The Möbius strip table is cool-looking, but it takes forever to dust. I started at one end yesterday and I'm still not done!
Pierre Renart, a furniture designer in Paris, created this endless table. It's made of rosewood over carbon fiber.
-via Fubiz
Jack Packard and Tim Higgins are master athletes in the sport of beer passing.
Yes, beer passing. You haven't heard of beer passing? As the pair demonstrated two years ago, it's a serious physical feat. Beer passing isn't just handing someone a beer. You've got to send that beer over great distances using unconventional methods, such as roller skates, rockets, catapults, balloons, shotguns, and golf clubs.
As this demonstration video from Old Milwaukee progresses, their methods get more and more extreme and amazing. Hopefully Packard and Higgins will put together training camps so that people can take up this sport and rise to their level of excellence.
-via 22 Words
Patrick Roche is a poet and a student at Princeton University. He grew up with an alcoholic father whose addiction ultimately killed him. You learn that at the beginning of Roche's poem entitled "21." It provides a timeline of Roche's experience of his father, but told in reverse, from the present day to Roche's earliest memories.
It's simply beautiful.
Roche condenses the pain ingeniously in this presentation of his poem at the 2014 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in Boulder, Colorado. The line at 0:50 is particularly artful.
Yoda
Millennium Falcon
Darth Maul
Dun-Well Doughnuts (warning: auto-sound) in Brooklyn began when friends Christopher Hollowell and Dan Dunbar, after reflecting on an episode of The Simpsons, expressed their dissatisfaction at being unable to easily find vegan donuts in the city. Now they offer over 200 flavors, as well as coffee and ice cream. If you’re vegan, you don’t have to ask “Do you have anything that’s vegan?” Everything in the shop is.
For Star Wars day, they invited the famous Mandalorian baker Boba Fett into their kitchen to show off some of his best donut recipes.
Although I didn’t mean to, I found myself watching and enjoying their introductory video. Hollowell and Dunbar tell an inspiring story of two friends coming together to build a successful business that reflects their values.
-via Fashionably Geek
(Photo: Calgary Stampede)
Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo and cultural festival in Calgary, Alberta. Like some state fairs in the United States, it’s noted for exotic and innovative foods. When it is open this year from July 4-13, visitors will be able to taste at least 32 new foods, including this pizza covered with scorpions. That’s great because spicy food should sting you a little bit.
Other foods include Polish poutine, fried pickle pizza, deep fried Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and crocodile sliders. Yummy!
-via Nerdcore
CORRECTION 5/8/14: Ms. Vasudev has informed me that my description of the history of this program is erroneous. She has been making henna crowns for many years. She worked with Frances Darwin only briefly and no longer does so.
Since 2005, Ms. Vasudev has maintained a San Francisco studio named Henna Lounge.
Some people undergoing chemotherapy wear wigs to cope with their hair loss. But Henna Heals, a creative community headquartered in Toronto, offers an alternate approach. Its artists use henna, a temporary body decoration, to paint beautiful images and patterns on the bald heads of cancer and alopecia patients.
Francis Darwin, a maternity photographer, and Darcy Vasudev, a henna artist, began the project while painting and photographing the bellies of pregnant women. They heard of a cancer patient who had a henna design painted on her head. They took photos of her. Soon, Darwin and Vasudev began offering the service to other people in Toronto and training artists to make henna crowns. Darwin describes the process to Samaritanmag:
The cost of henna crowns depend on the design, but generally they cost $100 and a small travel fee for the artist to get to the client's home. It's a beautiful gift for family members or friends to give as their loved one as a gift. We also put 10 percent of henna crown profits into a fund to assist people who would like a henna crown but can't afford it.
-via Visual News | Photos: Henna Heals
This self-defense tool by Tooto slips over two fingers, creating a small knuckle duster. It’s made of a titanium alloy and weighs under an ounce.
I’m not sure if it’s effective. The spikes are curved inward, rather than toward a target. But Batman is more than just a man in a batsuit--he’s Batman even without it. If you can use a tool shaped like the Batman logo effectively, then you get to be Batman.
-via Dude I Want That
That may seem like a boastful claim, but bear in mind that I watch bizarre videos for a living, so I know of what I speak. Watching this video will make you think that you've accidentally consumed a psychedelic drug--and a lot of it.
There is little information available about this video, presumably because everyone associated with it has attempted to destroy all evidence of it, then changed their identities, and disappeared. But I surmise that during the 1990s, there was a direct-to-video production company called Mystic Fire Video. According to co-founder Sheldon Rochlin, it was "very concerned with the transformation of consciousness, not only through spiritual teaching but through art, music, poetry and film."
That is, of course, why one produce a Hee Haw-like countrified introduction of yoga to children apparently called E-i E-i Yoga. It is also why you would have a cow puppet that teaches you how to breathe and a giant rooster with a Jamaican accent.
It makes complete sense to me--which should probably be worrying. I should have someone drive me to hospital.
-via Daily of the Day
(Photo: zoetnet)
The social dynamics of a luxury goods store can be weird. As we noted two months ago, dressing like a slob at a high-end shop impressed salespeople. That's because the employees assumed that only a rich person would have the confidence to dress that way in public without feeling ashamed.
Unfortunately, you did not wear your old sweatpants to the fancy clothing boutique. You wore simple slacks and a button-down shirt, so the you can feel the heavy eyes of the salespeople on you, judging you as riffraff that rolled in from the local Walmart. They're rude to you.
What is your response? According to a study that will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, you're more likely to buy expensive goods. That's because if the staff subtly tells you that you're not good enough, you may buy more in order to convince the staff that you really are high class. Dr. Darren Dahl of the University of British Columbia, the lead author of the article, explains:
"It appears that snobbiness might actually be a qualification worth considering for luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci," says Sauder Marketing Professor Darren Dahl. "Our research indicates they can end up having a similar effect to an 'in-group' in high school that others aspire to join."
For the study, participants imagined or had interactions with sales representatives – rude or not. They then rated their feelings about associated brands and their desire to own them. Participants who expressed an aspiration to be associated with high-end brands also reported an increased desire to own the luxury products after being treated poorly.
The effect only held true if the salesperson appeared to be an authentic representative of the brand. If they did not fit the part, the consumer was turned off. Further, researchers found that sales staff rudeness did not improve impressions of mass-market brands.
"Our study shows you've got to be the right kind of snob in the right kind of store for the effect to work," says Dahl.
-via Marginal Revolution
(Photo: Shaun Hughes)
Nickel carving is American tradition dating back to at least the Great Depression. Some homeless people of that era carved designs into nickels, then sold them for hopefully more than 5 cents. This is how they became known as "hobo nickels."
In recent years, the craft of nickel carving has revived in popularity. We've seen inventive designs here at Neatorama, such as aliens. For Star Wars day, British artist Shaun Hughes carved the image of a stormtrooper into a vintage nickel.
(Image: Brainy Smurf and Papa Smurf/Warner Bros.)
It's easy when you work for such an intelligent CEO as Alex Santoso or a prudent and thoughtful editor like Miss Cellania. But even if you don't work in a company as well-led as Neatorama, you should put in an effort to suck up to the boss. According to a 1994 study by scholars at Cornell University, your career is more likely to thrive if you flatter your supervisors:
Supervisor-focused tactics...include: agree with your immediate supervisor’s ideas; praise your immediate supervisor on his or her accomplishments; agree with your supervisor’s major opinions outwardly even when you disagree inwardly. Job-focused tactics...include: make others aware of your accomplishments in your job; try to take responsibility for positive events even when you are not solely responsible; arrive at work early in order to look good in front of others.
So being a jerk really helps. Robin Hanson of Overcoming Bias lists other indicators of career satisfaction:
Other things that predicted job success: being married, being on the job many years, working more hours per week, and not having a PhD.
Yes, I can believe those--especially about being married. It makes me happier in general, as well as more settled and focused. It can also change the social dynamics of a workplace.
-via Super Punch
As the Dark Knight was forged in the fires of suffering, so is a batarang forged through fire, force, and skill. Logan Pearce is a blacksmith of great talent and skill. We've previously shown a knife that he forged from a tire iron. Currently, he's making a batarang. Pearce promises to create a video tutorial showing you how to make your own.
Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you. Last week, pancake artist Nathan Shields wowed us with his pancakes that looked just like non-human creatures from Star Wars. His post was enticingly entitled "1," suggesting that there might be a part 2.
Here it is! For this edition, Shields made a space slug, a mynock, a sleen, a tauntaun, a trandoshan, an ugnaught, a wampa, and a bogwing.
On the right, you see William Shatner, the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. On the left you see the famous astronaut Chris Hadfield of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Col. Hadfield was recently commander of the International Space Station, where he gained fame as a science educator, musician, and mustache cultivator.
Col. Hadfield tweeted this photo and wrote, "Spent a day with 1 of my childhood TV heroes. Great delight - @WilliamShatner is a thoughtful & interesting man."
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., an American actor whose work spanned more than 6 decades, died yesterday at the age of 95. Many readers may remember him for his work on the action television shows 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964) and The F.B.I. (1965-1974).
But geeks may remember him best as the voice of Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's guardian and friend, on Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1998). Later, he played the villain William Edgars on Babylon 5 (1994-1998).
Here he is in a classic scene from the Babylon 5 episode "The Exercise of Vital Powers."
Zimbalist played many roles during his life. But his most important were that of husband and father, for which he will be greatly missed:
"We are heartbroken to announce the passing into peace of our beloved father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., today at his Solvang ranch," the actor's daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and son Efrem Zimbalist III said in a statement. "He actively enjoyed his life to the last day, showering love on his extended family, playing golf and visiting with close friends."
-via Glenn Reynolds | Images: Warner Bros., TNT
