Photo: l0ckergn0me's [Flickr]

How long does wedding bliss last? According to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, who surveyed over 10,000 women, the answer is: 4 years.

Prof Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate, said studies showed that beyond this the benefits of marriage were often outweighed by having less time to see friends and a larger household workload.

While those who stayed single were more likely to feel lonely and have less sex, they had greater freedom, more time to socialise and fewer chores, he said.

Speaking at the British Psychological Society conference in Dublin yesterday, Prof Kahneman, of Princeton University, New Jersey, said: " People have very high expectations, and marriage does not necessarily live up to them."

Link

Boing Boing Gadgets has a very neat post about 9 common idioms that turned out to have technological origins. For example:

"Push the envelope"

Common definition: Extreme, testing the limits (e.g. "That backside 1440 on the halfpipe was really pushing the envelope, broseph!")

Original definition: In aviation, the term flight envelope has been used since WWII to define the limit of what is safe to fly (engine power, maneuverability, wind speed, altitude). By "pushing the envelope", test pilots were able to find out the limits of aircraft. The "envelope" was a mathematical term to describe the boundaries of a set of numbers-like performance data from test aircraft.

First use: The phrase was used in print as early as 1978 in an edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine: "The aircraft's altitude envelope must be expanded to permit a ferry flight across the nation. NASA pilots were to push the envelope to 10,000 ft." However, it was Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" that put the term into popular consciousness.

Link

"What is guilt? Guilt is the reason they put articles in Playboy."

- Dennis Miller, comedian, political commentator, and actor

Ladies! Want some beautiful dimples that nature has forgotten to give you? Fret not: check out this invention by one Isabella Gilbert:

The device consists of a face-fitting stpring carrying two tiny knobs which press into the cheeks.

From the Oct 1936 issue of Modern Mechanix

When a pond in Brigham City, Utah, froze over, over 4,000 fish turned up dead (officials surmised that either the pond was poisoned or it ran out of oxygen due to the thick ice).

Among the dead fish was this mystery fanged creature that baffled biologists:

While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond.

Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is and that it could be a type of trout whose tissue decomposed rapidly, making its teeth more prominent. Aquatic biologists said if they can't figure it out, they'll let the fish decompose fully and then examine the bone structure to determine the species.

Link | Gallery

iMac, iPhone, iPod ... it's only time before someone comes up with the iHand! Here's what Dan Piraro of Bizarro envisions it to be.

For more Bizarro, check out Dan's blog and website.

TechEBlog has a neat compilation of functional guitars made from video game consoles (Nintendo FamiCom, NES, Sega Dreamcast and Genesis). Them are geeky musicians!

This one is the MegaDriver, made from a broken SEGA Genesis console.

Link - Thanks Alex_B!

If you're a fan of the TV Series LOST then you'll probably like this Flash game, The Roslin Station.

Why, it's confusing, drawn out, and most people will stop playing after just a few moments, just like the TV show. Oops, did I say that out loud? ;)

In other words, they've captured the essence of LOST perfectly!

Link [Flash] - Thanks Yinan Chen!

This news is so stupendous that I had to check the date to make sure it's not April 1: New Kids on the Block boy band has reunited!

They may be pushing 40, but the New Kids are returning to the block.

The boy band New Kids on the Block, which sold 70 million albums in the 1980s and early '90s, has reunited and plans to release a new album and go on tour. The reunion comes 20 years after the release of the group's multiplatinum album, "Hangin' Tough."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/03/people.newkids.ap/index.html?iref=24hours - Thanks JoBo S!

Photo: contrari-wise [Flickr] (biggify)

Thanks to the laser-like focus of Google Adwords, advertisers can now target ... male virgins! (They're just World of Warcraft players ...) Found at Contrariwise Ramblings - thanks Contrariwise!

In Mordor, traffic can be brutal. When Frodo needs to cast the Ring in Mount Doom, Gandalf suggested that he avoid the Plains of Rohan and take the High Mountain Pass through the Misty Mountains ....

Here's Lord of the Rings, the Chat Version: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Deb!

Photos: Fleischerei Pahl

We've had the Meat House, the Meat Ship and the Bacon Pig before on Neatorama, so it's only natural that we feature these other "meatnimals" from the German Austrian deli/restaurant Pahl.

http://www.pahl-fleischer.at/geschenke_include.php?fotos=wurstschweinderl - Thanks Malte Goesche!

This flipbook by Masashi Kawamura, Rainbow in Your Hand, is so simple it's genius: as you flip through the pages, a "rainbow" appears as if by magic!

Link [in Japanese] - YouTube Clip of the flipbook in action - Thanks wade7!

A Franciscan friar and a lay brother, as seen before the abolition of their Order.

BibliOdyssey blog has a neat post about a charming set of gouache sketches from a 1836 book titled "Picturesque Review of the Costume of the Portuguese." Though the identity of the artist is not known, it's surmised that the sketches are mementos or gifts for tourists visiting Portugal way back when!

The sketches are sympathetic and most I would describe as quaint portraits. Even the true caricatures are gently humorous without any hint of malevolence. The language in the title and in some of the captions is just a little skewed or unusual, more likely associated with a non-native speaker, to my mind. I may of course be completely wrong. It's a sweet little series in any event.

Link

Right before a special BBC America World Debate on the future of news during the TED 2008 conference in Monterey, California, the crew had a technical difficulty.

Suddenly, a heckler spoke up from the back of the room:

The crowd hushed down as soon as it realized who was doing the heckling: attendee Robin Williams. It being Robin Williams, it didn't take much cheering from the crowd to get him on stage. He then spent the next 15 minutes doing improv standup comedy to an eager crowd and an embarrassed BBC America staff.

"A new internet service in Israel is called Netanyahu." "Sergey Brin: started in garage and now he owns everything." "So, how much money have we raised so far?" And on and on, in the way only Robin Williams can do.

BBC finally got its technological ducks in a row (Williams: "This is supposed to be a presentation on new media?"), and the panel went on. (Source: Megan Barnett at Spottings Blog)

You can watch Robin Williams' impromptu hijacking of the debate on BBC's website: Link - Thanks moronic50!