Regarding the previous post about Merida getting a makeover to become an official Disney Princess, Neatoramanaut ROJOMOKE points us to a comic from Dork Tower that sums up the feelings of the majority about her new look. Link -Thanks, ROJOMOKE!
(Image credit: John Kovalic)
You can find out where your favorite Arrested Development jokes came from with this fun new site called Recurring Development. It's an interactive site where they've tagged dozens of jokes to the first three seasons worth of episodes. And if IT doesn't get you in the mood for What’s Spanish for “I know you speak English?” nothing will.
Many authors make outlines of their novels to keep the story arc in place, make sure the important parts are not missed, and to keep up with each character. They each have their own style, as well. See some handwritten outlines from James Salter, J.K. Rowling, Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, and more at Flavorwire. The chart shown is how Joseph Heller kept up with the characters and their plot lines in Catch-22. You can click the image twice at Flavorwire to bring up the large size, but you might need to put on your glasses to read it anyway. Link
The artist Han Jan presents Rainbow Dash as Thor, Spike as the Hulk, Fluttershy as War Machine, Pinkie Pie as Iron Man, Applejack as Captain America, Rarity as Black Widow and Twilight Sparkle as Nick Fury. The last pairing is particularly apt because the black outfit and eye patch match Twilight Sparkle's appearance in the time travel episode "It's about Time."
Does Han Jan's style look familiar? We've previously featured his array of Gundam ponies.
There's a lot of work in this video. Geoff Klock made a mashup of quotes from and references to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet taken from 198 movies and TV shows. If you enjoy Shakespeare, you'll love seeing how much modern entertainment leans on the Bard. Contains a couple of NSFW words. Stay through the credits. -via Metafilter
The distance to the stars is often explained by how long it takes light to travel to us from them. That works in the other direction, too. Today's xkcd panel gives us another way to visualize those distances by showing how old our pop culture references and memes are by the time they reach those stars. You can enlarge the image at xkcd by clicking if you can't read this small print. Link -via Tastefully Offensive
Just like everyone else, you learned about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly (or moth) inside a chrysalis (or cocoon) and you desperately tried to envision what happens inside and what it looks like. Scientists who've opened a lot of chrysalises will tell you the caterpillar turns to goop and then a butterfly, but that's not completely accurate, and the process of opening one destroys the structure anyway.
But now, two teams of scientists have started to captured intimate series of images showing the same caterpillars metamorphosing inside their pupae. Both teams used a technique called micro-CT, in which X-rays capture cross-sections of an object that can be combined into a three-dimensional virtual model.
By dissecting these models rather than the actual insects, the teams could see the structures of specific organs, like the guts or breathing tubes. They could also watch the organs change over time by repeatedly scanning the same chrysalis over many days. And since insects tolerate high doses of radiation, this procedure doesn’t seem to harm them, much less kill them.
Ed Yong explains more about this technology, and you'll more pictures of an insect going through the metamorphosis at Not Exactly Rocket Science. Link
(Image credit: Lowe et al. 2013. Interface)
Instructables member peinkc spent only $15 building this portable fire pit. After removing the interior rubber and plastic components from the shopping cart that he legally acquired, he built a bottom pan out of cookies sheets and fitted mesh spark screens along the sides and top. The bottom rack provides a convenient place to store logs.
(Image credit: Flickr user Michael Fawcett)
We have all been present at discussions (or arguments) in which one of the combatants attempts to clarify or strengthen a point by comparing the subject at hand with another item or situation more familiar to the audience or opponent. More often than not, this stratagem instantly results in the protest that "you're comparing apples and oranges!" This is generally perceived as being a telling blow to the analogy, since it is generally understood that apples and oranges cannot be compared. However, after being the recipient of just such an accusation, it occurred to me that there are several problems with dismissing analogies with the comparing apples and oranges defense.
First, the statement that something is like comparing apples and oranges is a kind of analogy itself. That is, denigrating an analogy by accusing it of comparing apples and oranges is, in and of itself, comparing apples and oranges. More importantly, it is not difficult to demonstrate that apples and oranges can, in fact, be compared (see figure 1).
Animals play the cups, too! The otters have it down, while the bunnies and cats just try to look their best while trying. -via Tastefully Offensive
It's not easy to portray a real person, especially a historical figure we all know. But many have done it. In a gallery at My Modern Met, you can see 18 actors and the people they portrayed in movies. Which ones look the most like the real thing? Link -via Flavorwire
Are you hoping to capture the perfect gift for your favorite photography buff? Zoom in on the Camera Lens Mug from the NeatoShop. This great travel mug is shaped like a camera's telephoto lens. The mug features highly realistic details.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Glassware & Drinkware.
The extraordinary fingernail artist Kayleigh O'Connor, whose work we've featured previously, has really outdone herself this time. This nail looks like E.T.'s glowing finger! She writes, 'I'll be going around trying to revive dead plants and touching strangers with it.. "Ouuuuccchhh..."'
Isabella Rossellini, who makes strange videos about what animals do, has a new series called Mammas. It is the third part of her Green Porno series. In the introductory video, a hamster mamma explains why they sometimes eat their babies. At the Sundance Channel, you can see other videos on spider, cuckoo, dunnock, and wasp mothers. Link -via Laughing Squid
Benjamin Franklin, along with advocating for the turkey at the US national symbol, writing an almanac, experimenting with electricity, inventing bifocals, and helping to found the United States, also proposed a new, simplified alphabet. Franklin came up with it in 1768, and Noah Webster published it in 1789. He dropped some letters, came up with new ones for common phonemes, and assigned only one sound for each letter.
Franklin was confident that his new alphabet would easier to learn and, once learned, would drastically reduce bad spelling. He believed any difficulty in implementing a new alphabet would ultimately be overcome by its logic and simplicity. However, biographer Walter Isaacson has written that the alphabet “took his passion for social improvement to radical extremes.” But in the heady days after the Revolution, a national language seemed like a natural development for a new country. Franklin’s proposal found little support, even with those to whom he was closest. He did, however, manage to convert Webster, the pioneer of spelling reform.
But it didn't catch on. Would you want to bother learning an entirely new alphabet and way of spelling after you'd spent years learning it the traditional way? Read about how Franklin's alphabet was constructed at Design Decoded. Link
My husband and I often disagree on what shows to watch at night once the kids go to bed. I have a feeling, however, that's all about to change. Behold the clip for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. This exciting continuation of the Avengers saga is coming to ABC this fall. I can't wait. The cast looks fantastic.
Some families with money to burn have found a nefarious way to bypass long lines at Walt Disney World in Florida: hire a disabled person to be part of your family for the day.
The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.
“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.
“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”
The woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.
Disney allows each guest who needs a wheelchair or motorized scooter to bring up to six guests to a “more convenient entrance.”
Link -via Digg
(Image credit:Flickr user Joe Penniston)
Google has a cute little Easter egg that might suck up all your time if you let it. Just enter Atari Breakout in the Google Image Search field. You'll get results, all right, but those results turn into bricks and before you know it, you'll be playing your little heart out. Or just press the Link -via Daily of the Day
Once an entire roll of toilet paper is wet, there's no saving it. It's gone. You may as well toss it in the garbage. An unnamed person in Tucson, Arizona, learned that lesson the hard way.
An attempt to salvage a soggy roll of toilet paper will end up costing someone several hundred dollars.
Fire crews were called Saturday afternoon to a Foothills senior living complex in the 1500 block of East River Road when a smoke alarm was triggered, Capt. Barrett Baker, spokesman for the Tucson Fire Department, said.
The apartment sustained several hundred dollars in smoke damage. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Brandon Blinkenberg)
Ink on original Michelin map of France
Growing up, I've always thought the continent of Africa looked like a sideway face, but Ed Fairburn takes that imagination to a whole new level. The Cardiff-based illustrator finds portraits of human faces hidden amongst the topographical features in various maps of the world.
View more over at Ed's official website | Facebook page | Interview with Yatzer - via Juxtapose
Lake Windermere in England
(Image credit: Flickr user Michael Coghlan)
Old Jay challenged Brian with a question: "What common abbreviation has three times as many syllables as an abbreviation than it does when you say the full words?"
Stumped, Brian decided to look it up, which prompted Old Jay to say. "Don't cheat and use the Google or whatever it is you kids are calling it these days!"
Brian replied, "Thanks for the hint -now I know the answer!"
Continue reading, and you'll know it, too!
Transistor Radio Ted Baker Utility Bag
We interrupt the regularly scheduled program to bring you the Transistor Radio Ted Baker Utility Bag. Do not panic. You will not hear any actual noise from the bag itself. The bag is just designed to look like an old fashioned transistor radio. The bag does, however, have the ability to house all your important toiletries and gear. Please stay tuned for more fun and functional items from the NeatoShop.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Bags & Totes.
When French visual artist Carine Khalifé met Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless of the band Young Galaxy, it started an artistic journey that led to this amazing music video for the band's new single Blown Minded, in which every frame is made out of oil painting.
Carine wrote:
Basically, my technique was to paint on a piece of glass fixed to a light box. I would paint on the glass with oil so that it wouldn’t dry, and I could play with it for hours. A camera, fixed overhead above the animation table and plugged in my computer, would capture my paintings frame by frame and create the animation using the software Stop Motion Pro (the aardman studio software). This process took place inside a dark room so that there wouldn’t be interference or changing lights on the paint. The single light source came from beneath the glass, revealing the textures and details of brushes movements.
I worked a lot with transparency. The more paint, the darker the image, and therefore the animation becomes about gesture, and the texture of brushstrokes; it’s a very physical, organic process. I based the number of frames per second (sometimes 8 sometimes 12) on the rhythm of the music. Everything is based on the rhythm.
Watch and weep: Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] | Visit Carine's official website - via So Bad So Good
GeoGuessr is a game that uses Google Street View. You'll get an image, and you try to guess where in the world it is. I jumped in and scored 4470 right off, which must be awful, because I guessed very wrong. Then I figured out you can zoom and turn just like any Street View scene, and improved in my second game to 7002, which is still awful. It turns out that no matter how much you zoom into a sign, it will not "enhance" like in TV crime dramas. It also helps to zoom into the world map to make your guess, because even if you know the answer, you'll be scored on how close you mark the spot. I finally busted 10K on my third try. This could be addictive. Link -via the Presurfer
After he retired, Tatsuo Horiuchi wanted to do a little bit of art on his computer, but specialized graphic software is expensive. So the 73-year-old Japanese man settled on a program that came pre-installed on his PC: Excel.
Now, whodathunk that you could make such excel-lent art with that spreadsheet program? Link
Keeping on our classical music theme from yesterday... Like many of you, I've had Shazam on my iPhone since the app launched in 2008. What started out as a party trick for me (look what MY phone can do!) slowly, over time, morphed into a "So what are the kids listening to these days?" necessity. But one thing that remained frustrating about the app was that it couldn't tell Mozart from Bach. In fact, it didn't seem to have ANY classical music catalog in its database.
Well, it's nowhere close to perfect now, but in recent months, Shazam has actually started identifying most of the major pieces of classical music I've thrown its way. And, this will come as little surprise, even giving me the specific recording I'm listening to in that moment complete with conductor and orchestra names and year recorded. This is especially important when trying to discern the difference between, say, Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations recorded in '55 vis-à-vis the one recorded in '81. (For the, er, record, I prefer the '55… less singing! heh. heh.)
The good folks at Shazam haven't done any major press around this advancement. My hunch is they're keeping it on the DL until they expand their archive. So for now, this post on this blog might be the only Google-able news on the app's classical music evolution. A little over a year ago, I wrote about Shazam's inability to tag classical music over on the mental floss blog and people in the comments were suggesting other apps like Soundhound. I've tried them, but this new version of Shazam is much, much better than all the others. Plus, I'm totally loving the new UI. It's a much improved tagging experience. Now if they'd only get rid of the annoying ads! Sigh. Well, "I can dream, can't I?" (Written by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Irving Kahal, published in 1938, from the musical, Right This Way.) Oh, and, of course, you CAN get rid of the ads... you just need to move from freemium to premium, which they call "Encore" and costs you $6.99 for a life-time subscription. SO here's a challenge to you loyal neatoramanauts:
If 5 people leave comments below telling me why they think I should upgrade, and another 5 tweet @neatorama why I should plunk down the $6.99, not only will I do it, but I'll cover another $6.99 for one of the lucky 10, chosen at random.
Ready, set, SHAZAM!
When Austin photographer Jaime Moore's daughter Emma turned five years old, she wanted to commemorate the event with a photo shoot. But rather than dressing her up as a Disney Princess, the mother-daughter duo tried something else: dressing her up as influential women throughout history.
Take a look at the marvelous project, titled Not Just A Girl: Link - via F Stop Lounge
Before the outbreak of the World War II, a young woman fled Paris for the security of the countryside, never to return. She recently passed away at the ripe age of 91 and when her estate was being inventoried, experts found out that her property in Paris had been left untouched for 70 years:
The property was found near a church in the French capital's 9th arrondissement, between Pigalle red light district and Opera. Experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions which included a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.
One expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900. 'There was a smell of old dust,' said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery.
Inside was a treasure trove of art, furniture, and other knick-knacks - a time capsule from time gone by. The Daily Mail has more: Link
