Photo: Roadsidepictures [Flickr]

Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no denying that neon signs have become a big part of the urban landscape. Take, for instance, the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign above was designed by Betty Willis for the Young Electric Sign Company in 1959. She never copyrighted it, because she considered it a gift to the city - as a result, the image became synonymous with Las Vegas.

Oobject has an interesting list of The 10 Most Important Examples of Neon Signage for your enjoyment (don't miss the Vegas neon boneyard!):

The most impressive neon districts in the world include Tokyo’s Ginza and Shibuya, Osaka’s Dotonburi which was the inspiration for Blade Runner, the worlds largest shopping street, Nanjing Road in Shanghai and, of course, Vegas and Times Square. Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy district (named after an American who opened one of the first go go bars in the 70s) deserves inclusion on account of its unpleasant strangeness, with live elephants paraded up and down the pink neon streets.

Link

Photo: CraftyHedgehog

Sure it's a little bit morbid, but at least it's creative (remember that line?) Etsy user Emily Stoneking created this knitted lab rat and put it on a real dissection tray that we all surely remember from high school. At least this particular "dissection" doesn't smell bad at all: Link

If you like that, check out more geeky Knit Art and Yarn Graffiti and 176 Great Geek Approaches to Design, Art & Technology at our pal Web Urbanist - Thanks Mu!

We noticed a few comments complaining about ads with sound on Neatorama. We'd like to apologize for that and we want you to know that it's not cool - we don't purposely run ads with self-playing audio on the blog

Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to find that one rogue ad (I haven't run across it myself), so we need your help: please let us know which ad is the culprit - and if you could, please include the result of this cookie dump, so we can really track down and ban the bugger: http://ad.yieldmanager.com/cookie (you can email both to alex AT neatorama DOT com, if you don't want to put that in the comment)

Thank you!

Photo credits: Kevin Conger (top left), Nancy Conger (top right), Tom Fox (bottom)

The Crack Garden is an award-winning project by CMG Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, California. The project transforms a desolate concrete landscape into a lush garden:

Inspired by the tenacious plants that pioneer the tiny cracks of urban landscapes, a backyard is transformed through hostile takeover of an existing concrete slab by imposing a series of "cracks". The rows of this garden contain a lushly planted mix of herbs, vegetables, flowers, and rogue weeds retained for their aesthetic value.

Link - via Pruned

Happiest People Ever is a tumblr blog dedicated to preserving photographs of happy people who just happen to forget to smile when their photos were taken. Can't you see that they're smiling on the inside? Link - via Look At This

Remember the dramatic prairie dog? Well, here's what he knew from way back when in 2007: dramatic moments in your life need a soundtrack.

But where can you get one? Just head on over to the Drama Button. It's for all of life's unnecessary drama - via The Presurfer

Photo: Adam Voorhes

Designer Cody Haltom Ad agency The Butler Bros. (Thanks Marty!) created this set of alphabet for a Houston-based home furnishing store High Fashion Home, out of the furnitures in the store. Clever, ain't it? Link - via Josh Spear

The economy is so bad that even princesses have to take time from whatever it is princesses do every day and actually get a job. One Princess Amerah of Salt Lake City, Utah, got herself a sweet gig: you can rent her to host your kid's birthday party!

Don't let my daughter see this or I'd have to fly the Princess in for her next birthday party ... Link - via J-Walk Blog

Researchers at the North Carolina State University has developed a machine that can keep a heart beating outside the body. The potential medical benefit is huge, though for whatever reason I kept on thinking about Dr. Frankenstein:

"Researchers can obtain pig hearts from a pork processing facility and use the system to test their prototypes or practice new surgical procedures," says Andrew Richards, a Ph. D. student in mechanical engineering at NC State who designed the heart machine.

The computer-controlled machine, which operates using pressurized saline solution, also allows researchers to film the interior workings of the pumping heart - enabling them to ascertain exactly which surgical technologies and techniques perform best for repairing heart valves.

Link - via jwz

Oh, there's a video all right:

[YouTube Clip]

Photo: Gustavo Sanabria

Who knows why the Department of Public Works in Madrid drilled these holes in the asphalt of the same street as the year before - but one thing we do know: they set the stage for urban street art team Luzinterruptus' art installation "Luminous Craters."

Link | More at Gustavo Sanabria's Flickr photoset: Link - via Invisible Red

What's more awesome than Star Wars? How about a cross stitch of lightsaber duelin' jedi Kirby by Flickr user gamerghoul13? Link - via Geekadelphia

Talkin' bout Jedi Kirby, here's an animated gif by deviantArt user Yoshio1pal. Marvel at the awesomeness (or similarity to Star Wars Kid [wiki]) and weep:

Photo: Leah

McDonald's food is often the butt of jokes, but those days are gone if foodie Georgia Hardstark of The State That I Am In blog and her friend Alie Ward of Curiology have their way.

You see, they've concocted that could surely be called as the perfect alcoholic beverage/dinner/dessert, the McNuggitini:

Recipe by Alie and Georgia

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

2 McNuggz (plus more for snacking)
1 tub McDonalds Brand Barbeque Sauce (plus more for licking off pinky finger)
1 lg. Mcdonalds Brand Chocolate Milkshake (plus more for bringing all the boys to the yard)
1 bottle Vanilla Vodka (recommended brand: Absolut)

Open the McDonalds bag. Eat one McNugg each, followed by two bites of the Filet-o-Fish (make sure you don't tell anyone that you eat Filet-o-Fishes).

Mix three or four shots of vanilla vodka in the McDonalds Brand Chocolate Milkshake, followed by one shot each directly into your mouth.

Rim each martini glass with McDonalds Brand Barbeque Sauce, and pour milkshake/vodka mixture into the glass. Garnish with a McNugg (which is to be swiped along barbeque sauce rimmed glass after the milkshake has been finished, and consumed with pure, unadulterated glee).

Details at This Recording blog: Link - via Didn't You Hear?

Forget electronics, the coolest thing in robotics may just be something squishy like a walking gel that inches along just like a caterpillar:

Shingo Maeda and colleagues made the colour-changing, motile gel by combining polymers that change in size depending on their chemical environment. This is based on an oscillating chemical reaction called the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The result is an autonomous material that moves without electronic stimulation. [...]

Polymers used in the gel shrink and grow in response to ruthenium bipyridine ions, alternately losing and gaining electrons in the cyclical reaction. That effect has been known for some time, but hasn't been used to make a self-locomoting material on such a scale before, says Maeda.

Link (with video clip) - via Cliff Pickover's Reality Carnival

Who says that radiators have to be boxy and boring? Take a look at this squiggly DAS Hugs modular radiator that can be molded into any shape you want. As long as it resembles squiggly noddle, that is: Link - via Cribcandy

Wanna-be pilots have Flight Simulator, Microsoft's iconic computer game, but what about those who want to steer a cargo ship? Enter PlanetInAction's "Ships", an online simulation that uses Google Earth to let you get in touch with your inner helmsman and steer your own fleet of ships from barges to the cruise ship Queen Mary 2.

Link | YouTube Clip - via Kris Abel's Tech Life