The next time you ride a train, spill some paperclips on the floor and see if they do the "magnetic dance". According to Pink Tentacle:
The video — shot on the Rokko Liner in Kobe, Japan — shows how paperclips stand on end when the train accelerates and brakes. The magnetism, which is produced by the electric current that drives the motors located under the floor, apparently poses no harm to the human body, though it could damage credit cards, mobile phones, or other electronic devices if left on the floor.
What do you do with all those drink holders you've accumulated from Starbucks? (You didn't throw 'em away, did you?)
Well, Wired contributing photographer Dan Winters make something out of his: a Star Wars TIE Fighter made out of 50 Starbucks cups, 216 stirrers and over 60 drink holders.
Hello Neatoramanauts! Today's the day of our Mystery Sale. What wonderful items will you get for $9.95? Well, we wont' tell you: that's the whole point of the Mystery Sale!
But we can tell you that you'll get something (or a combination of things) worth *at least* $9.95. It will be a physical item, new, fun and worthy of Neatorama. Plus, it's a new item never seen before in previous Mystery Sales (if you must know, we try not to repeat the mystery item). If you buy more than one thing, you'll get different items.
What will this Mystery Sale bring you? Don't you want to find out? And remember, like the last Mystery Sale, this one is also for a very limited time. When it's gone, it's gone, so get yours today: http://shop.neatorama.com/product-info.php?mystery-box-sale-pid105.html
When police officers in Shandong, China stopped a motorcycle for being overloaded, they found a surprise: the rider has no arms!
Liu, 27, lost both arms at the age of seven after an electric shock. When he was 10, his parents sent him to a local circus to learn skills, and from then on, he trained himself to ride a motorcycle without arms.
Police officer Xhang Jie said: "I spotted from a distance that the motorbike had three adults on but we were all stunned by what we saw when we got closer."
Liu admitted that he had been riding his adapted motorcycle for 10 years without arms - and he didn't even have a license.
You may have seen the photos of Star Wars chipmunk floating on the Web - it turns out that the guy who made them is Canadian graphic designer Chris McVeigh.
Nick Prueher of Asylum blog has the interview with Chris about his photos, and why he never works with squirrels:
Why chipmunks?
McVeigh: For somebody looking at pictures, they're quite cute and, in terms of toys, they match up quite nicely. What makes them ideal subjects is that they're incredibly focused and predictable. If they know you have almonds and know where you store them, they'll come back to get them over and over. You can't get that with a squirrel. They're erratic. If you present them with food, they eat it right away or run. Squirrels, by comparison, have ADD.
We've featured the international cult-hit, Seth Grahame-Smith's (and of course, also Jane Austen's) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Quirk Books (previously on Neatorama here).
And just as you think that things can't get any more awesome, there's a sequel: here's a book trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by our friend Ransom Riggs of mental_floss.
Check it out: hit play or go to Link [Youtube] - Thanks Mangesh!
Alida Rosie Sayer combined typography and papercraft to create her wonderful artwork. This one above, a series titled Slaughterhouse Five: Type and Form, is Alida's way to visualize the cult novel by Kurt Vonnegut, by hanging hundreds of layers of hand cut letterpress prints.
Katerina Biliouri of Yatzer interviewed the artist:
You chose Vonnegut’s novel “Slaughterhouse Five” as the book for your three-dimensional typographic pieces. What lies behind the selection of the specific book?
I read the book a year and a half ago and it really struck a chord with me. I was particularly inspired by the concept of an alien race conceived by the confused mind of the main character who is trying to come to terms with difficult memories. The alien race addressed various issues he felt with his past experiences by not only presenting to him alternative methods of considering time, but also oneself in relation to it, with richly visual descriptions. To me the challenge of “visualising time” this way or trying to communicate visually what it could be like to see the past, present and future all at once was a very exciting prospect.
I decided that by using creative typography and quotes from the book itself, this would ground my work in a recognisable form and allow me to be more experimental without becoming entirely removed from the original subject.
A meal at Wolfgang Puck restaurant can be pricey, but $23 quadrillion? That's what Jon Seale got charged on his Visa. And to make matters worse, he got charged an overdraft fee!
In New Hampshire, Josh Muszynski said he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and when he later checked his account online found that he had been charged the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500.
In North Texas, Jon Seale saw the same 17-figure bill on his credit card statement, presumably for a meal July 13 at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, NBC affiliate KXAS TV reported.
"For that amount of money, I could actually own Wolfgang Puck himself," Seale said.
Some chefs have probably never heard the phrase "too much of a good thing" as they create some of the world's most stuffed food. WomansDay takes a look at 9 stuffed-to-the-brim food creations, like this db Burger Double Truffle from db Bistro Moderne above:
This specialty sandwich, available at db Bistro Moderne in Manhattan, sells for a whopping $150—but it’s certainly something to marvel at. Stuffed inside the burger are braised short ribs along with a flavorful helping of foie gras, which is topped with 20 grams of shaved black truffles and served inside a crispy Parmesan bun.
Texting and walking is bad for you, but drinking is no slouch either when it comes to the danger department. Here's what happened to one intoxicated guy who fell into a drain and got himself wedged:
A motorist raised the alarm after he went to move a car parked next to the drain and spotted the trapped man.
He said: "I heard a voice saying help and at first I didn't see him.
"Then I tried to pull him out but he was wedged tight. He didn't see that jokers had removed the drain cover as he staggered home."
Firemen spent an hour removing part of the drain before they could pull the man free.
Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero sculpted used, worn car and truck tires into fabulous works of art. As a bonus, the carved tires act as rolling rubber stamps!
Check out her portfolio here: http://arte-mexico.com/betsa/llantas.htm
Robert Longo draws amazing portraits using charcoal on mounted papers that are so life-like one could swear they were black and white photographs. This one above, Iceman (where's Maverick and Goose?) is part of a series of helmeted fighter jet pilots titled Yingxiong (Heroes).
In his art blog called Atlas, Spanish artist Fernando Vicente takes the distinct forms of landmasses and convert them into fantastic images. I particularly like the map of Africa turned into a skull (with Europe being the exploding head - lots of political imagery there).
Check out the entire series here: Link | Fernando's other work: Anatomías (and for those of you who like politics, check out his work for Diario El País)
For more Bizarro, definitely checkout Dan Piraro's website and blog
Love it or hate it, Twitter has certainly taken the web by storm. In just a few short years, the social networking/micro-blogging website has grown to be one 50 most popular website in the world.
As much as I am fascinated with Twitter (though I'm a bad Twitterer, Neatorama's Official Twitter is not as frequently updated as the blog), I'm more interested about what other people say about Twitter.
Here's a quickie 10 most interesting Twitter Quotes (some are from people who, ironically, don't tweet):
"oh this is going to be addictive" - Dom Sagolla, Twitter co-creator
“The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful” - Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard law professor and Internet expert (Source)
“Twitter lets me hear from a lot of people in a very short period of time.” - Robert Scoble, blogger (Source)
“Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite ‘The Iliad.’" - Bruce Sterling, science fiction writer and journalist (Source)
"Whoever said that things have to be useful?" - Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder and CEO
"For the uninitiated, here's how Twitter works - I have no f***ing idea. I have no idea how it works - or why it is." Jon Stewart, comedian and host of The Daily Show
"Facebook is to 2007 as Twitter is to 2009. It's the most open communication platform out there" - Roger Kondrat, social media consultant (Source)
"The people drawn to Twitter are people on the cutting edge, the real nerds who are resentful of the fact that the general population have found and taken over Facebook" - Steve Dotto, host of Dotto Tech (Source)
"HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY" - Oprah, yes that Oprah, on Twitter
"Ummm . . . I don’t think it’s as big of a dilemma as people seem to think. We haven’t focused on it yet and I can’t say for sure how it’s going to work." - Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder and CEO, on how Twitter will make money
The Grand Unification Theory may still be a ways off for physics, but not so for cutlery! Behold the Venn diagram of hybrid cutleries by Raynor Ganan over at the ragbag blog: Link - via Dennis Demori
