Archive for April, 2009
Montanara
Montanara is the name given to this amazing sofa upholstered with mountains and waterfalls designed by Gaetano Pesce. Link -via Gearfuse
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Beetle Borgs
Engineers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed remote-control beetles that can be used as spies! They aren’t just robots, either. These are cyborgs, real beetles that have implanted electrodes that control their flight muscles.
With the mind of a machine and the nimble body of an insect, this bug-bot may be the perfect scout: inexpensive, expendable, and capable of surreptitious reconnaissance. The Berkeley researchers, led by Michael Maharbiz, note that beetles are strong enough to carry useful payloads, such as a miniature camera.
(image credit: Hirotaka Sato and Michel M. Maharbiz, U. C. Berkeley)
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What Makes You Happy?
Neatorama regular SenorMysterioso started a thread on the Neatorama Forum that I hope you will participate in. It’s about what makes you happy:
We do a lot of bitching(maybe I’ll start a thread for that too) but lets have a little space dedicated to what’s made us happy lately. At least if nothing that great happens in my day I can read about everyone else’s little joys.
What makes you happy? Join the thread there (or if you don’t want to register a username, you can comment below): Link
And with that, let me congratulate Johnny Cat on the good news and wish seefish3 a Happy Birthday!
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Bruce Campbell Strikes Back, Sings Hungry Like the Wolf
So. John recently posted about Jeff Burk’s novel Shatner Quake, in which William Shatner (William Shatner? William Shatner. WILLIAM SHATNER!) battled all characters he ever played, after a failed terrorist attack by the Campbellians (who worships Bruce Campbell).
Though I haven’t read the novel, I immediately feel that this is an unwarranted attack on Bruce. First, take a look at the clip below, then tell me, is this the kind of man that can summon the Army of Darkness? Or cavort with The Evil Dead?
Duran Duran has got nothin’ on Bruce Campbell (plus, he probably smells good!)
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Neurotic Men Improve the Health of Women, But Not Vice Versa
This is excellent news for my wife. Psychological researchers have discovered that women gain a health benefit by living with neurotic men:
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Conscientiousness is a good thing in a mate, researchers report, not just because it’s easier to live with someone who washes the dishes without being asked, but also because having a conscientious partner may actually be good for one’s health. Their study, of adults over age 50, also found that women, but not men, get an added health benefit when paired with someone who is conscientious and neurotic.
This is the first large-scale analysis of what the authors call the “compensatory conscientiousness effect,” the boost in health reported by those with conscientious spouses or romantic partners. The study appears this month in Psychological Science.
Link via Instapundit
Image via flickr user Mr. Greenjeans
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An Interactive Map of Library Cats
Way back in the day when I was in library school in Ohio, there was a slowly dying tradition in rural libraries of hosting “library cats.” These were cats that lived full-time in libraries, most public. Well, Gary Roma of Iron Frog Productions has created a worldwide historical archive of library cats and organized them around an interactive map, giving the names, locations, and dates of residents for individual cats. It’s a work in progress, so if you know of a cat that isn’t mentioned, be sure to let him know.
Image via flickr user TVLshac
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Scarecrow Policeman Slows Traffic
Tired of speeding cars, residents of the village of Crosby-on-Eden in Cumbria, England, decided to take matters into their own hands: by creating a scarecrow policeman, complete with a radar gun made from a water bottle!
David Sowden, another resident, added: "Certainly from a distance it looks like a genuine police officer.
"One visitor said it would be a good idea to keep that up for a week and then replace him with a proper physical police officer with a gun for another week and see what happens.
"It has made them nose dive and they said they couldn’t believe the reaction."
Link (Photo: North News)
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a Fan-Made Movie Trailer
Can’t wait for the new X-Men movie? Neither could Ryan Higa – but instead of fretting about waiting, he did something about it: he "sweded" his own X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer. The result? Hilarious! (BTW, Ryan is the creator of the YouTube channel Nigahiga, the second most subscribed channel of all time on the site)
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
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Scientists: Swine Flu Milder Than Run-Of-The-Mill Winter Flu
If you’ve been watching all of the media hype, you’d be forgiven if you think that the swine flu pandemic will kill us all. But according to some scientists, it’s actually much milder than your average run-of-the-mill flu that hit every winter:
The swine virus does appear able to spread easily among humans, which persuaded the WHO to boost its influenza pandemic alert level to phase 5, indicating that a worldwide outbreak of infection is very likely. And the CDC reported on its website that "a pattern of more severe illness associated with the virus may be emerging in the United States." [...]
But certainly nothing that would dwarf a typical flu season. In the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die — a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%.
Dirk Brockmann, a professor of engineering and applied mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., used a computer model of human travel patterns to predict how this swine flu virus would spread in the worst-case scenario, in which nothing is done to contain the disease.
After four weeks, almost 1,700 people in the U.S. would have symptoms, including 198 in Los Angeles, according to his model. That’s just a fraction of the county’s thousands of yearly flu victims.
Karen Kaplan and Alan Zarembo of The Los Angeles Times has more: Link
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Constellation Chandelier
91 members with four LED lights each, this chandelier was designed by Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn. It’s very energy-efficient for the amount of light it provides. Link -via Swiss Miss
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Hospital Food
Hospital Food is a photo blog to which people submit photographs of hospital meals. The places they come from aren’t always identified, but from the looks of things, you want to be hospitalized in France to get a really decent meal. The Asian meals look pretty good, too. Others aren’t so appetizing. The meal pictured was served in a Polish hospital. Link -via Buzzfeed
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Manhattan, 2009 and 1609
English explorer Henry Hudson set foot on an island called Mannahatta 400 years ago. The Manhatta Project has recreated the island as it appeared in 1609, with forests, wetlands, and a vast array of wildlife. See views of Manhattan side-by-side with a computer recreation of what it looked like before it became a city. Link -via mental_floss
(Image credit: Markley Boyer, Mannahatta Project/Wildlife Conservation Society)
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What Is It? Game 97
W00t! It’s time for our collaboration with the always mind-boggling What is it? blog. Can you guess what this strange device is used for?
Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL or web links – let others play. No prize this week, so you’re playing for bragging rights only.
For more clues and other guessing fun, please visit the What is it? Blog. Good luck!
Update 5/1/09 – The answer is: An Electraply quack medical device, according to the manual, it’s a “pulsating machine used on the body for its therapeutic action and for administering electrical massage,” patent number 1,789,758. That was too easy! Congrats to jmjrdrave who got it first (and to Jared for a more detailed answer) 
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Scientists Spot Oldest Object in Universe
I don’t know about you, but each time I read this kind of news my head spins. Scientists have detected a gamma ray burst that dates back 13 billion years, 95 percent back to the beginning of time. That makes it the oldest thing ever seen. Astronomer Edo Berger was blown away by the information.
The star which exploded was 30 to 100 times larger than our own sun, and when it died, it gave off “about million times the amount of energy the sun will release in its entire lifetime,” Berger told CNN by phone from Harvard University, where he is an assistant professor of astronomy.
Its death throes produced so much energy that “momentarily, we can essentially see it anywhere in the universe,” Berger said.
The object, known as GRB 090423, is about 200 million years older than the previous record-holder for oldest object ever seen.
Berger isn’t just interested in the record books, though — the gamma ray burst extended the frontiers of human knowledge about the history of the universe.
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William Shatner? William Shatner. William Shatner!
Shatnerquake is a novel by Jeff Burk. Here’s the premise:
It’s the first ShatnerCon with William Shatner as the guest of honor! But after a failed terrorist attack by Campbellians, a crazy terrorist cult that worships Bruce Campbell, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world. Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner.
This is so Shatnerific that I’m having a screaming Shatnergasm right now.
Link via Topless Robot
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The Real-Life Tenenbaums: Three Famous Families
Everyone knows the famous showbiz families – the Carter-Cashes, the Osmonds, the Baldwins. But there are some people with hugely successful relatives in realms other than entertainment. Having an actor, a poetic genius and a celebrity chef in the family makes for some interesting holidays and reunions, I’ll bet. Here are three Tenenbaum-like families, and be sure to share the ones I missed in the comments.
The Bonham Carters
You know Helena, of course – actress extraordinaire and wife of Tim Burton. But fame in the Bonham Carter lineage hardly began with her: her great-grandfather, H.H. Asquith, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 (that’s H.H. in the picture). Asquith’s daughter Violet followed in her dad’s political footsteps, and it’s no wonder since she grew up on Downing Street. She ended up marrying her dad’s Principal Private Secretary, Mark Bonham Carter, and together they had four children, including Raymond – Helena’s dad. Violet had a close, lifelong friendship with Winston Churchill. Can you imagine the tales that run in that family? It must be fascinating. You can hear some of them, at least – Violet published a book in 1965 called Winston Churchill as I Knew Him (Winston Churchill: An Intimate Portrait in the U.S.).
But it’s not just Helena’s paternal side of the family that’s famous. Her maternal grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, was a WWII hero in a sort of unconventional way – as the First Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris, he worked with Portugal to issue more than 30,000 transit visas to Jewish people so they could cross Spain to get to Portugal. When Spain’s Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer, a Nazi sympathizer, discovered Eduardo’s doings, he had him transferred to Morocco.
Edward Bonham Carter, Helena’s brother, is a well-known financial executive in the U.K. and appears on a BBC finance show on a regular basis. Her cousin, Crispin Bonham Carter, is also an actor who has been in Bridget Jones’ Diary, Pride and Prejudice and Absolutely Fabulous. Another cousin, Jane Bonham Carter, is a British politician.
And if all of that weren’t enough, she’s also distantly related (by marriage) to Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond series.
The Day-Lewises
Daniel Day-Lewis – DDL as we like to call him – is a favorite in our house. But just like Helena, he’s really just the latest in a large family of talented people. His dad was Cecil Day-Lewis (pictured), Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1968 to 1972, but he also wrote mystery novels under the name Nicholas Blake. Cecil has 10 poetry collections to his name, 20 novels as Nicholas Blake and two children’s novels as himself.
Daniel’s mother is Jill Balcon, an actress who has been in various films over the years, but her father (Daniel’s grandpa) was Michael Balcon, a famous filmmaker who headed up Ealing Studios in West London. Alfred Hitchcock worked for Balcon in his early years, and it was Balcon that gave Hitch his first opportunity to direct.
Daniel’s sister, Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis, who goes by Tamasin, is a chef on British T.V. and has written nine cookbooks. Brother Sean Day-Lewis is a TV critic and writer.
The Rossellinis
Isabella Rossellini has tons of history in her family. Isabella is, of course, a celebrated actress and model. You probably know that her mother was Ingrid Bergman, the beautiful actress who starred in Casablanca opposite Humphrey Bogart (among other great roles). Her father was Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, who began dating Ingrid when the two of them were both married to other people.
Just as Isabella is famous in Hollywood circles, her twin sister, Isotta Ingrid, is famous in academia. Although she started out in the film world serving as her mother’s makeup artist, she didn’t stay there long. She has taught Italian literature at NYU, World War II Italian Cinema at Princeton and literature of social reflection at Harvard. Her dissertation on Francesco Petrarch’s Il Canzoniere was published in 1995. That’s Isotta Ingrid, Isabella and Robin (Renato Roberto Giusto Giuseppe) in the picture.
The two of them have a half-sister by Ingrid Bergman’s first marriage to Dr. Peter Lindstrom. Pia Lindstrom is a reporter and anchorwoman who has been in the field since 1966 and has two Emmy awards to her name.
Isabella’s daughter Elettra took after her mother and has a successful career as a fashion model. It’s appropriate, really, because her father was a former fashion model as well and her parents met at a Calvin Klein photo shoot. Her first job was for Abercrombie & Fitch and has since modeled for Bill Blass, Ferragamo, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
And although not directly related, I think it’s worth noting that Isabella was once married to Martin Scorsese.
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10 Pigs We Will Always Love
Fatigued and irritable, with a touch of fever? No, it’s not swine flu. Chances are, you’ve caught swine flu overload.
And who’d blame ya …with "breaking news" every few minutes over possible cases of the flu, followed with even more breaking news of press conferences of denying that those cases were even flu to begin with. Not that Neatorama isn’t guilty of hyping up the swine flu, mind you.
So. Pigs have gotten a lot of bad press, lately, and the only cure for swine flu overload is … more news about pigs (positive spin, of course). That’s just what Nicholas Nadel of Asylum has done – here’s a look at the 10 Pigs We Will Always Love:
3. Babe
Smart, adorable, and with the voice of Bobby Hill, Babe is the only pig with an Oscar nomination under his belt. In fact, he’s such a well-rendered pig, he beat "Apollo 13" for best special effects. (The bad blood between Babe and Tom Hanks is legendary.) He even scored a sequel, the darkly surreal "Babe: Pig in the City." Fun fact: "Babe" was banned in Malaysia for not being "halal." That won’t do pig, that won’t do.
Link – Thanks Kurt Patat!
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Money Mail-Art by Jeffrey Errick
Money Art by Sarala Kron
Jeffrey Errick of Stuff by Wackystuff blog has an extensive collection of fantastic retro art, but it was his Money Mail-Art Call that got our attention. Jeffrey asks artists to mail him "money" art (not real currency, money is just the theme) that he then posts on his blog. If you send him your money art, he’ll send you something back!
This one above is by Sarala Kron, USA:
Since she is a doctor, Sarala sent us a Health Care Dollar,
complete with annuity chart and cigarette warning label.
It arrived in a Monopoly money envelope.
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Japanese Homeless Camp, Complete With Solar Panel
Images : Kyohei Sakaguchi
The Japanese are just better than the rest of us. There. I’ve said it. From consumer electronics to cars, it seems that the Japanese just do things better.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that the Japanese may be academically better (their school children consistently score at the top of the charts) but they’re not creative. But that is dead wrong as anyone who has seen a Japanese game show, watched an anime, or play Super Mario can attest.
Even the Japanese homeless are better. In 2000, architect Kyohei Sakaguchi ran across this homeless camp along a riverside in Tokyo. The homeless man who was living in it worked for a camera company and knew his electronics – so he outfitted his "Zero Yen House" with a solar panel that let him watch TV and listen to the radio.
The Interior is made from wood. The roof is made from the cardboard. He covered it with a big blue vinyl sheet. He stocks under the floor. This house isn’t connected with the road. He just put it on the road. He said to me that this could float on the water once. This house is also a ship!!!
Link – via anArchitecture
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6 Famous Characters You Didn't Know Were Shameless Rip Offs
You’ve heard of X-men, but do you remember Doom Patrol?
Unlike the X-Men, the Doom Patrollers were once normal people who suffered an accident that disfigured them but also gave them superpowers. Shunned by the world for just being plain ugly, the freaks were gathered by Doctor Caulder, a paraplegic, who thought that maybe the world wouldn’t dislike them so much if they used their powers to save the normal people’s asses from giant robots once in a while.
If this sounds somewhat familiar to you, it’s because the same thing as X-Men with the only difference that the smart guy in the wheelchair was bald in one and X-Men uses mutants as an allegory for minorities instead of people with elephantiasis or whatever the heck Doom Patrol was going for.
Cracked looks at six famous characters and their lesser-known precursors. I knew about The Lion King, but I was unfamiliar with the rest. Oh, I knew the last one, too, but I didn’t know how much they had in common. Link
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Jughead's Hat
What do they call that weird cap with the ragged spikes and various decorations attached? You’ve seen it in old movies, TV shows, and advertisements. It’s been called by many names: a fedora beanie, jagged beanies, Whoopee cap, palookaville caps, devils caps, clubhouse hats, and Kingpins. I’m Learning to Share takes a look at how the style developed in the early part of the 20th century. Link -via Metafilter
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Bill Backs
Have you ever really taken a good look at US currency? In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be shown the buildings on the backs of US bills. Can you match each to the correct denomination? I scored 60% due to educated guessing, since I don’t usually have any cash. You will do better! Link
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Largest Ever Model Rocket Launched
[YouTube - Link]
On Saturday, a man in Maryland successfully launched a 1:10 scale model of a Saturn V Rocket. The Saturn V is the rocket that took NASA astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo missions. The launch of the 36 foot tall rocket also breaks the record for the largest model rocket ever launched.
– via wired
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Caterpillars Warn Acoustically of Upcoming Defense
Caterpillars of the Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) are making quite a buzz. A recent study has shown that these giant silkmoth caterpillars are advertising acoustically that they are unpallatable and warn of an upcoming defense strategy.
When disturbed by a would be attacker the caterpillars stridulate by rubbing their mouth parts together, creating broadband chirps spanning from 3.7-55.1 kHz. While it is still unclear who exactly they are advertising to, a predator would be well advised to stay away from their sharp, chemical exuding bristles.
Though is not the first example of sound production in caterpillars it is a novel mechanism, paving the way for future research. (Photo: V. Bura)
Saturnia pyri chirp before or while they ooze foul-smelling droplets from their bristles. So the chirps might be a warning to attackers that there’s some serious resistance on the way, Yack and her colleagues propose online and in an upcoming Naturwissenschaften.
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Bathtub IV
Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Keith Loutit’s work has been presented on Neatorama in the past in “A Lilliputian World” and in “A Little Mardi-Gras” and each time it blew people away. Using his impressive skill with tilt-shift photography and filming he pumps out videos and pictures that present the illusion of miniatures brought to life. In this video Keith got to film a rescue training session with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.
More of Keith’s stuff here – Link
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Swine Flu: Bacon's Revenge
Swine Flu: Bacon’s Revenge – $9.95
Swine flu is on everybody’s mind, so why not on their T-shirts as well? Neatorama illustrator Chris Murphy cooked up this hammy design that will surely get your friends and co-workers chuckling (though whether they’re chuckling because the shirt is funny or they’re nervous about swine flu is another matter).
And for those who’re sick and tired of hearing of the swine flu pandemic, how about a little pundemic? The cleverest pun in the comment (yes, I’m looking at you, Kalel) will win this T-shirt. Moral outrage is welcome (as long as it’s funny).
Link | Lots more fun Science T-Shirts
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Grizzly Bear is Best Man in Wedding
Photo: Grizzly Creek Films
Brutus, the best man of naturalist Casey Anderson and actress Missi Pyle’s wedding is a bit hairy. He also didn’t wear any clothes, but that’s okay because he is a 800-pound Grizzly bear that Casey raised since birth!
The Daily Mail has more pics: Link | By the way, Casey & Brutus are going to be on National Geographic Channel spcieal this May called "Expedition Grizzly"
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Mustachioed Horse
I can’t grow facial hair even if my life depended on it. Thanks to weak genetics, the most I’ve ever grown were mere stubbles, even after a week or two of not shaving.
And I think most horses share my predicament (or luck, depending your point of view) except for this one: Alfie, a 10-year-old Shire cross, not only has a ’stache … he’s also very proud of it!
The moustache may look somewhat incongruous given its fair colour compared to his black and white colouring and well-meaning staff thought he would rather be without it.
However Alfie clearly enjoys the look and groom Justine Greenslade said all efforts to clip it had been in vain. "He’s obviously rather proud of his facial hair," she said. "He runs a mile if he thinks we’re going to trim it."
Link (Photo: Eyecatch Pictures)
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The Facebook Revenge
When "Valeria A." caught her fiancé fondling another girl’s boobs on Facebook a few days before their wedding, she decided to get even, guerilla-style!
She and a pal printed and stuck up hundreds of posters at train stations and office blocks around the city where her fiance and their friends work.
A picture – taken from Antonio’s Facebook profile – shows him nestling his head between a girl’s naked boobs.
"Thank goodness there’s Facebook! At least I’ve disovered you’re a traitor pig before the wedding! Signed, your former betrothed bride and the 548 guests of our wedding," wrote Valeria, 28.
Link (Photo: EuroPics)
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The Worm Within
This 2004 short story by Vincent Eaton tells of his experience with a tapeworm. This is not for hypochondriacs or those disturbed by bathroom scenes. Guaranteed to make you cook your meat just a little longer.
I headed directly to the pharmacist, purchased the pill, took it home, created an altar, placed it there and worshipped it for forty-five minutes as the answer to all my dreams and prayers. “Oh mighty pill, death to the demon residing within…”
Next morning I popped out of bed, got myself a glass of water, removed the pill from its altar cushion, placed it on my tongue, closed my eyes, and swallowed, declaring, “Take that, monster of the deep! You neverending strand of unspooling spaghetti!” I smacked my lips and thought that was that.
It wasn’t.
The story concludes with an invitation to share your stories of parasites. There are dozens of pages of contributions. Link -via reddit
(image credit: Chris Bishop)
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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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