Cake Wrecks Book

A couple of weeks ago, we featured Jen Yates' new book Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong, and promised to send a free book to a Neatoramanaut whose question got answered by Jen. Here's her pick (and answer):

From Avid Cake Wreck Reader Rebecca: "I read on your site that you had taken cake decorating classes with your husband. I wondered if you ever posted one of your cakes as a wreck?"

And the answer is: Yes! You'd have to check the comment section to know this, but the infamous Epcot (aka Spaceship Earth) cake was made by me and John. That's part of why it was so funny when so many commenters told me I was wrong to call it a Spaceship Earth cake. Yep, we got a *huge* kick out of that - and still do when readers make a "I think that's Epcot" crack on a new post. Heh.

Thank you Jen and congratulations, Rebecca! See more at Jen's blog Cake Wrecks

Neatorama Mystery Sale

It's done! After two solid weeks of shipping, all shipments finally went out. Thank you to everyone who participated in the Mystery Sale!

If you haven't gotten yours yet, please be patient: it may be in the last batch, which means that you should get it either by next week or early the following week (USA) or add a week for customs clearance for international destinations.

New at the Neatorama Shop

M-Cups, the measuring cups shaped like matryoshkas or Russian nesting dolls are HOT - we've sold out of the current batch and are waiting for our next shipment ... if you order them today, we'll add a little extra "mystery" bonus to your order. ;)

There's a video clip making the rounds on the Net about a supposed school answering machine.

The story goes like this: When administrators of the Maroochydore High School in Queensland, Australia, implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for attendance and homework, parents of children with failing grades sued. The staff of the school recorded this answering message as a response:

[YouTube Clip]

The video clip is going viral, perhaps it strikes a chord, but unfortunately, it's a hoax. Old Internet hands will remember a similar clip circulating back in 2002 with a different school name, the Pacific Palisades High School.

Snopes said:

In 1998 the sole high school in the Palisades Charter Schools group, the 2,400-student Charter High School, instituted an attendance policy mandating that any student absent without a valid excuse ten or more days per semester be failed, regardless of his academic achievements. One of the results of this policy was that in February 2002 forty Palisades High teachers assigned a total of 130 failing grades to students whose classwork would otherwise have merited passing grades, because those students recorded absences and tardiness in excess of the school's stated attendance policy.

After vociferous complaints (and threats of lawsuits) from parents who contended they were unaware of, or didn't agree with, Palisades High's attendance policy (even though every student and parent had been informed of it), LAUSD officials said the failing marks might have to be voided because the attendance policy was not submitted to and approved by the school board. Without board approval, the school must follow the policies of the LAUSD, which states that students must be graded on the work they do and attendance may not be used as a reason to fail
them.

The staff of the Pacific Palisades High School did make the answering machine recording though it was never put on the school's system.

Still. It's funny. Thanks alientango!

M-Cups Matryoshka (Russian Nesting Doll) Measuring Cups

This is a clever one by Carl Mitsch of Fred Studio: a set of measuring cups shaped like matryoshka (babushka or Russian nesting dolls). They're cute and functional! And perhaps best of all, they nest inside of one another so they don't take up much cabinet space. At $11.95 each, they're the perfect gift for those who love to cook ... and who knows, maybe you'll get dinner out of it, too.

From the Neatorama Shop: http://shop.neatorama.com/product-info.php?m-cups-matryoshka-measuring-pid573.html

Why did early humans walk upright? Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University has an intriguing hypothesis after studying the oldest human skeleton, of the species Ardipithecus ramidus or "Ardi" for short: it's all about food and sex!

In apes—both modern apes and, presumably, the ancient ancestors of Ardipithecus—males find mates the good old-fashioned apish way: by fighting with other males for access to fertile females. Success, measured in number of offspring, goes to macho males with big sharp canine teeth who try to mate with as many ovulating females as possible. Sex is best done quickly—hence those penis bristles, which accelerate ejaculation—with the advantage to the male with big testicles carrying a heavy load of sperm. Among females, the winners are those who flaunt their fertility with swollen genitals or some other prominent display of ovulation, so those big alpha dudes will take notice and give them a tumble, providing a baby with his big alpha genes.

Let’s suppose that some lesser male, with poor little stubby canines, figures out that he can entice a fertile female into mating by bringing her some food. That sometimes happens among living chimpanzees, for instance when a female rewards a male for presenting her with a tasty gift of colobus monkey.

Among Ardipithecus’s ancestors, such a strategy could catch on if searching for food required a lot of time and exposure to predators. Males would be far more successful food-providers if they had their hands free to carry home loads of fruits and tubers—which would favor walking on two legs. Females would come to prefer good, steady providers with smaller canines over the big fierce-toothed ones who left as soon as they spot another fertile female. The results, says Lovejoy, are visible in Ardipithecus, which had small canines even in males and walked upright.

Jamie Shreeve of NGM Blog Central has the story: Link

Remember the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode with Ashley Judd (rrrowr!) as Ensign Robin Lefler? That character has a set of 102 "personal laws" to live by.

"When I learn something essential," she explained, "I make up a law about it. That way, I never forget."

Neatoramanaut John Farrier of The Zeray Gazette was inspired to write his own personal laws, which he blogged about here:

In the past year, I've been intentional about formulating such life lessons. I keep a MS Word document on my hard drive listing these thoughts, and each one goes through a probationary period before being accepted as both true and important. Here are some of the results, including some probationary laws, with explanations:

Just because you’ve done stupid stuff doesn’t mean that you have to keep on doing stupid stuff in order to be consistent. This is a reflection of Harry Browne's Previous Investment Trap. Consistency is a vastly overrated virtue, and it is better to admit that you were wrong and stop going in the wrong direction.

There is nothing inherently ennobling about hardship. My concept of masculinity long held that a man undertook great and challenging tasks and overcame obstacles. Suffering for a cause is noble. I now think otherwise.

Go where the cheese is. Taken from the book Who Moved My Cheese?, anticipate that shit will fall out of the sky, and be prepared to move as conditions change. Be on the lookout for change, have a backup plan for everything, and implement it immediately when the change occurs. That you do not like the change will not prevent it from taking place.

Link (with a very lively discussion in the comments)

If you were to write yourself personal laws, what would they be?

Our very own Neatoramanaut Jill Harness wrote this very neat post over at InventorSpot about 6 "weird art" plush toys. I'm going to quibble with her and say that these are 6 "omigosh cute" plush toys ... case in point:

Haminal

Haminal was the brain child of Crystal Chesney-Thompson, an animator who has worked on such major shows as Futurama. He is a blend of pigs, hamsters and guinea pigs, created so he would be easier to be canned than a traditional ham. There are two sizes of Haminal, a classic version served in a plastic “can” complete with nutrition info and a small one perfect for spam-style sushi. Of course, both flavors are best complimented with a foam pineapple ring.

See the rest of the list: Link

We go from cute to downright gruesome. This here is a post by Miss Cellania about furniture and accessories that will make your house into a bloody crime scene over at our pal mental_floss blog that makes me slightly afraid of her. Okay, a lot afraid of her ;)

This one above is the Dexter dining room chairs:

Designer Amy Lau was inspired by the serial killer show on Showtime when she came up with these Dexter dining room chairs. The chairs are decorated with embroidered blood spatters. There are also bloody dinner plates and disfigured flatware to match, available from Spring Design.

Link

What kind of car would Spock drive if Spock drives a car?

Well, you don't have to wonder. The Drex Files blog has a rare photo of Leonard Nimoy in full costume as Spock posing in front of this car (his car?) on the Desilu backlot in 1966.

I wonder what car Kirk, Scotty and McCoy would drive ...

Oh, and what kind of a car is it? Find out for yourself: Link - via The Litter Box

In 1982, filmmaker Werner Herzog wrote and directed an epic movie called Fitzcarraldo, based on the life story of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald.

In the movie, a man named Fitzcarraldo traveled to the heart of the Amazonian jungle to get to the last remaining rubber trees parcel in a steamboat. He has to navigate some of the most perilous river in the Amazon as well as transport the boat up a mountain on dry land (you'll see).

Just as interesting as the movie is his newly published book Conquest of the Useless; Reflections on the Making of Fitzcarraldo, which is a transcript of Herzog's notebooks from almost three decades ago. Minnesotastan of TYWKIWDBI blog has the excerpt:

What was interesting to me was to discover that Herzog didn't live the life of a pampered director; he was on-site near the headwaters of the Amazon, living in squalor and coping with the incredible incompetence of local workers. Here are some of my jotted notes from the book to give the flavor of the contents:

12 – At the Indians’ request, we bring chain saws, machetes, and shotguns to the Rio Cenepa, as well as a large canister of poison for arrow tips. They no longer know how to make it themselves. Vivanco says they will pay for a spoonful with a gold nugget.

79 – The family who had given us a pot of hot water crowded around, and we fixed tuna for them and gave them tea; that is how it is done here – food is always shared, Cesar says, which is why there is no word for “thank you” in their language.

169 – The helicopter of the Bolivian president, Barrientos, flew into a power line and crashed from a low altitude. He had suitcases full of money with him, presumably from drug deals. The helicopter immediately caught fire, but although people were there and tried to rescue him from the blaze, no one could get close, because the heat made the submachine guns carried by the president and his entourage start firing wildly, and in the hail of bullets no one dared approach.

226 – Across from our headquarters overlooking the Nanay there was a huge explosion in a boiler, fortunately after the work day in the factory there as over. The one night watchman was blown to pieces and sent flying. A smallish bloody piece of him landed with a splat on our porch.

Link

But if readin' ain't your thing, you can just rent Burden of Dreams, a documentary by Les Blank about the making of the movie.

No, that's not a really tiny woman. Rather, it's a gigantic lamp shaped like a regular ol' table lamp. Designer Alex Bergman created this Edison the Grand lamp for Fatboy studio. The large size of the lamp (it stands about 3 feet) is accompanied by the large sticker price: more than $900!

Link

Winestein - $19.95

Is that an elegant wine glass or a manly beer stein? Actually, it's both! Behold the Winestein, a double-walled beer mug with an internal cavity shaped just like an elegant wine stem.

You've only got a few more days till the end of Oktoberfest ... but if you think about it, every day can be just like Oktoberfest if you have this puppy! From the Neatorama Shop: http://shop.neatorama.com/product-info.php?winestein-beer-wine-glass-pid574.html

There's a lot of fascinating things about molecular biology (I should know, I have a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology) - but a lot of students get discouraged from learning it because it is taught poorly in school. To be fair, the topic is rather complex - if you don't get the basics right, it's easy to get confused and lost later on - and many of the textbooks of biochemistry, cell biology and molecular bio are b-o-r-i-n-g. Heck, I've read phone books more interesting than some of 'em.

Enter The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology. Written by Dr. Masaharu Takemura, a lecturer of biology, molecular biology, and life sciences at the Tokyo University of Science, the book uses manga-style cartoons drawn by Sakura and produced by Becom Co., Ltd. It is released in the United States by No Starch Press (a publishing company that aims to be "the finest in geek entertainment").

The book is ostensibly about the adventures of Rin and Ami, two students that have been skipping their molecular biology class. They were summoned by Professor Moro for a special summer school on his private island (complete with a virtual reality machine, a hunky TA ... and a terrible secret. What is it? Oh, I'm not going to tell you). But amidst all that fun, there's actual learning.

Take, for instance, the explanation about how the liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase works in breaking down alcohol:

Photo: Bettyboop4 [Flickr]

National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel (and now Neatorama) blogger Marilyn Terrell just came back from a trip to the Yukon Territory in Canada. Naturally, she's got lots of stories about her adventure, the fascinating ecology of the Yukon and so on and so forth.

But since I'm stuck here in the 'burbs, my jealous brain wouldn't allow me to properly process all her stories save this tiny but golden nugget of trivia that will forever be with me till the day I die: Bear poop can be pink.

For 11 years, Mike Bowes has been working as a 911 dispatcher for the Quincy Police Department in Massachusetts. He's heard of everything from baby deliveries to deaths, but this call was probably the most shocking to him: it was someone reporting that his own house was on fire!

My neighbor's house just blew up, the caller said.

"What's the address?" Mike Bowes asked patiently, just as he did with every emergency call for the past 11 years with the Quincy Police Department.

The caller frantically relayed the address, Bowes' home address for 20 years.

"It was shocking," Mike Bowes said. "I thought she was kidding. It's a long shot. I mean, what's the chances it will be your house?"

Link (Photo: WHDH)

Sacrebleu! French politicians are campaigning for a new law that will result in government health warnings on pictures that have been enhanced by photoshop:

Campaigning MP Valerie Boyer, of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, said the wording should read:"Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person's physical appearance".

Mrs Boyer, who has also written a government report on anorexia and obesity, added: "We want to combat the stereotypical image that all women are young and slim.

"These photos can lead people to believe in a reality that does not actually exist, and have a detrimental effect on adolescents. "Many young people, particularly girls, do not know the difference between the virtual and reality, and can develop complexes from a very young age.

"In some cases this leads to anorexia or bulimia and very serious health problems.

"It's not just a question of public health, but also a way of protecting the consumer."

Link