These tiny tomatoes, their size measured in millimeters, are one of the ancient ancestors of the huge variety of tomatoes we eat today. Native to Peru, Solanum pimpinellifolium tomatoes are commonly called “pimps.”

Although you’d never know it from the colorful cornucopia on display at any farmers’ market on a summer Saturday, all modern domestic tomatoes (known botanically as Solanum lycopersicum) are remarkably similar. Taken together, they possess no more than 5 percent of the total genetic variation present within the wild species and primitive varieties. The domestic tomato’s progenitor has the other 95 or more percent. Modern tomatoes may taste good and offer eye appeal, but they lack many genes that allow them to fight disease and survive drought.

By contrast, the pimps and about a dozen other tomato relatives that grow wild in western South America are a tough crew, adapted to survive without the help of farmers in dramatically different climates: from some of the driest, harshest desert landscapes in the world to humid, rain forest lowlands to chilly alpine slopes. As far as we know, the inhabitants of the region never domesticated them. But a thousand miles to the north, the pre-Columbian residents of what is now southern Mexico set about planting and cultivating them, saving the seeds of those that bore the biggest, tastiest fruits and crossing desirable plants with one another. Distance prevented these early farmers from crossbreeding their new varieties with the original populations.

Scientists would like to crossbreed pimps with modern tomatoes to develop hardier breeds that can deal with climate change and monoculture challenges. But there are challenges. Pimps are dying out due to loss of habitat and commercial herbicides. And there are political problems with exporting seeds from Peru. And Peru itself is not interested in saving the pimps. Read about all these factors and author Barry Estabrook’s quest to taste a wild pimp, at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Scott Peacock, C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center)

I read this comic from Megacynics and had to go look up postage rates… maybe I’ve missed something? No, postage stamps aren’t a dollar each just yet. It is currently 49 cents for a first-class letter. But if you had asked me yesterday, I really didn’t know the current postage rate -the last time I paid attention, it was 44 cents. I do send out mail, but only a few bills each month, and I buy stamps by the page, usually by sending a kid to get them. Since they are all “forever” stamps, they don’t say how much they cost on them. You know, that was a genius move on the part of the USPS. They could easily go to a dollar and few would even notice. Especially since you only buy them about once a year. But a dollar rate would certainly wipe out the few remaining Christmas card senders.   

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Rosie is upset that her ball went into the pool. Rosie doesn’t want to swim, and really doesn’t even want to get wet. What will she do? She uses her brain, that’s what! Oh well, maybe it was a lucky move, but she got her ball back in the end! -via Arbroath

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

It was the summer of 1968. John Lennon's six-year marriage to his first wife, Cynthia Powell, had ended abruptly, due to his open affair with his newly discovered soulmate, Japanese conceptual artist Yoko Ono. Cynthia, after spending almost ten full years as John's wife and girlfriend, was immediately an outcast in the Beatles' inner circle.

One sunny afternoon, it was Paul McCartney who drove out to Cynthia's home to visit her and her son, Julian. Paul arrived and gave Cynthia a single red rose. “Hey Cyn, how's about you and me getting married, then?" he joked.

“I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare,” Cyn recalled.

Paul: “We'd been good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them to be persona non grata and out of my life.”

It was one of Paul McCartney's finest moments. But something else was significant about that memorable afternoon.

On the way to visit Cyn and Julian, Paul thought up a catchy song in the car.

“Hey Jules...." he sang to himself- the song was a song invented to console little Julian, who was caught up in the sad mix of his parents' separation. The rest of the lyrics flowed into Paul's head as he drove on in his journey.

Paul originally called the tune “Hey Jules.” He soon decided to change the lyric to “Hey Jude.”

Cynthia Lennon was never to forget Paul's kind gesture, and “Hey Jude" was to become indelible in her mind: “It always brings tears to my eyes, that song,” she recalled.

Hey look! It's time for our collaboration with the wonderful What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? It doesn't really matter if you do, because we are looking for the funniest guesses. You can win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But first, read the rules:

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Two winners who submit funny and/or clever (albeit ultimately wrong) answers will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop. This week, we are limiting contestants to those who have not already won this month. 

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

Check for more clues at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: These objects are caulks (cleats) for horseshoes, they are used for getting better traction in mud and snow. I should also mention that Skipweasel was not eligible to win this week. He did not know beforehand what the objects are, but he submitted the photo. Thanks!

Congratulations to MEM, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop for this scenario:

These are dice for the now forgotten medieval game of Truth-or-Wedgie. This game was staggeringly popular during the reign of Ethelred the Unready, but the fad ended when people started to realize that the dice nearly always came up 'wedgie.'

And to Soup Fick for this story:

These are the earliest examples of dental implants made by Mo-Larr of Eternia. In Skeletor's youth, he had quite a sweet tooth, but never brushed his teeth, so he would commonly require root canals. Later, as his teeth degraded, he would require implants in order to preserve his bite alignment, jaw bone and beautiful smile. As Mo-Larr's prosthesis making skills improved, Skeletor's implants were upgraded, so that he has the smile we know and love today.

Thanks to everyone who played, and we’ll look forward to another What Is It game, from the What Is It blog and Neatorama!

The modern day image of Wyatt Earp is that of a gunslinger, Old West lawman, and gambler. We know from previous articles that there was much more to his adventurous life. Part of that was his involvement in boxing. In fact, some historians will tell you that at the beginning of the 20th century, Earp was better known for refereeing a boxing match than he was for the fight at the OK Corral. This was because he was the referee at the infamous 1896 fight that many believed was fixed -by Earp.

After Tombstone and the OK Corral, Earp drifted to San Diego where he ran saloons and dabbled in real estate. He also refereed a number of fights both with gloves and bare knuckles, Dyke said. By the time Earp moved to San Francisco in 1891 he was well-known in west coast boxing circles.

The Sharkey-Fitzsimmons fight was to settle a three-year question as to the rightful holder of the gloved (Marquess of Queensberry rules) heavyweight title. Boxing was illegal in San Francisco but such trivialities as city law hardly mattered as city officials and police commissioners embraced the bout, Mechanics Pavilion was secured as a venue and more than 10,000 tickets were sold.

So what happened? Earp was suspect the minute he entered the ring, as he was friends with Sharkey’s manager and should have never been chosen as the referee. When Earp made a controversial call against Fitzsimmons, the crowd went wild. Read the entire story of the fight that ruined Earp’s reputation for the rest of his life at the Guardian. -via Digg

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You already know about the abandoned city of Machu Picchu and the buried city of Pompeii, but there are many other cities of he past that are no more. John Green tells of many more in this week’s mental_floss List Show. Some of those cities make our modern metropolises look small! Each city has a fascinating, and sometimes heartbreaking, story behind them.

This Russian guy comes home after six weeks away, and his dog is somewhat glad to see him return.   

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In the comments at reddit, someone mentioned that he was probably just gone to the grocery store, and the dog does this every time.

That’s a good dog.  

You might need to fire up the theme to the TV show Dallas while you read this article. Tom Waggoner didn’t have an easy time running his spread. Every time his ranch hands dug a well to bring water to his cattle, they’d find oil instead. That’s the kind of problem we should all have. But that was 100 years ago. Now Waggoner’s descendants are selling the Texas ranch that comprises over a half-million acres.  

FOR SALE: Largest ranch in the U.S. within a single fence. Texas fixer-upper with more than 1,000 oil wells; 6,800 head of cattle; 500 quarter horses; 30,000 acres of cropland; tombstones for legendary cowboys, long-dead dogs, and a horse buried standing up. Favorite of Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt. Colorful history of drinking and divorce. Fifteen-minute drive to rib-eyes at the Rusty Spur in Vernon. Ideal for Saudi oil sheiks, billionaire hedge funders, and dot-commers who can tell a cow from a steer. Profitable. Zero debt. Property taxes only $800,000 a year. Price: $725 million.

That blurb doesn’t begin to describe what’s involved in this real estate offer. Not that any of us have that kind of money available, but you can read the history of the ranch, its many other features, and the years of wheeling and dealing that went into the decision to sell it, at Bloomberg Business. 

I just wanted to step in here and announced that we have a new rule at Neatorama.

All thumbnail images at the top of the page used to illustrate Neatorama's exclusive articles must have a diagonal line running from the top left to the bottom right. Partial lines or a slightly steeper angles will be tolerated only when necessary.   

Those illustrating older feature stories, which you can access using the arrows on either side, are grandfathered in.

This rule will remain in effect until I can think of another one.

Thank you. You may now resume your normal activities.

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British singer Boyinaband recorded this song about what he learned in school and what he didn’t learn. In a comment, he clarified:

"Don't Stay in School" isn't inferring students shouldn't stay in school, it's saying topics which aren't practically useful shouldn't stay in school. There are obviously a lot of benefits to getting an education, I'm just concerned that the topics are not prioritized well at all.

Now, I’m all for learning things you won’t need in your everyday life, but not at the expense of things you will need to know. You could say that money management, law, politics, first aid, and sex education are things that young people should learn from their parents, but that’s pretty difficult in modern families where everyone’s working or in school, or the parents don’t know that much about those things themselves. Besides, no one explains to parents that they are expected to take up the slack in real world education. Maybe someone should.

There’s a lot to be said about building up basic knowledge of how the world works in literature, history, math, and science, so can we really drop those? I don’t know about other countries, but in America, if a subject is not on the standardized tests, schools most likely won’t be teaching it. What do you think? -Thanks, Edward!

This past weekend, Seoul, South Korea, was turned into a giant playground for the 2015 City Slide Festa. The city set up a 350-meter-long water slide on the Yonsei-ro road -that’s almost a quarter mile! The festival also featured other games and amusements and live music.   

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This kind of festival started about a year ago, and giant water slides have been temporarily set up in cities from Las Vegas to Sydney. See more pictures of the event in a slideshow at the Washington Post. Now what will it take to get something this cool set up for my little town’s local harvest festival? -Thanks, Daniel Kim!  

(Image credit: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Los Angeles received their first rain in, like, forever the other day. Redditor YungDemon’s kitten had never seen rain nor heard thunder before, and she was quite scared. When he came home, he found his roommate’s dog protecting and comforting the worried kitten. Isn’t that adorable?

Of course, the dog doesn’t like storms, either, so he could’ve been using the kitten as a comfort object himself. -via Buzzfeed

Food artist Mike Kravanis (previously at Neatorama) makes delightful bento versions of Disney and other characters out of lunch foods. When the New Horizons probe passed by Pluto, he was inspired to whip up this rice and nori illustration, which he posted to Facebook. You can see more of Kravanis’ bento artworks at his blog OMGiri.

Tara Carson was traveling through Maine with her husband and daughter and ate at Marcy’s Diner in Portland. Carson’s daughter, who is not quite two years old, had a meltdown. Darla Neugebauer, the owner of the diner, reacted to the noise. It’s not really clear what was said and done before Neugebauer lost her temper and screamed at the child. Carson complained on Marcy’s Diner’s Facebook page. Carson’s original post was deleted, but since it went viral, you can see a screenshot of it and Neugebauer’s response (in colorful language) here. Neugebauer left another response the next day, which has also been deleted, but you can see it at Buzzfeed.

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The response from the public was so fierce that the local news got involved. You can hear both sides in a WCSH news report that includes a response from the Carsons. 

Despite getting backlash on social media from people who claim they will never eat at the restaurant again, Neugebauer is standing by her actions. "Life's full of choices and you've got to live with all of them. I chose to yell at a kid, it made her shut-up, which made me happy, it made my staff happy, it made the 75 other people dining here happy, and they left, they may never come back, other people may not come in. Their loss really," she said.

The last few posts at the Marcy’s Diner’s Facebook page have thousands of comments and reviews, leaning heavily toward support of the diner owner’s actions. And no matter who is at fault for the brouhaha blowing up all out of proportion, commenters make it clear that they can’t stand misbehaving kids in restaurants. Neugebauer is not backing off, and has enjoyed a packed house since the Facebook posts went viral.

(Image credit: video screenshot from WCSH)