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The volunteer’s face muscles contract, and his body begins to convulse. His breathing becomes spasmodic, and he makes a series of involuntary, repeated vocalizations. For one informative moment, the EEG’s mechanical scribblings flap rapidly from margin to margin, providing a nugget of neurological gold.The affliction under study is surprisingly common among humans. Though the episodes are usually transitory, they will occasionally erupt as intense, prolonged outbursts where bodily fluid containment is placed in jeopardy as the hapless victim collapses into a moist, quivering, rhythmically-vocalizing mass. Alarmingly, the phenomenon is highly contagious, and in extreme cases, it can even lead to death.
What dreaded syndrome could this describe? It’s laughter! Damn Interesting takes a look at the scientific study of gelotology, the physiological response to humor, and the things that makes us laugh.
A: “Did you hear about that series of illogical events that occurred involving a duck? They turned out to be congruent in some unexpected way!”
B: “Har har! Please excuse me while I breathe spasmodically and become moist!”
Christiane Zschommler takes wonderful pictures, some abstracted, like the one above and others less so, but with an eye both for bold and subtle color schemes.
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Today kicked off a year of 50th anniversary celebrations for the little blue creatures called Smurfs. The Smurfs originated in Brussels, Belgium.
The late cartoonist Pierre Culliford, best known by his pen name, “Peyo,” first introduced the tiny blue figures in a comic strip in October 1958. He called them Schtroumpf and they became known worldwide as the Smurfs.
The Smurfs, forest dwellers who live in little white-capped mushroom homes, developed their own “Smurf” language in which nouns and verbs were interchanged.
Their debut on U.S. television in 1981 launched their global rise to stardom and made the Smurfs a household name. A Smurf is a Pitufo in Spanish, a Schlumpf in German, Nam Ching Ling to the Chinese, a Sumafa in Japan and Dardassim in Hebrew.
You can expect a year of re-released Smurf entertainment and merchandise, plus a new feature film planned for next year. Link -via Fark
A rat heart in three stages of decellularization. In the left photo, the heart chambers are labelled. Ao: aorta. LV: left ventricle. RV: right ventricle. LA: left atrium. RA: right atrium. Middle Photo: arrows indicate the border between areas where cells remain (pink) and where they have been removed (white). Right photo: The heart matrix after all cells have been removed. (Photo: Thomas Matthiesen)
Professor Doris Taylor and her group at the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair have created a beating heart from shell of a dead one:
Using a process called decellularisation, the researchers grew functioning heart tissue from dead rat and pig hearts.
Decellularisation is the process of killing all the cells in an organ, in this case an animal cadaver heart, and preserving the architecture of the organ such as the chambers, valves and blood vessel structure.
Taylor says she knew decellularisation had been used in making tissue heart valves and blood vessels and decided to try it on whole organs.
“We hung these organs in the lab and we washed out all the cells. When you are done, you have this thing that looks like a ghost tissue,” Taylor says.
The research team then repopulated the “ghost tissue” with new heart cells taken from newborn and neonatal rats, fed them a nutrient-rich solution and left them in the laboratory to grow.
Four days later, the hearts started to contract albeit at 2% capacity of normal functioning hearts.
“The hope would be we could generate an organ that matched your body,” she said.
The results are available online in the latest edition of the journal Nature Medicine, and explores the growing trend toward research and development in tailor-made organs for transplant using stem cells.
It also gives a chance for the evil Queen to finally get Snow White’s heart in a glass jar.
This is so cool (well, technically, it’s hot!): here’s a guide on how to make your own magic fireball. Just don’t get burned, okay… Hit play or go to Link [Metacafe] – via Gizmodo, thanks John Wiersma!
For the past 22 years, Canadian artist Zube has worked on a house in Whistler, Canada, named The Mushroom House.
The Mushroom House basks in pure sunlight. The external design of The Mushroom House was inspired by the glacial rock formations found in Emerald Estates. As the home took shape, fascinated onlookers dubbed it The Hobbit House, Bedrock, and finally, The Mushroom House.
The interior design is based on the anatomy of a tree. All aspects of the decor reflect this motif, from the womblike hues of the Jacuzzi room in the ‘roots’ to the vivid leaf greens on the walls in the ‘canopy’.
Link – Thanks panzyfaust!
A female shark in a Hungarian aquarium has just given birth without ever mating!
Director Attila Varga said: "When I saw the baby shark lying on the bottom of the tank I thought it was a joke. I was amazed when I realised it was a real shark.
"The mother is very protective of her pup, but as soon as we can, marine biologists want to get a DNA sample from both.
"There has only ever been one other example of a virgin birth (parthenogenesis) at a zoo in America when a hammerhead shark had a pup that was killed by a stingray before keepers could remove it from its tank.
"It happened in 2000 but it was only last year that a study of the DNA was complete and indicated the pup was from a virgin birth.
Kids, this is the reason your mom told you never to wave or stick your arm out of a car window:
A 20-year-old man is stable after undergoing surgery on his arm that was partially severed as he waved out a car window at two girls in Western Australia.
He was a passenger in a Nissan utility that drove past two girls washing their vehicle at a car wash in Bunbury, south of Perth, last night, police said today.
"He put his arm out the window and waved at the girls as the Nissan made a right hand turn at the intersection, and was struck by a Toyota Hi-Lux twin-cab vehicle,” a police statement said.
"His left arm was partially severed and doctors believe the limb may need to be amputated.”
Link (Photo: polmuadi [Flickr])
We’ve posted about the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, a controversial "behavioral modification" school that uses electric shock in attempt to change children’s behaviors. (Photo: The cover story of a Sept 2007 Mother Jones magazine by Jennifer Gonnerman.)
The school is back in the news now, after a prank call from a former student posing as a supervisor duped officials at the school into delivering dozens of electrical shocks to two students:
School staffers contacted state authorities after they realized they had been tricked on Aug. 26 into delivering 77 shocks to one student and 29 shocks to another, according to Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Early Education and Care, which drafted the report. Both students were part of a Rotenberg-run group home in Stoughton for males under age 22. [...]
Ernest Corrigan, a spokesman for the Rotenberg center, said the school contacted law enforcement "within hours" after discovering the prank, and that such an incident has never before happened at the school. Corrigan said they have instituted new safeguards to prevent such occurrences. He also said that while the school regrets the incident, the two male students who received the wrongful shocks did not experience any serious physical harm and did not need medical treatment afterwards.
Seventy-seven shocks? Someone should go to jail for that …
Links: Boston Globe article | USA Today has the (censored) investigation report [pdf] | More info at USA Today On Deadline
Last year, Dave of Miss(ed) Manners and his brother Danny built the awesome diorama of Battle of Helm’s Deep (from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings) with gummy bears and other candies.
The duo have followd up with another incredible creation: a scale model of Minas Tirith during the Battle of Pelennor Fields (from The Return of the King), also made out of candies: Link – via Boing Boing
NASA/ESA Hubble Telescope photographed a phenomenon called "Einstein ring" where, predicted by Einstein a long time ago, gravity can "bend" light rays:
The phenomenon, called gravitational lensing, occurs when a massive galaxy in the foreground bends the light rays from a distant galaxy behind it, in much the same way as a magnifying glass would. When both galaxies are exactly lined up, the light forms a circle, called an “Einstein ring”, around the foreground galaxy. If another more distant galaxy lies precisely on the same sightline, a second, larger ring will appear.
And you get a Double Einstein Ring: Link (Photo: NASA/ESA, R. Gavazzi, T. Treu, SLACS team)
PETA had placed a tombstone in the Louisville cemetery in which the founder of KFC was buried. It turns out that the gravemarker, which was approved by the cemetery, contained a hidden message:
At first glance, the tombstone looks like any other grave marker. But a closer look at the epitaph reveals a deeper meaning.
A seemingly innocuous poem is inscribed on the headstone, but, when read vertically, the first letter of each line spells out "KFC Tortures Birds."
"We sent our design to the cemetery ahead of time, or rather, the monument company did, and it was approved in advance," said PETA representative Lindsay Rajt.
KFC has this to say about the whole thing:
In a statement, KFC said, "People will see this for what it is, a disgustingly disrespectful way to disgrace the resting place of the departed… They have crossed the line once again and continue to misrepresent KFC’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines."
Maybe PETA should change their name to Pranksters for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Link
Meet Ed Gardner, who just turned 20 years old and is Britain’s youngest commercial pilot for Titan Airways:
Holidaymakers flying from Stansted airport since October may have been unaware that the reassuring voice from the cockpit was that of a teenager.
Ed Gardner, who has now turned 20, is believed to be Britain’s youngest commercial pilot. [...]
Mr Gardner, from Stebbing, near Great Dunmow, Essex, said: "I started flying at 14 – that is the youngest you have to be to learn. "I flew solo at 16 and got my private pilot’s licence on my 17th birthday." My dad never pushed for me to become a pilot but as soon as I said I wanted to do it he was pleased."
Mr Gardner was so keen on flying he was able to pilot an aircraft before he started learning to drive a car.
The Los Angeles Times has a very interesting article about American women who married Saudi men and must now obey strict Islamic laws. Or at least on the face of it. Apparently, it’s not all negative:
Most non-Muslim women convert to Islam as a prerequisite for marrying a Saudi and living in the kingdom. Many American women, including those who converted before they arrived, have embraced the Koran; for others, the adoption of Islam is a pantomime act, the disguise of a second self to hold them over until they peel off their head scarves and travel to the U.S. for summer vacations.
For both kinds of women, it is a life of sacrifices and measured victories: Women can’t drive or vote in Saudi Arabia, but their children are largely safe from street crime and drugs; a wife can’t leave the country without her husband’s written permission, but tribal and religious codes instill a strong sense of family.
Freedom lies behind courtyard walls, where private swimming pools glimmer and the eyes of the religious police, known as the mutaween, do not venture. Rock ‘n’ roll (haram) is played, smuggled whiskey (haram) is sipped, and Christianity (haram) sometimes is practiced. This sequestered, contradictory experience, a number of American wives noted, can turn an expat into an alcoholic or a born-again Christian, and sometimes both.
"American women get together and we talk," said Lori Baker, a mother of two who met her Saudi husband at Ohio State University in 1982. "We ask one another, ‘Where are you on your curve now? Have you hit bottom yet?’ We all go through the highs and lows when it comes to moods and tolerance. . . . When I first got here, I felt naked without my head scarf.
"Then after the terrorist bombings in 2003, I even covered my face. Foreigners were a target then. I became very comfortable with my face covered. I felt safe. Nobody knows me. They can’t see me, and if you’re covered, they respect you. Sometimes without a covered face it’s like walking down Main Street wearing a bikini."
A series of neat looking vintage postcard lamp shades has just arrived over at the UncommonGoods website.
Visit another time and another place with these charming, retro Americana postcard lamp shades. The vintage-style shades sit atop a natural cedar stump base (sold separately) for a campy, kitschy accent that will bring to mind road trips, vacation homes and an era gone-by. Choose from New York, California, Florida or Texas postcards.
The shades measure 7.5(H) x 10(W) x 6.5(D) inches and are priced at $60 a piece.
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I begin with drawings that are translated into a wood skeleton, constructed to convey a posturing as well as offer gravitational support. A process of wrapping and layering with foil over the frame provides shape and density to the figures. They are then completely covered with a stuffed nylon skin. Using old-fashioned knitting machines, I create a flexible mesh wire fabric that is meticulously stitched onto the skin–layer by layer–over faces, horns, and even the crevices of toes until the essence of each creature breathes life.
Link -via Everlasting Blort
Comments Off The American tennis player Andy Roddick puts some weight behind his serve.
According to the video comments over at YouTube, this clip has been used for a Powerade commercial but someone also points out that “it happened in front of a stadium full of people, it’s not fake”.
mental_floss also has a video by the same folks with people in order of the length of their love relationship. Link
Maila Nurmi, best known for her portrayal of Vampira and for her role in Ed Wood`s Plan 9 From Outer Space, has passed at age 86.
Her portrayal of Vampira as a television horror host and in films was incredibly influential. Very few television stations in the 60`s, 70`s and 80`s were without a least one over the top horror host. Cassandra Peterson`s character of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has long been considered by many to be directly lifted from Vampira and Nurmi sued Peterson over the character in the late 1980′s.
In recent years Nurmi was featured alongside cult filmmakers Roger Corman, Doris Wishman, David F. Friedman and others in Ray Greene’s documentary Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies and was interviewed for American Scary, a documentary about local late-night horror movie hosts. In 2006, Nurmi was the subject of another documentary called Vampira: The Movie.
This short film was created in 4 days by 3 Graphic Designers on a shoe string budget for the timewatch program “Bloody Omaha”. The final graphics are quite spectacular.
Video: Youtube
| The following is reprinted from Uncle John’s Unstoppable Bathroom Reader book.
We all have fantasies of getting even with people who annoy us … but we seldom actually go through with them . Here are some examples of what could happen if we did. REVENGE OF THE PHONE CLERK
Revenge Gone Wild! When Storrie received his next phone bill, he found that he’d been charged an extra $140. What for? The explanation was printed right on the bill: “penalty for being an arrogant bastard.” N.Z. Telecom apologized profusely, offered Storrie some undisclosed financial compensation, and promised to investigate the vengeful billing. REVENGE OF THE BAD WAITER
Revenge Gone Wild! Voeltner had his girlfriend follow the Kellers home to get their address. When he got off work, he, his girlfriend, and his brother went to the Keller home, waited until 1 a.m., and then doused their house, yard, and mailbox with a gallon of maple syrup, smashed eggs, toilet paper, duct tape, and plastic wrap. They might have gotten away with it, but in a state of heightened stupidity, Voeltner rang the doorbell. Then he hid in the bushes and waited to see their reaction. Their reaction: They called the police. Officers found Voeltner in the bushes and his co-conspirators in a nearby car. When they presented the suspects to the Kellers, Mrs. Keller said, REVENGE OF THE POSTMASTER
Revenge Gone Wild! The next day, Beal showed up at the post office carrying two five-gallon buckets full of worms, grubs, and porcupine poop. He proceeded to splatter several of his former co-workers with the putrid concoction, completely saturating two of them. He was on his way to his car for another bucket when police arrived. For his bizarre act of revenge, he was charged with four counts of assaulting a federal worker. “I let my anger sort of overrule my judgments,” REVENGE OF THE NON-WITNESS
Revenge Gone Wild! White went to the group’s local Kingdom Hall in Peacehaven, England, the following morning, carefully timing her visit for the middle of the Sunday service. She banged on the door loudly, again and again, until someone answered, and then proceeded to offer members of the congregation religious literature that she had brought along. “I tried to hand out free magazines just like the Jehovah’s Witness hand REVENGE OF THE SPAM HATERS
Revenge Gone Wild! A group of spam haters decided to give Ralsky a dose of his own medicine. They posted his home address on hundreds of websites, and Ralsky started getting tons – literally – of junk mail. Then they posted his e-mail address and his phone number, and the mega-junkmailer got inundated with the very thing he had made his millions from – spam. And, no surprise: He was annoyed! Ralsky later complained, “They’ve signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is. These people are out of their minds! They’re harassing me!” (Photo: The Detroit News) |
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.
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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| Previously on Neatorama:
- Killdozer: Don’t Get Mad – Get an Armored Bulldozer and Get Even! |
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A little sticky Post-It note in the corner of my desk has been duly reminding me to do a "best of" list for Neatorama. And obviously, I’ve been procrastinating. My problem is there are a lot of exclusive Neatorama articles that I think are really neat. On top of that, we have tons of articles from our friends at mental_floss and Bathroom Reader (see our Archive section for the complete list).
But pick I must (before we’re more and more into 2008, which would make a Best of 2007 list seem even more awkwardly late!). Here are my picks of the 10 Neatest Neatorama Articles of 2007, in chronological order:
"Remember the words of Chairman Mao: ‘It’s always darkest before it’s totally black.’."
– John McCain, American politician and Senator (b. 1936)
Perhaps the best way to describe Richard Saja’s art is to compare it with graffiti. That is, if you can embroider graffiti!
Richard takes a toile (Toile de Jouy) print, like on the sofa above, and hand embroider its figures into anachronistic and irreverent characters. Clowns, for example, are a common motif:
There are also things that are totally out of place, like this guy in a leather jacket with a giant skull on the back:
Sometimes, he put in the surprising and unusual, like this house on fire:
More of Richard Saja’s artwork can be found in his blog: Historically Inaccurate – via Gimcrack Hospital (PG) and Scribal Terror
Ben Dawkins of BBH ad agency created this funny little viral ad for Vigorsol, an Italian breath mint. See how this enterprising little squirrel (chipmunk?) saved the forest from a burning fire …
With the tagline of "A Fresh Air Explosion," whaddaya really expect? Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Miss Cellania
Craftster user sweet4ever made herself a custom lamp out of melted LEGO blocks! (Warning: burning plastic releases toxic fumes) Link – via GeekAlerts
This is but one of many craft/DIY projects on Craftster Best of 2007 list (LOL at PoiToy’s "Mature/Adult" Felted Sheep for Army Buddy in Iraq [SFW] and My Cat’s Evil Pope Costume)
Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, California, is the world’s first motel. It was built in 1925 by LA architect Arthur Heineman, who coined the term motel meaning "motor hotel."
Motel Inn was originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel. Back then, one night stay was $1.25. Heineman couldn’t afford the trademark registration fee, so his competitors were able to use the word "motel." The motel is still in operation today. (Photo: BeachCalifornia.com)
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There are a lot of strange customs, things and people in Japan, but this one is really odd: forcing a fish to drink sake.
The fish were the drinkers in a strange ceremony dating back to the Edo Period in which lively carp are made to consume a large dose of sake as they symbolically take on people’s calamities. After drinking the sake, the fish are released into a river. [...]
Filled up with sake, the carp at first turned belly-up on the surface of the water. But they soon recovered and swam off.
Flickr user TwystNeko creates one balloon animal a day, every day. So far, there are 100 Flickr photos uploaded – many are quite creative (like the flamethrower balloon, for instance.)
This one to the left is the Cthulhu balloon. The Great Old One doesn’t seem so scary when made of twisted balloons!
Link: Balloon A Day [Flickr] – via Super Punch
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Background: In early 2002, New Zealander James Storrie called New Zealand Telecom Corporation to complain that his cell phone had been disconnected. When the representative informed him that the phone had been reported stolen, Storrie insisted that he still had the phone and that he had not reported its theft. The mistake was cleared up, but the representative (identity unknown) was apparently offended by Storrie’s attitude.
Background: One evening in June 2003, Wayne and Darlene Keller of Corona, California, took their two children to a Sizzler’s restaurant. Mrs. Keller requested vegetables with her dinner, instead of potatoes. According to the family, the waiter, Jonathan Voeltner, rudely told her that she had to choose between French fries or baked potato. “When I told him my wife can’t eat potatoes,” Said Mr. Keller, “he brought back a really small salad, practically threw it at her, and told her to go get the dressing herself.” After the meal, the Kellers left – and they didn’t leave a tip.
Background: On October 17, 2001, 62-year-old James Beal was fired from his job as relief postmaster in Empire, Michigan.
Background: Jane White was upset that Jehovah’s Witness had come to her house once a month, every month, for 12 years. At first, she politely told them that she wasn’t interested. Finally, after a visit on a Saturday in January 2002, she had had enough.
Background: In November 2002, Detroit Free Press columnist Mike Wendland wrote a story about a man named Alan Ralsky. Ralsky had become a multimillionaire through marketing spam on the Internet. How much spam? His company sent up to 250 million e-mails a day. The story told readers about Ralsky’s new 8,000-square-foot, $740,000 home. The spammer bragged that one entire wing of the house was paid for by a single weight-loss e-mail.
