Corporate bigwigs and mafia bosses in Sicily have something in common: they both complain about the "miserable" state of Gen Z recruits.
According to the Daily Mail, a Cosa Nostra don named Giancarlo Romano was caught by wiretap grumbling about how young criminals are too quick in agreeing to turn and become state witnesses when they got arrested. Apparently, the Italian carabinieri have been making these new mafia recruits an offer they can't refuse.
"If you watch The Godfather, the connections he had… he was very influential because of the power that he built at a political level. But us – what can we do?," Romano purportedly said, "'We're on our knees, guys. We think we do business, but these days it's others who do it. We used to be number one, now it's others… we're just Gypsies"
To advertise the release of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar on its streaming service, Netflix created this really neat billboard in Los Angeles that looks like the sarcastic robot TARS. No word on its humor or honesty setting.
Color us impressed! Digital artist (and we suspect, also a wizard) Greg Saniatan AKA slopsmcgee combined pottery, LEGO building, and stop motion animation to create this masterpiece.
Behold, Pottery with LEGO Bricks:
If you like that, check out Saniatan's other stop motion video called Painting with LEGO, where he re-creates The Great Wave by Hokusai with LEGO:
In the late 1950s, Frank Herbert visited the Oregon Dunes, a 40-mile long stretch of windswept sand along the coast. The coastal sand dunes had been there for 100,000 years but human development had encroached on the area and the drifting dunes were threatening to swallow houses and roads. Humanity's answer was one of the largest geo-engineering project to stop the advancing dunes:
Herbert chartered a small plane to fly over the shifting sand dunes and what he saw inspired him to write that the project was "the first enduring answer to shifting sands in all history" and was "an unsung victory in the fight of men against dunes."
The moving dunes could "swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways," Herbert wrote in a letter to his literary agent
I visited the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and it was fantastic. If you're ever in the area, do check it out. No need to ride a sandworm, you can rent dune buggies and ATV from local businesses.
BTW, I'm experimenting with a free new email newsletter publication called Geeky Pop Forever - it's basically like Neatorama, but focused on geeky pop culture topics. If you like movies, comics, video games and fan art, please check it out and, hopefully, subscribe.
Don't just mow your lawn! Channel your inner artist and create a Mowna Lisa. A grassterpiece, if you will.
For 11 years running, British mowing machine manufacturer Allett has a competition where lawn care enthusiasts prove that the grass is always greener on their side of the yard.
I began by measuring out a cube using stakes and string and slowly began reducing the height of cut in the surrounding areas over a 4-week period. I always enjoy the added attention the lawn needs when cutting at such low heights and was impressed with how well the grass held up with daily mowing at 8mm. The 3D elusion is a result of different heights of cut as well as tapering the design from bottom to top which was a lot harder than I initially thought to do within scale across the shape and in a way that made it look realistic.
More unbeleafably fantastic lawn art over at Allett's 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 competitions.
When I was a biochemistry graduate student ages ago, a wise post-doctoral fellow once told me that there's no failed experiments in science if you can consume the result of your experiments (he was a Russian guy, and experimented on alcohol - and yes, he drank his experimental results afterwards).
In the same vein, here's an experiment by Imperial College of London's Chemical Kitchen to determine the best way to roast a potato in the oven.
If watching that video made you too hungry to continue, I'm happy to report that by cutting the potatoes at 30 degree angle, you can increase the surface area for extra crispiness. Better yet, you can add even more surface area by using a crinkle cutter.
Come to think of it, repeatability is a bedrock of doing science so I'm sure you'd want to repeat the roast potato experiment over and over and over again. Y'know, for science.
Japanese company ispace is sending The Moonhouse, a tiny toy house created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, to the Moon with its next lunar mission.
This step would cap Genberg's 25-year long dream of putting the miniature of a typical Swedish-looking house on the Moon. It was a "crazy, maybe idiotic but at the same time, in my mind, really poetic thought to put a red house with white corners on the surface of the moon," Genberg said as reported by the AP, "and now it's going to happen."
When former Wheel of Fortune contestant Rhea Mathew was invited back to the game, she thought that she was participating in show's 50th anniversary.
After solving the puzzle - "Will You Marry Me?" - Rhea realized that the game was just a clever ruse: her boyfriend Robin Kuriakose showed up from the backstage, knelt and proposed!
Here's a vase that's sure to be a conversation piece for your next family gathering. Just put it at the center of the dinner table, and make sure that the face is pointing towards the person you love the most. Or the least. We're not sure.
Check out VisoVaso, handmade ceramic vase by Italian artist Jimmy Lanza over at his Instagram page.
☁️ Missouri's KFVS-12 weather reporter Lisa Michaels posted her 2021 Halloween costume which took advantage of the TV studio's green screen to create a floating cloud dress. Coming up with weather-related costume must be a breeze for such a talented meteorologist!
🐶 In 1908, a Newfoundland dog in France discovered that he could get a steak by rescuing a child who had fallen into the River Seine. So naturally the dog set up a clever scam that got him rewarded over and over again.
🤘 With all that rage and shouting, you'd think that heavy metal fans are dark and angry people but you'd be wrong: they're actually some of the friendliest and happiest people in the world. Here's why metal fans are happy.
🐴 Catch me if you can, said the little pony who led Alabama's Tuscaloosa Police Department on a two-hour low-speed foot pursuit before surrendering and posing for selfies.
🎬 Sure, movies have fancy sets and talented set designers but what if the film or TV series call for a banquet of human flesh for cannibals? Meet Hollywood's horror chef who make food "horrible AND delicious" (because the actors are supposed to eat 'em).
📺 Remember when MTV used to play music videos, then one day it doesn't anymore? It's because of channel drift: the phenomenon where TV channels change what they show until their original mission is completely forgotten.
🍰 It looks like a slice of cake straight out of an animated Looney Tunes episode, but this cartoon cake is actually a real cake. Just see redditor u/Single_Disaster_2856 prove it to you by slicing into it. And don't forget the how-to video at the end. Yum!
🦅 A 31-year-old bald eagle that's been building a nest and incubating a rock has finally gotten a baby eaglet. What a heartwarming story!
🦌 Here's why you should never yell at a moose. An Idaho man learned that lesson the hard way.
👖 Who says that jeans can't be haute couture? Behold the Spiked jeans by fashion artist Done by Doug. It's what to wear when you've got a point to make.
👕 Don't miss: NeatoShop Sitewide Sale (ends tomorrow) - save up to 20% on all tees sitewide.
Don't forget to check out our new sites: TastyTastic (fun food stuff!), Artgonaut (weird and amazing art), and Grand Blog Auto (you can guess what this one is, I'm sure). Thank you!
🥪 Sandwich chain Subway and chocolate maker Cadbury collaborated to launch one of the strangest Easter-themed food ever made. Behold, the SubMelt, which is basically a Cadbury Crème Egg sandwich. What do you think? Yum or yuck?
🎵 Now this is one way to sell a house: nightclub singer turned real estate agent Claire Cossey created a singing real estate ad based on the 1984 theme song from the movie The NeverEnding Story. Cossey called her version The Never Ending Property.
🐔 This chicken lamp puts the lightbulb where the sun don't shine.
🕹️ Remember playing the endless running game Temple Run on your iPhone way back in 2011? The iconic game has now been recreated in Unreal Engine 5.
🎬 Are you an action movie hero? Then chances are, your name is John, James, or Jack. It's scientifically proven!
🐕 Rollo and Sadie are two dogs that became best friends during the pandemic. But when Rollo's owner had to move far away, the two dogs managed to stay in touch ... with Facetime!
🌻 Spring is here, and it's time for our gardens to shine! Here's a cute tee for those who love planting things: Gardening is My Therapy by indie artist Edu Ely - via Shirt Stack
🌞 From our new art site Artgonaut (check it out!), here's an art installation by Pierre Brault on a building in Paris that cleverly use the Sun to cast a shadow that reads "Slow Life"
🕹️ The Super Mario Bros theme song is now in the National Recording Registry. Miss C was kind enough to include several fantastic clips of the theme song played by a youth orchestra, played on a Marimba with four mallets, and on a bandura and accordion. TIL bandura, a Ukrainian folk instrument, can replicate the coin sound effect perfectly!
🤣 Self check-out has an unexpectedly hot item in the bagging area.
🏠 This unassuming house has a Mickey Mouse-shaped portal that'll take you to your own private Disney World. It's for sale for $1.1 million, so it's almost as expensive as a trip to the amusement park for a family of four (Image: REcolorado)
🚗 The crazy story behind the 1932 Bugatti Royale Esders involves King Zog, the self-proclaimed king of Albania who had over 600 blood feuds. This one is from our new car site Grand Blog Auto, which we'll build up over time.
