Afraid of being buried alive, Brazilian resort operator Freud de Melo (yes, I know ...) built a vault complete with air, food, television and megaphones!

Under the shade of ficus trees stands the stone burial chapel that 73-year-old Freud de Melo built. Wind chimes tinkle above the wrought-iron door.

But it isn't a conventional final resting place. Inside the crypt, there's a TV, also a water pitcher and a fruit pantry. Fresh outdoor air flows in through four vents from the chapel roof. Within reach of the coffin are two makeshift megaphones -- plastic cones attached to tubes running out through the wall.

One Saturday recently, Mr. de Melo lay in the coffin, shouting into the cones in a voice that echoed into the countryside. "Help me! Come quick! I've been buried alive!"

It was only an equipment check -- not an actual emergency. Mr. de Melo, a resort operator and politician, built a burial vault he could survive in because he's gripped by a rare condition called taphephobia, the fear of being buried alive. "I have awful, awful nightmares of trying to dig myself out from underground," says Mr. de Melo, whose physician father named him, presciently, for the pioneer of dream analysis.

Link

Photo: Matt Moffett / The Wall Street Journal

I just couldn't resist this one: a tawny owl was spotted snoozing inside a hollowed-out tree branch in Christchurch Park, Ipswich, England.

After a hard night terrorising the local vole population, this little owl is trying to catch up on some well-deserved shuteye.

But, snuggling into its cosy hidey-hole, the tawny owl hasn't twigged that its cover has been blown by the fall of autumn leaves. [...] Now, despite its best efforts to blend into the woody background --not to mention keeping its eyes tightly closed, it seems the owl may have to bow to the inevitable and start hunting for a new home.

Link | O RLY Shirt

(Photo: Alban pix)

Photo: Sharon Hill

As if the vampire bats aren't scary enough, scientists have just found a previously unknown population of vampire moths! The similarity between this species and a purely fruit-eating species seems to indicate evolution in action:

Entomologist Jennifer Zaspel at the University of Florida in Gainesville said the discovery suggests the moth population could be on an "evolutionary trajectory" away from other C. thalictri populations. This is the second population of vampire moths Zaspel and her team have found. They discovered the first in Russia in 2006.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: World's Weirdest Moths

The worldwide economic woes aren't just limited to humans so Claudia Hollm has opened the Berlin's first soup kitchen ... for dogs!

A soup kitchen exclusively for dogs has opened its doors in Berlin providing pets of the homeless and unemployed with a free meal, the director of the establishment said on Friday.

Despite the looming financial crisis, director Claudia Hollm dismissed criticism that it may be more sensible to collect money for humans than for dogs.

"Nowadays people underestimate dogs. They are incredibly important for those who lack social contact with other humans," Hollm told Reuters.

Link (Photo: VG Nett om Dyrene)

Photo: Juliet Doyle

Juliet Doyle took some interesting photos of boatsheds in the island of Lindisfarne (or the Holy Island), England. The sheds are made from upturned fishing boats and used for storage by the island's fishermen.

Check out more pics at Juliet's blog: Link - via materialicious

What do you get when you cross a classic Airstream with a baby carriage? Behold The Pramulator by artist John Knott aka Bent Fabrication. It's made from hand-shaped aluminum panels and antique baby stroller parts.

It's a USO (Unidentified Strolling Object), I think: Link - via MAKE

Some games just go unusually well mashed up together. Like Jenga and Donkey Kong, for instance. It's so obvious that I'm surprised this hasn't been done before! Link - via Wonderland

A derelict pub in Liverpool, England, just saw its value more than doubled because it has a Banksy graffiti:

A bizarre bidding frenzy has broken out over a derelict pub... because it is adorned with Britain's most valuable piece of Banksy graffiti.

The Whitehouse pub is on the market for just £495,000, but art experts say the huge image of a rat holding a machine gun that covers the building could be worth £1 million.

Despite the housing market slump, with average prices in Liverpool falling by 16 per cent, estate agents Sutton Kersh have been inundated with offers above the asking price.

But the majority of bids have been from canny investors wanting to buy the graffiti at a bargain basement price.

Hey, let's invite Banksy to graffiti on all those empty, foreclosed houses in the US!

Link

(Photo: Mercury Press Agency Ltd)

Artist Brendan Jamison creates awesome sculptures out of sugar cubes. If you think the picture above is awesome, wait till you see the whole sculpture: Link - via grow-a-brain

Now, if only he used the sugar cube cinder blocks ...

That's a knitted motorcycle "cozy" by Washington DC artist Theresa Honeywell. For her artwork series titled KNIT!, Theresa uses the traditionally feminine mediums of knitting to um, embellish "macho" subjects like a motorcycle and a jackhammer. Oh, don't miss her embroidered lace tattoos artwork!

Link - via Reuben Miller, Thanks Reuben!

If you're not tired of political ads, take a gander at Nerve.com's neat post of the 20 greatest political campaign ads of all time (yes, the Wazzup 2008 ad made it to the list, but the neat stuff are all the past campaigns. Oh, and by "great" they mean "effective" - some of the best are very, very negative.)

I was delighted to see this one, "Mrs. JFK" 1960:

John Kennedy had commercials starring Henry Fonda and Harry Belafonte, but his best booster may have been his Missus, who in her public appearances was eager to show that she wasn't just a pretty face: she was a pretty face who'd managed to retain some of her finishing-school Spanish. It may not be possible now to fully understand what a jolt it was for the country to see a future First Lady looking fairly hot while signing off with the announcement, "Viva Kennedy!" But Mamie Eisenhower must have had a funny feeling in her bones that her job description had just been rewritten.

http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/20-greatest-campaign-ads-of-all-time/index.asp?page=1 - Thanks Nicole Ankowski!

Photo: zerega [Flickr]

Actually, it only looks like a Soviet death ray gun. The rusting structure is actually part of the Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory near the Great Almaty Lake, Kazakhstan. Environmental Graffiti blog has more: Link

The Domestic Scientist has the plan for all you crafty video game lovers: free cross-stich patterns for "Home is Where The Controller Is," complete various video game controllers. http://thedomesticscientist.com/2008/09/08/home-is-where-the-controller-is/ - via Craftzine

This is pretty cool: artist Emmanuel Guibert draws ... with water! Check out the technique on this short YouTube clip (wait for it ... wait for it ...)

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Boing Boing | Interview with the artist at Newsarama

Hey! I just noticed that someone put Neatorama on Twitter. But who? (Certainly not me, I don't use Twitter) Does Twitter automatically create accounts for blogs?