Blog Posts Chris Johnston Likes

A Thanksgiving Invitation

George’s Senate Coney Island Restaurant in Northville, Michigan is run by a Greek immigrant who just goes by George. For years, he’s been offering free Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant for lonely singles and homeless people. He knows what that’s like.  

George came to the United States at the age of 23 after growing up in Greece. He lived on a farm with seven brothers and sisters, and his parents couldn't afford to send him to school. He left home at the age of 12 and went to Athens, where he was homeless for a time,and depended on the kindness of others to give him food.

George knows how to pay it forward. -via Uproxx

(Image credit: Redditor rhymingisfun)


This Might Be The Most Realistic Rocket Raccoon Costume Ever Made

It's no surprise that Rocket Raccoon is a big hit with the younger Guardians fans, since he's both spunky and fuzzy, but it seems their love for Rocket knows no bounds. They're wearing Rocket's image on their t-shirts, playing with his action figures, reading his comics and pretending to be him on Halloween.

But the kid in this pic might actually be turning in to Rocket in real life.

Oh wait, that's just a young human named Chase wearing an amazingly realistic costume his mom Christina Borchardt fabricated from scratch.

Christina says the suit isn't finished because she hasn't distressed the leather on the pants yet, but I don't think people are looking at the pants when that freakin' awesome Rocket face is grinning at them!

-Via GeekTyrant


Vietnam’s “Napalm Girl” Comes to America for Laser Treatments

On June 8, 1972, Nick Ut of the Associated Press photographed the napalm bombing of a Vietnamese village. 9-year old Kim Phuc, hit by the caustic gel, stripped her clothes off and fled in terror. Her expression of pain and horror became an iconic image of the Vietnam War.

Phuc grew up and traveled to Cuba. While her plane stopped for refueling in Canada, she defected. She later became a Canadian citizen and served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace.

Now 52, Phuc has never fully recovered from the horrendous damage that napalm did to her body more than four decades ago. She recently traveled to Miami to visit a high-end dermatology clinic that can heal many of the scars that cover her body. The AP reports:

Late last month, Phuc, 52, began a series of laser treatments that her doctor, Jill Waibel of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, says will smooth and soften the pale, thick scar tissue that ripples from her left hand up her arm, up her neck to her hairline and down almost all of her back.

Even more important to Phuc, Waibel says the treatments also will relieve the deep aches and pains that plague her to this day.

For this story, the AP assigned a photographer that Phuc already knew: Nick Ut, the man who first photographed her in 1972 and rescued her:

Ut remembers the girl screaming in Vietnamese, "Too hot! Too hot!" He put her in the AP van where she crouched on the floor, her burnt skin raw and peeling off her body as she sobbed, "I think I'm dying, too hot, too hot, I'm dying."

He took her to a hospital. Only then did he return to the Saigon bureau to file his photographs, including the one of Phuc on fire that would win the Pulitzer Prize.


Barber Offers Free Haircuts to Kids Who Read to Him

(Photo: Mike Burley/Telegaph Herald/AP)

Courtney Holmes, a barber in Dubuque, Iowa, wants to encourage kids to read. So if a child sits in his chair and reads a book to him, Holmes will cut the kid's hair--for free! He's offering this opportunity as part of a local back-to-school program. The Globe Gazette reports:

Tayshawn Kirby, 9, of Dubuque, read from "Fats, Oils and Sweets," by Carol Parenzan Smalley, informing Holmes that the average person eats 150 pounds of sugar each year. Before Tayshawn's 10-year-old brother, Titan Feeney, took his turn in the barber chair, he told his brother the new look was great.

"I just want to support kids reading," Holmes said.

Caitlin Daniels, grade-level reading coordinator with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, also helped struggling readers in the barber chair.

"It's great. All the kids, they want to have a good haircut to go back to school," she said. "They're paying through reading."

-via Daily of the Day


Adam Savage and Chris Hadfield’s Spacewalk at Comic Con

Adam Savage of Mythbusters has made it a tradition to walk the floors of Comic Con without being recognized due to an awesome costume. He wore a spacesuit last year. This year, he takes it up a notch by wearing a spacesuit from the 1969 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, taking astronaut Chris Hadfield with him.

(YouTube link)

The Comic Con walk begins at about ten minutes in, but if you watch the whole thing, you’ll learn a lot about space suits from both Savage and the man whose life depended on one. But the Stanley Kubrick version is still something new to Hadfield. An apt comment:

Real astronaut dresses as fake astronaut so nobody will know he's an astronaut...

-Thanks, Daniel Portolan!


The 11 Greatest Accountants in Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Image: Fox)

In the universe of The Tick, Arthur is a pudgy and socially awkward accountant who leaves that line of work to become a superhero. Or at least a sidekick. His moth suit, which permits him to glide through the air, gives him the pretext to become one. His superhero name is . . . Arthur.

He's still a good accountant. He loses his job at the firm only because he won't dress in business attire. He's 1 of 11 notably successful accountants in science fiction and fantasy, including The Bursar from the Discworld universe, Leland Owlsley from Dardevil, and Petyr Baelish from Game of Thrones. You can read about all of them at Tor.


French Bulldog Breaks House Rules When Human is Gone, Dog Pal Snitches


YouTube Link

A Frenchie has what looks to be a wonderful time shredding toilet paper while her human is out. But little did she know that her bull mastiff housemate would spill so easily when pressed for details about the crime. More like a rat mastiff! Via Tastefully Offensive


10 Mind Blowing Facts About AKIRA

No animated feature ever made can compare to AKIRA in terms of illustrative detail, mature storyline and originality.

Now that might just be my humble opinion, but it’s an opinion shared by many fans of animation (and more specifically anime), and AKIRA has become much more than just a fine example of early anime- it has become the standard by which an animated feature’s style and story are judged.

(YouTube Link)

Katsuhiro Otomo created the AKIRA manga as homage to artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama, but by the time it made it to the big screen it had definitely taken on a life of its own, 160,000 single shots of vibrant, animated life.

Read 10 Fun Facts About Akira at GeekTyrant


Unskippable GEICO Ad

(YouTube link)

Not that I really want to run a free advertisement, but every once in a while the entertainment value is well worth it. This is just a GEICO ad -at least the first 12 seconds. But it appears that they felt the need to fill up a minute of time anyway, so after the ad is when the fun begins! Because that’s when the dog takes the stage -or the dining room, in this case. Therefore, you can consider this a cute dog video. -via Daily Picks and Flicks


The Netherlands' Crane Hotels

(Photo: Faralda NDSM Crane Hotel)

The Netherlands has at least two hotels built into decommissioned industrial cranes. If you want to get a scenic view of a shipyard from the window of a luxurious hotel room, then these are the places to go.


(Photo: Faralda NDSM Crane Hotel)

One is the Faralda NDSM Crane Hotel, which has three rotating suites, a TV studio, and the opportunity to go bungee jumping.

Continue reading

Beautiful Photo: Polished Meteorite



Redditor Proteon posted this photo of a gorgeous polished meteorite sphere. Another user explained that it was a type of meteorite called pallasite, which is "a mixture of iron-nickel metal and olivine, a crystal that makes up the majority of Earth's mantle." Several posters estimated it to be worth #10,000 to $12,000 in value. Provided that information is correct, I need to add that to my Christmas gift wish list. -Via Science Dump


Watch All 707 Classic Doctor Who Episodes Simultaneously


(Video Link)

If you want to start watching the modern Doctor Who, then you've got 8 seasons to catch up on. That comes out to (I think) 122 episodes. That's a lot, but it's feasible. It'll just take a few months.

Now classic Doctor Who--the show than ran from 1963 to 1989--that's a different story. Then you've got 707 episodes. To the extent that watching TV can be considered an act of work, it's a huge chore.

But don't worry. This video will help you get caught up very quickly. You'll just watch all of the episodes simultaneously. It's helpfully annotated with the names of the actors who played the Doctor.

-via David Thompson


Misconceptions from the Movies

YouTube Link

Mental Floss produced this video highlighting misconceptions in movies. What plot devices and actions commonly seen in movies are unrealistic? Megashocker: quite a few. Who would have thought?! Check out the video. I'll be back later... my car needs its gas tank refilled and I need a cigarette. Nothing like multitasking! -Via Tastefully Offensive


The Largest Sci-Fi Spaceship Size Comparison Chart Ever Created

Spaceships are an integral part of most science fiction franchises, a seriously massive piece of the puzzle that serves as a catalyst for heroic action, a getaway vehicle in times of need, and occasionally as a home for spacefaring characters.

There are so many different ships, in so many shapes and sizes, that it’s hard to keep track of them all, but now you don’t have to devote any more mental energy to the task thanks to this massive size comparison chart created by Dirk Loechel.

It’s officially the largest spaceship chart ever created, an update of Dirk's earlier version which we featured here on Neatorama a year ago, and as far as anyone can tell it's the most complete and up-to-date spaceship chart in the universe.

Don't look at it too closely for too long, or it might put stars in your eyes!

To see an enlarged version of the chart click here (double click on magnifying glass at link for full zoom)

-Via Sploid


Do You Recognize This Mime?

(Images Via Daniel Sorine)

In the summer of 1974 a young photographer named Daniel Sorine was out shooting photos in Central Park, New York when he came across two rather compelling mimes.

He began to snap away as the duo went about their mimey business, but it wasn't until 35 years later that Daniel realized he had captured images of a then unknown comedian named Robin Williams.

Here's what Daniel has to say about that fateful shoot:

“What attracted me to Robin Williams and his fellow mime, Todd Oppenheimer, was an unusual amount of intensity, personality and physical fluidity,” Sorine tells us. “When I approached them with my Pentax Spotmatic they allowed me to invite them into my camera instead of me having to chase after them.”

According to one commentor hundreds of people saw Robin and Todd perform that summer, because they used to do their act on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue, and yet no one in attendance could have foreseen how iconic this comedian in clown white would become.

-Via PetaPixel


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