Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

Mickey Mouse? Banned? You must be kidding!

No, I’m not. Mickey Mouse, that ultra-safe, conservative, harmless, beloved, world-famous cartoon character was banned -in the United States, no less. Or, to be exact, one of his cartoons was. The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Shindig was officially banned in America. But why?

Well, for one, in a scene in The Shindig, Clarabelle Cow is shown in the stable reading a book entitled Three Weeks.

Soon her date, Horace Horsecollar, knocks on her door to pick her up. Clarabelle quickly dresses, therefore she was technically naked while reading the book.

It was reported by TIME magazine in 1931 that the state of Ohio banned The Shindig because it showed a cow’s udders. While TIME noted that many moviegoers didn’t min viewing Clarabelle Cow’s udders, many others were very offended. That was reason  number one.

Reason number two is a bit more esoteric (although equally ridiculous).

The book Clarabelle was reading, Three Weeks, was a notorious book written by Elinor Glyn, a British novelist and screenwriter who pioneered women’s mass market erotic fiction. It was Elinor Glyn who coined the word “it” to mean “sex appeal.” This was considered very racy and suggestive by 1920s Middle-American standards.

Her book Three Weeks was declared obscene and banned in Canada in 1907. It was condemned by religious leaders in the United States. How it came to be included in the Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon is a mystery to this day.

The Shindig

(YouTube link)

A 1929 Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Barnyard Battle, was officially banned in Germany in 1930, three years before Adolf Hitler came to power. This cartoon depicted Mickey triumphing over German World War I feline soldiers and making them look foolish. The Barnyard Battle was re-issued in Germany in 1931, after the “offensive” scenes were edited out.

The Barnyard Battle

(YouTube link)

In Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Mickey Mouse and his cartoons remained un-banned. In fact, Hitler was a huge Mickey Mouse fan. In Joseph Goebbels’ 1947 diary entry for December 22, he writes excitedly of his giving the Fuhrer “18 Mickey Mouse films” for his Christmas present. He also notes that the Fuhrer “is very excited about it. He is completely happy about this treasure.”

It has been noted in several books and websites that in the 1930s, Hitler officially banned Mickey Mouse in Nazi Germany and declared him “an enemy of the state.” There is scant evidence for this claim and it is probably untrue.

However, once war with the United States was officially declared in 1941, Mickey Mouse was officially banned by Hitler and the Nazis.

(Video Link)

While the creator of this video says the lamb is making that face because it’s shocked, the whole thing just seems way too much like Dramatic Chipmunk minus the audio. If someone was so inclined to remix this one, it would work great with the music as well.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

Yes, this is the most epic Mario-themed bathroom ever created. No, I still don’t recommend trying to crawl through any of the pipes in this house to go looking for extra lives and gold coins. All you will find is a terrible smell and tons of bacteria.

Oh, and just joking about the trash can, it just happens to be sitting in a bad part of the room for the theme to work. As it turns out, the rest of the room is decorated with Donkey Kong and Pac Man, you can see more pictures over at the link.

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

Now that is a pooch that understands how dangerous high stress levels can be. Seriously, I only wish I could fall asleep so easily, but I guess that talent is for the dogs…or at least these 13 adorable sleeping dogs.

Link

Let’s be honest, many of us are interested in losing weight, but it just seems so tedious. The trick is to find something that works with your lifestyle so you can maintain your interest. That’s why Weighthacker’s list of gadgets to help geeks lose weight is so useful for those of us with an interest in technology. From smartphone tools to laptop desks, there are some great ideas on there.

Of course, like any good list of gadgets, many of them are pretty darn expensive, so be prepared to shell out a lot of cash if you actually want to own everything listed there. Personally, if they could just find a way to get David Tennant in his role as The Doctor to travel through space and time with you while you worked out, I’d have 0% body fat by now.

Link

I don’t consider thick black liquid to be a tantalizing beverage option, unless it comes in a shot glass and contains about forty percent alcohol, but Blk Beverages Black Spring Water claims to be more refreshing than drinking a bottle of ink.

It doesn’t get you drunk, it gets you vitaminized, so here’s the scoop straight from the source of the darkness:

Blk Beverages Black Spring Water’s proprietary blend of Fulvic Minerals (a derivative of plant matter) are mined from a 70 million year old source deep within the earth. Naturally black in color, Blk Beverages Spring Water’s formula binds to the molecules of Blk Beverages pure Canadian Spring Water turning it naturally black, with no artificial dyes, coloring, or additives. Fulvic Minerals are critical in growth of plant life, helping the transportation and absorption of nutrients. Fulvic Mineral’s small molecular structure allows for the fast absorption of over 77 different trace minerals and elements, powerful electrolytes, antioxidants, and free radical scavengers.

Nothing like some free radical scavengers to quench your thirst. Mmmmmmmm!

Link  –via Super Punch

I know we post cosplay photos from the San Diego Comic Con every year, but while it may be the biggest comic book convention, it’s far from the only one. A few weeks ago, Boston held their yearly convention and the costumes are utterly delightful as you can see in this great gallery over on Geeks Are Sexy.

Link

Crafter, writer and Neatoramanaut Shannon Larratt made this ring for his fiancé’s birthday. It’s wrapped around a wisdom tooth that she had extracted 12 years ago. What a wonderful way to mark the advance of age and the insight it brings! Excellent work, Shannon.

Link -via Craft

While Toy Story 2 was in production, someone at Pixar accidentally typed in a command that erased the drives on which the animation files were stored. Most of the film vanished in 20 seconds.

A whole year of work. Just…gone.

This is the story of how Pixar employees rescued the movie.

-via io9

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

In the woods outside of Ushuaia, Argentina, you can find an enormous whale. It’s Adrián Villar Rojas’s mysterious sculpture entitled My Dead Grandfather.

Link | Gallery

Harpuahound, a member of the Engraver’s Cafe forum, made this wonderful ring with the TARDIS in the middle, the Starfleet logo on one side and (not shown) the space shuttle on the opposite side. Is the shuttle an Armageddon reference?

Link -via The Mary Sue

Feeling down today, Bronies? This one is for you: Neon Pegasus by Parry Gripp (previously on Neatorama), who said "No matter how insane or ridiculous, you must follow your dreams ..."

Spread your wings Neon Pegasus
And go flying through the night
They can take your glitter
But they can't take away your sparkle

And the thousand arm robot octopus
Will try to grab your golden reins
But your wings are strong from the battle
Over Cupcake Mountain

[...]

(Yeah!
When I first saw you defeating the Gummy King's
Gluten powered armada in the darkness of space,
I knew you were no ordinary pegasus!)

The Red Bull Downhill race is simple enough: get to the bottom of the steps on Monserrate in Bogotá, Colombia faster than anyone else. Also: not die. Here’s a scary video of Marcelo Gutierrez’s descent, made all the more frightening by the fact that he didn’t win because he didn’t go fast enough.

-via Gizmodo

If you hate puns, you're definitely not Jung at heart. Via Know Your Meme.

Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet – $49.95

Attention Hello Kitty fans! Behold the adorable Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet from the NeatoShop. This fantastic plush pillow unzips to reveal a super-soft Hello Kitty blanket. The Hello Kitty Zoobies Blanket Pet is purr-fect for cuddling up on chilly spring nights.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Hello Kitty & Sanrio items.

Link 

Andrew Salmone made this .gif after building a pizza zoetrope. He shaped pepper slices to look like individual frames a dolphin in motion, baked them into the pizza, then took pictures as it spun on a turntable. So the next time that you order a pizza, ask for one with leaping dolphins.

Link -via Make

Before the era of Big Brother, censorship was alive and well. LiveScience explained how two censors took about their work in making sure that work critical of the church by Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus never saw the light of day:

In contrast to the newly discovered glued-up book, another example of Erasmus' writing, held at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto, reveals a censor who took to his task with an artistic flourish.

Published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1538 this book contains essays by Erasmus introducing the writing of St. Ambrose, a fourth-century saint who was the bishop of Milan.

"It is one of the most exquisitely beautiful examples of censorship, with the offending passages obliterated using vibrant watercolors framed in baroque scroll frames with attending putti (an image of a male child)," Carefoote writes in his 2007 book. While the censor blanked out the prefaces by Erasmus he left the saint’s work alone. It's not known what Erasmus said that got him censored.It's also not known why the censor, probably a librarian, approached his job with such artistry.

Link

It was 1955 and the Space Age was about to launch. It would impact popular culture, art, architecture and design. And yes, even guns. That year, Robert Hillberg designed the Whitney Wolverine, a nickel-plated aluminum semi-automatic pistol that sported the flowing lines and curves of that era. It looks like a raygun, but instead fires .22 LR rounds.

Video Link -via Weer’d World

Sending a secret holographic message with an astromech droid? That's so outdated!

Brian Gordon illustrates how Star Wars would've looked like had they employed today's mobile technology in this cute Chuck and Beans webcomic: Link - via Nerd Approved

Now this is the way to wake up a sleeping kid! Photographer Esteban Reyes and his sister woke up their 3-year-old brother with a little Nirvana:

The last time we woke him up in the car, he got so grumpy and cranky. And since he loves this kind of music we just had to try a new method. I think there are parents that can recognize this scene.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Laughing Squid

In Type City, artist Hong Seon Jang created a cityscape using metal type sorts of letterpress printing. Check out his work at David B. Smith gallery: Link - via Colossal

Previously on Neatorama: more fantastic Cityscape art

Surely you've heard of Moore's Law, the rule of thumb by David House who stated that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.

But what about laws by the other Moores? Ross "Rosscott" Nover of System Comics obliges: Link - via I Love Charts

Photo: davidsonscott15/Flickr

Ah, the Crown Vic. It's synonymous with the police car, grandpa's car .. and now, just as Ford has stopped production, the Crown Victoria is becoming a very hip car. Gale Holland of the Los Angeles Times explains:

Like a cockroach, however, the Crown Vic is resilient. It's already begun quietly colonizing civilian car culture, notably in Los Angeles County, where the number now in private hands — 38,000 — is second only to that in metropolitan New York, according to auto information company Edmunds.com.

This is confounding on multiple counts. The Crown Vic, the last of the roomy, rear-drive American sedans, is the ultimate grandma and grandpa car. Like the trucker cap before it, is irony its appeal?

The Crown Vic is dead. Long live the Crown Vic.

Perhaps the mystique of the Crown Vic can be summed up in this comment by a car forum commenter: "It just ... tickles me that there's a group about an ex-police vehicle modified for almost the exact opposite type of drivers and purposes."

Link

Most graduates go up to the podium to get their diplomas, but Sarah Cooper got something a bit more exciting: a surprise marriage proposal!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Campus Overload and Mashable

The beauty of email is that seconds after you hit "Send," it magically appears on the recipient's inbox. But what happens in between?

Google has created The Story of Send, which illustrates the journey made by the bits of Gmail data as it zips across "the pipes" of the Internet: Link - via The Verge

The Music Box is a project in New Orleans that consists of nine shacks made of reclaimed building materials. But they’re constructed to create sounds, which the group of artists, musicians, and engineers who made them call “musical architecture.”

The new instruments inside are Rube Goldberg contraptions that bring to mind the ingenuity of Southern jug bands. There’s a twisting staircase that pumps out tones from organ parts retrieved from a church flooded during Hurricane Katrina; a giant stand-up bass with a weed-whacker line for a string and a bathtub for a resonator; a tall, weather-vane–like structure hooked up to an analog synthesizer. “It reacts to rain, sunlight and wind velocity and uses those variables to modulate an ever-present, droning E major chord,” explains its inventor, Quintron, a New Orleans musician who conducts Music Box performances. The concerts attract hundreds who wait in line for a chance to sit in a small set of bleachers.

Read more about The Music Box at Smithsonian. Link -Thanks, Perrin!

Union Jack Bulldog Screen Wipe – $9.95

Are you counting down the days to the summer Olympics? Make sure your screen is ready for viewing every magical moment with the festive Union Jack Bulldog Screen Wipe from the NeatoShop. This adorable screen cleaner has a soft chamois tummy and is perfect for cleaning and reducing static on monitors, laptops, and LCD screens.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Office & Desk items.

Link

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2012/05/15/union-jack-bulldog-screen-wipe/feed/ 0 http://www.neatorama.com/2012/05/15/the-abbey-road-hustle/ http://www.neatorama.com/2012/05/15/the-abbey-road-hustle/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 17:00:10 +0000 Miss Cellania http://www.neatorama.com/?p=66429
(YouTube link)

The Beatles have been walking across that street for forty years now, and they still haven’t reached the other side! -via Arbroath

You might think you could easily distinguish the pithy wisdom of a baseball player from that of a feminist literary figure. Or can you? You’ll be given a quote, and you decide whether it came from Jose Canseco or Gertrude Stein. That’s the challenge of today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. What’s really confusing is how nonsensical the quotes are! In the end, I only scored 56%, which is what you’d expect from not knowing any of the answers. I hope you do better! Link

Isn’t this a cool post? Redditor RalphiesBoogers showed his coolest post ever. Then joekewle responded with a confused post. This post is so cool, it’s chillin’! Link

In Russia, even the dogs stop and and gather to sing when they hear the national anthem! However, as a commenter said elsewhere, their accents are so thick I can’t make out the lyrics. -via I Am Bored

If it weren’t for the English subtitles, you’d think this was an everyday pop song, possibly about family. It’s more like a love song to the Chinese Communist Party, the ultimate in this young man’s aspirations. The propaganda music video is both amusing and unnerving. -via Metafilter

Every Time Zone might be a real handy site to bookmark! See how your local time compares to that of other cities around the world right now. Or any time, for that matter. Click on a bar to pull up more information about that time, zone, or city. Link -via the Presurfer

Ig Nobel Achievements distilled into limerick form

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 a list at the website.

2010 Ig Nobel Prize in Management

The prize was awarded to Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy, for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.

[REFERENCE: “The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study,” Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo, Physica A, vol. 389, no. 3, February 2010, pp. 467-72.]

We had competent people.
We canned ’em.
We promoted our dumbest in tandem.
It worked out not so good.
It turns out that we should
Have done all our promotions at random.

1996 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The prize was awarded to George Goble of Purdue University, for his blistering world record time for igniting a barbeque grill: three seconds, using charcoal and liquid oxygen.

Goble Lights a Grill with liquid oxygen.

(YouTube link)

A bummer last summer: I threw
A barbecue.  But what to do
When the grill wouldn’t light?
It worked out all right
With some charcoal and liquid O2.

2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics

The prize was awarded to Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.

[REFERENCE: “Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half,” Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch, Physical Review Letters, vol. 95, no. 9, August 26, 2005, p. 95505-1.]

Here is a challenge for you.
Try to break dry spaghetti in two,
   Not in three parts or four,
   Not in five parts or more,
Only two.  Why is this hard to do?

Space-time diagram, in rescaled coordinates, of the breaking events obtained by repeating the experiment of Fig. 3 (data points) for different pasta radii and initial curvatures 0.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2011 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.

This heavenly rainbow of kernels is from a variety of corn known as Glass Gem Corn, and it looks like it would make the most fun batch of candy corn ever!

This unusual variety is grown by “Seeds Trust, a family seed company, got the seeds for glass gem corn from Greg Schoen who got his seeds from his “corn-teacher”, Carl Barnes, an 80ish year old part-Cherokee man, in Oklahoma.”

I can’t help but wonder if this corn tastes as good as it looks? Either way, it would make the ultimate Thanksgiving dinner table decoration, or string them up at your next farm themed rave and watch everyone in attendance trip out on the colors.

Link

This cat has a serious love-hate relationship with his owners. One minute they’re petting his belly and feeding him cans of Fancy Feast and the next they’re shaving his fur to make him look like a mock Stegosaurus.

Clearly he had someone take this photo for him as a cry for help, so it should be turned over to the ASPCA immediately!

Kiddies-this is what catnip addiction can lead to, so keep your fur clean and just say no!

Link

(YouTube Link)

Want to know what two googly eyed chins thought about the blockbuster movie The Avengers? They loved it, and if you have a strange sense of humor you’ll love watching them talk about The Avengers, and other weird stuff, like a pair of real life chinigans.

Spoiler alert: the chins talk about something that happens within the first ten minutes of the film, so if you’re worried about going in to see the movie without knowing anything about it don’t watch. Otherwise, enjoy the madness review!

–via Best Week Ever

If you know and love the Back To The Future trilogy, but you’ve never understood how they filmed the hoverboard scene, or made a Delorean fly through the air, then this set of behind the scene photos might help.

Some are candid portraits, others show the crew hard at work getting the shot to look just right, and they all show the cast and crew having a genuinely good time filming the iconic trilogy.

And with 65 pics in this collection, it’s nerd-stalgia at its finest!

Link   –via Geek Tyrant

Tyler Garcia found a vinyl record of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and, like Michelangelo and the stone, saw an AT-AT inside. Also, a clock.

Each one of his handcrafted vinyl cuttings, most of which do not have Star Wars themes, is made to order.

Link -via Technabob

Because when you’re shopping, the opinions of people on Facebook matter to you.

The thoughtful Brazilian clothing retailer C&A has clothes hangers with digital numerical displays. Every time that a particular outfit has been liked on its Facebook page, the display ticks up. Customers can use this information to make purchasing decisions.

Link -via Marginal Revolution | Photo: C&A

This ingeniously designed public restroom in Hong Kong fits 8 urinals into 2.5 square meters, thus making full use of a limited space. I mean, they could have put in just 2 or 3 urinals, but that would have been wasteful.

Link -via Geekologie | Photo: SCMP

Take notes, because this will be on the test. Revenuers are on the lookout for our still. How can we deceive them about our movements? Strap these wooden blocks on our shoes. They’ll leave cow prints behind us.

Link -via Kottke | Photo: Library of Congress

Last year, he was warned that Chinese agents had trained women to kill him using poison-laced scarves. So it would be understandable if his greatest fear would be being assassinated. But no, that's not the Dalai Lama's greatest fear.

Here's the Dalai Lama's greatest fear:

His great fear, though, is of flying and of sharks. “Long flights, those I really feared, but now I’m used to them,” he says. “The fear now is that I never learnt to swim so if the plane crashes on water, I would immediately go deep under the sea and be enjoyed by a shark. That I really fear.”

Link

On May 25, 1965, Muhammad Ali sent Sonny Liston to the mat in a ring in Lewiston, Maine. Liston was finished.

Boxing is a dangerous sport for humans and rock’em sock’em robots alike.

Link -via Popped Culture | Painting: Eric Joyner | Photo: Neil Leifer

Photo: Steve Hoge/Flickr

A camel may be a horse designed by committee, but it doesn't mean that the even-toed ungulate can't be an artform, especially when in the hands of Indian hairstylists!

Oddity Central explores the annual beauty contest for camels in India:

Every year, the desert city of Bikaner, in India’s state of Rajasthan, hosts one of the most colorful events in the world – the Bikaner Camel Festival. Home to the only camel breeding farm in India, and one of the largest such farms in all of Asia, it’s only natural this city should have a festival dedicated to the useful humped animal. The popular event takes place over two days, in January, and draws in camel breeders from all over Rajasthan, as well as tourists from all around the world. This homage to camels includes various events, from camel races and rides, to camel haircut competitions and even a camel beauty pageant.

Link 

An 18-year-old Utah man was arrested on suspicion of burglary after police say he left his homework at the crime scene.

Police in Orem say they tracked a USB drive found at the burglarized home to [redacted -- ed.]. They say the computer hard drive contained his homework and was in a backpack abandoned in the backyard.

Link -via Dave Barry | Image: Jawa Flash Drive at the NeatoShop

Photo: mihaimariusmihu/Flickr

Abandon all hope (of reaching the same level of awesomeness), ye who see Mihai Mihu LEGO Nine Circles of Hell. The Romanian LEGO sculptor spent 7 months converting Dante's Inferno brick by brick into 9 frightfully fantastic dioramas.

The Brothers Brick has the gallery: Link - via io9

Yummy Pockets Sub Sandwich – $4.95

Are you hungry for a deliciously fun way to store your junk precious belongings? You need the Yummy Pockets Sub Sandwich from the NeatoShop. This mouth watering zippered pocket purse is shaped like your favorite afternoon meal.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more enticing Wallets, Purses & Coin Bags.

Link 

FlippyCat assembled 60 walls, each consisting of 990 dominoes, and an additional field of 600 dominoes. The project took 65 hours over 8 days and some painful failures along the way. But when he finally pushed it over at 0:55, he made a beautiful cascade of color and sound.

-via Daily Caller

All kids scream and throw tantrums every now and then, but Michael is different. When he was 5 years old, the boy developed a disturbing ability to switch between full-blown rage to calm rationality in a blink of an eye.

After years of trying to diagnose Michael's condition, her parents were referred to Dan Waschbusch of Florida International University, who came up with "callous-unemotional" syndrome. Basically, Michael was diagnosed as a psychopath ... at age 9.

For this intriguing article over at the New York Times, Jennifer Kahn visited the family:

When I first met Michael, he seemed shy but remarkably well behaved. While his brother Allan ran through the house with a plastic bag held overhead like a parachute, Michael entered the room aloofly, then curled up on the living room sofa, hiding his face in the cushions. “Can you come say hello?” Anne asked him. He glanced at me, then sprang cheerfully to his feet. “Sure!” he said, running to hug her. Reprimanded for bouncing a ball in the kitchen, he rolled his eyes like any 9-year-old, then docilely went outside. A few minutes later, he was back in the house, capering antically in front of Jake, who was bobbing up and down on his sit-and-ride scooter. When the scooter tipped over, Michael gasped theatrically and ran to his brother’s side. “Jake, are you O.K.?” he asked, wide-eyed with concern. Earnestly ruffling his youngest brother’s hair, he flashed me a winning smile.

If the display of brotherly affection felt forced, it was difficult to see it as fundamentally disturbed. Gradually, though, Michael’s behavior began to morph. While queuing up a Pokémon video on the family’s computer upstairs, Michael turned to me and remarked crisply, “As you can see, I don’t really like Allan.” When I asked if that was really true, he said: “Yes. It’s true,” then added tonelessly, “I hate him.”

Glancing down a second later, he noticed my digital tape recorder on the table. “Did you record that?” he asked. I said that I had. He stared at me briefly before turning back to the video. When a sudden noise from the other room caused me to glance away, Michael seized the opportunity to grab the recorder and press the erase button. (Waschbusch later noted that such a calculated reprisal was unusual in a 9-year-old, who would normally go for the recorder immediately or simply whine and sulk.)