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It is a small island stuck in-between Malaysia and Indonesia. Within many of our lifetimes it was the location of some of the worst ethnic violence seen anywhere in the post-war era. Conversely, within ALL of our lifetimes it has been a shining example of strength through ethnic diversity and a model of progressiveness and modernism.
I’ve been to Singapore twice – both visits almost 20 years ago (am I really getting that old?!)
When I was there I saw the slow, relentless urban renewal effort in action. Old-fashioned Chinese “shop house” neighborhoods were being systematically torn down and replaced with more modern facilities for living and for commerce. There was some sadness around this march of progress – but perhaps more palpable, a sense of excitement for the future.
Fast-forwarding 20 years from my last extended stay in Singapore and the International Herald Tribune is reporting today that only one old-fashioned rural village remains in Singapore and it, too, is slated for “renewal” itself before long.
The IHT has a nice [short] video about Singapore’s last village and the relentless march of time. Are there any “old Asian hands” among our readers who can remember the old Singapore?
[International Herald Tribune]
Ugly Overload normally focuses on ugly critters, but the face of this little guy won me over. He looks like he’s smiling. Jumping spiders are really interesting and don’t worry, they’re too small to hurt you.
If you’re a fan of Upside Down Dogs, Muttskis or any of the other cute dog blogs that have been featured on Neatorama, you are bound to love Dogs In Outfits. As the name says, it’s all dogs in outfits, that’s it. And it’s very cute as a result.
Here’s a great picture of a three-layer love fest. I almost wish there was a tiny flea on the rat just to make things even better. Best. Picture. Ever. I especially love that it wasn’t staged, the photographer just happened across this freak occurrence.
If you’ve ever wanted to make your own adorable character from Little Big Planet, here’s your chance to knit your own. If you’re really good, you can even customize them like you do in the game.
Maybe it’s just because I live in sunny Southern California and never actually see snow, but it truly fascinates me. Even if you’ve had your lifetime share of cold weather though, you’ll still probably love these photos of frost, snow and ice. Plus, if you actually read the text, you just might learn something new.
Now kids can play airport more realistically with this Playmobil security checkpoint. Comes with a free box of latex gloves.
Link via Radley Balko, who found the customer reviews hilarious.
Popped Culture as a list of 25 strange throw pillows that you can buy, such as the pool of blood pillow above. Also available are ones made to look like the lap of a woman wearing a miniskirt (from Japan, of course), a Lego block, a Nintendo controller, and a Scrabble piece.
O.M.G. A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problem pulled his eyeball and then ate it!
Before his trial (of which he was convicted and sentenced to death), he had pulled out an eyeball (but didn’t eat it). The judge had declared him mentally fit for trial:
A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.
"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.
Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.
"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas’ trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."
Here’s where men end up when they mess up and get their wives or girlfriends angry: the dog house. Yes, it’s an advertisement, but it’s funny because it’s true (what man hasn’t been in the dog house?)
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via SixPackTech
Betcha didn’t know that "ha-ha" is an actual word meaning a trench, basically a sunken fence to keep livestocks from coming into your backyard while preserving the uncluttered look of the landscape:
… the name is derived from the response of ordinary folk on encountering them and that they were, "…then deemed so astonishing, that the common people called them Ha! Ha’s! to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk."
More on Ha-ha at Wikipedia – via Fancy Notion’s Word of the Day
Soon to be an ex-racist
Are you a racist? While most people don’t view themselves as prejudiced, a surprising new study revealed that many unknowingly have racist views:
The authors divided 120 non-black participants into the roles of "experiencers" and "forecasters." The "experiencers" were placed in a room with a white person and a black person, who played out pre-arranged scenarios for the experiment. The scenarios began when the black role-player bumped the white role-player’s knee when leaving the room.
In the first scenario, the white person did not comment afterwards. In the "moderate" case, the white person said, "Typical, I hate it when black people do that," after the black person left the room. In the "extreme" case, the white person remarked, "Clumsy n****r."
The "forecasters," meanwhile, predicted how they would feel in these situations.
The magnitude of the results surprised even the authors, Kawakami said. Experiencers reported little distress in all three scenarios, much less than the forecasters did in the moderate and severe situations.
"Even using that most extreme comment didn’t lead people to be particularly upset," said co-author Elizabeth Dunn, assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Previously on Neatorama: How Racist Are You? Take the test!
How do mosquitoes find love? Turns out, they serenade their mates! Scientists at Cornell University found out by supergluing mosquitoes on to a tiny tether and then suspending them in the air:
The male mosquito’s buzz, or flight tone, is normally about 600 cycles per second, or 600-Hz. The female’s tone is about 400-Hz. In music, he’s roughly a D, and she’s about a G. So the male brings his tone into phase with the female’s to create a near-perfect duet. Together, the two tones create what musicians call an overtone — a third, fainter tone at 1200-Hz. Only then will the mosquitoes mate.
Christopher Joyce of NPR has the story: Link (with video clip)
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
Ah, art. Behold the Eco Brolly by Shiu Yuk Yuen. It’s an "environmentally friendly" umbrella that turns whatever happens to be convenient at the time of rain (like a newspaper or plastic bag) into an umbrella:
it can re-use whatever the consumer thinks of reusing. It is a supporting devise when it rains, all the user has to do is unscrew the top lid, poke the lid onto the middle of a reuseable object, quick screw to secure it & open it out like an umbrella!
This is for short distances, but it can last longer, by clipping the clips at each end of the umbrella onto the newspaper to stabalise it. It is pocket size, lightweight aluminium, suitable for Britan, where its hard to predict the weather, espeically for Central Londoners, where free newspaper is avaliable.
This, of course, begs, the question: if you want to carry something, why not carry a regular umbrella in the first place?
Students in California are probably cheering Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to save $1 billion to help the state’s big budget deficit by shortening
the school year by five days.
In other news, it costs $200 million a day (!) to run California’s schools!
Let’s give them 10 days off and save $2 billion!
Seema Mehta of the LA Times has the story: Link
Jay Cowell of River Road Middle School got a fancy haircut with a star, which he said is "for God and all the stuff he made on the earth."
But the school officials saw it differently, and declared the his haircut a "gang symbol" and suspended the eight-grader until he got it all shorn off.
Did the school do the right thing? Or are they just being a fuddy duddy? Link [Flash clip]
What on (or out of) Earth could have destroyed this wind turbine in Lincolnshire, UK? In a strange incident, half a dozen residents reported mysterious glowing orbs in the sky before the turbine was wrecked.
Matthew Moore of Telegraph has the story of the incident that baffled engineers:
“It sounds unbelievable but actually we don’t have any explanation at the moment,” said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, the energy company which owns the wind farm at Conisholme near Louth.
At least half a dozen Lincolnshire residents reported seeing the orange-yellow spheres, which some witnesses claimed were trailing octopus-like “tentacles”.
(Photo: Newsteam)
When German weatherman Jörg Kachelmann was doing his live weather report, he had an unexpected guest: a cat named Lupin wandered into the studio. Without missing a beat, Jörg picked up the cat and continued on!
"I don’t know how he got into the studio," Kachelmann said, adding Lupin belonged to a staffer who was out of town.
"I noticed him when he rubbed against my leg and thought people might wonder what was happening. I figured it would be easier to control the cat by picking him up. Cats get annoyed if they feel ignored. So I made sure he didn’t feel ignored."
– via tvnz
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When a freezing winter gives you thousands of tons of snow, what’s an Alpine farmer to do? Harvest the snow and sell it to ski resorts, of course!
In Austria the biggest “snow harvesters” are the owners of the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrassen AG (GroAG), a 40-mile stretch of road 8,200 feet above sea level which is Europe’s highest Alpine crossing.
GroAG spokesman Dietmar Schondorfer said: “Even if it doesn’t snow, every day we have tonnes of snow dumped on the road by the wind, all we have to do is drive back and forward to scoop it up.
