Remember when buying a box of sugary cereal meant there was a free toy inside? Remember your brother spilling cereal all over the kitchen to get the prize, and then your siblings would fight over it? It still happens, but those prizes are fairly rare these days, limited to special movie premieres or something. The premiums began to appear in cereal boxes in 1948 and were often disappointing, but some were surprisingly cool. Mr. Breakfast compiled a list ranking the 50 best cereal box prizes, and some of them make me wish my parents had bought sugary cereal. Coming in at #15:

In the 1950s, Wheaties cereal offered a snazzy little 2-inch high microscope with an adjustable focusing lens designed by General Scientific Corp. "Kids! Explore the Wonders of Nature with your 6 Power Microscope Free in this Box! Magnifies objects to 6 times normal size. See things invisible to the naked eye on leaves, flowers, insects (and) rocks."

Then I remembered that my dad was a science teacher and we had a full-size microscope. Here's #5, from 1989 or 1990:

To have a send-away offer to get a watch from a cereal wasn't unusual, but to have a working watch actually inside the box was very exciting for kids. To make matters even more incredible, it didn't display just the time. It could also show the date! From what we could find looking at pictures, there were as many as 8 different styles available over a couple years. The best ones had the Honey-Comb logo and graphic interpretations of the cereal pieces.

Yeah, you can imagine that toys containing batteries didn't last long considering the expense, but they have resurfaced as recently as 2008. Check out the list of the top 50 cereal box prizes for a walk down memory lane or a glimpse at what you missed out on. -via Fark

The calm waters off of Puerto Madryn, Argentina are famous for the many visits of southern right whales. UPI tells us that tourists flock there during whale watching season, which runs from May to December. So far, there have been 1,600 sightings of these majestic leviathans this year.

One paddleboarder got a very close look at one. In the perfectly calm waters, a whale approached and looked at the human for a few minutes. Then he gave the back of the board a push with a fin, submerged, and left.

The human, Analia Giorgetti, tells BBC News that she wasn’t scared. She describes it as a “magical moment” that coincidentally occurred on her birthday, so it was a birthday present from the whale.

-via Lawrence Everett

Last month, a giant model of the Moon decided to make a run (or more accurately, roll) for it.

The inflatable Moon was for a local Moon festival celebration, which took place during the full harvest Moon in September. It broke free of its anchor and was blown down the street by the wind as two hapless officials ran after it.

According to The Guardian, this wasn't the first time the Moon went rogue. A similar model blew away in 2016, when strong winds due to Typhoon Meranti caused it roll over cars in the streets of Fuzhou.

スペインの画家セルギ・カデナスの作品、見る角度によって老化していく人生を表したアートが凄い…pic.twitter.com/mXOgMXWvNY

— 最多情報局 (@tyomateee) October 9, 2021

Move from one direction to another and you’re looking at a completely different subject. Sergi Cardenas, a painter from Spain, has become famous for his shifting paintings. The young become old, people change genders, or one person is swapped with another.

Artsy asserts that Cardenas taught himself this amazing skill. He uses a pastry piping bag to apply long, thick lines of paint that serve as boundaries between the two different images on a single canvas. This practice, Indie88 explains, is called “lentricular art.” Cardenas adopted it when he took up painting at the age of 30.

This was not, though, Cardenas’s first foray into the art world. He was raised in it. Cardenas’s family has, for three hundred years, operated Ferros d’Art Cadenas, a decorative iron work foundary. Cardenas is a recognized master of that craft. But, as you can see, he wasn’t bound to it.

-via @sanka_kamaru

🍔 What would fast food mascots look like if they were stars in their own action packed animated series? Illustrator Coran Kizer Stone or Kizerilla re-imagined your favorite fast food mascots as warriors. Who do you think would win? Keep in mind that Taco Bell won the Franchise Wars.

🕹️ From kanji characters to playing card to video games: here's the evolution of Nintendo logo.

🍽️ A plate found in a drawer fetched a whopping $1.7 million at auction. BRB checking our junk drawer!

🚗 Here's how to save your car in a flood: put it in a giant waterproof Ziploc bag.

🦑 A cartoonist who never watched the Netflix series decided to draw Squid Game.

🚻 You'll never guess who just walked out of the public restroom.

View more neat posts over at our new Picto network of sites: Pop Culturista, Infinite 1UP, Homes & Hues, Pictojam, Supa Fluffy and Laughosaurus. Please check 'em out 🙂

Halloween will be here in three weeks, and the theaters are full of horror films. But you don't want to go out. The TV schedule is full of horror films, but you don't want to spend the time. Why bother when you can get everything in them in about a minute?

Alasdair Beckett-King (previously at Neatorama) presents a horror movie about a haunted house that has everything that every haunted house movie has, except maybe the long slow buildup that you already know from seeing all the other haunted house movies. There, now you've saved yourself a couple of hours. If you were expecting a surprise twist, you may notice that the husband and wife are the same person. Surprise!

This "Illusory Red" color optical illusion, tweeted by experimental psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka (previously on Neatorama many, many times) shows two flags of his school, Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto, Japan.

Overlaid on top of the image are bars of solid cyan, but your brain can still interpret the red "R" in the white flag on the left and the red background of the flag on the right.

But are you SURE those are red colors? Zoom in (or let me do it for you below) and you'll see that there's not a single red pixel in the "Illusory red" color optical illusion image.

In 2003, Starbucks introduced its Pumpkin Spice Latte. It became an enormous sensation, even after we found out that there is no pumpkin at all, or even butternut squash, in the drink. The entire flavor came from the spices, a combination which cooks have known as pumpkin pie spice for a long time. It's a blend of flavors we adore because 1. it tastes good, 2. it's associated with autumn, which we love, 3. it has no real connection with Halloween, so it can be enjoyed through the other holidays and by those who don't do Halloween.

You may get the idea that the pumpkin spice craze has gotten out of hand, but even when it dies back, and it will sooner or later, we will still consume the flavor combination one way or another. Possibly in a pie. Read a history of pumpkin spice at Moss and Fog. -via Nag on the Lake

Every year, Tom BetGeorge of Tracy, California, pulls out all the stops to entertain us with his Halloween and Christmas light displays. You can find an archive of them here. These public performances are all charity fundraisers for McHenry House, a local family shelter, which goes a long way in assuaging the neighbors during the stressful holiday season. It's a challenge for BetGeorge to impress us a little more each year. This year's Halloween show features "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine to accompany the final scene of The Matrix. Another part of the show gives us "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana.

The spotlights on top direct us in our head banging. The scowling pumpkins give the song an appropriate snarl to take us back 30 years to the height of the grunge era, when the album Nevermind was released.

If you are nearby, you can drive through and see the Halloween show live. Check the schedule for this year's performances.

I’m so sad no one outside of Nova Scotia - for the Most part - gets to experience moon mist ice cream pic.twitter.com/CuMxMjqnJH

— Courtney Danielle 🦔 (@WeAreTheFoxes_) June 20, 2021

What does Nova Scotia, Canada taste like? To find out, you'll need to go there and try Moon Mist, an ice cream favor that is iconic of that province. Gastro Obscura describes it as a mixture of bubblegum, banana, and grape. The origins of the flavor are shrouded in myth and legend, but it probably started in the 1980s. Although Moon Mist can be found outside of Nova Scotia, it’s a favorite there and considered one of the gastronomical delights of it.

If Moon Mist is available here in Texas, I don’t know where. I could easily combine banana and bubblegum ice cream flavors, but, apparently, grape ice cream is very unusual.

This unusual cloud formation lasts only a brief period of time, which is why it is so rare to see one in the sky. Jonathan Belles of the Weather Channel calls it a “horseshoe cloud”, which is definitely an appropriate name. Belles explains that sometimes a flat, pancake-like cloud moves over a column of warm air. The warm air punches a hole through the center of the cloud, sending that water vapor higher while the edges remain condensed. Perfect conditions are necessary for one of these horseshoe clouds to form, which is why they rarely last more than 20 minutes.

-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: GerritR

In 1890, jealousy and envy destroyed two brothers. Isaac Sawtelle of Boston served time in prison for rape and assault. When he was paroled, he returned to his hometown to find that his younger brother, Hiram Sawtelle Jr. was running his late father's fruit store and managing his mother's inheritance. Hiram was a responsible man with a wife and children, while Isaac the older brother was an ex-con with nothing.

Isaac had a friend, though. He had met Charles Lewis Blood in prison. Blood had no official training, but he presented himself as a doctor to sell patent medicines. He even sold "oxygenized air" as a cure-all. One might feel a bit of trepidation for consulting "Dr. Blood," but that is neither here nor there. Blood knew about Isaac's predicament, and offered to arrange for the elderly Mrs. Sawtelle's business interests to be put into Isaac's hands for a mere $500. He had a grand scheme that involved kidnapping Hiram Sawtelle's seven-year-old daughter.

If you've seen a few movies, you know that the scheme did not go as planned, and soon police in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire were looking for the missing Hiram and the suspicious Isaac. Read the story of brotherly jealousy that led to murder at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company

My Finances: pic.twitter.com/SasbwqAIRD

— Andrew Hilary but spooky 👻 (@AndrewHilaryUS) October 8, 2021

This is the cutest story you will see today. These kids and their cryptocurrencies!

Andrew Hilary drives an ice cream truck. When a little girl wanted to pay for an ice cream with a blue rock, he couldn't resist. He mentioned that no one should tell his boss, but the viral Tweet that resulted is worth its weight in gold. In the followup comments we find that the rock is plastic and glows in the dark! Speaking of being worth its weight in gold, Hilary has been offered $5 for the rock, and $500 for an NFT of the above picture. I don't think he's going to part with the rock.  

Other commenters admired his shirt and noted he could enter a Seth Rogan lookalike contest. A day later, we learn the rest of the story.

The sun is shining, I’ve got one of my best shirts on, and thanks to a kind stranger who saw my tweet and venmoed me, I just got to give a bunch of kids free ice cream!
(Note: do not send me money, i am super irresponsible😅) pic.twitter.com/lJzwqgLgJh

— Andrew Hilary but spooky 👻 (@AndrewHilaryUS) October 9, 2021

-via Fark

Ze Frank is back with a True Facts video that we know he's been collecting facts and jokes about for a long time. This one is about the most horrible killer animal on the planet: the Moscow-ito, er, the mosquito. We hate them because they are both annoying and dangerous, but they have a rather unique physiology and lifestyle that we should know about. Even the larval stage gives us mosquitos that breath through their butts and cannibalize their neighbors. And then there's the jokes. Anyway, that's why this video is longer than a normal Ze Frank video, but well worth your time, even if you have to watch it in installments. The visual horror show starts after the four-minute mark, when the adults emerge to spread their misery. By the time it when gets to the biting part, you should be ready for it.   

Stunning installations can be seen by visitors to the  Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. There are currently 40 artist-built environments that are dedicated to showcasing how an artist embodies and expresses their history, place, culture, ideas, and imagination. The environments vary, from Emery Blagdon’s suspended kinetic assemblages made of sheet metal to Nek Chand’s troupe of more than 150 mosaic figures, so visitors can enjoy different spectacular sights to behold! A video tour of the preserve can be seen here!

Image credit: John Michael Kohler Arts Center