Scienceray has a pretty neat article comparing the "ugly duckling" caterpillar that morphed into beautiful butterflies. These photos above are of the Common Nawab. The caterpillar stage is freakishly fascinating!
Link - thanks Jon Jason!
Previously on Neatorama: World's Weirdest Moths
Attention hip and design-obsessed conscious people! You've got a cute dog and great clothes to walk your dog in, but are you going to use a regular ol' plastic bag to pick up its poo? Noooooo, of course not. You'll want, nay need, these awesomely designed dog poo bags by Nina Dautzenberg and Andrea Gadesmann of Junge Schactel.
Japan is still the king of weird ice cream flavors, but France isn't far behind after gourmet ice cream maker Philippe Faur released the ... foie gras and caviar ice cream!
Link - Thanks Marilyn Terrell!
It took 1,800 people and six days to rebuild the Harper family's home in
ABC's 2005 "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
... but it took just one bad decision for the family to lose it all:
More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed. [...]
ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.
Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.
"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
They need another Extreme Home Makeover, please! http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/TV/TV_Extreme_Makeover_Foreclosure.html (Photo: ABC) - Thanks Geekazoid!
Alan Yang's webcomic Penguin Sauce is all about a geeky penguin who's obsessed with video games and sandwiches.
Alan started drawing his comic 10 years ago, but he has just started putting them on the web back in May, with new entries almost every day (it's quite interesting to see how the Penguin and Alan's drawing style evolve over time).
http://www.penguincomic.com/ - Thanks Alan!
Update 7/30/08 -Wow, that was fast! Alan of Penguin Sauce drew this for us after we linked to his blog - Thanks Alan!:
Bad idea: gambling
Really bad idea: gambling in a casino (the house always win!)
Neatorama-worthy: gambling in a casino, betting with ... weed! And it was all captured on camera.
The man claimed that it was legal, because he had a medical marijuana card!
Sadly, this "bloody" table is only an art concept by John Nouanesing. Check the rest of John's portfolio ... someone gotta make these things for real! http://www.johnnouanesing.net/catalogue%20UK.html - via Geekadelphia
BTW, Eric Smith and Tim Quirino of Geekadelphia were interviewed by Philly Weekly, and were kind enough to mention Neatorama as one of their inspirations - Thanks Eric!
One of my favorite blogs, WebUrbanist, has a neat post about homes "recycled" from other things. Like this airplane house, for instance:
Joanne Ussery, a hairdresser, was looking for a new mobile home to put next to the lake when her brother-in-law, an air traffic controller, had an unorthodox suggestion. She paid $2,000 for the 727 fuselage, $4,000 for a house-moving company to move it to her lot, and six months and $25,000 to renovate it. The resulting house has some unusual features, and is built to last; (Source)
Check out the rest of the 7 Superb Examples of Recycled Urban Architectures - Thanks Marilyn Terrell!
In 1832, English author William Hone (1780 - 1842) published The Year Book of daily Recreation and Information*, an almanac of sorts in which included this quirky and wonderful "Alphabet for Beginners" (amazing they still apply today):
*The complete title is: The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information;
concerning Remarkable Men and Manners, Times and Seasons, Solemnities and Merry-Makings, Antiquities and Novelties, Forming a Complete History of the Year; and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac. By William Hone. The book was re-published again and again, with longer and longer title each time.
Google may be the big fish on the Net, but Google Street View Car got no respect from the cops on the street! Neatorama reader Chris Whiteoak sent us these series of photographs of a Google car being pulled over by the police ... here's the story, in Chris' own words:
I'm from Bradford, United Kingdom. I was just going on my lunch break at work today and i noticed a black car that had stopped at a red light. It had a "google" sticker on the side, and a large camera "thing" on the top. I decided to pull out my camera phone to take a pic, but just as i did a police car pulled up right behind it and put on it's lights and officer inside was motioning the car to pull over.
I then realised why, as the car was in the lane to go straight ahead, which was marked "bus / bicycle / taxi only", before i could take another pic, the google car sped off, went nearly the whole way round the block in busy Bradford city centre (the police still following now with lights and siren on!), before eventually pulling into a car park... which just happened to be the car park to the old police station!!!
When i eventually caught up i did manage to get a picture of the police car and the Google car pulled over in the car park, after which the officer got out of the car and started asking me not to take pictures! lol
Also, I'm hoping when they put the street level view for Bradford on google maps, am hoping there will be a cheeky pic of me taking a pic of the google car, which i can then upload to google earth my pic of the google car taking a pic of me (if that makes sense?!? lol) :-D
And now, the photos:
Let us know if there's a picture of you taking a picture of the Google Car on Google Earth and thanks Chris!
In her project Fold Loud, artist JooYoun Paek created a very neat "musical origami," where by folding a piece of paper, you'd be making electrical contacts to control the music:
Each fold is assigned to a different human vocal sound so that combinations of folds create harmonies. Users can fold multiple Fold Loud sheets together to produce a chorus of voices. Opened circuits made out of conductive fabric are visibly stitched onto the sheets of paper which creates a meta-technological aesthetic. When the sheets are folded along crease lines, a circuit is closed like a switch.
Link [auto-playing video with music demonstrating Fold Loud] - via Craft, thanks Becky!
Previously on Neatorama: Pillow + Wig = Pillowig, Self-Sustainable Chair, also by JooYoun Paek
Go Gators! After a 15-year struggle on the list, University of Florida has finally clinched the number one spot ... of the Princeton Review's Top 20 Party Schools!
The University of Florida can raise a glass to another national title — best party school in the country. The Gators, known for wild celebrations following national championships in football and basketball, wrested the party title away from West Virginia University and beat out the University of Mississippi and Penn State University, in the Princeton Review survey of 120,000 students released Monday.
The university has made the top 20 party school list for the past 15 years, but has never been No. 1.
Freshman Allison Belanger, a journalism and political science major, said she's only been on campus for a few weeks but already has had no problem finding a party. "All I have to do is leave the dorm," said Belanger, 17. "A lot of people study hard and party hard."
How about the nation's "Stone-Cold Sober Schools" list? Topping that is Utah's Brigham Young University, which has the top spot for the 11th consecutive year.
Link - Thanks Geekazoid!
You'd think that Steven Spielberg's first movie would be all about dinosaurs and aliens or something like that - but you'd be wrong. Very wrong: here's Amblin' (1968), the first film written and directed by Spielberg:
The film is a short story set during the hippy era of the late ’60s about a young couple who meet up in the desert, become friends, then lovers and make their way to a paradisiacal beach.
Link [embedded YouTube Link, 25 min long - and no, I didn't watch it all as - honestly - it was kind of boring ...] | Here's an interview with Spielberg about his first movie (and its connection to Indiana Jones) - Thanks Juergen!
We all hate commuting to work, but Dave Prager of Our Delhi Struggle blog really, really hates his commute. After all, the traffic is murder and the scenery is worse. That's because two years ago, the Indian government decided that a bustling shopping mall was an "illegal construction" that needed to be sealed. And by sealed they meant half-heartedly destroy with a bulldozer ...
Here are some snapshots of Dave's daily commute:
What in India do I hate more than MG Road? Nothing. There is nothing in all of India worse than Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, that ten kilometer stretch of pain upon which I stop-and-go for three hours of my day. MG Road is construction: the Delhi Metro, erecting itself on giant cement pylons, selfishly hogging the center two lanes in the name of urban planning and traffic reduction… what right does a transit system opening in 2010 have to inconvenience me in 2008?
MG Road is also destruction. Once upon a time the road gleamed with shopping malls and furniture stores; but two years ago, the government decided that these were illegal constructions necessary to be sealed. “Sealing” in practice means halfhearted bulldozing — enough to discourage inhabitance while creating the impression that you travel to Gurgaon by way of Beirut.
Link | Another "sealed" building in India - Thanks Dave!
