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This futuristic gadget made with a Post-It note and a straw will ensure you never forget anything again. If you’re the forgetful type like me, this could be a life changing device. Via Crazy home made innovations Original Link
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Slate has a mini slideshow about the spire, including an old photograph of Nelson’s Pillar and pictures of the spire being constructed and erected. Here’s the link at Slate.com. [The picture on this post came from Flickr user informatique and is shared under Creative Commons.]
Argentinian-born artist Cesar Saez is building a giant banana, to be filled with helium and floated in a geostationary orbit over Texas:
Basically, the banana will be constructed like a blimp. Filled with helium, it will float between 30 and 50 km up in the sky. It will have a semi-rigid structure made of bamboo and a skin made with synthetic paper. Thanks to extra load in gas and a valve system, it will keep its shape at all times. The final size of the piece will be 300 meters in length. The expected launching date is August 2008 from around Baja or Sonora, north-west of Mexico. The total costs for this project is roughly estimated at one million dollars.
Link – via [flasher] and Boing Boing
Photo: Carolyn Cole / LA Times
The Los Angeles Times has a neat article spotlighting "freegans," a growing subculture that promotes opting out of capitalism in any way you can, cutting spending habits, and living off consumer waste by dumpster diving for food.
For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store.
Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent. [...]
Nelson, 51, once earned a six-figure income as director of communications at Barnes and Noble. Tired of representing a multimillion dollar company, she quit in 2005 and became a "freegan" — the word combining "vegan" and "free" — a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste. Though many of its pioneers are vegans, people who neither eat nor use any animal-based products, the concept has caught on with Nelson and other meat-eaters who do not want to depend on businesses that they believe waste resources, harm the environment or allow unfair labor practices.
A jewelry shop in Suzhou, China has a way with gold: they put on display a giant gold ingot worth 1 million yuan (about US $133,000) to attract customers.
Link – via Born Rich, Thanks Pooja!
Co-op America Quarterly wrote an article about 21 things you may not know you can actually recycle. Take, for example, foam peanuts:
Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept foam peanuts for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 410/451-8340, www.epspackaging.org/info.html
Here is the complete list: Link – Thanks Dave!
Neatorama reader Rich B, who is driving across the US on a Great American Roadtrip (I’m so jealous), ran across Bud and Patricia Kenny and their mule Della in Kent, Connecticut.
Turns out, the Kennys are on a tour themselves – except they’re WALKING the entire way!
On June 22, 2001 Bud and Patricia Kenny with their mule Della left Hot Springs, Arkansas to tour the world on foot. They figure it will take them 15 to 20 years to complete this journey. Bud and Patricia were both 53 when they embarked on this adventure. Della was seven..
Link – Thanks Rich B.!
PS. I find it so neat that Rich has been sending me regular updates on his roadtrip that I’ve put all of these posts under its own category: Great American Roadtrip
Eat Better America brings us this Flash edutainment game called The Good Food Fight, where you can toss virtual food and learn all about how to eat better at the same time.
Surprisingly fun! Link [Flash] – Thanks t. scott major!
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Sergei Morozov, the governor of central Russian region of Ulyanovsk, has decreed September 12 as day to procreate:
Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergei Morozov has decreed Sept. 12 a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia’s national day — June 12 — will receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
It’s the third year that the Volga River region, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held the contest. Since then, the number of competitors — and the number of babies born — has been on the rise.
The image above is of Irina and Andrei Kartuzov in their new SUV after winning last year’s baby contest.
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
Just when I thought I’d heard it all: a McDonald’s employee in an Atlanta suburb was arrested for "salting" a police officer:
Kendra Bull, 20, is accused of the over-seasoning of a hamburger served to Officer Wendell Adams, who was reportedly sickened by a Big N’ Tasty burger served at a McDonald’s in an Atlanta suburb. According to a Union City Police Department report, Bull told cops she accidentally put too much salt and pepper on the hamburger, but since managers had been concerned about waste, she "had gone ahead and used the hamburger." A copy of the police report can be found below. Investigators contend that Bull dumped the excessive condiments "on the whole hamburger on purpose." Bull, pictured in the mug shot at right, was arrested on a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge, for which she spent a night in jail before posting $1000 bail. While the illegal adulteration of food served to law enforcement officials has been widely chronicled in these pages–from loogies to pot to kitchen cleanser–Bull’s bust is the first for such savory behavior.
The Smoking Gun has more: Link – Thanks Scott!
Luo Cuifen, 29, went to the doctor after finding blood in her urine. An X-ray revealed that she has 23 inch-long needles embedded in her vital organs, probably done by her grandparents:
Qu said doctors believe the woman’s grandparents may have inserted the needles long ago, hoping she would die and her parents might have a boy in her place. China limits most families to just one child, although rural Chinese may be allowed to have a second if their first is a girl, subject to the payment of fines.
It wasn’t clear whether further investigations into the case were planned, with media reports saying Luo’s grandparents had already died.
Link – via Boing Boing
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Here’s an old photography trick: if you want to impart gravitas to the subject of your photo, use black and white photography. In fact, black and white photography, nay, fine art, is so powerful that it’ll work for any subject, including this one: a Fine Art Taco Photography.
What? You don’t believe it? Just read the comments on the website:
"Genius" – R.F.
"bellissimo" – L.R.
""Probably the best fine art taco photography I’ve seen" – J. H.
Link – Thanks Bobby Henderson!
Dark Roasted Blend has a collection of images that predate 9/11, but eerily forshadow the destruction of the Twin Towers. Link
Other 9/11 anniversary links:
The progress in rebuilding at Ground Zero.
Ursi’s Blog has a roundup of 9/11 memorial links today.
Metafilter has a ton of music video links for Patriot Day.
An essay from a New Yorker: I am Not Afraid.
A spectacular entrance: The Queen Mary 2 luxury liner made its maiden call to the Port of San Francisco on February 4, 2007. Surrounded by a flotilla of ships, yachts and escorted by a San Francisco fire boat, Queen Mary 2 circled the harbor before docking at Pier 27.6 cameras were used.
Push play or go to Live Leak. -via Grow-A-Brain
Hilarity ensues when Dave Letterman tries to find out (or tried to find out a few months ago).
Here’s related links, and here’s more neat Spider-Man stuff.
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I recently received a copy of the terrific collection of Chip Kidd’s book covers (Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 (Chip Kidd)
Here’s the Amazon link: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Dark Horse Comics [wikipedia] offers an interpretation of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.
Link – via The Presurfer
Clip from the 1967 film 1999 A.D. in which we see the family of the future shopping, paying bills and using electronic mail from home.
Link [Google Video] – via ebr303
How to fold different napkin designs. Step-by-step instructions with photos.
Mary Scribe taught all of her cats to swim! Photo: Kevin Clark/The Register-Guard
Yay! Neatorama’s weekly Caption Monkey game is here! Caption this cute photo of a swimming cat and you can win a Free Monkey (or any other animal) Drawing by Ape Lad of Hobotopia.
Contest rules are simple: one caption per comment, you can submit as many as you can think of. You can also vote for your favorites (but please not your own).
The funniest caption will win a free monkey drawing: you name the monkey (or other animal) and Ape Lad will draw it for you. If you don’t win, you can still get one directly from Ape Lad for a nominal fee (it’s worth it – the pic is very cool).
Want to learn more about Mary Scribe’s swimming cats? The Register-Guard has the story: Link – via Cute Overload
Update 9/13/07 – Neatorama reader Nick shared this picture of his cat Lucy who also can swim (no training, just instinct) – Thanks Nick!
Update 9/14/07: Congrats to Tom #60 with the subtle yet very funny caption:
“The single web search result that has caused the most disappointment for male browsers age 15 to 24.â€
World’s Only Thermometer Museum. Image: eurovancation [Flickr]
There are over 5,000 thermometers in the museum! Image: eurovancation [Flickr]
Image: eurovancation [Flickr]
More from Neatorama reader Rich B’s Great American Roadtrip [Flickr photoset]: here’s the world’s only Thermometer Museum in Onset, Massachusetts.
Here’s a description of Richard (the "Thermometer Man") and Barbara Porter’s Thermometer Museum from Cape Cod Travel:
Some are old, some are new; some are rare, some are commonplace. You’ll see everything from antique to high-tech models when you visit Porter’s Thermometer Museum, featuring the largest (currently numbering over 2,600) collection of thermometers in the world.
For about 20 years, curator, Richard Porter has amassed over 2,700 [now over 5,000 - Alex] thermometers, earning his "not-your-average museum" listings in Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Many of Porter’s thermometers were collected at flea markets, yard sales and antique shops. He found others while touring the United States, Europe, South America and Africa.
Some of his collectibles include a model woman’s shoe with a miniature thermometer sewn into the side (a 1920s prize from a box of Cracker Jack) and a 150-year-old model embedded into a French woodcut (purchased for $1.00 at a flea market in Wellfleet, Cape Cod). Visitors will also discover reptile, bath and grain thermometers.
Link – Thanks Rich B!
In the early 1990s, a Russian drilling rig encountered something strange when boring a hole deep in Antarctica. They had actually found an ancient lake, buried beneath two miles of solid ice!
In the wake of the lake’s discovery, there arose considerable debate regarding the likelihood of finding life there. The environment is remarkably similar to the dark and cold ocean below the surface of Jupiter’s ice moon Europa, so the discovery of life in Vostok could have interesting extraterrestrial implications. Due to the cold, the complete absence of sunlight, and the toxic levels of oxygen, many scientists are certain that Lake Vostok is sterile. That, however, would be a scientific first, since never before has a completely lifeless body of water been found on Earth. Extremophile organisms have turned up in the unlikeliest of places, including within volcanic vents on the ocean floor, in the rocks deep in the Earth’s crust, and in frozen arctic soil.
Link – Thanks Nastia!
Here’s an ABC World News Webcast interview with Pete and Brian, the guys behind Funny or Die, a comedy website that features short comedy videos. The site started with a bang with the incredibly popular short comedy sketch The Landlord by Will Ferrell (viewed nearly 45 million times since it was put on!).
Funny or Die just came out with a new clip: FCU with Bill Murray, about a CSI-like Fact Checker Unit. Their mission: to find out if Bill Murray likes to drink warm milk before going to bed.
Link [ABC World News Webcast] | FCU with Bill Murray: Hit play or go to Link [Funnyordie] | Pete And Brian’s Website – Thanks Natalie!
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What to serve for dessert after a yummy All-American hot dog? Why, a hot dog cake made with loaf cake and Twinkies, of course!
Here’s how to make your own hot dog cake: Link – Thanks Sabrina!
See also previously on Neatorama: Twinkies Fun Facts
Comments Off From a distance, Dr. Evermor’s "park" in Wisconsin looks like a junk yardfull of twisted metals and rusted machines, but it houses one of the coolest sculptures ever: Forevertron. Standing at 120 feet wide, 60 feet deep, 50-foot tall, and weighing 320 ton, this behemoth of an artwork is billed as the world’s largest scrap metal sculpture.
All components of Forevertron are salvaged from old bits and pieces of machineries between 50 to 100 years old, and are welded and bolted together for stability. Its components include a pair of bipolar electrical dynamos constructed by Thomas Edison in the late 19th century and a decontamination chamber from the Apollo space mission. The top of the sculpture is a copper-clad glass ball, meant to be Dr. Evermor’s space capsule!
Image: Madolan [Flickr]
Another picture, showing the scale of Forevertron. Image: LiveALittle.org [Flickr]
Close-up photo of the Forevertron. Image: florador [Flickr]
Dr. Evermor is actually artist Tom Every, 70, who used to be an industrial wrecking and salvage expert. He spent decades collecting scrapped machines and other mechanical ephemera. In 1983, Every retired from his business, renamed himself Dr. Evermor and began to build Forevertron and other whimsical scrap metal structures.
Ever the prankster, Every explained the story of Dr. Evermor as such:
As Every tells the story of Evermor: "When he was a child, Dr. Evermor witnessed a massive electrical storm with his father, a Presbyterian minister. Asked where lightning came from, his father told Evermor that such awesome power could come only from God. From that day on, Evermor dedicated his life to constructing an antigravity machine and spacecraft that would catapult him from the phoniness of this world to the ultimate truth and power of the next.
"Dr. Evermor believes that if he can ever figure out a way to combine magnetic force and electrical energy, he can propel himself through the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam," Every said. "That glass ball inside the copper egg is his space ship. There’s also an antigravity machine (made from an early X-ray machine), a teahouse for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to observe the event, a telescope for bystanders to watch as Evermor flies off to his meeting with God, and a listening machine that will transmit Evermor’s message back to Earth when he arrives at his ultimate destination." (Source: Wired)
Also a big attraction at Dr. Evermor’s Art Park is the Bird Band, which consists of 70 sculptures, some of which can actually play music:
The Bird Band. Image: florador [Flickr]
Every band needs a conductor, so here it is! Image: florador [Flickr]
Image: florador [Flickr]
Image: florador [Flickr]
Does the peacock "toots" when it farts? Image: hartichoked [Flickr]
Let’s take a virtual tour of the other fantastic sculptures by Dr. Evermor:
The Overlord Control at Dr. Evermor’s Art Park. Image: florador [Flickr]
The Juicer Bug, a giant spider. Image: florador [Flickr]
Even the popcorn stand is fantastic! Image: starchy [Flickr]
Don’t even think of stealing these sculptures – they’ve got big guns at the park!
Image: starchy [Flickr]
And no sculpture park is complete without cats! Image: florador [Flickr]
If you ever find yourself on Highway 12 in North Freedom, Baraboo, near Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin, it’s worth to stop and take a look at Dr. Evermor’s Art Park.
Links and sources
» Articles: Dr. Evermor’s website, Wired, Folk Art, Roadside America, LuLu Fry.
» More photos: Flickr photos tagged with Evermor, Forevertron.
» Videos: Dr. Evermor of Wisconsin, The Birds of Evermor, Welcome to Forevertron [YouTube] | Bird Band video – Thanks Cindy Laveck!
