Geek Ball – $7.95

Are you a geek in need of some cosmic advice? You need the Geek ball from the NeatoShop. This great little magic ball is fluent in geekish. Just ask it a yes or no question and be prepared to get a truly geeky response. Responses include things like: 404 Error, FAIL, Meh, and LOL.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Office and Desk fun!

Link

Some magician is having a fun time in the drive-through, handing out floating money to the people working there. The same guy has also made another similar drive-through video, in which his wallet catches fire.

I Heart Chaos via Nerdcore

Sharp Act Knife Sharpener – $11.95

Do you know a magician in the kitchen?  Get them the Sharp Act Knife Sharpener from the NeatoShop.  Everyone will be in awe of this fabulous knife sharpener shaped like the sawing a woman in half magic illusion. It’s such a great gift you might even get a standing ovation.

Link | Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more amazing Cooking Gadgets!

UK’s Royal Mail released a new set of postage stamps this week featuring famous wizards, witches, and enchanters from legend and literature. The eight stamps depict Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Aslan, the White Witch, Nanny Ogg, Rincewind, Volemort, and Dumbledore. See them all in a gallery at The Guardian. Link -via The Daily What

A video clip with the award winning magician Lance Burton. The video description over at YouTube says it all: Lance Burton performs what is possibly the most beautiful slight of hand magic routine ever performed for the camera. A masterful act.

via Reddit

Did you ever own a Magic 8-Ball? Inside the ball, there’s a 20-sided die called an icosahedron that displayed one of 20 answers to your questions when it floated into the window. “Yes” is a given, but how many of the other 19 possible answers can you name in ten minutes without pulling your 8-Ball out of the closet? That’s the challenge of today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I never owned one, so when I tried the quiz, my first dozen guesses were wrong and I gave up! Link

One of He-Man’s running gags is Orko poor magical skills, in that nearly every time Orko attempts to use magic, it backfires. He also has a seemingly magically-imbued hat that can contain many more items than the hat’s outside appearance and size would suggest.

It’s never made clear why Orko is so inept, from Orko supposedly losing an amulet that allowed him to properly use his magic, to it being suggested in an episode that Trolla’s natural laws are opposite of Eternia’s.

See all ten not-so-wonderful wizards at Geekosystem. Link

For its series "What I’ve Learned," Esquire Magazine interviewed David Blaine about nuggets of wisdom he has learned over the years:

When I actually was buried alive, I learned that things aren’t always as difficult as they seem to be.

Okay, start with a pretty new deck. Secretly lick your finger. Have someone pick up half the deck and look at the card he cut to. As he’s looking at the card, say, "Okay, put that half back on top." Point to the bottom deck and touch the top card with your wet finger. That’ll act as an adhesive. The two cards will stick together. So he can cut as many times as he wants. When you spread out the cards, look for the two that are stuck together. His card will be the one on top of the one you touched with your wet finger.

When I was with the Yanomamö Indians, I counted four hundred mosquito bites on one arm. That was unbearable.

One little thing goes wrong–like the guy who vacuumed the catheter tube when I was frozen in a block of ice–and then everything crumbles. You’re having nightmares while your eyes are open. You don’t know whether you’re alive or dead.

If that’s not all that impressive, then just stick around for his card tricks (including one where he tells you the secret): Link (warning: auto-starting sound) – Thanks Marty Beckerman!

YouTube link.

After an introduction by Ernie Kovacs, Richard Valentine Pitchford (“Cardini”) performs the “intoxicated English gentleman” routine that made him famous.  This recording from the “Festival of Magic” television program in 1957 is the only known footage of Cardini in action.  He reportedly developed his ability to manipulate cards with gloved hands by practicing while in the trenches during WWI.

Via Professor Hex.

YouTube link.

Unlike conventional modern “magic,” what was involved in the underwater breathhold was not special effects or hidden technology.  Instead, Blaine prepared using a combination of hypoxic tent training to increase his hematocrit, preloading with 100% oxygen, meditation to decrease his oxygen consumption, and hyperventilation to delay his hypercapnic response.

As a useful reference point, his 17-minute breathhold time is almost the same length as this 20-minute TED talk.  It’s also worth noting here as an addendum that the hyperventilation (“purging”) he describes should not be attempted by amateurs to increase underwater breathhold time while swimming or diving.  The technique does allow a longer breathhold, but does not provide additional oxygen, so novices can become disoriented from hypoxia and drown.

YouTube link.

In order not to spoil the illusion for first-time viewers, I won’t offer an explanation here in the text.  Someone can add in the comments a note about the obvious “defect” that appears in this classic video.

Those interested in this subject may also want to view Penn and Teller’s report on the illusion.

Via Reddit.

YouTube link

All of these are quite simple, and most of them are well-known, but there are enough assembled here so that most viewers will find something new to amuse and bewilder children (and drunks) during the holidays.

Via b3ta.

YouTube Link

Everyone’s favorite Scottish Fold Internet star would like to show you trickz.  Previously on Neatorama:  Maru, the Box Loving Cat, Maru Returns, Maru Gets a BIG Box, Maru Makes Faces.  -via Unique Daily.

So here’s the scoop: I’m about to turn 30 – this friday in fact. Also: I love waterslides. Then I found a competition which, if I get enough votes, will send me around the world to the biggest watersldies there are. Best Present. Ever. This is my entry. Did it in an hour.

If you like it and fancy voting me into a state of splashy swooshy ecstasy, Vote for Slideyman in the Barclay Waterslide video competition. Just click the green thumbs up! Link 

Love and Waterslides,
Oscar

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Plinth.

The following is a guest blog by Craig Conley, author of Magic Words: A Dictionary

If you've ever paid a compliment, written a mission statement, stated an affirmation, made a wish, shouted a command, or said a little prayer, you've used some magic words.

Indeed, magic words aren't just for stage performers or superstitious folks. They're powerful language tools, like blueprints for constructing reality. With magic words, we define a sacred arena where miracles can come into play. There are profound truths in that old cliché of a magician pulling a rabbit out of an empty hat with the magic word abracadabra. Almost everyone recognizes the image. But what relatively few people know is that our stereotypical magician is speaking an ancient Hebrew phrase that means "I will create with words." He is making something out of nothing, echoing that famous line from Genesis: "Let there be light, and there was light."

In the course of compiling Magic Words: A Dictionary, we unearthed a wealth of magical expressions from comic books, television shows, rock 'n' roll, ancient Egyptian scrolls, and pulp fiction. Here are some of our whimsical favorites:

THE POWER OF PURPLE

The title "Purple One" popularly refers to the artist formerly known as Prince. But former teen idol and now game show host Donnie Osmond was a purple one back in the mid-1970's. Elprup is the word that Donnie Osmond spoke on The Donnie and Marie Show to transform into Captain Purple. The word is purple spelled backward.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN'S SECRET

Frosty the Snowman's secret comes to us courtesy of home automation expert Gordon Meyer, author of Smart Home Hacks. Animovividus Homonivalis is a pseudo-Latin spell for bringing a snowman to life. The word animo refers to the life force or soul of the snowman, which is conjured to vivify with the word vividus. Nivalis means "snowy," and homo means "man."

BART SIMPSON'S ZOMBIE SPELL

Zabar, Kresge, Caldor, Wal-Mart is Bart Simpson's spell for conjuring zombies, chanted in Matt Groening's animated series The Simpsons (Season 4, Episode 64, "Dial Z For Zombies," Oct. 29, 1992). The words are actually names of discount retail markets.

Bart also has another zombie spell: Cullen, Rayburn, Narz, Trebek. The words are names of game show hosts: Bill Cullen of To Tell the Truth, Gene Rayburn of Match Game, Jack Narz of Concentration, and Alex Trebek of Jeopardy.

A SPELL FOR A LA-Z-BOY

The magic word rantorp (a Scandinavian name) changes people into chairs in the play General Gorgeous by Michael McClure (1982).

"HOLY COW!"

Alizebu is a magic word for revealing hidden passages in the computer game King's Quest 6 (Sierra Entertainment, 1992). The word zebu comes from the Tibetan ceba, meaning "hump." Zebu is a breed of hump-backed India ox. With the Arabic Ali ("by the most high") in front, Alizebu could be translated as "holy cow."

OOO EEE OOO-AH-AH TING TANG WALLA-WALLA BING-BANG

This phrase is a love spell chanted in the song "Witch Doctor" by David Seville (1958). "It is a song of unrequited love cured by the magic incantations of the witch doctor" (Bob McCann, "The Declension Song," 2003). Diana Winn Levine suggests that ting tang are the magic words and walla walla bing bang mean the magic is over.

A CAT IN A HAT

If Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat were a magician, his magic word might be inspiratus, Latin for the divine "breath" that inspires creativity. We unearthed a delightful fakir's incantation that incorporates the word as it celebrates a Schrödinger's Cat paradox:

Hocus, pocus, inspiratus,
there is a cat in the hat;
hocus, pocus, inspiratus,
there is no cat in the hat.

(Incantation quoted in Lawrence Bruehl's The Mathematics of Unlimited Prosperity, 1939)

PEANUT BUTTER AND SESAME STREET

Abba Zabba recalls the expanse of the alphabet, A (abba) to Z (zabba), the alpha and omega of creative power. The words appear in a Captain Beefheart song of the same name (1974). The lyrics are a sort of nursery rhyme about childhood rituals and seem to suggest that the primal syllables abba zabba are "song before song before song." Abba Zabba is also the name of an old-fashioned peanut butter taffy candy bar.

Interestingly, peanut butter figures into other magic words. A-la Peanut Butter Sandwiches has appeared in a "Rugrats" comic strip and is the Amazing Mumford's magic expression on the Sesame Street television series. The peanut is like the sesame seed of Open Sesame fame—a spiritual food which unlocks a doorway to a world of wonders. The pods of peanuts and sesame plants open to reveal their seeds, just as the wall of rock opened for the legendary Ali Baba when he said the secret password.

SMALL CHANGE

Here's a magic word that is tailor made for a wishing well. Found in 18th-century Kabbalistic treatises, matba is a magic word for obtaining small coins. It literally means "bring forth." As a talisman to be carried in one's money purse, matba was to be written on a square of paper.

PEE-WEE HERMAN

Mekka-Lekka-Hi, Mekka-Hiney-Ho was popularized by the children's television series Pee-Wee's Playhouse (1986). "One of Pee-wee's visiting pals to pop into the Playhouse was in the form of a genie—a disembodied, turban-topped talking head named Jambi. Always a jokester, Jambi swiveled his head and worked his magic much to Pee-wee's rapture; he granted wishes if Pee-wee chanted along with him" (Stephen Cox, Dreaming of Jeannie, 2000).

FROM INSIDE PANDORA'S BOX

Jiggery pokery is action with astonishing results or a clever deception. It is the name of one of the plagues and misfortunes that was contained inside Pandora's box of mythology.

JOHNNY THUNDER'S SECRET

Cei-u (pronounced "say you") is the word that gives comic book character Johnny Thunder (Flash Comics, 1940) the power to summon The Thunderbolt (his magical partner who appears as a puff of pink smoke).

A GHOSTLY NAME

In the folklore of West Cornwall, England, Nomme Domme was a name that spirit-quellers used to address and obtain power over ghosts. The name is undoubtedly a corruption of the Latin In Nomine Domini ("In the Name of the Lord"). The name was considered "a magical word, very likely the spirit's name among spirits, for old folks held that they acquire new ones quite different from what they bore when in mortal bodies" (William Bottrell, Stories and Folk-Lore of West Cornwall, 1880).

A WATCHED POT NEVER BOILS?

It's been said that a watched pot never boils, and perhaps that inspired this Italian magic spell for getting water to bubble: Pentola, pentola, pentola, bolli.

BRUCE LEE-STYLE

Exclaimed at the end of a chant, the magic word harrahya could be likened to the shout of a martial artist delivering a knifehand strike, focusing power toward an amazing conclusion.

HOLY MOLY

Popularized by the Captain Marvel comics in 1940, Holy Moly is an expression of wonderment that recalls a magic herb of Greek mythology. Sporting white flowers and black roots, moly was Hermes' gift to Odysseus, to protect against incantations.

MAGIC IN OZ

In the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, it is said that to transform people and objects, the word pyrzqxgl must be pronounced correctly. The Munchkin named Bini Aru, who discovered the word, hid away the pronunciation directions after Princess Ozma decreed that only Glinda could practice magic in the land.

BROCCOLI

Oh! Brocoli,
Oh! Brocoli,
A magic word
is Brocoli!
—J.A.H., "The Masonic Password," Freemason's Magazine (Aug. 15, 1868)

The incantation quoted above was said in jest, yet it's not preposterous that the vegetable broccoli have a magical name. The word derives from a Latin root, brocchus, meaning "projecting." A simple definition of a magic word is "a powered projection" (to paraphrase W. Ong, The Presence of the Word, 1967).

UN-BEWITCHING

Zolda Pranken Kopeck Lum are the magic words the character Uncle Arthur teaches Darrin Stephens in the television series Bewitched, when Darrin is convinced he's been turned into a Warlock.

EXCELSIOR

Excelsior is a cry of ascendancy, supremacy, mastery, greatness. It is a charm for gaining the upper hand. The silvery tones of this heart-stirring magic word "put a soul in every bell / To triumph o'er the powers of hell—Excelsior!" (Thomas Bracken, "Longfellow," Musings in Maoriland, 1890). In his poem "Excelsior," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow likened the word to a sigh, an oft-repeated prayer, the accents of an unknown tongue, and a falling star. Excelsior is of Latin origin, ex meaning "beyond" and celsus meaning "lofty." It is typically taken to mean "ever upward."

Described by Encarta as "America's most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation," Craig Conley has also been called a 'cult hero' by Publisher's Weekly. A former college teacher of writing and literature, he left academia to pursue his research into one-letter words, magic words and ancient Zen versions of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

In addition to Magic Words: A Dictionary (Weiser Books) and One-Letter Words, a Dictionary (HarperCollins), he has written a field guide to identifying unicorns by sound, a coloring book that requires no crayons, an atlas of blank maps, and four editions of the textbook Human Diversity: A Guide for Understanding . Craig blogs at OneLetterWords.com/weblog and MysteryArts.blogspot.com.

Are you an author and would like your book featured on Neatorama? Please email me about a possible guest blog post just like this one!

Here’s a really neat trick to impress your friends. I practiced it for about 10 minutes and I get the hang of it rather quickly. Give it a try… Link