think they purposely didn't test a few other spots on the human body: Link
Photo: Backscratcher Pen from the NeatoShop
Zombie Head Decanter
Zombie Head Decanter – $19.95
Are you looking for the perfect bottle to store your favorite post apocalyptic elixir? You need the Zombie Head Decanter from the NeatoShop. This fantastic glass bottle with a cork top will make sure you are a hit with all your new living dead neighbors.
Be sure to check out the Neatoshop for much more Zombie fun.
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Why We Chicken Out At The Last Minute
Why do we say we're going to do brave and risky things only to chicken out at the last minute? Researchers have found the answer:
Scientists led by University of Colorado Boulder psychology and neuroscience professor Leaf Van Boven hypothesized that this illusion of courage is the result of an empathy gap, or our inability to forecast how we will behave in emotional situations. In two of the experiments, they asked college students if they would be willing to engage in a future embarrassing situation, such as telling a funny story or dancing to James Brown's "Sex Machine" in front of their class, in exchange for a few dollars. Some of the students were asked outright, while others were first exposed to short films that aroused feelings of fear and anger.
The students who were primed with negative emotions were much more accurate in predicting their true willingness to perform in public. The undergraduates who did not view movie clips were less empathetic to their future selves and significantly overestimated their interest.
Life Size Buster Sword
Zeon posted a full-size Berserk sword earlier today, and then mentioned he wanted to see a full-size Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword. Mike Schropp at Total Geekdom made exactly that, Zeon! He also posted the illustrated process of making it. AND Schropp has a picture of himself and the completed sword in costume (for Halloween) with special Final Fantasy effects. If I posted that picture here, you wouldn’t think it was really him. So I selected this picture instead. You can go see the rest. Link
7 Great Movies That Take Place in Freezing Weather
One way to make yourself feel warmer this winter is to watch a movie in which people are even colder than you are. Unreality magazine has some suggestion you may not have considered, like the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago.
This classic epic about the Russian Revolution from Davide Lean is winter on steroids — frozen lakes, fur coats, and a palace encrusted in ice. This movie also features Obi-Wan Kenobi and one of cinema’s finest mustaches. You really can’t argue with that.
Plus Omar Sharif was really easy on the eyes. Link
The Oldest Rainforest on Earth
Taman Negara in Malaysia is the world’s oldest rainforest. It has flourished since the land rose from the sea during the Jurassic era, around 130 million years ago. Even ice ages haven’t affected the forest.
Far outnumbering the human inhabitants are the flora and fauna of Taman Negara. Within the park boundaries there are tigers, Malayan tapirs, elephants, wild boar, various species of deer, leopards, sun bears, civets and wild ox, to name just a few.
Add to this between 200-300 species of birds and thousands of insects making their lives on the jungle floor. Taman Negara has one of the richest ecologies on earth, protected both by its impenetrability and Malaysian law.
Read more about Taman Negara at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user taylorandayumi)
Woman Stayed in Car for a Week
Lynn S. Keesler of Houston, Texas, became stuck in mud January 15th in her rental car and survived on candy for a week, despite the fact that she was not injured.
Keesler told deputies she saw water by a dairy at 800 W. 500 S. and thought it was the river she needed to cross in order to reach the hotels.
According to the report, Keesler said she tried to drive around the outside of the water but got stuck in the mud. She said the first night that she was stranded, she flashed her headlights all night until the car’s battery ran down. She also said she was able to honk the horn a couple of times when the battery would power up enough.
Keesler said she lived on peanut butter M&Ms and water, and stayed inside the car because she’d always been told not to leave her vehicle if she became stranded.
On the 22nd, the water began rising and Keelser went to a nearby house for help. Paramedics checked her out, but she refused a trip to the hospital. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: video from Fox News)
Save the Date Photobomb
It looks like redditor adepssimius is getting married! Ben made a little change to their “save the date” announcements, and didn’t reveal it until after they were mailed. When Amy found out, she thought it was hilarious. If you can’t see the addition he made, you can click to enlarge the photo or see an exploded version at Imgur. Link -via reddit
A Cat’s Eye View of Alien
In the 1979 film Alien, there are two survivors. The hero Ripley, of course, and her cat Jonesey. Anne Billson knows that Jonesy is much more important to the film than most viewers realize. So she wrote the story of the spaceship Nostromo and its crew from Jonesey’s point of view. Here’s a small excerpt:
Nostromo is making hysterical hooting noises and flashing its lights on and off. This is all rather exciting, but as I’m being ferried through the passages and walkways I feel helpless, and would really rather be free to run around. Also, the can-opener is hurling herself around like nobody’s business, so it’s not a smooth journey, I can tell you. Anyhow we roll to a stop, and I can tell straightaway it’s because we’ve run slap-dab into the hairless kitten again. Only I’m not sure I can call it a kitten any more – it’s really big now. Honestly, it’s like a super-giant cat. But since it’s still only a few hours old and clearly hasn’t been housetrained and hasn’t a clue how to groom itself or behave in can-opener company, I shall continue to call it a kitten. Because, technically, that’s what it is.
Later, Jonesey confronts the alien and tries to share the secrets of charming the “can-openers.” From the delightful blog Cats on Film. Link -via Maximum Verbosity
One Minute Fly
(YouTube link)
His species only lives for a minute, but he has a long bucket list. (via the Presurfer)
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