Sir Isaac Newton was born this day, January 4, In 1643. Like many great people, Newton's life began quite inauspiciously: he was born prematurely (remember, this is 1643) and was so small that he wasn't expected to live.
It's a good thing that he did, however, as Newton grew up to be the greatest scientist who ever lived.
Check out Neatorama's 10 Strange Facts about Newton for more fun facts about Sir Isaac: Link
Tariq Griffin's twin boys are special. Not only because they're twins, but because they're twins born on different days, months, and years!
Twin brother Tarrance was born a bit earlier — 26 minutes to be exact.
Tarrance Kyle Griffin Jr. was born at 11:51 p.m. Wednesday, followed by Tariq Lamont Griffin at 12:17 a.m. Thursday.
That means the boys have the unique distinction of having been born on different days, months and years.
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
Have you ever been scared yet deeply intrigued by something at the same time? Well, I'm like that with this Bacon Gumballs at the Web's strangest store, Archie McPhee. I'm not sure if it'll taste good, but how can you not try bacon gumball? Link - via Everlasting Blort
Wikipedia bills itself as the free online encyclopedia anyone can edit. And while indeed that is true, do you ever wonder who does the bulk of the work? Jimbo Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has the surprising answer:
Wales decided to run a simple study to find out: he counted who made the most edits to the site. "I expected to find something like an 80-20 rule: 80% of the work being done by 20% of the users, just because that seems to come up a lot. But it's actually much, much tighter than that: it turns out over 50% of all the edits are done by just .7% of the users ... 524 people. ... And in fact the most active 2%, which is 1400 people, have done 73.4% of all the edits." The remaining 25% of edits, he said, were from "people who [are] contributing ... a minor change of a fact or a minor spelling fix ... or something like that."
Aaron Swartz of Raw Thought has the full story: Link - via Silicon Alley Insider
I don't know how Avi Abrams of Dark Roasted Blend blog does it, but he's managed to compile one of the web's neatest gallery of wonderful, fun, and sometimes plain ol' weird photos.
I particularly like this one: The Hilarious & Crazy Signage, Part 12 (TWELVE!? When does he sleep?): Link
Environuts, ... er, green enthusiasts were up in arms when they discovered an illegal logging site in Poland's nature reserve. The police busted the culprit:
Environmentalists found 20 neatly stacked tree trunks and others marked for felling with notches at the beauty-spot at Subkowy in northern Poland.
But police followed a trail left where one tree had been dragged away - and found a beaver dam right in the middle of the river. A police spokesman said: "The campaigners are feeling pretty stupid. There's nothing more natural than a beaver."
Link - via The Evangelical Outpost
Bear skin rug is so passé - Here's something infinitely better: the Monster Skin Rug by Joshua Ben Longo of Longoland Design. It'll go very well with the Monster Skin Chair.
You can find this and other radical rugs and "must-see" mat designs on the always fascinating WebUrbanist blog: Link
Adelir Antonio de Carli the ballooning priest has just won one of the most un-coveted awards in history, the Darwin Awards. For those of you who don't know, they are awarded to those who "remove themselves from the gene pool" in a particularly stupid fashion:
Sitting for more than 19 hours in a lawn chair is not a trivial matter, even in the comfort of your own backyard. The priest took numerous safety precautions, including wearing a survival suit, selecting a buoyant chair, and packing a satellite phone and a GPS. However, the late Adelir Antonio made a fatal mistake.
He did not know how to use the GPS.
The winds changed, as winds do, and he was blown inexorably toward open sea.
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Deaths in History
I Flip For You is a 22-second-long video clip that is chock pure of awesomeness. Either that or weirdness, depending on your point of view.
Made by John Schnall of Quality Schnallity ("makers of rather strange animation).
Link [embedded YouTube clip] | Higher quality version at HDgreetings
"Neatorama isn't a cephalopod blog," but here's a marvelous art of squid art by Skot Olsen, titled "Blessed Saint Architeuthis" (2008). Skot loves the sea but was stung by a jellyfish at a tender young age, which explains a lot about his artwork: Link - via Ectoplasmosis
As far as street pranks go, this one is pretty sophisticated. And funny. Here's the "legal to pee" prank that hit Nottingham, UK:
The signs, which were put up by pranksters in and around Nottingham, are designed to look official.
They feature a toilet sign and include the words: "Public Urination Permitted After 7.30pm".
Nottingham City Council is now urging the public to ignore the notices as it sets about removing them. [...]
The prank also featured a laminated note, headed with the logo of Nottingham City Council, which said the scheme was aimed at reducing the mess faced by residents outside their homes.
Link - via Museum of Hoaxes
What profession is found to be the sexiest by women? A survey done by a London dating agency Drawing Down the Moon (date unknown, this has been floating on the Web since 2005) revealed that architects get all the ladies:
Architects are seen as being "balanced and rounded individuals who combine a creative approach with a caring, thoughtful disposition," the survey found. It concluded: "Their ability to cope with pressure of work in a relaxed manner was also deemed to be a significant plus."
Male architects beat stockbrokers, doctors, film directors and teachers to the top spot.
Link - via Swiss Miss
Those distinctive eyes, nose and lips are the hallmark of a Brazilian street artist Mundano. But instead of graffiti, this particular one graces the whole facade of a building in São Paulo. I can just imagine the lower "lips" rolling up when the store opens for the day.
Found at Wooster Collective, where one would find such things: Link | More of Mundano's street art on Flickr
Percy Bright started a pretty nifty post on BuzzFeed, one of my favorite websites on the Web. It's all about animals that, for whatever reason, sit like humans: Link
Maybe my Google-fu isn't as strong as yours, so I've just found out that you can find nifty things like line drawings, faces, and clip arts in Google Images!
Here's what you'll find if you look for line drawings of "Neatorama": Link - via Chris Glass
