Archive for February 13th, 2008
Tentacle Body Mod
Whoa! Those are tentacle suction-cup implant done by Dark Freak at Luck All in São Paulo, Brasil. Found at the always mindboggling ModBlog – via Albotas, thanks robby!
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Greatest toy pack of all time
I really need to start frequenting flea markets. Now this is a super team: “Spiderman 3″ (with baseball bat), Hulk (wearing a g-string), Batman (relatively accurate), and “Superman Come Back” (with super crossbow and dinosaur steed!). Click through for plenty of high res images. Wow. Via Hip Today.
(You know, I still haven’t seen Superman Returns. He doesn’t ride a dinosaur in it, does he?)
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Balls of Flame in Microgravity
Candle flame in (L) normal and (M) low gravity. Floating flame balls in microgravity (R)
What does a candle flame look like in microgravity? In 2002, NASA did the experiment and found out that flames do strange things in low gravity, like break apart into tiny balls that move around like UFOs.
Link – Thanks moronic50!
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Klein Bottle House
Photo: John Gollings
Behold the Klein Bottle House by Australian architects McBride Charles Ryan. What is a Klein Bottle?
For us right-brain thinkers; in Mathematics, the “Klein Bottle” is a non-orientable surface, i.e., a surface (a two-dimensionaltopological space) with no distinction between the “inside” and “outside” surfaces. That being said and hopefully understood, this vacation home located just a few clicks outside Melbourne, Australia beautifully reflects a deep desire to mess with both sides of our brains. By constantly challenging our sense of perception, depth, linear orientation, interior/exterior space and pretty much any notion of what a dwelling should look like, the architects have successfully created a space that is surprisingly inviting and warm. Now can someone please show me to the door?
Link – via Limited Fun
Previously on Neatorama: Knitted Klein Bottle Hat and Mobius Strip Scarf
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Gorillas Also Mate Face to Face
Scientists have always thought that humans and the Bonobo are the two primate species that mate face to face. Well, they’ve just been proven wrong.
Thomas Breuer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues have just snapped the very first photo of gorillas mating face-to-face.
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
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BuckyBalls Magnetic Toys are 216 rare earth magnet balls that can be shaped and molded into virtually any shape. Tear 'em apart and snap 'em back together in unlimited ways for hours of fun! Watch the video for a quick demo of what BuckyBalls can do. Remember to get two for twice the fun! Link |
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Hawaii Chair Rawks Your World!
Tttthhhhhhiisss HHhhaawwaiiiii Chaaairrr iiisss ssupRRrrr Aaawawwsosommee !1!!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Hawaii Chair website [autostart videoclip w/ sound] – Thanks Lee!
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Engrish ABC Picture Blocks
Emily and Joshua of peer-see blog found the reason why Engrish is so prevalent in China: the poor Chinese kids never had a chance to begin with! Just look at these ABC picture blocks they used to teach English.
Link (The last one is precious!) – Thanks Leah McPherson!
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Darwinian Valentine's Day Card and Pick Up Lines
Can’t wait for this year’s Darwinian Valentine’s Day Card Contest at Skepchick blog! Last year, they did a top 10 Best Darwinian Pick-up Lines, for example:
10. Trust me Baby, my selection is ALL natural!
9. Why don’t you unzip my pants and let me show you the descent of man?
6. You cause selective pressure in my pants. How about we split – leave these Neanderthals behind?
4. Girl, you so fine, you make me want to do a Cambrian explosion between your strata.
Check out the rest of the Darwinian Pick Up Lines | This year’s Darwinian Valentine’s Day Card Contest – Thanks Rebecca!
Previously on Neatorama: Geeky Science Valentine | Scientist Valentine | Neatest Science Valentine: You’re More Special Than Relativity
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Australia (Finally) Apologized to the Aborigines
The government of Australia had just reversed course and apologized to the Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss."
In a motion passed unanimously by Australian MPs on Wednesday morning, Mr Rudd acknowledged the "past mistreatment" of all of his country’s Aboriginal population.
"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," the motion said.
Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.
"For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."
Link – Thanks Moronic50!
//USA still mum on slavery or that 40 acre and a mule thingy.
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Samurai Dog Armor
Pink Tentacle reports:
This suit of dog armor — identified by antique Japanese armor dealer Toraba.Com as the only known and certified authentic example of its kind — is believed to have been created for the pet of a wealthy, high-ranking and presumably eccentric samurai or daimyo (feudal lord) in the mid to late Edo period (mid-18th to mid-19th century).
Spencer Burns at Yachigusa Ryu wonders why this innovation didn’t occur during the fifth Tokugawa shogunate, when Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) "prohibited the harming of dogs and ordered the establishment of dog kennels, [thus earning] the nickname of ‘dog shogun.’"
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If I were Columbo I'd Peter Falk her
Yeah, yeah, yeah – it’s three weeks old… It’s still probably the funniest American Idol audition of all time, however. 32-year old Paul Marturano sings a brilliant song about his love for American Idol judge Paula Abdul and his thoughts about stalking her, and is eventually escorted out of the audition room. YouTube.
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"The Tales of Beedle the Bard," J.K. Rowling's Book of Handwritten Fairy Tales
In December, 2007, Amazon.com purchased one of only seven copies of the book in exsistence. From their site:
Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is extensively illustrated and handwritten by the bard herself–all 157 pages of it. It’s bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.
The titles of the five tales are:
1. “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot”
2. “The Fountain of Fair Fortune”
3. “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart”
4. “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump”
5. “The Tale of the Three Brothers”
Amazon.com has also posted more pictures plus a short synopsis and review of each story; because there are spoilers included, I won’t give more information here. If you’re interested in reading the reveiws, be sure to follow the link. (I read them – they’re awesome and worth a few minutes to check out!)
Link ~ Enjoy!
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Cat vs. Raccoon
(YouTube link)
It’s interesting to see the strategies different species use to operate.
Cat: Back off or I’ll fight! I’m warning you!
Raccoon: I don’t know anything about fighting. I’ll just take the food.
-via Cynical-C
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The Genovese Syndrome: When Nobody Helps
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The following is reprinted from Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again The stabbing of Kitty Genovese lasted 50 minutes was witnessed by 38 people. Surely someone would pick up the phone and call the police, right? Wrong: here’s the infamous story of what happened when good people stood by and did nothing.
A CRY FOR HELP She shrieked in terror, "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me!" Genovese’s neighbors in the snug apartment complex, many of whom knew her, turned on their lights and opened their apartment windows. One male neighbor shouted from his window, "Leave that girl alone!" Kitty’s attacker left. She began staggering to her apartment, bleeding from several stab wounds, while her neighbors shut their windows and turned off their lights. Kitty no doubt thought the worst was over. But her attacker returned and stabbed her again. "I’m dying!" she screamed. Her neighbors threw open their windows again, but nobody came out ot help. Kitty’s attacker got into a car and drove away. Kitty crawled into the vestibule of an apartment house and lay there bleeding for several minutes. At this point she might still have lived. But once again her assailant returned. He cut off her underpants and bra, sexually assaulted her, and took the $49 from her wallet before stabbing her one last, fatal time. It was not until 3:50 a.m., a full 50 minutes after the attack began, that a neighbor called police. Two minutes later, police arrived to find Kitty’s body.
NOT MY PROBLEM Police questioned Genovese’s neighbors and discovered that at least 38 people had witnessed the killer attacking Genovese, yet no one tried to intervene. Only one had called the police – after Kitty was already dead. The public reacted with horror and mystifiction. Why on earth would 38 people, who could easily and safely have picked up the phone and helped, ignored a dying woman’s calls of distress? The story caused deep rumbles in the psyche of Americans who were shocked and frightened by the spectre of their own dark sides – and the ultimate in big-city alienation. Would they, in the same situation, have helped? The neighbors offered numerous excuses for their behavior. They hadn’t wanted to get involved, they said. They could see that others were witnessing the crime – surely those people were calling the police. Some claimed they feared for their own safety: others worried that their English wasn’t up to the job of making a phone call. One heartless soul merely said, "I was tired." Another alleged that she didn’t want to interfere in what she thought was a lover’s quarrel." Police admitted that there was no law forcing witness to call for help. So the crime that the neighbors were guilty of, if any, was a moral one. SOME CONSOLATION
But Kitty Genovese has not been forgotten. The case has lived on in plays and TV dramas – it even spawned a whole new branch of psychology. When experts refer to the Genovese syndrome, they’re theorizing that the neighbors’ failure to act was due to "diffusion of responsibility" – there were so many people watching the crime that no one person felt they had any personal responsibility, because they were sure that someone else would do something. The case is still taught in every Psych 101 class in the country. Which is not much of a consolation for poor Kitty. |
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again. The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John’s first plunge into history was a smash hit – over half a million copies sold! And this seque gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsights, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
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Neatorama Note: Though the article outlined the Kitty Genovese story as it is generally accepted, more recent analysis of the case turned up discrepancies, such as a neighbor trying to call the police and was rudely dismissed, and sensationalization of newspaper accounts. For more information, check out: - Kitty Genoves [wikipedia] |
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Kitty Genovese got home from work very late. As a bar manager, she had to close and clean up before she could head home to her Queens, New York, apartment. Usually her late hours were no problem. But on March 13, 1964, when the 28-year-old, 105-pound (48 kg) Genovese parked her car at 3 a.m., there was someone waiting for her. As Kitty began to walk toward her home, the man waylaid and stabbed her.
The murderer was caught less than a week later. He readily admitted to killing Kitty Genovese, as well as two other local women, claiming he had an "uncontrollable urge to kill." In June 1964, 29-year-old Winston Moseley was found guilty, and he remains in state prison to this day.
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Caecilian Youngs Eat Their Mother's Skin Alive
A caecilian’s motherly love knows no bound, as a team of BBC crew recently discovered. The female worm-like amphibian allows her young to peel off and eat her skin!
The female caecilian’s skin becomes thicker and more nutrient-rich when she bears offspring. And the young have specialised teeth for tearing and removing it.
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World's Smallest Bodybuilder
Meet Aditya "Romeo" Dev, who at just 2 ft 9 in. (0.84 m) is the world’s smallest bodybuilder:
Pint-sized Romeo is well-known in his hometown of Phagwara, India – for his ability to lift 1.5kg dumbbells – despite his overall 9kg body weight.
Every day, crowds flock to the local gym to the see the mini-muscleman in training.
Unlike many dwarfs, Romeo is well proportioned, with a head circumference of 15in and a chest measurement of 20in.
Romeo said: "I’ve been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world."
Link | More pic at Telegraph.co.uk
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What NOT to Call Your Furniture Store
Found at Flickr user skootter01, who wrote:
In Korea you can see some strange signs, and this is one of the funniest I’ve seen. This little shop is located along a little street full of furniture stores in Uijeongbu, near Seoul. My guess is that they just pulled something random off of an Internet search engine that somehow related to wood furniture.
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Quote: Henry Kissinger on Politicians
"Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation."
– Henry Kissinger, diplomat (b. 1923)
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Ethiopian Roses
Many of the Valentines Day roses presented in Europe are grown in Ethiopia. Over 100,000 roses are exported each day! And the custom of giving flowers is catching on domestically. Floriculture is one of Ethiopia’s fastest-growing industries, because the government makes it easy for flower companies to obtain land and startup loans. National Geographic has a video report on Ethiopian roses. Link
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The Origins of Your Favorite Video Game Friends
Read the stories behind the development of classic videogame characters Donkey Kong, Mario, Sonic, and of course Pac-Man.
Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani was 26 when he invented the timeless masterpiece. In the original Japanese release, our star was called “Puckman” which was just a wee bit too close to a certain English swear word for the developers’ liking. Thus, “Pac-Man” emerged. His name is derived from the Japanese slang term ‘paku paku,’ which describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing while eating, and in the literal English translation means “to eat.”
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The Tiniest Pterosaur
A beautifully preserved fossil of a tiny pterosaur has been discovered in China. And he’s just plain adorable!
The new fossil, which was discovered in 2004 in western Liaoning province, China, is about 120 million years old.
The specimen is an almost complete, articulated skeleton with a wingspan of just 25 centimetres, making it about the size of a swallow, says its discoverer, palaeontologist Xiaolin Wang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
The little dinosaur had curved toe bones, suggesting that it perched in trees. It appears to be a primitive relative of the giant pterodactyls we are familiar with. Scientists have named the species Nemicoloperus crypticus. Link -via Digg
(image credit: Chuang Zhao)
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