Archive for January 12th, 2007
Polar Bear Eats an Apple "Popsicle".
This ice block filled with apples provide the bear with both amusement and sport (plus it makes his teeth grow stronger). The zoo trainers leave this big blocks of iced food to change the environment and to make the animals play:
We also provide our polar bear with enrichment, or stimulation to her environment. This is accomplished by introducing new objects into her exhibit, scatter feeding, and placing objects in her pool. Examples of this are giving her fish or fruit pops (ice with food frozen in it), giving her large objects to interact with (barrels, logs, tubes, balls), or scattering treats throughout her exhibit. These activities give her both mental and physical stimulation. Visitors also have a chance to see hunting, swimming, and other behaviors that are natural to polar bears
See more bear toys here. Found in My Confined Space
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Fat Cat Caught in Doggie Door.
Meet Goliath, a 20.2-pound cat who has been stealing cat food from Jadwiga Drozdek’s house. The portly cat was finally caught when he grew too fat and became wedged in the doggie door!
Link (There’s also a video of the interview with the woman there) | YouTube Link
See also: Neatorama’s Top 15 Amazingly Fat Cats (and yes, Goliath would’ve made it at No. 14).
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Interactive Map of Dickens' London.
This interactive map of Dickens’ London is from David Perdue’s Dickens Page. A Dickens devotee can spend a lifetime here. Thanks to Lisa at the always-brilliant Exploding Aardvark for finding this treasure trove!
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"Tech-No" Says No to Tech.
From the website:
Joan Brady of San Francisco can’t even count the number of computers that friends have foisted upon her over the years. Laptops. Desktops. Monitors. It’s like they can’t help themselves. Like they just can’t accept her for who she is: a woman daring to live without a PC in the heart of Techtropolis.
"I just don’t need it," says Brady, a 52-year-old personal chef and party clown.
No, she doesn’t e-mail. And, really, she does not need you to call her and read the latest e-mail joke to her. She knows what she’s missing, and she’s grateful for it every day.
Call Brady a "tech-no," a member of a dwindling – some might say occasionally oppressed – minority who are resisting the worldwide movement to be constantly connected. They’re just saying no to the very technologies that increasingly are captivating most everybody else.
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
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Sara Lanzillotta's Stuffed Oddities.
Seattle artist and craftser Sara Lanzillotta is a fantastic doll maker who specializes in weird "mutant" dolls and other stuffed oddities like this two-headed deer.
I met Sara at the Bizarre Bazaar and actually bought one of her mutant deers later on. Link
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Nice Kitty.
People in Cali, Colombia, are shocked to see the bond between a large Ana Julia Torres, who runs the Villa Lorena animal shelter in Cali, fed
African lion and a woman who saved it from abuse, involving long,
affectionate kisses and hugs between the pair.
and nursed Jupiter the African lion back to health years ago after it
was found abused and emaciated in a traveling circus. "It is
amazing to see an animal like that be so sweet and affectionate," said
Torres. "This hug is the most sincere one that I have received in my
life."
Source has slideshow and video.H/t Craig
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Klingons in the White House !?!
Whaaat? According to Congressman David Wu (D-OR) there are *gasp* Klingons in the White House! And not just any Klingons, they’re faux Klingons!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Six Meat Buffet and Scribal Terror
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E.S. Posthumus.
You may not know about E.S. Posthumus [wiki], but chances are you’ve heard their music.
The music group, formed by brothers Helmut and Franz Vonlichten, has licensed many of its music to movies and TV shows. For example, there is one called "Nara" is heard every week as the theme song to "Cold Case" TV show.
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Black Rhino to Give Birth on Webcam.
Sita, a black rhino at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, UK, is giong to be giving birth and the whole thing will be on webcam.
Link (somehow, I can’t get the webcam to work on Firefox or on Explorer. Maybe you’ll have better luck) – via A Welsh View
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Jetpack for Bicycles.
Don Burgess invented a gas-powered propeller that allows bicyclist to hit speeds up to 80 mph. What could go wrong? Link – via Spluch
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Picodore 64, the Commodore PDA.
Here’s the Picodore 64, a Commodore PDA! Link – via Eduyayo
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Minority Festival in China.
From the website:
Members of a minority group perform during a traditional festival in Tongren county, in northwestern China’s Qinghai province January 8, 2007.
Link – via Random Citations
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Spam Shake and Other Outrageous Recipes.
From WildRecipes, here are some Utterly Outrageous Recipes. Take, for instance, this one for Spam Shake:
1 can of Spam
1 tin of anchovies
2 12oz cans of beer
4 oz tomato juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup chopped up parsley
1/4 cup chopped scallions
dash of Tabasco
salt (if you’d need it), pepper to taste
put it in blender and blend until smooth
serve chilled with celery stick
Yum! Link – via Miss Cellania
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Soccer Kid.
This is one of the best ads I’ve seen in a while – I won’t spoil the ending for you. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Say No to Crack
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What If Humans Eat Like Apes in a Zoo?
What happens if humans are locked up in a zoo and fed only the kind of things that our ape-like ancestors once ate?
Being locked in the zoo and offered bananas to eat is the kind of extreme diet scenario to wake some of us screaming in the night. But that was how a group of volunteers opted to try to cut their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
They set up home in a tented enclosure at Paignton Zoo, Devon, next to the ape house, in an experiment filmed for TV. The idea, says Jill Fullerton-Smith, who helped organise the trial, was that modern diets, often dominated by processed foods and saturated fats, cause
costly health problems.
Apparently, very good things:
Over 12 days he lost 5.7kg (12.5lbs), and reduced his cholesterol by 20%. His blood pressure also fell.
Despite nearly backing out at the start – the first day’s food arrived in a cool-box, was raw and he was distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of broccoli – he was converted to eating vast portions of fresh fruit and veg.
"I didn’t feel any loss of energy, I didn’t feel ill at all," he says. "It’s not a diet you’d recommend as a diet itself, but it worked to bring my cholesterol and blood pressure down."
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Zubbles.
The world’s first colored bubbles will be available this spring! Ten years of research has resulted in the creation of Zubbles, colored bubbles that do not leave stains. As soon as possible, I will purchase these and let you know how user-friendly they are. My kids will love it! Link -via the Presurfer
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World's Oldest Backgammon Game.
The Persian Journal reports:
The oldest backgammon in the world along with 60 pieces has been
unearthed beneath the rubbles of the legendary Burnt City in
Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran.Iranian archeologists working on the relics of the 5,000-year-old civilization argue this backgammon is much older than the one already discovered in Mesopotamia and their evidence is strong enough to claim the board game was first played in the Burnt City and then transferred to other civilizations.
"The backgammon reveals intriguing clues to the lifestyle of those people," said Mansour Sajjadi, head of the research team.
"The board is rectangular and made of ebony, which did not grow in Sistan and merchants used to import it from India."
He added the board features an engraved serpent coiling around itself
for 20 times, thus producing 20 slots for the game, more affectionately
known in Persian as Nard. The engraving, artistically done, indicates
artisans in the Burnt City were masters of the craft."The 60 pieces were also unearthed inside a terracotta vessel beside
the board. They were made of common stones quarried in the city,
including agate and turquoise," Sajjadi added.Experts still wonder why they played the game with 60 pieces and are trying to discern its rules, but it at least shows it is 100-200 years older than the one discovered in Mesopotamia.
I can’t wait for a picture of the board itself!
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Crying on the Inside.
Here’s this week Bizarro comic! For more, visit Dan Piraro’s website: Bizarro.
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Yahoo! Picks Neatorama.
Woohoo! All right! Neatorama made it as Yahoo! Pick of the Day recently. (Thanks for the heads up, Jo-Ann!) Specifically, Yahoo! Picks chose a category of the blog containing Neatorama Only content (exclusive, I suppose, because I wrote ‘em!).
This is a good time to thank Neatorama’s loyal readers and authors. This blog was started almost-year-and-a-half ago, on Aug 9th, 2005 with this post: Cool Optical Illusion. Neatorama now contains more than 5,000 posts within 58 categories and over 10,000 user comments – and growing!
In October 2006, Neatorama welcomed its first guest author, Miss Cellania. Shortly thereafter, Gail Hapke of Scribal Terror, Eduardo "Yayo" Fernández Quiñones of Eduyayo, w.y. of Random Citations, and Aleki joined in. In 2007, we have even more people join in on the fun: Anita of Say No to Crack, Rob Gale of A Welsh View, Spluch, and Denita TwoDragons (who is also the Top Commenter on the blog) of Who Tends the Fires. Juergen of Random Good Stuff also promises to write for the blog, although he’s currently busy covering the CES in Las Vegas. More on the authors here: Link
Neatorama also started having regular weekly "features," like the collaboration with the awesome folks at mental_floss, the Image of the Week with Cellar IoTD, the What is It? Game with the What is It? Blog, and the weekly Bizarro comic with Dan Piraro.
A big thank you is in order for the many blogs that have linked to Neatorama. This year, for the first time ever, Neatorama broke through Technorati Top 200 blogs (although it still has a way to go to The Top 100!) – It probably has an easier chance to make it to the Top 100 Most Favorited, if y’all just click here: Link
The blog’s server has undergone many upgrades – and if downtimes in these two weeks are any guide (sorry!), apparently we’re not there yet. I’m no server expert, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to keep a Dual Core Xeon 1.66 Ghz (3.6+) server with 4 GB RAM running Apache (it’s all Greek to me, by the way) alive during traffic spikes (within reasonable budget), I’m all ears.
All of this means nothing without you guys, the readers – so from all of us at Neatorama, a big Thank You reading the blog! Now, onto your regularly scheduled neat stuff …
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Study on Procrastination Finally Published 5 Years Late.
Somehow it’s quite fitting: a study on procrastination is finally published 5 years later than originally scheduled!
After 10 years of research on a project that was supposed to take only five years, a Canadian industrial psychologist found in a giant study that not only is procrastination on the rise, it makes people poorer, fatter and unhappier.
Something has to be done about it, sooner rather than later, University of Calgary professor Piers Steel concludes. His 30-page study is in this month’s peer-reviewed Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association.
In 1978, only about 5 percent of the American public thought of themselves as chronic procrastinators. Now it’s 26 percent, Steel said.
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Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store.
Neatorama reader Jeff Simmermon told us about the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store:
The store itself claims to sell all manner of super-equipment, including canned chaos, an apprehended mini-blob, various grappling hooks and secret identity products. They offer capes in all colors and even have a cape-testing area where you can stand on a steel grate and flick a switch that powers several fans, causing said capes to furl and flutter.
Like superheroes, even the store has a secret identity:
The store itself is a cover for the 826NYC program, a nonprofit that offers free homework help to kids between the ages of 6 and 18. White-hot literary superstars Sarah Vowell and Dave Eggers are on 826’s board. The 826 program itself is an outgrowth of McSweeney’s, and their brand of bone-dry hipster comedy permeates the place. Proceeds from the sale of superhero equipment and memorabilia fund the 826 program. The store also sells a full complement of McSweeney’s-related releases including Eggers’ latest book, recent issues of The Believer, and pretty much anything the McSweeney’s press has cranked out.
Link | Flickr [photoset] | Brooklyn Superhero Supply website (just a splash page – sadly, no real content) – Thanks Jeff Simmermon!
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Giant Minesweeper in Pixelblocks.
Here’s an awesomely large 6 ft. tall minesweeper [wiki], made with 38,240 pixelblocks!
Link [Flickr] – Thanks Buzz!
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Orange Julep Restaurant.
Neatorama reader AC told us of this strange roadside restaurant called the Orange Julep in Montreal, Canada:
In terms of roadside attractions, the Orange Julep is Montreal’s crowning glory. It was built in the 1940s by a gastronomic visionary named Hermas Gibeau. Apparently, he intended to live in the three-storey sphere with his wife and kids, while the counter below did a brisk trade in his already-popular foamy citrus beverage. This was in the heyday of car culture, before the Décarie expressway was considered one of the worst urban planning fiascos in the city’s history. …
Ugly as its surroundings may be, for more than 60 years the bright orange ball has successfully beckoned to the thirsty and the hungry.
Link | Photo [Flickr] – Thanks AC!
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Defend-Ear of the Magic Kingdom.
This Mickey Mouse jedi master collectible is billed as the "Defend-ear" of the Magic Kingdom. Ah, *chuckle*.
Link
– Thanks Tiffany Hamill!
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Scott Arsenault and Cynthia Petrovic's Red Tango.
Cute cats, hip music, and cool animation – what more could you ask for? Here’s a nifty animation by Scott Arsenault and Cynthia Petrovic with music by the Royal Crown Revue.
Link – via Aniboom, Thanks Ben Heartless!
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Knockman Plays Music By Banging on Own Head.
Knockman (and friends or is it Knockmen?) are cut little toys that make music by pounding its own head after you wind it up. You can even "daisy chain" a few Knockmen to pound one another’s head! Link – Thanks Harrison Jordan!
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Neatorama Welcomes Robert Gale of A Welsh View!
I’d like to welcome a new guest author for Neatorama, Rob Gale of the famous blog A Welsh View (and his new venture Peculiarosities).
Rob’s an expert at all things strange, cool, and interesting – if it’s happenin’ on the Internet, you can bet that it’s on his blogs. It’s a pleasure to welcome Rob to Neatorama.
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