Ever wonder how IKEA makes their furniture sturdy yet light? The secret is the honeycomb skeleton inside their tabletops. National Geographic went inside an IKEA factory in Poland: Link

“It’s all very amusing, of course. Unless it’s your campsite.”

It is not my campsite, and you will most likely find it as amusing as I did. Link -via Digg

See more adventures from National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles.

Photo: Vince Lauro

Pigs may never fly, but they certainly can swim! Vince Lauro won National Geographic Traveler’s Great Outdoors Photo Contest with this awesome photo of the Caribbean swimming pig. From the Intelligent Travel blog:

As the first mate on a 118-foot motor yacht, Vince Lauro has the opportunity to continuously travel across the Caribbean. This photograph was taken near a small key famous for the "swimming pigs." A colony of pigs lives on the key, and they often swim near visiting boats. To capture this clear image Lauro said, "I had to lure this pig into an undisturbed area with its favorite food: fresh watermelon."

Link – Thanks Marilyn!

Now, on to the Neatorama and Hobotopia’s Caption Monkey part of the post: funniest caption will win a custom black and white Monkey drawing by our favorite artist, Adam "Ape Lad" Koford.

Contest rules are simple: place your caption in the comment section. One caption per comment, please. You can enter as many as you can think of – just make ‘em funny! Be sure to visit Adam’s blog for inspiration. Good luck!

Update 8/26/09 – Adam has picked the winner! Congrats to Lisa G. who came up with this (very punny) gem: Oinkers aweigh!

Martin K, Estate Manager- “She takes out the goats for grazing and brings them back. A shepherd is usually required to accompany the goats all day long and bring them back in these hills. But because of her, manpower can be spared. She is as good as a shepherd. The only thing is that she does not speak, but otherwise carries out all responsibilities.”

They say they feel confident that the goats will be safe when Mani accompanies them.

Mani is said to make a strange sound when she discovers a goat is missing or when danger lurks.

There’s a (non-embeddable) video of the monkey at the link.

Link

image by flickr user eirikref used under creative commons license

A lot of places in the United States have their names derived from Native American words (I’m looking at you, Punxsutawney!). But do you know what they actually mean?

Our friends over at National Geographic have put together this really spiffy interactive map of the United States, with the translated meaning of the towns, lakes, and other localities.

Here are my personal favorites:

- Malibu, CA: It makes a loud noise all the time over there
- Topeka, KS: Good place to dig potatoes
- Chicago, IL: At the skunk place
- Yosemite, CA: They are killers

But the strangest one has got to be Loleta, a small town in Northern California. It means "let’s have intercourse."

Of course, the town founders claimed that the name means "pleasant place at the end of the tide water" but not according to William Bright, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Anthropology at UCLA, who wrote in his book Native American Placenames of the United States:

LOLETA (Calif., Humboldt Co.). In 1893, a resident, Mrs. Rufus F. Herrick, chose the present name, supposed to be from the local Wiyot Indian language. The Indian name was in fact katawóio’t, but an elderly Indian played a joke on Mrs. Herrick by telling her that the name was hós wiwítak ‘let’s have intercourse!’ – the latter part of which she interpreted in baby-talk fashion as Loleta (Teeter 1958).

Ouch! Link: Blog post | Interactive Map – Thanks Marilyn!

What are your favorites?

The Daily Dozen feature on National Geographic, edited by photo editor Susan Welchman, is a treasure trove of neat "Your Shots" photos submitted by the magazine’s readers (a selection of which will actually appear on the magazine itself – talk about awesome!).

I particularly like this one, submitted by James Snyder who wrote:

This is a Cuban tree frog on a tree in my backyard in southern Florida. How and why he ate this light is a mystery. It should be noted that at the time I was taking this photo, I thought this frog was dead having cooked himself from the inside. I’m happy to say I was wrong. After a few shots he adjusted his position. So after I was finished shooting him, I pulled the light out of his mouth and he was fine. Actually, I might be crazy but I don’t think he was very happy when I took his light away.

Link to the Daily Dozen (this particular shot by James appeared on the April – Week 1 section)

While celebrating Mardi Gras last week, a few National Geographic staffers stumbled upon a woman costumed as… a National Geographic Photographer. She was shooting an art project called "Irrational Geographic," taking portraits of the "wild life" with the iconic yellow border as a prop. We loved it so much we featured it on our blog.

"Shouldn’t everyone be on the cover of National Geographic Magazine?" she wondered.

It was a perfect Mardi Gras day outfit… and everyone wants to be on the cover of the magazine so interactivity is high! Indeed, when I asked a man if he wanted to pose like he was on the cover of National Geographic, his response was, “Since I was, like, two.”

Link

(image credit: Flickr user castorpollux)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by janelle.

University of Nevada biologist Zeb Hogan, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, was pleased to discover healthy populations of giant stingray in Thailand, where once the fish were considered critically endangered.

Freshwater giant stingrays are among the largest of the approximately 200 species of rays.  They are found in just a few rivers in Southeast Asia and northern Australia.

More about the Megafishes Project here.

Link

(image credit: Zeb Hogan)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Link

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Link, photo by Chris Newbert

Photo: Geoff Pingree / National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

W00t! It’s time for Neatorama and Hobotopia’s Caption Monkey game – but first, here’s the story behind the photo, titled "Behold". It’s the Grand Prize winner of National Geographic’s Traveler’s "World in Focus" photo contest, and taken by Geoff Pingree of Oberlin, Ohio (he won a 15-day trip for two to Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Endeavor, which makes our prizes here on Neatorama look downright puny in comparison!):

Pingree, a professor of Cinema Studies and English at Oberlin College, took this photograph at Madrid’s Prado Museum, which was staging theatrical performances inspired by masterworks by Spanish artists. "The photo shows performers playing Spanish King Philip IV and his second wife, Mariana of Austria," he said.

Link – Thanks Marilyn!

Now, on to the contest. The funniest caption will win an original Laugh-Out-Loud cat comic by Adam Koford. Place your caption in the comment section. One caption per comment, please, but you can enter as many as you’d like.

Don’t forget to check out Adam’s blog for inspiration! Good luck!

Update 12/17/08 – Adam has picked the winner! Congratulations to Adam D. Jones who won with this caption: “You said everyone would be wearing a costume!”