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It seems like there are many different ways to "carry" chickens around the world. This one is from Ecuador, where apparently you need to don some sort of weird mask and gorilla pants.
Jeff Simmermon of And I Am Not Lying, For Real blog has a neat article on the 10 strangest spider-man incarnations. This one above is the Spider-Man Ganesha [wiki], which I suppose, is big in India.
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DNA Worldwide is selling a (controversial) kit that supposedly can test the sex of an unborn baby at just six weeks.
Naturally, some people are concerned:
The kit, sold by DNA Worldwide for £189, is controversial. Critics claim it may prompt parents to abort if they are unhappy with the test result.
The company rejected these claims, saying the early results, obtained from a finger-prick of blood, allow parents more time to plan for their baby.
Link – Thanks David R!
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A dill pickle, marinated in double-strength Kool-Aid for a week. That’s a Kool-Aid pickle, and children of the Mississippi Delta love the sweet and sour taste. Link -via Metafilter
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USA Today has compiled a list of 25 Most Memorable Quotes of the last 25 years.
Here’s No. 2 "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" by President Reagan on June 12, 1987.
Links: USA Today | Webcast at ABC News – Thanks Natalie!
The Humane Index, a special website by The Humane Society, ranks the largest 25 US cities according how humane they are to animals (for instance, they take into account factors like whether people use cameras to "shoot" birds or do they just shoot ‘em with real bullets).
Link (Flash navigation is gorgeous, but a little tough to use) – Thanks Kiera!
This panel from illustrator Skip Williamson made me chuckle – check out more of his artwork and comic strips here: Link [Flash, with music on splash page] – Thanks Skip!
A two-part video featuring the compositions “Terra Aria” and “Concerto Rotondo,†performed by Giovanni Sollima. Directed by Lasse Gjertsen, who worked on this for the past five months. He has commentary at YouTube about how the video was made. Push play or go to YouTube. If you liked this one, see part two. -via J-Walk Blog
Think you know your political scandals?
Take this mental_floss quiz and see if you can match the political scandal to the city it rocked: Link – Thanks Will!
Comments Off Just how unique are you? If you’re one in a million, exactly how many of you would there be in China? Did you know? Here’s an eye opener, from Karl Fisch of the Fischbowl blog. Fascinating.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Carl’s Website – Thanks Robert Aronson!
Here’s something for the statistics junky: Statisfy.net by Warren Konkel and David Rappo, a website that allows you to see where your blog readers are coming from geographically, in real time.
The whole bit is pretty easy to do, all you have to do is register your blog and put a small javascript on the footer or header of your website. For example, you can see Neatorama’s Statisfy live stat.
Ah, gas prices … do you still remember when gas is about a buck fifty a gallon? Those were the good ol’ days. Nostalgic chart brought to you by Gas Buddy, a website where you can (try to) find cheap gas. Link – Thanks Carrie B!
Say hello to $4/gal gas soon, America! Link
I love Singapore! It’s truly a fine city (it’s clean and safe, thanks to strict, no-nonsense enforcement of the law – and yes, "fine" city because breaking the law will result in a stiff fine).
Like any country, Singapore has many "weird" laws – here’s a summary: Link – Thanks Zaini!
OUPblog is asking the question: who would you pick as America’s favorite fictional culinary icon? Ronald McDonald? Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, or Betty Crocker?
Link – Thanks Kate Klenfner!
Amazon.com is running a contest to see which towns in America, on a per capita basis, are pre-ordering the most copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.
Towns in Virginia are currently dominating the top of the chart. Link – via kottke.org
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Headless Historicals â„¢ are reworked dolls that were inspired by characters throughout history who died in rather horrible ways. Each doll is dressed according to how they might have appeared during the peak of their success, while their bodies display the manner in which they died.
Link -via J-Walk Blog
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This week’s collaboration with What is It? Blog brings us this mysterious object. Check out What is It? for clues.
Because I missed two weeks’ worth of games, let’s do this: First one to guess correctly and funniest guess win Free Neatorama T-Shirts (so total 2 winners).
Place your guess in the comment section – do not post any URL, let others play, please!
Update 5/11/07: Ha! No one got it right – here’s the answer:
I didn’t know that there was a need for such a product, but apparently when milking cows, serious eye injury can occur from the switching of the cow tail. The device below is a cow tail holder, when in use the larger end clamps to the leg and the other end attaches to the tail.
It was patented in 1891, number 444,428, over 100 other patents for a wide range of contraptions that perform the same task can be found on Google patents.
According to this site, the inventor of a cow tail holder estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 milkmaids or milkmen received severe eye injuries each year.
Safe Work Practices on a Dairy Farm has more information on the risks and dangers of dairy farming.
Funniest comment winner: Beth #63. It was the photoshop job that did it! – congrats!
| The following is an article from Bathroom Readers’ Institute 13th edition Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.
HistoryThe sentiment expressed in Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” has probably been around as long as there have been things to go wrong. In 1786, for example, Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an men gang aft a-gley [are prone to go awry].” But the official Murphy’s Law is much more recent. In fact, it’s barely 50 years old. [50 when the book was first printed, now it is almost 60 years old - Ed.] Hot Seat
In 1949, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of tests on the effect of rapid deceleration on pilots, so they could get a better The harness was the invention of an Air Force captain named Edward A. Murphy … but the 16 individual sensors were installed by someone else. Brake Down
When Murphy examined the harness to see what had gone wrong, he discovered that the technician who had installed the sensors had wired every single one of them backward. Because of a simple human error, Stapp’s life had been put at risk in vain. There are varying accounts of what Murphy said next – he may have cursed out the technician responsible for the mistake, saying “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.” Whatever he said originally, at a press conference a few days later Stapp quoted him as having said, “If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way.” Within months, this expression had became known throughout the aerospace industry as “Murphy’s Law.” First VictimThis first version of Murphy’s Law might never have become known beyond the participants of Project MX981 had it not been a very sound design and engineering principle. The sensors in Murphy’s harness failed not just because they had been installed backward, but also because they were capable of being installed backward. Had they been designed so they could only be installed one way – the correct way – they would never have failed in the first place. A few days later, Murphy himself redesigned the sensors so that they could only be installed one way, and the problem never came up again. (Murphy’s Law is why two-pronged electrical plugs are now designed with one prong slightly larger than the other – so they can be plugged in the proper way.) Murphy’s Law became a popular principle throughout the aerospace industry, and from there it spread to the rest of the world. But as it spread it also evolved into the popular, more pessimistic form, “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.” The Science of Murphy’s LawSince 1949, any number of permutations of Murphy’s Law have arisen, dealing with subjects as diverse as missing socks and buttered bread falling to the floor. As the BRI’s own research has shown us, some of these laws are grounded in very solid science:
Zappa’s Law and Other Facts of LifeHere are some other immutable laws of the universe to consider:
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.
The 13th book in the series by the Bathroom Reader’s Institute has 504-all new pages crammed with fun facts, including articles on the biggest movie bombs ever, the origin and unintended use of I.Q. test, and more. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!
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Wendy McClure of Candyboots has a neat collection of diet recipe cards from the 1970s, featuring food like chilled celery log and frankfurther spectacular. Yum! Link – Thanks Jennifer!
Photo: Life Style Auctions, HO.
You’re looking at the "Arco Valley Pearl," which at 575-carat and 3.1 inches in length is the largest natural pearl in the world.
The pearl, which once belonged to the descendant of Chinese Kings, Genghis Khan, and even Marco Polo, is being auctioned. If you have a spare $8 million you can buy it for yourself.
Artist Howard Hallis has created (another) giant Picture of Everything, featuring what seems like every single cartoon characters known to man. Link | The History of PoE – via Papelera 21
Alex wrote to us on how to make a tripod out of … string!
This is an old photographers trick – here is my design. Sometimes referred to as a string tripod or string bipod or string monopod. Also known as a chain tripod, bipod, etc… This device is used to stabilize a camera in order to get clearer pictures at a slow shutter speed. With more and more digital cameras coming out with vibration reduction or image stabilization systems, the string tripod has a new life.
Link – Thanks Alex!
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A clever map illustrating the various "islands" of online communities, done by Randall Munroe of xkcd: Link – Thanks Kingsley Boey!
Backspace Float and Unfold are two creative short videos (about floating typography and unfolding graphics in an urban setting) that you’ve got to see. Clever effect, that’s for sure.
Hit play or go to Links: Backspace Float [YouTube] | Backspace Unfold [YouTube] – Thanks özi!
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I’m late at posting this Bizarro comic panel but it’s too funny to pass up! For more Bizarro goodness, check out Dan Piraro’s website here: Link
Well… For non-believers it’s just a plane firing countermeasure flares.
Found at Microsiervos
understanding of how much force people’s bodies can tolerate in a plane crash. The tests, part of what was known as Project MX981, consisted of strapping volunteers into a rocket-propelled sled, accelerating the sled, and then slamming on the brakes – bringing the sled to a very abrupt stop. The volunteers wore special harness fitted with 16 sensors that measure the acceleration, or G-forces, on different parts of their body.
On the day of the fateful test, a volunteer named John Paul Stapp was strapped into the sled and the rockets were fired. The test went off as expected – the sled accelerated to a high speed and then abruptly braked to a stop, subjecting his body to such enormous forces that, according to one account, when he stumbled off the sled, his eyes were bloodshot and his nose was bleeding. Stapp’s body is believed to have endured forces equivalent to 40G, or 40 times the force of gravity. But no one will ever know for sure, because all 16 of the sensors failed, each one giving a zero reading for the test.
