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Neatorama has posted several stories about animals that produce fluorescent proteins after gene splicing. Now South Korean scientists have produced cloned cats that produce RFP (Red Fluorescent Protein). The cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet rays! Three such cats were cloned, and two of the Turkish Angoras have survived to adulthood. Link -via Metafilter
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I have a new addition to Neatorama’s family of Thriller videos to put you in the holiday spirit today, enjoy this version done totally in animated LEGOs LEGO. Don’t forget to check out one of my old favorites, the Bollywood take on Michael Jackson’s classic and you can always click here for the full Neatorama THRILLER run down. Youtube video link
We’ve posted a story about Santa living in Finland, but according to Swedish engineers, that’s wrong.
Santa, they concluded after an exhaustive calculation of what’s required for the jolly fat man to deliver presents to kids all over the world, lives in Kyrgyzstan:
"We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer on Earth, and 20 meters between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth’s rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents," Anders Larsson of Sweco tells AFP.
That’s assuming Rudolph and the other reindeer hurtle through the air at 3,604 miles per second, or 13 million mph.
The researchers concluded that Kyrgysztan was the most efficient spot from which to start the jolly fellow’s global delivery service.
Meet Boo-Boo, a tiny chihuahua who just made the giant leap into history by being the new World’s Smallest Dog:
At just four inches tall, "Boo-Boo," a diminutive dog in Raceland, Ky., just edged out another chihuahua to win the crown.
Lana Elswick says Boo-Boo was born the size of her thumb. Elswick says from the beginning she knew her dog was special, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that she knew just how special.
"There was this contest going on between two little dogs, but I knew I had the smallest one. But, I just had to wait until I had my certificate to show everyone," Elswick says.
The Guinness Book now considers the full-grown though petite pet the smallest dog in the world, nearly an inch smaller than the previous record holder.
Link (with video)
After he retired, Bob Brewer embarked on an adventure to find the missing Confederate gold, supposedly hidden by the mysterious Knights of the Golden Circle of the late 1800s to finance a second Civil War.
Everyone thought Bob was bonkers … until he found some of the treasures!
He sketched the symbols others described, tracked them down when he could and plotted them on topographical maps. During a stint as a state inspector of beekeepers, he explored remote areas of the forest and found more carvings on trees and rock faces.
Many were recurring symbols: snakes, turtles, crescent moons, crosses, numbers and letters with odd flourishes. Brewer figured they were cryptic indicators of distance and direction, clues to buried riches.
LA Times has this fascinating story of buried treasure, Jesse James, Knight of the Golden Circle, cryptic symbols: Link (Photo: Tom Ewart)
Are you trying to conceive a boy (or a girl)? The secret to "selecting" a baby’s gender may be what the would-be mom eats before conception:
Have a burger and chips before getting pregnant and you’re more likely to have a baby boy – whereas a girl is more likely if you eat chocolate or ice cream. It may sound about as convincing as puppy-dogs’ tails, but this is the latest cutting-edge science as reported in New Scientist.
Researchers at the University of Pretoria in South Africa found that mice given drugs that reduced their blood-sugar levels produced more female than male pups. And the finding fits with traditional wisdom that mothers should feed on red meat and salty snacks if they want a boy and chocolates and sweets if they want a girl, according to lead researcher, Professor Elisa Cameron.
Blogger NancyKay Shapiro was shopping at her local market Balducci when she spotted this clueless sign! Link
Happy Belated (Last Day of) Hanukkah, Everyone!
When Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Khadaffi, Qadhafi? Pick your favorite spelling… ) visited France, he brought a 400-strong entourage complete with his own tent, a Saharan camel, and … a peculiar team of bodyguards:
This VIP brought 30 blue-uniformed females, all supposedly virgins. [...] His personal unit of female guards clad in blue camouflage uniforms, who will protect him around the clock, are trained killers.
We’ve covered a lot of luxury items on Neatorama…. like the world’s most expensive book and whatnot. Usually the trick is to add gold, diamonds, and the like to whatever it is you want to make expensive.
This is no different: Tobias Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid created the Gold Pill, guaranteed to make your poop glitter with gold! For $425, these pills containing 24K gold leaves will "turn your inner most parts into chambers of wealth!"
Over 10,000 women from 50 countries were polled to find out who are the world’s worst lovers. The winner?
1. Germans (selfish in bed)
2. Swedes (too quick)
3. Dutch (too rough)
4. Americans (too dominant) – really? not "too fat?"
5. Welshmen (soppy)
6. Scots (too loud)
Quick: how do you make a button absolutely, positively irresitible to push (well, at least to a little kid)? Label it "Do not hit," of course!
Today was family day at Agusta Aerospace, located at 3050 Red Lion Road in Northeast Philadelphia. Employees and their families gathered for a day of fun in a helicopter hanger this morning.
Everything was relatively normal about the event until shortly before 11 a.m.. That’s when authorities say an employee’s child hit a button that said "don’t hit button unless in an emergency". The button triggered the fire suppression system, filling the hanger with foam.
Previously on Neatorama: Foam Accident in a Hangar. Again.
Design Commission hosted an exhibition of modern birdhouses designed by over 20 contemporary designers:
The structures of laminated wood, plastic, clay, and even stainless steel—include several designed especially for this show. They range in size from a six-inch creation to a 2-foot birdhouse. The eclectic mix includes Modern Birdhouses’ sleek architect-designed homes made with oil-finished teak, stainless steel screws, and sandblasted aluminum roofs. For a little whimsy, there’s even J. Schatz’s colorful ceramic birdhouses shaped like eggs.
Previously on Neatorama: Big Bird is Watching You | Fancy Birdhouse is Camouflage for Security Cameras
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Thomas Sleigh and his wife were tired of Molly, a foul-mouthed parrot and sold her for swearing too much. Lo and behold, just days later, a likeness of Molly turned up in a potato chip!
"It’s almost like Molly has come back to haunt us," he said.
He added: "We got rid of her because she was constantly trying to wind my wife up by throwing her food out of the cage as well as turning the air blue with her constant swearing.
"We made a decision we couldn’t take her mouth any more and we sold her."
A few days later, Mr Sleigh opened a bag of Walkers crisps and found the four-inch crisp in the shape of a bird. [...]
"I have nicknamed it Chippy," he said.
"I must admit I was shocked when I saw the crisp and I was just laughing because it was like the parrot had come to re-visit us."
Link – via Dave Barry’s Blog
Now you get get almost 500 wonderful photographs by French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand as a layer in Google Earth.
Two Central Coast moms say they have come up with a solution to the old problem of “plumber’s crack,” the revealing and often embarrassing problem of exposed backsides resulting from poorly fitting pants.
Christine Meeks and Kelley DeSerpa have come up with the Hip-T an invention designed to keep your assets covered.
Meeks and DeSerpa, who have patented their idea, said they came up with the idea when one of their daughters complained about the problem.
About a year ago, Meeks and DeSerpa converted a bedroom into an office and business with about $15,000 saved between them.
Most sales take place through their Web site and they have already shipped their product to addresses in all 50 states. The hip-T runs $19.95.
This is one of the lucky cat! Nine-year-old Jelly was spotted by owner Wendy Wallis walking around with a copperhead snake wrapped around her neck and immediately called wildlife rescuers to have the snake removed.
“Both the cat and the snake seemed quite happy,” Ms Wallis said. “She didn’t show any signs of a bite last night, but this morning she was almost paralysed”.
“She is currently at the Montrose vet at the moment being pumped full of anti-venom, but the vet says she’ll recover fully.”
Ms Wallis said she snapped the picture through a glass door, but didn’t dare open the door as the cat would have walked inside.
Jelly may well be thinking “One life down, eight to go!”
Via: Mercury
It was a close battle, but former English national football (soccer) team manager Steve McClaren beat US President George Bush for the "Foot in Mouth" award.
The dreaded award is given by the Plain English Campaign to improve the English language by pointing out how NOT to say things:
Every year, the pressure group hands out a raft of awards mocking incomprehensible jargon in a battle to clear the linguistic fog that so often envelops the English language. [...]
[McClaren] was hailed for a supreme example of gobbledegook in talking about star player Wayne Rooney: "He is inexperienced but he’s experienced in terms of what he’s been through."
George W.Bush came second for "All I can tell you is that when the governor calls, I answer his phone."
Plain English Campaign spokesman Ben Beer told Reuters: "We thought it was a bit obvious to honor Bush as he comes up with them every day."
Link (Image from The View from The Upper Tier)
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Goran Tomasic and his wife Karmen of Croatia were so distraught when their dalmatian dog died that they decided to paint their house black and white in memory of their pet!
Mr Tomasic, from Pribislavec, northern Croatia, said: ‘At first we were afraid of what the neighbours would say, but we loved Bingo so much we had to do it. We wanted everyone to know what he meant to us and for his memory to live on.’
This Japanese pitcher has a strange way of throwing the ball to fool his baseball opponent!
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power."
– Abraham Lincoln, US President (1809 – 1865)
In a clerical error worthy of a Looney Tunes cartoon, the Italian court summoned Titti, Paperino, Paperina, and Topolino (the Italian names for Tweety Bird, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and his girlfriend Daisy Duck).
The court summons cites Titti, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino — the Italian names for the characters — as damaged parties in the criminal trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros.
Instead of naming only the companies and their legal representatives, clerks also wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoons that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had reproduced, said Fiorenza Sorotto, vice president of Disney Company Italia.
"Unfortunately they cannot show up, as they are residents of Disneyland," Sorotto joked in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It certainly pleased us that the characters were considered real, because that’s what we try to do."
Link – via WTF Monkey, thanks Dan!
Four-years in the making, the stunning "Crystal", a feat of modern architecture at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) was finally finished this year. And the ROM has a 5-minute time-lapse video that documents the entire process!
"The hundreds of school buses parked outside day after day, the large tree going from green to red to bare as the seasons go by, and finally the formation of the outer shell and the stream of people into the crystal make this an amazing depiction of a long, complicated process."
Link [embedded YouTube] | Photo: Aviad2001 [wikipedia] – Thanks Photosapience!
