Graphic designer Alex Griendling made these tarot cards inspired by the television show Lost. He wrote about the project's focus on the first season:

After making all of these I may take a break. The characters in later seasons are not quite as archetypal, which makes it more difficult to assign roles (The Believer, The Devoted, etc) to them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravitybomb/sets/72157623733281057/ via Popped Culture | Artist's Website | Image: Alex Griendling

Previously on Neatorama:
Hello Kitty Tarot
Housewives Tarot
Super Punch Tarot

Paul Reber, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, responded to this question submitted to Scientific American:

The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.

Link | Image: US Department of Health and Human Services

Paul Hutton of Essex, UK, was stopped by police for driving a children's toy car while drunk. The Barbie-branded vehicle has a top speed of 4 mph. Hutton won't be allowed to drive for another three years:

Mr Hutton, was found to be twice the drink-drive limit, he said.

Appearing before magistrates last week, he admitted driving the toy car while drunk.

He was given a mandatory three-year ban because he had received another drink-drive ban within the past ten years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7606600/Man-loses-licence-after-drink-driving-in-toy-Barbie-car.html | Photo: Giz Kid

The key to the binocular case on the bridge of the Titanic was scheduled to be auctioned on Saturday:

It belonged to second officer David Blair, transferred from the ship just before its maiden voyage. But he forgot to hand it to his replacement.

As a result officers had no access to binoculars on the bridge or in the crow’s nest – and 1,517 people perished when the ship hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912.

Link via Digg | Photo: The Express

UPDATE 4/22/10: After receiving a virus complaint, I've changed the link.

Actually, it's a leg covering, but I think that the artist's goal was to create the impression of a functional, steampunk-style artificial leg. deviantART user Skinz-N-Hydez made this 13-14 pound leg and his gallery is filled with similarly wearable works of leather and brass.

Link | Gallery

For Joyce Carol Oats, it's Crime and Punishment. For Carl Hiassen, it's Catch-22. The blog Online Degrees has a list of the favorite books of fifty famous authors. Here's a selection:

10. John Irving: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: The author of best-selling novels like The World According to Garp loved this Dickens classic

14. Norman Mailer: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Himself an innovator of New Journalism, a style that blended non-fiction and essay, Mailer's favorite book was this renowned piece of realist, though highly romantic, fiction.

43. Stephen King: The Golden Argosy edited by Van H. Campbell and Charles Grayson: King chose this fiction anthology as his favorite, though he has stated that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a close second.

http://www.onlinedegrees.net/blog/2010/50-famous-authors-and-their-all-time-favorite-books/ via Marginal Revolution | Photo: National Science Foundation

Fashion designer Jennifer Darmour's new line is called Ping. It contains sensors that discern what you're doing based upon your body movements and automatically updates your Facebook profile accordingly:

Lift up a hood, tie a bow, zip, button, and simply move, bend and swing to ping your friends naturally and automatically. No phone, no laptop, no hardware. Simply go about your day, look good and stay connected. [...]

The garment investigates ways to connect to larger software systems that can add more functionality and longevity to the experience while offering a new platform for communication and expression.

What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.electricfoxy.com/ping/ via DVICE | Photo: Electric Foxy

The Portland Mercury, an entertainment magazine in Portland, Oregon, asked readers to take a poll about what they'd like to see on the cover of an issue. Artist Andrew Zubko executed their vision with this magnificent illustration.

Link via Nerd Bastards | Image: Andrew Zobko/Portland Mercury

(YouTube Link)

Computer musician Jaime Oliver's Silent Drum project uses the membrane of a drum head to create unusual sounds. The membrane itself doesn't make a sound, but a camera measures how Oliver manipulates it, and a computer uses those measurements as instructions for what sounds to emit.

Link via Make

Voters in Tracy City, Tennessee elected Carl Geary mayor, even though he died a month ago:

His widow, Susan Geary, said his election "was not a surprise at all to me."

"The day he passed away, people were calling with condolences and saying, 'We're still voting for him,'" she said.

Geary, 55, was known for his straight talking and served on the local council. He polled 285 votes to his rival's 85.

Local business owners said the vote to elect Geary was as a protest against the current mayor, Barbara Brock.

"I knew he was deceased. I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her," said Chris Rogers, owner of the town's Lunch Box restaurant.

Link | Photo: (unrelated) US Department of the Interior

Do you carefully read the terms of use page when completing an online purchase? Maybe you should. The online computer game retailer GameStation revealed that hidden in its terms of use statement is this clause:

By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions

It was just an April Fool's Day gag, but some 7,500 customers' souls are now the property of this company.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: College of New Jersey

A stretch of interstate highway near St. Louis, Missouri is now paved with asphalt made from pig manure:

"Whew!" gasped a worker with Pace Construction Co., the St. Louis County road contractor that joined forces with Innoventor, the Earth City-based engineering and design firm that perfected the process of converting the animal waste into a bio-oil used in asphalt binder.

To others, the air swelled with the sweet smell of potential for new manufacturing opportunities, jobs and, possibly, profits. How big is that potential? Nobody knows yet.

"If this works out, it's a win-win situation for everyone," said Karlton Krause, a hog producer from northern Iowa. "For farmers, it produces revenue. And at the same time, it helps clean the environment. We're taking a waste product and finding a value-added purpose for it."

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/8BD4ECDDEBD84EC686257706000C0410?OpenDocument via Stuff | Photo: US Department of the Interior

Designer Alejandro Aravena of the firm Vitra created a very simple chair. It's a strap that wraps around your legs and back to hold you into a seated position. "Chairless" was inspired by a picture of an Ayoreo (an indigenous group in Paraguay) person doing something similar. A portion of the proceeds from this chair will be donated to a foundation to benefit indigenous nations of Paraguay.

Link (warning: sound) via Fast Company | Photo: Vitra

(YouTube Link)

At a discussion forum called the Horn and Whistle Board, user captofchaos revealed this glorious machine that he has constructed. The Great American Horn Machine has a 620 gallon air tank and an air compressor that powers numerous ship and train horns. The video above is a demonstration of this musical instrument playing "God Bless America."

http://www.hornwhistleboard.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2386&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=daafa489b24865b78ea40e9d9339bff4&start=30 via Gizmodo

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation was created by Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick in Dumfries, Scotland in 1989. It contains unusual geometric patterns in order to inspire the mind. The mound pictured above was designed around the Fibonacci sequence. This is a private garden and open to the public only one day a year.

Link via The Presurfer | Video | Official Website | Photo: flickr user Paulus Maximus! used under Creative Commons license.