The next time your parents said that you're a couch potato, show them this spudderific creation to instantly mash their complaint.
Neat-O fact: the term "couch potato" became popular in the 1970s to describe people who liked to vegetate in front of the "boob tube." Tom Iacino of Pasadena substituted "tuber" for "potato" to come up with the term.
This. Is. Genius! Redditor Ratapus found that the Country Inn & Suites in Niagara Falls has a dedicated button to call for pizza. All phones need this!
Osedax antarcticus, a new species of the bone eating worm
Mother Nature is the queen of specialization. You know about herbivores and carnivores, and perhaps you know about omnivore, insectivores, frugivore (for example, fruit bats). But do you know about ossivores like the species of worm that specializes in eating whale bones?
Field of Osedax worms off the coast of the West Antarctic shelf
Meet the bone-eating worms, which munch on the stripped skeleton of dead whales by secreting acids to dissolve their way to a good meal. We told you about these Osedax worms, also called the bone-eating zombie worms, a while ago, but marine biologist Thomas Dahlgren and colleagues at the Uni Research in Bergen, Norway, have recently added two new species to the family.
Jaws of the male Osedax worm (Image: Adrian Glover)
The new Osedax worms were found in the Antarctic, but they have also been previously found in the oceans off Japan, California, and Scandinavia. Researchers suggest that Osedax may just be present wherever you find whale carcasses.
Male bone-eating worm crawling on the trunk of the female
When researchers studied the new Osedax antarcticus species more closely, they found that the male of the species were much smaller than the females. In fact, the males are so small that they can live inside the female as sperm donors.
More over at National Geographic's Daily News (Photo: Thomas Dahlgren unless otherwise noted) - Thanks Kelsey!
Hong Kong's Yes Lady pawnshop is a lender unlike any other:
The four-year-old company accepts handbags on the spot, assesses them for their condition and authenticity and then procures loans within half an hour, as long as the bags are Gucci, Chanel, Hermès or Louis Vuitton. Occasionally, they'll consider a Prada.
In a city driven by consumers' voracious appetite for the newest and latest luxury products, handbag-driven loans are a lucrative business. Yes Lady takes a purse and lends clients 80% of the bag's value. Customers get the bag back by repaying the same loan with 4% monthly interest, within four months. Classic purses and special-edition handbags often retain much of their retail price.
Riva Gold and Chester Yung of The Wall Street Journal has the full story.
So, today is Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger's 136th birthday and Google celebrated with with a clever Schrödinger's Google Doodle:
We bet that whenever you hear the word "Schrödinger," you immediately think of Schrödinger's Cat. But how much do you actually know about the man behind the famous paradox?
Here are some of the neatest facts about Erwin Schrödinger. No physics involved, we promise!
1. The Challenge That Caused Schrödinger to Figure out Wave Mechanics
Swiss physicist Felix Bloch recounted the story of how wave mechanics came to be: One day, Nobel laureate Peter Debye said, "Schrödinger, you are not working right now on very important problems anyway. Why don't you tell us some time about that thesis of de Broglie, which seems to have attracted some attention."
And so Schrödinger did. He gave a talk about how French physicist Louis de Broglie postulated that matter also has wave properties, but Debye dismissed the talk as "childish," pointing out that "to deal properly with waves, one had to have a wave equation."
Schrödinger thought about it and soon after left his wife for a two-and-a-half-week vacation at a villa in the Swiss Alps. He took only de Broglie's thesis, an old Viennese girlfriend (whose identity remains a mystery until today), and two pearls. After, uh, rigorously "consulting" with the girlfriend for inspiration, Schrödinger shoved the pearls into his ears to get himself some peace and quiet, and set to work on wave mechanics.
By the next talk, Schrödinger said, "My colleague Debye suggested that one should have a wave equation; well, I have found one!"
Years later, Bloch approached Debye and asked him about the encounter. Debye claimed that he had forgotten, but Bloch thought that he was regretful that he goaded Schrödinger into working out the formula rather than doing it himself. Regardless, Debye turned to Bloch and said, "Well, wasn't I right?"
2. The Schrödinger Banknote
A physics post-doc once said to me that "there's no money in physics." That may be true, but there sure is physics in money! Behold, the Schrödinger Banknote, circa 1983.
3. Schrödinger Wasn't Just All About Physics
When he's not busy winning the Nobel prize for Physics and other physical activities (see below), Schrödinger loved to "ski, skate, swim, [and] climb mountains."
4. Schrödinger's Duality of Marriage
Whether Schrödinger's Cat lives or dies may be a matter of quantum probabilities, but there's no mystery about Schrödinger's marriage: he openly had many mistresses, including Hilde March, the wife of his physics colleague Arthur March.
But don't worry about Schrödinger's wife Anny - Arthur regularly bedded her as well.
5. Schrödinger Came Back ... as a Character on Futurama
Schrödinger came back to life in an episode of Futurama, where he broke the law by going 15 miles per hour over the speed of light while carrying a box with "a cat, some poison, and a cesium atom" inside. From The Infosphere, a Futurama wiki:
[Circuit City. Fry and URL are pointing guns at Schrödinger.]
Fry: DNA and career chip, please.
[Schrödinger offers his hand and Fry pierces it with a gun that projects a hologram reading NNY DMV, ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER and showing Schrödinger's profile photograph.]
URL: Erwin Schrödinger, huh? What's in the box, Schrödinger?
Erwin Schrödinger: Um... A cat, some poison, und a cesium atom.
Fry: The cat! Is it alive or dead? [Schrödinger is not given the time to reply.] Alive or dead?! [URL pushes Schrödinger against his car's door, alarming him.]
URL: Answer him, fool.
Erwin Schrödinger: It's a superposition of both states until you open it and collapse the wave function.
[Fry enters the car.]
Fry: Says you.
[Fry opens the box and a cat jumps out of it, attacking him. Fry screams. URL takes a close look at the box.]
URL: There's also a lotta drugs in there.
6. Schrödinger on Quantum Mechanics He Helped Build: "I Don't Like It"
So, what did the eminent physicist actually think of the probability interpretation of quantum mechanics? He said, "I don't like it, and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it." Later, physicist Gregor Wentzel told him, "Schrödinger, it is most fortunate that other people believe more in your equation than you do."
7. Schrödinger's Cat is Schrödinger's Way to Make Fun of Quantum Mechanics
Look Out Schrodinger's Cat, It's A Trap! by Mike Jacobsen
So, back to Schrödinger's Cat, remember him? It's ironic that Schrödinger's famous thought experiment was actually proposed to make fun of the strange nature of quantum physics.
In 1935, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen came up with an article that highlights the strange nature of quantum entanglement - that a quantum system's state is not defined until it is actually measured.
So, Schrödinger wrote:
One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.
See also: Schrödinger T-shirt designs from the NeatoShop
Bello, Bub! We don't know whether this strange creature - a mash up of the loveable Minion with the irascible Wolverine by French artist Donnie - is more fearsome or cute. Perhaps it is fearsomely cute.
Anyhow, check out Donnie's official webpage, Facebook and Behance page then visit his NeatoShop page to buy the shirts! Your purchase helps support indie artist as well as this blog.
More Minion mash-up by Donnie:
| Super Minion Bros | Dark Minion | The Legend of Minlink | Minion Ball Z |
View more designs by Donnie | More Funny T-shirts
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Sally Coburn has been hoping that her dead husband would send her a message from beyond, and last Wednesday night, he did just that ... with a potato.
"I was just frying up some onions and potatoes," she told The Huffington Post. "I reached in the bag and the last potato was shaped like a heart." [...]
"I know it was a sign from him," she said. "I had been missing him. He died on May 13th and I've had that bag of potatoes for 2-and-a-half months. I reached in the bag and it was the very last one."
So, why was Sally so convinced that the heart-shaped potato was from her man? "He was from Alabama," she said. "He was raised on potatoes."
That has got our heart spuddering! David Moye of The Huffington Post has the story (Photo: NWF Daily News)
Forget Greek gods - geeks have all the power in today's digital world.
Every year, Habari Media of South Africa creates a custom calendar. This year, to celebrate the rise of the geeks, it has created a bespoke letterpressed calendar, featuring twelve prominent leaders in design, media, and advertising as "Geek Gods."
The circular calendar features lunar phases, a nod to the Greek lunar calendar, and a manual dial that can be moved to mark the date. The calendar disc is engraved with markings that emulate the stone engravings of Greek tablets, and the individual month cards are letterpressed with graphic art like what you'd find on an ancient Greek amphora.
Each month of the calendar features a "god" modeled after real media personality and his or her expertise. For example, March 2013 features Moti Grauman, "God of Analysis" who is the "critical judge of hits and click-throughs" and November features Alan Buck, "God of Strategy" who is a "Game Plan Logician" and "Online Media Tactician." (Yes, that makes the most sense to insiders, but you get the cleverness.)
Take a look:
Engraved detail
Letterpressed Cards
Letterpressed Plates
Various Month Cards - Illustrated by Dani Loureiro and Andrew Ringrose
A Very Important Date by Matt Parsons
Got an appointment that you got to make in 28:06:42:12? Oh dear! Don't be late for that very important date! Better yet, remind yourself with this awesome Alice in Wonderland and Donnie Darko mash up T-shirt by Matt Parsons.
Visit Matt's official website and Facebook page, then visit his NeatoShop page for more awesome T-shirts: Link
| Battle Kitty | Timey Wimey Sweater | Plants vs Plumbers | Decisions Decisions |
View more designs by Matt Parsons | More Funny T-shirts
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Say No To Drugs by Harebrained Design
Magic mushroom? Just say no, kids! Harebrained Design tells us exactly why you shouldn't eat any ol' thing that come across you in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Visit his Facebook page, Twitter and Tumblr pages, and then visit the Harebrained Design NeatoShop Page for more neat designs!
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Zombies | Bat Country | Help A Brother Out | Mario Kombat |
View more designs by Harebrained Design | 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, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans!
Austin Head is running for city council in Phoenix, Arizona, but he's up against other candidates with more money and name recognition. So he's trying a bit of clever marketing to get himself "ahead" of the game.
Problem is, people keep on stealing his campaign slogan signs ... not competing politicians playing dirty tricks, but potential voters with dirty minds ...
Jill Monier of FOX10 News has the full story - Thanks Tiffany!
Need to bring alcoholic refreshments to that Star Wars-themed party? Obi Wine Kenobi, you're our only hope! Via That's Nerdalicious and reddit
