They obviously appreciate a little culture out in the pasture. -via Arbroath
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Imagine that you have the same name as a celebrity. Then imagine having the name of the hottest teen hearthrob of the year: Justin Bieber. The 35-year-old Justin Bieber of Jacksonville, Florida, suffers the consequences. He was kicked off Facebook, presumably for impersonating a celebrity, and he can't get any sleep because of all the phone calls from fans.
Bieber says there's an upside to the situation. For the first time in his life, everyone knows how to pronounce his name correctly! Link -via The Daily What
He changed his phone number and put it in his wife's name, but it still was put on a fan website. Now he gets even more calls - sometimes 50 messages in two hours. Usually, he just unplugs the phone.
He also tried to contact Facebook to get reinstated, but it's hard. Bieber had an account for six months, when with no warning or email, his account was disabled.
"I guess their policy is ban first, ask questions never." He was briefly kicked off another social network, Ping, which is affiliated with iTunes.
He also still gets anywhere from two to 10 fan letters a day.
Bieber says there's an upside to the situation. For the first time in his life, everyone knows how to pronounce his name correctly! Link -via The Daily What
A salesman in Taiwan made scarecrows that resemble Michael Jackson. I wonder how these affect crows compared to other scarecrows. See a video report (in Spanish) at Buzzfeed. Link
1. Bluetooth technology was invented by Sven Matisson and Jaap Haartsen at the Swedish telecom company Ericsson in 1994. The idea was to replace the widely varying cables and wireless technology that connected various components, like cell phones, computers, and remote controls. Before Bluetooth, disparate devices each had their own method of communicating, and even worse, each brand had their own proprietary ideas of how to do this. Bluetooth is a system of protocols developed to standardize these methods, adopted by many tech companies.
2. Bluetooth technology standards are overseen by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a private nonprofit trade organization. The group, originally five telecommunication companies, formed around the chosen technology in order to standardize wireless communication in their various electronic components. The organization presented Bluetooth to the public in 1998. A company who wishes to manufacture anything with Bluetooth technology or use the technology in their business must become a member. The companies composing the Board of Directors are Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Toshiba. There are around 13,000 members today.
3. The advantages of Bluetooth technology over other systems is that it is wireless, uses very little power, and can be incorporated into a wide variety of devices. The signals are sent via very low power radio waves. The low frequency and weak power mean that devices can only communicate at a distance of about ten feet, but this is a good thing, as it means your usage won't interfere with your neighbor's usage (unlike WiFi). Up to eight devices can talk to each other at once, and they can communicate automatically without a user prompt.
4. The name Bluetooth came from king Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, who united Danish and some Swedish and Norwegian tribes into a single kingdom in the tenth century. The idea is that Bluetooth technology set a single standard of protocols for wireless transmission as Harald set his standard for Scandinavia. Well, sort of. Bluetooth was a code name for the project, and everyone involved knew it so well that it stuck when it went public.
5. Why was Harald called Bluetooth? The word is the English version of Blåtand, a name given to Harald, which is a combination of the old Danish words meaning "dark-skinned" and "great man". Harald left his mark on Denmark by being the first Scandinavian monarch to convert to Christianity. He raised a monument called the Jelling Stones in the town of Jelling to memorialize his parents and declare Denmark as Christian. Harald, however, did not have a blue tooth, as far as anyone knows.
The stone shown is the one erected in the year 965, however, the rune superimposed on it is the victim of special effects.
Darren Bryant scanned a catalog called Stromberg's Chicks & Pets Unlimited 1972, from which you could order chickens, dogs, skunks, raccoons, monkeys, anteaters, chinchillas, minks, owls, and even an ocelot! The pages are in a photoset at Flickr. Note that when you order a monkey, the clothing worn in the photograph is not included. Link -Thanks, Darren!
Clinton N. Godlesky noticed that you can get souvenirs from every state, but those souvenirs are not necessarily made in that state -or even in the US! So he started collecting earth from states that he traveled through, and has samples from 34 states. If you have a hankering for a piece of Alabama or Oklahoma or Wyoming, it can be yours, for $1.99 for just a couple of teaspoons or more for larger size containers. You can even get a quarter representing that state added to your souvenir! This is one of those "why didn't I think of that?" ideas. http://www.statedirt.com/index.php -Thanks, Stratoblogster!
Look at this awesome Speed Racer Mach 5! It's authentic down to the last detail, but this is no cartoon, it's a full-size licensed replica from custom car wizard Mark Towle.
Our Speed Racer Mach 5 has it all, from the rotating front saw blades and push button chrome steering wheel to the custom M5 logo and red leather interior. Our Mach 5 is built for SHOW & GO implementing a California RUST FREE CORVETTE C-4 chassis to provide sports enthusiasts with the proformance, and handling only an American Made Corvette can deliver.
Oh yeah, you can buy it! Link
It's time for another Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! Fill in the empty speech bubble and win any T-shirt available in the NeatoShop -take a look around, pick one out and tell us what shirt you’d like with your submission in the comments. If you don't specify a t-shirt with your entry, you forfeit the prize. Enter as many times as you like (text only, please), but leave only one entry per comment. For inspiration, check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com. Good luck!
Update: Congratulations go out to Kay Truman, who filled in the bubble with "Okay, so this wasn't the best way to find my contact..." She wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
This pink-eyed katydid lives in the forest canopy in Papua New Guinea. It is one of the over 200 new species discovered by the Conservation International expedition to the Muller Range mountains last year. See more of the new species of frogs, ants, spiders, mammals, and plants, and videos of the expedition at Conservation International. http://www.conservation.org/explore/asia-pacific/png/muller_range/pages/muller_range_png.aspx -Thanks, Lindsay Walter-Cox!
(Image credit: © Piotr Naskrecki/iLCP)
PIUS II
Before becoming the Vatican's top dog in 1458, Pius "the coolest-pope-in-history" II was an adventurer who traveled abroad on spy missions for the papacy, a smooth-talking diplomat, and a prolific writer. (Think of him as a kind of medieval James Bond with a slightly different collar.) His Eurialus and Lucretia is still read today, partly because it's an excellent example of the epistolary novel, but mostly because it was written by a man who became pope-and it's dirty! Full of erotic imagery and surprisingly funny, it's comprised of salacious love letters between Lucretia (a married woman) and Euralialus, servant to the Duke of Austria.
JOYCE CAROL OATES
One of America's greats, Joyce Carol Oates, has become synonymous with high-falutin' literature. So what's a writer oft-nominated for the Nobel Prize doing with pulpy romance novels like Soul/Mate and The Stolen Heart on her resume? She never meant them to be: Written under pseudonyms "Rosamond Smith" (a feminization of Raymond Smith, her husband's name) and "Lauren Kelly," respectively, Oates was surprised and disappointed when her cover was blown by an anonymous source in 1987.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
If you're hoping for a heaving bosom or two, Benito Mussolini's The Cardinal's Mistress, serialized in a socialist newspaper long before he was an iron-fisted fascist leader, is bound to disappoint. While filled with purple prose, there's not a lot of action between the sheets. The story, about a cardinal's unhappy affair with a doomed woman, is mostly a soapbox for its author's anticlerical ranting. Sorry, Duce-propaganda makes terrible beach reading.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
In between all his Kurd-gassing, Kuwait-invading, and dissident-murdering, Iraq's own Great Dictator somehow found the energy to pen Zabiba and the King. Published anonymously after the first Gulf War, the book's authorship by Saddam was revealed by a Saudi newspaper in 2001. But was its provenance really a mystery? Not only was there zero criticism of the novel upon its release (the Iraqi press called it an "innovation in the history of novels"), the book's thinly-veiled allegories were a total giveaway: A kindly leader (Saddam) loves a beautiful commoner (the Iraqi people) who is raped by her cruel husband (the United States).
LYNNE CHENEY
Just another breathy melodrama when it was published in 1981, Sisters sold poorly and was soon out of print. So why are paperback copies selling on the internet today for $300? Because Sisters makes its author [former] second lady of the United States and vocal gay marriage ban advocate Lynne Cheney look like a big fat hypocrite. It's a lesbian romance set in the Old West that features lots of romance and sex-both in and out of wedlock-and promotes contraceptive use for women who want to remain "free". Asked to comment on Sisters by the New York Times, Cheney said "I don't remember the plot." Apparently, gay marriage is even more controversial now than it was in 1981.
Don't forget to visit mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog!
Before becoming the Vatican's top dog in 1458, Pius "the coolest-pope-in-history" II was an adventurer who traveled abroad on spy missions for the papacy, a smooth-talking diplomat, and a prolific writer. (Think of him as a kind of medieval James Bond with a slightly different collar.) His Eurialus and Lucretia is still read today, partly because it's an excellent example of the epistolary novel, but mostly because it was written by a man who became pope-and it's dirty! Full of erotic imagery and surprisingly funny, it's comprised of salacious love letters between Lucretia (a married woman) and Euralialus, servant to the Duke of Austria.
JOYCE CAROL OATES
One of America's greats, Joyce Carol Oates, has become synonymous with high-falutin' literature. So what's a writer oft-nominated for the Nobel Prize doing with pulpy romance novels like Soul/Mate and The Stolen Heart on her resume? She never meant them to be: Written under pseudonyms "Rosamond Smith" (a feminization of Raymond Smith, her husband's name) and "Lauren Kelly," respectively, Oates was surprised and disappointed when her cover was blown by an anonymous source in 1987.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
If you're hoping for a heaving bosom or two, Benito Mussolini's The Cardinal's Mistress, serialized in a socialist newspaper long before he was an iron-fisted fascist leader, is bound to disappoint. While filled with purple prose, there's not a lot of action between the sheets. The story, about a cardinal's unhappy affair with a doomed woman, is mostly a soapbox for its author's anticlerical ranting. Sorry, Duce-propaganda makes terrible beach reading.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
In between all his Kurd-gassing, Kuwait-invading, and dissident-murdering, Iraq's own Great Dictator somehow found the energy to pen Zabiba and the King. Published anonymously after the first Gulf War, the book's authorship by Saddam was revealed by a Saudi newspaper in 2001. But was its provenance really a mystery? Not only was there zero criticism of the novel upon its release (the Iraqi press called it an "innovation in the history of novels"), the book's thinly-veiled allegories were a total giveaway: A kindly leader (Saddam) loves a beautiful commoner (the Iraqi people) who is raped by her cruel husband (the United States).
LYNNE CHENEY
Just another breathy melodrama when it was published in 1981, Sisters sold poorly and was soon out of print. So why are paperback copies selling on the internet today for $300? Because Sisters makes its author [former] second lady of the United States and vocal gay marriage ban advocate Lynne Cheney look like a big fat hypocrite. It's a lesbian romance set in the Old West that features lots of romance and sex-both in and out of wedlock-and promotes contraceptive use for women who want to remain "free". Asked to comment on Sisters by the New York Times, Cheney said "I don't remember the plot." Apparently, gay marriage is even more controversial now than it was in 1981.
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From mental_floss' book Scatterbrained, published in Neatorama with permission.Don't forget to visit mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog!
You might remember how Randall Munroe of xkcd created a map of the internet in 2007. A lot of things have changed since then, so he made a completely new map to reflect the state of online communities today. Just a portion of the map is shown here. Go to xkcd and enlarge the map, and you'll find Neatorama in the inset of the Blogosphere area (in the Sea of Opinions), a tiny island off the coast near Deadspin and Lifehacker. Look around, and you'll see plenty of cleverness, such as Facebook's privacy controls isolated in a pool of lava, and a meteor crater where Craiglist's adult services used to be. Link -via Metafilter
Update 10/6/10 by Alex: Woohoo! Randall knows we're alive - Neatorama made it to this year's map, right alongside Boing Boing, Lifehacker, and Deadspin:
Hardcore homemade robots will go head-to-head in a fight to the finish at Combots Cup V, the annual championship for combat robots. On October 23rd and 24th in San Mateo, California, robots from one to 220 pounds will compete for a total of $3500 in prize money and champion bragging rights!
SEE heavyweight fighting robot behemoths like Last Rites and Sewer Snake wipe the walls with each other inside our custom built bulletproof arena!
THRILL to all the good parts of a NASCAR crash without all that pesky danger to human life! All the excitement of monster trucks, but up close and extremely personal!
FLAME THROWERS! SPINNING BLADES OF DOOM! HYPER-PSI STEEL FLIPPERS OF NASTINESS!
Also, it's educational for the kids, but you don't have to tell them that. You'll also be able to speak with the people who design and build the robots -and you have a combat robot, you'll want to enter! http://www.suicidebots.com/2010/10/05/combots-cup-v-looms-fighting-robots-live/ -Thanks, Simone!
(Image courtesy of Combots.net)
(YouTube link)
This clever stop-motion ad for Moleskine notebooks promotes their anniversary line of Pac-Man notebooks. Link -via The Daily What
Alton Towers is a popular theme park in Staffordshire, England. The resort recently opened a thrill ride called the Carnival of Screams, featuring "killer clowns" that reach for visitors. However, the new attraction is touching a sore spot with clowns, who are protesting at the park's gates.
The Carnival of Screams will only be open from October 16 through the 31st. Link -via Arbroath
One protestor, Fips the Clown, said: ”We are protesting because we feel the Alton Towers Resort’s new horror maze, Carnival of Screams, is an unfair depiction of clowns.
”It only serves to reinforce stereotypes of clowns as evil.
”I can’t believe this – it has taken us years to get over Stephen King’s ‘IT’ and now this just adds to further damage the reputation of clowns worldwide.
”This will do for clowns what Jaws did for sharks.”
The Carnival of Screams will only be open from October 16 through the 31st. Link -via Arbroath
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