HOME |
RSS | 
This impressive graffiti-style art installation by Japanese artists Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano is actually done using plastic toy train railway tracks!
What a strange sight: Blue lines covering everything from the floor to the walls and all over the ceiling. If you look close enough at these gigantic blue roots, you realise that it’s all made of plastic rails, more precisely, of blue plastic toy rails we used to play with as kids! And if you look at the patterns longer, you recognise model stations and mountains alongside the rail tracks – one big diorama.
You’d eventually find a pinhole-sized goat on top of the model mountain! Paramodel are Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano, an artist duo from Eastern Osaka, and they unfold such 3D, graffiti-like patterns on any surface: not only on the white walls of a gallery or the floors of a back-street factory, they extend their haptic art all over a Japanese onsen tub and don’t stop with even covering the water surface of a pond.
PingMag has more photos and interview with the artists: Link – via Blogadilla
The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Popular Mechanics listed the 10 worst disasters of the last 101 years – and delve into whether we are more prepared to face them now as compared to then. The disasters listed are:
1906 – San Francisco Earthquake Fire
1910 – The Big Burn (of Idaho and Montana)
1918 – Spanish Flu Pandemic
1925 – Tri-State (Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) Tornado
1938 – The New England Hurricane
1964 – The Great Alaskan Earthquake
1974 – Super Tornado Outbreak (13 states in USA)
1980 – Mount St. Helen Eruption
1993 – Storm of the Century (eastern US)
2005 – Hurricane Katrina (with largest damage in New Orleans, Louisiana)
Update 10/13/07: added US to the title – these are disasters in the USA
Remember that Little Trees Car-Freshner costume for your baby? Well, why should the baby have all the fun – you can go as one too!
But don’t worry about the smell … the costumes aren’t scented.
Talk about being a pampered pooch … Here’s a story about one lucky dog:
Pampered doesn’t quite cover it. While some dogs might be prone to biting the odd slipper, this one actually choked on her own Cartier necklace. And now Conchita, known to her family as The Boss, refuses to wear diamonds any more because of the mishap.
However, her owner still spends £7,000 a month on Louis Vuitton bags, bikinis, pearls, dresses and make-up for her. She has her own special pink racing car bed, bathroom and TV, and lunches daily on fresh grilled chicken breast at the exclusive Shore Club in Miami.
With weekly manicures, her own minder and publicist, this one-year-old 500g (1lb) chihuahua is living the dog life equivalent of Paris Hilton’s existence. And, like the hotel heiress, Conchita’s owner, socialite Gail Posner, is the daughter of a billionaire businessman.
Now you can save endangered species and eat ‘em too! With the Endangered Species Chocolate, that is. Made for Walteria Living by Kathleen Walsh and anita Mothersbaugh (portion of the proceeds will go to World Society for the Protection of Animals).
Each box of chocolate contains a pygmy hippopotamus, mountain gorilla and koala bear: Link
At the Tate Modern museum in London, UK, is a new art installation by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo: a 548 ft (167 m) crack on the floor, one foot (30 cm) wide in some places that set the museum back £300,000 and more than 6 months to create. The art piece is officially titled Shibboleth, though it’s now more commonly known as "Doris’s crack".
And already three people fell in it and hurt themselves:
Creator Salcedo said it involved delicate and intricate sculpting which took place on two continents. The crack is said to represent the division problem of integrating immigrants into European society. [...]
But visitors have already paid the price for failing to heed warning signs. And a builder said if he had been responsible for the crack he would be sued for health and safety breaches. [...]
One observer said: "Instead of art imitating life, here it’s threatening life."
But apparently, overall, people liked this crack: Link
Strand Books’ Books by the Foot specializes in designing impressive-looking bookshelves and libraries.
We assemble decorator collections in any subject, including art, biography, reference, law, music, theater and classic literature. We’ve put together libraries for hundreds of clients, including the Plaza hotel, Steven Spielberg, and Polo Ralph Lauren. Working with you, we will custom design a library that is sure to be a perfect match for any home or office space, one that will please the eye and satisfy the mind.
This collection to the left, made from antique leather books mostly in French, Spanish, and German, from the 19th century, with gold tooling – perfect to showcase your erudition – will set you back $300 per linear foot. Reading not required.
Link – via Information Junk
"The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence."
– Ayn Rand, writer, philosopher and creator of Objectivism (1905-1982)
That’s a knitted apple jacket so you can protect your apple against bruisings!
Made by Etsy seller jacqueline knits, who also has other knitted fruit sweaters.
In The Hello Experiment, a group of artists try to create a sculpture of Lionel Ritchie’s head out of clay while blindfolded.
If you’re (un)fortunate enough not to be a child of the ’80s, here’s Lionel Ritchie’s Hello on YouTube so you can see what (pure gold) you’re missing!
Is it me you’re looking for? Link – via DrikoLand
… is filled with women pushing their husbands along! Found at 7 Deadly Sinners.
Here’s how to get five free iTunes downloads costing between $0.99 and $1.29*:
—–
*Note that this worked for me with a US Facebook account and a US iTunes Store account. I’m passing this info along because it worked for me – there is no guarantee that it will work elsewhere.
The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was just awarded to the International Panel on Climate Change and former US Vice President Al Gore.
The award was "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"
Do you think Al Gore deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Artist and illustrator Oliver Jeffers’ A World with Coffee is a coffee table book (but of course!) with pictures drawn with coffee stains!
Comments Off
After John Bramblitt lost his vision due to epilepsy, he was angry at everything. Then he remembered how painting calmed his mother, and thought that it would work for him. John had thought about painting before, but he never thought he’d be any good at it – after he lost his sight, he thought "well, if I wasn’t any good at it, I wouldn’t have to look at it anyways, so might as well give it a try!"
Obviously, John can’t see colors – so he has developed a process whereby he paints by touch. The colors feel different to him, white is thick and black is a little runny – so when he needs gray, he mixes the two until the texture is right. Some people told him it was impossible, but one only has to look at one of his paintings to realize how amazing he is.
Here’s an inspiring story by the Texas Country Reporter:
Call it crazy, call it courageous, call it a case of blind ambition. For john, it’s simple really: epilepsy took away his vision but it didn’t change the fact that this aspiring author has stories to tell. Sight or no sight some dreams die hard.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Dan D!
To celebrate the launch of JK Rowling’s book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Craftster user sophieangele dressed up her mobility scooter as a dragon to match her costume!
Link – via IZ Reloaded
Previously on Neatorama: Turning Mobility Scooter into a Horse
Was it a crime or an "act of love"? A French artist is on trial for leaving a lipstick-red kiss on a pure white canvas (valued at €2 million – isn’t that insane?) of US artist Cy Twombly.
Rindy Sam, a 30-year-old French artist, faced charges of “voluntarily damaging a work of art.” The painting is worth an estimated $2,830,000 and restorers have tried to remove the lipstick smudge from the bone-white canvas using nearly 30 products — to no avail.
“I didn’t think. When I kissed it, I thought the artist would have understood,” Sam told the court in the southern French city of Avignon, describing it as “an act of love.”
When Jimmy Martin brought home a stray kitten, his golden retriever became its mother … and began nursing it!
The hungry kitten, found in an old tire at a concrete plant, refused to drink from a bottle and her rescuers feared she would die. That’s when Honey, the family dog who hadn’t given birth in 18 months, stepped in with her motherly instincts.
"She started licking her and loving her. Within a couple of days, Honey started naturally lactating," said Kathy Martin, whose husband, Jimmy, brought the kitten home six weeks ago. "The kitten took right to her."
Initially, the family worried such a big dog would be too rough for the tiny feline named Precious. But Honey showed her elation at Precious’ presence, wagging her tail and prancing all over the house.
The eerie photo above was taken by Neatorama reader controleman on an urban exploration trip to the William Collector, the first covered drain (c. 1830) but now unused portion of the sewer system in Montreal, Canada.
Before it was converted into a drain, the Saint-Pierre river was once there – and before it was bricked up, people used it as a communal garbage heap! Today, the drain is largely unused except for a small section by the Pointe-à-Callière museum. Indeed, the museum is planning to open the entire collector sewer to the public, which would make it the longest underground exhibit in the world (1 km or 0.6 mi. long):
The Museum is now entering the second phase in its development, as it moves toward putting these large-scale expansion plans into effect. The goal is to expose the entire William sewer and the archaeological remains of St. Anne’s Market, home to the Parliament of the United Province of Canada between 1844 and 1849. Visitors will be led to a new exhibition hall, with its entrance on McGill Street, devoted to future international exhibitions on ancient civilizations and their cultures. This ambitious expansion will allow Pointe-à-Callière to give the district an exhibition centre of national and international scope.
So if it was all bricked up, how did our intrepid urban explorers gained access? Controleman wrote:
In the early 2000, the city had to repair the drain under McGill street and at the same time, archaeologists came back to make a hole in the structure to create an access point from the street. Crazy as we four were, we got dressed like real workers and headed down while a few people were watching us.
Because of some structure’s protection (concrete blocks and sand) we could go more than 100m away from the access point. At the highest point, the stagnant water reached our hips.
Link – Thanks controleman!
Stacy Hedger dancing and playing the trumpet to the theme song from Star Wars.
Link [YouTube] – Mahalo via Fanboy
Shortly after their arrival, they began to study the martial arts. The thought of using it on the streets to protect themselves was not the reason they began training. It was purely for exercise and recreation. One of the sister’s, Mary Chantel, had earned a black belt in judo before entering the convent. She was eager to resume the sport and found a place for all of them to work out.
Witness Magazine has a photo essay on the sisters, including several karate pictures near the end. Link -via Metafilter
Tardigrades (water bears or moss piglets) are tiny creatures who can survive being frozen, boiled, dehydrated, and irradiated. They can even survive in the vaccuum of space! There are over 900 species of water bears; see some at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
Will Ferrell meets his landlord (maybe slightly NSFW).
Here’s our collaboration with Bizarro for this week! For more, check out Dan Piraro’s website: Bizarro
|
On the long list of unpleasant ways to die, it’s hard to imagine anything topping "exploding colon." We’ll take the stomach flu, heartburn, death by paper cuts even! Just please, please, spare us these fates. 1. Farting to Death
Once in a while, though, someone will blow up from gas. The problem usually occurs during colonic surgery, when heat (or spark) comes into contact with flammable intestinal gases after inadequate "bowel evacuation." The resulting explosion is sometimes fatal. Anyone who’s ever suffered from colon surgery can tell you exactly what "bowel evacuation" entails – you drink a laxative the day before surgery and find yourself in the bathroom with enough time to read Anna Karenina. Unpleasant, sure, but better than blowing up on the operating table. 2. Pica
Strangely, the same such cravings pop up so often they have their own names. Pagophagia is the compulsive eating of ice; coprophagia describes eating (often animal) feces; coniophagia involves – get this – the pathological consumption of dust from Venetian blinds. And pica can be fatal. Too much plaster might lead to fatal lead poisoning, for instance, and consuming clay can lead to a potentially deadly intestinal blockage. (Image: Baobao, an 18-year-old Mongolian girl eating dirt) 3. Roundworms
Although completely disgusting, roundworms are only occasionally deadly – they can cause edema in the lungs; and the female worms, which can grow 18 inches long, sometimes perforate the intestines, leading to peritonitis. But the most terrifying wormy complication involves anesthesia. Because worms find anesthesia irritating, they sometimes migrate up the trachea and nasal passages or down the intestines during surgery. It’s been reported, for instance, that one pregnant woman had several of the nematodes worm out of her nose and mouth while she was giving birth. 4. Celiac Sprue
When celiac sufferers ingest the dreaded stuff, the immune system responds by attacking the small intestine, which leads to a sort of intestinal baldness. Villi, hairlike protruberances that line the small intestine, absorb nutrients into the body, but when people with celiac eat gluten, the villi get flattened or otherwise damaged, making proper nourishment impossible. If left undiagnosed, celiac can lead to massive malnutrition, wasting, and even death. But people with celiac can lead perfectly healthy lives provided they forswear gluten. Which means no beer. Which is, frankly, unacceptable. 5. Megacolon
One such example is on display at Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum, which collects all manner of medical oddities (from John Wilkes Booth’s thorax to a tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland’s jaw). The crown jewel of the Mütter Museum’s collection is a five-foot-long megacolon. Bearing a distinct resemblance to Jabba the Hutt, the monstrosity was removed from a man who, unable to move his bowels, died with 40 pounds of excrement in his gut. (Image: Colonic Association, warning: gruesome!) |
|
 |
From mental_floss’ book Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History’s Naughtiest Bits, published in Neatorama with permission. Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog!
|
|
One of the neatest feature of VideoSift is that you can select the top videos of the day, week, month or even year – this makes it darned easy to keep your pop culture knowledge up to date! Here are five of the most viewed clips from the past week:
For more the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift. |
The Cat Cocoon, made from cardboards. Photo: Warren Lieu.
Love your cat but don’t want to sacrifice your décor by putting up those ghastly scratch post? What’s more important: your stylish pad or your pet’s happiness?
Well, now you don’t have to choose anymore. Chris Colin wrote a New York Times article about a new trend: stylish luxury furnitures for cats!
“The color, the texture, the shape, the scale — those things are just all wrong,” said Elizabeth Paige Smith, a Venice, Calif., furniture designer, speaking of the traditional feline options.
Cats love cat trees. Cat trees are ghastly. So it is a simple but profound — maybe even existential — dilemma that has dogged kitty lovers for ages: Happy pet or stylish pad?
Nine years ago, Ms. Smith made an effort to change things with her corrugated cardboard Kittypod (about $350; information: 310-392-8060 or kittypod.com). But in general, in an era when everything from cheese graters to soap dishes has gotten designy, cat furniture has been the forgotten basement rec room. As a result, thousands of beloved family members have gone without, and thousands more beloved homes have been marred by what Patrice Farameh, editor of the forthcoming coffee table book “Luxury for Cats,” calls “eyesores, pushed to the corner of the room.”
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
– Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher (1813-1855)
Comments Off 
Oops! An error in a new law in Arkansas intended to set the minimum age to marry to 18 (with an exception for pregnant minors to marry as long as the parents agree) actually allowed someone who is not pregnant to marry at any age – even toddlers – if the parents allow it!
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
Comments Off 
Sounds like a third-grade punch line, but maybe it’s so funny because it’s true. The average person expels about a half liter of gas per day. Put bluntly, that’s somewhere between 13 and 17 daily farts. And although any 11-year-old with a matchbook and curiosity knows that gas passed is flammable (since it contains primarily hydrogen and methane), it’s not dangerous for the excessively gassy to work around open flames. 
Pica, an eating disorder in which sufferers feel compelled to eat nonfood items, is usually seen in children. At least 10% of kids enjoy eating dirt or paste or plaster, but adults suffering from pica often develop unusual tastes.
About 25% of the world’s population is infected with roundworms (that’s Ascaris lumbricoides to the Latin scholars), which is even more disconcerting when you consider that one generally contracts roundworms by swallowing egg-ridden human feces. Once infected, the eggs hatch in the stomach and intestines, then migrate throughout the body.
Dieters seeking low-carb lifestyle might do well to seek out celiac sprue, an intestinal ailment that amounts to an allergy to the protein gluten – found in such foods as wheat, barley, and rye. 
A blessedly uncommon but life-threatening disorder, megacolon is characterized by the one-two punch of a massively inflated colon (one), and the accompanying abdominal distension (two). Although generally a complication of bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, megacolon occasionally develops from severe – and we mean severe – constipation.
