Archive for July, 2007
Charley.
Charley is a cute and obviously well-loved cat who has cerebellar hypoplasia. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Reddit
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Ten rocks that look like faces.
These photographs of rocks that look like faces are pretty weird, but the last one is just amazing! Link -via Dump Trumpet
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Star Trek Analytics.
Matt Bailey uses Star Trek to teach analytics. In this example, he tackles the “red shirt†phenomenon. Part of his data:
* Yellow-shirt crewperson deaths: 6 (10%)
* Blue-Shirt crewperson deaths: 5 (8 %)
* Engineering smock crewperson deaths: 4
* Red-Shirt crewperson deaths: 43 (73%)So, the basic segmentation of factors allows us to confirm that red-shirted crewmembers died more than any other crewmembers on the original Star Trek series.
He then goes into an in-depth analysis, with the conclusion that red shirts are more likely to survive when Captain Kirk finds a love interest. Link -via Metafilter
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Hubble Captures Veil Nebula
The Hubble Space Telescope has caught just-released snapshots of the 1500-light-year-distant Veil Nebula, the remnants of a supernova, or star explosion, that happened a few as five thousand years ago.
The Hubble close-ups reveal the rope-like filaments of gas in the nebula, which resulted from enormous amounts of dusty debris plowing into gaseous surroundings. Thicker filaments of material result from viewing the supernova’s shock wave edge-on, while more wispy and diffuse views correspond to a face-on view of other parts of the shock wave from Earth.
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Stackapolis - Fun With Building Blocks
Follow the blueprints and stack up the building blocks in the allotted time; the timer runs out quick so clever placement is the key.
Link – via A Welsh View
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The Simpsons Handbook
Matt Groening teaches you to create your own accurate renditions of Homer and co.
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A Close-Up Photograph Of A Rainbow.
A beautiful shot of a rainbow at Skogar in Iceland. Link – via Arbroath
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The Wheel of the Innocents.
Beginning in 1445, this grate located on the outside of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) served as a drop-off point for the foundlings of Florence. This is what happened when a woman abandoned her baby here:
She turned the wheel. The child spun around in turnstile like a pack of
The Ospedale degli Innocenti has cared for over 375,000 in its five and a half centuries, and continues to help care for abandoned children today.
cigarettes at a 24 hour deli. Once on the other side, the child began a
short slide down a chute into "the basin of abandonment". On either
side of the basin kneeled two terra-cotta figures. For looking over the
basin was Mary and Joseph, the basin doubling as a manger. The child is
quickly picked up and brought to be wet-nursed. But for one brief
moment the child is Jesus himself.
The use of the wheel ended in 1875, but the idea itself survives:
Technicians [in Rome] are designing a high-tech version of the traditional
“revolving cribâ€, or “foundling wheelâ€. Half of the wheel will be
outside the hospital wall and the other half inside. Staff inside the
hospital will turn the wheel to collect the infant without seeing who
has left it.Grazia Passeri, the head of the Italian Civil
Rights Association, said that the first modern “foundling wheel†would
be installed at a leading hospital by Christmas. “We have to face the
fact that a lot of women simply cannot cope with being mothers or
become pregnant by accident or through rape,†she said.
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Haier WasH2O, No Soap Needed
Hurray for mad science! The Haier WasH20 is a detergent-less washing machine! It works by breaking water molecules into its OH- and H+ ions components. The OH- ions acts as the cleaning agent by attracting and retaining stains, whilst the H+ ions sterilizes the clothes.
Rumour is that it will retail in France soon for around €699 ($957).
Link [Product page - beware it is in French] – via Engadget
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Caption Monkey 3: Rabbit!
Image Credit: Mikkel Elbech [Flickr]
What is the bunny looking at? You, actually – yes, you who can win a free monkey drawing by Ape Lad of Hobotopia, simply by submitting the funniest caption.
Here’s the simple rule: write your funny but civil caption in the comment section (one caption per comment, you can submit as many as you’d like). You can also vote for whichever comment tickles your fancy. Difficulty: see if you can make one without a "Frank" reference!
Funniest caption will receive a free monkey – you name the monkay and Ape Lad will draw you one (see for example: the Neatorama Monkey, the whole Monkey! set at Flickr, and this cool YouTube clip of the drawing process). If you don’t win, but still want a monkey (or any other critter), you can buy one directly from Ape Lad (it’s worth it!).
Congratulations to L’elk #47 who won the previous Caption Monkey game.
Go to it!
Update 8/2/07: Congrats to Shawn #108 who won with the witty Casablanca reference by Humphrey Bogart:
Ears looking at you kid!
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I Wanna Grab Me Some ...
Yes, you can grab some Ässä candy, made by Finnish company Cloetta Fazer.
I wonder if it tastes like …
Found at Finnish Food Network – via serious eats, thanks John!
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How to Fold a Shirt FAST!
We’ve actually featured on Neatorama this a long time ago (but the link had gone bad) – and it’s so cool that I think we should feature it again: here’s a neat Japanese trick on how to fold a t-shirt real fast.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Chris!
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Most Frightening Ice Cream Flavors Ever
Who Sucks blog has what probably is the largest list of the most frightening ice cream flavors from around the world (okay, mostly from Japan, but that’s to be expected …)
This one is:
Fish Ice Cream
Something must smell fishy about ice cream flavored with saury – a saltwater fish popular in Japan. But there’s no worries about that with this offering from Kimura Shoten as the fishy fumes have been drowned out by liberal doses of brandy.
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Tiki Aquarium Case Mod
Bit-tech.net forum user "thechoozen" made this awesome Tiki aquarium case mod, and stocked the finished product with piranhas!
Link – Thanks 0v3rcl0ck3r!
Also check out Neatorama’s Case Mod: The Ultimate List page, now listing nearly 300 cool (as well as weird) case mods.
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World's Largest Ketchup Packet
Here’s the world’s largest ketchup packet:
Collinsville has partnered with the H.J. Heinz Co. to fill an 8-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide plastic pouch with 1,500 pounds of the tomato goop for a school fundraiser.
"That’s a lot of ketchup," said Tracey Parsons, a Heinz spokeswoman.
The company donated 4,000 glass bottles of the condiment for people to buy for $1 and pour into the packet. Proceeds will go to the Collinsville Christian Academy, which was damaged by a fire this week.
Link – Thanks David R!
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Matt Hoyle's Encounters
Neatorama reader Matt Hoyle told us about his new photography project, where he travelled across America to photograph people who have seen ghosts, monsters, and UFOs. The photo series, called Encounters, come with believe-it-or-not stories that are just as fascinating as the pictures.
This one above is Paul and Ben from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, whose story goes like this:
There’s Gotta Be An Explanation For This
I’m a ghost hunter as is my son here, Ben. We witnessed an entity known as a parasite, somethign that’s nonhuman and feeds off people. It was standing irght behind the shoulder of a fellow we were interviewing. It’s a very rare occurrence to actually have the entity appear right behind someone in a digital photograph. But you could clearly see it, it literally blocks out the wall behind it. Some say that there are different worlds all around us all the time. I think that’s one way to explain ghosts. Lots of people, places, times and things all kind of existing in the same spae. This is good old quantum electro dynamics.
Excellent photos! Check ‘em out here: Link – Thanks Matt!
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The Neatest Virtual Sky Simulators
Haha.nu has the rundown of the 5 neatest free virtual sky simulators: Stellarium, Celestia, WinStars, Open Universe, and StarCalc.
Link – Thanks kap!
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Wax Anatomical Models
"M" of Curious Expeditions wrote:
Recently, Curious Expeditions visited the Museo delle Cere Anatomiche (Museum of Anatomical Waxes) in Bologna, Italy. We are working on a short documentary on wax anatomical models, and so recieved permisson to take photographs there, as well as at La Specola in Florence, which has the best collection of wax anatomical models in the world. Our Flickr sets of pathological fetal skeletons, wax moulage and anatomical waxes may be of interest. Warning: To some these are works of art and oddities of nature. To others, they may simply be gruesome.
Indeed, if you’re not squeamish about these kind of things, the pics are intriguing: La Specola [Flickr set] | Museo delle Cere Anatomiche [Flickr set] | Dancing Fetal Skeletons of Bologna – Thanks M!
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Hypercolor Shower Tiles
Remember those the fad of the hypercolor t-shirt [wiki] that change colors with body heat?
Here’s something like it for your shower tiles: UltraBloom by Ultraglass, a "heat-reactive" glass that change color when you blast it with hot shower!
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Ben Dova the Drunk Daredevil
In 1933, Ben Dova (yeah …) the Drunk Daredevil performed his acrobatic act on the roof of New York’s 56-story tall Chanin Building without nets, wires, or camera tricks.
Links: YouTube clip | Article at The Human Marvel – Thanks J. Tithonus Pednaud!
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Forestiere Underground Garden
Forestiere Underground Garden (Photo Credit: Ron’s Log [Flickr])
In the comment section of our previous This Bold House post, Neatorama reader Laura told us about this gem of a home in Fresno, California: the Forestiere Underground Gardens, which was built by a Sicilian immigrant named Balsadare Forestiere.
In 1906, Forestiere spent 40 years building (using only his farmer’s tools and two mules, with no dynamites) a complex of underground rooms, passageways, and garden, complete with skylights and catchbasins for water. The garden has a variety of full trees and vines. It is now a historical landmark.
Why did he do it?
After a bitter argument with his father over the 22-year-old Baldassare’s future, Forestiere came to America to fulfill his dreams of independence and good fortune as a fruit merchant, only to tragically discover that the California land he purchased for agricultural purposes would be useless for such. To make matters worse, the staggering summer temperatures of Fresno, which routinely reached 115 to 120 degrees, tormented him.
Forestiere desperately needed a way to escape the crushing summer heat. He remembered the coolness of the underground cellars where he grew up and decided to excavate a cellar on his land where he could cool off during the hottest parts of the day. It was so effective in giving him relief that he carved a few more rooms. ventually he “moved in” and installed a small wood stove for cooking his meals and heating the cellar during the winter. While others in Fresno baked inside their stifling wood houses built above ground, Baldassare enjoyed the air-conditioned privacy of his novel underground hideaway.
Then Forestiere had an idea–could he get a tree to grow underground? He began to experiment. He built a planter from the hardpan chunks he dug out and filled it with soil he reconditioned. A skylight was cut at the top of the experimental room, and the tree then planted. He found that with the right amount of sunlight, water, and care, his
citrus tree would not only flourish, but would be protected from the frost.
Link – Thanks Laura!
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The Worst Prose of the Year.
The results of San Jose State University’s 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest are in. Jim Gleason of Wisconsin beat out thousands of entrants for the honor of having written the worst opening sentence for a novel. Here’s his entry:
Gerald began–but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them “permanently” meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash–to pee.
The runners-up and the winners in various subcategories are also amazingly convoluted. The contest has been held every year since 1982, and was named in honor of notoriously bad writer Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Link
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Cannes Lions Winners
A set of outdoor ads by Fischer America Comunicacao Total in Sao Paulo, Brazil, made for Panasonic, won the 2007 Bronze Lion awards for advertising. The piece, for a wireless DVD Theatre System, is captioned “Wires are Under Extinction.”
Find more “Neatverts” (cool blog name for Alex) at Cannes Lions 2007.
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The Famous One Log House
The Famous One Log House was built from a tree from the Bronze age!:
It was hollowed out in 1946 from a single log that came from a 2100 year old redwood tree.
More photos: Link
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The LEGO Bluesmobile
Found at The Brothers Brick
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Tuttle Kids Play El Cumbanchero
Wow! Here are the Tuttle kids (Michael, Sullivan and Molly) play El Cumbanchero on mandolin and guitars.
Hit “Play” or follow the link to the Youtube video: Link
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Little People
Etsy seller Kezzaroo is selling these handmade, felt plush toys she called “Little People”. She’s a bit obsessed with The A Team, as you can see.
Please go on and check pit my favourite one: William Wallace, complete with a cute little kilt and face makeup.
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Man Walks Free After Sheep Refuses to Testify
A dutch man was taken to court for having sex with a sheep, but walked away free after the animal was unable to testify!
Under Dutch law, bestiality is not a crime unless it can be proved the animal did not want to have sex. The sheep couldn’t take to the stand to testify it didn’t want to have sex and that it had suffered emotional stress. As a result the case was thrown out of court.
The ministy of justice is planning to change the laws to make bestiality a criminal offence.
Link – via A Welsh View
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Private island in Maine for sale on eBay
A gift for the person who has everything, perhaps?
Your own private deserted island, 16+ acres with 1+ miles of Maine open ocean coastline.
The island has been in my family since 1970. My elderly parents are trying to sell it so they can finally retire! Check it out on eBay!
The town of Machias is on the Maine coast appx. 50 miles from the border of the US and New Brunswick at Calais. The island is off Machiasport, a peninsula that juts southward into the ocean from Machias.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me or leave comments here.
(photo of my niece Willamina)
Link at eBay. More pics on Flickr.
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Galileo's Middle Finger.
It sits in a small glass egg atop an inscribed marble base in the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, or the History of Science Museum in Florence, Italy. . . . The finger was removed by one Anton Francesco Gori on March 12, 1737, 95 years after Galileo’s death. Passed around for a couple hundred years it finally came to rest in the Florence History of Science Museum.
— Curious Expeditions via Kircher
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