In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield outlined the top 10 most irritating phrases of the English language. (Why damp squid?)

... the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy".

Other phrases to irritate people are "literally" and "ironically", when they are used out of context.

Mr Butterfield said: "We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language."

Here they are:

1. At the end of the day


2. Fairly unique


3. I personally


4. At this moment in time


5. With all due respect


6. Absolutely


7. It's a nightmare


8. Shouldn't of


9. 24/7


10. It's not rocket science

Link to Telegraph article | Damp Squid review on The Bookbag

Can you at this moment in time come up with a fairly unique sentence that contains all ten? While it's not rocket science, at the end of the day, I personally can't!

Photo: Paul Mortfield, Stefano Cancelli

Is that a ghostly specter in the night sky? Actually that's part of The Veil Nebula, recorded through filters that show emissions from hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in greenish hues.

APOD has more details (and of course, larger photos): Link

Madonna con Clon by Hunter O'Reilly (2001)

Hunter O'Reilly is a rare mix of artist and geneticists whose art revolves around the science of biology and biotechnology. She now teaches a course titled Biology Through Art, at Loyola University Chicago, where students create artwork in a biology lab.

This painting above, titled Madonna con Clon (2001) is her abstraction on biotechnology:

A human clone may have the same DNA genome as another, but would be a unique individual with a unique personality and soul. The painting, Madonna con Clon, depicts the loving relationship between a mother and a human cloned child and the uniqueness of each.

Whether or not you agree that humans should be cloned, the first human clone will likely be created in the next few years. The term clone has negative connotations. The very word makes us think of a xerox copy. We know how identical twins are very different people with unique personalities. Identical twins have more in common than human clones will. Identical twins have the same mitochondrial DNA and are raised in the same household in the same time in history. A later born twin, a human clone, would be raised in a different environment at a different time in history. A human clone would also have different mitochrondrial DNA, unless the egg is donated by the woman being cloned. For the infertile person being cloned, the human clone would be a biological sibling, but socially, would be their child.

Link | Art Gallery

Previously on Neatorama:

• Visual DNA Art by Daniel Becker
• Glowing Bacteria Art - Stocker and Nestelbacher's GFPixel

Eighteen years after the launch of Windows 3.x, Microsofit has finally bid goodbye to the software that did much to establish its dominance in the personal computer industry.

The comparison of requirements between Windows 3.x and the latest Vista is remarkable:

Windows 3.x required an 8086/8088 processor or better that had a clock speed of up to 10MHz. It needed at least 640KB of RAM, seven megabytes of hard drive space, and a graphics card that supported CGA, EGA and VGA graphics.

By comparison, the Home Basic version of Windows Vista requires a 32-bit 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB of hard drive space, and a graphics card with at least 32MB of memory.

Previously on Neatorama: Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane

Here's reasons no. 1, 2 and 3 for never ever cleaning cobwebs off your house with a blowtorch:

Authorities said Galen Winchell set fire to his home on Smith Road in Sargent around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday as he cleaned cobwebs from exterior eaves with a blowtorch. Winchell noticed the blaze when he saw smoke pouring from the attic.

http://www.cbs46.com/news/17919628/detail.html?taf=lnta#- - Thanks t!

Keepers at the Jiaozuo City Zoo in China were worried that an orphan monkey was being bullied by bigger primates so they gave it ... a guard dog!

After being forced to intervene to save its life several times, they settled upon the trained canine, named Sai Hu, and are happy to report that it has been very successful.

"Whenever the baby monkey gets bullied, he dashes up and drives the others away. And the baby monkey is also very smart. Each time he smells danger he runs to jump on the dog's back and holds on tight. The alpha male monkey has been really unhappy since we sent in Sai Hu. He tried to organise several ambushes on the little monkey, but they all failed because of the dog," said a zoo spokesman.

Cellar IotD has the story: Link

Okay, okay - I know a lot of you are tired of the overplayed Mario Bros. theme, but bear with me this one instance.

Adrian Holovaty, one of the lead developers of the Django web framework, stumbled upon VGMix.com, an online community of amateur musicians who make recordings of video game music. Inspired, Adrian then recorded his version of the Super Mario Bros. 2 Level One theme music, in the style of gypsy jazz music of Django Reinhardt.

It's wonderful, check it out: Link (embedded YouTube clip)

That "maze" bookcase is built by German product designer René Mueller and forester Nina Griesshammer of Woodloops.

Their products are "green" (built out of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council) - but even if you don't care about all that, it's still easy to marvel at the craftsmanship and wonderful design.

Inhabitat blog has more: Link

Geoff of menegay blog put together a large webpage showcasing some 700 frontpages of newspapers from around the world (from Newseum) on the day that Barack Obama won the US Presidential Election - Link

The selections are impressive, though toward the end some newspapers apparently either didn't get the news, didn't care or had to go to press before the results were in.

The Statesman Journal's frontpage to the left should bring a smile to veteran web users. Apparently the Statesman Journal editors are Web lingo enthusiasts.

In other news, The New Mexico Sun News printed its declaration of an Obama victory one week before the actual election:

The Sun News is a bi-monthly newspaper and its Oct 26-Nov 8 issue had to hit the streets, and the newsstands, before the election. So the editors decided to make a leap of faith and declare Democrat Barack Obama the winner.

In an article explaining their choice, the editors unabashedly wrote, “When it comes to calling the winner of a presidential election, everyone wants to be first. The New Mexico Sun News hereby claims that achievement.” (Source)

Add this to the growing heap of narrowly-focused blogs on the Web: a blog dedicated to documenting the "Employees Must Wash Hands" signs from restaurants around the world!

This one to the left must have a pretty gross story behind it! Link

Photo: Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch [Flickr]

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch sees beauty in recyclables: she creates some truly awesome bustiers, garters, and underpants from recycled soda cans and hardware! When she said "trashy lingerie" who'd knew that it's truly made from trash ... oops, that's recyclables to all you enviro-nuts! ;)

Link to Ingrid's Flickr Photoset - via MAKE

We've featured a few stories about people changing their names into something outrageous, usually for protests and such, but this is the first: a teenager has changed his name into his comic book heroes!

George Garratt from Glastonbury has become Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine The Hulk And The Flash Combined.

The 19-year-old music student made the change "for a bit of a laugh", through a legally-recognised website.

He said: "I decided on a superheroes theme and whenever my friends offered up suggestions to me, I added them."

Link - via Blue's News

This is pretty cool: Behold the WhiteBoard PONG by 3D software development company ENESS of Australia. It's a regular whiteboard and regular whiteboard markers, coupled with a computer that can sense and recognize black shapes to compute how the virtual ball should behave.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | WhiteBoard PONG website

Photo: cakeyvoice [Flickr]

That's a knitted Ash Williams from Bruce Campbell's Evil Dead series, fresh from killin' (and re-killin') Deadites. The cute figurine is made by Hannah J. Simpson of cakeyvoice, who also makes other fantastic knitted minions.

Link - via Craftzine

For all you horror movie fans, don't miss Stacy's excellent four-part write-ups for Neatorama:

- The Stories Behind Three Classic Halloween Movies
- The Stories Behind Three More Horror Classics
- Horror Movie Trivia: The Trifecta
- Horror Movie Trivia Part Four: Stacy's Revenge (Evil Dead trivia are here)

Andy Latham, 33, has hyperekplexia, a weird genetic condition that makes him go rigid when startled. He's literally scared stiff!

"Some people might jump when a firework goes off, but I'm literally scared stiff," he said.

"My whole body will seize and stiffen, causing me to fall over like a dead-weight. It can be very dangerous - one year I fell over and banged my head when a firework went off and had to go to hospital and have stitches."

Mr Latham, of Great Harwood, near Accrington, Lancs, went on: "I have the major form of Hyperekplexia, which means I have an exaggerated startle response to the unexpected.

"So many things can set me off - someone touching me from behind, clapping, dogs barking, phones ringing, people shouting, car horns, people coughing.

"But fireworks are particularly bad for me because they are so loud and sudden. I dread Bonfire Night."

Link (Photo: North News & Pictures)

It's the human version of the fainting goats.