The maps of Middle-Earth J.R.R. Tolkien created for The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings are among the first examples of a fantasy author creating original maps to go along with their novels.

These iconic maps are elegantly simple, with just enough so the reader's imagination can fill in the rest and beautiful hand-drawn lettering that has become an intrinsic part of the world of Tolkien. 

Since Tolkien is an intrinsic part of UK history illustrator Dan Bell found a natural connection between Tolkien's maps and the map of the UK's national parks, so he is reimagining the UK parks maps in Tolkien's style:

To start his maps, Bell says that he works from an open source Ordnance Survey map, and begins drawing by hand. “I try to emulate his typeface as closely as possible, but have modified his mountains in an effort to develop a little bit of my own style.” He adds in additional details, such as forests, Hobbit holes, towers, and castles.

Presently, Bell has adapted a handful of the UK’s national parks, as well as places like Oxford, London, Yellowstone National Park, and George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, and has begun offering them for sale on his site. Once he’s done with England’s parks, he says that he’ll move on to converting the national parks of Wales, Scotland, and eventually, more of the US’s parks.

-Via The Verge

For her latest weird tech project, Simone Giertz teamed up with William Osman to modify her tiny electric car, Cheese Louise. They turned it into a computer mouse. The aim is to draw a picture on a computer screen by driving the car.

(YouTube link)

What you might need to know is that Giertz only recently got her driver's license, and the car is around 30 years old. So the picture isn't all that much, but the project was a success and the video is entertaining. Osman's video about the project goes into more detail about how they did it, and it's funny, too, but longer.  

(YouTube link)

You should also watch the video about how Giertz came to own such a ridiculous car.  -via The Awesomer

See more projects from Simone Giertz.

Ice skating has been around for at least 5,000 years, but for most of that time, it was a method of transportation. The first competitive skating was racing. Figure skating is called that because in the beginning, it was all about making a perfect figure 8 on the ice. There were also some rudimentary "tricks" for show-offs, like jumping over things. Then came Jackson Haines, who is now considered the father of figure skating.

The person credited with developing the artistic side of skating in the late 19th Century is Jackson Haines, an American skater and dancer from New York. “Haines saw in skating tremendous theatrical and artistic possibilities,” Adams writes. “Haines experimented with a form of skating inspired by dance. He fit his skating to music, developed new moves (including the sit spin, which for many years was called the Jackson Haines spin, and invented a one-piece skate.”

But his style and innovations did not gain much traction in the U.S., which was more taken with the English style. So Haines went to Continental Europe to see if he could do any better there.

He did well, indeed. And the style he promoted is the reason why we watch young Olympians do amazing things in PyeongChang. Read about Jackson Haines at Deadspin.

(YouTube link)

Vikki Gasco makes a living as a ventriloquist. She sat down talk to several young children and explain what she does. Most of the kids had no idea, but they really got into the idea that you can play with puppets as a job! Then they all wanted to try it out. This is really cute, thanks to their enthusiasm. -via Laughing Squid

Disney is doing their best to milk the Star Wars franchise for all it can. We are looking forward to Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: Episode IX, the Kenobi film, a new trilogy of films by Ryan Johnson, another trilogy by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and a slew of TV series for Disney's streaming service. The Hard Times took this nonsense and ran with it, plotting a new Star Wars film for every year through 2361. They include documentaries, musicals, pornography (Porgasm! 2284) and origin stories for every character in the galaxy. Here's a sample.

228. Uncle Owen’s Revenge (2299)
229. Honey, I blew up the Death Star (2300)
230. Kylo Leonard Part 6 (2301)
231. Gone with the Mace Windu (2302)
232. Untitled Movie Set in Jedi Ghost Planet Starring a Yoda Puppet (2303)

At this rate, we shouldn't be surprised that Jar Jar's dad gets his own film (2022). I might skip that, but I am intrigued by Viva Los Vader (2038). I think Moisture Farmers’ Almanac (2032) might be a snooze. You can see them in classic Star Wars opening crawl form or read them at The Hard Times.  -via Metafilter

You've seen wiener dog racing, but you've never seen it like this! The Daytona 500 race is coming up, and the dachshunds Crusoe and Oakley are getting into the spirit. Watch them race around in their little wiener dog cars!

(YouTube link)  

See more of Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund in previous posts. -via Tastefully Offensive

Apple is all about beautiful design, and the company's new "spaceship" headquarters building in Cupertino, California, has been hailed as a work of art. The huge work spaces are a mix of open floors plans and not-so-private offices, separated by glass walls. The design is meant to facilitate collaboration. That doesn't mean there aren't problems.

Surrounding the building, located in Cupertino, California, are 45-foot tall curved panels of safety glass. Inside are work spaces, dubbed “pods,” also made with a lot of glass. Apple staff are often glued to the iPhones they helped popularize. That’s resulted in repeated cases of distracted employees walking into the panes, according to people familiar with the incidents.

Some staff started to stick Post-It notes on the glass doors to mark their presence. However, the notes were removed because they detracted from the building’s design, the people said.

The idea for the glass pods is credited to Steve Jobs. -via Digg

(Image credit: Flickr user 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, cropped)

How do you make a dance team's routine much cooler? Put a talented dancer in an animal costume! We learned that watching the cheerleader who wore a T-rex costume for Halloween. So watch the BYU Cougarettes get upstaged by the mascot Cosmo Cougar at a football game last fall.

(YouTube link)

They're all excellent dancers, but who can resist a dancing wild cat in football uniform? -via reddit

Any old tent will work when you're staying at a campground, which is why most people buy a cheaper tent that's rugged enough to use multiple times but not so sturdy it can stand up to the harshest elements.

And the truth is there are very few tents out there that can actually withstand extreme temperatures and environments, and from the look of it none of them can compare to The North Face's newest tent- the Geodome 4.

The Geodome 4 is made to be used in the harshest conditions and most rugged terrains on Earth, plus one tent can hold four people so you don't have to "rough it" alone:

With its dual-layer, water-resistant exterior, the ‘Geodome 4’ was designed to resist wind speeds of up to 60mph. The tent sleeps four persons and offers enough clearance so that you can stand up inside.

Composed of five main poles and one equator pole, the dome tent is surprisingly easy to assemble, which is good news should those horrendous elements that you’d want to hide from be present.

For now though, the tent is only slated for availability in Japan.

-Via DesignTAXI

Reading this comic, I had to nod, yeah, yeah, I'll always remember how I felt when I heard "It Don't Come Easy," "Love Her Madly," or "Treat Her Like a Lady," which are all songs from 1971. That's the year I turned 13. Then I got to the end of the comic and suddenly I feel so very, very old. They didn't even call it middle school back then. This comic is from the young Québécois geeks at CommitStrip.

Batgym by MIKELopez

Dealing with gym rats and their attitudes gets really old really fast, as the power lifters waddle and squawk like penguins, the power cardio crowd hops around like cats and two-faced power trainers try to convince you to part with your hard earned money. But Bruce doesn't let Arkham's a-holes get him down, he just keeps his bat-eye on the bat-prize and lets his heroic bat-muscles power through another workout- for justice!

Get in shape the geeky way- while wearing this Batgym t-shirt by MIKELopez, it's a mighty funny way to show love for your favorite classic TV show and keep things light while lifting heavy weights at the gym.

Visit MIKELopez's NeatoShop for more mighty geeky designs:

View more designs by MIKELopez | More Funny T-Shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Some guys try so hard to impress women they end up looking worse than if they'd just been themselves and asked the girl out normally, and the truly desperate think clothes, colognes or potions will get them a date.

The truth is tricks aren't the way to truly win someone's heart, and using magic to manipulate minds will only bring out the wickedness in the people whose minds you tried to warp. But some guys have to learn these lessons the hard way...

(YouTube Link)

Werebeast was created by Welsh animator James Lancett for the Nickelodeon International Animated Shorts Program 2014/15, and even though James hasn't turned it into a series yet he certainly has a good foundation!

In the word association game Robot Mind Meld, the object is to come up with the same word as a robot in as few steps as possible. You each start with a random word, and try to get closer to each other in the next attempt. I got lucky on the first try, as you can see from the three steps pictured. My second attempt landed in Israel, where it became clear there would never be an agreement. After that, I started to get the idea that the robot was not trying to follow me nearly as much as I was trying to follow it. Robots can drive you crazy! Or maybe I was in too much of a hurry. Try the game yourself, and let us know how well you did. -via Metafilter

You know those "professional" portraits you see on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook that make you say "gee whiz, that is one purrrrty picture! That photographer must be a real pro!"?

Well, they're real pro all right- real pro at staging a scene and selling it as a spontaneous situation or some sort of photographic magic.

And once you've seen the behind-the-scenes truths about how these "pro" shots are made, as revealed by Brazilian photographer Gilmar Silva in his series LUGARXPHOTO, you'll be able to enhance your own photo shoots with these pro tricks.

I love all the imaginative ideas pro photographers come up with for baby photos but most of the setups seem like pure torture for the poor little baby. However, after seeing how Gilmar creates these shots I'm totally on board the baby photo train, woohoo!

See Photographer Exposes The 'Truth' Behind Professional Portraits, And It May Surprise You here

Michel de Nostredame is best known today as a prophet, because of his prophecies written in verse. Those verses are so enigmatic that they can be connected to all kinds of historical events, whether he had any insight to them or not. But there was more to Nostradamus: He was a writer, a chemist, an apothecary, and a cook. All those activities came together in a 1552 book called the Traité des fardements et confitures (Treatise on Cosmetics and Jams). The book was full of things he whipped up himself in the kitchen, such as medicines, love potions, and beauty aids.

But other recipes are more recognizable and downright edible. In the Traité, sugar is touted for its ability to preserve fresh fruit, and many of the recipes resemble modern jam and jelly techniques. A recipe for morello-cherry jelly involves fruit cooked until soft enough to strain out the pits and skins, then mixed with sugar. If a dab of the jelly on a plate doesn’t slide around, Nostradamus writes, then it’s ready to be stored.

But at the time, sugar was fabulously expensive. This is probably why Nostradamus writes that several of his sweet concoctions are intended only for nobility or kings. Consider his quince jelly recipe. Nostradamus turns up his nose at those silly enough to peel their quinces before cooking them: The rind and peel, he writes, enhances the jelly. After boiling the fruit, straining it, and adding sugar (taking care not to overcook), the final product has the color of a ruby and is “fit to set before a king.”  

Read about Nostradamus' other recipes from the book at Atlas Obscura.