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 Stonewall Riots in New York City, fifty years ago this month, 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 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.
Forget collecting, training, and evolving, your home is your castle, and maybe all you want to do is relax. But what do you do when you house has become infested with characters from Pokémon Go? You might want to call an exterminator. This woman uses her fly swatter.
This is a Dutch ad for a health care company. I don’t know what point they are trying to make with this video, but it’s kind of cute. -via Tastefully Offensive
He's a man, he's a bat, he's in the comics, the movies, video games, TV shows and some classic cartoon series, but who is he underneath it all? Despite his strong mind for facts, and incredible skills in the realm of deductive reasoning, the Bat has lost track of the Man. It's not just because he keeps changing costumes, and has nothing to do with those Dark Knight phases, but it may have something to do with wearing that cape and cowl for far too long...
Add some classic Bat-style to your geeky wardrobe with this The Triple Knight t-shirt by Scott Neilson, it's as timeless as a Rockwell painting and sure to spark some deep conversations with your fellow Batfans.
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!
Flies are everywhere, and even when we don't see them they're hanging around somewhere waiting for a chance to get at our food.
They aren't exactly subtle about their intentions either, and without hestitation a fly will land on our food right when we're in the middle of chowing down, making us wonder if the food is still safe to eat.
Well, here's the thing- flies eat really gross stuff like poop, rotten meat and toxic trash, and they vomit enzymes onto their food, or our food as the case may be, before they eat it.
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!
Research about social-situational odors compiled by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff
The Search for the Smell of Anxiety “Induction of Empathy by the Smell of Anxiety,” Alexander Prehn-Kristensen, Christian Wiesner, Til Ole Bergmann, Stephan Wolff, Olav Jansen, Hubertus Maximilian Mehdorn, Roman Ferstl, and Bettina M. Pause, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 6, 2009, e5987. The authors, at the University of Duesseldorf and several other institutions in Germany, report:
Here, we investigate how chemosensory anxiety signals conveyed by the sweat of humans (N = 49) awaiting an academic examination are processed by the human brain, as compared to chemosensory control signals obtained from the same sweat donors in a sport condition. The chemosensory stimuli were... administered to 28 participants (14 males) synchronously to breathing via an olfactometer. The stimuli were perceived with a low intensity and accordingly only about half of the odor presentations were detected by the participants. The fMRI results (event-related design) show that chemosensory anxiety signals activate brain areas involved in the processing of social emotional stimuli (fusiform gyrus), and in the regulation of empathic feelings (insula, precuneus, cingulate cortex).
Smelliness and Social Acceptance “You Are As You Smell: The Effect of Odor and Breath Odor on Social Acceptance,” Alan R. Hirsch, Journal of Breath Research, vol. 2, no. 1, 2008, 017001. The author, at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, reports:
Some people look for creative places on their body to get tattooed, so they don't end up with yet another MOM tattoo on their bicep or tribal pattern on their lower back.
For guys like these the nipple is more than just a torso accessory- it's a landmark for their tattoos to interact with.
So instead of having Where's Waldo emerging from some stinky part of the body he can just hang out behind their nipple, where he'll be safe from the Waldo hunters until his shirt comes off.
People may accuse you of being a ham for getting a tattoo around your nipple, but your new ink will show them you're actually King Ham, with the power of the mighty T-Rex guarding your pec plug!
Elmer McCurdy couldn’t catch a break, even after he died. Born in 1880, he was a member of a bumbling, inept outlaw gang who made three attempts at robbery. The first two got them a fraction of the loot, thanks to their own missteps, and in the third they robbed the wrong train! Then McCurdy was shot dead by law enforcement. Skip ahead 65 years.
Propmen from Universal Studios were at the Laff in the Dark fun house in Long Beach, California, in December 1976, prepping for an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. When the crew tried to move an eerie red mannequin hanging by a noose under fluorescent lights, one of its arms snapped off … and revealed a human bone.
The mystery of the fun-house mummy lasted for five months, when a positive identification was finally made, but investigators had guessed the corpse’s identity within a few days: It was Elmer McCurdy, an ill-fated train robber who was shot dead by a posse of officers in 1911 after a not-so-illustrious career.
The saga of what happened between McCurdy’s death and his eventual burial many years later is told at OZY. A more detailed account of McCurdy’s life can be found at Sideshow World.
Looking for some caviar or live crabs, but don't have time to stop at the shop or just simply don't want to deal with people? Then hit the vending machine instead. That's right, these are some of only a few of the totally weird products you can buy in a vending machine these days. If you're not in the mood for expensive snacks, then how about some fresh baked pizza or a baguette? This Thrillist list even features vending machines that sell beer and sausages, so you can Octoberfest like a pro.
We dish up more neat food posts at the Neatolicious blog
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