Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.

(Image credit: Flickr user Kevin Dooley)

Being gatekeepers, music charts have a massive influence on the songs we hear on the radio. And that influence isn’t exclusive to Billboard, by the way.

As a fan of the underdog, I love reading the bottom half of music charts. Forget Billboard’s Hot 100; I wanna see what’s happening on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, if that indie band I’m digging actually has a chance of breaking into the top half. (Oh, who am I kidding? I spent the last week listening to Hüsker Dü and American Music Club. My taste is off the grid these days.) Forgotten in the age of modern pop charts is the fact that Billboard has never been the only game in town.

1940 was the first year Billboard had a music chart of any kind. The magazine, founded in 1894, spent much of its early history focused on billboard advertising. (Hence the name.) The first music chart, called the “National List of Best Selling Retail Records” and topped by Tommy Dorsey in its initial edition, quickly gave way to more common charts like the Billboard 200 and Hot 100.

The researcher who was murdered, mob-hit style, after taking a stand for music-chart integrity

Nadieh Bremer and Shirley Wu created a data visualization of ten royal families of Europe. The screenshot here is just a portion; it actually goes back to around 1100 A.D. You can manipulate it to show how the royal families are related to each other. The largest dots are the current monarchs. Just place your cursor on a dot to identify the royal family member. If you hover over a dot long enough, you’ll get a colored visual showing how closely that person is related to other royals across the chart. If you click on two dots, you get the shortest connection between the two. I found out the royal families of Monaco and Liechtenstein don’t marry into other royal families that much, while King Harald V of Norway is related to just about everyone, including second cousin Queen Elizabeth II.

If you can find Queen Victoria of England, she appears to have the most royal descendants of all. You can read more about the data and how the project was done at Bremer’s website and Data Sketches. -via Digg

This #bear photo of mine is a finalist in the #Comedy #Wildlife #Photography Awards. #Dance! More details at https://www.alexjevon.com/blog/2016/10/8/finalist-in-2016-comedy-wildlife-photography-awards

A photo posted by Alex Jevon (@alexjevon) on Oct 11, 2016 at 12:10pm PDT

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards recognizes wildlife photography that, while displaying excellent camera skills, also gives us a dose of derp and LOL. The 2016 finalists have been announced, and you can see them at the awards website.

Happiest #frog in the world #artyomkrivosheev #photography

A photo posted by Jennifer English (@starcarldextermolly) on Oct 11, 2016 at 7:17pm PDT

The winner will receive a trophy and a weeklong safari in Kenya for two. See all 40 finalists here.

The work that goes into making a scary movie monster has changed considerably over the past 10 years. No matter the era, there’s one that sticks in the audience’s minds and lives forever. And whether they are working with greasepaint or CGI, special effects teams always have a challenge before them. I mean, who knew that Boris Karloff was less than six feet tall? Frankenstein’s monster was certainly huge!

Jack Pierce is something of a legend in monster movie lore. The make-up artist was responsible for fixing the faces of the Mummy and Wolf Man, but one of his earliest hits was the 1931 horror flick Frankenstein. Pierce made Boris Karloff into the mutant by smearing green greasepaint all over his face. Karloff’s fingernails were painted black, and his eyelids were stiffened. Pierce gave him a flattop head with a combination of cotton and gum. Then the costume department got to work making the 5’11” Karloff into a looming terror. Karloff was given platform boots, each one weighing about 13 pounds, as well as a jacket that was too short and a doubled set of pants. The camera crew went the extra mile by filming Karloff at a low angle, so he looked all the more intimidating.

Read about nine other movie monsters and what went into making them, plus video clips of those movies you know so well, at mental_floss.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard a Pogo remix, so it’s extra-special that his new one is Star Trek themed! It’s a remix of sounds from Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Brent Spider as Data. Even though it’s rendered as nonsense, you’d recognize those voices anywhere, wouldn’t you? And we even get to see Pogo!

(YouTube link)

From the YouTube page:

The track opens with the Klingon Victory Song, followed by a remix of Data singing Che Gelida Manina in the episode 'In Theory'. This episode was the first ever to be directed by Patrick Stewart and I didn't realize this until after the track was finished.

I sourced the Ben Nye makeup that was used to turn Spiner into Data, and a replica of the iconic Star Fleet uniform. Unfortunately I couldn't get the contact lenses in and I could only get the uniform in red, so I spent a huge amount of time changing the colour of my eyes and uniform in post.

Pogo is the professional name of Nick Bertke, whom we’ve featured many times before. -Thanks, Øystein Dale!

You remember Terry Border as the genius behind the art series Bent Objects. For his latest project, he himself is the art medium, exploring a man’s facial hair as a landscape. It was a family project, as it would be near impossible to pull this off alone. The photo above is called Moo-Stache, and this is Mutton Chops.

You also need to see Goatee, Soul Patch, Porn State, and the others of Whisker Figures. -Thanks, Terry!

Incredible Maine Coon #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #pet #kitty #mainecoon #mainecooncat #bigcat #lion #animal #animals #lovecats #instacat #nature #naturelovers #wildlife #picoftheday #picofday #photooftheday #naturephotography #kittycat #nationalgeographic #lionking #bestfriend #bestfriends #catoftheday #catlover #catsagram #animallovers

A photo posted by Milky Way Scientists (@milkyway_scientists) on Nov 25, 2015 at 1:04pm PST

If you like the thought of keeping a wildcat as a pet, but you have the sense not to, the Maine Coon Cat might be a great choice. Maine Coon Cats are the largest domestic cat breed there is. How big are they?

As a matter of fact, the title for the “longest cat" in the 2010 Guinness World Records was held by a Maine Coon named Stewie, who measured 48.5 in (that’s over 4 feet long) from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. Remember folks, we’re talking domesticated cats here.

And you don’t even have to overfeed them! You’ll get an idea of how large a Main Coon Cat can grow in a gallery of 20 cats with humans for scale at Kittentoob.

Clint Case was ready with a video camera when his young son tried out his Halloween costume yesterday. He will be trick-or-treating as Luke Skywalker riding his Tauntaun. This adorable costume is completely handmade.  

(YouTube link)

“Is your Tauntaun drunk?” Oh, he has two weeks to get used to walking in that thing before Halloween. Sure, you can buy a Tauntaun costume, but it’s not going to hold a candle to one you make yourself. -via Tastefully Offensive

(YouTube link)

This video is only three seconds long, so you’ll want to play it again and again. Matt Ambrose is singing “Boom Boom Boom” by the Outhere Brothers. His cat Maximus is, too. -via Viral Viral Videos

Passwords can stress you out if you let them. My health insurance exchange requires a password to be changed every so often, and won’t accept any that I’ve used before, plus you have to remember the old one to set a new one. I have trouble remembering any passwords that have been changed, so it’s good that my computer remembers for me. But I also need a password to boot up the computer. And if I need to print something, I must go to the library, and when I’m asked for a password for email or whatever, I am lost. Sure, a password must be secure, but it must also be something you can remember. Admin/password seems easy to remember. I’ll have to use that sometime, although some sites might not like me going around calling myself “admin.” This is the latest from CommitStrip.

(Image credit: Krisse)

Ever hear the expression “I never forget a face”? Well, there are some people who never remember a face, and there’s a reason for it— a loose connection in the brain.

BRAIN POWER

There’s a part of your brain that processes faces. It’s located, according to MIT scientist Nancy Kanwisher, in the area “just behind and underneath, and a bit from your right ear.” It’s called the fusiform gyrus. (The gyrus is a ridge in the brain, and fusiform describes its shape— elongated and tapered at both ends.) Whenever you see someone you know, the fusiform gyrus tells you, “That’s Bob.” It also sends out messages to other parts of the body that add emotions to the information, such as “I like Bob. He’s my friend.” But what happens when an accident, illness, or hereditary gene disconnects the wiring between the fusiform gyrus and other parts of the brain?

Party time! Excellent! This Wayne and Garth is actually former Miss Delaware Kate Banaszak with her Irish Wolfhound Kellan. That’s a big dog! Commenters were speculating about the breed when WhiteheadJ suggested:

Could've been a Great Dana Carvey.

Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth. -via reddit

 

Sometimes you can combine two problems to make a solution. The NYC Feral Cat Initiative does a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program, but some feral cats can’t be returned because their territory turned into a dangerous construction site. Adult feral cats often cannot adjust to being pets, so adoption isn’t the answer. Meanwhile, the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan had a rodent problem, and extermination chemicals weren’t doing the job. Maybe the rats have become immune. The solution was to send some of the feral cats to the Javits Center, where they took over pest control duties.  

Although the cats are reportedly happy at the convention center, being fed in rotation by staff members who volunteer to bring in food, half a dozen of the felines that came from the FCI’s TNR program have found new adoptive homes during their stay at the Javits Center, including two kittens. The felines do their part to keep rodent populations in check, both by preying upon them and also by scaring them off with their scent. Convention center managers like this deal as well, because they can save money and avoid using dangerous pesticides on the property.

Sylvester, Alfreda, Mama Cat, and Ginger are living well, for feral cats. Read more about the program at Inhabitat. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Maggie O’Neill/NYC Feral Cat Initiative)

Norwegian grandmaster and world champion Magnus Carlsen was in New York and went to watch the old guys playing chess in the park. One of them beat his manager pretty badly, so Carlsen sat down and proceeded to checkmate in ten moves. The old guys play so many people they don’t look too closely at them, so it was a surprise.

(YouTube link)

But that’s only the beginning of what’s going on in this video. Liv Tyler is there, not saying anything until the end. There’s a guy with unbelievable teeth. And a squirrel gives us a priceless photobomb. Just another day in Washington Square Park. -via reddit

We all know politics is a dirty business, and here we have an overly literal illustration of that concept. Once upon a time, before modern plumbing, just about everyone used an outhouse of some sort. Royalty was never seen making the walk to outdoor facilities, though, because they had the facilities brought to them. That, of course, involved servants. The “servants” who attended to the royal toilet activities were a different breed than most royal serfs.  

Those precious moments of alone time in the bathroom are priceless to many of us, and yet strangely enough, it was one of the few luxuries the King and Queen of England could not afford. Until as recently as the 20th century, the British monarchy appointed what was known as the “Groom of the Stool”, a courtier responsible for assisting them in the performance of “bodily functions of excretion and ablution”. And this wasn’t the role of any ordinary household servant. The appointment was offered to Dukes and Duchesses, Earls and Lords, Count and Viscounts– even future Prime Ministers of England, who willingly took a job that more or less entailed wiping the King’s bottom…

The reasons why are laid out at Messy Messy Chic, and may explain some of our more vulgar phrases that refer to ambitious employees and social climbers.