Got a long boring meeting? Don't get caught dozing empty handed, prepare yourself with this "Pilo Pilo" mini cushion ring from Downstairs Studio. This pillow ring lets you lean your face comfortably on a soft cushion instead of your hard, bony fingers.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/06/pilo-pilo.html | Downstairs Studio's website [Flash]

Having three cats means living with three sets of cat poo, sometimes more when the kitties go twice a day. So soniaz of Unplggd blog decided to get the Litter Robot, the Death Star of self-cleaning litter boxes. Here's what she has to say about it:

We have to say it was impressive how much it diminished the smell. We used to dread coming home after a few hours away because, if someone pooped, we’d know just by walking into the building – not even into our apartment. Now, with the Litter Robot, we weren’t sure if anyone had went until we checked the drawer.

While the lack of smell was a major plus, the noise wasn’t. We couldn’t keep this sucker on at night since when it went through its cycle it would wake us up. This won’t be a problem for those of you living in larger apartments, or houses. The noise is pretty minimal, but when your bed is 10 feet away it’s hard not to wake up, and like your cats, think the sky is falling.

The cats luckily got pretty used to the whole thing and went in and out without a hitch – well, most of them did. One kitty (Dim Sum!) wasn’t too into putting her entire behind into the Litter Robot. While the LR is huge, its actual pooping area is rather small – 14 inches across with the max amount of litter inside. Dim Sum, the calico, had a tendency of going in just enough (or not enough) to get her pooper inside. The result: finding little presents on the trigger step. Not sure if this is the Litter Robot’s fault or my r-tard cat’s fault.

Link

Microbiologist Gareth Williams at Cardiff University, UK, discovered something disturbing about antibacterial wipes: they may actually spread drug-resistant bacteria rather than kill them!

The research, which focused on the use of antibacterial wipes in hospitals, show that poor hospital practices can actually spread the dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA):

Experts have been saying for years that poor hospital practices spread dangerous bacteria, and yet many studies have shown that health care workers, including doctors and nurses, often fail to even wash their hands as directed.

The findings from a study of intensive care units at two Welsh hospitals suggest that even cleaning with antimicrobial wipes may not be enough depending on how staff use them.

The researchers found that many health care workers cleaned multiple surfaces near patients, such as bed rails, monitors and tables with a single wipe and risked sweeping the infections around rather than cleaning them up.

"We found that the most effective way to prevent the risk of MRSA spread in hospital wards is to ensure the wipe is used only once on one surface," Williams said.

Link

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama (Photo: vargas2040)

So, it has happened: a last-minute rush of Democratic superdelegates clinched Senator Barack Obama the party's nomination for President.

We don't typically post a lot of political posts on Neatorama (Adam Stanhope's occasional grenades notwithstanding - No, I'm not mad - actually, I'm quite tickled by some of his posts) ... but I want to know what you think about this historic moment.

From The New York Times:

“Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another — a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Mr. Obama told supporters at a rally in St. Paul.
“Because of you, tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.”

The floor is yours.

"In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone."

- John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

Photo: Ken OHYAMA [Flickr]

Photographer Ken Ohyama is one talented guy: he turned things as mundane as highway interchanges into amazing works of photographic art.

Link [Flickr photoset] - via Pink Tentacle

Andy Baio of Waxy, Simon Willison, and Jesse Legg have tracked down and digitized a 1992 documentary The Machine That Changed the World, a tour of computing before the Web:

The Machine That Changed the World is the longest, most comprehensive documentary about the history of computing ever produced, but since its release in 1992, it's become virtually extinct. Out of print and never released online, the only remaining copies are VHS tapes floating around school libraries or in the homes of fans who dubbed the original shows when they aired.

It's a whirlwind tour of computing before the Web, with brilliant archival footage and interviews with key players — several of whom passed away since the filming. Jointly produced by WGBH Boston and the BBC, it originally aired in the UK as The Dream Machine before its U.S. premiere in January 1992. Its broadcast was accompanied by a book co-written by the documentary's producer Jon Palfreman.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: The Wonderful World of Early Computing

Hooray! It's time for the highly anticipated Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #2 on Neatorama!

You can win a Free Tokyoflash watch of your choosing:
all you have to do is answer these three questions. Clues are on the Tokyoflash website and on Neatorama's Online Store.

1. Which Tokyoflash watch has 27 multi-colored LEDs that pulsate and move like cells across the watch's curved surface?

2. How many "freckles" are on the greenest creation of Adam "Ape Lad" Koford on Neatorama's Online Store?

3. Back to Tokyoflash, which watch has a "multi-color mode" that rotates through all the colors and a custom engraved wristband?

Now, the answers to these questions will make a URL on Neatorama: all words are lower case and all numbers are spelled-out (one, three, forty instead of 1, 3, 40). The answers are separated by dashes. (Need a practice test? Check out our first Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt for detailed instructions)

So, remember the answer is: http://www.neatorama.com/watch1-somenumber-watch2
On that "answer" page, you can enter your name and the prize Tokyoflash watch you'd like for a chance to win (the winner will be picked at random from the list).

Good luck!

Well, hello there! You've arrived at the answer page for Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #2. The watch in the first question is "Infection"; there are four freckles on the Neatorama frog, and the answer to the last question is "Scramble."

Congratulations! You're only one step away from winning the prize: one lucky commenter will win a Free Tokyoflash watch - all you have to do is say which watch (and which color) you'd like in the comment. You can pick any watch, with the exception of the Casio, Citizen, or Independent brands. The winner will be picked at random.

Please login and use your Neatorama username (if you don't have one, please register
here). Only one entry per person, please (duplicate entries will disqualify you forever on this game).

If you think dating is hard today, it's nothing compared to 7,000 years ago: stone-age men "hunt" for women, and will kill for them:

Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view.

Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago.

Link

James O'Neal suffers from neurofibromatosis, which leaves him looking like the modern day Elephant Man (he makes this comparison himself).

Others would probably hide than work, but James is a remarkable man: he is working proudly at the registers in the Safeway supermarket in Kirkland, Washington. And his customers don't like him - they love him!

Now one of his loyal customers, Katie Knopf has created a website to raise funds for reconstructive surgery for James:

O'Neal knows his deformity shocks people. He knows others with the same genetic disorder would rather hide than work, but for 7 years James has proudly worked the registers at the Kingsgate Safeway on 124th Avenue NE in Kirkland.

"I just tell people this is who I am, it's the way I am. If you don't like me, you don't like me," he said. His customers don't like him -- they love him.

"He is an amazing man and we love him. He's the kind of person that makes your day," said customer Aubrey Richins. "I really love James," said shopper Katie Knopf.

All of them say they were stunned at first when they saw his disfigured face. "I have to admit I was a little taken back, but when I walked through his line I felt this spirit come over me, this man is out here, not hiding," said long-time customer Cindy Peay.

Links: Article at KOMO News | Friends of James O'Neal Fundraising official website

Also check out: Life in the Fast Lane's post about Modern Day Elephant Man Heroes

Photo: OliB

Wow (bow?) - today's Neatorama and Hobotopia's Caption Monkey game is a photo from a fantastic section of the Los Angeles Times that I've just recently discovered. It's titled "Pets Behaving Badly," a gallery where you can submit photos of your pets doing things they shouldn't be doing: http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?EventID=497940&CategoryID=18064 - via Your Scene blog

This one above is titled "Separation Anxiety," and is submitted by OliB. I guess the dog really don't want to be left alone!

Funniest caption will win a free drawing by Adam "Ape Lad" Koford (Check out his blog Hobotopia here). Good luck!

So, I'm sure you've all seen grainy video of the peeping Alien in the window, shot by Stan Romanek, a Colorado resident who claimed to have been abducted like 100 times by aliens. A ballot is now being sponsored by Jeff Packman to create an "Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission" in Denver (and here I thought that we already did that with Majestic 12 !) Link

What they didn't show was who popped up after the alien ... Say hello to the Neatoramanaut!

Here's a strange tale of one drug smuggler who sculpted cocaine into a statue of Jesus, complete with painted-on flowing hair and a gold cape:

A drug dealer named The Spider is wondering why his Jesus Christ still hasn't appeared in Dallas. Thanks to an unusual bust by federal agents in Laredo, they're not going to connect.

Drug traffickers mixed as much as six pounds of the illicit white powder into a paste and used it to make a regal statue of the Christian savior, complete with painted-on flowing hair and a gold cape.

Smugglers were likely hoping the statue, which could be worth as much as $30,000 on the streets, would be dismissed by border guards as just another of the hundreds of plaster representations hawked to borderland tourists.

But a dog trained to sniff out drugs confirmed it was anything but another religious memento.

Link

After a decade of research, scientists have come to this conclusion about dark energy: they still have no idea what it is!

Here's a fascinating article on the most mysterious force in the Universe, the dark energy, by Dennis Overbye for the New York Times (no physics equations, we promise!):

Although cosmologists have adopted a cute name, dark energy, for whatever is driving this apparently antigravitational behavior on the part of the universe, nobody claims to understand why it is happening, or its implications for the future of the universe and of the life within it, despite thousands of learned papers, scores of conferences and millions of dollars’ worth of telescope time. It has led some cosmologists to the verge of abandoning their fondest dream: a theory that can account for the universe and everything about it in a single breath.

“The discovery of dark energy has greatly changed how we think about the laws of nature,” said Edward Witten, a theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

Link - via Blue's News