(Image: CBS)

Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was an early pick for casting directors, but they took some time to develop the character. Although the character is a Frenchman, the English actor played the role with a more neutral accent.

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While a guest on the CBS talk show The Talk, Stewart says that at the beginning of the show's development, the directors wanted him to speak with a French accent. Skip to the 0:58 mark to hear Stewart present the opening narration of the show with a delightfully overwrought French accent.

Then continue watching to learn about Stewart's experiences getting a urinary catheter.

-via Blastr

Stopping for second breakfast at a Starbucks, a customer drew this richly detailed and precise map of Middle-Earth on his cup. Redditor Carpe_Natem (that’s Latin for “seize the buttocks”) was on hand to shoot photos of the wonder. Where should we go first?

-via Foodiggity

(Photo: Farm Collector)

Alpha Ag Inc., a family-owned business in Illinois, makes low-tech but effective farming equipment. It’s known for its line of horse treadmills. They give horses a good workout, but they’re made to provide energy for practical tools. We’ve previously seen a horse treadmill powering a log splitter. That’s only one of many uses that Alpha Ag has developed for its horse treadmills. The company also makes grinders, water pumps, and washing machines. Most importantly, Alpha Ag make ice cream churns, which are a great idea for a hot day.

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-via Modern Farmer

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There comes a time in every man’s life when he must wear pants. It is not a good time, but it is inevitable. Slide them on.

We’ve previously seen a man put on pants without using his hands. But he was rather acrobatic in the process. Let’s face it, he was just showing off. YouTube user ThePurplePanzy is foregoing his hands for a good reason: they’re full of baby.

This is Level 2 Dad Skill. At Level 3, you tie a necktie while holding a baby.

-via Huffington Post

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Hamsters appear to be able to stuff vast amounts of food inside their cheeks—even more than you can! How? This clip from the British television series Wild at Heart explains.

The hamster’s cheek pouches are huge. They extend all the way to its hips. You can see them fill up through x-ray images. And since the hamster doesn’t secrete saliva, the food remains undigested. 

Did you recognize the voice of the narrator? It’s David Tennant, the actor who played the Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who.

-via Daily of the Day

Hippopotami are adorable creatures that can swallow you whole and kill 3,000 people a year. When they play Hungry, Hungry Hippos, they’re craving your flesh, not marbles.

David Jackson and his son Craig learned that while on a tourist boat in the Chobe River in Botswana. Despite its bulk, the hippopotamus could dash across the river underwater during its charge.

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-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

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The Local news service journeyed to Umeå, a city in northern Sweden. There, a correspondent learned how to say "yes" in the local dialect of Swedish: purse your lips and suck in air for a moment. One native described it as the sound of sucking hard on a mint in your mouth.

I love it! We should adopt this word into American English.

-via 22 Words

Snow White

Amrit Grewal is a wedding photographer in Vancouver. Working with a bridal gallery that specializes in Indian couture, he created scenes of 9 Disney princesses for South Asian Bride Magazine. The result is a beautiful mixture of Disney imagery and Indian styles. You can see more photos in the series at BuzzFeed, including pictures of Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, and Jasmine.

Pocahontas

-via Walyou

People in Japan love cantaloupe, where last year one lovely pair of melons sold for $17,500. Hokkaido, the northernmost of the large islands of the Japanese archipelago, is particularly well known for its cantaloupe. When Casey Baseel of Rocket News 24 visited, he saw this simple and delicious dessert on sale. It consists of nothing more than soft serve ice cream and sliced cantaloupe served in its rind. I can almost taste it though the computer screen!

(Photos: Ben Zurawski)

Long before there were smartphones or even animated .gif files (like the one below) on desktop computers, there were flip books. It's an old art form that Ben Zurawski continues today. He's an artist who specializes in the field. Pay him $400 and he'll make you a custom 15-second scene that you animate by flipping between your fingers.

Zurawski is also a collector of flip books from ages past and all around the world. He owns about 1,000 of them. Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly examined his collection and wrote a history of the medium. It emerged in the 1860s in Britain. During the Twentieth Century, companies often gave them away as promotional items, such as this chewing gum ad that shows two boxers in a match.

(Image: Nation States)

Have you ever visited Kyrzbekistan? You should. It's a beautiful land with a rich culture and a friendly people. It also doesn't exist, but that shouldn't stop you.

Last week, a New York Times article described Kyrgyzstan, a real nation in central Asia. But it was misspelled as "Kyrzbekistan." The editors eventually corrected the error, but not before the people of the internet had run wild, describing the history, geography, and politics of it. You can find some basic facts about the landlocked nation here.

Kyrzbekistan has its own official Twitter feed, which you can follow to keep up on local news and learn about the Kyzrekistani culture. The nation is diversifying its traditional yak-based economy and encouraging international investment. So if you receive an email from a Kyrzbekistani prince asking for assistance in banking, you should probably take him up on the offer. There may also be an ambassadorship open.

-via Marilyn Terrell

(Photo: Storming Australia)

If you’re not wearing stormtrooper armor right now, you must have a death wish. Scott Loxley was on Wednesday and that’s why he’s still alive.

Loxley is currently walking across Australia in stormtrooper armor to raise money for a children’s charity. Last week, he had just departed the town of Yalboroo, Queensland when a King Brown snake tried to bite him. This deadly predator has the largest venom output of any known snake. Only one thing saved Loxley from its fangs: his armor. ABC News reports:

"He's lunged at me and bit me but the good news is the armour, he bit me in the shin, the armour actually protected me and stopped the bite," Mr Loxley said.

Thankfully, the force of the bite was not enough to penetrate the armour.

"I could feel the teeth on the plastic scraping but the armour actually stopped something," he said.

"So all those people who rag on the old stormtroopers, 'you know, the armour doesn't do this, it doesn't do that' … it stopped the snake bite and probably saved my life today."

-via Dave Barry

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It’s an unusual technique, but completely effective. Michael Del Lewis, a soccer player with McKinney Boyd High School in McKinney, Texas made an unusual throw-in at a recent game against Justin Wakeland High School of Frisco, Texas. He smoothly flipped into his pitch, propelling the ball into the net.

He scored a point because the goalie touched the ball during the throw. Otherwise, Stuff (warning: auto-play) informs us, it would not have counted because the rules of soccer prohibit scoring from a direct throw-in.

The game ended in a draw with a final score of 1 to 1.

-via Yababoon

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He cannot fly, shatter walls with his fists, or shoot lasers out of his eyes. But Garbage Man is just the hero that this little boy needs.

If what we have seen at Neatorama over the past few years is representative of a trend, then there is a Thai tradition of producing sweet and endearing commercials that emphasize kindness, mercy, and generosity. We’ve previously seen a mobile phone ad about giving to those in need. Thai Life, an insurance company, has produced several commercials in the genre, including ones about the power of music and continuous acts of kindness. This one from that company tells the story of a boy and the hero he wants to become.

-via American Digest

Attention "young ladies, spinsters and widows": this book is for you! You can read this entire book at Flashbak, so get ready to take notes.