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A team from National Geographic magazine is on the way up Mt. Everest as we watch! You are invited to go along with them by following each day’s progress on the special Field Test blog for the expedition.
The two-month expedition seeks to repeat the historic climb of the 1963 National Geographic-sponsored American Mount Everest Expedition, almost 50 years after that first American ascent. Mountaineer Conrad Anker and photographer Cory Richards will attempt the risky West Ridge route. At the same time a second team with additional climbers from The North Face and National Geographic writer Mark Jenkins will take on the mountain’s Southeast Ridge.
Updates and photographs from the expedition will be included in the May and June issues of the magazine, and on the NatGeo website. Neatorama is delighted to show you some photographs from both the 1963 expedition and the 2012 expedition at our Spotlight Blog. Link
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From how to score a cocktail to where to scatter grandma’s ashes, this is your ticket to the real Magic Kingdom.
1. There Are Dead Bodies in the Haunted Mansion
(Image credit: Flickr user Joe Penniston)
The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland is on e of the scariest places in the park, but not for the reasons you’d expect. In his 1994 book Mouse Tales, former Disney employee David Koenig tells the story of a tourist group that requested a little extra time on the ride so they could hold a quick memorial for a 7-year-old boy. Disney gave the family permission, but it turns out, the memorial was only half their plan. When the mourners were spotted sprinkling a powdery substance off their “doom buggies,” the Haunted Mansion was quickly shut down until all the remains could be cleaned up. Amazingly, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Stealthy ash scatterings have occurred all over Disneyland. Not everyone tries to skirt the rules, however. Every year, several families ask for permission. According to one Disney spokesperson, the answer is always no.
2. The Cats Own the Night
(Image credit: Flickr user Meredith P.)
Each night at Disneyland, after the sunburned families and exhausted cast members have made their way home, the park fills up again -this time, with hundreds of feral cats. Park officials love the felines because they help control the mouses population. (After all, a park full of cartoon mice is more enticing than a park full of real ones.) But these cats aren’t a new addition to the Disney family. They first showed up at Disneyland soon after it opened in 1955, and rather than spending time chasing them away, park officials decided to put the cats to work. Today, there are plenty of benefits to being a Disney-employed mouser. When they’re not prowling the ground, these corporate fat cats spend their days lounging at one of the park’s five permanent feeding stations. Of course, Disney also goes to great lengths to manage its feline population. Wranglers at the park work to spay and neuter adult cats, and any time kittens are found, they’re put up for adoption.
3. It’s a Good Place to be a Flasher, Again
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
What can you say about The Simpsons? The incredible animated series is currently in its 23rd season! The Simpsons has given us dozens of clever, original characters. Every Simpsons fan has his or her favorite character. Let’s take a look at the original, real-life inspirations behind several characters on The Simpsons.
BART
The original breakout star of the series, Bart’s name is an anagram of the word “brat.” Bart’s character was based on another very mischievous cartoon character, Dennis the Menace. Creator Matt Groening said he was “always disappointed” that the Dennis the Menace TV show character wasn’t as mischievous as the comic strip.
HOMER
Without question, Homer is the most popular, beloved character in the history of The Simpsons. Homer’s character evolved from an irascible, grouchy father to the lovable, bumbling buffoon who captured the heart of every Simpsons fan. According to Dan Castellaneta (who voices Homer), the original inspiration for Homer’s voice was the greatest character actor in movie history: Walter Matthau.
MAYOR QUIMBY
Springfield’s lascivious, girl-chasing mayor, Mayor Quimby was based on our very charming (and very womanizing) U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
BARNEY GUMBLE
Gumble is Homer’s best pal and the town drunk. Barney was based on a character from The Jackie Gleason Show of the 1960s called Crazy Guggenheim (played by actor Frankie Fontaine). Crazu Guggenheim was a rum-soaked drunken character who would chat with Jackie in comedy skits. Jackie played the bartender, the straight man to Crazy.
CHIEF WIGGUM
Chief Wiggun is Springfield’s inept Chief of Police. The Chief’s voice was based on the wonderful, legendary movie star Edward G. Robinson.
TROY MCCLURE
Doug McClure, Troy McClure, and Troy Donahue
The quintessential cheesy, grade B movie actor, Troy McClure is actually a combination of two grade B movie stars: Troy Donahue and Doug McClure. In real life, Doug McClure was not offended by the character, but flattered instead. His daughter often called him “Troy.”
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I know many of our readers view graffiti as just the destruction of someone else’s property, but even if you do feel that way, it’s still hard to deny that many of the creations are quite artistic. And if someone is going to deface property, wouldn’t you at least prefer it be with a mural rather than just their name? And by that logic, wouldn’t you rather the design be something you personally enjoy like these great geeky graffiti pieces?
Sure, Imperial Walkers are always pretty cool, but when you make them totally hip hop, complete with speakers and gold chains, they become out of this world.
Image via adactio [Flickr]
Similarly, if Boba Fett is a serious badass and Dirty Harry is one of the toughest guys around, then Dirty Fett is definitely someone you don’t want to take your chances with.
Image via Watt Dabney [Flickr]
Don’t tell me you never considered just how perfect little R2D2 would be as a barbecue. Of course, if the Empire won, I’m sure this would be the perfect revenge for the rebel droid.
Image via stringberd [Flickr]
You’ve seen the AT-ATs and AT-STs together in battle before, but suddenly things have become a lot more clear.
Image via tashland [Flickr]
Not all Star Wars graffiti is goofy though, just look at the amazing detail in this wonderful Yoda design. Also, it’s worth noting that all of these Star Wars pieces, with the exception of the one above, were put up in Bristol so apparently that’s one heck of a city for geek graffiti.
Image via Watt Dabney [Flickr]
Here’s another geek graffiti piece spotted in Brighton. Somehow the Cybermen just aren’t as intimidating when they look so cartoony though.
Image via Loz Flowers [Flickr]
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by Patrique Roonquel
L’Institut Sacre Bleu, Ashville, North Carolina
In this paper we present inflexible evidence that increased oxidative stress was a primary triggering mechanism underlying the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
Figure one.
Cell membranes damaged by oxidative stress often become depleted of phospholipids, depriving them of essential fatty constituents that ensure proper flexibility and permeability. As phospholipid levels diminish, the cell barrier becomes “dried up” and stiff. In joint tissue, reactive oxygen species react synergistically with inflammatory mediators of the synovial membrane, causing synoviocytes to undergo a premature cell apoptosis. These mechanisms have been linked specifically to the development of chronic joint stiffening. Clinical evidence of this joint stiffening in the Third Reich is seen clearly in historic photographic evidence of the time period (see Figure 1).
Increased oxidative stress also underlies mechanisms of neurodegeneration commonly observed in the pathogenesis of dementia. Oxidative damage to mitochondria causes a decrease in ATP (adenosine triphosphate) levels, interfering with glucose transport to cells in the brain. As a result, neurons deprived from receiving the essential “fuel” they require essentially “starve” to death, causing the onset of dementia.[2] Anecdotal evidence suggests that Hitler was demented [3-77,854]
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The following is an article from the newest volume of the Bathroom Reader series, Uncle John’s 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader.
For generations of kids, the songs on Sesame Street were the first pop songs they ever heard. Here are the stories behind some favorite ones.
“C IS FOR COOKIE”
In 1971 Sesame Street mastermind Jim Henson, puppeteer Jerry Juhl, head writer Jeff Moss, and chief songwriter Joe Raposo decided to write a sketch for every letter of the alphabet. One of the Muppets’ biggest hits was the song they came up with for C: “C is for Cookie,” sung by Cookie Monster (Frank Oz) while sitting on a giant letter C, with a monster chorus singing operatic background vocals. Raposo wrote the song, which debuted on a Sesame Street album in 1971 and aired on TV in 1972. Raposo was also the original inspiration for Cookie Monster. He was a ravenous fan of cookies -so much so that when he died in 1989, his family had a milk-and-cookies reception instead of a wake.
“MAHNA MAHNA”
This song is more famous from The Muppet Show. It was the basis of the very first sketch on the very first episode in 1975: a crazy-looking jazz singer puppet named Mahna Mahna (pronounced “ma-náh ma-náh”), dressed in a green fuzzy vest, with wild orange hair, sang the nonsense song “Mahna Mahna” as he bounced on, off, and around on the screen. But the song debuted on episode 14 of Sesame Street in 1969, as performed by a puppet named Bip Bippadotta. (It also made quite an impression when when the Muppets performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show that same year.) The premise of the sketch was always the same -the nonsense words “mahna mahna” repeated over and over, sung calmly at first, then veering wildly out of control. It’s pone of the few well-known Sesame Street songs not written specifically for the show. It was actually written by Italian composer Piero Umiliani for the 1968 movie Sweden, Heaven and Hell -a soft-core porn film.
“BEIN’ GREEN”
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I’m sure I don’t need to tell all of our American readers that your income taxes are due on April 17 (it’s usually April 15, but since that was a Sunday this year, we got a short little extension). While you might have made some seemingly strange deductions on your income taxes in the past, chances are that you’ve got nothing on these ballsy write offs, although, surprisingly, many of them have been accepted by the IRS.
Image Via kenteegardin [Flickr]/Senior Living
Fancy Dresses. The catch here is that the dresses that TV star Dinah Shore was able to write off could only be used on her show as they were so tight that she couldn’t even sit down on them. Being as how they could only be used for her work, the IRS let her keep the deduction.
Boob Jobs. Not just anyone can write off a breast enhancement, but if you’re a stripper who gets the surgery so you can make more tips, you might just qualify. After all, Chesty Love already won a battle with the IRS over whether or not her 56 FF enhancement should count, the court agreed that if she didn’t get them she could lose money to other dancers. This same principal applies to lingerie, make up, and other accessories that dancers in this trade might need for work, as long as they can prove the items aren’t being used for personal purposes outside of the club.
Image Via Caza_No_7 [Flickr]
Body Oil. It’s not just women who get to claim deductions related to their appearance. Professional body builders are allowed to claim (legal) products they use to keep their muscles looking great. While steroids don’t qualify, body oil and tanning sessions do.
Clarinet Lessons. Don’t get too ready to sign up for music lessons. This deduction was only allowed in one specific circumstance where a doctor recommended a patient take up the instrument because it has been known to help lessen the pain associated with an overbite. Since it was considered a legitimate medical expense at that point, the patient’s parents were allowed to write it off.
Swimming Pools. more …
Man, this has been a busy week around here! We’ve had what must be a record number of giveaways, features, and discussions -at least it might be some kind of record when you put them all together. I hope this kind of thing continues -we really enjoy bringing you more of what you come here for!
As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, Eddie Deezen told us about The Laroche Family on the Titanic.
Jill Harness brought us Order Now!: The Short History of Paid Programing. With video evidence!
As the new movie opens, Jill took a look back at the originals in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuks From History: Remembering The Three Stooges.
David Israel posted An Interview (and book giveaway) with Maggie Koerth-Baker. Maggie told us about her new book Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before it Conquers Us. Congratulations to commenters george segré and Lyricsninja, who won the books!
The Insane Experiment gave us a look into the diagnosis of mental illness, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research found an extraordinary physics challenge in The Double-Slit Garage Experiment.
Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love came from mental_floss magazine.
In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery item is a surveyor’s cross (explained here). It was used to align right angles and stuff when surveying land. Anker was the first to know that, and so wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer comes from Carey, who said, “Known as a “slotted and wired hollow brass wooden handled cylinder,” this ingenious hand-tool was used in the early 1900s to illicit inquiries regarding its function and purpose. It fell out of use due to rising production costs and decreasing levels of curiosity.” That is a long-winded way of saying it’s an “idiot attractor,” but it’s good for a t-shirt! See what all this week’s mystery objects are at the What Is It? blog.
And there’s yet another way you can win from Neatorama: The Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt is still open for entries, so get going!
At NeatoBambino this week, we had videos about heroic kids, talented kids, and creative and industrious kids, plus a book review that will make you either laugh or cringe.
The biggest post of the week was Every Jump of the General Lee, Seasons 1-6. Apparently, everyone knew someone who would appreciate it, and shared the link accordingly.
A kitten from our Facebook page.
The post with the most comments was What The Duggars Eat in a Day. In second place was Animal Cruelty in the Egg Industry, and Should Hospitals Ban Fat Employees? was third. No surprises. The only subject guaranteed to get more comments than these would be tipping.
Do you know anyone who’s really into Pinterest? You ought to tell them about Neatorama’s pinboard! That’s fairly new, but we also have extra stuff you won’t find here on the main site going up every day at Google+, Twitter, and Facebook, too. But if you ever run of out new stuff to read, you can always find something interesting at The Best of Neatorama, where we’ve archived years of feature articles.
Now remember, we couldn’t do all this if it weren’t for you, so THANK YOU for coming here, for sharing our posts, for commenting, for your tips and suggestions, and for all that you do. Give yourself a pat on the back!
If anyone can teach us about love, it should be the great philosophers. But as it turns out, a lover of wisdom and a wise lover are two very different things.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU Putting Babies in the Corner
One of the most important figures of the French Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that humankind’s natural state had been corrupted by society. “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” the philosopher once wrote. Rousseau believed that marriage was a necessary “chain” that mankind needed to submit to, and he argued that the nuclear family -built around the core of a husband and wife- was integral to society’s success.
Of course, Rousseau’s personal appetites were in stark contrast to the conventional morals that he publicly championed. He enjoyed flashing women, claiming to get an “absurd pleasure” out of the practice. And while he praised the nuclear family as that necessary straightjacket that all men must wear, it wasn’t cut to his own liking. In his autobiography, Rousseau recounted his many relationships with upper-class women …and their staffs. When Madame de Warens took Rousseau into her home in 1729, the philosopher initiated a menage a trois with the noblewoman and her property manager. The three only broke up when Rousseau took a job in another city.
But the philosopher didn’t restrict his philandering to high society. In fact, Rousseau’s longest relationship was with Therese Lavasseur, an illiterate seamstress whom he met in March 1745. They had a sizable family -or would have, if they’d kept any of their offspring. Rousseau personally abandoned every one of their five children to a French foundling hospital (sort of a YMCA for unwanted children). These tinier chains, he argued, would have interfered with his important work.
Neither Rousseau nor Lavasseur was faithful to the other, but after abandoning their fifth and final child in 1768, they decided to marry. The ceremony wasn’t legal, though, as marriages between Catholics (Rousseau) and Protestants (Lavasseur) weren’t recognized in France at the time. That appeared to be fine with Rousseau, who barely acknowledged Lavasseur anyway: Instead of referring to her as his wife, he preferred to call her his “housekeeper.” He kept her “services” until his death in 1778.
ARISTOTLE The Man, the Myth, the Misogynist
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Whether or not you’re excited for it, you’re almost certainly aware that there’s a new Three Stooges movie coming out today thanks to the non-stop ads for the new Farrelly brothers film. For those of you too young to remember the original Three Stooges or for those who want nothing to do with the new version, here’s some history on the men that made stooging legendary.
In 1925, The Stooges started as a vaudeville act with comedian Ted Healy (that’s him to the left). During this period, they were never actually called “Three Stooges,” instead they were known as “Ted Healy and His Stooges, “Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen,” “Ted Healy and His Three Lost Souls” and “Ted Healy and His Racketeers.” On stage, Healy would perform jokes and songs, but the Stooges would constantly find new ways to interrupt him. In response, Healy would insult them and beat them. The original Stooges during this period were Moe and Shemp Howard, but they were later joined by Larry Fine and actor Fred Sanborn.
Five years after their formation, Ted Healy and His Stooges appeared in their first feature film, Soup to Nuts. The film wasn’t a big hit, but The Stooges were popular with those who saw the movie, so Fox offered them a contract to perform without Healy. Unsurprisingly, Healy wasn’t too happy about this, so he threatened Fox with legal action, claiming the Stooges were his employees. Fox backed down and cancelled their offer, so Moe, Shemp, and Larry all went on tour on their own. Healy claimed they used his copyrighted material and not only threatened legal action, but also called theaters claiming that he would bomb them if they let the three actors perform there! His actions intimidated Shemp enough that he almost left the act, but he stayed on after receiving a bump in pay.
Healy tried to restart his Stooges act by hiring new actors, but they didn’t do as well as the original lineup. In 1932, Moe and Healy finally reached an agreement and the group got back together to work on a new production, but Healy received a better offer for another project and found a loophole to get him out of his new contract. By this point, Shemp was so sick of Healy that he left the group and found work Vitagraph Movie Studios in New York.
Moe suggested they replace his older brother with his younger brother, Jerry, but when Jerry auditioned, Healy complained that he just didn’t look funny with his long red hair and handlebar mustache. So, Jerry left the room, shaved his head and then returned saying, “Boy, do I look girly.” Healy thought he said “Curly” and Jerry immediately had a new name to go with his new look.
After all the drama, the group was finally ready to sign a movie contract together and they were hired by MGM in 1933. They were all put in a variety of short films independently and as a group for the next year. A year later, the contract expired and the Stooges finally left Healy for good, largely due to his alcoholism and how much of a pain he was to work with. Healy went on to have a successful movie career for another three years before he passed away under mysterious circumstances. Even today, there is no real consensus about the cause of death, although theories range from head trauma related to a barroom brawl, to a heart attack, to kidney failure.
After breaking from Healy, the gang was officially named their now-famous moniker, “The Three Stooges.” They signed on to appear in short films with Columbia Pictures, receiving $600 per week on a one-year contract. With their new-found freedom from Healy, the group quickly became immensely popular, so popular that Columbia soon started negotiating with theaters, refusing to send over shorts of The Three Stooges unless the theaters also agreed to show some of the company’s mediocre B movies as well.
by R.R. Bukrey
Physics Department
Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois
We are pleased to report that a classic atomic-scale physics experiment — the double-slit experiment — has now been carried out on a macroscopic scale. We have demonstrated the wave/particle duality of a familiar, “everyday scale” phenomenon — the stream of cars passing through the exit lanes of the Loyola University of Chicago parking garage.
Figure 1. The twin exit lanes of the parking garage.
“Is it a wave or a particle?” For centuries, physicists have employed the “double-slit” experiment to answer this question about new and unexplained phenomena. Starting with Thomas Young’s 1810 measurement of the wavelength of light, and continuing with similar studies of subatomic particles in the early 20th century, the double-slit experiments all confirmed Louis deBroglie’s now-famous “wave-particle duality” hypothesis: that absolutely everything should show both kinds of properties — wave and particle — at one time or another.
Until now, however, this wave/particle duality had been observed only for extremely tiny phenomena. It had not been demonstrated convincingly for large objects such as baseballs or bullets. Indeed, hardly anyone bothered trying until we came along.
Now, thanks to the foresight and insight of the campus sign painter at Loyola University of Chicago, we have direct evidence that automobiles also share this wondrous duality.
See Figure 1, which shows the twin exit lanes of the parking garage. The sign — “USE BOTH EXITS WHEN LEAVING THE PARKING STRUCTURE” — directs patrons of the campus parking ramp to exit via both lanes. We know from previous experiments that during this process the cars must travel as waves.
Observation shows that, without exception, the emerging vehicles are intact and have restored to their condition as particles.
This dual nature, this automotive wave/particle duality, is proof positive that nature continues to surprise and amaze us.
Some of the credit for this breakthrough must be given to my colleagues here in the Physics Department. The idea that the sign could be so interpreted (the so-called “Chicago Interpretation,” also known as the “Far-From-Copenhagen Interpretation”) came from C.M. Brodbeck. The photograph was taken by J.V. Mallow. The person pictured on the right is G.P. Ramsey (the author is on the left). We all of us owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the sign painter; however, as he did not grant us co-authorship on his sign, we feel it would be presumptuous to give him co-authorship on our paper.
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This article is republished with permission from the November-December 2001 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Were there any black people on the Titanic?
There have been three excellent movies about the ill-fated luxury liner, the most famous, of course, being James Cameron’s 1997 classic Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. There are also two other very well-made movies about the doomed ship: another entitled Titanic (1953) and A Night to Remember (1958). In none of these three films is any black person depicted aboard the ship.
Several insightful, well-researched documentaries have also been made about the Titanic. In none of these (at least to my knowledge) are any blacks shown, seen, or talked about.
So, were there any blacks aboard the Titanic? The answer is yes. The Laroche family, consisting of four members, were the only blacks aboard the ill-fated ship.
Joseph Loroche was born on May 26, 1886 in Cap-Haïtien (in the northern part of Haiti). As a young boy growing up in Haiti, he was a very good pupil. In 1901, at the age of 15, he decided he wanted to study engineering. Unfortunately, there was no school for such in Haiti, so he decided to emigrate to France. He went to France, traveling with a teacher, Monseigneur Keruzan, the Lord Bishop of Haiti. Joseph was an excellent and dedicated student and made good marks.
France was a beautiful country with fine food and beautiful sites. Unfortunately, this couldn’t hide the extreme racial prejudice rampant there. The dark-skinned Laroche had trouble procuring employment. He got a few jobs here and there, but his employers made excuses that he was too young and inexperienced. He was paid poorly and often treated shabbily.
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Maggie Koerth-Baker, the science editor at BoingBoing, has just published an amazing new book called Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before it Conquers Us, about the very hard choices we face in powering our lives without doing ourselves in. It’s adroitly written with wonderful research behind it and some very warm, yet no-nonsense Midwestern charm, as she ties many of the problems our society is facing with personal stories from growing up and living in and around the real farmvilles.
We’re going to give away TWO autographed copies of the book at the end of the interview, so be sure to read it thoroughly to better your chances of scoring one of them. Believe me: This is a book you want on your shelves, packed with insight into, perhaps, the biggest problem facing the modern world.
Q: Throughout the book, I found myself becoming incredibly depressed about the future and then, alternately, incredibly optimistic about it. Is this sort of how you felt, both in the research and writing of the book? I mean, talk of doomsday scenarios due to global warming and massive energy shortages can’t be too uplifting to study, yet the realm of possibilities surrounding alternative energy are way exciting to think about, especially as you get further into them. You even write in the book: “I have to admit that when I think about all of the coordination, education, and nonpartisan (not only bipartisan) decision making that needs to happen, I get the urge to go back to bed and hide under the covers.” Have you been on an emotional roller coaster these past couple years working on the book?
A: Oh, definitely. Or, rather, I’m not sure I’d call it an emotional roller coaster, because it’s not linear like that. It’s more like an emotional scrambler. I’d find myself collecting all this information–knowing that every possible solution was going to have downsides and risks, and that the risk of doing nothing were even worse–and then kind of had to sift through it all and figure out a way to talk about it that emphasized both sides of that coin. And that’s hard. There are lots of times when you feel both deflated and optimistic at once. And it really goes against the dominant narratives on energy: Which are either that we don’t need to change anything, or that we need to change and that those changes are inherently ideal things that will have no risks or downsides whatsoever. Both perspectives are wrong.
Q: In the intro, you write: “This is a book about what we’ll have to deal with and the changes that will have to happen, because we really have no other choice.” What does the choice to do nothing result in?
A: The choice to do nothing will result in change. The choice to do nothing is risky, riskier I think than trying to do something even if that something is flawed and imperfect. I can’t emphasize this enough. We have aging infrastructure that wasn’t built in any ideal way to begin with. We have climate change playing out in front of our faces. We have limited supplies of fossil fuels so that, even the stuff we have lots of still–natural gas and coal–are projected to only be enough for 100 or 200 years. (And that’s at current levels of demand. And if you don’t change anything, then demand always goes up.)
All those things are happening, whether we ignore them or not. As they play out, they will force changes to the way we use energy, the way we make it, and the way we live. They will force us to spend lots and lots of money.
So what we have isn’t a choice between spending a ton of money or not, between changing or not. It’s a choice between different kinds of changes. Do we want the kind of change where we spend money upfront to save it in the long run and have some control over how we address these issues? Or do we want the kind of changes that just happen to us, whether we like them or not, and cost us dearly down the road? I know my answer.
Q: With regard to energy solutions in the future, you write: “Nobody gets everything he or she wants.” Of all the interested parties, who gets most of what s/he wants and who gets the short end of the stick?
Whether or not you’ve ever actually watched a full one, you’re certainly familiar with the show-length advertisements known as infomercials. But have you ever wondered how these comically bad ads came about? After all, unlike other forms of advertisement, infomercials were created specifically for television. Here’s the story of the paid programs we all love to hate.
If you’re familiar with old-timey radio programs, then you probably already know that many pre-television radio programs didn’t have ads so much as sponsors whose name and product would be plugged in between just about every song. Even those unfamiliar with these early radio programs may recognize the idea from the movie O’ Brother Where Art Thou, where there are frequent mentions of Pappy O’Daniel’s Flour Hour.
Interestingly, that character was actually based on a real life Texas governor with the same name who also had a flour company, Hillbilly Flour, that sponsored a radio program. As if the frequent mention of the sponsor’s name wasn’t enough, the real Pappy O’Daniel ensured that even his performers reminded people of the product, so he even helped form a band known as the Light Crust Doughboys (the Hillbilly Band in the video was created after the Doughboys broke up). Sure it was still not quite an infomercial, but I’m sure you can see that sponsored programming is certainly nothing new.
As television began to catch on, the same concept was used again, only instead of using music or radio plays, the sponsors could create entire TV shows devoted mainly to pitching their products while consumers watched the programming intently. One of the most famous early examples was NBC’s The Magic Clown, which was created and sponsored by Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy and featured regular interruptions promoting said candy (aside from the name in the intro, there’s basically a full commercial at 4:09).
The first real infomercial appeared around 1950 and was for a blender, although there is a heated debate as to whether it was for a VitaMix or a Waring blender.
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.
BRI member Ben Brand sent us this information about a couple of experiments conducted by a Stanford professor a few years ago. The results are a little scary -but frankly, they’re not that surprising, are they?
EXPERIMENT #1
Researchers: Dr. David Rosenhan, a professor psychology and law at Stanford University. He was assisted by eight people, carefully chosen because they were “apparently sane in every measurable aspect, with no record of past mental problems”: three psychologists, a psychiatrist, a pediatrician, an artist, a housewife, and a psychology graduate student.
Who They Studied: The people who run America’s mental institutions.
* Using pseudonyms, the researchers presented themselves at 12 different mental institutions around the U.S. as patients “worried about their mental health.” They were admitted and diagnosed as insane. According to Ron Perlman in the San Francisco Chronicle, “All told the same tale of trouble: they had been hearing voices which seemed to be saying ‘empty’ or ‘hollow’ or ‘thud.’ This was the only symptom they presented, and the pseudopatients were scrupulously truthful about all other aspects of their lives during interviews and therapy sessions.”
* Perlman adds, “As soon as they were admitted to the hospitals, they stopped simulating any symptoms at all, and whenever they were asked they all said they felt fine and that their brief hallucinations were gone. They were cooperative a patients and behaved completely normally. The only symptom they might then have shown was a little nervousness about the possibility of being found out.”
* They remained in the institutions for as long as 52 days, getting regular treatment.
* The eight “mental patients” scrupulously kept a written record of both their treatment and the things that happened around them in the mental wards. At first they did it furtively, hiding their notes so that the staff wouldn’t find them. But gradually they realized that the staff didn’t care, and never even bothered to ask what they were writing. “One nurse,” writes Perlman, “noticing that a pseudopatient was taking regular notes, saw it as a symptom of a crazy compulsion. ‘Patient engages in writing behavior,’ she wrote portentously on his chart day after day.”
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The Jewish feast of Passover, or Pesach, began last night, and will last until sundown on April 14th. The Christian Holy Week continues with Easter tomorrow. The fact that the holidays often land so close together on the calendar is not coincidence if you know the events of the Bible. You may be enjoying your holiday weekend in religious contemplation, joyous celebration, or just relaxing with family. Then again, if you are Mom, you may be busy preparing Seder dishes, dying eggs, getting the family’s clothing ready, and all those other traditional preparations that make holidays special. At least you can make some time to catch up on the wonderful things we’ve brought you this week at Neatorama.
Jill Harness put together a list of 14 Wonderfully Geeky Easter Eggs.
She also rounded up 10 Awesome Office Pranks For Late April Fool’s Day.
Eddie Deezen gave us the story behind The Cover Art of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Postcards From The Edge (Of America): The Adventures of Lewis & Clark came from mental_floss magazine.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader brought out the 12-year-old in all of us with Heh, Heh, Heh. You Said “Uranus.”
In the What Is It? game this week, the unidentified object is now identified as a billiards pocket (found on eBay). The first correct answer came from Berhard, who wins a t-shirt! Of many funny answers, the funniest was from Lord_Dissident, who said,
It is actually the iron mask that was used to hide the face of the man in the iron mask. The front was opened only at feeding time, food was placed into the bowl, and it was slammed shut again. That is why he never ate soup again after he got out of that mask.
That certainly deserves a t-shirt! Find out the purposes of all this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
The Decipher the Doodle contest at NeatoBambino has wrapped up, and you can get the complete story of what the doodle was all about in the followup post. Congratulations to Cana, whose answer was closest to correct, and to KatieJ, who had the funniest wrong answer. They win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!
NeatoBambino will certainly have more contests when the young artists come up with appropriate doodles, but meanwhile, check out Neatorama’s auxiliary site for fun stuff to do with your kids, neat stuff to read about babies and children, and adorable yet entertaining videos!
The most-commented-on post this week was Driver Attempts Hit and Run, Gets Blocked in By Other Drivers, because bike traffic will always draw comments. Coming in second was 7 Ridiculously Outdated Assumptions Every Movie Makes followed by Where Would You Go? The photo titled Live Long and Prosper would have ranked here, but I had to delete quite a few comments. Remember, we love a lively discussion, but anyone who insults or attacks another commenter will be removed.
When you’re caught up on everything from this week, you can access past feature articles at The Best of Neatorama. And have a blessed holiday weekend!
Comments Off 
Imagine taking a road trip with some friends, but this time, you’re not in a Winnebago during Spring Break or runnin’ a quickie to Tijuana and back. There are no cell phones, no GPS systems and no 24-hour convenience stores. Nope, this little jaunt is about 8,000 miles round-trip, and you’ll be lucky to travel 12 clicks on a good day. There’s no reliable map to guide your path. You’ll have to chow stewed dog meat to stave off starvation. Oh, and you’ll encounter hail the size of grapefruit, rattlesnakes galore and potentially hostile tribes who very well may want to kill you.
The good news? You can’t get lost because you have no idea where you’re going.
We’re talking, of course, about the great journey of Lewis and Clark, the original cross-country Hikapalooza over 200 years ago when the first U.S. citizens reached the Pacific by land. Together, the members of the expedition braved that big mass of unknown territory known as “the geography of hope,” an uncharted land full of rumors, from Bigfoot to savage cannibals. Not to mention gold under the rainbow.
1778 Map of Western North America
A Three Hour Tour…
President Thomas Jefferson was the one who came up with this crazy idea, but he made it sound pretty simple: Explore a water route up the Missouri River and then along the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Coast. Yeah, right.
While the idea of finding a path connecting the two shores was a good call, it was pretty much impossible because of those pesky Rocky Mountains (who knew?). So what was supposed to be a quick trip to the Pacific ended up lasting 28 months.
Meriwether Lewis
To organize the expedition, Jefferson called on Meriwether Lewis, a 29-year-old fellow Virginian and his personal secretary. Lewis accepted the challenge and got his old Army buddy, William Clark, to ride shotgun. Of course, for Clark, partnering with Lewis meant demoting himself from Lewis’s previous superior officer to the equal-ranking position of captain. It was an important political move, and one that he wouldn’t forget (stay tuned).
While Clark recruited and trained the team, Lewis took a series of crash courses in kayaking, medicine and scientific observation (image of their compass courtesy of Smithsonian Legacies). The crew consisted of a black slave (Clark’s) named York, a dog (a Newfoundland named Seaman) and a support staff of four dozen (mostly soldiers and gung-ho frontiersmen). For provisions, the group took along some party mix, mainly in the form of “ardent spirits” — a.k.a., 120 gallons of Kentucky Whiskey, about 30 gallons of brandy and a spot of rum (to ward off the chill, of course). The caravan also toted a traveling library, cooking kettles, canvas tenting, trade goods, axes, and personal possessions such as Lewis’ writing desk and his favorite blankie. They called their new troop the Corps of Volunteers for North Western Discovery. Although, had the crew known what they were in for, they might have called it, Do It Yourself; We’re Not Crazy.
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I don’t know about you guys, but the extent of my Easter egg decorating ends with being able to use two different dyes on an egg and then slapping on a few stickers. I once tried to paint one with real paint at a party where everyone was doing the same and mine was probably the worst, looking like a six year-old’s rendition of a dying Tony the Tiger. Fortunately, not everyone is as lacking in artistry as I am. In fact, some people have turned the process of coloring Easter eggs into a true art form. And where there’s art, there’s geekery. Here are a few of the most awesomely geeky Easter eggs ever created.
If I could give out an award for best over all geek Easter egg creator, it would have to go to Flickr user Rakka. For starters, there’s this fun little Bender design. Just tell me you don’t want to bite his shinny metal yolk.
Ever thought your eggs needed to be upgraded? Well, the Cybermen are here ready to go to work on your Easter treats. Soon they will all be compatible.
The only problem with these adorable LEGO eggs is that unlike the real thing, they don’t interlock with one another. Even so, they’d be perfect for any youngster who prefers LEGOland over Disneyland.
With Jake the dog and Finn the human, the (Easter Egg hunting) fun will never end. Rakka also included everyone’s favorite spoiled royal heir, Lumpy Space Princess.
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The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe.
Stop that. You’re not 13 anymore. And besides, Uranus is possibly the best planet ever. Really.
LOOKING AT URANUS
Gaze for a moment, if you will, on the featureless disk that is Uranus (stop that). The discovery of Uranus ranks as one of the top scientific finds of history. (I mean it. Don’t make me come back there.) In fact, we can safely say that science today would be entirely different, if it wasn’t for Uranus…
I can wait until you’re done, you know.
WHERE URANUS CAME FROM
“Uranus,” of course, has nothing at all to do with your terminal excretory sphincter. First off, it’s pronounced “yooor-ah-nus,” not “yer-anus,” as folks are so wont to do. Second, the word refers to one of the oldest characters in Greek mythology, the personification of the heavens, who with Gaia, the personification of the Earth, sired the Titans, a.k.a. the Elder Gods. They in turn sired the Olympians gods, whose names (in the Roman versions) grace the other planets, excepting Saturn, who was the most important Titan, and our own little Earth, the most boringly named, probably from the Olde English “earthe,” meaning “earth.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF URANUS
When Uranus was given its name, it was to imply the majesty of the vast reaches of the universe. Its present status as the butt of butt jokes is an unfortunate and cruel irony.
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I know April Fool’s Day was yesterday, but since most people don’t go to work on Sundays, today is certainly the best day to pull off any office pranks you’ve had planned. Admittedly, most good office pranks take a bit of time and preparation to pull off, so it might be too late to do something super outrageous if you haven’t already planned it, even so, these might at least give you some inspiration for April 1, 2013.
At LEGOLAND, employees quickly learn that anything can be remade with legos…including the vehicles of their co-workers. So naturally, the team stole another employee’s car, moved it and forklifted in a LEGO version of the same vehicle. The doppelganger car weighed 2,934 pounds and took 201,076 LEGOs to build. Of course, being a LEGO-lover himself, the victim couldn’t help but be impressed.
No, these clever pranksters didn’t do anything to the office bathroom –that kind of potty humor is too immature for a workplace environment. Instead, they turned their co-worker’s office into a bathroom. This one takes a lot of time, money and effort, so make sure you’re ready to commit to the project before diving in….also, make sure the victim isn’t dumb enough to actually try using the toilet after you put it in her office. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had a lot of bosses I wouldn’t trust not to use it.
Who doesn’t love having some live plants growing at their desk? Oh yeah, someone who has a keyboard full of cress. To try this prank out for yourself, simply remove the keys of a keyboard and place down some cotton. Sprinkle in some cress or grass seeds and water, and then replace the keys. Spray lightly with water a few times a day and in a few weeks you’ll have a healthy baby garden ready to confuse your victim. Just switch out his keyboard when he’s not looking, and you’re done!
It might not be the safest or most grown-up prank out there, but let’s face it, turning your co-worker’s desk into a booby trapped mess is certainly one of the most fun pranks out there. If you want to build your own, Instructables user PocketSized has all the guidance you need to create a tripwire-activated booby trap. Of course, you have to be careful as you don’t want to shoot anyone’s eye out with a poorly aimed push pin.
Yep, it’s another holiday weekend, as tomorrow is April Fool’s Day. But what do you do when it falls on a Sunday? In the last couple of decades, I see people tending to stretch holidays across several days to extend the fun, so why not this one as well? Pranks all weekend long, pranks on Monday, and maybe even into Tuesday. All the better to totally fool someone, you know! Still, think before you prank, because there’s a limit to how far you can go before you cause irreparable harm to a physical body, job prospects, your credibility, or a relationship. The safe way to celebrate is to enjoy other people’s pranks and hoaxes. At the end of this post, you’ll find a list of Neatorama feature articles about pranks, hoaxes, and tricks from history. And here are the features from this week you might need to catch up on:
John Farrier found 14 Facts You Might Not Know about Mission: Impossible.
Jill Harness brought us back pictures of 35 Great Costumes From WonderCon.
The Magna Carta filled us in on the history of the document, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
Ig® Nobel Limericks: Slime, Nation, Beer came to us from The Annals of Improbable Research.
And mental_floss magazine gave us 4 Winning Moments in Gym Class History.
Over at NeatoBambino, the Decipher the Doodle contest is Back! Take your best shot at interpreting a drawing by a 5-year-old and win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
In the What Is It game this week,the mystery item is a miner’s plummet, the lighted wick was sighted with a transit by surveyors when doing layout work in dark mine shafts. Steve Pauk knew that, and wins a t-shirt for his efforts! The prize for the funniest answer goes to pismonque for this quip: “Commemorative souvenir torch necklace from the 1928 Summer Olympics. Didn’t really catch on because it tended to catch on.” And we also found that everyone loves to say (or type) the words “plumb bob.” Thanks to all who played this week! Find out the answers to all this week’s items at the What Is It? blog.
For April Fool’s Day
From the archives, I recommend Non-Foolery on April Fools’ Day. It’s a look back at real news stories that no one believed because they happened on April Fools Day! And we have plenty of articles about historical pranks and hoaxes and foolishness you may enjoy.
Hippo Eats Dwarf: Phony Technology
Five Hoaxes that Fooled the World
Six More Hoaxes That Fooled the World
7 Great Sports Scams, Scandals, and Hoaxes
The Great Moon Hoax
Really Successful People Who Never Actually Existed
The Newspaper Hoax that Shook the World
Human Oil (and Other Hoaxes)
Joey Skaggs, The Ultimate Hoax Meister
Remember, you can also get more Neatorama goodness by joining us in the social networking world. That means Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and now Pinterest!
Comments Off There’s more to gym class than towel snapping and poorly played games of volleyball. Not much more, but certainly enough for 4 really great stories!
(Image credit: Flickr user The Library of Congress)
1. STRETCHING TO THE (VERY) OLDIES
While Harriet Beecher Stowe was busy writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, her sister Catherine Beecher was busy blazing a different sort of trail -one that the Richard Simmonses of the world would be dance-walking down in the years to come. After learning about aerobic exercise at seminary, Beecher developed her own brand of calisthenics that included arm stretches, lunges, and squats. Then she got fancy and added live piano music to the mix. The result was an early version of Sweatin’ to the Oldies. But it wasn’t just fitness freaks who were moved by Beecher’s music -several schools around the country embraced her program and added it to their curricula.
2. ALL JACKED UP
Jack LaLanne
The jumping jack goes by many names -the star jump, the side-straddle hop. But whatever you call it, there’s only one man to blame: U.S. Army General John “Jack” Pershing. The general came up with the eponymous exercise early in his career as a no-nonsense cadet captain at West Point. But it took a whole different Jack to take the exercise public. That honor goes to the late fitness guru and TV personality Jack LaLanne, who famously bounced around, both onscreen and off, in a trademark jumpsuit. Over the years, LaLanne became so synonymous with the jumping jack that many credit him as the inventor -an indiscretion that would have earned a punishment of 100 jumping jacks from the exercise’s originator.
3. KICKING IT OLD SCHOOL
If you like kickball but hate the baseball-style rules, why not play it like they did in the 1920? To start, as many as 30 players could play at one time. Batters would place the ball on home plate and kick it without a pitcher. As for the fielders, they had to be at least 20 feet away from the kicker, and if the ball failed to reach them, the batter was ruled out.
But perhaps the strangest part of the game was the base running. When the ball was kicked, the runner ran to the base. Yes, the base: there was only one! A runner on base would either try to score when his teammate kicked the ball or stay put, meaning 14 players were allowed to stay on base at one time. If they didn’t return home by the time the last batter on a team kicked, they were out. Room for improvement, yes, but also great heart.
4. YOU MEDALING KIDS…
In the 1940s and ’50s, New York University’s Dr. Hans Kraus conducted a series of fitness tests on American and European school children. In one study, he asked the kids to perform simple exercises such as leg lifts, sit-ups, and toe touches. The results were unnerving: 56 percent of American children failed at least one part of the test, compared to just 8 percent of Europeans.
When President Eisenhower heard the news, he responded by launching the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. A decade later, President Johnson furthered the cause with the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, recognizing the country’s fittest 15 percent. These days, the award is still a staple in phys ed classes, although you no longer have to be at the top of your gym class to get recognized. Those below average win the Participant Physical Fitness Award for showing “room for improvement” but also “great heart.”
_______________________
The article above, written by Adam K. Raymond, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the January-February 2012 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!
Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!
The Decipher the Doodle Contest returns to NeatoBambino and it’s another chance for you to win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The doodle in question (which you only see a small portion of here) was drawn by a five-year-old girl. What is it supposed to illustrate? Both the commenter closest to the correct answer and the commenter with the funniest wrong answer at the contest site will win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Be sure to read all the rules before you leave an entry. Good luck! Link
Comments Off Ig Nobel Achievements distilled into limerick form
by Martin Eiger, Improbable Research Limerick Laureate
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. For details of all the Ig Nobel Prize–winning achievements, see each year’s special Ig Nobel issue of the magazine, and also see the winners’ page.
2008 Ig Nobel Cognitive Science Prize
Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Japan, Hiroyasu Yamada of Nagoya, Japan, Ryo Kobayashi of Hiroshima University, Atsushi Tero of Presto JST, Akio Ishiguro of Tohoku University, and Agota Tsth of the University of Szeged, Hungary, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
REFERENCE: “Intelligence: Maze-Solving by an Amoeboid Organism,” Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, and Ágota Tóth, Nature, vol. 407, September 2000, p. 470.
The crossword has left me at sea.
The sudoku’s as hard as can be.
Though it won’t be as fun,
I will get them done.
A slime mold will solve them for me.
2003 Ig Nobel Economics Prize
The prize was awarded to Karl Schwarzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.
In Liechtenstein, one shouldn’t miss
A chance of a lifetime like this.
You can rent the whole nation
For your celebration,
A wedding, bar mitzvah, or bris.
(Image credit: Flickr user matthiashn)
2002 Ig Nobel Physics Prize
Arnd Leike of the University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical law of exponential decay.
REFERENCE: “Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth,” Arnd Leike, European Journal of Physics, vol. 23, January 2002, pp. 21–6.
There’s a beer on the table near me.
As I stare at it, clearly, I see
A continuous drop
In the foam on the top
As e to the negative t.
_____________________
This article is republished with permission from the September-October 2009 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
Good morning, Neatoramanauts. From 1966 to 1973, the innovative television show Mission: Impossible presented the adventures of the Impossible Missions Force. This top secret American agency found stolen nuclear bombs, exposed counterfeiters, rescued captured spies and foiled criminal plots at home and abroad. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to learn things that you might not know about the show.
1. The show was inspired by the criminal heist movie Topkapi and was originally entitled Briggs’ Squad. In the early drafts, the team members were semi-reformed criminals who had served together in a special forces unit and proven unable to re-adjust to civilian life. Barney was a compulsive gambler and card cheat. Cinnamon was a drug addict. Rollin Hand was a thief. Willy Armitage beat women while working as a strip club bouncer. The series creator, Bruce Geller, cleaned up their backgrounds to make the show more appealing.
2. The self-destructing tape scenes were usually shot all at once, once a year for each season. The tapes didn’t actually disintegrate.
A special effects technician created that impression by blowing smoke through a tube into the recorder.
3. The voice on the tape belonged to Robert Johnson, an accountant turned voice over artist. For the pilot episode, he was paid $125. Since the pilot sold, he kept coming back and, for several years, would record his part every few weeks. His character was never identified during the series.
4. After learning about the mission, Dan Briggs or Jim Phelps would return to his apartment to select agents from a portfolio. The rejected photos in these agent selection scenes were usually pictures of crew members or their wives. In the screenshot above, Dan Briggs is looking at a photo of Bruce Geller. Even though he created Mission: Impossible, Geller doesn’t get to go on this mission.
5. Steven Hill played Dan Briggs, the IMF’s leader at the beginning of the series. Hill had an abrasive personality at that time. He repeatedly clashed with directors and producers, and they ultimately fired him at the end of the first season.
Hill was eventually able to overcome these issues and become a successful actor, most famously playing the role of District Attorney Adam Schiff on Law & Order.
6. In the meantime, directors settled on Peter Graves to replace Hill as Jim Phelps, the new leader of the IMF. Graves came from an acting family: his brother, James Arness, played Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke.
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The following is reprinted from the book Uncle John’s Unsinkable Bathroom Reader.
Most people have heard of it -maybe in a ninth-grade history class or on Jeopardy! last week. But what is it? Answer: a piece of writing that has helped shape governments for 800 years.
BACKGROUND
When asked to name the most important documents in Western civilization, historians almost always include the Magna Carta. What’s so important about it? Many people assume that this landmark document, written in 1215, helped advance human rights and led directly to the Declaration of Independence. Not quite. The Magna Carta actually wasn’t intended to help the common man, but it did mark the first time in history that written law challenged the absolute power of a monarch, and the first time that governments, even kings, could be held accountable for their actions. Without that, modern democracy would not exist.
STRUGGLE FOR THE THRONE
In 1002, Ethelred II, the Anglo-Saxon king of England, married Emma, the daughter of the duke of Normandy (now a region of northern France). The marriage created a blood alliance between these two kingdoms, designed to unite them against invasion by the Vikings. In 1066 the next king of England, Edward the Conquerer (an Anglo-Saxon) died, leaving no heirs. That left the door open for the Norman bloodline (the one descended from Emma) to make a claim for the throne of England.; William, the duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England.
When William (known today as William the Conquerer) officially became king of England, he installed a feudal system. Norman troops who had fought on William’s side were given English lands as a reward for their loyalty, and they became barons. According to the feudal system, anyone who lived within a baron’s jurisdiction was obliged to pay taxes to the baron and serve in his militia. The barons, in turn, paid taxes to the king.
England operated that way until 1199, when King Richard the Lionhearted died and his brother John claimed the throne. John, the youngest son in the royal family, actually ranked beneath his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, in the order of succession. So how did he become king? Arthur disappeared and John took the throne by force. This enraged the barons, but what could they do? They couldn’t fight the king of England …or could they?
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This was the first year that the WonderCon (Comic-Con’s little sister) was held in Anaheim instead of San Francisco, unfortunately, that didn’t mean that the weather was any better. In fact, it was pouring the better part of the weekend. While the poor weather and smaller size of the convention meant there were far fewer cosplayers than at Comic-Con, the diversity and quality of the costumes was definitely impressive. Here are a few of the best costumes as photographed by Zeon and myself.
There are always a lot of Batman costumes at any convention, but with The Dark Knight Rises coming out this summer, there were even more than usual -including this sexy group of cosplayers. There was also a matching Harley Quinn, but I didn’t get a good picture of her. Sorry boys.
Cat Women and Riddlers were particularly popular at the convention.
Harley Quinn was also a pretty popular costume, which is interesting since they still haven’t put her character into a movie yet. Nolan, maybe you should take note of that fact.
Cross-play was also a pretty big trend and this adorable Robin and Green Arrow did a great job at adapting their costumes accordingly.
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Are you getting excited about tonight’s Mad Men 2-hour special season premiere? WE ARE! To get you in the mood, we found this funny mock-up of a Citysearch profile page created by Don Draper. Click the image above to enlarge it or go here.
Here’s our favorite excerpt:
The ironic cupcake names at Cuddles feel like a cheap ploy. I believe the cupcake customer prefers an earnest message. The word strawberry means something. It calls to mind, picnics on hot summer days…the expectation of valentine’s day when a chocolate covered strawberry is the last thing you remember before the bedroom. What does “Sarah’s super strawberry surprise,” do besides sully the strength of the core ingredient and my experience here. Also, you can’t smoke inside?
Comments Off This past week has been an eventful one here at Neatorama! We had more than the usual number of feature articles, a contest with lots of winners, and joined another social networking site. Yes, Neatorama is now on Pinterest! Tell all your Pinterest buddies to come see us there.
The highlight of the week was the Spot the Neatobot game! It reminded me of an Easter egg hunt, with everyone looking around on the website for a badge featuring the Neatobot. Those who follow Neatorama on Facebook, Twitter and/or G+ got hints on where to look. Twenty people won twenty t-shirts from the NeatoShop, and if you haven’t checked your email yet, you may find that you’re one of them!
If you are one of the winners, we’d really like to see what you look like wearing your t-shirt from the NeatoShop. So put it on, take a picture, send to to us, and when we get enough, we’ll post them right here on the site. In fact, if you’ve won a Neatorama or a NeatoShop t-shirt in any of our contests, send us your best modeling image. I look forward to seeing you!
Jill Harness was busy all week marking important calendar events. Tuesday was the 84th anniversary of Fred Rogers’ birth, so she brought us the article Getting to Know Mister Rogers.
William Shatner turned 81 on Thursday, so we had Let’s Have a Shatnerpalooza!
And for the film opening, Jill put together 20 Fantabulous Hunger Games Arts & Crafts.
We got to see some eerie but beautiful high-resolution underwater photographs of the historic wreckage of The Titanic Today at the Spotlight Blog, courtesy of National Geographic magazine.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader gave us the lowdown on the Beat Generation in the article Meet the Beats.
It’s Good to Be a YAVIS came to us from the Annals of Improbable Research.
And mental_floss magazine told us about The 10 Greatest Love Affairs in History.
In this week’s What Is It? game, the mystery object is a simple ice cube crusher. The first with that answer was just a guess, who wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer came from upiru, who said, “It’s a chewing-gum tester of course. Some clever students even use it to chew their gum discretly under the classroom table.” That’s good for a shirt, too! Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who played along. See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments this week (outside of the giveaways) was, not surprisingly, Would You Reveal Your Facebook Password to get a Job? But catching up fast is the more recent post Should Airlines Charge Fat People More?
When you’re caught up on everything from this week, you can check out past feature articles at The Best of Neatorama. Pick a year and browse through an amazing variety of neat stuff to read!
Comments Off It’s what makes women wear torturous undergarments and feign interest in preposterous sporting rituals. It’s also what makes men hold dainty purses outside of fitting rooms and suffer through hosts of terrible movies. What could be this powerful? Why, love, of course. We’ve combed through Cupid’s handiwork and selected some romantic pairings powerful enough to influence culture, trigger wars, and spawn international scandals.
1. Antony and Cleopatra
Cleopatra always had a high profile love life. The queen of Egypt, she was the mistress of Julius Caesar, king of Rome, until his assassination in 44 B.C.E. After Caesar’s death, Mark Antony began sharing an uneasy alliance with Gaius Octavian (Caesar’s grandnephew) and army general Marcus Lepidus as triumviral rulers of the Roman Empire. Looking to gain a powerful political ally, Antony invited Cleopatra to Tarsus (in what is now Turkey) in 41 B.C.E. for a meeting that would become legendary. Although she was rather plain looking, Cleopatra had a captivating presence and was known for her intelligence, wit and, at times, ruthless ambition. Antony was charmed instantly and followed Cleopatra back to Egypt. Back in Rome, Octavian was understandably angry, because Antony had previously wed his sister, Octavia, to strengthen his position. He began to view Cleopatra as a greedy temptress who had turned Antony into a helpless puppet. Octavian declared war on the two lovers, which culminated in the Battle of Actium in western Greece in 31 B.C.E. There, Octavian’s naval fleet defeated the joint forces of Antony and Cleopatra, and the pair fled back to Egypt. Octavian, still pursuing sole control over the Roman Empire, invaded Egypt and forced Cleopatra and Antony to surrender.
During the final struggle against Octavian in Egypt, Antony received a false report that Cleopatra had committed suicide. Antony, overcome with grief, thrust a sword into his abdomen. His men carried him to where Cleopatra was hiding, and he died in her arms. Soon after, Cleopatra was taken prisoner. Legend has it she smuggled a poisonous snake into her cell and placed it upon her chest where it delivered a fatal strike. Cleopatra was buried next to her beloved, where they lay together for eternity.
2. Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin
Catherine the Great and her lover, Grigory Potemkin, definitely take the cake for the best “how we met” story. In 1761 Catherine was the wife of Russian Czar Peter III. But after only one year in power, Peter was overthrown (likely with Catherine’s help) and killed (she may have given those orders, too) by the Imperial Guard forces in a coup d’etat. It just so happened that, right about the time Peter was meeting his grim fate, Russian soldier Grigory Potemkin was on guard duty ensuring Catherine’s safety. Catherine, who would become empress only days later, took a liking to Potemkin, despite the fact that he was obese, vain and missing an eye. But Catherine wasn’t exactly known for being picky about her lovers; she had many, but she undoubtedly showed the longest fidelity to Potemkin. By 1771, Catherine had made him an official Russian statesman, a count and the commander of her armies. Although their love affair ended in 1776, Potemkin remained the love of her life. When he died at age 52, Catherine went into a depression from which she never fully recovered.
3. Napoleon and Josephine
Napoleon Bonaparte, a ruthless and ambitious soldier in the French military, was captivated the moment he saw Josephine, a charming and beautiful Paris socialite. Napoleon doggedly pursued the widowed, 32-year-old mother of two, but wasn’t immediately successful. Despite being a military genius, he was unkempt and rather homely looking. Josephine eventually had a change of heart, and the two were married in 1796. Shortly after their wedding, Napoleon embarked on a series of military campaigns, while Josephine embarked on her own series of adulterous affairs. When Napoleon received word of this, he became enraged and demanded a divorce. But Josephine begged for his forgiveness, and he relented.
As Napoleon continued to rise in power and wealth, being crowned emperor of France in 1804, he became focused on having a son to carry on his royal lineage. But he eventually came to the conclusion that Josephine was unable to conceive, and the couple divorced in 1809. Less than a year later he married 18-year-old Marie Louise of Austria and had a son. But without Josephine it seemed his destiny was cursed. After devastating military losses he was exiled to the island of Elba on May 4, 1814. Josephine, still heartbroken, wrote a letter to Napoleon and asked permission to join him. He wrote back that it was impossible, but Josephine died on May 29 before his letter arrived. In 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to Paris. The first person he visited was the doctor who treated Josephine. When Napoleon beseeched the physician as to why his beloved Josephine had died, the doctor replied that he believed she had succumbed to a broken heart. He then retrieved violets from her garden and wore them in a locket until his death in 1821.
4. Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra Feoderovna
more …
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