Next generation space travel is closer to reality with the Ares 1-X rocket making its debut this week. The Constellation Program's centerpiece is supposed to be the rocket that launches Orion, the ship that will take a...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/nasa-unveils-moon-rocket/Photo: Jimmy McBride Artist Jimmy McBride makes quilts inspired by stunning astronomical photographs, such as this depiction of galaxy M64. It's currently on display at the City Quilter, a quilt shop in New York City...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/space-themed-quilts/Researchers at Western Washington University wanted to test how alert cell phone users were of their surroundings compared to the general population. So they dressed a student as a clown and had him ride his unicycle ar...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/unicycle-riding-clown-finds-cell-phone-users-inattentive/Image: Brian Kappel Artist Brian Kappel creates art from an alternate universe where robot aesthetic needs are respected. Beyond obvious propaganda posters like the one above, you can find advertisements catering to...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/the-robot-art-of-brian-kappel/Photo by Alan Jaras Alan Jaras has a creative way of composing his photographs. By focusing a beam of light through transparent, textured materials, and recording that light directly onto 35mm film without the use...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/photographing-light/(YouTube Link) Bojan Nemec of the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia developed an AI-enabled robot that can maneuver on skis without falling over: The laptop control center plans the robot's trajectory, usin...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/skiing-robot/Human beings seemingly really enjoy getting creative with their cruelty, as these (mostly) out of fashion methods of execution illustrate, including the Spanish Tickler: Used to tear open the victim's skin, this w...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/the-15-most-brutal-methods-of-execution-of-all-time/[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRaGZnnepSA][YouTube - Link]Tiny pebble toads have a unique defensive strategy against tarantulas that involves freefalling like a rubber ball. The above footage is from the &qu...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/the-amazing-bouncing-pebble-toad/Move over, Hummer - there's a new bad boy macho car (or masculine overcompensation, your pick) in town. Behold the Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armored car, developed by Russian carmaker RussoBaltique. How b...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/prombron-the-worlds-baddest-suv/If you think a pop-up book is impressive, check this one out: a pop-up diorama of the Kinkaku-ji Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, made entirely out of LEGO blocks! YouTube user talapz created this out of 4,500 bricks...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/lego-diorama-is-an-amazing-pop-up/Saya, a fembot developed by professor Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Tokyo University of Science in 2004 can recognize and respond to human speech well enough to direct customers in the Takashimaya department store, where she...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/saya-the-creepy-fembot-of-japan/Photo: bldgblogFor his thesis project, Thomas Hillier created stunningly detailed papercraft artwork inspired by the woodblock prints of the famous Edo-period Japenese artist Hiroshige. Thomas' project, called The Empero...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/20/the-emperors-castle-by-thomas-hillier/If scientists and police investigators can reconstruct a face from a skull, why can't we figure out what Skeletor looked like before he was a skeleton? David at Ironic Sans went to work, or to be accurate, his wife d...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/forensic-reconstruction-of-fictional-skulls/A few people were lucky enough to be pan pals of a sort with Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh often added sketches or paintings to his letters, to illustrate what he wrote about. BibliOdyssey has a collection of these lett...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/the-van-gogh-letter-sketches/Hit Play or YouTube Link Brad Smith used a program called Lunar Magic to set up his own Super Mario Brothers level, in which he spelled out a message to his girlfriend, Lisa. Then, he got her to play it. Beagle...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/mario-marriage-proposal/(YouTube Link) Parahawking involves skydiving while specially-trained birds of prey swarm around you, including vultures, eagles, and falcons. It's available in Nepal courtesy of a bird rescue group called Himalaya...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/parahawking-skydiving-with-hawks/Tim Quax of ByteMods combined a PC with a coffeemaker to make this Coffee PC case mod. Best of all, the coffeemaker is controlled by software:The relay gets it's power from a molex connector on the power supply; a sm...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/coffee-pc-computer-coffeemaker/A cat named Krillen survived 19 hours in a freezer in Te Kuiti, New Zealand. Sarah Crombie heard a faint meow when she approached the freezer, which hadn't been used since her partner Sid Sisson shut it the night before....
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/cat-in-a-freezer-for-19-hours/Sangbae Kim, a robot designer from MIT, is probably best known to Neatorama readers as the inventor of the Stickybot, a robot that can climb walls with feet modeled after a gecko's sticky feet. He also used the idea of s...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/the-robot-cheetah/During president Richard Nixon's administration, he and his staff compiled a list of political enemies. How well do you know (or remember) this list? Take the challenge in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. My m...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/nixons-enemies-list/(YouTube link) Noble used the opportunity of shooting a zombie movie last spring in order to propose to Claudia. Claudia was willing to help on the movie, but she had no idea the whole thing was staged for her benef...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/zombie-proposal/Rosie the Riveter Bookends (set of 2) - $34.95Here's something quite neat for your bookshelf: a pair of matching Rosie the Riveter bookends, made from heavy-duty stone resin. The bookends, created by Chris Collicott comm...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/19/rosie-the-riveter-bookends/[caption id="attachment_26948" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Still from Blade Runner; Warner Bros. 1982"][/caption] A long time ago they were called robots. That rather pedestrian term evolved into android,...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/top-ten-a-i-characters-redux/Flickr user noblerobinette was delighted with her wedding cake, a zombie scenario created by Mike's Amazing Cakes in Seattle. Even the attendants were modeled after the real people! See more views in her photo stream...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/zombie-wedding-cake/For the past ten years The Helmet Project has been assembling images of football helmets. The current array includes professional teams (American, Canadian, Arena, and others) and NCAA divisions I, II, and III, and eve...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/a-visual-history-of-football-helmets/That's Scottie Roberson, whose nickname is "Racer X" and favorite number is seven. He combined the two for his vanity plate: XXXXXXX. Turns out that decision flagged his car for over $19,000 in parking tickets. Whe...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/vanity-plate-proves-costly/Balloon Fiesta in USAWilly Kaemena took this 360° panorama of the 2009 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Hot air Balloons have certainly gone a long way in terms of shapes. Oh, and as far as I know, no Balloo...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/panorama-of-the-2009-albuquerque-balloon-fiesta/[caption id="attachment_26938" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Photo: AFP"][/caption] If you want the world to listen to your cause, shouting just won't work. You have to get weird. That's what Alice Newstead...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/protests-that-turned-heads/Here's a nifty little gadget sure to get you some attention, should you dare to try it on. Here's a nifty little gadget sure to get you some attention, should you dare to try it on.japan, fox, mood, trend, tail...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/18/mood-tail/This post at The Future of the Cookbook tells how Jell-O became “America’s Most Famous Dessert,” before it was even familiar! Jell-O's early promotional advertising included recipes, recommendations from doctor...
https://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/17/jell-o-and-the-kewpies/
