Fawns Have Escape Plans
"It's a lion*, run!" strategy doesn't seem to work out very well for white-tailed deer fawns.
What works, it turns out, is an escape plan:
Fawns often bypass the nearest "escape cover" to seek out better habitats for shaking off predators, new research has found.
Baby deer are more likely to survive if they use this selective technique rather than simply fleeing to the closest refuge.
The study in the journal Animal Behaviour, followed white-tailed deer fawns in the Great Plains of the US.
The fawns' behaviour was a surprise to the research team, they said.
"We expected them to look for cover as soon as possible and try to take that cover… (but) they actually went to a better cover rather than the first available," says Jonathan Jenks, distinguished professor of wildlife and fisheries sciences at South Dakota State University.
Link (Photo: ForestWander/Wikipedia)
*Okay, there's no lion in their native habitat, but gimme a literary license here. If you're a stickler for technicalities, read that sentence as "It's a coyote, run!"
The Ideal Shape of Subway Systems
Is there an ideal shape for a subway system? Statistical physicist Marc Barthelemy and Camille Roth of France's National Center for Scientific Research analyzed subways of New York, Tokyo, London and other large cities in the world - with all their different topologies and geographies - have strikingly similar subway structures:
Brandon Keim of Wired reports: LinkWith equations used to study two-dimensional spatial networks, the class of network to which subways belong, the researchers turned stations and lines to a mathematics of nodes and branches. They repeated their analyses with data from each decade of a subway system’s history, and looked for underlying trends.
Patterns emerged: The core-and-branch topology, of course, and patterns more fine-grained. Roughly half the stations in any subway will be found on its outer branches rather than the core. The distance from a city’s center to its farthest terminus station is twice the diameter of the subway system’s core. This happens again and again.“Many other shapes could be expected, such as a regular lattice,” said Barthelemy. “What we find surprising is that all these different cities, on different continents, with different histories and geographical constraints, lead finally to the same structure.”
Subway systems seem to gravitate towards these ratios organically, through a combination of planning, expedience, circumstance and socioeconomic fluctuation, say the researchers.
Psychoquiz
A quiz from 1948! How fun!
You can be a real he-man and still like to make a cheese souffle. To find out, though, how strongly masculine or feminine your interests are study these six sets of pictures, check your preferences, score yourself.
I saw the first picture, reproduced here, and said, “Neither!” Both of those fabrics are hideous, and unless it’s for a young child’s room, you should always go for solid color draperies. Other questions were just as difficult, but the apparent answer for each sex is quite obvious. Link
The Root of American Obesity Problem Explained by a Mathematician
Americans have been wringing their hands about the problem of obesity for decades (for some of us, while munching on snacks), but never before has the problem been attacked from the perspective of ... math!
In 2004, mathematician and physicist Carson Chow was tasked with figuring out why more and more Americans are getting fatter. When he started, Carson said that "[he] knew almost nothing of obesity. [He] didn't even know what a calorie was."
But he could clearly see a trend: Since 1975, the average weight of Americans jumped by about 20 pounds and the national obesity rate went from 20% to 30%. So what gives?
Claudie Dreifus interviewed the math whiz for The New York Times:
Did you ever solve the question posed to you when you were first hired — what caused the obesity epidemic?
We think so. And it’s something very simple, very obvious, something that few want to hear: The epidemic was caused by the overproduction of food in the United States.
Beginning in the 1970s, there was a change in national agricultural policy. Instead of the government paying farmers not to engage in full production, as was the practice, they were encouraged to grow as much food as they could. At the same time, technological changes and the “green revolution” made our farms much more productive. The price of food plummeted, while the number of calories available to the average American grew by about 1,000 a day.
Well, what do people do when there is extra food around? They eat it! This, of course, is a tremendously controversial idea. However, the model shows that increase in food more than explains the increase in weight.
Link (Photo: Michael Temchine/NY Times)
“The Ferraris of the Bird World”
To many people, pigeons are rats with wings, but to some, they're the "Ferraris of the bird world." And they've got the price tags to prove it:
To the average observer, they look like ordinary pigeons, caged into a balcony in a high-rise Beijing apartment. But make no mistake. These cooing birds, according to breeder Yang Shibo, are like top-of-the-line sports cars.
"These are the Ferraris of the bird world," he says. "They're the most expensive, and the fastest."
The price of racing pigeons is soaring sky-high, pushed up by wealthy Chinese buyers.
It's the latest market to be inflated by the China Effect — or massive demand from China — which has pushed up commodity prices on everything from Australian iron ore to Brazilian soybeans.
And in China, pigeons can be lucrative. Yang Shibo's best bird, a German pigeon, cost more than $1,000 back in 2001. Its descendants have earned him around $150,000 in prize money.
The highest price ever paid for a racing pigeon in China? $328,000. Now that's definitely something to cluck about.
NPR's Louisa Lim has the story: Link (Photo: Louisa Lim/NPR)
Man Arrested for Leaving Son in Car
A man was arrested in Shepherdsville, Kentucky on misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a minor. He had gone into a bar to drink and left his son behind in the car.
According to an arrest report, 59-year-old James L. Osborne was seen walking into The Electric Cowboy, a bar on Dixie Highway, near Oak Park Drive, early Saturday morning, shortly before 2:30 a.m.
Witnesses say he left a young boy inside his vehicle.
When police arrived, they approached the boy and asked him his age. It was determined that the boy was 17.
He was 17? When I was 17, I was in college! It’s likely that the son was his designated driver. Link -via Arbroath
Piranhaconda
(YouTube link)
And you thought nothing could be sillier than Sharktopus! SyFy does it again with a man-eating fish-reptile called Piranhaconda, coming to a river, er, TV near you. -via The Daily What
All You Can Eat Dispute
This story reminds me of the joke about a customer who was upset that a waitress cut him off the buffet after two plates. “That’s ALL you can eat for ten dollars!” she said. But this is a real story out of Thiensville, Wisconsin, where a man says all-you-can-eat doesn’t mean just until the restaurant runs out of food.
At 6’6″ and 350 lbs, Bill Wisth admits he’s a big guy who can pack it away more than most. And he wants one restaurant to make all-you-can-eat, all he can eat too.
“It’s false advertising,” said Wisth to TODAY’S TMJ4.
Wisth has a beef with the all-you-can-eat fish fry at Chuck’s Place. He was there Friday when the restaurant cut him off after he ate a dozen pieces.
“Well, we asked for more fish and they refused to give us any more fish,” recalled Wisth.
The restaurant says it was running out of fish and patience; arguing Bill has been a problem customer before. They sent him on his way with another eight pieces, but that still wasn’t enough.
He was so fired up, he called the police. “I think that people have to stand up for consumers,” said Wisth.
And he wasn’t done. He came back two days later with a picket sign.
Wisth says he plans to protest at the restaurant every Sunday. A restaurant employee says Whisth still owes for food he’s already eaten. Link -via HuffPo
The LEGO Gender Gap
In a two-part article at Sociological Images, David Pickett traces the history of LEGO and the toy’s male-female dichotomy. The toys were pretty much gender-neutral before the introduction of mini-figs in 1978. Even then, the figures were generic and ambiguous -until 1989.
I discussed the introduction of LEGOs the invention of gendered minifigs, and early efforts to market separately to girls and boys in Part I of this series, covering 1932 to 1988. The segregation of LEGO into feminine and masculine sets would escalate beginning in 1989. That year the LEGO group introduced gender to the minifig in a big way with the new Pirates theme. The masculine figs sported copious facial hair and the lone feminine pirate had lipstick and a curved shirt that implied a busty chest.
This pioneering pirate was the first in a long line of token females in otherwise male-dominated action-centric themes. The imbalanced ratio of masculine to feminine minifigs persists today, though it has lessened over time. I have seen several different numbers for this ratio, so I decided to do my own count. I gave TLG the benefit of the doubt and counted as gender neutral any minifigs lacking definitely masculine (facial hair) or feminine (lipstick, eyelashes, cleveage) traits, even when LEGO marketing materials clearly delineate them as male or female.
The imbalance is huge, even when you discount people’s tendency to look at “gender-neutral” figures as male by default. Link to part one. Link to part two. -via Boing Boing
Transparent House
A house in Tokyo, Japan, by Sou Fujimoto Architects stands out because it’s completely transparent, made from a plastic frame, some transparent panels, and lots of open space. The idea was inspired by our distant ancestors who lived in trees and could never expect privacy. The split-level house has minimal furniture and, as far as I can tell, no bathroom. It looks pretty in daylight, but imagine all the people staring at the occupants at night! However, this concept may never have permanent residents. Completely open walls above the ground floor wouldn’t adhere to building codes for residential structures. See more pictures at Bored Panda. Link -via The Daily What
(Image credit: Iwan Baan)
Land of 1,000 Dances
(YouTube link)
Elaine Balden and Bobby Burgess demonstrated the hot dances of the 1960s when they performed “Land of 1,000 Dances” on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1981. Compare and contrast with the hit 1966 version by Wilson Pickett, if you’re not familiar with the song. -via Buzzfeed
Hulk vs. Wolverine Salt & Pepper Shakers
Hulk vs. Wolverine Salt & Pepper Shakers – $13.95
Are you looking for a fun way to release your inner decorating beast? Spruce up your kitchen table with the Hulk vs. Wolverine Salt & Pepper Shaker set from the NeatoShop. This fantastic set is made from glazed ceramic. The two shakers are held together by magnets.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Salt & Pepper Shakers.
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How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit
You can’t fool all the people all of the time. But in in T. Mills Kelly’s class Lying About the Past, you can learn how to fool a lot of people once. Kelly is a history professor at George Mason University, and in this class, students learn how easily historical documents can be falsified, manipulated, and used to deceive the public.
The first time Kelly taught the course, in 2008, his students confected the life of Edward Owens, mixing together actual lives and events with brazen fabrications. They created YouTube videos, interviewed experts, scanned and transcribed primary documents, and built a Wikipedia page to honor Owens’ memory. The romantic tale of a pirate plying his trade in the Chesapeake struck a chord, and quickly landed on USA Today’s pop culture blog. When Kelly announced the hoax at the end of the semester, some were amused, applauding his pedagogical innovations. Many others were livid.
Critics decried the creation of a fake Wikipedia page as digital vandalism. “Things like that really, really, really annoy me,” fumed founder Jimmy Wales, comparing it to dumping trash in the streets to test the willingness of a community to keep it clean. But the indignation may, in part, have been compounded by the weaknesses the project exposed. Wikipedia operates on a presumption of good will. Determined contributors, from public relations firms to activists to pranksters, often exploit that, inserting information they would like displayed. The sprawling scale of Wikipedia, with nearly four million English-language entries, ensures that even if overall quality remains high, many such efforts will prove successful.
Last January, as he prepared to offer the class again, Kelly put the Internet on notice. He posted his syllabus and announced that his new, larger class was likely to create two separate hoaxes. He told members of the public to “consider yourself warned–twice.”
This time, the class decided not to create false Wikipedia entries. Instead, it used a slightly more insidious stratagem, creating or expanding Wikipedia articles on a strictly factual basis, and then using their own websites to stitch together these truthful claims into elaborate hoaxes.
The 2012 hoaxes didn’t turn out so well, as one didn’t gain much notice and the other one was posted on reddit, meaning that it gained more scrutiny than the perpetrators foresaw. The students learned a lot about the dynamics of the internet anyway. Read the entire story at The Atlantic. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: “Lisa Quinn”)
The Mickey Mouse Cartoon Banned in America
Mickey Mouse? Banned? You must be kidding!
No, I’m not. Mickey Mouse, that ultra-safe, conservative, harmless, beloved, world-famous cartoon character was banned -in the United States, no less. Or, to be exact, one of his cartoons was. The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Shindig was officially banned in America. But why?
Well, for one, in a scene in The Shindig, Clarabelle Cow is shown in the stable reading a book entitled Three Weeks.
Soon her date, Horace Horsecollar, knocks on her door to pick her up. Clarabelle quickly dresses, therefore she was technically naked while reading the book.
It was reported by TIME magazine in 1931 that the state of Ohio banned The Shindig because it showed a cow’s udders. While TIME noted that many moviegoers didn’t min viewing Clarabelle Cow’s udders, many others were very offended. That was reason number one.
Reason number two is a bit more esoteric (although equally ridiculous).
The book Clarabelle was reading, Three Weeks, was a notorious book written by Elinor Glyn, a British novelist and screenwriter who pioneered women’s mass market erotic fiction. It was Elinor Glyn who coined the word “it” to mean “sex appeal.” This was considered very racy and suggestive by 1920s Middle-American standards.
Her book Three Weeks was declared obscene and banned in Canada in 1907. It was condemned by religious leaders in the United States. How it came to be included in the Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon is a mystery to this day.
more …
Dramatic Lamb
While the creator of this video says the lamb is making that face because it’s shocked, the whole thing just seems way too much like Dramatic Chipmunk minus the audio. If someone was so inclined to remix this one, it would work great with the music as well.
Excuse Me Sir, But Your Trash Can Just Doesn’t Fit In
Yes, this is the most epic Mario-themed bathroom ever created. No, I still don’t recommend trying to crawl through any of the pipes in this house to go looking for extra lives and gold coins. All you will find is a terrible smell and tons of bacteria.
Oh, and just joking about the trash can, it just happens to be sitting in a bad part of the room for the theme to work. As it turns out, the rest of the room is decorated with Donkey Kong and Pac Man, you can see more pictures over at the link.
Link Via Geeks Are Sexy
You Should Certainly Let These 13 Sleeping Dogs Lie
Now that is a pooch that understands how dangerous high stress levels can be. Seriously, I only wish I could fall asleep so easily, but I guess that talent is for the dogs…or at least these 13 adorable sleeping dogs.
11 Cool Gadgets to Help Geeks Lose Weight
Let’s be honest, many of us are interested in losing weight, but it just seems so tedious. The trick is to find something that works with your lifestyle so you can maintain your interest. That’s why Weighthacker’s list of gadgets to help geeks lose weight is so useful for those of us with an interest in technology. From smartphone tools to laptop desks, there are some great ideas on there.
Of course, like any good list of gadgets, many of them are pretty darn expensive, so be prepared to shell out a lot of cash if you actually want to own everything listed there. Personally, if they could just find a way to get David Tennant in his role as The Doctor to travel through space and time with you while you worked out, I’d have 0% body fat by now.
Taste The Dark Side In Blk Bottled Spring Water
I don’t consider thick black liquid to be a tantalizing beverage option, unless it comes in a shot glass and contains about forty percent alcohol, but Blk Beverages Black Spring Water claims to be more refreshing than drinking a bottle of ink.
It doesn’t get you drunk, it gets you vitaminized, so here’s the scoop straight from the source of the darkness:
Blk Beverages Black Spring Water’s proprietary blend of Fulvic Minerals (a derivative of plant matter) are mined from a 70 million year old source deep within the earth. Naturally black in color, Blk Beverages Spring Water’s formula binds to the molecules of Blk Beverages pure Canadian Spring Water turning it naturally black, with no artificial dyes, coloring, or additives. Fulvic Minerals are critical in growth of plant life, helping the transportation and absorption of nutrients. Fulvic Mineral’s small molecular structure allows for the fast absorption of over 77 different trace minerals and elements, powerful electrolytes, antioxidants, and free radical scavengers.
Nothing like some free radical scavengers to quench your thirst. Mmmmmmmm!
Link –via Super Punch
Great Pictures From the Boston Comic Con
I know we post cosplay photos from the San Diego Comic Con every year, but while it may be the biggest comic book convention, it’s far from the only one. A few weeks ago, Boston held their yearly convention and the costumes are utterly delightful as you can see in this great gallery over on Geeks Are Sexy.
Wisdom Tooth Ring
Crafter, writer and Neatoramanaut Shannon Larratt made this ring for his fiancé’s birthday. It’s wrapped around a wisdom tooth that she had extracted 12 years ago. What a wonderful way to mark the advance of age and the insight it brings! Excellent work, Shannon.
How Toy Story 2 Was Almost Lost Forever
(Video Link)
While Toy Story 2 was in production, someone at Pixar accidentally typed in a command that erased the drives on which the animation files were stored. Most of the film vanished in 20 seconds.
A whole year of work. Just…gone.
This is the story of how Pixar employees rescued the movie.
-via io9
A Beached Whale in the Forest
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.
In the woods outside of Ushuaia, Argentina, you can find an enormous whale. It’s Adrián Villar Rojas’s mysterious sculpture entitled My Dead Grandfather.
Engraved Science Fiction Ring
Harpuahound, a member of the Engraver’s Cafe forum, made this wonderful ring with the TARDIS in the middle, the Starfleet logo on one side and (not shown) the space shuttle on the opposite side. Is the shuttle an Armageddon reference?
Link -via The Mary Sue
Neon Pegasus
Feeling down today, Bronies? This one is for you: Neon Pegasus by Parry Gripp (previously on Neatorama), who said "No matter how insane or ridiculous, you must follow your dreams ..."
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] to hear something about "genetically modified salamander with a face just like George Clooney"Spread your wings Neon Pegasus
And go flying through the night
They can take your glitter
But they can't take away your sparkleAnd the thousand arm robot octopus
Will try to grab your golden reins
But your wings are strong from the battle
Over Cupcake Mountain[...]
(Yeah!
When I first saw you defeating the Gummy King's
Gluten powered armada in the darkness of space,
I knew you were no ordinary pegasus!)
Terrifying Video of the Day: Mountain Biking Down 1,000 Steps
(Video Link)
The Red Bull Downhill race is simple enough: get to the bottom of the steps on Monserrate in Bogotá, Colombia faster than anyone else. Also: not die. Here’s a scary video of Marcelo Gutierrez’s descent, made all the more frightening by the fact that he didn’t win because he didn’t go fast enough.
-via Gizmodo
Watt Is Love
If you hate puns, you're definitely not Jung at heart. Via Know Your Meme.
Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet
Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet – $49.95
Attention Hello Kitty fans! Behold the adorable Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet from the NeatoShop. This fantastic plush pillow unzips to reveal a super-soft Hello Kitty blanket. The Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet is purr-fect for cuddling up on chilly spring nights.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Hello Kitty & Sanrio items.
off How to Make a Pizza Zoetrope
Andrew Salmone made this .gif after building a pizza zoetrope. He shaped pepper slices to look like individual frames a dolphin in motion, baked them into the pizza, then took pictures as it spun on a turntable. So the next time that you order a pizza, ask for one with leaping dolphins.
Censorship, Medieval Style
Before the era of Big Brother, censorship was alive and well. LiveScience explained how two censors took about their work in making sure that work critical of the church by Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus never saw the light of day:
In contrast to the newly discovered glued-up book, another example of Erasmus' writing, held at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto, reveals a censor who took to his task with an artistic flourish.
Published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1538 this book contains essays by Erasmus introducing the writing of St. Ambrose, a fourth-century saint who was the bishop of Milan.
"It is one of the most exquisitely beautiful examples of censorship, with the offending passages obliterated using vibrant watercolors framed in baroque scroll frames with attending putti (an image of a male child)," Carefoote writes in his 2007 book. While the censor blanked out the prefaces by Erasmus he left the saint’s work alone. It's not known what Erasmus said that got him censored.It's also not known why the censor, probably a librarian, approached his job with such artistry.
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