In 1956, 12-year old Jim Berger wanted to build a house for his dog. So he asked the Frank Lloyd Wright to design one.
In Berger's favor, Wright had designed his family's house. So he knew Berger and was on good terms with the kids' family. The famous architect composed a complete set of plans for a dog house that would fit the same style. Berger never built it, but his family did in 1963. The family dogs, however, disapproved of its organic style and refused to live in it.
I am at a loss to explain why I love Downton Abbey, but I do. This is not an unusual sentiment. And the Dowager Countess has become my favorite character. She's unflappable, faithful to her sense of honor, and knows how to lay down a few words. Sunday Avery summarized her neatly in this cross stitch.
Vinnie's Pizza in Brooklyn gets creative with its menu board, showing themed meals for fans of A Clockwork Orange, Lost, Sons of Anarchy, and more. Stop by and exterminate a pizza during lunchtime.
These videos by James Hutson are designed to introduce high school students to rational thinking. The style is reminiscent of the animated title sequences of Saul Bass. Therefore Saul Bass wanted people to think rationally. So watch the other five videos in the program at the link.
For many of us, the 1939 film is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But it wasn't the first movie version of Baum's book. This version, based on a 1902 stage musical, was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company just ten years after the publication of the novel. If the 1939 film is your standard, then this version is surreal to watch. You can find part two at the link.
The main disadvantage to getting up in the morning is compelling your body to move from a horizontal position to a vertical position. This experience has been vastly overrated and is avoided by all right-thinking people. Here's a breakthrough design by the home design firm Dornbracht that reduces, but not eliminates, this problem. The next necessary development is a machine that moves you from the bed to the shower (and then back to bed) without any personal effort. What do you think? Would you like to use a horizontal shower?
You don't speak binary? That's okay. The bride-to-be explains what happened:
My boyfriend told me I had to close my laptop for a couple minutes, then when I logged back on this was posted to my facebook wall. He sat across the room as I transcribed and then decoded it. After about a half hour I found out it says, "Rachel, you are awesome. Will you marry me?" I said yes, of course :B
Marriages that are founded on ones and zeroes are the only ones that are stable and healthy because there's no such thing as two.
I'm amazed that this is possible. Jim Dingilian adds a layer of soot inside bottles and then etches at the surface until he makes sharp looking landscapes. If you're in New York City, you can visit an exhibit of his work that opened yesterday.
Why don't Daleks on Doctor Who get cutie marks? There have to be different ways of exterminating life, and therefore different ways to earn them. This should be explored in a crossover episode.
Here at Neatorama, we often feature the work of artist Brock Davis. His genius lies in seeing hidden forms in ordinary objects, like a treehouse in a sprig of broccoli or a bearskin rug in a gummi bear. One of Davis's latest projects depicts famous explosions using cauliflower and skewers. Pictured above is the tragic destruction of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. His other pieces in the set show the wreck of the Hindenburg and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The short answer, according to speculation by veterinary medicine professor Alan Beck, is that it would be a disaster. Cats play a critical role in keeping the rodent population down. If there were no cats, we'd be overrun with rats:
By killing mice and rats in barns and grain storage areas, cats are vital for keeping those pests in check. In India, Beck said, cats are believed to play a significant role in lessening the amount of grain loss caused by consumption or contamination by rodents. In other words, it may be true that humans feed cats, but without cats, humans would have less food in the first place. [...]
And if the rodent population shot up, this would of course trigger a cascade of other ecological effects. On that same island in New Zealand, for instance, ecologists observed that, as rat numbers increased in the absence of cats, the population of seabirds whose eggs rats preyed upon declined. If the approximately 220 million domestic cats in the world all bit the dust, seabird populations would likely fall worldwide, while the populations of non-cat predators that prey on rats would be expected to increase.
It's common for colleges to name buildings after wealthy donors. But what does that leave for smaller donors who would like to be recognized? Some colleges are tapping into that market by naming bathrooms, or even individual stalls, after donors:
For $2,000, a Dixie State College of Utah donor could have been the namesake of a porcelain castle complete with a locking door, a generous supply of off-brand toilet paper and an occasional copy of yesterday’s sports section.
In a brazen effort to raise funds, Dixie State offered naming rights to individual bathroom stalls in a musical theater company’s planned building. The college wanted to help the troupe, which had moved on campus after being evicted from its previous stage, raise money for a new home somewhere else.
Dixie State's fundraising plan didn't work and the theater company shut down. But other colleges, including Harvard University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Pennsylvania have named bathrooms for donors. It's a mark of pride:
A University of Pennsylvania donor funded a bathroom renovation (subscription required) in the campus library. His philanthropy had one catch -- that the walls be lined with plaques reading, “The relief you are now experiencing is made possible by a gift from Michael Zinman.”
If you're a college student right now, look around a bathroom on your campus and dream of your future. Someday, this is what you could be known for.
Don Pettit, an astronaut and science educator whose work we've featured extensively on Neatorama, is now on the International Space Station. For his most recent demonstration, Pettit charged knitting needles with static electricity and then shot water drops at them. The drops, attracted by the charge, orbited the needles.
This beautiful AR-15 by Guns & Gardens looks like the stars of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic just barfed all over it. So it's just right for the little girl or Brony in your life. The rifle comes with a handy chainsaw bayonet for any undead issues that s/he may encounter while walking around the neighborhood.
With the proper hair arrangement, this cool design by Marco Rigovacca looks like someone has driven a spike through her ear. There's actually a thin gold loop that connects the two segments of the "Javelin" earring.
