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What Is It? Game 126

By Alex on Feb 4, 2010 at 8:47 am

Well, whaddyaknow, it’s time for our weekly collaboaration with the always awesome What is it? Blog. Today’s mystery item is shown to the left: can you guess what it is used for?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many as you’d like. Let others play, so post no URL or web links – doing so will forfeit your entry.

Two prizes as usual: a free T-shirt from the Neatorama Shop for the first person who guessed right and for the funniest albeit incorrect guess. You have until the correct answer is revealed at the What is it? Blog.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 2/5/10 – The answer is: A probe from a policeman’s Taser. Congratulations to chameloon who guessed right first and to pismonque who guessed “A sea monkey’s harpoon, used when they go shrimpin’.

 



What Is It? Game 125

By Alex on Jan 28, 2010 at 8:18 am

W00t! It’s time for this week’s collaboration with What is it? Blog. Can you guess what the gruesome tool to the left is used for?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like.

The first correct guess and the funniest albeit incorrect one will win a free Neatorama T-shirt from the Neatorama Shop. You have until the answer is posted at the What is it? Blog tomorrow.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 2/1/10 – The answer is: A tool from an ice farm or ice house, the spikes were used to break up ice and the other end was used to move around ice blocks. Congratulations to Bill Wixon who got it right and to pyrit for the “Zen pebble garden rake for ninjas.”

 

What Is It? Game 124

By Alex on Jan 21, 2010 at 8:01 am

Don your Mad Scientist lab coat, folks … it’s time for this week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog. Can you guess what the strange contraption above is?

Contest rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. You have until the answer is revealed at the What is it? Blog (duh!)

Prizes: free Neatorama Mad Scientists T-shirts to the first person who guessed correctly, and to three submitters of the funniest albeit incorrect guesses.

For more clues, check out the the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 1/25/10 – the answer is: A rotary spark-gap transmitter that would have been part of an amateur radio station back in the 1920s. Congratulations to Russell who got it right first (but submitted many guesses in one comment. I’ll let it slide this time, buddy!) and to Mikhael J who got it exactly right. Three additional winners: mci209 (Tweety’s Worst Nightmare), Jenn the Hen (My Little Frankenstein Monster Maker kit) and Lactose the Intolerant for the effort ;)

 



What is it? Game 123

By Alex on Jan 14, 2010 at 8:59 am

Whoa, I turn around and it’s already time for our weekly collaboration with the always excellent What is it? Blog. Can you guess what the strange tool above is for?

Game rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. Two prizes: the first correct guess and the funniest yet wrong guess will win T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop. You have until the answers are posted in the What is it? Blog.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Congrats to Doug Fallon who guessed correctly in the last What is it? Game 122, and to Declan ("the devastator"), Digma03 ("Iron Man’s Whisk"), and kminks ("Medieval Purple Nurple device") for the funniest guesses.

Update 1/16/09 – Congrats to wkb who got it right, and to Tim Giachetti who made me chuckle with his entry of … you’ll have to see it for yourself!

 



What is it? Game 122

By Alex on Jan 7, 2010 at 8:43 am

Woot! It’s our first What is it? game in the New Year, so let’s make this one good! The always awesome What is it? Blog brings us this gruesome looking contraption – can you guess what it is for?

Let’s have more prizes: the first correct guess and the top 3 funniest but wrong guesses will win T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop.

Contest rules are simple: place your guess in the coment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URL or weblinks – doing so will forfeit your entry. Entries are valid until the correct answer is posted at the What is it? Blog.

More clues at the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 1/13/10 – Sorry for the late update (it’s been a crazy week with the server crash and all). Congrats to Doug Fallon for the correct guess, Declan (“the devastator”), Digma03 (“Iron Man’s whisk”) and kminks (“Medieval Purple Nurple device”) for the funniest guesses. I apologize to everyone who entered their guesses only to have the server ate them during the crash.

 



New Year's Resolution Generator

By John Farrier on Jan 1, 2010 at 2:14 pm

Too lazy to come up with New Year’s resolutions, let alone keep them? This web tool by graphic designer Monica Verlarde will take away all of that hard work and provide you with a resolution — often a very simple one.

Do you have a New Year’s resolution? What is it? Share in the comments.

Link via Technabob

 



What is it? Game 121

By Alex on Dec 23, 2009 at 8:15 am

This week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this wonderfully weird contraption. Can you guess what it is for?

Two prizes: the first correct guess and the funniest albeit incorrect guess will win free T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop. Contest rules are easy: place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URL or weblinks – doing so will forfeit your entry. Entries are valid until the correct answers are posted at the What is it? Blog.

More clues at the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 12/27/09 – the answer is: A sound effects machine from an old radio studio for use by a foley artist, turning the top crank caused the rotor to rub against the canvas cover and made a sound like the wind. The cage part below was partially filled with stones and when the crank was turned it sounded like rain. By engaging the lever at the bottom and turning the top crank the boards at the back would be plucked which produced the sound of thunder.

Congratulations to davifarmer who got it right and to Professor for the oh-so-true comment about how expensive ink would be if it were made from freshly squeezed squid!

 



Neatorama Update - December 2009

By Alex on Dec 18, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Hello Neatoramanauts! A quickie update from Neatoland:

Christmas Orders
A big thank you for everyone who placed their orders from the Neatorama Shop this Christmas season. Your orders help support the blog and all of us here are thankful for your business.

Christmas is coming up quickly – and if you haven’t placed your order, it’s really going to be close. Though the cut-off date for orders was December 17, 2009 as outlined in the Shop’s shipping guideline, we’ll continue to process order and will do our best to ship them so they arrive in time for Christmas. A lot of this, however, will depend on the weather being cooperative ;)

Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt
A couple of weeks ago, we had our tenth Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt. It was harder than the previous hunts, but nearly 400 of you got the answers right. A winner was selected at random from the list. Congratulations to jocelynese who won a Kisai Keisan Black with Green LED, courtesy of the good folks at Tokyoflash.

What is it? Games
We’ve been having a lot of fun at our weekly What is it? games. Congratulations to Bruno Cabral and Muppetmaker who won Game 118, and to canem and Fuzz who won Game 119. I’ve just sent the T-shirts recently (Sorry – swamped with work here). There’s a game on right now, so here’s your chance.

Ad with Audio
We’ve run into a small bug here with some ads that self-start with audio. Sorry about that! It’s not supposed to be (only a small fraction was affected), so please be patient while we chase down that bug.

Thank you!

 



What Is It? Game 120

By Alex on Dec 17, 2009 at 9:19 am

This week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this strange contraption above – can you guess what it is for?

As usual, there are two prizes this week: the first person who comes up with the correct guess and the person who has the funniest yet ultimately wrong guess will win T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop. You must submit your entries before the answer is revealed at the What is it? Blog.

Contest rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URL or web link – doing so will forfeit your entry.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 12/21/09 – the answer is: This wheel was intended to be placed on the counter of a store, according to the patent it could be used in different ways:

Suppose, for instance, that a customer wishes to invest a nickel in trade with the merchant who has a wheel of the kind described. The customer drops his nickel in the slot and it passes into one of the pockets of the wheel, revolving the wheel in the manner described, until the nickel is deposited and the wheel stops with the hand indicating say, No. 1. Then the customer gets any article valued at a nickel which he desires and which the merchant has to sell. If the hand should indicate No. 2, the customer would be entitled to two articles… and so on.

If the wheel is to be used for a discount wheel, instead of the marks 1, 2 and 3, the rim is marked with numbers indicating different percentages, usually from one to twenty-five percent, and after he has purchased a bill of goods, the merchant hands him a coin which the customer drops into the wheel as above described, and when the wheel stops, the hand indicates a certain percentage, which represents the discount the merchant must deduct from his bill of goods already purchased.

Patent number 538,916

Nobody got the correct answer, so congratulations to John The Third for the funniest guess, “Base Decider,” which made all of us here ROFL :)

 



What Is It? Game 119

By Alex on Dec 10, 2009 at 8:41 am

Hooray! It’s time for our collaboration with the perpetually perplexing What is it? Blog – Yes, this tool above is a tong, but can you guess its specific use?

Two prizes: First person to guess correctly and the person who submitted the funniest yet ultimately incorrect guess will win T-shirts from the Neatorama Shop. You must submit your entries before the correct answer is revealed on the What is it? Blog (duh!). Contest rules are simple: Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. Please post no URL or web links – doing so will forfeit your entry.

For more clues, don’t forget to check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 12/14/09 – the answer is: These were marked “18th Century Brass Pipe Tongs”, they were hung by the fireplace and used to pick up hot coals to light the old clay smoking pipes. Congrats to canem who got it right first and Fuzz for making me ROFLMAO with the guess of “royal log” remover.

 



Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #10

By Alex on Dec 8, 2009 at 3:19 pm

w00t! I’m happy to announce that the Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #10 is on! Here’s your chance to win a fantastic Tokyoflash watch (drool!)

For those of you who haven’t played before, it’s an online treasure hunt. We’ll give you a set of questions, such as:

1. What color is the "O" pebble in the Neatorama logo?
2. How many posts are on Neatorama’s homepage? (in numbers)
3. What’s the first insulting word in Neatorama’s article 10 Insulting Words You Should Know?

The answer (black, 30, frenchify) separated by dashes make a web link on Neatorama: http://www.neatorama.com/black-30-frenchify (go ahead, copy and paste it to your web browser).

Got that? Let’s get started! Here are the Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #10 questions:

1. What is the model name of the Tokyoflash watch shown above? Visit the Tokyoflash website to find out!

2. One of the items in the Neatorama Shop’s Christmas Special (where each purchase will get you a free Mystery Bonus – there’s still time for your Christmas shopping, guys!) has this star image in the description (right below the main image of the item – you’ll have to visit the individual product pages). What’s the name of that item?

3. Another item in our neat selection of Science T-Shirts has the star image . To the right of the star is a word. What is it?

4. You may know Tokyoflash for their excellent watches, but did you know that they’ve started carrying other neat stuff? What is the color of the middle stripe in the Thunder Shock Sai bracelet? (You’ll have to hunt around to find it)

Visit Tokyoflash and the Neatorama Shop to find the answers. Then string them together to form the URL (all words are lower case, separated by dashes). Follow the instruction you’ll find there.

The contest will end soon – so hurry up! Good luck!

 
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What is it? Game 118

By Alex on Dec 3, 2009 at 8:06 am

Hooray! It’s time for our weekly collaboration with the What Is It? Blog. Can you guess the purpose of this week’s object?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Don’t put any URL or web links, mmkay? Doing so will forfeit your entry.

The first correct answer (posted before the answer is revealed at the What is it? Blog), as well as the funniest yet ultimately incorrect guess will win a free T-Shirt from the Neatorama Shop.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 12/5/09 – the answer is:A Mongolian Flint Fire Striker, it’s made from very high carbon tool steel, and throws a good hot spark. There is a compartment inside for holding flint or tinder. Congratulations to Bruno Cabral who got it right first and to Muppetmaker for the funny but wrong guess of Wizard of Oz scarecrow’s man purse.

 



What Is It? Game 117

By Alex on Nov 25, 2009 at 9:15 am

W00t! It’s time for our collaboration with the always intriguing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what today’s mysterious object is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. The first correct guess and the funniest (but wrong) guess will win a Funny T-Shirt from the Neatorama Shop. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. Please let others play and post no URL or web links. Doing so will forfeit your entry.

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update 11/27/09 – the answer is: A dust container for a compressed air duster, “used in spraying field and truck crops,” patent number 1,877,778. No one got it right (in time anyhow, there were correct answers posted after the What is it? Blog has posted the answer). Congratulations to two funny guesses who got the prizes instead:

Melphistopheles who said “Jar-Jar” and davisbg who said “Beginner’s Ship-in-a-bottle Kit”

 



What Is It? Game 116

By Alex on Nov 19, 2009 at 7:37 am

Today’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this …. alligator?! Actually, this object has a specific function. Do you know what it is?

Place your guess in the comment section. The first correct guess, as well as the funniest (but ultimately wrong) guess will win a T-shirt from the Neatorama Shop. Please let others play and post no URLs or web links. Doing so will forfeit your entry.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 11/20/09 – the answer is A cast iron alligator match safe, text on its back says “Monon Route”, on its legs “Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, and Atlanta”, on its head “Chicago” and on the tail “Florida”. It advertised the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway, which later changed its name to The Monon Route, it served the previously mentioned locations.

Congratulations to Edward who got it right first (again) and to pwscott who made me chuckle with “steampunk pez.”

 



What Is It? Game 115

By Alex on Nov 12, 2009 at 7:06 am

This week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this unusual scale. It has a very specific function – can you guess what it is used to weigh?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. Please post no URL or web links – doing so will forfeit your winnings.

Two prizes this week: the first correct guess and the funniest but ultimately incorrect guess will win a cool ice tray from the Neatorama Shop.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 11/13/09 – the answer is: A Reliable Automatic Dial Egg Scale and Candler, there is a light bulb in the cylinder at the right, the egg was placed on the hole and was illuminated to monitor the development of the embryo and to identify infertile eggs. The numbers represent ounces per dozen.

Congratulations to Edward who got it correct and to John the Third who made me chuckle with the “methane measurement device.”

 



Having Fun with "Google Suggest"

By Minnesotastan on Nov 6, 2009 at 9:08 pm

How 2 vs how might oneThe “autofill” feature of the Google search box was designed as a timesaver, but the suggested searches can also be entertaining.  Writing in Slate, Michael Agger compared the autofill of “less intelligent” and “more intelligent” queries, an exercise that has previously been conducted at Digg.

The image above is a screencap of two Google searches conducted tonight using less- and more sophisticated search terms.

A corollary question would be “What searches are most commonly conducted at Neatorama?”  The Lijit search engine doesn’t have an autofill feature, but it does offer a list of the most popular recent searches at Neatorama, in descending order of frequency:

“world’s smallest,” mystery sale, halloween, what is it, disney, halloween costume, pumpkin, shop, stories, tattoo, cat, facebook, halloween costumes, pear, game, costume, movie trivia, photography, new species, zombie, bacon, lego, elena desserich, google, anvil cake, costumes, national day, notes left behind, origami, national geographic, videosift, wedding, what is it? game, 6 year old, albert einstein, brain, christmas, chum, hitler, logo, one take, pig, sex, animals, art, batman, brain shot, comic, einstein, shark.

Someone else may want to tackle the sociological implications of that list; I’m not going to touch it.

Link.

 



What Is It? Game 114

By Alex on Nov 5, 2009 at 7:36 am

W00t! It’s time for our collaboration with the always awesome What is it? Blog. This week’s entry is this strange looking object to the left: can you guess what it is?

Two prizes this week: the first person to guess correctly and the funniest (but ultimately wrong) guess will win a T-shirt from the Neatorama Shop.

Contest rules are darned easy: place your guess in the comment below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URL or web links – let others play (doing so will forfeit your entry).

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 11/6/09 – the answer is:An exercise club, the 1897 patent says it was “for the purpose of testing the strength of the wrist and forearm”, additional weights could be attached to the bottom of it, patent number 578,230. Commonly known as Indian clubs, these can be found in a wide variety of sizes and weights.

Congratulations to Mr. Weaver who got it right first and to huh? for the um, very funny entry that I won’t repeat here. :)

 



Neatorama's Last Mystery Sale

By Alex on Nov 4, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Hello everyone! As you can probably tell by the banners on the blog, we’re having a Mystery Sale on Neatorama. The proceeds help support the blog and our fledgling shop (thank you!)

For those of you who don’t know anything about it, the Mystery Sale offers an item you can buy for $9.95. What is it? We won’t tell you – that’s the whole point of the sale!

But we can tell you that it’s going to be a physical product (or combination of products) worth AT LEAST $9.95. It’ll be new and a fun "Neatorama" item.

You can buy more than 1 Mystery Item in a single order, in which case we’ll make sure that you get different items. You can even get them gift-wrapped so you can cross Christmas shopping off your list early this year.

We’re working on a new platform for Neatorama’s online shop, and the new one probably won’t be compatible with future Mystery Sale. I’m 99.9% sure that this will be the last Mystery Sale we’ll have (if not ever, then for a very long time) so grab yours today before it’s gone!

Link

Update 11/5/09 – Time’s up! Thank you to everyone who participated!

 
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International Museum of Surgical Science

By Miss Cellania on Nov 2, 2009 at 8:35 am

A trip through the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago will make you glad you live in the modern world instead of the “good old days”! Wired has a gallery of exhibit photos ranging from a skull that belonged to a trepanation patient to early x-ray machines. Pictured is a vest used in 1899 to correct scoliosis. If this were posted as a “What Is It?” I would guess it to be an instrument of torture. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Jim Merithew/Wired.com)

 



What is it? Game 113

By Alex on Oct 29, 2009 at 7:07 am

This week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this strange looking device – can you guess what it is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, however, you can guess as many times as you’d like. Post no URL or links – let others play.

No prize this week – you’re playing for bragging rights only. For more clues, check out that What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 10/30/09 – the answer: A policeman’s blackjack or sap, for striking miscreants on the head, this was on display with a pair of handcuffs and a different type of blackjack that looked like a small club. Congrats to Tim Giachetti who got it right first!

 



What Is It? Game 112

By Alex on Oct 22, 2009 at 7:24 am

Woohoo! It’s time for our collaboration with the What is it? Blog – can you guess what this strange tool above is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment please. You can, however, guess as many times as you’d like. Post no URL or links – doing so will forfeit your winnings.

Two winners this week: the first correct guess and the funniest (but ultimately wrong) guess will win Bacon Soap from the Neatorama Shop. Check out the Bacon Store for more bacon goodness!

For more clues, be sure to visit the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 10/23/09 – the answer: A corn sheller, it was used to remove the undesirable shaped kernels of corn from the ends of ears leaving the large flat kernels thought to be the best for planting.

Congratulations to Tom P. who guessed right, and Dave H. who came up with “Bris-O-Matic”

 



What is it? Game 111

By Alex on Oct 8, 2009 at 7:03 am

Here’s this week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog. Can you tell us what this strange tool is used for? The first correct guess AND the funniest guess win this awesome Ice Invaders Ice Cube Tray from the Neatorama Shop.

Game rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please. You can enter as many guessed as you’d like. Please post no URL or web links – doing so will forfeit your entry.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 10/9/09 – the answer is: A clockwork roasting jack, used to turn meat while it was roasted over the fireplace. Congratulations to PaulS who guessed right and to Abe Normal who suggested that it was a wind up grenade!

 



The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology

By Alex on Sep 30, 2009 at 7:43 pm

There’s a lot of fascinating things about molecular biology (I should know, I have a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology) – but a lot of students get discouraged from learning it because it is taught poorly in school. To be fair, the topic is rather complex – if you don’t get the basics right, it’s easy to get confused and lost later on – and many of the textbooks of biochemistry, cell biology and molecular bio are b-o-r-i-n-g. Heck, I’ve read phone books more interesting than some of ‘em.

Enter The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology. Written by Dr. Masaharu Takemura, a lecturer of biology, molecular biology, and life sciences at the Tokyo University of Science, the book uses manga-style cartoons drawn by Sakura and produced by Becom Co., Ltd. It is released in the United States by No Starch Press (a publishing company that aims to be "the finest in geek entertainment").

The book is ostensibly about the adventures of Rin and Ami, two students that have been skipping their molecular biology class. They were summoned by Professor Moro for a special summer school on his private island (complete with a virtual reality machine, a hunky TA … and a terrible secret. What is it? Oh, I’m not going to tell you). But amidst all that fun, there’s actual learning.

Take, for instance, the explanation about how the liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase works in breaking down alcohol:

Read more after the jump: more …

 



What Is It? Game 110

By Alex on Sep 24, 2009 at 7:25 am

W00t! It’s time for this week’s collaboration with the always awesome What is it? Blog. Can you tell us what this strange and menacing old timey batarang is used for?

Game rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL or web links, let others play. No prize this week, so you’re playing for bragging rights only.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog – good luck!

Update 9/25/09 – the answer is: The head of a boarding axe, used by pirates to cut the ropes of boarding hooks, bring down masts and rigging, and generally tear through anything that stood in the way of the loot, like doors, hatches or locks. They were also employed by the U.S. Navy, the teeth behind the cutting edge were used to drag away burning rigging and sails from the decks. Congratulations to jamesmccallum who got it right! (and I must say, I’ve truly enjoyed some of your guesses!)

 



What Is It? Game 109

By Alex on Sep 3, 2009 at 11:59 am

Oops – I almost forgot! Today is the we all get to play the guessing game, courtesy of the always awesome What is it? Blog. Can you guess what this strange (and dangerous!) looking tool is for?

And today being the first game of the month, let’s have a prize. The first person who guessed right will win a Cool Jazz Ice Tray and Stirrers from the Neatorama Shop. If nobody got it right, then the funniest guess will win instead. Please post no links or URLs – let others play.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Click for more Cool and Unusual Ice Trays. Good luck!

Update 9/5/09 – the answer is: A sugar devil or fruit auger, used at the general store to loosen compacted sugar or dried fruit from a barrel.

Congratulations to avalchfan who got it right!

 



What Is It? Game 108

By Alex on Aug 20, 2009 at 8:42 am

Yes, this week’s collaboration with the always awesome What is it? Blog brings us … a spike – but can you guess its specific purpose? (hint: it has a VERY specific purpose)

Place your guess in the comment section – no prize this week, so you’re playing for fame and glory. Please post no URL – let others play. For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog.

Good luck!

Update 8/22/09 – it’s a device to disable cannons:

Since the head of this tool can pivot, it can’t be used as a hammer or pick. The owner of it had a Civil War book that described it as a cannon tool, he said that it was used by soldiers to disable enemy cannons or their own if they had to retreat. The spike was placed in the ignition hole and hammered until the cannon cracked or until the hole was large enough that the cannon was no longer usable.

I’ve since been informed that:

The phrase “to spike a cannon” meant to disable it by driving a tapered wrought iron plug, or spike, down the touch hole with a hammer until it was level and firmly embedded. I suppose the spike could eventually be drilled out, but tools to do this were not readily available, and the process would take some time.

Seems that nobody got it this time around!

 



What Is It? Game 107

By Alex on Aug 6, 2009 at 7:15 am


Submitted by Willem Kossen

Hooray! It’s time for our collaboration with the always excellent (and perplexing) What is it? Blog. Can you guess what the strange object above is for?

First correct guess will win this awesome Stickman Action Figure from Neatorama’s Online Store. If no one got it right, then the funniest guess will win.

Contest rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section. One guess per comment, please, but you can enter as many as you can think of. Please post no URL or web links (you’ll forfeit the prize if you do) – let others play.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 8/7/09 – The answer is: A heat sink from an old television. A lot of you guessed heat sink, but no one got it specifically for an old TV, so I picked the guess that got me ROFL-ing. Congrats to endgame47 for this guess: It is a bow tie for bad-asses.

 



What is it? Game 106

By Alex on Jul 23, 2009 at 7:10 am

This week’s collaboration with the always awesome What Is It? Blog brings us this strange object – can you guess what it is for? Place your guess in the comment section – no prize this week, so you’re playing for the fun of it.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog – Good luck!

Update 7/26/09 – That was too easy! The answer: A dart aerial gunnery target, this dart tow-target was fired upon by F-84F pilots of the 162nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, Ohio Air National Guard, Springfield, Ohio, during 1968 summer training exercises in Michigan. It was towed behind another airplane on 1,500 to 2,000 feet of cable and was equipped with a radar reflector to permit the use of radar gunsights. It was returned to earth by parachute upon completion of a gunnery mission. The damage was caused by .50-cal. bullets.

Congratulations to Jared who got it right first!

 



What Is It? Game 105

By Alex on Jul 16, 2009 at 8:07 am

This week’s collaboration with the What is it? Blog brings us this strange tool above – can you guess what it is for? Place your guess in the comment section. No prize this week, so you’re playing for fame and glory.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog. Good luck!

Update 7/19/09 – the answer is: A transmission spring compressor and holder for Model T Fords, according to a patent for a similar tool: …for compressing and holding transmission band springs, which band springs are carried by bolts disposed in a removable section of a transmission casing. From patent number 1,433,944. Nobody got it this time around …

 



What Is It? Game 104

By Alex on Jul 9, 2009 at 8:16 am

w00t! It’s time for this week’s collaboration with the always fascinating What is it? Blog. Can you guess what the strange object above is for?

Place your guess in the comment section – no prize this week, so you’re playing for fame and glory (and fun, of course). Be sure to check the What is it? Blog for more clues! Good luck!

Update 7/10/09 – the answer is: A stifle or patten horseshoe, when a horse injures the stifle joint, they put one of these shoes on the opposite leg of the injured one so the horse will put weight on the hurt leg so it will not be further damaged. Congratulations to Jess who got it right, though I must say that I love Jared’s horsestiletto idea!

 



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