Ever want to make your own sweet Cyclops visor? Well then head over to Lounge Geeks where you can learn how to make your own for less than $30. Now that’s a value for some sweet style.

Link Via io9

Your Mother said don’t play with your food. She never said don’t play with your drink. Behold the Drinking Straw Glasses from the NeatoShop. This one size fits all drinking straw, shaped like a pair of glasses, is perfect for kids or those who are just kids at heart. Wearing your drink has never been so much fun!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mealtime Fun!

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Neatorama presents

Why do nerds so often wear glasses? This is an interesting question, and obviously it has a significance in my own life and career.

The word “nerd” was actually coined by my favorite fiction writer, the great Dr. Seuss. In 1950, in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, Seuss drew a non-human creature called a ‘nerd” from the land of Ka-roo. This is the first instance of the word “nerd” in print. Some theorists believe the word started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1940s. The students who liked to party there were called “drunks” and the quieter, less-inclined-to-party types were labeled “knurds.” See, “drunk” spelled backwards is “knurd,” the precursor to the modern “nerd.”

In 1957, in Glasgow, Scotland, “nerd” was first defined as “square.”

Motion pictures, the most powerful medium of communication in human history (before television) had, of course, a huge impact on the lives of almost everyone on earth. The “nerd” in movie history has not, to my knowledge, ever been fully written. As far as I can determine, the first nerd in movie history was the popular silent comedian Harold Lloyd. Lloyd played a weak, underdog type of comedic character, one bullied by men and ignored by women. But in the end, he would triumph and inevitably get the girl of his dreams. The Lloyd character wore trademark glasses. In fact, Lloyd always referred to his character as the “glasses” or “glass” character, much as Charlie Chaplin was “the Tramp.”

After Lloyd, the nerd character was on the shelf for many years in movies -with sporadic exceptions. Ironically, Cary Grant, perhaps the most dapper actor in movie history, donned glasses and played a nerd character in 1938′s classic comedy Bringing Up Baby.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the great Jerry Lewis often played a nerd-type character in his wonderful comedies. Once in a while, Jerry would wear glasses in his films, notably The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man. One of his early films with Dean Martin (That’s My Boy) Jerry played a classic glasses-wearing nerd. Jerry as “Junior Jackson” is a shy, clumsy nerd who is trained to be a football player by the handsome, popular Dean Martin. Lewis almost always played a semi-nerd, but it was always a bit of a very cool nerd with Jerry Lewis. While Jerry was always a dumb klutz in his films, he always danced gracefully and also, Jerry was a relatively good-looking fellow, unlike most nerds (or comedians) in comedies. And of course, Jerry did not usually wear glasses. But the movies next classic nerd did.

Woody Allen made his movie debut in 1965 in the smash hit What’s New, Pussycat? Allen, besides being Lewis’ successor as the next great movie comedian, also took over the crown as “movies’ next great nerd.” By the late 1970s, Allen had stopped playing a nerd in hilarious comedies and took his bespectacled character into more serious films.

In 1972, in a homage to the film Bringing Up Baby, Ryan O’Neal dons glasses and plays a nerd character in What’s Up, Doc?, one of the last great screwball comedies (and the only Barbra Streisand film I ever liked).

It was in the wonderful classic American Graffiti (1973) that Charles Martin Smith played a 1950s-type nerd character named “Toad.” Smith was wonderful and his portrayal was the first modern movie “nerd.” Smith’s brilliant portrayal set the standard for the modern nerd as we all know him -glasses, pocket protector, unkempt hair, etc.

About five years later, after a fallow “no nerd” period in the mid-1970s, I started playing the nerd character as my one and only character. I may be a lot of things, but a versatile actor is not one of them. Maybe because I grew up worshiping the great comedians: Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Dean and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy, et. al., I early on decided that I would only ever play one character. These classic comedians always played just one basic character.

I just did a slight variation on the person I am in real life. I was always the offbeat character, never a handsome guy, never a great athlete, never a ladies’ man. But I was always a relatively funny guy; I always enjoyed making people laugh. I wore glasses naturally and because I was skinny and had scoliosis (my spine is curved), I always moved in a comic way.

(YouTube link)

I started churning out films -mostly B-movies, but a few good ones. Grease is the standout, although ironically Grease is actually the movie I have the smallest role in. I started playing the squeaky-voiced, spastic, clumsy nerd character and soon, a lot of nerd movie (and TV) characters followed. Okay, enough of my autobiography.

Nerds quickly spread like wildfire in many movies, A-movies and B-movies alike. The nerd character was frequently featured in 1980s low-budget films, and it became a standard movie “type,” much like the “jock,” the “spoiled rich kid,” the “dumb blonde.” the “best friend,” and the “gay guy.” In 1984, the nerd in movies reached its peak in Revenge of the Nerds, a comedy classic.

The last truly great nerd character was in one of my all-time favorite films Superbad (2007). Christopher Mintz-Plasse as “Fogel” creates a hilarious nerd character and almost steals this excellent movie, except for the fact that the entire cast is great.

Okay, enough movie history- Why do nerds so often wear glasses? I have always had three theories about this…

1. The nerd is always an outsider. Glasses immediately make a person appear different. In a random group of ten men (or ten women), if one person in that group is wearing glasses, he or she is very easily identifiable. In a quick glance at any group, a person wearing glasses is immediately seen as somehow looking different. The ‘different one” in almost any group is the one who is laughed at, and put at a distance from the other, more “normal” group members.

2. Glasses symbolize weakness or a low confront. The nerd is thought to be a not very strong character. Let’s face it, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, etc. would not wear glasses in their movie roles. Neither would James Bond or Rambo. Superman wore no glasses. Clark Kent did. Whereas Superman could and would confront anything, Clark Kent would inevitably run away. The typical guy hero can face evil or villains or tough situations. Glasses symbolize a type of low confront or non-confront. Where a typical guy hero has a “high confront” of life, a guy wearing glasses apparently has a “low confront” level. There is also something inherently funny about a guy who is in fear.

It is worth noting that almost every great comedian in movie history had a cowardly side: from Bob Hope to Jerry Lewis to the Three Stooges to Laurel and Hardy to Don Knotts to Abbot and Costello. Pretty much every great comedian has been in a haunted house and ran away scared and screaming from ghosts or whatever. The sight of a man running away in fear is just naturally comical. The nerd wearing glasses appears to be a “low confront” guy.

3. Glasses symbolize sexual unattractiveness. This generally seems to hold true for both men and women. Remember Dorothy Parker’s famous quote: “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” The nerd is thought to be sexually unattractive and thus wears glasses. Interestingly, I have never though this about women or girls. On the contrary, I have always been very attracted to girls and women who wear glasses. I never thought they lessened a woman’s attractiveness.

Miss C says: Glasses may designate a nerd character, but we aren't really fooled.

Here’s a nifty little gallery of items from Tokyo Design Week 2011, including the glasses shown above, which were made out of sugar crystals which were formed naturally then reproduced in plastic via 3d printer.

Art and innovation collide in these interesting items, and some may even make their way into a store near you. Others, like the tusk inspired headgear or the strange knit yellow suit with duck hat, probably won’t make it out of Japan. Thank your lucky stars!

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Elmo with Glasses Sesame Street Junior Backpack – $16.95

Are you a nerd? Are you hoping your child will follow in your footsteps? You need the Elmo with Glasses Sesame Street Junior Backpack from the NeatoShop. This adorable toddler sized backpack is the perfect way to teach your mini-me that it’s hip to be square.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Schooltime fun!

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I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a sucker for articles with funny patents and this Life article quickly drew me in with these delightful chicken spectacles. There are 40 more for those of you looking for a great laugh at terrible inventions.

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Imagine glasses that can read body language and offer suggestions about how you should respond, or goggles which can scan faces and call up criminal databases to find a real time match. These snazzy high tech specs aren’t just science fiction props anymore, and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are sure that their “social x-ray specs” are going to find a multitude of uses in society, from communicating more effectively with Autistic people to becoming human lie detectors and much more. Read all about it at NewScientist.

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(image courtesy of Ryan Heuser via Wikimedia Commons)

Some of these glasses were called “peek-a-boos” and featured a clothed pin-up image on the front, usually a decal, although some were hand-painted. On the back side of the decal, the idealized woman would be depicted in sexy lingerie or plain naked. Her state of undress would increase as you drank.

These  collector glasses provide a peep show from a more innocent time.

Link Warning: nudity.

Toilet Shot Glasses – $9.95

Toilet Shot Glasses from the NeatoShop are the perfect gift for a drinker who spends a lot of time :

• Doing the technicolor yawn
• Praying at the porcelain altar
• Talking to Ralph on the porcelain telephone
• Tossing his cookies
• Blowing groceries
• Hugging the porcelain goddess
• Worshiping the porcelain god
• Doing the liquid scream
• Marinading their tongue
• Launching lunch
• Impersonating The Fly
• Or Having involuntary protein spills

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more inappropriate Gag Gifts & Pranks.

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Do you have trouble convincing people that you are a geek?  Try the Bug Eyes Geek Chic Toy Glasses from the NeatoShop.  Embracing a stereotype has never been so easy.

If you love the Bug Eyes Geek Chic Toy Glasses you will also love the Klutzo and Nerdtastic glasses.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulous Gag Gifts & Pranks!

Link – Via UberReview

Designer Stuart Haygarth makes chandeliers out of discarded materials, including eyeglasses. Pictured above is one of his works, made from 1020 pairs. In an interview about this ongoing project, Haygarth wrote:

For years I have always wanted to do a piece of work with spectacles or sunglasses. This started because I was always finding strange spectacles at flea markets and the fact that each pair once had an owner who relied on them as a tool to see. This narrative and the idea of making a light from an object that helps people to see (in the same way a light does) I find interesting. I have specifically chosen to use spectacles with transparent plastic frames so that the frame becomes illuminated.

Link via Make | Official Website | Interview with the Artist

I guess this is one way to get rid of sunglasses lines from being out in the sun too long. But the future mom in me is saying, “You’re going to get those caught on something and rip them right out of your face.” They’re made by the Pierced Glasses company, if you’re looking to get a pair for yourself.

Link Original Link via Geekologie (who also put the photo montage together so you can see the before and after)

Update 5/5/09 by Alex – I’ve replaced the linkjacked article with the original link. Shame on you chooseurfun, you’re officially in my sh*tlist now – Thanks (and sorry) Shannon!

Pyramid Of Glasses – Amazing videos are here

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Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

Silver’s goal is to distribute a billion pairs of his adaptive glasses to poor people by 2020 (the pun in the year is intended, I’m sure). Already, 30,000 pairs have been given out in 15 countries.

“The reaction is universal,” says Major Kevin White, formerly of the US military’s humanitarian programme, who organised the distribution of thousands of pairs around the world after discovering Silver’s glasses on Google. “People put them on, and smile. They all say, ‘Look, I can read those tiny little letters.’”

Silver hopes to get the cost of manufacturing each pair down to a dollar each. Link -Thanks, Cuimhne!

(image credit: Michael Lewis)