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This ad shows how efficient Snapdragon processors are by inferring that they can be powered by insects. And if you care about cruelty to bugs, you should know that the actual circus acts are special effects, a well-done combination of CGI and image collage. Which is less expensive than actually procuring bugs this big! -Thanks, Dustin Willson!
Photographer Matt Hoyle invites you to view Barnumville, a project that depicts a town in his Circus Freaks series. It is based on the idea of Gibsonton, Florida, {wiki} where many sideshow performers live in the off season. Link -Thanks, Matt!
Chris Unitt was brave enough to become a prop for a bicyclist during a promotion for Cirque Eloize in Boston. He’s got more nerves than I do! Link -via The Daily What
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What does a retired circus bear do for a living? Here’s the sweets-lovin’, beer-guzzlin’ Photo Bear hammin’ it up with his peeps:
13-year-old Tian Tian used to be a performer in the zoo doing acts like the parallel bars, bike riding and so on.
However, it loves sweets so much that it quickly grew into a 150kg obese bear. “No bike can take its weight, as once it sits on a bike, the bike will break,” said the feeder, Wang Qunfa.
The zoo had to give Tian Tian early retirement from the show, and they sent it back to the bear pen.
But Tian Tian has got used to interaction with humans, and can’t adapt to life with other bears. “I have to take her and wander around during the day time outside the bear pen,” said Wang.
Tourist requests to take pictures with Tian Tian inspired the zoo. “Why not make her a full-time picture bear?” said feeder Wang.
True love, as J. Tithonus Pednaud of The Human Marvels blog said, knows no bound. Here’s the story Al and Jeanie Tomaini, The World’s Strangest Married Couple:
He was shy, gentle and sweet inside and out – from the top of his towering head to the bottom of his size 27 shoes. During the Great Lakes Exposition in 1936, one special young lady took a particular interest in the gentle giant with the coy smile.
Her name was Jeanie (Berniece Evelyn Smith) and she was born on August 23rd in 1916 in Blufton, Indiana with twisted arms and without legs. She ‘stood’ just over two feet in height but, in personality, Jeanie was a giant in her own right. Jeanie had been performing in exhibitions since the age of three and was known for her acrobatic dexterity and the nimble way she ran about on her mildly deformed hands. Originally exhibited by her biological mother, Jeanie had been under the abusive care of an adoptive mother since 1931. The pretty but resilient 19 year old endured the psychological abuse with little hope of escape but, when the sincere flames of romance sparked between her and Al Tomaini, she found a gargantuan protector who would forever lift her out of harm’s way.
Read the rest here: Link
The Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles has a different kind of Santa Claus. For nine years now, Santa is a hunky young man who performs with the Candy Cane Girls in a 15-minute show in the center of the mall on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Twenty-nine-year-old James Ellis is this year’s Hunk Santa. The show is quite popular with shoppers.
This year, though, Hunky’s story took a turn for the serious when one of his fellow mall performers — a 26-year-old female aerialist — plunged three stories in front of hundreds of horrified spectators and landed on a video projection cube on the mall’s first floor. Hunky Santa was the first person to rush to her aid.
The aerialist injured her wrist and pelvis, but is expected to recover completely. Link -via a comment at Metafilter
Kenyan contortionist Lazarus Gitu appears on a German television show. Gitu performs with Circus Mama Africa as The Snake Man. -via Bits and Pieces
A thief in Wuppertal, Germany made off with a Mercedes Transporter owned by Circus Probst, apparently unaware that a lion was in the back. The van was recovered Wednesday morning with Caesar still inside. It is not yet known whether the presence of the lion led to vehicle being crashed and abandoned. It was found with the motor still running.
Police then towed the van away, also unaware of its feline freight and it wasn’t until midday on Wednesday that Caesar was returned to his rightful owners, more than 12 hours after his adventure began.
“Caesar is fine. We’re not worried about him,” circus spokesman Laurens Thoen said.
This mini documentary has a great bit of info about the Moscow Cat Theater. Apparently shows like this are fairly common in Russia although we certainly have nothing in the states like this, at least not with cats. It’s easy to think the cats are unhappy if you saw them outside of the film, but seeing them with their owners, you can see there’s a lot of love there.
Link Via Laughing Squid
Update: For those of you who can’t watch Hulu, coconutnut has found the video on YouTube. Thanks Coconutnut!
The flea circus sounds funny, but it was once a serious (if strange) performance type. The fleas are actually trained to ‘behave’ and ‘perform’ in certain ways – even harnassed with tiny wires. Of course, for every such sensation there are its detractors – and perhaps with good reason. In this day and age, there are some who say that a flea circus constitutes animal cruelty. Either way, these images and this history are amazing.
A flea, with legs finer than a human hair, can pull up to 700 times its own weight! A flea can lift up to 60 times its own weight! A flea can jump over 150 times its own height! When we build circuses on Mars, or asteroids one day, then we’ll perhaps witness similar dexterity, but for now – consider a humble flea:
From the Upcoming 
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Previously at Neatorama: Matt Hoyle’s Encounters and Vintage Boxers.
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