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Forget the Old Small Wang, here’s the New Big Wang Restaurant!
Link [Flickr] – Thanks Evan Rappaport!
With so many funny business names already on Neatorama (and very likely more in the future), I’ve given it a category: Funny Business Name
This funny ad is Eurostar’s "It’s Summertime in London." Found at Accordion Guy – Thanks Lee!
Sam Friday’s family pet is a little unusual: it’s a black bear!
Abby is much like a dog to the Friday family — just a little bigger and with wild animal instincts.
"I just remember, there’s always the wild animal in them," said Abby’s owner, Sam Friday. "Treat an animal like you want to be treated. Give the love and caring and they’ll give you loving and caring back."
Friday said he grew up in the country and always loved animals. He said he had a different bear for 20 years before getting Abby.
"It’s how it’s always been. I wouldn’t have it any other way," said Samantha Friday. "Who gets to play with a bear or have a bear wrestle them?"
See also: Alaskan "Bear Farm": Former Science Teacher Tamed Wild Bears
After reading our post on the business card Menger Sponge, Neatorama reader Melissa Goss told us about another crazy menger-stunt: Nicholas Rougeux of Mengermania is making a level 4 Menger Sponge!
Here’s his progress report as of Aug 5, 2007:
* 2.29% complete
* 29,623 of 1,296,384 units
* 3,638 of 160,000 cubes
Link – Thanks Melissa!
The Corning Museum of Glass is having a show called Curiosities of Glassmaking, where more than a hundred of "wonderfully odd and mysterious objects fashioned of glass, dating from antiquity to the present day" are exhibited.
This one to the left is an antique optical model of the eye, probably from 19th century France. (And below: method of preserving the dead by entombing the corpse in glass!)
Link – via Morbid Anatomy, Thanks Joanna Ebenstein!
(BTW, Joana is working on a travelling exhibition called Anatomical Theatre: Depictions of the Body, Disease, and Death in Medical Museums of the Western World)
In 1903, an inventor named Joseph Karwowski was awarded one of the strangest patents (yes, there’re a lot of them) I’ve ever seen: Method of Preserving the Dead by encasing the body in glass!
Link [Google Patent] – via the Curiosities of Glassmaking at The Corning Museum of Glass
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Farmers on the Isle of Ruegen, Germany had a bit of fun when they plowed a huge image of a pig (37,000 square meters) on a field!
Cute – but where’re the eyes? Link | Original Article [in Chinese] – Thanks Jee!
This lady in Moscow, Russia is absolutely nuts about cats! She loves homeless cats so much that she lets 130 of them live in her small Moscow flat.
Link (with Video) – Thanks Shirley!
I’ve been a long-time fan of Threadless and their business model that taps the unending creative genius at large. I’ve also been a fan of Blik and their take on adding a little fun to your walls… so to see these two getting together makes my inner creative child totally geek-out.
Blik has teamed up with Threadless, the ongoing, online tee shirt design competition, to create a new, continuously evolving line of wall graphics… Each month, the blik team posts some of our favorite Threadless original tee shirt designs and we want you to tell us which ones should be the inspiration for a new set of wall graphics.
I say weee to Double-Design-Democracy! Link
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What do you get when you dip a perfectly cuddly Teddy Bear into a pit of tar?
Artist Mattia Biagi has the answer – it is art. This one to the left is titled Tarorsetto.
Link – Thanks saving advice!
S.T.D. Contractors? Johnson Builder? This has got to be photoshopped, right? Right?!
Update 8/8/07: Here’s another STD: the Sligo Tool & Die Group – Thanks Justin!
Gene Spino created this sobering video clip about smoking:
This is an experiment without tricks nor edits. If you don’t believe what you’re watching, I invite you to try it yourself, so you can see the dramatic results for yourself. Can you imagine where the brown color has gone?
The stain is now in our lungs, and that was just from one inhale.
Image how a pack-a-day smoker’s lungs must look.If you’re wondering why I have a weird voice, it’s because I was a smoker, and now I need a device to speak to you. If you still don’t want to quit smoking, at least think about this: The lungs of our loved ones deserve something better.
Hit play or go to Link [metacafe] – via smoking-video, Thanks queso!
Photo: Samir Mezban/AP
As a follow up to the hugely-publicized New 7 Wonders of the World, Esquire compiled their own list of 7 Wonders of the Totalitarian World, after noting that it’s usually the deep-pocketed madmen who tend to leave behind the biggest wonders …
This one’s the Hands of Victory in Baghdad, Iraq:
For those who now find themselves wistful about Saddam’s Iraq, there are still plenty of monuments left to remind them of the good times. One of the biggest is “The Hands of Victory,” a pair of arches that constituted the military parade grounds for the end of the Iran-Iraq war. And what wasn’t there to celebrate about a trench war in which over one million people died and was declared a draw?
Neatorama reader Kevin Core submitted his super-awesome Batmobile (from Batman Begins) case mod, which, of course, we promptly put on Neatorama’s Ultimate Case Mod Page.
Link – Thanks Kevin!
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Kick off your shoes and relax with a tall glass of Ultraman wine. Also see the earlier post about the Pepsi Ultraman.
Link – via Plastic Bamboo
On fredflare.com they offer this Japanese kit that lets you create your own 35mm pinhole camera.
Assemble the heavy cardstock pieces without any cutting or glue, add a roll of 35mm film ‘n snap away. Item can be used again & again.
Link – via Retro To Go
If you thought the Hand Soap was too creepy, try the My Pet Fish Soap instead.
“My Pet Fish” Soap looks like the bag that you carry home from the pet store, but don’t be fooled…these plastic fish are not swimming in water, they are embedded in clear, vegetable based glycerin soap shaped like “water in a bag”
For places bookmobiles can’t reach, there are bibliomulas, as the BBC reports:
The idea of loading mules with books and taking them into the mountain villages was started by the University of Momboy, a small institution that prides itself on its community-based initiatives and on doing far more than universities in Venezuela are required to do by law. . . .
The book mule team is looking into high-tech possibilities as well:
There is already a limited mobile phone signal here, so the organisers are taking advantage of that and equipping the mules with laptops and projectors.
The book mules are becoming cyber mules and cine mules.
"We want to install wireless modems under the banana plants so the villagers can use the internet," says Robert Ramirez, the co-ordinator of the university’s Network of Enterprising Rural Schools.
Via Street Use
Dave Mach [wiki] installed this steam engine made from 185,000 red bricks at the Morrisons Shopping Complex, Morton Palms, on the east side of Darlington, England.
Was the Greek city of Helike the original Atlantis? Who was the historical Robin Hood? Why were Caucasian people mummified in China 2,000 years ago? Live Science has ten mysteries you may not have even heard of! Link -thanks, Melissa!
Matt Bailey of the Inside Track offers a detailed analysis of Starship Enterprise casualties, particularly those sustained by crewmen in red shirts, with a formidable Power Point presentation to go with it. Via Locusts and Honey
Enter your normal Starbucks order, and this widget will explain your personality. The problem is, I don’t have a regular Starbucks order. There is no Starbucks where I live, and when traveling I prefer to avoid chains. So I only order from Starbucks in airports, which isn’t often. The Oracle told me I am a boring couch potato who can’t even swear properly. Maybe you will have better luck. Link -via the Presurfer
Combine your passion with a purpose and become an eco runner. Take a trash bag with you sometimes when you run. See trash? Put the trash in your bag. That’s it. Link – via: diet blog
A 62 year-old man was suffering from chronic pain, and when medical professionals refused to remove his testicles, he turned to some mysterious “professionals”.
Police said a couple of weeks ago, two or three people operated on the man in his home; he was unconscious and when he woke up, his testicles were gone. So were the fly-by-night surgeons. Police found an improvised operating room in the man’s house, with bright lights, an apparent operating table, a camera and various medical supplies and equipment. There was also blood in several rooms of the house.
Since then, police have been searching for the people who performed the surgery. It’s illegal to practice medicine in Minnesota without a license.
Here’s a list of 10 real, patented guy-inventions. The illustrations are the inventors’ actual drawings, taken directly from the official paperwork filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
This is my personal favourite:
Albert’s Helmet-Mounted Pistol (1953)
Why should we actually have to hold a weapon in our hand? We’re guys. Our hands are too busy doing other guy things to be involved in a firefight. Our head isn’t doing much. So, thought Albert, if I just strap a gigantic pistol to my melon I can keep my hands free for more important things. As Scott notes in the book, “Once this powerful weapon has been securely strapped to the noggin, a quick blow into the firing tube is all it takes to… send a large-caliber bullet rocketing in a generally forward direction.” Not to mention cause severe whiplash and/or spinal injuries from the kickback of this monster.
Takashi Amano is a designer, photographer, and aquarist. He is credited with introducing Japanese gardening concepts into the aquascaping hobby; his aquascapes often mimic nature in their appearance, and can be regarded as a form of art.
Amano is also the author of Nature Aquarium World, a three-book series on aquascaping and freshwater aquarium plants and fish.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was the greatest scientist that ever lived. More than any other person, Newton was single-handedly responsible for laying the the groundwork in classical mechanics, optics, and even mathematics. Landing man on the moon? Don’t look at Einstein – it was all done with Newtonian physics.
Even though every high school student that has ever taken physics (should) remember Newton’s contributions, not many know about the man behind the science. For example, did you know that Sir Isaac was an alchemist? Or that, like Einstein, he didn’t have a very promising start? Or that he was obsessed with the Bible and tried to predict Armageddon?
Read on for more obscure facts about the life of Isaac Newton, the world’s greatest scientist:
In 1642, the year that Galileo Galilei died, Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas Day*. Named after his father, who died just three months before he was born, Isaac was a very small baby not expected to survive. His mother even said that Isaac was so small that he could have fit inside a quart mug. (Source: Isaac Newton’s Early Years [wiki])
*There is controversy about this date, some said that he was born on January 4, 1643. The discrepancy is due to the adoption of the new Gregorian calendar.
Newton was born into a farming family. When he was 17, his mother insisted that he returned from school to run the family farm! Thankfully, Newton was a bad farmer and not long afterwards, his uncle successfully persuaded his mother to let him attend Trinity College in Cambridge instead. (Source: Isaac Newton’s Early Years [wiki])
The story (popularized by Voltaire, no less!) said that Newton was inspired when he saw a falling apple while walking around his family’s garden at Woolsthorpe Manor, to formulate his theory of universal gravitation (some version even claimed the apple fell on his head!).
Newton himself actually said that he was staring out the window in his house when he saw an apple fall from a tree.
Purported offspring of the Newton’s Apple Tree in Woolsthorpe Manor (Image Source: Mathematical Association of America)
Whatever happened to the tree? The King’s School in Grantham, Linconshire, England, where Newton went to school, claimed to have purchased the tree and moved it to its garden. Naturally, this is a bone of contention with the Woolsthorpe Manor people who are currently in charge of the upkeep of Newton’s home (now a historic site). (Source: Newton’s Apple [wiki])
There’s no doubt that Newton was brilliant, but what is not commonly known was that the majority of Newton’s discoveries were made between his twenty-first and twenty-seventh years. Yet, he didn’t disclose these findings to the world until years later.
Take for example Newton’s work on optics: his ground-breaking experiments on the nature of light (that ordinary white light is actually composed of a spectrum of colors) were done by 1669, when Newton was just 27 years old.
Yet, he first presented his findings to the British Royal Society three years later, when he was elected as a fellow. (Source: Hart, Michael. (1998) The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History)
Newton’s secretiveness had led to many quarrels over credit. For example, when mathematician Gottfried Leibniz [wiki] published his work on calculus, Newton countered that he had invented methods for that branch of math many years previously but didn’t publish, thus sparking one of the largest controversy in mathematics: who truly invented calculus [wiki]?
Newton’s work, particularly the laws of motion [wiki] and universal gravitation [wiki], had been used by some people to argue against the existence of God. Newton himself, however, said:
"Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."
"This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being. … This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called ‘Lord God’ [pantokrator], or ‘Universal Ruler’. … The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect."
"Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors." (Source: Isaac Newton’s Religious Views [wiki])
In spite of his deep religious conviction, Newton was unorthodox when it comes to his belief of the devil, spirits and ghosts. He also assailed people who claimed to be tempted by personal demons as deluded by their own imaginations.
This might seem like a reasonable position for a man of science, but in that era, the reverse was actually true: most learned men believed in the existence of Satan, and considered Newton’s view as blasphemous. (Source: Snobelen, Stephen D. (2002) Lust, Pride and Ambition: Isaac Newton and the Devil. Link)
Newton also wrote a thesis arguing against the Council of Nicaea [wiki] and the Church’s doctrine on the Holy Trinity. Realizing that his position would not be accepted by the public, Newton never published this thesis in his lifetime. Indeed, it was released 27 years after his death. (Source: Isaac Newton’s Religious Views [wiki])
Newton’s note with the date 2060 as the earliest possible date of the Armageddon.
The Bible was Sir Isaac’s greatest passion – he wrote more about religion than about science and mathematics! Indeed, Newton calculated the date of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ as April 3, A.D. 33 and the earliest date of the Apocalypse as 2060 A.D.
Whether you believe that Newton is right or wrong about the end of the world, consider another one of his predictions that came true: that the Jews would return to Israel.
Newton actually did more than just calculate the date of Crucifixion and the coming Apocalypse – his obsession was trying to find hidden meanings in the Bible. Indeed, Newton learned Hebrew, spent half his life, and devoted much more time to this pursuit than to science. (Source: Armageddon Online)
Newton’s alchemy notes (Image Source: R. D. Flavin)
A recently rediscovered papers of Newton revealed his secret interest in alchemy (of turning base metal into gold) and that he wrote extensively about his experiments:
Newton’s alchemical studies were kept secret during his lifetime. The making of gold and silver was a felony under an act of 1404.
Newton was a creature of his time when many scholars believed in a philosopher’s stone that could transmute base metal into gold. They tended to record their studies in wilfully obscure language.
"Give me leave to assert as my opinion," wrote the man who identified the wave nature of light and formulated the laws of motion, "that it is effectual in all the three kingdoms & from every species may be produced when the modus is understood: only mineralls produce minerals & sic de calmis. But the hidden secret modus is Clissus (1) Paracelsi (2) wch is nothing else but the separation of the principles thris purification & reunion in a fusible & penetrating fixity," Newton wrote. (Source: Guardian)
In 1696, Newton became a warden of the London Mint and was given the task of stopping counterfeiting, which was rampant in those days:
He gathered much of that evidence himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. For all the barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law still had ancient and formidable customs of authority. Newton was made a justice of the peace and between June 1698 and Christmas 1699 conducted some 200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. Newton won his convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed. He later ordered all records of his interrogations to be destroyed. (Source: Wikipedia)
Newton was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1689 and served for exactly one year. During that time, he said one and only one sentence during the lengthy proceedings: he asked a nearby usher to close an open, drafty window! (Source: Michael White (1998) Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer)
