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The video of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz and their attendants dancing down the aisle at their wedding has over 13 million views on YouTube. Neither Chris Brown, whose song “Forever” served as the processional music, nor Sony Music demanded a takedown of the video. Rather, they requested click-to-buy links to Amazon and iTunes from YouTube, and sales of the year-old song skyrocketed. But what about Jill and Kevin? They appeared on morning TV to talk about the video, but haven’t made any money. Instead, they are using their sudden fame to raise funds for charity. From their website:
We have been through a lot in life, but have come through each experience stronger and more in love with each other. Our experience since we posted the video has been incredible. We would never have expected this response to our wedding entrance in a million years.
We hope to direct this positivity to a good cause. Due to the circumstances surrounding the song in our wedding video, we have chosen the Sheila Wellstone Institute.
Sheila Wellstone was an advocate, organizer, and national champion in the effort to end domestic violence in our communities.
There is a donation button on the site. Link
Update: This award-winning photograph was shot by Deviant Art member Samlim. (Thanks, inebriator!)
The first Saturday in August is National Mustard Day, sponsored and promoted by the National Mustard Museum. The celebration tomorrow will be in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, but afterwards the museum will move to its new home in Middleton, 18 miles away.
For the final time, people will gather here Saturday on two closed-off blocks of Main Street to celebrate National Mustard Day. There will be free hotdogs with mustard — there’s a $10 surcharge for those who dare to request ketchup — mustard painting and music by the Poupon U Accordion Band.
The Mustard Museum draws up to 30,000 visitors a year. Link to story. Link to Mustard Day website. -via J-Walk Blog
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis responded to the rising sea level by designing a floating apartment building:
The Dutch are uniquely accustomed to dealing with fluctuating water levels; much of the Netherlands is below sea level, and vast swaths of land, known as polders, are continually pumped free of the accumulating rainwater that threatens nearby homes and buildings. The Citadel will simply rise and fall with the changing water levels, making it impervious to flooding, tides, and sea waters inching upward as a result of global warming.
Built atop a floating heavy concrete foundation, The Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a parking garage, a floating roadway, and boat docks. Each apartment will naturally have waterfront views via a garden terrace, and greenhouses will be interspersed throughout. But the greenest feature of the Citadel is its cooling system: submerged pipes will pump water throughout the structure to cool it, reducing its energy use by 25 percent compared to a conventional building.
Medical researchers are developing an innovative way of delivering malaria vaccine:
In a daring experiment in Europe, scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a “vaccine” of live malaria parasites through their bites. The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later.
Link via Instapundit
Johnny Depp is everywhere lately, isn’t he? Public Enemies is in theaters now, the trailer for Alice in Wonderland was just released, and now it’s been announced that he is going to be starring in Dark Shadows. I love Johnny Depp (and Tim Burton), so I’m thrilled about all of this. In fact, it made me want to revisit another one of their collaborations.
Check out the costumes the kids are wearing during Willy’s Halloween flashback – three of them are wearing costumes that look like Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Oogie Boogie’s evil helpers in A Nightmare Before Christmas. You have to look quick though – they run by at the very beginning of the scene from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen.
When the gang is riding down the chocolate river just after they see the “Whipped Cream” room, they pass a room labeled “Jelly Beans.” If you pause it and go into slo-mo, you’ll see that the next room is labeled “Beetle Juicing.”
In the edible meadow scene, the tube that vacuums the chocolate up from the lake is stuck into a flying saucer-looking thing, which is because it is. It’s actually one of the saucers from Burton’s Mars Attacks.
People who were considered for the role of Willy Wonka: Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, John Cleese, Robert DeNiro (can you imagine?!), Michael Keaton, Marilyn Manson, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Patrick Stewart, Ben Stiller, Will Smith and Robin Williams.
A bunch of famous T.V. dads were considered for the role of Mike Teavee’s dad – Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson), Tim Allen (Tim Taylor), Ed O’Neill (Al Bundy), Bob Saget (Danny Tanner), and Ray Romano (Ray Barone), among others.
When Willy and the kids are checking out all of Wonka’s various candy-making rooms, they pass one with a bunch of pink sheep. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Wonka remarks. This is a reference to Ed Wood, another Burton and Depp collaboration – real-life director Ed Wood had a thing for wearing pink angora sweaters.
The actress who plated Grandma Georgina said she had her pick of which grandma to play. After reading the whole script, she picked Grandma Georgina because she’s the one who gets to kiss Johnny Depp. I like the way that lady thinks.
Willy Wonka’s cane is filled with Nerds candy.
The little boy who played Augustus Gloop wore a fat suit for the role.
A bunch of people saw the similarities between Willy Wonka and Michael Jackson after the movie came out. Tim Burton begged to differ. “Michael Jackson likes children; Willy Wonka can’t stand them. To me that’s a huge difference.” Depp agreed and said that his inspiration was somewhere between Howard Hughes in his later years and Mr. Rogers.
Martin Scorsese almost directed the film, but ended up doing The Aviator instead.
Mr. Bucket works for a company that makes Smilex toothpaste, which you can see early on when it shows a shot of him taking the misshapen toothpaste caps from the assembly line. “Smylex” is also the name of the poison the Joker releases on the city in the Burton-directed Batman.
Johnny Depp ad-libbed the line where he’s talking to Mike Teavee about the types of people who would want to have long hair and slips into jive talk. To be exact, it’s “It’s in the fridge, daddy-o! Are you hip to the jive? Can you dig what I’m layin’ down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin, soul brother!” The first time he did it, the actor who plays Mike looked at him like he was nuts and said, “That’s not in the script.”
Deep Roy is the one who suggested that the Augustus Gloop dance scene be like a big Bollywood musical scene.
The chocolate river was originally going to be CGI, but they tried that and Burton didn’t like the way it looked. So after testing nine different chocolates for their color, 192,000 gallons of it were used to make a real chocolate river. It looks great, sure, but apparently after a couple of weeks it started to smell quite bad.
Johnny Depp tested out Wonka’s slightly lispy, aloof voice on his daughter while they were playing Barbies. She liked it, so he went with it.
What do you like better – this version or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Gene Wilder version?
Have a movie suggestion, or just want to read my babble? I’m on Twitter.
Or perhaps this toy is inspired by Voltron, rather than the Transformers. Either way, when the island’s railways are threatened, Thomas and his friends unite to form a devastating weapon. I don’t know who makes this toy, but it’s on sale at eBay in Singaporean currency.
Have you ever wanted to brush your teeth with cat vomit? Well then, good news! Slip these dog and cat head caps on top of your toothpaste tubes to simulate the experience.
Link via Nerd Approved
GadgetHER has pictures of 25 unusual Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls, including crocheted robots, Super Mario Bros., and Left 4 Dead video game characters. The picture above is of a set that illustrates the evolution of the cell phone over time.
Link via Crunch Gear
Previously on Neatorama:
Russian Matryoshka Dolls
Geeky Matryoshka Dolls
Star Wars Matryoshka Dolls
If you missed Comic Con, you missed more than just the costumes of course. You also missed the array of personality types that seem to pop up at these large-scale geekfests.You may think you know about the attendees, based on the stereotypes, but really, there’s a lot more too it than you thought.
These are the kids that smell like they haven’t bathed in a week and still get giddy over the concept of seeing a girl “IRL.” While revolting to everyone around them, they still think they’re total studs and try to chat up the illustrious booth girls somehow hoping their Jedi mind tricks will actually help convince the girl they are cool. Even if you don’t see many of these geeks, you most certainly will smell them, as this sign helps demonstrate.
These are the newest breed at the convention and their presence actually worried organizers. There was even talk of organizing things so the panels and booths these tweens were expected to visit would be super far away from the things the geeks were expected to be interested in. Fortunately, these fans actually blended in just fine and were largely the same as the Harry Potter fans that have become a fixture at the convention. While it’s impossible to say how long these fans will stay in the scene, it will most certainly not be a problem having the around.
These are professional hotties who actually have no interest in anything geekish, particularly comic books, video games and even shows like “Heroes” or “Chuck.” While they would normally never be willing to be seen with the average people visiting these conventions, they’re happy to chat with them and pose for photos as long as there is a nice check of at least $200 a day in it for them. In more recent years, the standard booth babes have been reduced, thanks in part to Suicide Girls, who tend to have far more of an interest in these type of activities. In fact Suicide Girls even had a pre-Comic Con collection of Cosplay shots just to emphasize the girls’ natural geekiness.
Like Star Wars and Sherlock Holmes? Why not be Jedi Sherlock? What about cooking and Star Wars? Chef Darth Vader of course. One of the most famous crossover fans is Elvis Storm Trooper (to the left), who not only has his own website, but also travels to as many conventions as possible every year. Of course, he always makes it to the San Diego Comic Con every year.
Comic Con has always been a huge supporter of Star Wars, and not only because it’s a scifi classic. You see, George Lucas actually gave a preview of the movie to fans in 1977 before the movie was released and before the convention was even a big deal. The cult following was inevitable.
Of course, modern day Star Wars fans at the convention tend to be extreme. There are fans who make up their own characters as part of their own fan fiction and there are people dressed as characters who were only shown for a matter of seconds in the film.
Despite the stereotypes of comic conventions loaded with Klingons, the Trekkies were actually a dying breed for the last ten or so years. But not this year. Since the newest movies are always a major inspiration for costumes (last year The Dark Knight was huge), Star Trek fans were everywhere this year. Interestingly, it was easy to spot the old-school Trekkies, who had only put their gear on the shelf for a few years, and the new-school Trekkies.
These guys can be more than a little scary. While a lot of people get into character and enjoy acting their roles, there always seems to be at least a few costumed villains that seem to be living out their character’s lives. Unfortunately, there’s no psychological test given to people dressed up as villains prior to entry.
So far no one’s been severely injured, but it’s only a matter of time.
This guy’s a rare breed, but there always seems to be at least one of them at the Convention. They all seem to have taken a few too many acid hits. No one, particularly these guys themselves, actually understands why they are so interested in showing up at the convention every year, but the overall accepting attitude of the attendees makes it a welcome place for these “unique” individuals.
Steampunk inventions and costumes have been featured many times on Neatorama, but the number of posts is nowhere near the number of steampunks at Comic Con. These guys have always been at the convention, but this last year they’ve really stepped up their numbers. If you’re interested in learning more about the steampunks at Comic Con this year, there is a great article over at KPBS.
I have to admit, these are some of my favorite Comic Con fans because I just can’t get enough of the outfits. Just like the steampunks, lolitas have always been around at Comic Con, but their numbers really shot up this year. While many people associate the lolitas with gothic culture, the ones at the convention are more of the Japanophile sort and frequently flock to Giant Robot and other Japanese toy booths to see the newest and hottest imports from their country of choice.
Bond with your dog by eating like he does with this human safe (and tasty) dog food called “Kooky-Chew”. Or just to save time by skipping things like cleanliness and dignity. Each 2.5 ounce serving comes with a bone-shaped candy to polish off the meal.
Link via Geekologie
Speaking of strange cross-over desserts, I’m loving these lollipop pies featured on Luxirare. They combine the portability and mess-free eating of a lollipop with the delicious richness of a pie. Plus, you can switch between all sorts of flavors at will.
I want a couple of bites, and I want to be done with it. I want to pop open my bag when I’m hungry and taste a little sweetness. I don’t want commitment. I want to be promiscuous with my food. I want to eat pie, but I don’t want a whole slice- I want to try other flavors too, but for just a little, and move onto another.
My only concern is how do you keep the stick from burning up while you bake them?
Link Via Laughing Squid
Love iced cream cones but hate the iced cream? Then you’ll love these Cupcake cones on Instructables with plenty of instructions (naturally) to make your own sweettreats at home.
Delicious, clever, and surprising, these cupcakes impersonating ice cream cones are sure to delight!
Now that’s a quote that I can’t begin to dispute.
It’s no Bag of Holding, but this handbag in the shape of a 20-sided die will help you avoid critical fumbles of your gear. At the link, Lenore of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make one.
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They come from Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. They parade in front of the judges, fluttering their enormous eyelashes and rotating their rubbery lips.
The judges know what they are looking for: shiny hair, long legs, a massive head, firm ears, an arched nose, a high back and a large and symmetrical hump.
The winners take home brand-new luxury sport-utility vehicles, but something more: the honor of the family.
Despite being outlawed by Saudi Arabian clerics, the camel pageant in Abu Dhabi is a popular annual event lasting nine days, with feasting at the end.
As the nomadic lifestyle declines on the Arabian Peninsula, with more Arabs living in mansions than in tents, the romance of the camel, which sustained life there for thousands of years, persists.
Photo by Randy Olson for National Geographic
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.
If you missed out on the San Diego Comic Con this year, you weren’t alone -tickets sold out months in advance, leaving a whole lot of people locked out. If you were one of the many who wanted to go and couldn’t, or if you just are interested in the event, now’s your chance to see one of the best parts of the con -the costumes. These pictures include my top 20 favorite costumes, but there are a whole lot more out there. If you’re interested in seeing more convention pictures, be sure to use the links at the bottom of the article.
There’s always a lot of cross-over costumes at Comic Con and for some reason, they tend to mostly involve Star Wars. These guys were seventies Darth and Boba Fett. I missed out on the opportunity of getting a picture of another one along these lines, the storm troopper with a gold, disco-ball tiled helmet.
More Great Costumes Behind The Jump
If you thought Jill and Kevin’s wedding entrance was exceptional, you should see what they did for the divorce! Link (embedded YouTube video)
Convention organiser and “Gnome Master” David Cook said he did not hesitate in organising the rescue party when contacted about the homeless little folk.
“We didn’t want to see them put in a skip and taken to the tip and all smashed up,” Mr Cook said.
I believe that means they didn’t want to see the gnomes thrown away. A four-member team traveled 800 kilometers to pack up the gnomes of all sizes.They will be painted and refurbished, and will appear at the 2010 Australian Gnome Convention on January 26th. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Australian Gnome Convention)
It took three months of planning, a crane, and nine gardeners to transfer a palm tree called a cycad to a new pot. The operation at Kew Gardens in London was difficult and delicate because the tree is considered to be the oldest potted plant in the world.
The ancient cycad was collected in the early 1770s from the Eastern Cape in South Africa by Kew’s first plant hunter, Frances Masson.
It was one of 500 species gathered for the botanical gardens during Captain Cook’s second voyage around the globe.
For the last 160 years, the tree has been housed in Kew’s Palm House, where its nobbly trunk has grown outwards and upwards at an inch a year.
It now stretches to 14ft 5 inches and because it is growing at an angle, is propped up by stilts.
The repotting procedure was successful. Link -via Unique Daily
(imafe credit: Jenny Goodall)
This video is College Humor‘s foray into the realm of anti-smoking public service announcements. It turns out the cost to society for smoking is much, much worse than cancer and smelly carpets.
Via Geekologie
The standard theories of why Neandertals disappeared 28,000 years ago don’t hold up, so scientists are looking in new directions. The assimilation/interbreeding theory should’ve yielded some DNA evidence, but there is none. The replacement/war theory isn’t as cut and dried as it could be, since modern humans lived in the same territories as Neandertals for 15,000 years. Climate change? Sure, the earth was cooling at the time, but Neandertals had lived through ice ages before.
But the isotope data reveal that far from progressing steadily from mild to frigid, the climate became increasingly unstable heading into the last glacial maximum, swinging severely and abruptly. With that flux came profound ecological change: forests gave way to treeless grassland; reindeer replaced certain kinds of rhinoceroses. So rapid were these oscillations that over the course of an individual’s lifetime, all the plants and animals that a person had grown up with could vanish and be replaced with unfamiliar flora and fauna. And then, just as quickly, the environment could change back again.
Scientists are looking into the idea that Neandertals just weren’t as adaptable as modern humans, and over time lost out in the competition for resources in a changing world. Link -via Metafilter
The Micro Butterfly RC plane manufactured by Plantraco weighs just a fraction of its heavier counterparts used by RC plane hobbyists. A durobatic foam body and carbon fiber batteries bring this 32mm wide plane up to only 2.6 grams.
Earthquake-prone Japan has a market for these suits that you strap onto your cats and dogs so that they can survive for days after a major earthquake. Each suit contains all of the necessary gear including water, biscuits, aromatherapy oils, and rubber foot pads, all contained in the pockets of a flame-resistant coat.
Link (in Japanese) via Rinkya via Popped Culture
Artist Junior Fritz Jacquet crumples and folds toilet paper rolls until they make faces displaying anguish, happiness, disgust and more. Once they’re folded right, he adds just a bit of color to help bring out their color and then they’re ready to go.
