So cute 😂

pic.twitter.com/uiyNuF76ue

— The Best (@ThebestFigen) August 24, 2024

TikTok user Lance Marwood finds that his infant son absolutely loves the sound of packing tape being unrolled. It's a punchline that requires no preparation or set up. Just let it rip and he has a guaranteed hit with the audience who keeps coming back for more repetitions of the same gag.

In another video, Marwood describes the incident that led to the discovery of the funniest non-fatal joke in the world. It's the sort of childhood delight that only comes with good luck and investing a lot of time in being a father, waiting patiently for the magical moments.

2024: People wanting to be a #Brat during #BratSummer

1966: pic.twitter.com/ssYBWBR4tI

— LBJ Library (@LBJLibrary) August 23, 2024

The Johnson Presidential Library is hip, cool, and relevant, as demonstrated by this How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? post.

I affirm that we are having a brat summer here at the sprawling Neatorama corporate campus. But what does that mean? Urban Dictionary says that it's a season which celebrates a "hot yet trashy" feminine aesthetic inspired by the work of musician Charli xcx. I don't think that's what young Susan Gibson had in mind when she sent her brief appeal to the President in 1966.

-via Lyndon Baines Johnson (parody account)

Think of the Tour de Donut of Troy, Ohio as a race that combines competitive eating and bike racing. It's the chessboxing of the bicycle world.

Competitors race their bikes to a sequence of participating donut shops. Each donut eaten along the way, with a maximum of three donuts per stop, deducts five minutes of ride time. The person with the lowest time at the end wins. About half of participants forego eating any donuts at all.

The course lengths vary, ranging from 9.72 miles for casual competitors to 58.5 miles for ultimate athletes.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Miami County Vistors' & Convention Bureau

If you grew up in the 90s and 00s--before smartphones were invented or at least became ubiquitous and we weren't online all of the time--there was a different vibe to life. I was an 80s kid, so I didn't have most of the shared experiences in this film directly. But I was definitely aware of them going on.

Filmmaker Nate Milton's short film Viewfinder is "a kaleidoscope of memories to remind us that we’re all living different facets of the same experience." The directing is perfect, as is the accompanying music by Buck St. Thomas that adds to the sense of timelessness.

-via Laughing Squid

Godzilla Minus One but it’s Cookie Monster. pic.twitter.com/K9Pur6kKZl

— Matthew Highton (@MattHighton) August 22, 2024

The historical drama Godzilla Minus One recounts the 1945-1947 struggle of postwar Japan against Godzilla. With very few military forces available let alone permitted, a handful of sailors gallantly stood between the monster, created as a result of US atomic testing, and the people of Japan.

The most famous scene in the film shows the climactic battle as Godzilla chases a decrepit minesweeper. This alternate version by filmmaker Matthew Highton replaces Godzilla with the more fearsome Cookie Monster.

You may recall previous work of Highton's that we have featured, such as his recreation of The Simpsons introduction and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduction with stock footage.

-via John A Konrad V

The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced "Kirr-ih-bass") is, by population, a very small nation with only 117,000 people. It consists of 33 islands, of which a third are inhabited, stretching across 2,400 miles of central Pacific Ocean near the equator and 1,300 miles along the International Date Line.

Kiribati became famous on the internet a few months ago for its unimaginative place naming practices. Yet it has another claim to fame, too. This both large and small nation is spread across four hemispheres: the northern, southern, eastern, and western. The CIA World Factbook identifies it as the only nation so endowed.

-via TYWIWDBI | Image: Google Maps

Do you remember Tuvix, the short-lived character from Star Trek: Voyager that was created in a transporter accident that combined Neelix and Tuvok? The Glissotar is the woodwind equivalent of Tuvix, except that Captain Janeway hasn't killed it yet.

Dániel Váczi and Tóbiás Terebessy spent almost a decade developing this unique instrument that, instead of holes along the shaft, has a continuous opening that is held open or closed with a strap. Insert an ordinary alto saxophone mouthpiece that you can play a vast variety of sounds and effects, including movement between notes, over two and a half octaves.

-via Laughing Squid

dvd butter pic.twitter.com/329UV3hehN

— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) August 14, 2024

Do you remember the bouncing DVD logo? I see it often because I'm still building a DVD collection (physical media can't be disappeared from online sources). If it's been a while since you've seen it, you can step back in time to twenty years ago on this oddly comforting website.

Pablo Rochat, a Spanish conceptual artist, creative director, and Neatorama favorite, captured the essence of the old DVD experience by melting a pat of butter shaped like the DVD logo on a hot frying pan. It's a great source of warm, buttery nostalgia.

Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is nestled in a bend of the Aare River. During the summer months, this river becomes popular for watersports. Some people like to pack their belongings in a dry bag (wickelfisch) and float down a stretch that takes about 90 minutes of travel.

Last year, Business Insider reported that some workers use the river to commute to or from work. It only works one-way (sorry, but few rivers flow in a circle). Aside from the time that it takes to change clothes and pack one's belongings into a dry bag, this can be an efficient mode of transportation.

-via Marilyn Terrell

The character stares off screen at something that has captivated their attention. Often the expression is one of wonder and awe. It is always a turning point in the story.

This is the Spielberg Face--a film narrative technique that Steven Spielberg has richly developed over the course of the five decades of his career. In this video, filmmaker, critic, and educator Kevin B. Lee explores the development of the Spielberg Face. 

It is not a technique that Spielberg actually invented, but it is one that he brought to the fore of his medium, especially in his 1977 science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His much-maligned 2001 film A.I. demonstrates the fulfillment of the Face and, in his post-9/11 films, the subversion of it as the Face transforms from one of wonder to fear. 

Watch this entire video as Lee explains how Spielberg has mastered the Face over the course of his career.

The rock band Aerosmith's iconic song "Sweet Emotion" has captivated audiences since its release in 1975. The soaring opening is immediately recognizable to two generations of rock fans.

The media network EYNTK suggests using it as takeoff music, which is evidently a thing for frequent air travelers. The narrator, while recording his takeoff from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, demonstrates how effective "Sweet Emotion" is for this purpose. Just start the song as the engines rev for takeoff and you should feel yourself rising into the air just as the volume kicks in thirty-six seconds later. Try it the next time you fly!

-via Born in Space

Korean women's pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji while casually breaking a world record and winning the gold medal pic.twitter.com/8TgMPQJEH7

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 30, 2024

Kim Yeji, an athlete who represents South Korea at the Olympics, took a silver medal, a world record, and the hearts of fans with her perfectly calm demeanor during the women's 10-meter pistol shooting competition in Paris.

What are Yeji and other shooting competitors wearing on their faces? Core77 describes these unique optics that world-class shooters wear. They are mechanical irises that allow competitors to adjust their vision to match specific conditions, including light and fatigue. This particular example sells for $285.

It's far too easy to pick up an infestation of bedbugs while staying in a hotel and then bringing the critters back home with you. That's why travel writer Lydia Mansel advocates for placing your luggage in the hotel room's bathtub as soon as you arrive.

Travel + Leisure magazine explains that bedbugs prefer to live in fabric surfaces, so the most straightforward solution is to reduce contact between your luggage and fabrics, such as the carpet.

You can also leave a note on your luggage to ask the housekeeping staff to leave your luggage in its otherwise puzzling location.

-via Nag on th Lake | Photo: Holidayextras

In 1968, the Catholic Church established the Diocese of Orlando, which encompasses a large amount of central Florida. This area includes Cape Canaveral, from which the Apollo moon missions were launched in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A 2019 article in L'Osservatore Romano, which is the Vatican's newspaper, republished at ETWN, reports that after the Apollo 11 landing in 1969, Bishop William Borders asserted episcopal authority over the moon.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law granted such authority over newly-discovered territories to the location of the launching expedition. Since Apollo 11 was launched within the boundaries of the Diocese of Orlando, the moon was the turf of Bishop Borders.

Bishop (later Archbishop) Borders once verbally asserted his lunar claim to Pope Paul VI, although the pontiff's response remains unknown.

-via Depths of Wikipedia | Photo: Archbishop William Borders and Pope Paul VI

Jose Romero has been a dishwasher at the Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado for twelve years. He's also responsible for unpacking newly arrived lobsters. The Pueblo Chieftain reports that, on July 12, Romero spotted an orange lobster. Romero and his coworkers had never seen or heard of that coloration before.

They named the lobster "Crush" after the formidable defensive line of the Denver Broncos during the late 70s. The team decided that Crush had to be saved. They donated him to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver on July 17, where he can spend the rest of his days. His rare mutation, which can be found in only 1 in 30 million lobsters, will make him a draw.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Red Lobster