This has got to be one of the strangest ways to die:
Police say a woman has died on the way to a cemetery when a traffic accident hurled her husband's coffin against the back of her neck.
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Deaths in History
Alex Santoso's Blog Posts
Photo: M. Rauschert / Census of Marine Life
Here's the cutest little octopus you'll see today: the smiling Megaleledone setebos octopus found by the Census of Marine Life Project.
National Geographic has more:
"It's quite cute," but the squinting eyes are just skin folds (the real eyes are off to the sides), and the smile is "just sort of color patterns," said biologist Jan Strugnell of the University
of Oxford.
Previously on Neatorama:
In these difficult times, manufacturers don't want to raise prices but at the same time they face rising costs, so they elect to shrink the product. But they do so sneakily ... behold the incredible shrinking peanut butter jar:
... a careful look at the jars of Skippy on the shelves may reveal a surprise. The prices are about the same, but the jars are getting smaller.
They don't look different in size or shape. But recently, the jars developed a dimple in the bottom that slices the contents to 16.3 ounces from 18 ounces -- about 10% less peanut butter.
The only way to know you are buying less is to look at the weight on the label and recognize it's lighter than before Unilever, owner of the Skippy brand, switched out containers.
Across the supermarket, manufacturers are trimming packages, nipping a half-ounce off that bar of soap, narrowing the width of toilet paper and shrinking the size of ice cream containers.
Often the changes are so subtle that they create "the illusion that you are buying the same amount," explained Frank Luby, a pricing consultant with Simon-Kucher & Partners of Cambridge, Mass.
(Photo: Steven Senne/AP)
Think you have a lot of pets? Try this one for size:
About 800 small dogs, including Chihuahuas, terriers and Pomeranians, were seized from a triple-wide mobile home whose occupants were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals, authorities said Wednesday.
Pima County sheriff's deputies and animal welfare officials who removed the dogs also found 82 caged parrots in the home in a rural area northwest of Tucson.
That surely beats the previous record we saw on Neatorama: Russian Cat Lady Lives with 130 Cats
Our pal WebUrbanist blog has a really neat post about 42 of the most fantastic prefab architecture and flat pack furniture designs. These aren't your usual IKEA furniture, folks - check it out: Link
Miss Cellania has a fun list "You know you're Australian if ..." on her blog. Includes such gems as:
3. You think it's normal to have a leader called Kevin.
9. You pronounce Melbourne as "Mel-bin".
7. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.
I can't believe there's no mention of barbie: Link
You better have the skills of the Caped Crusader when you wear this Batman costume hoodie, because you're surely asking for someone to beat you up (either because they want it, or they just like to beat up nerds!)
This Batman Costume Hooded Sweatshirt is based on the original gray Caped Crusader Bat-suit. The outside of the hood features Batman’s ears. The inside of the hood features a “drop down” mask that can be worn or kept folded under the hood. The cape can be easily taken off with metal snaps.
When Pingu the baby penguin had to be separated from its family because its greedy brother ate all of its food, zookeepers were afraid that it was lonely ... so they got it a penguin doll!
'The cuddly penguin toy is something for the chick to cosy up to and be comforted by - a surrogate family for the time being.' Pingu is living in a snug den made out of foam matting and towels with a shelter to imitate a normal burrow. [...]
Keeper Lois Rowell added: 'The chick is quiet but quite inquisitive. It enjoys a shallow warm bath and being preened by us when its feathers need a clean up.' The youngster will return to the colony when it is strong enough to compete with the others for food.
As well as a stuffed penguin Pingu also cuddles up to a toy puffin.
Link - via Scribal Terror
Photo: Adam Gerrard / SWNS
Super Punch blog found a really bizarre squeeze toy (office de-stresser?) in shape of the Hulk's head. When you squeeze it, Hulk shows his rage by ... um, vomiting his brain out!
Link (embedded YouTube link)
Every year, the New Oxford American Dictionary announces its word of the year: "hypermiling."
“Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs this web site. “Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.
Many of the methods followed by hypermilers are basic common sense—drive the speed limit, avoid hills and stop-and-go traffic, maintain proper tire pressure, don’t let your car idle, get rid of excess cargo—but others practiced by some devotees may seem slightly eccentric:
• driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals)
• parking so that you don’t have to back up to exit the space
• “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining
Other words of the year finalists and shortlist include: frugalista, topless meeting (not what you think), carrotmob, link bait and so on.
Link - Thanks Rebecca Ford!
Previously on Neatorama: 2007 Word of the Year: Locavore
It's never too early to get your kids used to the idea that it's a dog eat dog world out there ... and FAO Schwarz (who knows how *hard* retail stores have it these days ...) can help. Behold the "Food Chain Friends":
Food Chain Friends are from Daro, a small green planet much like Earth was 200 million years ago. Daro teems with wildlife, and its exceptionally social and gracious species flourish in a complex - but oddly, very friendly - ecosystem. They're friends. They eat each other. It's a complicated relationship!
http://www.fao.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=12210&celRecommendationType=Product&celCampaignName=undefined&celPHName=FAOCrossSell&celSourceId=12211&celTargetId=12210 - Thanks Tiffany!
The bad economy got ya? Are you broke? Well, here's what one David Thorne tried to settle his debt with: a picture of a spider.
Read the hilarious back and forth between him and the (not-so-amused) company: Link | The original website
Caption: At top - customers sit at ease selecting groceries as shelf moves past. Lower photo shows clerk restocking the endless shelves. Inset shows operation of the novel store.
Modern Mechanix blog has a snippet from a new self-service store c. 1933 where instead of you roaming the aisles, the aisles roamed YOU! (Sorry, Yakov) It's not in Soviet Russia, instead it was in Los Angeles:
Moving Shelves Pass Customers in New Self-service Store
CUSTOMERS sit at ease as shelves move past them in a new self-service market opened in Los Angeles. The shelves are attached to an endless chain. The customers sit on stools before a counter and pick the groceries they want as the shelves move by. The moving shelf is 157 feet long and makes a complete revolution every eight minutes.
A great number of customers can be served simultaneously without the need of clerks to wait on them. As they leave the store the goods are checked by a cashier. The endless shelf passes around the rear of the store where the shelves are restocked.
The units of the endless shelf are neatly arranged, the various types of food, such as jams or canned vegetables being grouped together for easy selection. The shelf is driven by an electric motor.
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