The 6 Creepiest Comic Book Characters of All Time
Not all comic book chracters are loveable or honorable, or even fathomable. The comics wouldn’t be interesting is they were! But some are so over the top, they’ve made Cracked’s list of the six creepiest. Pictured is a character called Inner Child from Doom Patrol. It’s not even number one! Link
The Traveler’s Guide to Nuclear Weapons
Have you ever considered planning your vacation around the places that made nuclear history?
The Traveler’s Guide to Nuclear Weapons illustrates 160 important homes, offices, laboratories, factories, mills, and bomb detonation sites in the United States. Scaled maps, photos, tour schedules, and site telephone numbers provide atomic tourists with all they need to visit these historic locations, vicariously or in person.
Link -via Everlasting Blort
(image: National Archives)
Is $120 Oil Actually Good For Us?
Sure the price of gas is hurting a lot of us right now, but there are some that say $120 oil is actually good for consumers in the long run:
"Nobody at Goldman Sachs wants to see a fuel truck pull up and say "Ok, here’s your 60,000 gallons of gasoline,’" said Michael Cosgrove, president of the commodities brokerage Amerex Brokers, which handles transactions for both banks and end users of oil like refineries. "Ultimately, it’s the consumer."
Which is one reason why $120 oil is necessary - to limit demand in a supply-constrained world.
"I think the market is working," said Joseph Stanislaw, an independent energy adviser at the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche. "It forces us to make decisions as individual consumers that will change our behavior. It needs to be done."
NY Times Crossword Drawings by Emily Jo Cureton
Emily Jo Cureton has a fantastic blog featuring her NY Times Crossword Drawings. These are illustrations inspired by the daily New York Times crossword puzzle, where she cleverly incorporates two or more answers from the puzzle in her art!
Suffering From P.D. (Projectile Dysfunction)?
Attention gamers: do you have a hard time firing? Perhaps you’re suffering from a medical condition called P.D. (Projectile Dysfunction). But worry not, there is a cure: Stroyent (humanifil killemal).
Here’s the viral ad from Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Stroyent website - via AdFreak
Quote: Oscar Wilde on Cynics
"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
- Oscar Wilde, author and playwright
Flower Girls by Elsita
Artist Elsa "Elsita" Mora created these fantastic (and cute to boot!) sculptures out of bits and pieces of flowers and leaves, called
"Flower Girls."
Check out many more examples at her blog: Link - via ohdeeoh
American Burger Drink Coaster
UK online retailer drinkstuff.com has this clever drink coaster set shaped like an "American burger" (I suppose us Yanks just call it "burger"). The buns, tomato, meat patty, cheese, and lettuce all function as drink coasters, and when you’re done - stack ‘em all up like a burger!
Link - via I Like Totally Love It, thanks Malte Goesche!
Baby Face Tile
This creepy (but kind of neat - in a creepy way) baby face tile is made from clay by Sue Kniffin Davidson.
You can check out her other "baby" ceramic sculptures (don’t miss the baby face planter) at her Etsy shop: Link - Thanks lilydustbin!
Le Train de Nulle Part, A Novel Written Without Verbs
Le Train de Nulle Part (The Train From Nowhere) is a 233-page French novel written by Michel Thaler. It is written without a single verb.
Sample (from Wikipedia):
Quelle aubaine ! Une place de libre, ou presque, dans ce compartiment. Une escale provisoire, pourquoi pas ! Donc, ma nouvelle adresse dans ce train de nulle part : voiture 12, 3ème compartiment dans le sens de la marche. Encore une fois, pourquoi pas ?
Fool’s luck! A vacant seat, almost, in that train. A provisional stop, why not? So, my new address in this nowhere train: car 12, 3rd compartment, forward. Once again, why not?
Thaler said this about verbs: "The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers. You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish. Take away the verbs and the language speaks for itself." (Source)
Part 2 -or Not!
The Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss tests your knowledge of movie sequels. There are 12 sequels, but only six of them are real. Can you decide which one are the fakes? I only scored 50% on this one, well below the average. Link
What Is It? Game 61
Yay! It’s time for this week’s collaboration with What is it? Blog: can you guess what this strange spiky tool is for?
Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL (let others play). You’re playing for fun and bragging rights only today, folks!
For more clues, check out What is it? blog. Oh, and Miss C, it’s NOT an instrument of torture, mmkay? 
Ancient Theaters
ProTraveller looks at 17 theaters and auditoriums that survive from ancient times.
It’s hard to believe that some of these theatres are close to 3,000 years old, and it’s amazing that they’re even still standing. The amount of engineering knowledge that our ancient ancestors had developed is just as mesmerising especially when some of these auditoria rival present-day outdoor theatres in terms of acoustic properties.
On the one hand, it’s difficult to imagine drawing such large crowds in times when there weren’t as many people as now. On the other hand, there were few other forms of entertainment, so most likely everyone went to every performance. Pictured is the Aspendos Theatre in Turkey. Link -Thanks, Andy!
Planet Earth
(YouTube link)
Take a three minute break and enjoy some scenes from planet Earth. Music by composer Jo Blankenburg. -via Viral Video Chart
Can I Park Here?
This sign confuses me. Does it confuse you? Submitted to ilovebacon.com. Link -via Geek Like Me
The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master
Esquire’s list of things every man should master contains some good advice, and some surprises.
11. Swim three different strokes. Doggie paddle doesn’t count.
14. Chop down a tree. Know your escape path. When the tree starts to fall, use it.
27. Play gin with an old guy. Old men will try to crush you. They’ll drown you in meaningless chatter, tell stories about when they were kids this or in Korea that. Or they’ll retreat into a taciturn posture designed to get you to do the talking. They’ll note your strategies without mentioning them, keep the stakes at a level they can control, and change up their pace of play just to get you stumbling. You have to do this — play their game, be it dominoes or cribbage or chess. They may have been playing for decades. You take a beating as a means of absorbing the lessons they’ve learned without taking a lesson. But don’t be afraid to take them down. They can handle it.
29. Understand quantum physics well enough that he can accept that a quarter might, at some point, pass straight through the table when dropped.
Sometimes the laws of physics aren’t laws at all. Read The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone, by Kenneth W. Ford.
30. Feign interest. Good place to start: quantum physics.
Link -via Gorilla Mask
(illustration: Leif Parsons)
Mallow Fries
French fries? No, this is candy! The fries are made of marshmallow, and the “ketchup” is strawberry sauce. I don’t think I could handle the cognitive dissonance of trying them out. Link -via Unique Daily
Secret to Getting the Job: a Firm Handshake
If you’re looking for a new job, here’s a tip: have a firm handshake.
In a new study, scientists put 98 students through mock job interviews with businesspeople. The students also met with trained handshake raters who, unbeknownst to the students, rated their grips. Separately, the businesspeople graded each student’s overall performance and hireability. The two group’s scores were then compared.
Students who got high handshake marks were also rated most hireable.
"We’ve always heard that interviewers make up their mind about a person in the first two or three minutes of an interview, no matter how long the interview lasts," said study leader Greg Stewart, associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Iowa. "We found that the first impression begins with a handshake that sets the tone for the rest of the interview."
Link - Thanks Geekazoid!
Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #1, Question 3 (Final)
Here’s the third and final Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt question you’ve been waiting for:
How many LEDs are featured in the Pimp Star Performer watch design?
Got all three answers? Then string ‘em together (all lower case, numbers are all in numerals) for the answer URL. Be sure to follow the instruction there to put your name down for a chance to win a Free Tokyoflash watch!
If you don’t know what this post is all about, I suggest you read this post (then hunt around for the second post). Good luck!
The Benefits of Big Bottom
Photo: Proggie [Flickr]
Got a big bottom? Well, take heart, as scientists found something good about that: it protects you from diabetes!
A type of fat that accumulates around the hips and bottom may actually offer some protection against diabetes, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said subcutaneous fat, or fat that collects under the skin, helped to improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar.
Mice that got transplants of this type of fat deep into their abdomens lost weight and their fat cells shrank, even though they made no changes in their diet or activity levels.
"It was a surprising result," said Dr. Ronald Kahn of Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism. "We actually found it had a beneficial effect, and it was especially true when you put it inside the abdomen," Kahn said in a telephone interview.
Link - via Dave Barry’s Blog
And yes, the sculpture above is by the incomparable Ferdinand Botero.
Bizarro Comic Auction
Neatorama pal Dan Piraro is auctioning off original Bizarro comic arts on Heritage Auction Galleries. If you love Bizarro, this is the perfect opportunity to own your very own original comic strip: Link - Thanks Dan!
(And the comic above, "Return to Oz" is so true: just ask any graduate student!)
Mazda Destroyed 4,703 Brand New Cars After Cargo Ship Accident
Automobile makers usually try to find the best way to build a car, but Mazda had the unenviable task of finding the best way to destroy over 4,700 brand new cars:
It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.
The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal — but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don’t belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?
The Japanese car maker, controlled by Ford Motor Corp., easily could have found takers for the vehicles. Hundreds of people called about buying cheap Mazdas. Schools wanted them for auto-shop courses. Hollywood asked about using them for stunts.
Mazda turned everyone away. It worried about getting sued someday if, say, an air-bag failed to fire properly due to overexposure to salty sea air.
It also worried that scammers might find a way to spirit the cars abroad to sell as new. That happened to thousands of so-called "Katrina cars" salvaged from New Orleans’ flooding three years ago. Those cars — their electronics gone haywire and sand in the engines — were given a paint job and unloaded in Latin America on unsuspecting buyers, damaging auto makers’ reputations.
Joel Millman of The Wall Street Journal has the story (and video): Link - via Look At This
Waterfront Park Time Lapse Video
Now this is a time-lapse video! Andrew Curtis stitched over 2600 photos he took in the Cinco De Mayo Carnival in Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon to make this neat video:
Shooting 1 second exposures every 2 seconds
A total of 2683 images in this video, played back at 12fps.
Shot on 2 consecutive nights. First night was the panning tripod. While we were shooting, a guy called me back about an ad on craigslist for his Peleng 8mm fisheye. We went and picked it up at midnight and brought it along the 2nd night, when we did all the still shots.
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via Ursi’s Blog
Hydrojump by Travis Pastrana
Photo: Travispastrana.com
Oh, to be Travis Pastrana: bored by motocross/supercross, freestyle motoX, rally racing, doing a double backflip and jumping out of a plane without a parachute, he invented the new sport of Hydrojump: basically hydroplaning and then launching a bike off a floating ramp.
By late afternoon we headed back to the Hydrojump and Jim was ready to get this one over with. He geared up and let 'er rip! The tricky part on this one was the run up, there was a 90 degree turn at the top of the hill you came down then you had to line up with not a lot of time to hit the water after the 90, also having to keep your momentum for a great amount of speed to reach the ramp, not to mention it had been rain off and on all day and it was slick as heck! A lot to think about as your coming up to a 110 foot long hydroplane off a 4 foot wide freestyle ramp. Just thread the needle boys!
They're still looking for that bike at the bottom of the lake. Link: Travis' website | Gallery at Autoblog | Youtube clip at Didn't You Hear...
Cigarette Smoking is Good … for Birds!
Photo: Brian Klaus
Cigarette smoking may be bad for your health, but it's great for the wildlife! Brian Klaus of Nothing Else Better To Do Than Read This Blog wrote:
I opened the door and went onto the patio to ask Gabriel what he wanted. I haven't been out on this patio since I quit smoking (I would never smoke in the house). I guess I prefer my patio on the ground.
Now here's the embarrassing part. I used to dump my ash tray into a trash can that was on the patio. I guess since I haven't been on the patio in so long I've forgotten to empty the trash can which is filled about 2/5's of the way up with cigarette butts. Pretty gross, I know. I'm a slob, I admit it.
Just as I was about to shout down to Gabriel I noticed the trash can and a bird that made it's nest inside of it!! I can't tell if there's eggs in the nest of butts and twigs that the bird had made for itself, but I don't have the heart to chase the bird away.
Link | And as you can see above, the first egg hatched! - Thanks Brian!
Bollywood safe sex PSA
Dancing condoms! [eBaums]
Quick Fix for Calvin and Hobbes Fans
I spend a lot of time lurking at Craftster because there’s always tons of cool projects to check out and get inspiration from. But every now and then I see something that just absolutely blows my mind. Like this embroidered blanket:
Here’s a couple of detail shots:
For more photos, visit Craftster. Prepare to be impressed.
All Photos by AMAZING Craftster user McBeth
How to Put Your Jeans On
(YouTube link)
This beats laying on the bed to get them zipped up anytime! -via Arbroath
Manbabies
Here’s a funny site where the heads of fathers are photoshopped in their kid’s place.
Link: manbabies
Baby Black Jaguar
He may look like a panther, but he’s all jaguar. A rare black jaguar cub was born a couple of months ago at the Huachipa zoo in Lima. The unnamed youngster is the third of this endangered species to be born in capitivity in Peru. You can see his faint jaguar markings in another picture at Green Expander. Link -via Fark
Correction: Jess left a comment and told me something I did not know:
Black jaguars are panthers. Any jaguar, leopard, or cougar who is born black can be called a black panther.
I had always thought a panther was a black leopard only, but Wikipedia says Jess is right!
See the rest of Neatorama:
