Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is for heavy metal fans and spelling buffs. An umlaut is those two dots above a letter that find their way into a lot of band names. Can you pick out the correct placement of the...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/17/heavy-metal-umlauts/The "cheeky squirrel," originally posted at National Geographic and made famous by Neatorama's own Upcoming Queue, has now gone viral on the internet. Hundreds of photos, including many famous ones, have be...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/17/insert-the-cheeky-squirrel-into-your-own-photo/The Israeli town of Kirvat Yam is offering a hefty sum to anyone who can provide proof of the existence of the mer-people (meeple?).“Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/17/1-million-for-proof-of-mermaids/As a kid, I couldn't hack at my friends with a real sword, so we used cardboard tubes to fence. Who knew that it was an actual sport? The Cardboard Tube Fighting League has competitions all over the world where peo...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/17/the-cardboard-tube-fighting-league/WebUrbanist has pictures of 61 clever, elegant, or funny wine labels, such the Barossa Grenache pictured above. Perfect for Valentine's Day! Link via The PresurferWine, weburbanist, wine labels...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/17/61-exceptionally-creative-wine-label-designs/(YouTube Link) This faux trailer presents Super Mario Bros. as the classic war movie The Inglorious Bastards (or possibly the new Quentin Tarantino remake). It's called The Inglorious Plumbers and...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/super-mario-bros-as-a-war-movie/It's a rain cap! No, It's an umbrella! No, it's both! The advantages of the UFO Cap Umbrella design is that it doesn't have a handle, so you can fold it up and keep it in your purse or backpack. Since your head holds i...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/the-ufo-cap-umbrella/All of the original information for this gadget is in Japanese, so I can only offer CrunchGear's translation and the better-than-nothing Google Translator. It shoots 200 rubber bands in 10 seconds and takes 10 minut...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/rubber-band-machine-gun-2/(vimeo link) Who knows how much is paper and how much is special effects in this ad made in response to a challenge from Hewlett-Packard. The finished product, named "Invent" is impressive! Created by Matt Robinson an...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/printer-choreography/I'm sure if I asked you what country do you think haggis originated from, you'd say Scotland. Well, that would be wrong. In fact, haggis was invented by the English. Food historian Catherine Brown has discovered somet...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/haggis-is-not-scottish/Beloved of many, that famous icon of Britishness, the Mini, celebrates its fiftieth birthday this month. This is the story of one of the most influential cars in history, from conception to its final British*/e...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/the-mini-turns-50/For most part of the year, the Caño Cristales river in Colombia is just like any other river in the world. But when the season is just right, it transforms into the most beautiful river in the world:During Col...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/the-worlds-most-beautiful-river/Ever wish that itsy bitsy crab you had for dinner were bigger, so that you could eat more of one instead of ordering another dish? Why not order a coconut crab, a Tasmanian giant crab or a Japanese spider crab? Who know...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/7-giant-versions-of-everyday-critters/[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTeDAst3KA0][YouTube - Link]At 5:54 AM on Wednesday June 14th, 2006 two Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains were involved in a head-on collision. One of the locomotives had a c...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/two-trains-collide-head-on/Russell Neff has an ingenious homemade alarm system that costs him absolutely zero in monthly fees. You too can make one, if you only have a rotary phone ...He removed the receiver of his telephone and dialed all but...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/using-a-rotary-phone-as-a-burglar-alarm/When her mother started to show symptoms of dementia because of Alzheimer's, Penny Garner never imagined that she would one day spearhead a radical new way to treat people with dementia. In dementia, patients have l...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/a-new-way-to-treat-dementia/[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5igku_kGk][YouTube - Link]The Kenyan honeyguide bird has an unusual and very remarkable behavior: it engages in an interspecies collaboration with humans to locate African bee co...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/why-honeyguide-birds-talk-to-humans/[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hwmhIvZXJ0][YouTube - Link]Where else but in Japan do you see the ultimate combination of robot and ramen? Instead of (puny) human chefs, a restaurant in Japan has programmed indu...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/bot-can-cook-ramen-bots-cook-the-perfect-bowl-of-noodle/If you're lost in Naples, look for the helpful guides in the yellow vests. They can reorient you, escort you through dodgy neighborhoods and advise you on foiling pickpockets. What gives their advice such authority is th...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/ex-con-tour-guides/They earn millions playing pro sports and doing product endorsements, yet consider these startling statistics:Similar to lottery winners, with no financial prowess or discipline, most pro athletes go completely broke...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/why-do-pro-athletes-almost-always-go-broke/In 1940, Hitler, incensed by the successful bombing of Berlin by the RAF. ordered the construction of three enormous flak towers to protect the city. Soon afterwards, this idea quickly spread around Germany. Co...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/16/flak-towers-the-continuing-legacy-of-the-luftwaffe/Granted, it's not as useful as the USB missile launcher, but this 150x microscope could come in handy around the office. It's currently available only in Japan, so you may have to content yourself with the missile l...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/15/usb-microscope/The Steam Boat Willy, a hovercraft powered only by pedal power, was built by Chris Roper and his friends at a University of London flight club. Weighing in at only 56 pounds, its lift fan can produce 17 c...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/15/a-human-powered-hovercraft/An advertising mistake will costs thousands of euros for the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Venice, Italy. An online advertisement posted a room price as one-hundredth of a euro per night instead of 150 euros ($213). Before the a...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/15/one-cent-hotel-rooms-in-venice/I've had some fun today with this generator that marries random Twitter updates with the graphics from Dinosaur Comics. The generator was created by Idefex, who enlarged upon an idea from Bing. Hit the link, then refre...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/15/dinosaur-twitter/Legendary musician Bob Dylan had a brush with the police last month in New Jersey. Long Branch police officer Kristie Buble responded to a call about an "eccentric-looking old man" in a residential neighborhood. Buble ap...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/15/bob-dylan-picked-up-by-police/Looking for something delicious and creepy? Try these fantastic brain cupcakes. The flavor sounds blissful, combining chocolate brains, raspberry cake and cream cheese frosting. If only they posted the recipe. Lin...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/14/brain-cupcakes/Better Business Bureau employee Kelvin Collins wanted to learn more about diploma mills and make a point about their uselessness, so he helped his cat Oreo receive a high school diploma from a diploma mill high school....
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/14/cat-with-a-high-school-diploma/The Panzerbike is a German-built motorcycle with the engine of a T-55 tank inside. That's a diesel V12 with 620 HP. The bike is 19 feet long, 9 feet wide, and weighs nearly 5 tons. Actually, it's more like a tract...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/14/a-motorcycle-with-a-tank-engine/It's like a bear skin rug, but with a human. Artist Chrissy Conant made this self-portrait: "Chrissy Skin Rug” represents my relationship to my parents. The rug is a silicone rubber cast of my bare skin. I pos...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/08/14/human-skinned-rug/
