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Ork Posters have fantastic typographical maps outlining various neighborhoods of severaal large US cities. Available are San Francisco (sold out), Chicago, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Boston.
Want! Link – via Love Made Visible
Meet Freddy Linksy, a 2-year-old who managed to fool the art world into buying his tomato ketchup artwork:
To the untrained eye, they appear to be simple daubs that could have been created by a two year old. Which is precisely what they are.
But that didn’t stop the supposed experts falling over themselves to acclaim them.
The toddler in question is Freddie Linsky, who has fooled the art world into buying and asking to exhibit his paintings.
Freddie’s efforts, which include works using tomato ketchup composed while sitting on his high chair, were posted by his mother Estelle Lovatt on collector Charles Saatchi’s online gallery.
She claimed her son was an art critic and and a familiar face at major exhibitions, and added ludicrously overblown captions to his offerings.
One creation of random red and green splodges called Sunrise was captioned: "A bold use of colour. Inspired by the ‘plein air’ habit of painting by Monet, drawing on the natural world that surrounds us all."
And his black scrawlings in a work entitled The Best Loved Elephant are captioned:
"The striking use of oriental calligraphy has the kanji-like characters stampeding from the page, showing the new ascent of the East. It is one of Linsky’s most experimental works."
And the modern art people ate it all up! Link (Photo: Julian Andrews)
Fabienne Blanc and Patrick Rüegg created a knitting machine called "Struckmaschine" that takes data from a buyer’s credit card and turn them into unique space invaders-like patterns for knitting a scarf! Link
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Supernatural Studios created this fantastic 3D rendering of an other-worldly (why, supernatural of course!) bonsai plants. Someone should turn these into real sculptures! Link – via RE. Design
I am so digging these onion-slice shaped modern paper Christmas ornament that you can make yourself with strips of paper, some twine, and a stapler.
Here’s a guide by Derek and Lauren of The Curiosity Shoppe on how you can make your own: Link
A team of American explorers for a TV series Destination Truth found what they believed to be yeti’s footprint in the mountains of Nepal:
American television channel host Josh Gates displays what is believed to be "Yeti" footprints to the media in Kathmandu Nov. 30, 2007. The U.S.-based television channel investigating the existence of the legendary Yeti in Nepal has found footprints similar to those said to be that of the abominable snowman, the company said on Friday. A team of nine producers from Destination Truth, armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of Manju river at a height of 2,850 meters (9,350 feet).
Link (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters) | Not everyone thought it was real: Link
Ever wonder how the world of reposession and impound towing work? Here’s the inside scoop of the (oft seedy) business:
Dan worked as a part-time driver for five years and gave us some insight into how the repossession business works. The first step is simply getting the address of the car. It doesn’t matter how they find out where the person lives, they just need to have that address.
Dan said that some finance companies give them an address, but if it’s the wrong one, "They might have someone call the guy and tell him something stupid like he’s won tickets to something and they want to know where to send them — anything sneaky so they get the guy’s address," he said. "Some people are so dumb that that they give their address and their car is just sitting there."
He said some people know it’s a possibility their car will be repossessed so they park the car a few houses down thinking that the tow truck drivers won’t be able to find it … that doesn’t work. We asked Dan what the best time to take a car was and he said, "Take them whenever! Whenever they least expect it."
Towing companies have strategies for everything, including illegally parked cars in a parking lot:
Normally, these drivers won’t grab all the cars from a lot because they don’t want people to think there’s a strict policy. "It’s kind of like fishing, you want to keep some bait out there," Dan said. "But when the money’s tight, people take every car they can."
Dutch artist Henk Hofstra turned a 1000 m (0.6 mi) stretch of road in Drachten, the Netherlands into an "urban river" by painting it blue!
Link | Henk’s website [in Dutch] – via Stunned
Apparently, it is possible to work oneself to death. Case in point: a man who died after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month.
A Toyota Motor Corp employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month, a judge ruled Friday, reversing a ministry’s earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow.
That works out to be just 5 hours OT for every working day. Tell this to your boss next time you feel overworked! Link
STS-122 The space shuttle Atlantis will not launch until the new year.
A fuel tank glitch forced mission controllers to delay the launch.
And, fuel sensors weren’t the only problem.
The shuttle was also attacked by a giant spider.
I can’t wait to see the comments on this one.
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2007 is w00t. The term is the winner of the annual online poll conducted by the dictionary publisher.
Merriam-Webster’s president, John Morse, said “w00t” was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.
“It shows a really interesting thing that’s going on in language. It’s a term that’s arrived only because we’re now communicating electronically with each other,” Morse said.
Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they resemble, Morse says, creating what they call “l33t speak” that’s “leet” when spoken, short for “elite” to the rest of the world.
Such recognition usually spells the end of the coolness factor for a slang term. The winner of the 2006 poll was “truthiness”. Link -via Fark
| The following is an article from Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader
CHRISTMAS GETS BANNED In 1659, just a few decades after they had arrived in the New World, the Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas (as well as gambling and congregation for non-religious purposes). The holiday reminded them of Old World customs from England (the nation from which they’d fled to escape religious persecution). In fact, they refused to consider December 25th a holy day at all – the Catholic Church had selected the date as the day to celebrate Christ’s birthday because it coincided with an ancient, popular pagan festival. Anybody in Boston caught singing, drinking, playing games, or having a feast on Christmas was fined five shillings. The bans were later revoked, but it wouldn’t be the last time a moral outcry deprived Bostonians of diversions that seem relatively harmless today. BOOKS GET BANNED
In 1878 a Methodist minister from Boston named J. Frank Chase formed the Watch and Ward Society, dedicated to banning all books he considered indecent or obscene (which meant books that had any sexual content). Boston’s population, especially conservative Irish Catholic immigrants, supported Chase’s crusade against “filth.” The Society even had an agreement with police – all complains about indecent books were sent directly to the Society. If the Society thought the book was indecent, it notified Boston booksellers that they had three days to remove the book from their shelves or they could be arrested on obscenity charges. The Watch and Ward Society held power in Boston for over half a century.
- They banned Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass in 1882, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of D’Urbervilles in 1891, and Elinor Glyn’s 1907 bestseller Three Weeks. They all depicted premarital sex. - In 1926 author and editor H.L. Mencken directly challenged the Society’s authority. He went to Boston and publicly sold an issue of his literary magazine, American Mercury, which featured a short story entitled “Hatrack.” The plot: A prostitute goes to a Methodist church to seek forgiveness, is shunned, and returns to prostitution. The Methodist-based Watch and Ward Society called the story both obscene and personally offensive and took Mencken to court on obscenity charges. Mencken won. - In 1928 the Society tried to ban Candide, Voltaire’s 1759 satires, for blasphemy and sex, and Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point for depicting a man who considers cheating on his wife. Neither attempt was successful, although they were able to remove Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front in 1929 because of vulgar language. The Watch and Ward Society’s reign over Boston ended for good in 1948. The new director, Dwight Strong, changed the organization’s name to the New England Citizens Crime Commission and focused on gambling, not books. They would have been powerless in just a few years, anyway: Several Supreme Court rulings denied a city’s legal ability to regulate books. MUSIC AND THEATER GET BANNED From 1955 to 1982, Richard Sinnott (pronounced “sin-not”) served as chief of Boston’s licensing division, which oversaw health and safety at entertainment venues. That allowed Sinnott to ban or change any performance he deemed “morally unhealthy.” - “Louie, Louie.” In 1955 many people thought the nearly incomprehensible lyrics had to be obscene. Sinnott investigated, but a proposal to prevent bands from performing the song had to be dropped because Sinnot couldn’t understand the lyrics, either. - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In 1963, Sinnott threatened to cancel performances of Edward Albee’s Tony Award-wining play. Reason: Some dialogue “took the name of the Lord in vain.” To avoid the cancellation, producers agreed to change any reference to Jesus to “Mary Magdalene.”
- The Jackson Five. The pop group was banned from performing in 1970 because Sinnott thought they had violent fans. - Marvin Gaye. In 1975 a federal judge ordered Boston to integrate its public schools, leading to the busing of inner-city minority kids to mostly white schools. Racially motivated violence and rioting ensued. Sinnott banned Marvin Gaye from performing in Boston because “we didn’t want black and white together so they wouldn’t kill each other.” - Ozzy Osbourne. In one of Sinnott’s last acts on the job (his position was eliminated in 1982), Osbourne was banned from performing in Boston shortly after he was arrested in San Antonio for urinating on the Alamo. Surprisingly, in 1960 Sinnott didn’t ban a ballet that featured topless women. Because the show was about Africa and featured African choreography, Sinnott reasoned that the topless dancing made sense and was essential to the ballet. MORE BANS Many other groups and individuals have taken it upon themselves to protect Bostonians – even recently.
- Welcome Back, Kotter. In 1975 Boston’s ABC affiliate WCVB-TV refused to air the new sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. Because it was about juvenile delinquent? No – because they thought it was about school busing and desegregation. After blacking out the first eight episodes, the station aired the show to no complaint. - The Warriors. When the ultra-violent movie about street gangs was released in 1979, two teenagers in New York City died as a result of copycat violence. A few members of the Massachusetts legislature (from Boston) introduced a bill to ban the movie in Beantown. The bill failed. - Video-game ads. In 2006 a Boston advocacy group called the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood asked the city to remove ads for the violent video game Grand Theft Auto from subway cars. The Massachusetts Bus and Transit Authority refused. |
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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.
Proving that some things do get better with age, the latest Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with 600 pages of fascinating trivia, forgotten history, strange lawsuits and other neat articles. 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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Dimitri Kaliviotis built this 1/32 model of an abandoned Star Wars AT-AT wreck to win a contest held by Starship Modeler:
With a few extra modifications and heavy weathering I finally put together a battle damaged and abandoned AT-AT. To give more depth to the scene I added another layer of time by building a primitive refuge that utilized the already abandoned AT-AT. To make things even more layered I made the newer refuge abandoned as well.
The small pic really didn’t do it justice – check out the full scale photos here: Link | More Entries – via GeekAlerts
The Dutch government are considering a plan for a man-made island in shape of … a tulip!
Dubai built Palm Island. Now the world leaders in land reclamation are considering an island in the shape of a tulip to fight overcrowding and shield the coastline from the rising sea. [...]
A government body set up to promote innovation has drawn up proposals for an island about 50 kilometers, or 31 miles, long, sparking fierce debate which inspired one blogger to joke that a cannabis leaf may be a more suitable shape than the tulip on the formal plans.
Link – via Spluch and Scribal Terror
Here’s a funny article at ZUG, written by Joe the Peacock of Mentally Incontinent about his experiences working at America’s favorite store: Wal-Mart …
I first heard about the Wal-Mart position from a friend of mine who was working the early morning shift at the famous discount retailer. He explained that the electronics department needed a full-time employee on the overnight shift, because the last person who worked there was caught masturbating to a Cindy Crawford workout tape at 2 AM while the other employees were goofing off in the break room.
Sadly, I’m not kidding.
Joe went on to describe how he was pranked at Wal-Mart, got fired by an unscrupulous gang who framed him for theft, and how he got a sweet, sweet revenge: Link – via Miss Cellania (who has a whole list of Wal-Mart related websites)
Whatever happened to all of the ideas for Star Wars toys that got rejected?
McMorran.org has some pictures of the Star Wars toys that never made it: Link – via Super Punch
No words are spoken in this short film, titled Love Letters, directed by Mary Gillen of the Columbia MFA Film program. All the "action" is in a particularly intense game of Scrabble. Nevertheless, the film is quite riveting and emotional…
A fantastic performance by Sandy Nisson and Harry Shaw: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Marilyn Terrell!
A man was arrested in Japan for assaulting girls walking to school with … coffee!
The spitter, who was nicknamed “Coffee Bukake Man” by locals, had carried out 5 attacks since the end of October. All of his victims were junior high school or high school girls wearing their uniforms, and all of the attacks involved spitting coffee onto their faces from his car window.
Link – Thanks Gary Stoner!
Here’s a piece of trivia for you: Pufferfish or fugu is a delicacy in Japan. The fish is eaten raw as a sashimi. When prepared correctly, the flesh of the fish gives a tingling sensation on the tongue. This, turns out is due to a non-lethal dose of tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin with no antidote.
If prepared improperly, say if the chef cut into the liver by accident, then you could die from it. Because it is a neurotoxin, you would be completely paralyzed and cannot breathe. Death occurs within 4 to 24 hours, during which you are completely conscious over what’s happening.
Because of this reason, fugu is the only delicacy officially forbidden to the Emperor of Japan. For his own safety. Now you know.
Cute pic of baby pufferfish is found at gigglesugar – Thanks Jon Jason!
Litroenergy is a new type of material that emits light for 12 years without needing electricity or sun exposure. The self-luminous micro-particles are called Litrospheres and are said to be non-toxic, inexpensive and equivalent to a 20 watt incandescent bulb.
The Litrospheres give off a continuous illumination, and can be designed to glow in any color. In addition, they are not affected by heat or cold, and are 5,000-pound crush resistant. They can be injection molded or added to paint. The fill rate of Litroenergy micro particles in plastic injection molding material or paint is about 20%.
The constant light gives off no U.V. rays, and can be designed to emit almost any color of light desired. What a cool product!!
Via: Treehugger
Source: Peswiki
Alexis Lemaire is a human calculator. He broke his own record for mental computing at the Science Museum in London by finding the 13th root of a 200-digit random number in 70.2 seconds.
Jane Wess, curator of mathematics at the London Science Museum said: “He sat down and it was all very quiet – and all of a sudden he amazingly just cracked it.
“It’s quite remarkable to see it happen. A very small number of people have this extraordinary ability.
“I believe that it is the highest sum calculated mentally.”
Link -via J-Walk Blog
Someday soon, you may be able to buy clothing made of spiderwebs!
Researchers at Shinshu University have succeeded in injecting spider genes into silkworms to create a thread that is stronger, softer and more durable than conventional silk. A Japanese manufacturer is already experimenting with the thread, and spider socks, stockings and even fishing lines are expected to appear on the market within a few years.
The possible applications of spider thread go beyond clothing. The material is biodegradable, and could replace synthetics used in such diverse items as tennis rackets, body armor, and medical sutures. Link -via Arbroath
We’ve featured Koopa the Turtle before, but we didn’t know that the little guy is a multi-talented artist until Kira, the "turtle’s assistant," emailed us pictures of his artwork. Here’s Koopa’s website: Link
For today’s Neatorama and Hobotopia‘s Caption Monkey, you get to caption the adorable turtle. Funniest caption, as always, wins a Free Monkey (or any other animal) drawing by Ape Lad.
Contest rules are simple: one caption per comment – you can submit as many as you can think of and increase your chance of winning. You can also vote for your favorite caption, as long as it’s not your own.
Good luck (and don’t forget to check out Koopa’s website for inspiration!)
If you enjoy these sorts of things as much as I do then I recommend watching the entire video which culminates in a quick proposal for a project to embark upon an expedition inside the hollow earth for just $2 million. I love it! YouTube.
Update: More on the Hollow Earth Theory at Wikipedia.
Or more likely an ad for a new super hero movie from Marvel? Any guesses? Via Lying in the Gutters.
It’s hard to believe, but Boston – in many ways, one of the most liberal cities in the nation – once led the country in suppression. Here’s how
