I'm a fast walker. When I'm moving around, I'm trying to get at my destination, not enjoy the scenery. So shopping can be a frustrating experience when I get stuck behind someone waddling down the middle of a walkway at 1 MPH. This problem is especially aggravating when shopping carts are involved.
A mall in Sheffield, UK is now taking a bold stand against the human speed bumps that cause so much frustration for good and decent people in the world. After reading a complaint letter by 10-year old Chloe Nash-Lowe (who deserves some sort of Nobel Prize for her efforts), the managers of the Meadowhall Shopping Centre have created a passing lane. When you want to get around traffic clogs, get into the fast lane.
Now let's spread this great idea to sidewalks, grocery stores, and hallways everywhere. Forward!
I'm not usually one for 'novelty taxidermy' but my friend recently finished grad school and is a very big Game of Thrones fan-- as am I. So, I decided she deserved a three-eyed crow [as featured in the books and television show]. Here are some of the finished shots and here is a link to my entire taxidermy process.
You can see more pictures of the crow in two imgur albums, but be warned that they include photos of taxidermy work on a dead bird. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Kids and claw machines- what was once a novelty grade emergency has become an epidemic. Across the globe unsuspecting children are being swallowed up by ravenous claw machines no longer satisfied with mere quarters.
Claw machines have developed a rather unusual trait for snaring their young prey- they present the toy which the child desires most of all inside their bellies, then leave their prize hatch unlocked so the curious child can climb in after the shiny new toy.
Once the child is inside the machine begins to slowly digest the child using plush toys as makeshift stomach acid molecules, but since this process can take months most children are saved from the claw machine's evil clutches.
The child in this video was one of the lucky ones, but can your child resist the allure of the claw machine?
Fanesca is a traditional soup recipe for Easter in Ecuador. It is only made for Easter because the preparation is time-consuming, with a lot of ingredients, and the recipe makes a large batch. Fanesca contains a variety of fresh grains and beans, squash, salted cod, cheese, and milk. Wikipedia says that the twelve grains and beans represent the twelve apostles, and the cod represents Jesus. The presentation is traditional as well.
And of course, side dishes are very important and this soup must be served with slices of hardboiled eggs, fried ripe plantains, slices of queso fresco, slices of hot peppers or a good Ecuadorian hot sauce, white onions marinated in lime juice, and empanadas de viento or fried empanadas. These last empanadas are sometimes replaced by masitas or just the empanada dough shaped into small balls and fried. Fanesca is usually followed a dish of Ecuadorian mashed potatoes called molo.
The recipe says it serves 25 people, but it appears to feed an entire village. Reading the list of ingredients, the spices alone make me want to try it out! However, I’d never be able to find all the ingredients in my small town. The complete recipe and instructions for Fanesca are at Laylita’s Recipes. Check out her other Easter recipes, too. -via Metafilter
We dish up more neat food posts at the Neatolicious blog
There's an Amish community in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Police say that recently, an unknown man was driving by Amish children, getting out of his car, and masturbating in front of them. So Sergeant Chad Adams of the Pulaski Township Police dressed as an Amish woman in the hope of luring in the pervert. Now that their investigation is complete, the police posted this image and information about the investigation on their Facebook page.
They aren't giving many details, but the police say that they identified the person they think is responsible. They lacked sufficient evidence to arrest him, but they think that it's a man who is currently under house arrest for similar charges in a neighboring county.
In honor of the year-long celebration of Batman’s 75th anniversary, Fast Company asked some past and present Batman insiders to share remembrances of the Caped Crusader. They received anecdotes from comic book artists such as Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Walt Simonson, and movie producer Michael Uslan, who said,
“I fell in love with Batman at eight years old, because he was the only superhero with no superpowers and fought the greatest supervillains in the history of comic books. Batman’s greatest superpower is his humanity. The Batman TV show happened when I was in eighth grade. I waited for months for it to premiere. When it did, I was simultaneously thrilled and horrified. The show was in color, and the animated credits and sets were really cool. But it was too much like a cartoon. The entire world was laughing at Batman. At that point, I made a vow. Somehow, I was going to show the world the real Batman--a creature of night, who stalks criminals from the shadows--and figure out how to erase the words Zap! Pow! and Wham! from the collective consciousness. That path would become my life’s journey and career.”
Uslan went on to serve as executive producer of the movies Batman, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and upcoming Batman vs. Superman. Read the rest of the stories at CoCreate.
BMO is a character on the cartoon Adventure Time. S/he/it (BMO's gender is either undetermined, non-existent, or non-binary depending on the fan theory you subscribe to) is an electronic console that serves as a VCR, a computer game platform, a toaster, and more. Most importantly, BMO is a dear friend to Finn and Jake.
Bob H. build a remarkably accurate electronic representation of BMO. It really does look and sound like the real thing. You can see build photos and a technical description here.
You would be forgiven for first thinking this is one of those “30 years later” photo recreations, but no. The phone is a giveaway. Redditor perianderson took his son’s Facebook profile picture and recreated it with his wife. The resemblance is uncanny. He’s already ordered a poster-sized version of this picture to give to his son. Someone did a face swap between the generations, and you really couldn’t tell any difference in the father and son. The resemblance between the mother and the friend is coincidence -or is it? A fine attempt at enjoying one of the great rewards of parenting -embarrassing your kids. If the son is not embarrassed when he sees it, that just means he is as cool as the rest of the family.
When those robots see me rollin', regeneratin', they always get all fired up because they hatin'! Bow ties are cool, regenerating is cool, time travelling doctors are cool, haters are not. Don't be hatin' on his sonic screwdrivin' abilities, he's the lord of time doctorin' and a master of space travellin', word to your mummy.
Keep your fashion hater free with this They See Me Regeneratin' They Hatin' t-shirt by AmdyDesign, it's sure to bring some geek love your way!
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
The Scotch egg is a delicious staple of British pub food. Traditionally, it consists of a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage crumbs, then deep fried. One source traces it back to Eighteenth Century London (sorry, Scotland) where it was a traveler's snack for sale in Piccadilly.
The humble Scotch egg has inspired a lot of creativity in kitchens around the world. For example, pictured above is Jessie Oleson's sweet version made with Cadbury Creme Eggs. We featured it last year. It's one of 11 unusual takes on Scotch eggs.
If you want to know all about Scotch eggs, then you should consult Forever Eggsploring. It's David J. Constable's website devoted to finding "the very best Scotch egg in the land." Constable exhaustively researches all things related to Scotch eggs.
It's through his site that I learned about how Fortnum & Mason, a British food company, produced the largest Scotch egg in the world. Its chefs used an ostrich egg as the core. They wrapped 5.5 kg of sausage meat around it. Then the chefs deep fried and baked the assembly. When it was done, their 6.95 kg Scotch egg won a Guinness World Record.
Tom, the manufacturer of Big Butz BBQ Sauce, created what he calls the Bacon Cone Scotch Egg Sundae. He candied bacon, then baked it a lattice around a cone form. Then he served two large Scotch eggs inside as though they were scoops of ice cream in a cone.
Artist and filmmaker Richard Swarbrick drew illustrations of the most popular cat videos of the past few years and animated them to make this video. You will recognize them all, because we posted the originals here as they were produced, and because he captured the essence of the originals so well. In other words, this is good. -via Uproxx
For the past few weeks, artist James Hance (a Neatorama favorite) has been working on a dollhouse for his daughter Maddy. When she wakes up on Easter morning tomorrow, she'll find this amazingly detailed recreation of the house from the Pixar movie Up. I hope that James has ballasted it properly so that it doesn't float away.
Shopping isn’t supposed to be a boring chore, it’s supposed to be fun and the whole experience should make people feel good about their purchases.
Part of the retail shopping experience is branding, and a clever design or catchy slogan can really make your company stand out from the competition.
An easy way to spread the word about your company among shoppers is with a clever shopping bag design that's both eye catching and memorable, a bag to bring folks into the store which is often referred to as bagvertising.
Happy Easter and Happy Passover, everyone! I hope the weather is looking as good for you as it does where I live -the sun is shining, the dogwoods are blooming, and the tomato seedlings can stay outside 24 hours a day. If the April showers will hold of just long enough to plow the garden, I’ll be set. Between family gatherings this weekend, I hope you can find some time to catch up on what you may have missed this past week here at Neatorama. I’ve got some links to make it easier for you.
The pilot episode of the new Twaggies video series debuted here last weekend. It’s called Grammar Nazi’s Rock? featuring animated illustrated Tweets. Look for more episodes soon!
John Farrier asked what Miyazaki movie was your favorite in the post If Hayao Miyazaki Films Were Like Other Anime. So far, the poll shows Spirited Away to be the overwhelming favorite.
We have another poll that is also a contest, or actually we need your help to determine the winners of a contest (what power we are giving you!) in the post Help Us Pick A Contest Winner By Letting Us Know What to Write About. Not only are you helping to select a contest winner, but someone is going to have to write that article!
In the What Is It? game, the mystery tool is an ice pick. A serious ice pick. Your funny answers were good, too. One came from tchitchou, who said, “That's an old device used to curve bananas. This version is no longer used because workers were cutting their fingers too often. A round version is now used.” That’s good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Phil and Busterhad a winning answer, too: “This is a device my third grade teacher used to demonstrate the difference between a dull ache and a sharp pain.” Ha! Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who played. See the answers to all of the mystery items of the week at the What is It? blog.
The list of new independent artists contributing to the designs at the NeatoShop continues to grow. Alex has categories like funny t-shirts, science t-shirts, and sci-fi t-shirts, but there's a lot of combinations and crossovers, so you should look through all of them. I guarantee there's one that's perfect for someone in your circle who is graduating this year!
We've got more great stuff planned for next week here at Neatorama. Have a great weekend!
Photographer Caleb Cole is having a bit of an identity crisis, and he’s trying to work through it by becoming other people.
His photographic journey of self discovery knows no bounds, and he’s not afraid to wear a dress or ill-fitting clothes in order to find himself whole once again.
The photos in Caleb's series "Other People's Clothes" are equal parts introspective, absurd and enlightening, somehow showing us more about Caleb than any normal self portrait series ever could.
Here's what Caleb has to say about this fascinating series:
“Though I am the physical subject of these images, they are not traditional self-portraits. They are portraits of people I have never met but with whom I feel familiar, as well as documents of the process wherein I try on the transitional moments of others’ lives in order to better understand my own.”
The Shironekoshiro cats, the most laid-back cats in the world, enjoy a little springtime outside with their fashionable sunglasses protecting their eyes. If you have a couple of minutes, you can watch Tyatora, Shiro, and Chibi soaking up the sunlight. If you don’t have that much time, just pretend this is a still photo. -via Tastefully Offensive
The monstrous gangster Spider-Man rules the dark streets of Istanbul. Julia, Captain America's girlfriend, goes to help the police end the web slinger's menace. But when Spider-Man's henchmen capture Julia, it is up to Captain America and Santo, the masked Mexican wrestler, to save her and crush Spider-Man's gang.
You got that? Okay, then you're ready to watch T. Fikret Uçak's 1973 cinematic masterpiece 3 Dev Adam. Read all about it at VA Viper. You can watch a selection embedded below. It includes the unintentionally hilarious use of a guinea pig as a torture device at 2:04.
I'm a bit skeptical that this movie was made with the permission of Marvel Comics.
Honey badger will not be contained! Stoffel the honey badger was raised in captivity and cannot fend for himself in the wild. He now lives at the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in South Africa. But he’s too dangerous to let roam around the other animals, and he’s a master of escaping any enclosure they design for him. This is a clip from the BBC2 series Natural World. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
It's not just a name referring to the color. The Michael Lee Fine Cheeses Company in West Yorkshire, UK, really makes cheese made with charcoal. The company describes it as a "creamy, mature cheddar blended with charcoal." It won the Best New Idea award at the 2014 Farm Shop & Deli Show.
Amy Birkin, a representative of the company, told the Sleaford Target that it wanted to make a black cheese to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 miners' strike in Britain.
War may seem like a game, with knights and pawns taking to the battlefield to wage war for the throne, but in this game there are no winners, only survivors. Four noble houses will battle it out for the fate of the kingdom, who will come out on top in this fantasy war?
You will if you're wearing this You Win or You Die t-shirt by Tom Trager, it's a bold way to declare your allegiance both on and off the battlefield.
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Sunday is the 100th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre in the coal mining region of Colorado. In the fall of 1913, 11,000 miners went on strike, protesting dangerous work conditions and low pay. Evicted from company housing, they set up a tent city for months. The mining company, CF&I, responded by patrolling with an armored car with a mounted machine gun, shooting at the strikers occasionally. There was violence on both sides, with company officials and strikebreakers also fired upon. The National Guard was called in, to the relief of the strikers. But instead of providing protection from violence, the Guard was used to escort scabs into the mines and confiscate striker’s firearms. Matters came to a head on April 20, 1914.
No one knows who fired the first shot. Some soldiers would later testify that the strikers’ bullets were already whizzing at them when an officer set off the three explosive charges that had been prepared as a signal for battle. Others would recall hearing the explosions before any shots. Witnesses on both sides remember a lone figure, Louis Tikas, waving a white handkerchief and running frantically back to the tents, trying to head off disaster.
It was already too late. The militia opened fire on the men in the railroad cut. Linderfelt arrived, and the machine gun was installed on a slight rise overlooking the colony. As the day wore on, shots issued from the tents, and the militia returned fire. Officers would later testify that they’d seen women fleeing earlier and didn’t know there were any noncombatants left in the colony, but it seems hard to believe that the soldiers weren’t aware that the flimsy tents contained scores of the defenseless and unarmed.
As troops tried to close in on the shooters in the railroad cut, Private Alfred Martin was shot in the neck — the first and only militia fatality of the day. A passerby, trying to negotiate the road between the colony and the militia, was killed instantly. Eleven-year-old Frank Snyder, who’d left the protection of a cellar during a lull in the shooting, caught a bullet in the head as he sat in his family’s tent.
That night, the tent city burned, and two women and eleven children were found dead of suffocation in a cellar. In response, the miners went on a ten-day rampage, dynamiting mine facilities and shooting. Six strikers and 24 mine employees were killed during this period before President Wilson sent in federal troops. Somewhere between 69 and 199 people were killed over the course of the strike. Read an account of what happened at Ludlow at Westword. -via Metafilter
Clap along if that's what you want to do. But it will seem a bit odd, especially to people around you.
Pharrell Williams's smash hit song "Happy" has seen many creative variations and editions, including one with Star Wars characters. This one by House of Halo, though, doesn't change the dance routines or the characters. It just deletes the non-vocal music from the track.
May 23rd will mark the 80th anniversary of the ambush in which Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down by police in Lousiana. In Gibsland, Louisiana, the son of one of those police officers runs a museum called The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum. There, you can see photographs and exhibits from Bonnie and Clyde’s career in crime and of that day in 1934 when they died.
“There’s actually no tellin’ how many times they were wounded,” said “Boots” Hinton, son of Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton, the youngest of six law enforcement officers who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde. Living in Gibsland, Louisiana, where he runs the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in the rundown town eight miles north of the actual ambush site, Boots insists it was an old school method of detective work that brought the outlaws down: a prescription bottle in the floorboard of an abandoned car in Michigan; testimony from waitresses and store clerks; and major highways and back roads canvassed to catch the gang on the move.
Today, Boots is happy to talk about what he knows with anyone who stops in the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum. He recalls stories his father told him in the years after the final shootout, and he sees his place at the museum as a testament and honor to his father’s wishes: to tell what really happened not only on that fateful day in rural Louisiana, but across the timeline of the Barrow gang’s reign.
Last month, we saw a clever trombone player use sampling and looping playback to perform Pharrell Williams's hit song "Happy" by himself. Rob Scallon used Vine to create something similar. He noticed that one measure of "Happy" was precisely 6 seconds long--which is the length of a Vine video. By looping and staggering out pieces of the song, he was able to recreate it.
Watch these cats try their paws at an Easter egg hunt -they look confused at first, but there’s catnip and cat treats all over the place! And toys to play with! And these eggs roll around so nicely! It seems like a lot of fun, but my cats would rather be out looking for real bunnies, chicks, ducks, and frogs. One cat keep eyeing the ducks and geese down at the river, but they are all bigger than he is. The cats from Furball Fables enjoyed their hunt, without all the competitiveness you see in human egg hunts. -Thanks, Chase!
The senior officers of the Enterprise-D are ready for the annual Easter egg hunt. Everyone looks happy about it, except for Worf. That's because he's afraid that Riker will once again get the most chocolate eggs.
Nitpick: Data should have 2 and a half rank pips, not 3. He was a Lieutenant Commander, not a full Commander.
Francis Schmidt is an art and animation professor at Bergen Community College in New Jersey. He is also a Game of Thrones fan, as is his family. In January, Schmidt posted a picture of his 7-year-old daughter doing a yoga pose while wearing her father’s t-shirt to Google+. The t-shirt had a quote from Game of Thrones printed on it: “I will take what is mine with fire & blood.” The college dean saw the picture and called Schmidt in to speak to college officials, who asked if the photograph “represented a threat against the dean.”
Schmidt said the Human Resources and security officials who interviewed him seemed unfamiliar with the show, so he searched for the quote on Google and came up with 30.8 million hits.
He said the interview, however, led to his suspension without pay and a trip to a psychiatrist before he was cleared to return to campus.
Schmidt said he asked the officials why they thought the slogan was threatening, and one said “when you see the word fire, then someone shows up with an AK-47 here shooting everybody,” he said.
“I had no idea what to say to that. For God’s sake, I’m a middle-aged art professor,” Schmidt said. “I don’t own any firearms.”
For one thing, the shirt is obviously mass-produced. For another thing, there was no mention of the college or the dean in the Google+ post. And the shirt was worn by his child! One explanation is that the college is going through some struggles: the faculty is working without a contract and have cast a no-confidence vote against the school’s president. The labor dispute must have the entire administration on edge -so much that none of them can watch TV or read about pop culture. Schmidt has since been reinstated, and given back pay for missing the first week of the semester. -via Uproxx
There have been all kinds of strange examples of Muppets mashup art making their way onto the interwebs, from the kinda freaky look of Muppet zombies to the extremely terrifying Muppets as real people, but the latest mashup making the rounds is disturbing both visually and mentally- The Muppets as Twin Peaks characters by illustrator Justin DeVine
Miss Piggy is cold, lifeless and wrapped in plastic, Gonzo is doing his weirdo dance in the Red Room, and Kermit Cooper is too hopped up on coffee to find Piggy’s killer, truly the darkest days ever experienced by the puppet troupe.
David Lynch productions are already pretty strange, but think about how strange Twin Peaks would have been if it had starred the Muppets!
(Photo: Meadowhall)
