"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?"

- Ayn Rand, American novelist and philosopher

Neatoramanaut T-Shirt, now available at Neatorama's Online Store

W00t! I'm excited and happy to announce that Neatorama's online T-shirt store is open for business!

Get Neatorama T-shirts, including the Neatoramanaut design by Adam "Ape Lad" Koford that was voted Reader's favorite a while ago, awesome cartoons by Mike Jacobsen of See Mike Draw, as well as funny Web Lingo shirts done exclusively for Neatorama.

We'll be rolling out more shirts as we go, and some quantities are limited, so support the blog and buy your Neatorama T-shirt today! Thank you!

Photos: Richard Carpenter

xoxoxoBruce, a regular at the Cellar Image of the Day forum, posted a series of fascinating photos of this pine needle bear sculpture by Richard Carpenter. The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed, and hand woven over the period of 8 months to make a life-sized bear.

Link (for more pics, scroll down) - via Scribal Terror

Marc Lipton was riding his motorcycle when he lost control and slid about 50 feet along the road. He believed that he lived to tell the tale because The Virgin Mary protected him from further injury.

And he's got the wound to prove it: a bloody scrape in the shape of the Virgin Mary.

http://www.ksbw.com/news/16165595/detail.html - via Cabinet of Wonders (Photo: Marc Lipton)

Previously on Neatorama: August: a Busy Month for Religious Sightings!

Look down at the man's feet: that was a not a child, but a grown woman named Pauline Musters. At 1 foot 11.2 inches, Pauline is the smallest mature woman ever recorded:

Born on February 26, 1876 in Ossendrecht in the Netherlands Pauline Munster’s was almost half of her final height straight from her mother’s womb. At birth, she was just over 12 inches. At age nine, the tiny dynamo weighed only three pounds and in adulthood Pauline Munster weighed less than nine pounds. Her measurements at age 19 were 181/2 -19-17, meaning she had curvy little figure and in truth she had no shortage of male suitors.

The Human Marvel has more on the story of "Princess Pauline": Link

Here's a really strange tale of one really stupid criminal: a group of three women were partying at a Bensalem bar when 31-year-old Andre Smith kept on interrupting and even jumping in their photos.

When the women left, Smith robbed them with a fake gun, stealing cash and other valuables ... but not the women's cameras with his photos in it! So all the women had to do was show the cops the photo of the guy who robbed them.

Link - via Say No to Crack

Photo: glennkarlsen [Flickr]

Glenn Karlsen brought the image on a 500 Kroner bill of Sigrid Undset, a Norwegian novelist and Nobel Laureate, to life through the magic of photoshoppery. Fantastic work!

Embiggen the photo here: Link - via Super Punch.

Craftster member fluffypants put together this awesome lamp using a Nintendo light gun and an old Nintendo's Duck Hunt cartridge.

Ah, I remember the precious hours I wasted on that game (and I quite remember the snickering dog when I missed ... Good times.)

Link - via GeekAlerts

What? There's a new X-Files movie coming out? I must be living under a rock. The title is X-Files: I Want To Believe, though I think what they meant was X-Files: I Want You To Spend $10.50 On Tickets, $15 on Crappy Popcorns and Soda And $75 On Babysitter To Watch This Movie.

Anyhoo, it's coming out this July, and you can whet your appetite by watching this trailer over at Always Watching: http://www.alwayswatching.org/news/finally-official-trailer-x-files-i-want-believe-and-viral-videos

Previously on Neatorama: Caption Monkey 22: X-Files, the Intersection

photo: peter.macdonald [Flickr]

Behold the Skybridge in Langkawi, Malaysia, which is held up by one thin support column set at an angle! Deputy Dog blog has the story and more pics: http://deputy-dog.com/2008/05/05/gephyrophobiacs-look-away-now/ - via Miss Cellania

Jordi Vayreda of Spanish design studio Jordivayreda Projectteam created this floating staircase for a client's home that looks awesome, but a little bit too dangerous for klutzy old me!

Link - via Apartment Therapy

Previously on Neatorama: Awesome Floating Staircases

Because of the huge number of comments around the world about my floating staircase design I explain the mystery which people want to know.

First of all, this stairs goes to a small maintenance loft zone for climatic systems, there is another type of staircase to go to the bedroom zone. I design this type of staircase thinking in a sculptural solution because it is situated in front of the principal entrance of the house and we don’t want a collapsible staircase which some designers use for zones with difficult entries, we want something different.

This loft zone it’s 2,40 m height and combines wall and glass wall. Is there, between these two types of walls where I’ve done a width change that people can use like a handrail. It is not appreciated in a front view but you can notice it in a side view. This camouflage handrail will see you to the 1,20 m height which corresponds to the half of the staircase.

Steel is the material which we use to construct the staircases, 100 mm thick and each of them is welded to a 250 mm thick beam. The secret is putting reinforcements to prevent the inertias that can be generated and another one is lean the beam on two walls: the front wall and the lateral.

The staircase is 65 cm wide and it can support 200k, consequently we get the minimal flexion. To obtain the minimal vibrations too, we line the lateral walls with a carton plaster plaque.

This is the result of my floating staircase design.

Some of NYPD's finests are in trouble: two undercover police officers ordered a black man out of his parked car with guns drawn ... without realizing that the guy's an off-duty NYPD chief!

"How you can not know or recognize a chief in a department SUV with ID around his neck, I don't know," a police source said.

Chief Douglas Zeigler, 60, head of the Community Affairs Bureau, was in his NYPD-issued vehicle near a fire hydrant when two plainclothes cops approached on May 2, sources said.

One officer walked up on each side of the SUV at 57th Ave. and Xenia St. in Corona about 7 p.m. and told the driver to roll down the heavily tinted windows, sources said.

What happened next is in dispute. In his briefing to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Zeigler said the two cops, who are white, had no legitimate reason to approach his SUV, ranking sources said.

After they ordered him to get out, one officer did not believe the NYPD identification Zeigler gave him.

Link

Translating Hollywood, the new book by Sam Sarowitz of Posteritati, takes a look at movie posters from around the world (and how different they are from the US versions). Take a look at this gem of an example: the Japanese Army of Darkness movie poster (why the soup cans? Because the actor's name is Bruce Campbell, get it?)

Posterwire has the big version of the poster: http://posterwire.com/image.php?img_full=http://posterwire.com/wp-content/images/army_of_darkness_jp.jpg&img_title=Army%20of%20Darkness

"Infected" is a game by Emily Jo Cureton, where one player draws a "disease" card and then enacts the symptoms/description of the disease. The other players then get to guess what affliction it is. Kind of like "who am I" or charades, but with illnesses!

http://www.emilyjocureton.com/infected/index.html

Previously on Neatorama: NY Times Crossword Drawings

What to do with lots of remnant linoleum floorings? Why, you can make a kitchen floor out of it - and that's just what the guys over at Dairy of a Vermont Eco Builder did:

In keeping with our eco design model, and just for the sheer fun of it, we’ve decided that the kitchen floor will be made up from all the leftover pieces of Marmoleum we’ve saved so far.

(The floor's not finished yet - they just put down the pieces to see where they'd go.) Link - via materialicious