This is the current rage in the Neatorama Shop: Zoomdoggle's insanely fun BuckyBalls - a set of 216 balls made from powerful rare earth magnets.
You can shape and mold an unlimited variations of magnetic sculpture (of course, if you get more than 1, you can combine them to create a mega-sculpture!). Tear 'em apart and snap 'em back together for hours of fun.
BuckyBalls is this week's featured product at the Neatorama Shop. For a limited time, you'll get a free Mystery Gift for the purchase of each BuckyBalls (What will you get? Well, we won't tell you ... it's a mystery!)
Kate Dailey of Newsweek's The Human Condition blog wrote a very interesting post about the role of sports in child development. Is sports beneficial for kids or does it turn jocks into jerks?
The answer - painfully obvious to those who still remember their high school days - came by way of a new psychology study by Richard Lerner et al:
Depending on one’s high-school experience, there are two distinct philosophies about the role sports plays in a child’s development. There’s the idea that youth sports teaches kids discipline and respect, keeps them off the street, and helps them mature into adults: it’s sports that turned athletically gifted but insecure Daniel Larusso into The Karate Kid.
But just as pervasive is the opinion that jocks are jerks, and kids who play sports are mean bullies who will do anything to win, who need to dominate their opponents and who carry that aggressiveness streak off the field. Kids who play sports, this line of thinking goes, are more like Johnny Lawrence, star athlete (and big-time bully) from the Cobra-Kai dojo.
A recent study in the journal Developmental Psychology suggest that jocks really are jerks—if they focus exclusively on sports at the expense of other more-well rounded programs. But kids who both play sports and are exposed to youth-development program like scouting or 4-H show the most markers of personal growth and maturity.
Our good friend Rommel Santor (who coded the Neatorama Upcoming Queue) and Brian "Dag" Houston of VideoSift have just launched a new venture: Tee Virus, an online community where you can create your very own T-shirt design, submit it to the community for feedback, and - if it passes muster - get it printed and sold through the website. Best of all, you'll earn cash with every shirt sold.
I've got my TBIF T-shirt and am happy as a clam with it ;)
Our pal Jeremy Gutsche, the founder of TrendHunter Magazine - one of the neatest websites around, by the way - has an interesting new book titled Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change.
Perhaps you've heard the saying popularized by John F. Kennedy that the Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters, danger and opportunity. That turned out to be a fallacy, but the reasoning behind it is actually not all that bad.
In his book, Jeremy outlines ways you can utilize chaos and the current economic uncertainty for your benefit (shades of Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel saying "... Never let a serious crisis go to waste" perhaps?). For example:
Crisis creates opportunity
Prior to the Great Depression, the only cereal brand that mattered was Post. After your great-grandfather silenced the piercing bells of his wind-up alarm clock, he savored the delicious taste of Post Grape-Nuts. Launched in 1897, the cereal dominated the marketplace leading up to the 1930s.
As the Great Depression tightened its angry claws on America, Post found itself hungry for cash. The prominent cereal maker assumed they "owned" the market. How could anyone stop lusting for Grape-Nuts? Accordingly, advertising budgets were cut to weather the storm.
As the managers of Post reclined in their rawhide chairs, bracing for a slow economy, a hungry tiger lurked in the shadows. That tiger was the Kellogg Company. Their mascot, Tony the Tiger, had not yet appeared, but his insatiable spirit was already born.
While Post retreated, Kellogg doubled their ad spend. In 1933 their campaigns introduced slogans like "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" and "You'll feel better": motivational mantras during a gloomy era. The investment paid off. Americans loved the message and sales began to grow. Kellogg's became the go-to pick for breakfast cereal and your great-grandfather abandoned his beloved Post Grape-Nuts.
The upbeat impact of a crisis is that competitors become mediocre, and the ambitious find ways to grow.
For such a serious topic, the book Exploiting Chaos is a rather breezy read. Jeremy himself acknowledged that our reading habits have changed (I blame texting) - you can browse the colorful book in a sitting. Anyhow, the real gem here isn't the anecdotes that you get from the book, but the ideas, impetus, or kick-in-the-pants or whatever you want to call it - that you may get from reading it.
You're only one step away from winning the prize. One lucky commenter, chosen at random, will win a Tokyoflash watch of his or her choice. You can choose from any watch available for sale over at Tokyoflash, with the exception of the Independent models.
This contest is open to all registered users of Neatorama. First, please login (or if you don't have a Neatorama account, please register one - it's super easy!). Then write your choice of watch (and color) in the comment section below. One entry per person, please - multiple entries will get you disqualified.
Thank you for playing and good luck (again!)
Update 9/8/09 - Congratulations to obgynbbq who won! The winner was chosen by using a random number generator at random.org
w00t! It's time for our much anticipated Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt, our ninth in the series. Here's your chance to win the ultimate in geek fashion: a Tokyoflash watch.
For those of you who haven't played before, it's an online treasure hunt. We'll give you 3 questions, for example:
1. What color is the "O" pebble in the Neatorama logo? 2. How many posts are on Neatorama’s homepage? (in numbers) 3. What’s the first insulting word in Neatorama’s article 10 Insulting Words You Should Know?
The answers (black, 30, frenchify) separated by dashes make a URL on Neatorama: http://www.neatorama.com/black-30-frenchify (go ahead, copy and paste it in your browser).
Easy, right? Let's get goin' - Here are the Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #9 questions:
What is the name of the Tokyoflash watch featured above? (the model name, not the brand - one word) Go to Tokyoflash's website to find out!
In the Neatorama Shop, how many products are listed in the Offbeat Mints and Candies category? (in numerals, for example 10 not "ten")
In the Neatorama Shop, there's an ice tray and stirrer shaped like a musical instrument. What is the instrument? (no, not the name of the product. The name of the instrument - hint: one word)
Back to Tokyoflash, what watch has the tagline "no one is immune to ..."? (hint: again, name of the watch model - one word)
Visit Tokyoflash and the Neatorama Shop to find the answers, then string 'em together to form the URL (all words are lower case, separated by dash). Follow the instruction you'll find there.
Better hurry - the contest will end tomorrow. Good luck!
Our pal Asylum blog has compiled 15 of the weirdest magazines still in publication today. Included are Crappie World Magazine (unbeknowst to me, crappie is a type of fish), Bacon Busters (Australia's hog-hunting magazine - not, I repeat not, a cooking mag) and Girls and Corpses (a self-described "Maxim Magazine meets Dawn Of The Dead" - you've been warned).
The following is a reprint from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe. Throughout history, intrepid adventurers and successful armies of conquest have marched on their stomachs. The wagon trains and cattle drives that opened the American frontier would have stalled without Cookie and his chuck wagon. Camp cooks have always ruled their little kingdoms, be they isolated lumber camps, mine operations, or construction projects. All of which NASA researchers took into consideration as they prepared to breach the frontiers of space.
MERCURY POISONING?
Unfortunately for the early Mercury astronauts, Buck Rogers and Isaac Asimov had more influence on their meals than Martha Stewart might have. The menu consisted of unidentified snacks: cubes textured like dog biscuits, freeze-dried powders as appetizing as Mojave Desert dust, and tubes of glutinous matter resembling toothpaste but not nearly as flavorful. The cubes crumbled, the powders wouldn't dissolve, and those tubes - they were the first to go. Fit fare for Martians, maybe, but not for humans. (Photo: NASA)
NAME THAT FOOD
Gemini astronauts had it better. Packaging improved. The ever-adventurous food scientists at NASA now dared to identify the food for their astronauts - for example, shrimp, chicken, applesauce. This was one step for mankind, but still a long way from the real thing. Maybe that's why astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard a Gemini flight in 1965. Gus Grissom ate it, but Young was officially reprimanded (the first astronaut to be reprimanded for anything).
THE AGE OF TANG
Tang ad from 1971 Grissom may have washed down that sandwich with a swig of Tang.
Pillsbury/General Foods had been trying unsuccessfully to foist the powdered orange drink on a highly suspecting public for three years. But once Tang qualified for the space program, sales shot up. Everybody wanted to try the "drink of the astronauts."
THE END OF HIGH-FLYING HASH
As the Apollo program went into orbit, NASA's faith in the skills of their astronauts improved. This time it actually provided them with spoons - another leap forward. But special containers had to be designed to overcome the near-weightlessness of the cabin. Nobody wanted their pea soup stuck to the ceiling any more than they wanted to have to chase after shrimp that had floated off their dinner tray. Another boon was hot water to rehydrate those powders; that meant fewer lumps and better flavor. Still, no one in orbit was getting fat.
PLEASE PASS THE POTATOES
Skylab food heating and serving tray with food, drink, and utensils. The tray contained heating elements for preparing the individual food packets. (Photo: NASA)
Skylab, launched in 1973, changed everything - it had an actual dining area, with a table and chairs (that diners had to strap themselves to). Utensils now included not only a knife, fork, and spoon, but also a pair of scissors for opening food packets. A refrigerator and a freezer completed the homelike atmosphere. With things looking up on the equipment side, the food side got better, too. Astronauts could now select from 72 items. They seemed to have everything but a maître d' and a decent wine list.
EATING LIKE EARTHLINGS
Given the confined dining space, an astronaut's food choices were more contingent on the development of packaging, preparation, and serving equipment than on available foods. The concoctions were already available. Earthbound, we've got egg substitutes, hamburger extenders, chocolate bars without cocoa, artificially flavored and colored fruit, and so on. In space, so do the astronauts - but they've had to wait for suitable packaging.
PACKAGING THE MOVABLE FEAST
Food preparation aboard the space shuttle STS-4 in 1982 [YouTube Link]
Space shuttle meals limit each astronaut to one pound of packaging waste daily, a day's food supply having a gross weight of 3.8 pounds, including snacks (this means that more than 25 percent of a meal package is meant to be thrown away - and if you think that's a lot, have a look at almost any frozen dinner available to us nonastronauts). Months ahead of a flight, astronauts plan their own meal. Engineers review their choices to make sure they won't weigh too much (the meals, not the astronauts). Then nutritionists review the menus to ensure the shuttle won't be harboring a junk food addict or a budding anorexic. Too much packaging and too much waste food (what we Earthlings call leftovers) could screw up the garbage compactor. Just prior to the flight, the food packages are individually color-coded and stored in the shuttle galley.
A MEAL THAT STICKS TO YOUR ... TABLE
To an astronaut, the single most important technological advance for space flight wasn't all-purpose duct tape or crazy glue, it was Velcro. The individual packages containing a full meal could be Velcroed to a tray and all opened at the same time. Previously, packages had to be opened one at a time and consumed before the next was opened. Otherwise, the first package could float away while the astronaut snipped at the top of another. Shuttle crews can now have a full-course hot meal reconstituted in a recognizable form and on a dinner tray within 35 minutes. Not bad.
KITCHEN WIZARDRY
NASA chefs were no slouches. When the tricks of conventional cookery didn't work, they invented some of their own. Many of their offerings were provided with varying amount of water removed from them. "Add water and eat" or "Add water, heat, and eat" were about the only directions astronauts needed. Breakfast was a breeze: cereal, sugar, and powdered milk in a single pouch. Add water, and voila! It would snap, crackle, and pop with the best of them, even if it didn't come with a prize. You can taste some of this handiwork in commercially available camping and trail foods. (And we can thank NASA impetus for those small, full-panel pull-off lids on cans - they thought of them first.)
THE LONG HAUL
Astronaut Michael Foale describes what eating in space is like [YouTube Clip]
And all that while, NASA was gearing up to feed astronauts for prolonged periods. THe orbiting space station has facilities to provide frozen, refrigerated, and thermostabilized food (heat-treated to kill off the bad stuff). NASA had to give up its passion to just add water - the space station couldn't generate enough - which meant that astronauts could finally eat fresh food. Moreover, every four astronauts had their own microwave/convention oven; no more line ups to liquefy and heat those first cups of morning coffee. With all these technical advances has come a quantum expansion of the menu. Astronauts can choose from nine different cereals, some with fruits; nine different chicken entrees; ten different vegetables; four flavors of yogurt; regular, decaf, or Kona (excuse me!) coffee - and that's just for starters.
The menu on space flights seem to have reached such gourmet standards that private citizens are paying millions just for a short hop. Of course, there's still no wine list, but when tourists can plan their own menus months before tying on the bib - that gives NASA a lot of time to procure the best ingredients, not to mention using the acumen of expert chefs and the latest technology to ensure optimal quality and freshness.
CHIX IN SPACE
NASA knows that accessing remote space frontiers may require space flights that last for years, so they've started to figure out ways to fashion a self-contained, self-sustaining food system - shades of 2001: A Space Odyssey, not to mention Silent Running. The cities in space that cosmologist Stephen Hawking talks about will require the same approach. NASA has already sent (unplanted) tomato and mung bean seeds into orbit, as well as chicken embryos, just to find out what effects, if any, space travel would have on them. As it turned out, the effects were negligible. And NASA scientists have been fiddling with hydroponics (that is, grown only in water) lettuce in space simulation labs. Help in this regard has come from the private sector: The tomato seeds courtesy of H.J. Heinz, and KFC footing some of the bill for the "Chix in Space" experiments. (We're getting kind of bored with "spacecraft metallic" anyway: Make way for billboards in space!)
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
IE7 and IE8 Crashes and Hang Ups I've received a few emails about a looping bug in some ad scripts on the blog that crashed Internet Explorer 7 and 8 (apparently, it didn't affect Firefox). I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to let me know. I think the issue is fixed - but if you still see any problems after flushing your browser's cache, please let me know. My email is simply alex at this blog's domain dot com (I'm sure you can figure it out).
Upcoming Queue Remember that we're having a little friendly competition for the Neatorama Upcoming Queue. Top 5 Submitter (based on Front Paged submissions, not total subs) will win very cool prizes from the Neatorama Online Shop. Top submitter will get an iPod Nano, and you've still got time so get crackin'!
The frontrunners as of today:
Please read the UQ FAQ and Submission Tips to increase your chances of getting your submissions promoted to the blog's front page! Remember that copypasta submissions (that's copying and pasting stuff directly from the article) will decrease your chances of being promoted ;)
If you think about it, table manners are just one of the ways The Man has got us under his thumb. Separate forks for salad, fish, oyster and dinner? It's oppression, I tell you.
Our BFF BuzzFeed is revolting against some of the stupidest table manners today and have provided means for us regular Joes to resist being civilized:
1. Multiple Forks Oppressive rule: You sit down at a fancy restaurant and are immediately faced with a vast array of forks.
Resistance solution: Side-step the utensils. God gave you hands for a reason.
2. Eating Soup With A Spoon Oppressive rule: Despite the fact that soup is a liquid, we're forced to ladle in out in painfully small increments, always with the threat of spillage.
Resistance solution: Use a straw if it's thin broth; lift the bowl and DRINK DIRECTLY FROM THE BOWL if it's anything hearty.
Miss Manners is surely horrified: Link - Thanks Matt!
