An Avenger Gets Recognized

Forgive me for not recognizing the character being recognized here, but I'm not really up on Marvel characters. I'm pretty sure this is Natalia Romanoff, otherwise known as Black Widow, a founding member of The Avengers. This comic from Dorkly is an update of a similar comic from three years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Black Widow has become the Rodney Dangerfield of comic book superheroes. -via Geeks Are Sexy


110+ Years Of Damrak, Amsterdam As Seen Through A Store Window

The Damrak is the center of the action in Amsterdam- it's the first street most visitors see as they exit Amsterdam Central Station, it's synonymous with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and it's one of the liveliest streets in town.

It's where both tourists and locals alike meet to take in a sidewalk show, go shopping or simply hang out and do some people watching, the heart of a city known for its warmth and beauty.

Award winning illustration team Job, Joris & Marieke created this fun animated short called "PASSING BY" to show us what 100+ years of life on Amsterdam's busiest street looks like from the window of the De Bijenkorf department store. It's almost like being there in person!

PASSING BY - 100+ years of Damrak, Amsterdam from Job, Joris & Marieke on Vimeo.

-Via Laughing Squid


How Many Calories Winter Olympians Consume

As you can see from this chart, the events of the Winter Games have widely varying energy requirements. Cross country skiers have a long way to go without the aid of gravity. Yeah, cross country skiing has hills, but you have to go up as much as down. They also have to battle hypothermia in their time-consuming races. But other sports mean cutting back on food, beieve it or not.

Ski jumpers, for example, are at the very low end of the spectrum, eating as little as 1,300 calories per day.

“They come from a large height, come down, and fly as far as they can, so they have to weigh extremely light. The lighter you are, you fly farther,” said Susie Parker Simmons, one of two senior sports nutritionists with the United States Olympic Committee.

These men and women typically weigh up to 10 or more pounds less in the days before competition compared to their typical bodyweight, so that means restricting their calories to eat even less than their bodies might burn. Ditto for figure skaters, who need to ensure they’re light and agile enough to jump and glide across the ice.

Events also differ in the type of diet they require: protein or carbs? Find out what Olympics athletes eat to prepare for the Winter Games at Vox. -via Digg

(Image credit: Christina Animashaun/Vox)


The World's Largest Snow Labyrinth Opens In Poland

Hedge mazes are often quite beautiful, and they can be fun and relaxing to explore, and even though corn mazes are a bit corny they're equally fun to wander around in, even when you get lost so long the crows start to circle.

But no man-made maze is as cool as Snowlandia, because it's the world's largest labyrinth made of snow!

The Snowlandia Zakopane park was first constructed at the Zakopane resort in Poland in 2015, and this winter they went big and ended up building the largest snow labyrinth in the world, which covers 2500 square meters.

Here's a promo video that takes you inside the labyrinth and around the amazing Zakopane resort, a place that looks like loads of wonderful winter fun!

(YouTube Link)

See more photos from Snowlandia at design you trust


The Incinerator House

In 1939, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, erected a huge brick incinerator to dispose of the city's trash. It was only in operation for a year before they passed an ordinance prohibiting trash burning within the city limits. So the building was abandoned, unused for decades. Nature took over, until the building was barely visible. In 1979, artist Ron Fleming discovered it.

Fleming spent several months trying to persuade city officials to auction the building, and they finally did a year later -- without notifying Fleming.

"They only received one bid from a man who put in $500 just to tear it down for the bricks," he said.

Fortunately, Fleming was able to persuade the city to reject the bid and auction the building again in 1981. This time, he won with a $5,400 bid.

"I took a shot in the dark on the price," he said. "I had no idea what it was worth."

Fleming and his wife went to work making the incinerator a home and a glorious piece of art. The building, now on the historical register, has plenty of light, open spaces, and modern amenities, while still retaining its historical quirkiness. After his wife died, Fleming decided to sell his masterpiece. The Incinerator House can be yours for $275,000. See a gallery of images at the real estate listing. It has four stories, 14 rooms, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. And look at the size of those chimneys!  -Thanks, hearsetrax!


Jack Black Singing K-Pop = South Korean Game Show Gold!

Jack Black is an entertainer extraordinaire-he sings, plays guitar, dances, writes music, plays roles both comedic and dramatic, plus he's one hell of an interview, which is why he's constantly invited to go on shows all over the world.

But Jack's musical and comedic skills in particular are why the South Korean game show Infinite Challenge asked him to be one of their celebrity guests, and his spot-on imitation of a K-Pop song ensured he'll be asked back.

(YouTube Link)

-Via Geeks Are Sexy


10 Things You Didn’t Know about Half Baked

The 1998 comedy Half Baked starred Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, and Guillermo Díaz as roommates who spend all their free time getting high. One of them is jailed for unwittingly killing a police horse, and the rest scheme to raise his bail, which leads to comedy shenanigans. Critics panned the film, but Half Baked sold enough tickets to more than double its production budget, and has grown into a cult favorite twenty years later. There's more to learn about Half Baked.

10. Dave Chapelle wasn’t happy with the final cut.

He stated that the version that he helped to write was a lot funnier and that what came out was more like a weed movie for kids.

9. From the time the script was bought to when the film was released was only seven months.

That’s a very short amount of time which means that filming had to have been going fairly quickly.

You'll want to check out more trivia about Half Baked at TVOM.


Feed Your Head Some Sven Stoffels Cartoons And Get High On Animated Life

Sven Stoffels is an animator with some serious illustration skills and a seriously warped mind, which made him a natural fit for the Comedy Central series TripTank, which "showcases animated shorts so volatile they should come with a recommended dosage".

When you tune in to a Sven Stoffels cartoon your head may start to feel a bit funny, or depending on your state of mind (or the mind-altering substances you're on) you may feel even more fine. However, it's worth noting before you watch that neither Sven nor Comedy Central are responsible for what may happen to your psyche after you tune in.

But if you're anything like me then feeding a bunch of dark and ridiculously funny cartoons to your head will make you feel all warm and squishy inside, like a kid who needs to poop but refuses to leave the TV until the commercial break! (NSFW)

(YouTube Link)


LEGO Deadpool on a Rocket

LEGO Ideas is staging a contest called LEGO Moments in Space. The competition is closed for entries now, but you can vote for your favorite. Mark Smiley built a coin-operated rocket ride for his entry. Cute, huh? But then a commenter noticed the resemblance to a scene in the movie a Deadpool video game.

Smiley switched out the rider and now has a tribute to Deadpool in LEGO. The entire project now has a completely different flavor! 

If only he'd thought of this before submitting his entry! -Thanks, Mark!


How Overnight Shipping Works

You may be amazed at how it's possible to ship a package and have it arrive anywhere in the world overnight (for a premium price), but you'll be even more amazed when you see how it's done. FedEx, UPS, and DHL have overnight shipping down to an art. After watching this, I can understand why UPS will pay your college tuition if you work the third shift at their sorting facilities.

(YouTube link)

The sheer volume of packages sent through the three major carriers is staggering, but the system has evolved to get it done. Wendover Productions can take a simple question, go deep into the details, and managed to make even the driest subjects fascinating.


Bizarre Love - Nothing Drives People Batty Like Forbidden Romance


Bizarre Love by Butcher Billy

You can't blame Harley for having a fickle heart, because even though she truly loves Mister J he treats her so poorly it's only natural for her to go looking for comfort in the arms of someone who treats her with love and respect. But of all the people to fall in love with crushing on the Bat seems like the craziest move Harley could make! Of course, Harley is known for her maddeningly madcap nature, and ol' Batsy is one hell of a sexy man, but it's more likely Harley is hooking up with him just so she can get under the Joker's skin...

Show the world how crazy superhuman love can be with this Bizarre Love t-shirt by Butcher Billy, it's the perfect blend of comic book cool, red hot romance and dark clowny intrigue.

Visit Butcher Billy's Facebook fan page, official website and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more crazy cool designs:

Rock Spirited Hello Eye of the Tiger, Man Do U Feel Emoji, Punk?

View more designs by Butcher Billy | More Comic 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!


Jerry Lewis in The Bellboy

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

 Jerry Lewis had just wrapped up filming his latest movie Cinderfella in December of 1959. Everything was fine and dandy until Paramount executives informed Jerry that they wanted Cinderfella to be Jerry's annual summer release. Jerry disagreed and wanted Cinderfella, a fantasy film based on Jerry Lewis playing a male version of cinderella, to be put on hold. Jerry figured Cinderfella was more a film for the holiday season and wanted it released at Christmas time.

Fair enough, said Paramount, but we still will need our Jerry Lewis summer film to placate the kids who are out of school. Jerry promised Paramount head Barney Balaban that he would deliver a replacement film for Cinderfella, a film that would be all ready for the kiddies to view during the summer months.

Jerry was performing at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami at the time. While performing two shows a night, Jerry still managed to churn out a whopper of a script. The original script, which Jerry called The Bellboy, was 165 pages (enough for a two hour movie). It took Jerry eight days to write.

The filming would take place while Jerry was performing his two shows nightly at the Fontainbleu. Jerry (God only knows how) would perform nightly and shoot The Bellboy during the daytime hours. No word on just how he managed to get sleep, or how much sleep Jerry got, during this must-have-been-hectic period.

Perhaps to cut costs, or maybe because of the time factor, most of the other actors in the film were actually performers who happened to be appearing in Miami at the same time as Jerry. The Bellboy began production on February 8, 1960.

Continue reading

Luke Skywalker's Financial Shenanigans

Was young Luke Skywalker a freeloader or a selfless hero? In a point/counterpoint argument, Mike Ryan lays out the argument that while Han Solo owned his ship, no matter how he acquired it, Luke took advantage of the Rebel Alliance in using an X-wing or two as his own personal conveyance.

In The Empire Strikes Back – after Luke destroys his snowspeeder and even gets poor Dak killed – instead of heading off with the rest of the Rebel Alliance to the designated meeting point after the evacuation of Hoth, without telling anyone Luke decides to take his Alliance issued X-Wing to Dagobah instead. And then he crashes it into a swamp. Now, look, I know what you’re thinking, Um, Luke is a hero, I bet he gets some leeway. So, try this out: the next time you land some big account at work, or really come through in the clutch that results in your company profiting in some kind of way, go take one of your work’s company cars without asking and drive it into a swamp and see what happens. There is no way your boss will say, “Well, Johnson over there did land the Dubois account, I guess we can let this whole thing about the company car and the swamp go.”

But there's another way to look at it. Commenter DarthBile laid out a counter-argument and refuted each point of Ryan's position.  

Finally, we have to understand that there was a reward given to both Han and Luke for saving Princess Leia. We see Han loading up the Falcon with supplies and credits to go pay of Jabba the Hutt. My guess is that Luke was offered the same for saving Leia’s life. Maybe he declined the reward in lieu of personal use of an X-Wing? He could have easily entered into a contract with the Alliance for all sorts of privileges. The possibilities are, well, more than you can imagine!

He also goes into the inheritance Luke could have pursued, if he had chosen to, including Padme's family holdings on Naboo and Darth Vader's accumulated fortune, as well as his uncle's farm. What's an X-wing (or two) compared to all that? Read the rest of the musings on Luke's finances at Uproxx.

Was Luke wrong to use the X-wing for his personal transportation?




Alternate Versions Of The Joker You May Not Know About

The Joker is one of the most enduring characters in the history of comic books, and his name is so recognizable most people can picture his grinning face whenever his name is mentioned- even if they've never read a comic in their life.

But to really know the Joker's story you have to study every dimension of the character, including all the different versions from alternate dimensions, shows, movies and extended comic universes, all of which are truly Jokers at heart.

(YouTube Link)

This Screen Rant video exposes 10 Alternate Versions of The Joke You Didn't Know About to the light, including the reality warping Emperor Joker, the madcap wanna-be Duela Dent and the half Joker-half Sabretooth hybrid Hyena.


The Mysterious Murder Case That's Captivated Iceland for Nearly 200 Years

It was the murder of the century in Iceland -but not a recent century. In March of 1828, Agnes Magnúsdóttir alerted the neighbors that the farmhouse where she worked, called Illugastaðir, was on fire.

When the rescuers arrived and extinguished the blaze, the scene was even worse than they expected. Inside, they discovered the bodies of Natan Ketilsson, the farm’s owner, and his guest, Pétur Jónsson. Though the two were badly burned, the rescuers could see it wasn't the fire that had caused their deaths: They'd been murdered. The men had been stabbed 12 times and bludgeoned with a hammer before the fire had been set with shark oil.

The authorities quickly arrested both Agnes and Illugastaðir’s other maid, Sigríður Guðmundsdóttir, as well as a young man named Friðrik Sigurdsson. Although the trio's motives were murky, local gossips suspected the crime had something to do with their romantic entanglements.

"Entanglements" was the word. Agnes was in love with Natan, who loved a married woman in a lengthy and public affair. But Natan also slept with 15-year-old Sigríður, which made Agnes jealous, and who knows what Friðrik thought of all that. Anyway, the case ended with two beheadings, which were the last executions in Iceland. All these years later, there are still many questions surrounding the murders that will never be answered. Read the story as we know it at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Ragnachar)


Email This Post to a Friend
""

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More