Crop circles are so passé - the next big thing are ... ice circles!

As circles and rings in ice-covered lakes and river-bays have become a relatively numerous documented phenomenon - especially in Scandinavian and other northern European and American countries, the latest case of an ice-circle in Russia (exact location and date of discovery unfortunately unknown) just adds another case of this most likely naturally caused circle-phenomenon.

Some believe that the natural explanation for this phenomenon are underwater vortices cause by through-running streams that follow natural outlines of bays and coves just as visible also in the above shown images, as well as differences in the water's temperature that might impact also the forming of the above ice-structure in such a way.

However, some rare examples of geometrically more complex patterns put the above described theory to the test - at least if presented as a simple single vortex-system or as the sole explanation for all patters in ice.

Link | English Russia has more pics

Like an old pair of jeans that got back in style, when gas prices are stratospheric, so are "classics" like the Honda Civics and Geo Metros of the 80's and 90's.

Ken Bensinger of The Los Angeles Times has a neat article on the next "it" cars, those old tiny sedans you couldn't wait to get rid of for SUVs when gas was $1.25!

Another favorite among hypermilers is the Geo Metro, a bare-bones car sold by GM in the late '80s and early '90s that came in an extremely efficient XFi version. That car, powered by a tiny, 1-liter, three-cylinder engine, had no air conditioner and came in one pony short of 50 horsepower. But it was rated at 55 mpg, it's a snap to work on and parts are readily available.

This spring, Stephen Mills, a mechanic in Midland, N.C., spotted a surge in demand and began buying up Geo Metros to restore and sell on EBay.

His first restoration, a 1993 model with low mileage, sold in June for $8,075, an amazing price considering the car sold for little more than $6,000 when new. Since then, he's sold one for $7,200 and another for $6,500 and has eight more Metros he's sprucing up for sale.

"I started to think these would go out of sight once the price of gas went up," says Mills, whose first customer was an attorney tired of pumping gas into a 16-mpg Honda Pilot.

According to Experian Automotive, 11,318 XFi models were registered in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year, a high number for a car that's been out of production for nearly 15 years.

Link

(Photo: Lori Shepler/LA Times)

If you think belly flopping from the side of the pool hurts, imagine doing it from high up. Waaay high up! Here is Darren "Professor Splash" Taylor's record-breaking high dive from 35 feet into just 12 inches of water. Kids, don't try this at home: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

And as if that's not bad ass enough, Darren will try to break his own world record by jumping from 40 feet next week on Jimmy Kimmel's TV show.

To fight dwindling congregations, some churches are encouraging worshippers to attend online dating courses to learn how to flirt:

Peter Spalton, known as the dating doctor, said that churchgoers tended to be more reserved and could benefit from tips on how to appear more attractive.

Lessons include how to greet someone, how to hold good eye contact and how to judge whether the other person wants to be kissed at the end of the evening.

They can even learn some Christian pick up lines:

'Now I know why Solomon had 700 wives. He never met you.'

'Is this pew taken?'

'I just don't feel called to celibacy.'

'You float my ark.'

'I didn't believe in predestination until tonight.'

'My parents are home, wanna come over?'

'Is that a thinline, duo-tone, compact, ESV travel bible in your pocket?'

'Let me sell you an indulgence - it's a sin to look as good as you.'

'How many times do I have to walk around you before you fall for me?"

'I like to arrange the substantial Christian section of my bookshelf into alphabetical order. Coffee?"

'The name is Will. God's Will.'

Link - via Arbroath

Language purists think that English is a weed that keeps on popping up in the linguistic garden that is their native tongue. Take for instance, the Italians:

From 'il weekend' to 'lo stress' and 'le leadership', Italians increasingly sprinkle their conversations with English terms, some of them comically mangled and bizarre sounding to a native English speaker. [...]

As with the French and their use of Franglais, Italians sometimes throw in English words to appear worldly and cosmopolitan, and at other times to describe things slightly alien to the Italian mindset, from 'il fitness' to 'il full immersion training'.

But now the Dante Alighieri Society, the cultural guardian of Italy, wanted the "Anglitaliano" to stop. Their first step was to determine the ugliest English words that had infected lingua Italiana:

Over the last four months the society, named after the Florentine poet Dante, author of The Divine Comedy and regarded as the father of the Italian language, asked visitors to its website to nominate their least favourite Anglicisms.

The results judge the ugliest imports to be 'weekend', 'welfare' and 'OK', followed by 'briefing', 'mission', 'know how', 'shampoo' and 'cool'.

The worlds of business and politics contribute many of the alien words, from 'question time' to 'premier' and 'bipartisan'.

Link

This is just like a plot of a crime novel. A dog named Scooby (yes, after the cartoon character) has created a legal history by appearing as a witness in a murder case in France:

The animal's 59-year-old owner had been found hanging from the ceiling of her Paris flat. Police believe it was suicide but her family say that it was murder.

The dog was in the flat at the time of the death.

During a preliminary hearing in the city, the pet was led into the witness box by a vet. A suspect in the case was presented to the dog, to see how it reacted. It is said to have 'barked furiously'.

The aim was to decide if there was sufficient evidence to launch a full murder inquiry.

Link

It was a match made in Heaven. Well, no, actually it was a match made by zookeepers: 7-year-old Wukong wed 6-year-old Xiaoya during a special ceremony at a zoo in Wenling, Zhejiang province in China.

It was all a publicity stunt, though the the flower bears didn't seem to mind.

Link

Neglected Sensibles Shelter is a Flash microsite (epileptic warning: a couple seconds of flashing sequence) where you can regain your "sensible" (sensibility?).

Apparently it's a small cuddly thing you can feed and pet (or poke, slap, spin, and throw around if you're not feeling sensible): http://www.saveyoursensible.com/ - Thanks Jon Jason!

If cuddly little blob isn't your thing, here's a virtual pet spider you can drag around and feed little insects.

An interactive Flash website by Tomas Eriksson, and needless to say, not for arachnophobics! Link - Thanks Mary!

Photo: Steve took it [Flickr]

Scienceray blog has a really neat post on macro photography of dew drops:

In his poem Hyperion, Longfellow said, “Every dew-drop and rain-drop had a whole heaven within it." What would he make of today's world of micro and macrophotography? To say his words had an element of truth in them might be assuming that the camera never lies. However it can hardly be doubted that he would find joy in this collection of outstanding photographs. Perhaps he would feel that they represented the inner peace for which he was searching.

This is just wonderful: Link - Thanks Taliesyn Jones!

Behold the carpet sofas, creations of Dutch artist Tonio de Roover. The sofas, called "East Meets West," look like you're sitting on magic flying carpets! Link

See more neat looking sofas at Freshome's 35 of the Most Unique & Creative Sofa Designs

Remember the "Guess the Movie Logo" game from Empire Online we featured a while ago on Neatorama? Well, here's something similar from Axonoïd: Can you guess the website from one letter of its logo?

Link - Thanks Mike Hill!

Web Urbanist blog did a really neat (and thorough!) job exploring the artwork of the world's most infamous - and mysterous - graffiti artist, Banksy:

And although the pseudonym and the signature style of the artist are well known, there’s not much else that we know for sure about Banksy. A few tidbits of information are widely accepted: he is from Bristol, UK, and got involved in graffiti art sometime in the early 90s. He began to gain widespread notoriety around 2003. He was born in or around 1974 and sports a silver tooth. He is, according to the few people who have met him as Banksy, an unassuming and typical-looking man.

His refusal to be interviewed in person or even to reveal his real name has added to his mystique over the years. In the UK (and, increasingly, in other parts of the world) Banksy-spotters claim to know the artist’s real identity on a fairly regular basis. Although he’s been caught on CCTV a few times, he is clever enough to keep his identity a mystery.

Link - Thanks Kurt!

(Photo: Noisehead [Flickr])

Suzanne Broughton of Emphasis Mine blog was going through her sixth grade yearbook when she came across this inscription from James Cox:

From the looks of it, he originally thought he was writing in Wendy's yearbook.

When he realized his mistake, he quite appropriately crossed out her name and replaced it with mine ...then he crossed out that whole "I think you are a total BABE!" bit.

He could have made a tad more of an effort. At least he still wanted me to have a "rad summer!"

Link - via Miss Cellania

Photo: Boucherie Moderne / Bizarre Mag

Is this the next step in tattoo technology? Here's a 3D tattoo by Jean-François Palumbo of Boucherie Moderne:

The diamond uses the same crimson and blue, but to different effect. Don 3D glasses and the stone ‘jumps out’ at you. In fact, this three dimensional optical illusion even works to some extent without 3D specs. I’d like to create something more complex in my next tattoo – fish that appear to be swimming beneath a 3D layer of water, for example.

Link - Thanks Kate!