The Crazy Russian Hacker just reminded me that Halloween is only two months away. He stumbled upon the perfect party special effect when he added dry ice to a bowl of green slime. And I learned there is such a thing as slime powder.
The main effect seems to be that the release of gas from the dry ice is slowed down in the slime. This leads to nice round bubbles, sturdy enough to pick up at some points, and easy to see against the colored mess in the bowl. There are also cool-looking vents and eruptions. Looks like a lot of fun! You’d have to lay down some rules about playing with it if there are children around, though. Remember, safety is nubern prerty. -via Viral Viral Videos
Love Halloween and cosplay? Check out our Halloween Blog!
We're all familiar with your run-of-the-mill dog and giraffe balloon animals, but artist Masayoshi Matsumoto takes balloon tying into a whole new realm of artistry. Each of his intricate animals takes hours to complete and the end result shows that level of detail is absolutely worth it.
Amazingly, this is just Matsumoto's hobby as his real job involves chemical engineering. Right now he doesn't even sell any of his works, he just shares them on his Facebook and Twitter pages for free. It's amazing to think what he will do next and if one day he might consider doing this full time.
Here’s a list that will make you proud of your $200 Chromebook! Or at least happy that you never paid these kinds of prices. When you talk about expensive personal computers, they fall into two categories. First, there’s the luxury models designed with bling for conspicuous consumption. Sure, you can impress people with a gold-plated laptop, but why? Then there are the innovations of the past. An entirely new way to compute was never cheap, and certain models had a lot of research and development to cover, even though they seem archaic now. For context, when I was in college in the ‘70s, the school only had one computer, and you weren’t allowed to see it unless you were taking a computer class. There were three offered: BASIC, COBOL, and FORTRAN. But you could buy a personal computer -if you had the bucks. This one cost twice as much as my degree.
5. 1975 IBM Portable Computer – $19,975
If you’re looking at the price and wondering what type of incredible technology existed back in the mid-70s to warrant such an expensive price tag, know that the 1975 IBM Portable Computer cost what it did because it was the first “mini computer”. It wasn’t as portable as notebooks are today, but it was aimed at the scientific community, specifically researchers flush with grant money.
The self contained computer had a magnetic tape drive, 5 inch CRT display that could output 16 lines of text with 64 characters each, a cartridge tape hard drive capable of storing 204 KB, and a PALM circuit board processor. If you adjust its 1975 retail price for inflation, the IBM 5100 portable computer would cost about $88,000.
Calling someone a Beatnik in the mid-20th century was seen as an insult and a way to cast aspersions on their moral decency, since Beatniks were considered degenerates and being Square was seen as way more keen.
Parents freaked out when their kids came home dressed in that dark Beatnik garb, and many feared for their children's souls because, as we all know, Hell is full of poets and bongo players.
So moms and dads naturally didn't want their daughters becoming Beatniks, much less hanging out with that lowlife crowd, and they battled this Bohemian menace with the almighty makeover.
This video shared by British Pathé looks ridiculous by today's standards, since subcultures are now mainstream and "edgy" stores like Hot Topic exist in every mall in America.
So maybe it's about time for all those Squares to be treated like lowlife scum!
President Theodore Roosevelt not only practiced judo in the White House, he also became America's first brown belt. It was an accomplishment in the combined history of world leaders and martial arts not surpassed until a century later, when Russian president Vladimir Putin advanced to the level of sixth-degree black belt. (Putin's known for his vicious sweeping hip throw, by the way.) Of course, Roosevelt wasn't exactly shy about his hobby. He lined the White House basement with training mats, and he practiced with anyone who was willing to tussle—including his wife and sister-in-law. Once, he even brightened a boring state luncheon by throwing the Swiss minister to the floor and demonstrating a judo hold, to the delight of his guests.
Bears are the subject of many human myths and misunderstandings, and while it's still a good idea to teach people to stay away from bears for safety's sake we should also teach that bears can be gentle creatures too.
Case in point- a wildlife photographer was sitting by the side of a river shooting pics when a wild bear came and sat down right next to him, hanging out like the two were old friends.
This video will go down in history as the first appearance of the ursine YouTube star BeardiePie, who now has over a million bears subscribing to his prank video channel.
When sports accomplishments are recorded, they become history. No matter whether an Olympic gold medal winner ever gets an endorsement deal or not, even if he or she is later convicted of a crime, or they fall on hard times and must sell their medal, those achievements are part of history. That why we know who won those ancient Greek games that inspired the modern Olympics. A few names stand out above the others.
1. Leonidas of Rhodes: Not to be confused with the Spartan king of the same name from 300, this Leonidas was one of the most famous runners in the ancient world. Eusebius recorded that he won three different foot races in four consecutive Olympic games, making him "the first and only man to win twelve Olympic crowns over four Olympiads." This record was unprecedented; Pausanias gushed, "However, the most famous runner was Leonidas of Rhodes. He maintained his speed at its prime for four Olympiads, and won twelve victories for running."
There's a perceptible change in attitude when you meet a stranger in public for the first time with your child in tow, and lately this change seems to be working out better for dads than moms.
For some reason people are quick to criticize mothers for the way they're raising their child yet see the father as a hero for spending time with his kids, overlooking the same stuff they just criticized the mom for.
This comic strip was written by Chaunie Brusie and loosely based on her experiences, but as we all know parental experiences may vary, so there's bound to be a dad getting dissed in public somewhere!
If you should wind up where the wild things are you're probably going to be fine, and you may even get to party with those animals, but if you end up on Monster Island you're screwed! The kaiju there are ginormous and constantly rampaging, so if you don't stay out of their way you'll end up squashed like a bug under their floppy feet. And all that rampaging results in constant earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and stuff falling on your head, because those giant kaiju really know how to bring the house down with their ragers. So if you're looking for monsters who are in to parties, parades and dressing up seek the wild things, because the kaiju aren't good for anything but death and destruction.
Party like a beast in this WHERE THE WILD KAIJU ARE t-shirt by El Black Bat and you'll be the big monster in charge, but don't let all that power go to your head or Godzilla might come looking for you!
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
People who use the internet love cute animals and they love video games. Combining them is a no-brainer, but the result is better than you’d expect when a Jack Russell terrier named Twinkie, who loves to pop balloons, plays a life-size game of Pac-Man.
Watch him tear through the maze! Hello Denizen says this is the first of a series called Animal Arcade, and they’re taking suggestions at YouTube for what classic video game their animals should play next. Am I horrible for thinking of Frogger right away? -via Geeks Are Sexy
It's hard for kids to be brave when they're faced with scary things like shots, barber shops and flying for the first time, but they're able to get through it all with support from their parents.
For some parents support means holding their child's hand, or wiping their tears away, but photographer Aaron Sheldon lent his son support by letting him dress up like an astronaut:
“The first shot we did in the project came about as my 4-year-old’s idea when I was helping him get over his fear of the doctors exam table. He decided to act brave like an astronaut and then asked if he could wear his spacesuit to his next appointment,”
Aaron continues to set up photo shoots starring his brave astronaut son, sharing the pics on his website Small Steps Are Giant Leaps in the hopes that other kids will be inspired to face their fears and dream big.
Scientists aboard the exploration vehicle Nautilus spotted what looks to be a child’s toy dropped onto the ocean floor off the coast of California. No, maybe it’s a Pokémon. But what if it’s an infant child of Cthulhu? This creature appears to be a cross between Zoidberg and Barney, but it’s a live cephalopod. It doesn’t do anything in the video, but the commentary from the observing scientists is worth a watch.
"On that watch it happened to be a lot of geology folks or ecology folks, so a lot of the commentary was of course more like 'What is this thing, it's so cute!' and sometimes we have less of that when we see rocks," Samantha Wishnak, a science communication fellow aboard the E/V Nautilus, told Live Science.
The scientists on watch during the squid sighting also initially misidentified the stubby squid as a cuttlefish, which the squid is closely related to. Wishnak said the E/V Nautilus team was able to rule out cuttlefish, as the species is not found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. With a few other ideas for what the species might be, the researchers on board collaborated with scientists ashore and at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and MBARI, to identify the stubby squid.
While it's not a cuttlefish, it may be a cuddle-fish. -via Metafilter
Parties are unique social events that feel completely detached from normal life, since the crazy stuff that seems completely normal at a party sucks in normal life.
Staying up until 4 a.m. while singing LMFAO songs at the top of your lungs is fun at a party, but combining these two things in normal life will make your neighbors think you're on meth.
It's funny how things we find tedious and annoying in our everyday lives feel just fine in a party setting, with a little help from alcohol and friends, of course.
And while shouting, crowds and staying up all night can stress us out in normal life they have the power to de-stress at a party.
Illustrator Annie Erskine understands how magical it can feel to party down with friends, especially when we've had to deal with crowds, insomnia and crappy music all week long!
Only about 10% of blind Americans can read Braille, but that doesn't surprise me, because many of those folks became blind later in life (speaking as someone whose eyesight is failing gradually). The rising number of Americans with passports is not surprising, either, since you now need one to go to Canada and Mexico. From Bigfoot to baby names, from video games to politics, number crunchers have things to tell us about everything under the sun. Elliot Morgan has a roundup of statistics from a wide variety of subjects in this week’s episode of the mental_floss List Show.
Don't you hate it when you start a home improvement project only to run out of supplies, money, time or motivation halfway through?
This often happens because we've chosen a project that's too difficult or costly, or we simply didn't plan it out well enough and we end up getting stuck.
So before you start a new project you'll never finish you should check out this inspirational step-by-step patio and fire pit build posted by arl227, which was made on the cheap but looks like a million bucks.
arl227 walks us through every step of the process, from digging out the trench to laying the cinder block wall to slapping down the concrete base and covering it all with stone.
It's a great guide for those looking to take on an impressively large scale project of moderate difficulty, or peruse the pics and be inspired to get back to work on your own home improvement project.
How much is an Olympic gold medal really worth? If this were a MasterCard ad, the answer would be “priceless.” The amount of time, effort, and money that athletes put in to achieve one is incalculable, and that goes for their families, coaches, and support team, too. The fact that your name goes in the record books forever is the payoff that remains the same for all the different countries in all the different games, no matter what the year. But in practical terms, the value of winning varies between eras, sports, and nations. But what is the medal itself worth? For starters, it’s not made of pure gold.
Instead, an Olympic gold medal is made out of precious metals in accordance with the guidelines laid out by the International Olympic Committee, which leave plenty of room for interpretation on the part of the host. For example, an Olympic gold medal must be made out of at least 92.5 percent silver as well as a minimum of 6 grams of gold. Furthermore, an Olympic gold medal must be at least 60mm diameter as well as 3mm thick. Other than these as well as other guidelines, the hosts are free to make their own decisions when it comes to their own Olympics, meaning that there can be significant variation in the amount of precious metals used to make their gold medals.
However, the amount of gold in the medal is only one way of measuring its worth. There’s also the opportunities it opens to the winner. And the money from one’s national Olympic committee that comes with the honor, which varies from place to place. And the ultimate measure is the value of the medal on the open market. Some historic medals fetch astronomical prices, while sadly, some living Olympians have actually sold their medals to raise funds. Read about all these measures of worth at Money Inc.
David Lee Roth was one of the biggest names in the rock world in the 80s and 90s, and he definitely played a major role in Van Halen's success as a band.
But the split was hard for Dave, and his style, act and attitude didn't age well, so by the 2000s he was struggling to stay relevant, much less famous.
Which must be why he decided to pay over half a million dollars in 2002 to make an off-the-wall feature length music video called David Lee Roth's "No Holds Bar-B-Que".
The feature length music video didn't revitalize Roth's career, but it gave his hardcore fans what they wanted- hot women wearing revealing clothing, raw Rock 'n' Roll, and Dave jumping around like a madman.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the kung-fu intro, who knew Dave had hand-to-hand combat skills? (Video is obviously NSFW)
Apparently the video was never released to the public, and only recently resurfaced because Dave added it to his personal YouTube channel, so sorry the vid didn't get you gigs, Dave, but thanks for sharing this crazy gem with us all!
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
A great paradox, isn't it? Those movie scenes from future films they always show before the actual film is shown are called "trailers.” But why?
The first ever movie trailer was screened at Rye Beach, a New York area amusement park in 1912. Lou Harris, a Paramount executive, was quoted in the L.A. Times on October 25, 1966, regarding this historic incident:
“One of the concessions hung up a white sheet and showed the serial Adventures of Kathlyn. At the end of the reel Kathlyn was thrown in the lion's den. After this ‘trailed’ a piece of film asking ‘does she escape the lion's pit? See next week's thrilling chapter!’ Hence, the word ‘trailer,’ an advertisement for a coming picture.”
These earliest future glimpses were actually screened after the featured films and thus were dubbed "trailers.” Hollywood now calls these brief scenes "previews" or "previews of coming attractions.” “Trailer" is, however, still the preferred term in the industry.
This one’s for Neatoramanauts so confused and hearsetrax. Some kittens are just so adorable you feel you might die from the squee. But if you did, they’d be free to reveal their real personalities… which might not be so adorable. This is the latest from John McNamee at Pie Comic.
Kirby won't mind if you call him your lil' cupcake as long as you don't try to gobble him up, but don't be surprised if he wanders off to find some cupcakes and other sweet stuff after hearing this nickname. That little pink puffball can't help but think with his stomach, since it makes up more than half of his body cavity, but thankfully he's always super sweet to those who don't try to poke him, stomp on him or keep him from eating every treat (and bad guy) he comes across.
Add a tasty shock of color to your geeky wardrobe with this Lil' Cupcake t-shirt by miski, it's such a yummy design that your fellow Kirby fans will want to gobble you up!
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Bri Dow is going to have a baby. She enlisted the help of photographer Samantha Boos to tell her husband Brandon. Bri told him she won a free photo session. Boos took them to a nice photogenic park and gave them chalkboards, with instructions to write how they saw each other. You’ve heard this gimmick -they are supposed to turn around and show each other what their board says, and the photographer captures their reactions. Brandon got more than he bargained for! You can see the entire sequence of images in the Dow’s Facebook album. -via Pleated-Jeans
At one time, America’s railroads were king. It was once a very pleasant way to travel. You have more legroom than planes or buses, you don’t have to drive or navigate pr pump gas, and the view along the way is unique. But the last time I rode a train was in the 1970s, and I hear that riding a train now is as expensive as a airline flight and slower than driving. There aren’t many passenger trains available anymore. Wendover Productions looks at the reasons why.
Of course, it boils down to money and infrastructure (which costs money). Even freight trains don’t carry as much cargo as they should, but that’s a subject for another day. -via reddit
The 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City are often cited as the beginning of the LGBT rights movement. Indeed, the site of the Stonewall Inn is a National Historic Landmark. But there were events even earlier that fed into the urge for gay and gender-nonconforming people to stand up to the abuse and harassment that was so common. In San Francisco, the Tenderloin District was the area that was most welcoming to gays, drag queens, and transgender people, although “welcoming” was a relative term. Trans activist Felicia “Flames” Elizondo tells about about those days.
In the thick of the Tenderloin at 101 Turk Street, Compton’s Cafeteria became a popular hangout spot for the neighborhood’s queer residents, particularly in the late hours of the night when sex work was most active. “It was open 24 hours a day, and you could see everybody you knew and parade your fashion or your boyfriend around,” Elizondo says. “It was our social gathering place at that time.”
Around the same time, a nearby section of Polk Street was transforming into a queer commercial corridor, though mostly aimed at middle-class gay men. In 1962, a group of bar owners in the area formed the Tavern Guild—the country’s first gay business association—to work against harassment and protect their businesses from unwarranted police closures. Yet many of these same bars closed their doors to transgender or gender-nonconforming customers. “None of the gay bars allowed us in,” says Elizondo. “The mixed bars did, like the Body Shot, the Rendezvous, the Frolic Room, the 181, and Gene Compton’s Cafeteria. But the rest of the bars, they wouldn’t allow queens in if we looked like sissies.”
One of Elizondo’s earliest friends in the neighborhood, Ciro, was a self-proclaimed hair fairy, meaning he wore his hair long, rather than relying on wigs. “Ciro told us he was a ‘hair fairy’ because it was against the law to dress like a girl,” she says, though he showed Elizondo how to do makeup, rat her hair, and pick out the latest angora sweaters and skin-tight pants. “There were men who performed as female impersonators and dressed like women, but they had to go into the club looking like a boy and come out as a boy, or they’d be arrested.”
The riot at Compton’s in 1966, fifty years ago this month, was just one of several incidents in San Francisco that focused attention on the Tenderloin, but it was still decades before gays, transgender individuals, and other factions joined together to add weight and numbers to the movement. Collectors Weekly looks at transgender history and the various gender-nonconforming folks who lived through those days in San Francisco before and after the 1966 riot.
Hollywood is currently experiencing a philosophical split between those who believe in the power of practical fx and those who don't see the problem with going full digital.
Many of the full digital filmmakers don't think it's worth the time and effort to create costumes, makeup effects and props when they can just hire digital artists to fake it all.
But, as everyone who saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine knows, real props can mean the difference between a believable effect and a glaringly obvious fake.
Filmmaker Rishi Kane put this impressive supercut together to demonstrate the power of the humble prop, which should be required viewing for filmmakers who think digital props will ever replace the real deal.
Zzyzx Road in San Bernardino County, California, is famous for its spelling and for an awful movie of the same name. Zzyzx Road is named after the community of Zzyzx, which was once Camp Soda and Soda Springs. But why the name change? Road Trippers has the story.
Well, that's where things get a little weird. Curtis Howe Springer was one of those old-timey radio evangelists, way back in the day. However, he wasn't actually a minister of any kind. He was born in 1896 in Birmingham, Alabama, and spent much of his early life convincing people he was a doctor. He proclaimed himself to be the "last of the old-time medicine men", but the American Medical Association disagreed. They proclaimed him "King of the Quacks" in 1969.
Throughout his life Curtis also claimed to be a boxing teacher in the U.S. Army, the "Dean of Greer College" (a defunct/bankrupt school in Chicago), he was a rabble-rouser during Prohibition (he was in favor of it, and railed against "Demon Rum"). He also loved making up universities. Like "National Academy, The Springer School of Humanism, the American College of Doctors and Surgeons, the Westlake West Virginia College, and two non-existent osteopathy schools in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania and New Jersey." He sounds like a real catch. My favorite though is how he'd write his name on pamphlets for speaking engagements: Curtis Howe Springer, M.D., N.D., D.O., Ph.D.
You can see where this is going: Curtis Howe Springer came up with the name. But his story is both fascinating and outrageous, and you should go read the whole thing. -via Boing Boing
Jigglypuff is one of the cutest and cuddliest looking Pokémon, which makes him the most commonly underestimated Pokémon as well.
Because his hypnotic singing ability is extremely hard to resist, and even the toughest characters fall victim to his charm ability and fall fast asleep when he starts singing his Jigglypuff Song.
But metalhead THEoneNILS thought Jigglypuff's cute little song needed a heavy metal makeover, so listeners will start banging their heads instead of nodding off.
THEoneNILS wasn't the first person to think heavy metal when they saw Jigglypuff perform, and this video still wins the award for most ridiculous Pokémon themed mashup of all time.
Grocery stores are selling a lot of rotisserie chicken from their delis. You walk in and see them immediately, or smell them, all hot and spiced and cooked just right and ready to take home for dinner. Getting one already cooked saves you time in the kitchen, especially if you aren’t confident about cooking a whole chicken. And they are often the same price as the whole chickens you see at the meat counter. How can they do that? And why?
In most stores, the cooked chickens aren’t any cheaper. They just look cheaper. The per-chicken price favors the deli counter, but the per-pound price favors the refrigerator case.
A lot of chicken went into the previous sentences—14 to be exact, one rotisserie, one from the refrigerator case, from seven separate groceries in California, ranging from Costco to Whole Foods to a Middle Eastern market. After being prepared and cooked, the refrigerated chicken almost always weighs significantly more than the rotisserie option.
Our investigation into the rotisserie chicken industry reveals that it’s not as cheap as people believe. But it is a gift to the lazy and rushed.
Pricenomics breaks down the history and process of selling grocery store rotisserie chicken, and the results of their experiment, in which the staff supposedly consumed 14 baked chickens. Read the article and the results, but be warned that you may find yourself craving a hot spiced whole chicken before you finish. -via Digg
A volunteer Stormtrooper (which is weird in itself) has a hard time putting his past life behind him, but he soldiers on for the cause. The heat of battle is not a good time to have a moral crisis, so he deals with it as best he can.
This elaborate Star Wars fan film from Samtubia and Samgoma Edwards won the 2016 Filmmaker Select Award at Star Wars Celebration Europe. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Unless you grew up with parents who didn't allow animals in the house, or you're severely allergic to animals, you've probably gone through multiple stages of pet ownership during your life.
We usually start out small with a hamster, hermit crab or goldfish, a barely-a-pet pet purchased because our parents don't have faith in our abilities to care for an actual pet.
But we show them when we help keep The Immortal animal alive for a large chunk of our lives.
By that point we're officially hooked on having a pet, and we've matured so much as pet owners that we're able to overlook our animals perturbing and peculiar habits.
Let experienced pet owner and illustrator Sarah Andersen walk you through all the pets you'll own in your life, so you can either see where you've been or where you're headed as a pet owner.
Currently I'm on number 6 but the cute little guy is quickly becoming a number 7.
