Well, this is just fantastic! T-shirt designer extraordinaire Naolito illustrates how Mr. Fantastic is a natural champ at the game of Twister. View his designs over at his official website, Facebook page, Tumblr and deviantArt - then visit his NeatoShop page for more neat T-shirt designs: Link
Your purchase helps support indie artists, who get handsome royalties for each sale, and this blog. If you're a professional artist or T-shirt designer, let's talk! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get your website/FB page featured on the blog.
Night gathers, and now my watch begins. T-shirt designer Wirdou has released another excellent Game of Thrones-inspired design, this time, mashed up with a bit of rock 'n roll.
Visit Wirdou's website, then head on over to his NeatoShop page for more awesome T-shirts. Your purchase helps support the blog and indie artists:
Guys, forget cute puppie - they're messy and poop a lot. Instead, grab a guitar when you're trying to meet women. A new study has proven that women love musicians:
According to the study’s abstract, they enlisted a young man to flirt with 300 women under three different scenarios: holding a guitar case, carrying a gym bag and appearing empty-handed.
Ultimately, the women were much more willing to give him their phone number when they saw the guitar case, “thus suggesting that musical practice is associated with sexual selection.”
Three years before his death, author David Foster Wallace gave a commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. In that speech, titled "This is Water," Wallace explained to the bright-eyed grads what real adult lives are like, and in the process, gave them an invaluable advice on life and a simple yet elegant explanation of the real value of education.
YouTube user The Glossary showcased Wallace's speech in the most interesting 10 minute video clip you'll see today: Link
Venezuela is facing a dire crisis. The economy is in deep doo-doo and the government is now scrambling to wipe out the unexpected problem of ... toilet paper shortage:
First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper.
Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the government says it will import 50m rolls to boost supplies.
That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.
"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in Caracas. "I'm 71 years old and this is the first time I've seen this."
One supermarket visited by the Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.
"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."
Economists blame government price control that caused Soviet Union-like shortages of toilet paper and other basic commodities: Link
Donor egg held by pipette prior to nuclear extraction. Image: OHSU Photos/Flickr
A significant, and undoubtedly controversial, milestone in stem cell therapy was reached yesterday. Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University managed to achieve the Holy Grail of stem cell research: they've cloned a human embryo.
OHSU cell biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov led a team of 23 scientists who methodically culled the lessons learned from stem cell research on amphibians, mice and rhesus monkeys — as well as from the abundant failures of others in the field. They devised a welter of new techniques to use the DNA of a fully formed skin cell in its most primitive embryonic form. [...]
In past efforts to coax such an assemblage of components to life, researchers have burned through dozens of donor eggs without getting any embryos even to the 16-cell stage at which stem cells become a remote possibility.
This time, the researchers said their methods were so efficient that they could create at least one embryonic stem cell line from each batch of eggs donated by 10 female volunteers. In one case, a single donor produced eight eggs of such exceptional quality that researchers were able to derive four embryonic stem cell lines.
Some hailed the development as an important advance in the paving the way to treat a range of diseases, but others feared that it's one step closer to cloning humans.
Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times has the post: Link
If you're tired of being a working stiff and look forward to retirement, here's a study that will spoil your day: according to British think tank Institute of Economic Affairs, retirement is harmful to your health.
The study [...] found that retirement results in a "drastic decline in health" in the medium and long term.
The IEA said the study suggests people should work for longer for health as well as economic reasons. [...]
The study suggests there is a small boost to health immediately after retirement, before a significant decline in the longer term.
Retirement is found to increase the chances of suffering from clinical depression by 40%, while you are 60% more likely to suffer from a physical condition.
The effect is the same for men and women, while the chances of becoming ill appear to increase with the length of time spent in retirement.
Forget towels and bring an EE-3
carbine rifle so we can properly welcome our newest T-shirt artist,
Warbucks Design, to the NeatoShop. Check out his Facebook
page to view his neat-o designs, then head on over to his NeatoShop
page for more: Link
Are you a professional T-shirt designer, artist or illustrator? Get your
tees listed on the NeatoShop and get your website/FB page featured here
on the blog. We've got a great profit sharing program. Email
us to get started!
Mustache-challenged?
Do you feel like less of a man because you cannot grow a proper upper
lipholstery? Fear not! Head over to Turkey, where you can get a mustache
transplant:
The procedure uses a technique called follicle-hair extraction, in
which doctors remove clusters of hair from the more hirsute areas of
the body and implant them along the lip or cheeks to magnify a mustache
or beef-up a beard.
Performed under local anesthetic, the surgery takes around five hours
and can cost up to $5,000, cosmetic surgeons say. Tourism agencies have
begun offering "transplant packages" combining facial-hair
operations with a shopping vacation in Istanbul or beachside retreat
on the Mediterranean coast.
Joe Parkinson of The Wall Street Journal explains: Link
(Image: Fingerstache
from the NeatoShop | View more strange and neat Mustache
items there)
What lies beneath Moscow's most iconic buildings? These clever
print ads are commissioned to promote the Shchusev State Museum of
Architecture in Moscow, Russia. Via Web
Urbanist
The giant inflatable duck, made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman (previously),
was swimming happily in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour until it someone,
or something, committed duckicide:
The 16.5-meter (54 feet) inflatable sculpture mysteriously lost its
mojo overnight, deflated and bobbed lifelessly in Victoria Harbour.
Organizers called an urgent duck crisis meeting early Wednesday and
didn't immediately respond to questions about the misfortunes of the
duck or whether the deflation was part of regular maintenance, as reported
in some local media. A tweet did appear however on the official Harbour
City Twitter account, saying: "The Rubber Duck needs to freshen
up. Stay tuned for its return."
Much later in the day, organizers responded and said it was a planned
deflation. Why it took so long to clarify and why officials had to get
senior management approval to make such a statement seems a little odd
and naturally, this got Hong Konger's busy with the popular pastime
of gossiping.
I smell a cover up! Quick, someone guard the giant
inflatable poo against turdicide.
The clothespin gravestone marked the grave of W. Jack Crowell, who owned
the National Clothespin Company, the last wooden clothespin manufacturer
in the United States (today it produces plastic clothespins and barrettes).
Originally, Jack wanted a giant clothespin with real spring so children
could teeter on it.
View 9 more of the world's most unusual graves over at Oddee: Link
Here's the perfect bait to catch the elusive Loch Ness monster. Behold the Lox-Ness Monster (Nessie can't possibly resist!), made by Sandwich Monsters. 'Tis but one of 17 fantastic photos of wonderful sandwich creations you can gawk at over at Instagram: Link or checkout the gallery over at Walyou
Do you think that just because you're a non-smoker staying in non-smoking
room in a hotel, you're safe from cigarette byproducts? Think again:
Non-smoking hotel rooms generally contained more third-hand smoke when
they were part of hotels that allowed smoking in other, designated rooms.
They had, on average, twice the amount of nicotine on surfaces and seven
times as much 3EP (another cigarette byproduct) in the air. In smoking-permitted
rooms, of course, the presence of these contaminants was much higher.
The women, after spending the night in a hotel that permitted smoking,
even after requesting a non-smoking room, the next morning had significantly
more nicotine on their fingers, and five to six times the amount of
cotinine -- a biomarker of second-hand smoke exposure -- in their urine.
Lindsay Abrams of The Atlantic summarizes the study: Link
| The paper over at Tobacco
Control
