Whether you're a plain Sneetchiraptor or a Star-Bellied Sneetchiraptor, you'll love these dinosaur toys! Sillof, a brilliant custom toymaker whose work we've featured extensively, made them for a dinosaur-themed Best Western hotel in Colorado. You can view more photos of them at the link.
Link -via Super Punch
P.S. If you like Sillof's work, be sure to check out our interview with him.
Actually, samurai monkey is part of Los Angeles-based photographer Hiroshi Watanabe's latest art series, titled Suo Sarumawashi, which is centered around the ancient Japanese artform of Sarumawashi or Monkey Dancing.
Sarumawashi, as explained by the Kopeikin Gallery which is hosting Watanabe's exhibition, is a 1,000-year-old Japanese tradition that started as a religious ritual to protect the horses of warriors. The acrobatic stunts, dances, and comedic skits performed by trained macaque monkeys later developed into festival and imperial court entertainment, alongside Noh and Kabuki, as well as street performance.
Despite its popularity, sarumawashi almost became extinct in the 1970s. The urbanization of Japan and the rise of automobiles on Japan's crowded streets had sidelined sarumawashi, until a group of Japanese artists founded an organization dedicated to preserving the artform. Today, the group regularly tours Japan to perform.
We've written about Pablo Stanley of Stanley Colors blog before on Neatorama, but the man is on a roll! Great job, Pablo! In this new panel, he illustrated one of the most iconic songs ever recorded, Imagine by John Lennon.
It's probably impossible not to read the cartoon and have the song not pop into your head. It's now probably going to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day, but hey, at least it's a catchy tune!
Sing it with me, "Imagine there's no heaven ..." (Love this song? Did you know that the lyric and concept came from Lennon's wife Yoko Ono? But Lennon said that, "in those days I was more selfish, more macho and omitted to mention her contribution." Read more about Imagine in this article by Eddie Deezen, "Imagine: John Lennon's Signature Song.")
If you wonder who the guy named "Milk" in the fourth from last panel, that's San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the United States in 1977. Milk was assassinated in 1978, just 11 months after taking office.
The woman named Anna in the third from last panel is Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist named Anna Politkovskaya. She reported about the Chechen conflict and published several books critical of the current Russian government. In 2006, Politkovskaya was shot and killed in her apartment complex. Her murder remained unsolved until today.
The meaning of Imagine is a hotly debated topic, but Pablo noted in his blog, "This is NOT an anti-religion/atheist propaganda comic. The comic and the song (at least as I understand it) [try] to communicate that no matter your faith, we should all share the world in peace ... As silly as that sounds."
View the original comic over at Stanley's website.
(Photos: Kaigai no Omira)
The deer in Nara Park in Nara, Japan are famously polite. They even bow to visitors respectfully. They also obey the law. A tourist snapped photos of this deer, which approached the crosswalk. It stopped until the signal turned green, then crossed. You can see more photos of it at the link.
A dalek mis-recreates Schroedinger's famous experiment in its own way, ignoring the fact that it was always a thought experiment. Found at The Daily Dalek from Tone Cartoons. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
(Image: Charles West Cope)
Looking for a good baby name? You could take the modern approach and deliberately misspell a common name. Or you could you could go old school and look for advice from Seventeenth Century Puritans. Joseph Norwood of Slate compiled some of the best baby names from that culture:
1. Humiliation. Humiliation Hynde had two sons in the 1620s; he called them both Humiliation Hynde.
2. Fly-debate
3. No-merit. NoMerit Vynall was born in Warbleton in Sussex, a fount of beautiful names.
4. Helpless
5. Reformation
6. Abstinence
7. More-triale
8. Handmaid
9. Obedience
10. Forsaken
11. Sorry-for-sin. Sorry-for-sin Coupard was another resident of Warbleton.
12. Lament
Just another Saturday night? Not this time, because it was a real feral pig that had too many beers at a camping area near Port Hedland in the Pilbara.
The animal was seen stealing three six-packs of beer from campers before ransacking rubbish bags for food.
One camper reported seeing the pig guzzling the beer before getting involved in an altercation with a cow.
"In the middle of the night these people camping opposite us heard a noise, so they got their torch out and shone it on the pig and there he was, scrunching away at their cans," said the visitor, who estimated that the pig had consumed 18 beers.
"Then he went and raided all the rubbish bags. There were some other people camped right on the river and they saw him being chased around their vehicle by a cow."
The pig was last seen under a tree nursing a hangover. All this story needs is a video with a Yakety Sax sound track. Link -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: AAP/Main roads WA)
(Photo: NariNari)
With a bit of rice and seaweed, you can make little pandas. Here's a herd of them heading down to the curry pond for a swim.
While writing this post, I discovered that there is no specific collective noun for pandas. In the comments, suggest one.
I do this and it definitely works. Cartoonist Sebastien Millon is right: dogs radiate contentedness. Just lie down next to your dog and do nothing (a canine skill) for a few minutes.
(Photo: Los Angeles Magazine)
It's hard to improve upon the magnificence of the ice cream sandwich, but chefs in Los Angeles have done just that. At the Churro Borough, you can eat ice cream sandwiches made between pieces of fresh churro:
Imagine this: warm, freshly fried, spiral-shaped churros the size of cookies—but thicker, like a small donut—holding, ever-so-gently, a creamy scoop of caramel peach ice cream. The churro is fluffy yet crisp, with a thick layer of cinnamon sugar clinging to its delicate surface. The ice cream, made from a custard base, leaves nothing to the imagination. It's rich and cool and just what you've been waiting for all week long.
Link -via Tasteologie
No, these calzones aren't made with human lungs--although I suppose that you could make them that way. Rather, Beth Jackson Klosterboer just made them in the shape of human lungs. It's one of her many wonderful food crafts from Halloweens past. You can view more at the link.
This robot understands what it means to be human--perhaps better than most of us do.
John McNamee's comic offers a helpful (if unintended) reminder: reading this blog makes you more human.
Since he was a small child, Steve Davies was a West Ham United fan. When he grew up, he went to all their games, got team tattoos, and played in a Sunday league himself. When West Ham played at Oxford City on July 27, 1994, Davies was up front, giving his beloved team a hard time, as British football fans will do.
Harry Redknapp delights in telling this particular yarn. Last time he told the story it was on TV show A League of Their Own, at Christmas last year. "There's a guy next to the dug-out," Harry told the host, "and he's got West Ham tattooed all over his arms and neck, he's got the earrings … After two minutes, he started on me." Today, speaking to me in his third one-on-one interview since taking over as QPR boss, he slips into storytelling mode.
"'We ain't got that Lee Chapman up front do we – I ain't coming every week if he's playing,'" says Harry, doing his impression of Steve. "Half-time I made five substitutions, and we only had the bare 11 out – I was running out of players. Then we got another injury, so I said to this guy in the crowd, 'Oi, can you play as good as you talk?'"
The rest of the tale is hallowed football folklore. "I slung a leg over the barrier and Harry walked me down the tunnel," says Steve. "What's your name, son?" Harry asked, sizing up this apparent hooligan. "I couldn't believe it. Inside the dressing room, the players were sat down resting at half-time." West Ham were two-nil up, but the team was carrying injuries. "Then Harry and says, 'Lee you're off; Steve you're on.'"
Chapman, shirtless, just nodded. "I asked him, what size boots are you, son?" Redknapp recalls. The kit manager brought Steve a uniform.
Davies thought he would sit on the bench or play a couple of minutes as a joke, but he was in for the experience of a lifetime. Read the whole story at The Guardian. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Steve Bacon)
(Photo: Veronica Meewes)
Ice cream is yummy. So is a good, sharp cheddar cheese. Why not combine them? That's what Paul Qui and his creative team did:
Before the highly anticipated Qui opened in Austin, Texas earlier this summer, pastry chef Monica Glenn began to develop an aged cheddar ice cream inspired by the frozen cheese confections executive chef Paul Qui enjoyed as a child in the Philippines. Next, sous chef Jorge Hernandez developed delicate cajeta waffle cookies and it morphed into a toothsome ice cream sandwich with a cult following.
